Federal Government & Politics II

[whatnext]

Now maybe we know why Justin called an early election rather than allow more info about Winnipeg to come out:

Canadian spy suspect Qiu led WIV's "synthetic bat filovirus" project with Wuhan Institute's Vice-Director: CSIS document investigation
Comparing redacted CSIS document with United States bat coronavirus paper suggests Dr. Qiu was hired in People's Liberation Army program to work with "bat woman" Shi Zhengli in 2019
SAM COOPER
MAR 03, 2024
https://www.thebureau.news/p/breakin...dRedirect=true

[Dartguard]

Originally Posted by casper

That is not what would happen. They would go to the deputy minister and say, we need you to present a budget with a 10% cut. If they are smart they would also ask what the impact is and what programs will disappear.

The deputy minister will do the same all the way down and then back up the org chart.

In a large organization there is always program and activities that outlived their usefulness and need to be purged. Doing this from time to time is healthy. Doing it year after year is not.

It would seem that our present Government has never even tried to purge.

[Truenorth00]

Fundamentally, big changes require changes in outlook. Personally, I've always thought all the regional development agencies offer little value for money and should really not be the job of the federal government. But Maritimers would be pissed if ACOA was cut. Prairie dwellers would be pissed if Prairie Can was cut. Quebecers would be pissed if CED was cut. And so on. It's getting absurd now that every region of the country has an RDA. I fail to see why the federal government should be responsible for promoting the economic development of all these regions. Mostly they seem to exist to ensure regional economic interests are represented in federal contracts. And from a federal perspective, I'm not sure that's great. Stops us from getting a great deal.

If we want to start talking about actually saving money, these are the kinds of hard decisions to be made. I've talked before about closing military bases too. But we seem to be doubling down on this one and spending billions on new infrastructure at some places. Efficiency is a tough pursuit when pride and politics come first.

[kwoldtimer]

Originally Posted by casper

That is not what would happen. They would go to the deputy minister and say, we need you to present a budget with a 10% cut. If they are smart they would also ask what the impact is and what programs will disappear.

The deputy minister will do the same all the way down and then back up the org chart.

In a large organization there is always program and activities that outlived their usefulness and need to be purged. Doing this from time to time is healthy. Doing it year after year is not.

Don't forget the part where bureaucrats up and down the line would offer up cuts to programs they know the government favours, at least in the first go-round.

[casper]

Originally Posted by Truenorth00

Fundamentally, big changes require changes in outlook. Personally, I've always thought all the regional development agencies offer little value for money and should really not be the job of the federal government. But Maritimers would be pissed if ACOA was cut. Prairie dwellers would be pissed if Prairie Can was cut. Quebecers would be pissed if CED was cut. And so on. It's getting absurd now that every region of the country has an RDA. I fail to see why the federal government should be responsible for promoting the economic development of all these regions. Mostly they seem to exist to ensure regional economic interests are represented in federal contracts. And from a federal perspective, I'm not sure that's great. Stops us from getting a great deal.

If we want to start talking about actually saving money, these are the kinds of hard decisions to be made. I've talked before about closing military bases too. But we seem to be doubling down on this one and spending billions on new infrastructure at some places. Efficiency is a tough pursuit when pride and politics come first.

There are duplicate development agencies at the provincial, federal and regional levels.

I remember meeting with the head of one of the regional development agencies in BC once. He explained that his policy was only to work on helping business that were exporting outside of BC and preferably exporting outside of Canada. He gets a lot of requests from local business that wants to gain market share from other local business. That is completely pointless. I fully support that strategy, it should be about growing national GDP.

One things those regional development agencies spend a lot of time on is helping to develop ITB supply chains for military primes.

Originally Posted by kwoldtimer

Don't forget the part where bureaucrats up and down the line would offer up cuts to programs they know the government favours, at least in the first go-round.

Certain those games get played. That is the reason it needs to be done with caution and infrequently.

[casper]

Originally Posted by whatnext

Now maybe we know why Justin called an early election rather than allow more info about Winnipeg to come out:

Canadian spy suspect Qiu led WIV's "synthetic bat filovirus" project with Wuhan Institute's Vice-Director: CSIS document investigation
Comparing redacted CSIS document with United States bat coronavirus paper suggests Dr. Qiu was hired in People's Liberation Army program to work with "bat woman" Shi Zhengli in 2019
SAM COOPER
MAR 03, 2024
https://www.thebureau.news/p/breakin...dRedirect=true

So wikipedia says she was hired is 2003. She was there during two different Liberal government and one Conservative government. It was this government that fired her due to the risk she posed.

While an argument can and probably should be made that she should have been fired sooner. PP is playing games here.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xiangguo_Qiu

[acottawa]

Originally Posted by casper

So wikipedia says she was hired is 2003. She was there during two different Liberal government and one Conservative government. It was this government that fired her due to the risk she posed.

While an argument can and probably should be made that she should have been fired sooner. PP is playing games here.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xiangguo_Qiu

It depends how far back the allegations go.

[acottawa]

Originally Posted by casper

That is not what would happen. They would go to the deputy minister and say, we need you to present a budget with a 10% cut. If they are smart they would also ask what the impact is and what programs will disappear.

The deputy minister will do the same all the way down and then back up the org chart.

In a large organization there is always program and activities that outlived their usefulness and need to be purged. Doing this from time to time is healthy. Doing it year after year is not.

That would be one way to do iit. A faster approach would be to cut positions created since 2015 or 2019 (when public service hiring really started to get out of hand) and let Deputy Ministers organize the resources they have left.

[rousseau]

Originally Posted by whatnext

The service was well done and classy. But did anyone notice how white the crowd in Notre Dame was? Not just because many were Mulroney's contemporaries, even the younger ones. It felt like Canada circa 1990 not 2024.

Way too much whiteness on display at that funeral. Very disturbing how the bodies of BIPOC folx are systematically marginalized by a state that celebrates colonial violence like this by commemorating dead white men responsible for genocide.

The fact that not a single, solitary BIPOC person showed up to the Naheed Nenshi rally in Edmonton is further evidence of the ongoing genocide that brown and black folx are experiencing as they are violentally prevented from engaging in the political process in this white supremacist society.

Wake up!


https://x.com/nenshi/status/1772989881368695162?s=20

[Loco101]

Originally Posted by 1overcosc

In 2022, Ontario posted a surplus for the first time since the 1980s. Wynne left office with a deficit of $11B.

Provincial budgets are a whole different game than the federal one. The federal government has an enormous amount of fat that can be cut off. The civil service has grown five times faster than the population under Trudeau. The federal budget can easily be balanced in a single term without anyone other than some bureaucrats in Ottawa feeling any pinch. (Now, balancing the budget and raising the defense budget to 2% of GDP and cutting taxes? Definitely not without real cuts).

Ontario is a whole other ball game. There's simply nowhere enough taxation to pay for the service levels requested by the population and most of the fat has already been trimmed long ago (the OPS is actually a pretty lean operation, by the standards of governments). Ultimately, Ontarians are going to have to choose between either higher taxes or substantial cuts to service offerings. Both Wynne & Ford tried to get out of this dilemma through wage restraint in the public sector (this ultimately worked to create a surplus by 2022) but the Supreme Court has basically shut off that avenue now. The Culture of No™ means we're stuck. Any attempt at hiking taxes will have people crying bloody murder, and any attempt to scale back the provincial service offering will also have people crying bloody murder.

Ontario posted surpluses from 2000 to 2003 under the PC Harris/Eves government and from 2005 to 2008 under the Liberal McGuinty government. There were also some years of low deficits under Wynne and then the Ford government balanced right after the pandemic. But the Ford PCs got huge transfer money from the federal government.

The current Ford government is spending 35% more than the Wynne government ever did. Deficits under Ford went up even before the pandemic.

[Tvisforme]

Originally Posted by Loco101

PP handled the 22 Minutes sketch so poorly. It's a good indicator of what he thinks of and how he treats people who aren't like him. His reaction was very similar to angry people making Internet comments who don't see humour in anything and don't understand the concept of humour. PP has always been that way and was known to be like that in his youth as well.

Interesting to compare his reaction against how other PMs and leaders from all the major parties have managed to play along with 22 Minutes.

Originally Posted by Hecate

Well there was gonna be a probe looking into how those two Chinese spies got clearance into our most secure laboratory. But our brilliant prime minister and his magnificent lap dog didn’t seem it necessary. Could have possibly shed some light on how useless our government run agencies are at screening immigrants.

Originally Posted by whatnext

Now maybe we know why Justin called an early election rather than allow more info about Winnipeg to come out:

Canadian spy suspect Qiu led WIV's "synthetic bat filovirus" project with Wuhan Institute's Vice-Director: CSIS document investigation
Comparing redacted CSIS document with United States bat coronavirus paper suggests Dr. Qiu was hired in People's Liberation Army program to work with "bat woman" Shi Zhengli in 2019
SAM COOPER
MAR 03, 2024
https://www.thebureau.news/p/breakin...dRedirect=true

a) Do you think Mr Poilievre would permit an investigation to examine the years these scientists were in the same lab under a Conservative government?

b) Sam Cooper seems to be a somewhat controversial source, apparently. From a Georgia Straight review of his book:

In Sam Cooper’s world, every Chinese person is either a Communist infiltrator, a murderous criminal, a triad drug dealer, an arms smuggler, a casino money launderer, a gambling addict, a human rights-abusing politician, a housing speculator, or a helpless victim to all of the above. According to his best-selling book, Wilful Blindness, these people have found their way into Canada and the West.

In case readers think this portrayal is racist, Chinese human rights activist Teng Biao has written a two-page defence that it is not. In the introduction on page xv, Teng assures readers that “it is ridiculous” to conflate anti-Chinese “racist narratives” with criticism of Beijing and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).

With that disclaimer, Cooper is freed from political correctness to frame Canada’s China Question as an outright struggle between good and evil. His 460-page book has no room for nuances or cautionary reflection. There is no mention of Canada’s long history with systemic racism and Sinophobia, and nothing about the anti-Asian hate currently sweeping across North America and Australia. Sinophobia is really a fabrication of the CCP’s propaganda.

It is all but impossible to accuse the Global News star investigative reporter of balanced, thoughtful writing.

[Loco101]

Originally Posted by Acajack

Isn't that the standard throughout the federal administration, though? People get paid the same for doing the same job no matter where they live, whether it's Ottawa, Corner Brook or Vancouver.

That is normally the case but their are exceptions. Sometimes you can start at a salary level as though you are at year 3 or 4 according to the collective agreement because of the region's market conditions (very expensive) and the employer having a hard time finding people to fill the position.

[Loco101]

Originally Posted by theman23

Interesting that the CRA workforce is 3x larger than that of the Australia Taxation Office and only about 30% smaller than the IRS.

The largest CRA office is in Sudbury and a LOT of people have been hired on there over the last 5 years.

As for the U.S. IRS having way fewer workers per capita than the CRA, that is true but the IRS does have big hiring plans: U.S. IRS to hire nearly 20,000 staff over two years with $80 billion in new funds https://www.reuters.com/world/us/us-...ng-2023-04-06/

[SpongeG]

Canada’s population hits 41M months after breaking 40M threshold

By Aaron D'Andrea Global News
Posted March 27, 2024

Nine months after reaching a population of 40 million, Canada has cracked a new threshold.


As of Wednesday morning, it’s estimated 41 million people now call the country home, according to Statistics Canada’s live population tracker.

The speed at which Canada’s population is growing was also reflected in new data released Wednesday by the federal agency: between Jan. 1 2023 and Jan. 1 2024, Canada added 1,271,872 inhabitants, a 3.2 per cent growth rate — the highest since 1957.

Most of Canada’s 3.2 per cent population growth rate stemmed from temporary immigration. Without it, Canada’s population growth would have been 1.2 per cent, Statistics Canada said.

...

https://globalnews.ca/news/10386750/...on-population/

[Truenorth00]

Originally Posted by casper

There are duplicate development agencies at the provincial, federal and regional levels.

I remember meeting with the head of one of the regional development agencies in BC once. He explained that his policy was only to work on helping business that were exporting outside of BC and preferably exporting outside of Canada. He gets a lot of requests from local business that wants to gain market share from other local business. That is completely pointless. I fully support that strategy, it should be about growing national GDP.

Again. Why should the feds pay for this? Why shouldn't the impacted provinces fund what are essentially marketing and promotion agencies m

Originally Posted by casper

One things those regional development agencies spend a lot of time on is helping to develop ITB supply chains for military primes.

The worst side of RDAs. They slow down military procurement, and generally lobby for solutions that result in worse value for the taxpayer. Change the policy and there's no need for this activity anymore. Why should I care if some or the other company in Halifax or Edmonton is uncompetitive for a military contract? We're essentially funding agencies to enable bureaucracy that works against the federal government's interests. The provinces should at least have the courtesy to pay for that.

If we're really going to be sincere about leaning up government these are exactly the kind of decisions that need to be made. Politics is what let's these unneeded bureaucracies survive.

[Acajack]

Originally Posted by Tvisforme

Interesting to compare his reaction against how other PMs and leaders from all the major parties have managed to play along with 22 Minutes.

Except for Rob Ford, though he wasn't a PM or a party leader.

[Acajack]

Originally Posted by YOWetal

Saving little money and losing the most experienced people but sure.
.

Yes, but of course if they are in their mid-50s or approaching them they are going to be retiring fairly soon anyway. Proper succession planning shouldn't be based on the assumption people won't retire or will retire as late as possible.

[Acajack]

Originally Posted by Truenorth00

Fundamentally, big changes require changes in outlook. Personally, I've always thought all the regional development agencies offer little value for money and should really not be the job of the federal government. But Maritimers would be pissed if ACOA was cut. Prairie dwellers would be pissed if Prairie Can was cut. Quebecers would be pissed if CED was cut. And so on. It's getting absurd now that every region of the country has an RDA. I fail to see why the federal government should be responsible for promoting the economic development of all these regions. Mostly they seem to exist to ensure regional economic interests are represented in federal contracts. And from a federal perspective, I'm not sure that's great. Stops us from getting a great deal.

In the areas I know best (Quebec and Atlantic) those federal agencies are actually reasonably well-regarded as positive examples of the cynical "I'm from the government and I'm here to help".

As for PrairiesCan, I am surprised to hear about that one, as the Western Economic Diversification Office also still exists. (The latter was actually a client of mine in my early career days.)

[Acajack]

Originally Posted by acottawa

That would be one way to do iit. A faster approach would be to cut positions created since 2015 or 2019 (when public service hiring really started to get out of hand) and let Deputy Ministers organize the resources they have left.

This assumes that all positions created since those years were "useless", and that none of those created before were. Again, not a very savant way to do things if you want the bureaucracy to best continue to do the work it needs to do.

[YOWetal]

Originally Posted by Acajack

This assumes that all positions created since those years were "useless", and that none of those created before were. Again, not a very savant way to do things if you want the bureaucracy to best continue to do the work it needs to do.

Yeah in some cases you can say cancel the Liberal programs and you cancel the added PSs. Immigration has more than doubled in size so return to a reasonable intake number and they can be let go. Same for CRA and ESDC.
But what about CSE, CBSA I bet Cons don't cut there. DND is surprisingly stagnant in 14 years.

My point is the managers in government are adept at bureaucratic jujitsu so some measure of randomness is preferred to letting them decide. I also don't agree with last in first out or you end up in 10 years with a transition crisis.