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NEWS HILL MEDIANEWS LEGISLATION

Female MPs join forces in Equal Voice video to encourage women to get elected, run for public offi ce

Do we really want a war with Russia?

Conservatives promise to push C-14 media leak probe in fall

Liberals looking to ‘front-end’ legislative agenda next session: Lamoureux

BY DEREK ABMA

Innovation Minister Navdeep Bains is easily the most lobbied member of the Trudeau cabinet in the Liberal government’s term so far.

Mr. Bains (Mississauga-Malton, Ont.), the top offi cial of the newly named department of Innovation, Science and Eco-nomic Development Canada (formerly Industry Canada), had 116 communications reports fi led since the new government took offi ce in November up until early last week.

BY ABBAS RANA

After consulting the premiers to choose new members of the Senate Advisory Board, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s govern-ment is set to start the process of fi lling the 19 vacant Senate seats in the “coming days.”

“We hope to announce the application process for the next

POWELL RIVER, B.C.—Do we really want a war with Russia?No area of public policy is so

shrouded in secrecy, obfusca-tion, and outright deception than foreign policy. Most of the time it doesn’t seem to matter much to

BY LAURA RYCKEWAERT

Conservative MP Blake Rich-ards says the Procedure and House Affairs Committee’s study into the question of a breach of parliamen-tary privilege over an alleged leak to media about the government’s assisted dying legislation before it was released “should be the priority” for the committee when Parliament returns in the fall for the committee.

“At this point right now, I don’t see any indication that the govern-ment is going to take this seriously or do anything other than try to sweep it under the rug. Obviously we’re going to continue to try to use whatever avenues we have available to us to try to change that approach,” Mr. Richards (Banff-Airdrie, Alta.) told The Hill Times in an interview last week.

BY RACHEL AIELLO

The right-hand man to the government House leader is acknowledging what could have been a more productive legisla-tive session, saying he’d like to see the House leadership team ex-plore front-ending more priority bills in the next session.

Parliamentary secretary Kevin Lamoureux (Winnipeg North, Man.) told The Hill Times last week he expects cabinet min-isters to come back in the fall armed with a number of new pieces of legislation they want to get passed, setting it up to be a “a fairly heavy legislative agenda.”

Continued on page 6Continued on page 21

Continued on page 17 Continued on page 23Continued on page 22

Bains most lobbied minister in Trudeau’s cabinet

Trudeau government poised to start process for fi lling 19 vacant Senate seats

JO COXTARGETED P. 19

TWENTY-SEVENTH YEAR, NO. 1351 CANADA’S POLITICS AND GOVERNMENT NEWSPAPER MONDAY, JUNE 27, 2016 $5.00

BREXIT, AND MAYBE THEN FREXIT, NEXIT, SWEXIT, PLEXIT? GWYNNE DYER P. 12

EXCLUSIVE POLITICAL COVERAGE: NEWS, FEATURES, AND ANALYSIS INSIDE

‘Just keep fi ghting, keep your head up, and don’t let the bastards get you down.’

‘Keep moving forward and you will do just great.’

‘Remember when everybody in your family told you that you were going to go in to politics because you didn’t shut up at the dinner table? Guess what? You’re a Member of Parliament now.’

‘You will hear from people that you aren’t good enough, that you don’t have the networks, that they’re more connected. Don’t listen. You will be great.’

‘Take your seat.’ ‘Stay who you are and be authentically you. Do not try to be anything else. You deserve to have your voice at the table.’

‘We are the ones that can speak out on our own behalf.’

‘You have something beautiful to contribute.’

‘Your voice matters, so take your seat.’

‘Stick to what you believe in, make sure that you take risks because the things that you’ll regret in life are the things you didn’t do.’

‘Obstacles in life make you a stronger person, there will always be bumps along the road.’

‘Do not be afraid to have confi dence in yourself. You are a good person.’

‘Take your seat.’

Green Party LeaderElizabeth May

NDP MPGeorgina Jolibois

Conservative MPLisa Raitt

Conservative MP Rachael Harder

Liberal MP Yasmin Ratansi

Environment MinisterCatherine McKenna

Liberal MP Anita Vandenbeld

Liberal MP Ruby Sahota

Bloc Québécois MP Monique Pauzé

NDP MPMarjolaine Boutin-Sweet

Liberal MP Sonia Sidhu

Liberal MP Celina Caesar-Chavanne

NDP MP Nikki Ashton

MURRAY DOBBIN

EV’s social media campaign to encourage women to run. See more on p. 2 and p. 19 in Nancy Peckford’s column.

BRIT-BORN CANADIAN MPS ON BREXIT P. 7

THE HILL TIMES, MONDAY, JUNE 27, 20162FEATURE BUZZ

Government House Leader and Fisheries Minister Dominic LeBlanc took a plane ride on a recent episode of The West Block With Tom Clark and admitted during the in-terview that he lies to his wife—about eating.

“Under what circumstances do you lie?” Tom Clark, a licensed pilot, asked as he fl ew his plane with Mr. LeBlanc in the passenger seat for the segment called Plane Talk.

Mr. LeBlanc gave the example of his wife asking him about going to dinner at Mamma Teresa and whether he was careful about what he ate—for example, avoiding the french fries. “Of course, I had steamed vegetables and chicken,” he offered as a typical response.

When Mr. Clark pointed out to Mr. LeBlanc that his wife was probably watch-ing the show, Mr. LeBlanc replied: “I’ve said to her that in our wonderful marriage and our wonderful relationship, the one question where the answer might not entirely be accu-rate is, ‘Oh, were you careful with what you ate? You didn’t have pizza at 10:30 with John McCallum, surely.’… Where would I lie, Tom? Usually, it’s around bad eating habits.”

The Father’s Day episode of The West Block, which airs on Global TV, included talk with Mr. LeBlanc about his father Ro-meo LeBlanc, the former governor general who died in 1999 and was also a cabinet minister in the government of Pierre Elliott Trudeau, and before that a journalist.

“My dad saw politics as a chance to really try and look out for people who often don’t have someone standing up for them. If you’re lucky enough to have a job like I have now, if I can speak for some of these people and some of these communities in the House of Commons and in the cabinet, and hopefully encourage the government to make deci-sions that improve the lives of these people, then I’ve done something positive.”

Talk also turned to the historic friend-ship between the LeBlanc and Trudeau families. Mr. Clark brought up how Mr. LeBlanc used to babysit Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, along with his brothers Alexandre (Sacha) and Michel, that latter of whom died in an avalanche while skiing in British Columbia in 1998.

Mr. Clark asked what the worst thing the prime minster, as a boy being babysat, ever did.

“I can’t imagine, Tom, anything bad be-cause I would’ve been such a good infl uence on Justin and Sacha and Michel that I could not imagine that the four of us could have gotten into a jam,” Mr. LeBlanc replied.

Mr. LeBlanc also addressed taking on the added responsibilities of fi sheries minister recently, which is a portfolio his dad also held.

“It’s quite emotional for me,” he said. “My dad was Canada’s longest-serving fi sheries minister. And he was the fi rst minister of fi sheries and oceans because he convinced the then-Trudeau cabinet to take the oceans portfolio from what had been Environment Canada and create the Department of Fisheries and Oceans.”

Mr. LeBlanc hinted that if the Liberals were elected to a second term, the end of the next term might be the time for him to get out of politics. And he fi gured out a way to take a jab at the host during this answer.

“In two terms from now, Tom, I’ll be sort of mid-50s, so 20, 30 years younger than you are. So, that might be the time to get a pilot’s licence.”

NDP leadership to be decided in series of runoffs, not one convention

The NDP announced last week that it has fi nalized the rules for its next leadership race to replace Tom Mulcair, one of the details of which is that it will involve a series of runoff votes in October 2017, as opposed to the single, defi ning leadership convention.

The party said that there will be a maxi-mum of fi ve rounds of ballots that month, with the results of each announced at “mini conven-tions” held at various spots across the country.

Party members will be eligible to vote with preferential ballots, either by mail or online, according to the published rules. Those who vote by mail will not be able to change their votes over the process, while those voting online can change their votes or let their preference orders stand as the

last place candidate gets knocked off after each round until one candidate wins more than 50 per cent of the vote.

The NDP leadership race will offi cially kick off on July 2, 2017, and a new leader will be chosen no later than Oct. 29 that year, the party said.

Solomon to take over CTV’s Question Period

Evan Solomon will be the new host of CTV’s Question Period when the new sea-son starts in September.

CTV News announced last week that Bob Fife will host his last episode on July 3, which will serve as the fi nale for the current season.

Mr. Solomon was already working for CTV’s owner, Bell Media, as the national affairs specialist for its radio stations across the country and as host of Ottawa Now on 580 CFRA. Bell said Mr. Solomon will continue his radio work after he takes over Question Period.

Mr. Solomon is the former host of CBC’s TV program Power & Politics and radio show The House. He was fi red by CBC last year after news reports indicated he had been using his a position as a talk-show host to broker lucrative art deals.

It didn’t take long for him to bet back into the parliamentary-news game. Within months, he was hosting a political news show for satellite-radio channel SiriusXM and writing for Maclean’s.

Meanwhile, this will complete the withdrawal of Mr. Fife from CTV. At the beginning of this year, he left as CTV’s parliamentary bureau chief and took the equivalent position at The Globe and Mail, while staying on as host of Question Period to complete the season.

Leadership changes at Canada Revenue, Natural Resources

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau last week announced a pair of leadership changes in the public service, triggered by the retirement of Andrew Treusch as commissioner of revenue.

Mr. Trudeau said in a press release that Bob Hamilton, currently deputy minster of Natural Resources, will take over as revenue commissioner on Aug. 1.

Meanwhile, the deputy minister’s job at Natural Resources will be fi lled that same day by Christyne Tremblay, who is cur-rently deputy minister of sustainable de-velopment with the Quebec government’s environment ministry.

Equal Voice releases video of women MPs talking to younger selves

Equal Voice Canada last week released a video featuring 13 women MPs talking to their 20-year-old selves as part of the organization’s campaign to reduce the gen-der gap in the House of Commons and get more young women involved in politics.

Included are Environment Minister Catherine McKenna, Liberal MPs Yasmin

Ratansi, Ruby Sahota, Sonia Sidhu, and Celena Caesar-Chavannes, Conserva-tive MPs Lisa Raitt and Rachael Harder, NDP MPs Niki Ashton, Anita Vandenbeld, Georgina Jolibois, and Marjolaine Boutin-Sweet, Green Party Leader Elizabeth May, and Bloc Québécois MP Monique Pauzé.

As an example, Ms. McKenna tells her past self in this video: “You will hear from people that you aren’t good enough, that you don’t have the networks, that they’re more connected, that they are better posi-tioned, that you have kids. Don’t listen. You will be great. I was able to do this, and I did it my own way, and there were a lot of people who thought I could never win, but I am here.”

Bains picked Cavs for NBA championship, Wingrove doubted him

There was great joy throughout Cleve-land last week after the city’s beloved Cava-liers, led by LeBron James, won the National Basketball Association championship.

Despite their star power, not everyone thought the Cavs were going to win it. For instance, Bloomberg parliamentary reporter Josh Wingrove, in reference to Innovation Minister Navdeep Bains, stated on Twitter: “Let it be known that when @NavdeepSBains picked the Cavs, I made fun of him.”

Mr. Bains replied: “And you’ll see me being right on a few other things as well ;) #InnovationAgenda #CdnInnovation.”

Michener goes to Société Radio-Canada’s Enquête

Société Radio-Canada’s Enquête was the winner of the 2015 Michener Award, given out at Rideau Hall on June 17, for its investigative report on physical and sexual abuse of indigenous women by provincial police in Val d’Or, Que.

A news release from Michener Awards Foundation described how the story began as one about missing women from the area, when friends of one missing woman, Sindy Ruperthouse, shared their experi-ences of police abuse.

“Within weeks of the broadcast, the Que-bec government appointed an independent observer and ordered a police investigation, eight offi cers were put on leave or trans-ferred to desk duty, the province committed $6-million for programs to help aboriginal women in Val D’Or, and Sûreté du Québec resumed its investigation into Ms. Rupert-house’s disappearance,” the foundation said.

The Michener-Deacon Fellowship for investigative reports was given out to freelance journalist Paul Webster for his proposal to look into how health-care is practised in prisons and the high rate of hepatitis C among inmates.

The Michener-Deacon Fellowship for journalism education went to Patti Sonntag, managing editor for The New York Times’ news services division, who will be return-ing home to Montreal to teach a class on about investigating resource-extraction companies at Concordia University.

dabma@hilltimes.comThe Hill Times

‘You didn’t have pizza at 10:30 with John McCallum,’ LeBlanc tells Global’s Tom Clark he lies to wife about unhealthy eating

HEARD HILLONTHEBY DEREK ABMA

Dominic LeBlanc, left, was recently interviewed during a plane ride by Tom Clark for an episode of Global News’ The West Block. Screenshot from website of Global News’ The West Block

Catherine McKenna is among a group of women MPs in new video encouraging their 20-year-old selves. The Hill Times photograph by Jake Wright

3THE HILL TIMES, MONDAY, JUNE 27, 2016NEWS PUBLIC SERVICE

BY DEREK ABMA

Despite the Liberals coming into offi ce with the promise of treating the public service with more respect than their Conser-vative predecessors, most public servants are continuing to work on expired contacts, and govern-ment offers remain a long way from what unions are demanding.

“This Liberal government has come to the table with the same Conservative mandate, so no, we’re no closer,” Robyn Benson, president of the Public Service Alliance of Canada, said on the sidelines of a rally held in down-town Ottawa last Monday.

More 100,000 members of the Public Service Alliance of Canada have been working without a contract for the last two years. PSAC is the largest public service union and represents 170,000 public servants. Its website shows that members working for the Ca-nadian Food Inspection Agency, Canadian Revenue Agency, Parks Canada, Statistical Survey Op-erations, and the Treasury Board are all currently in negotiations. PSAC members working for the Treasury Board are represented by different teams of negotiators for workers of Canadian Border Services Canada, education and library services, program admin-istrative services, operational services, and technical services.

PSAC is asking for a three-year contract with three per cent raises in each of those years, while the government has offered 0.5 annually over three years, Ms. Benson said.

She also said the union is not prepared to make any concessions on sick leave, with the Liberal government continuing to offer a setup similar to what the Conserva-tive government tried to impose, where a short-term disability plan is put in place to make up for a loss of allowable sick days.

“What we’ve asked for are im-provements to our sick leave, not concessions,” Ms. Benson said.

The government is report-edly proposing to reduce the number sick says to eight a year from 15, change the unlimited number of sick days that can be rolled over from year to year to a maximum of two, and implement a short-term disability program of 26 weeks in which the fi rst 17 weeks are covered with 100 per cent of salary and the next nine weeks are at 70 per cent.

Ms. Benson argued that the government’s plan for short-term disability would be more expen-sive than the status quo because it would require the outsourcing of another company to run it.

Jean-Luc Ferland, spokesman for Treasury Board President Scott Brison (Kings-Hants, N.S.), would not confi rm details of what the government is offering. However, he did say that it “has tabled a substantially improved sick leave and disability proposal with bargaining agents to address concerns expressed by unions during previous negotiations.”

Mr. Ferland also said: “Conclud-ing agreements remains a prior-ity, and we will continue to seek opportunities to work with unions toward fi nalizing agreements. We cannot speculate on when agree-ments may be reached.”

There are other issues beyond pay and sick leave that PSAC is seeking improvements on.

“It’s not just an economic increase that we’re looking for,” Ms. Benson said. “There’s work-ing conditions that need to be improved. … Some of it is about shifts and how many days notifi -cation to change shifts.”

For example, the bargaining unit for CBSA workers is asking for 24 hours notice, when pos-sible, before any overtime work is assigned, according to the PSAC website.

Ms. Benson said the rally last week was intended to “support the teams throughout this week … and to boost the mood of our teams so that they know that our coast-to-coast-to-coast members are behind them.”

The rally followed a full week-end of negotiations, and more

meetings took place during the week. On Friday, Ms. Benson said in a phone interview that talks were unproductive, and more discussions aren’t expected until September.

“Nothing has changed,” she said. “To say that the members of our negotiating teams were frustrated and disappointed and disheartened would be an under-statement.”

Ms. Benson said it’s too soon to discuss possible job action, given the multiple steps the union would have to take to get to that point. That sentiment was echoed by Debi Daviau, president of the Professional Institute of the Pub-lic Service of Canada (PIPSC), which has about 50,000 members working on contracts that have been expired since 2014.

“[We’re] not ready to make that determination,” Ms Daviau said. “We have many issues yet to dis-cuss. We haven’t even tabled our economic increase proposal yet.”

Emmanuelle Tremblay, presi-dent of the Canadian Associa-tion of Professional Employees (CAPE), of which that vast majority of its 13,000 members are working on expired contacts, expressed a similar stance on the potential for job action. However, she said that her union, like oth-ers, must inform the government by Sept. 1 whether it intends to deal with any potential impasse in talks with strike action or bind-ing arbitration. Ms. Benson said PSAC will, as it has traditionally done, reserve the right to strike.

Ms. Tremblay said she hopes to see new contracts in place by the end of this year, but added that it’s hard to predict right now if that’s likely.

Ms. Daviau said there had been meetings throughout June between six different teams of PIPSC negotiators and the Trea-sury Board. She said some meet-ings are scheduled for August, but little negotiating is expected over the summer.

“It’s hard to bring the parties together in the summer,” she said. “Summer is government vacation time. … There’s enough people [taking vacation during the sum-mer] that it’s diffi cult to bring all the parties on both sides together to negotiate.”

Ms. Daviau said that while there remains a lot of ground to close in getting deals in place, the environment has improved with the government’s promise

to repeal Bill C-4. This legislation, passed by the previous Conserva-tive government, implemented measures such as giving the gov-ernment the authority to unilater-ally declare which workers are es-sential and cannot strike, without workers being able to challenge such determinations with an arbitrator. The Liberal government has also vowed to negotiate on the same kind of terms that existed prior to this legislation.

“Now that the environment is set right, we’re ready to go there and start to make progress to resolve this round [of negotia-tions] on a number of issues,” Ms. Daviau said.

“C-4 represented a massive negative change to the equilib-rium of bargaining, such that the employer really held all of the cards and all of the tradi-tional mechanisms for bargaining agents to represent their mem-bers,” she added.

On sick leave, Ms Daviau said: “We’re not going to negotiate con-cessions to our plan, but we are open to working with the govern-ment to fi nd improvement to the existing regime. We don’t support, currently, the framework that the government has on the table for that modernized plan. However, we do recognize the need to ad-dress certain gaps in the system.

“We’re not resolved to keeping exactly what we have, but we’re also not willing to provide out members with less support when they’re sick or injured.”

While the Liberal proposal for sick leave and short-term disabil-ity is a better deal than what the former Conservative government had on the table, Ms. Daviau said “it is most certainly still the same structure and there are things about that structure that we fi nd unacceptable.”

Ms. Daviau said the govern-ment is still offering PIPSC members a four-year contract with annual pay increases of 0.5 per cent. While her union has not yet tabled its proposal for pay, she said the government offer “nowhere near compares with the fair increase we’ll be looking for our members, which should take into consideration, at a minimum, cost-of-living increases and other professional considerations.”

She said the professionals her union represents, like scientists, engineers, doctors, and nurses, are “across the board” mak-ing less money with the federal

government than they would be in other sectors. She said this is something that will be considered in the union’s demands, but that “we’re not looking for something unreasonable or exorbitant.”

Mr. Daviau said: “I do get the sense that we’re still very far apart. That being said, I start to feel a lot more optimistic about our ability to work together to achieve a fi nality to this round. There’s a lot more open dialogue occurring. There’s a lot more exchange of information.”

Ms. Tremblay said CAPE has talks planned with the govern-ment this week, and some nego-tiations took place over the last weeks. However, she also did not expect a lot of negotiating to hap-pen during the summer.

“We hope that [this] week, when we go back to the table, the employer will have a serious mandate to be able to open real discussions,” she said.

Ms. Tremblay called the 0.5 per cent annual pay increases the government has offered CAPE over four years “insulting,” par-ticularly when one considers that MPs received raises of 1.8 per cent this year and Senators got 2.1 per cent. CAPE is seeking an-nual increases of three per cent.

Ms. Tremblay said CAPE is also trying to get the govern-ment add more staff, reduce the amount of mandatory overtime for employees, and do less con-tracting out.

She said the union is also opposed to the government’s proposal to roll back sick days and implement a new short-term disability regime because it would give “control to a third-party, an insurance company, to see who could be paid while sick.”

She called the government’s promise to repeal Bill C-4 and op-erate on the same basis as before it was implemented as “a sign of goodwill.” However, Ms. Tremblay added that the government likely knew it would face a court chal-lenge “that they would have lost” over that legislation.

“I think it will have a major impact [on negotiations], but it was not a gift,” she said. “It is something that they would have needed to do eventually. … The real goodwill will be shown when we see what else they have in store for us, and that is unclear right now.”

dabma@hilltimes.comThe Hill Times

Public service negotiations: government gestures well received but contract offers still unpalatable for unions The government continues to offer pay and sick-leave conditions that union leaders scoff at.

PSAC president Robyn Benson, at a union rally on June 20 in Ottawa, says the govern-ment is not offering anything close to what workers want in their next contracts. The Hill Times photograph by Derek Abma

THE HILL TIMES, MONDAY, JUNE 27, 20164NEWS ELECTORAL REFORM

BY LAURA RYCKEWAERT

The House Special Committee on Electoral Reform will hear from Library of Parliament ana-lysts later this week, but fi rst its steering committee will have to grapple with a number of linger-ing questions, from the alloca-tion of MPs’ speaking times to its meeting schedule in the coming months to witness lists to agree-ing on its end goal—something Conservative MP Scott Reid says is not yet clear.

“I’m not 100 per cent sure what their expectation is as to what the committee will be doing. That’s one of the things we’re going to have to determine … is it trying to rank these [different voting systems] to say we think this is the best system, which principles are the best. I don’t know yet,” said Mr. Reid (Lanark-Frontenac-Kingston, Ont.), the Conservative critic on democratic reform and vice-chair of the committee said in an interview last week.

“There’s a lot of things on the plate, including working out the exact sitting schedule and work-ing out the manner in which we question witnesses, who gets how much time, in what order. There’s a lot of material for that meeting [of the steering committee this Tuesday].”

Liberal MP Ruby Sahota (Brampton North, Ont.), a mem-ber of the committee, told The Hill Times that “the goal” of the committee is to ultimately recom-mend one specifi c system. As well, Liberal MP and committee chair Francis Scarpaleggia (Lac-Saint-Louis, Que.) said will be discussing “what system would be best.” In an email response to The Hill Times, Mr. Holland said, “the committee has been tasked to is-sue a report and we expect it will contain recommendations on how to modernize our voting system.”

The formation of a House special committee on electoral reform was fi rst announced in May, but was met with much initial opposition over the fact the Liberal government had a major-

ity on the 12-member committee, with a non-voting seat each for Green Party Leader Elizabeth May (Saanich-Gulf Islands, B.C.) and the Bloc Québécois. At the beginning of June, following an NDP motion, an agreement was reached to change membership, with the Liberals ultimately giv-ing up a seat at the table to the NDP and giving the Greens and Bloc full voting rights.

At its initial meeting on June 21, Liberal caucus chair Mr. Scarpaleggia was elected com-mittee chair, while Mr. Reid and NDP MP Nathan Cullen (Skeena-Bulkley Valley, B.C.) were elected vice-chairs.

Also on the committee are Ms. Sahota, Liberal MP John Aldag (Cloverdale-Langley City, B.C.), Liberal MP Matt DeCourcey (Fredericton, N.B.), Liberal MP Sherry Romando (Longueuil-Charles-LeMoyne, Que.), Con-servative MP Gérard Deltell (Louis-Saint-Laurent, Que.), Con-servative MP Jason Kenney (Cal-gary Midnapore, Alta.), NDP MP Alexandre Boulerice (Rosemont-La Petite-Patrie), and BQ MP Luc Thériault (Montclam, Que.).

The committee has been allocated a $300,000 budget by Parliament.

Its fi ve-member subcommittee on agenda and procedure, also known as a steering commit-tee, was set on June 21 and will include one member from each party—after MPs agreed to give the Greens and Bloc a seat at that table, and the Liberals gave up a seat.

Liberal MP Mark Holland (Ajax, Ont.), the parliamentary secretary to Democratic Institu-tions Minister Maryam Monsef (Peterborough, Ont.), was also at the table on June 21, and will be participating as a non-voting observer throughout the commit-tee’s work, he told The Hill Times last week.

“I want to make sure that I connect the work that I’m doing with the minister and what the minister is doing, with the work of the of the committee and that we’re closely paying attention to what is heard, both the testimony in front of the committee and in-formation that’s submitted to the committee,” said Mr. Holland.

“The minister and I are going to be travelling across the country and holding town halls and listen-ing to Canadians and engaging experts as well, and it’s our belief that through that process a clear path forward will emerge.”

According to the committee’s mandate, it’s been appointed to “conduct a study of viable alter-nate voting systems to replace

the fi rst-past-the-post system, as well as to examine mandatory voting and online voting, and to assess the extent to which the options identifi ed could advance” fi ve principles: “effectiveness and legitimacy,” voter “engagement,” “accessibility and inclusiveness,” “integrity” of the process, and “lo-cal representation.”

The committee has also “in-vited” MPs to hold town halls in all 338 federal ridings on the subject, with an Oct. 14 deadline for writ-ten reports on constituent feed-back. The fi nal committee’s report is due by no later than Dec. 1.

During the 2015 campaign, the Liberals vowed that last year’s election would be the last held under the current fi rst-past-the-post system. Ms. Monsef and Mr. Holland have said consensus on electoral reform is needed, and the minister has said, “Canadians can rest assured that unless we have their broad buy-in, we’re not moving forward with any changes.”

The steering committee will meet behind closed-doors, in camera, on June 28—ahead of a June 29 meeting scheduled for the main committee to hear from Li-brary of Parliament analysts and from staff in the House adminis-tration’s committee directorate on how technology can be used to consult Canadians—and has a long list of items on its agenda.

Steering committee members will have to hash out a sitting schedule, including how often it will meet during the summer, when it will be in Ottawa and when it will be on the road across Canada, and how much speak-ing time at each meeting will be allocated between different MPs and witnesses.

Other questions that remain to be discussed include who it will hear from and when, where it will visit, how the 338 MP town hall reports will be integrated into the committee’s study, and how it will reach out to Canadians for input. Mr. Cullen has suggested allocat-ing a speaking slot each meeting to emailed and tweeted questions from Canadians.

Given Mr. Reid’s comments, it will also have to ensure a com-mon understanding among mem-bers of the committee’s end goal.

Mr. Cullen said he thinks it’s important the committee speaks to and works with “underrepre-sented groups,” including First Nations communities, for exam-ple, to “understand what barriers exist so we can understand how to open the doors,” along with how to include more input from Canadians overall.

Mr. Scarpaleggia told The Hill Times he thinks the committee’s fi rst meeting “went well” and there was “goodwill amongst all mem-bers and we got the ball rolling.” Along with the testimony already slated for June 29, committee members have also discussed a de-sire to call outgoing chief electoral offi cer Marc Mayrand, as well as former CEO of Elections Canada Jean-Pierre Kingsley, to testify.

“The challenge [starting off] will be to set up a structure for obtain-ing feedback and for transmitting that feedback to the researchers, and that’s the kind of thing that the steering committee’s going to get into,”said Mr. Scarpaleggia.

Committee members who spoke with The Hill Times last week said all options for electoral reform and new voting systems are up for consideration, from mixed-member proportional to a single-transferable vote system and more, with the Library of Parliament expected to brief members on the many differ-ent systems that exist across the world on June 29.

“There’s not one kind of multi-member proportional. There’s not one kind of STV. There’s not a single kind of preferential bal-lot. In each case, there’s many variations that can be put in place,” said Mr. Reid, adding that different systems can “have a very signifi cant and very predictable outcome in terms of which party they would favour.”

Other systems listed in a research document put out by the Library of Parliament in January (revised on June 1) include fi rst-past-the-post—a version of which

is the current voting system—as well as single non-transferable vote, mixed-member majority, or list proportional representation, and more.

Mr. Scarpaleggia said he doesn’t have a preference of what sort of reform would be best heading into the study. Ms. Sa-hota also said she has no prefer-ence, which was a “requirement” for choosing who would sit at the table for the Liberals, as “we want to make sure we go into this with a really open mind.”

The federal NDP has previ-ously adopted a policy resolution advocating for a mixed-member proportional system, but Mr. Cullen said NDP members aren’t bound by the resolution. “No, because even as you get specifi c, there’s nuances and there’s a whole family of proportional sys-tems. … There are many options and Canada needs a made-in-Canada solution, one that fi ts for our country and our context.”

Asked if he has a preference of what voting system would be best, Mr. Reid said he thinks the “key” is “putting the question before the Canadian people” via referendum, which could “put a number of op-tions before people and have them rank it preferentially” or there could be “a two-stage referendum to deal with this.”

Asked about whether a referendum would be held, Mr. Holland said: “It’s putting the cart a long way before the horse, in my opinion. Let’s get the work of trying to fi gure out ways to improve our electoral system … trying to fi nd consensus, then we can talk about how to legitimize the outcome.”

“The question of how do you legitimize this process is one that depends on what the outcomes are and what the recommenda-tions are,” he said.

There are a “variety of opin-ions” on how to reform Canada’s electoral system, including within the Liberal caucus, said Mr. Hol-land, and the committee’s work is going to be “challenging.”

lryckewaert@hilltimes.comThe Hill Times

Objectives of special committee on electoral reform still fuzzy: Reid The electoral reform committee’s subcommittee on agenda and procedure will meet in camera on June 28 to hash out a list of lingering questions.

Liberals on the House of Commons’ special committee on electoral reform are pictured June 21, including, far left, non-voting observer Liberal MP Mark Holland, parliamentary secretary to Democratic Institutions Minister Maryam Monsef. Also pictured are Liberal MPs Francis Scarpaleggia, Ruby Sahota, Matt DeCourcey, Sherry Romando, and John Aldag. The Hill Times photograph by Jake Wright

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THE HILL TIMES, MONDAY, JUNE 27, 20166NEWS LOBBYING

“It is our department’s role to support and help foster innova-tion, science, and economic devel-opment in Canada,” Philip Proulx, spokesman for Mr. Bains, said when asked about his boss being the most lobbied minister. “As part of fulfi lling this responsibility, the minister’s offi ce routinely meets with stakeholders on a variety of issues from all sectors of our wide-ranging mandate. We be-lieve that as a government, we are better positioned to help grow the economy when we are engaged and listening to Canadians.”

Industry was the top topic of discussion with Mr. Bains, cited in 57 reports. Other common topics were science and technology in 33 reports, economic development in 27, and telecommunications in 20.

“It seems logical for a whole bunch of reasons,” Joe Jordan, a lobbyist with Bluesky Strategy Group and a former Liberal MP, said of Mr. Bains being the most lobbied minister. “One, try to fi nd a piece government communica-tions that doesn’t include the word ‘innovation.’ I mean, the govern-ment has made it very clear that’s the direction they’re going to go aggressively, and they’re going to throw money behind it.”

He added: “Part of it’s got to be the personal style of the minister as well.”

Jacquie LaRocque, a lobbyist with Compass Rose Group and a former Liberal government staffer, said the innovation portfolio would naturally invite a greater amount of lobbying, and Mr. Bains’ personal-ity makes it unsurprising he would be engaging often with lobbyists.

“He’s always been very inclu-sive with stakeholders, all the way back to when he was a backbench MP from Mississauga,” she said. “He did take great pains to have stakeholders’ views heard, so he’s quite open and inclusive that way.”

Chad Rogers, a lobbyist with Crestview Strategy and someone with Conservative ties, said: “I think fi nance and industry are the two ministers who would traditionally get the greatest quantity of requests for meetings or contact; innovation, previously industry, because it controls so many agencies and so many regu-lated industries.”

The innovation minister is re-sponsible for, among other things, strategic investments in the economy, regulation of wireless spectrum used by the telecommu-nications industry, and approving major foreign acquisitions.

“It’s the old industry minister and it would have always been true [that this minister would be the most lobbied],” said Robin Sears, a lobbyist with Earnscliffe Strategy Group and former

national director of the NDP. “They’re the ones who are the face of the government to business, most often. They’re the ones you need agreement from on foreign investment, any changes in your operations or your investments in Canada, layoffs. They’re just basi-cally the gateway, classically, in most governments to the business community for all of its issues.”

Agriculture Minister Lawrence MacAulay (Cardigan, P.E.I.) was the second most lobbied minister with 82 communication reports. Agriculture was a point of discus-sion for 73 of these. International trade was mentioned in 39 reports.

As for Mr. Bains and Mr. MacAulay being the two most lobbied cabinet ministers, Don Boudria, a lobbyist with Hill & Knowlton Strategies former Liberal cabinet minister, said part of it is the nature of their portfo-lios, but it’s also a refl ection their personal styles.

“[Mr. Bains] meets with people all the time and talks with people all over the place,” he said. “Law-rence MacAulay is largely the same. … Who always has time to say hello to you and who always has time to talk? Well, those two are typically that way.”

Mr. Rogers, however, said the quantity of lobbying done with any particular minister is based on “almost totally the demands of the portfolio, which is why, I think, if you look at these stats year-on-year, they’re probably fairly con-sistent, with one or two outliers.”

In an analysis of lobbying of the former Conservative govern-ment, The Hill Times found that Mr. Bains’ predecessor, former industry minister James Moore, was the most lobbied cabinet minister in 2014. He was followed by former fi nance minister Joe Oliver and former employment minister Jason Kenney (Calgary Midnapore, Alta.).

In this Liberal government, In-ternational Trade Minister Chrys-tia Freeland (University-Rosedale, Ont.) has been the third most lobbied cabinet minister with 77 communication reports. Topic-wise, the vast majority these communications, 69, concerned international trade. Agriculture and industry were also among the most common topics with both mentioned in 12 reports.

Mr. Boudria said Ms. Freeland leads a portfolio that attracts a lot of demand from lobbyists due to some of the pressing issues involv-ing trade, and she also happens to be someone who’s keen to meet with people. He noted the high interest in pending trade deals such at the Trans-Pacifi c Partner-ship (TPP) and the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) with the European Union.

“She’s a trade minister in the new government, and very clearly

the new government has said, ‘Look, we’re not bound by the trade agreements. We’re going to study each one of them. We’re go-ing to talk to Canadians and see what they think about them.’ And what’s she been doing? Obviously, talking to Canadians.”

Mr. Boudria said the willing-ness of Mr. Bains, Mr. MacAulay, and Ms. Freeland to engage with stakeholders was likely a factor why Mr. Trudeau gave them the portfolios they have.

Ms. LaRocque said there’s a connection between how busy this government has been on trade issues and how busy the ministers of innovation, agricul-ture, and international trade have been with lobbyists.

“When there are trade deals, there are domestic implications, and [Innovation and Agriculture] are the departments responsible for the industrial plans to support the industries that are part of these trade deals,” she said.

Natural Resources Minister Jim Carr (Winnipeg South Centre, Man.) has been the fourth most lobbied cabinet minister of the Trudeau government so far, mentioned in 74 communication reports. Of those, 39 involved discussions about energy, 26 included environment, and 16 involved industry.

Transport Minister Marc Garneau (Notre-Dame-de-Grâce-Westmount, Que.) was the fi fth most lobbied minister with 70 communication reports. Transpor-tation was, predictably, the most commonly cited topic, included in 61 communication reports. The next most often mentioned topic was infrastructure, cited in nine.

Rounding out the top 10 most lobbied ministers were Health Minister Jane Philpott (Markham-Stouffville, Ont.) with 66 commu-nication reports, Science Minister Kirsty Duncan (Etobicoke North, Ont.) with 54, Finance Minister Bill Morneau (Toronto Centre, Ont.) with 52, Environment Minister Catherine McKenna (Ottawa Cen-tre, Ont.) with 50, and Small Busi-ness and Tourism Minister Bardish Chagger (Waterloo, Ont.) with 46.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau (Papineau, Que.) has been the 11th most lobbied minister with 43 communication reports. International trade was the top subject for lobbyists to discuss with Mr. Trudeau, cited in 11 reports. Other regular topics were infrastructure, mentioned in 10 reports, and energy, environment, and economic development were each in nine.

That most recent lobbying re-port for Mr. Trudeau was from Les Producteurs de lait du Québec for May 31.

By comparison, Stephen Harper (Calgary Heritage, Alta.), in the fi rst seven months after his last election as prime minister in May 2011—and the only one that brought him a majority govern-ment—had 18 communication reports for contact with him.

Mr. Boudria said it’s somewhat surprising that Mr. Trudeau would be as active as he has been with lobbyists, but that “this is a prime minister who hands blankets to refugees in airports, so obviously he likes to talk to people.”

Mr. Boudria said Mr. Trudeau has obviously been meeting with lobbyists more than Mr. Harper did, though comparisons with prime ministers before Mr. Harper are diffi cult because the

rules for reporting communica-tions was different back then.

Ms. LaRocque said “it’s a good thing” that Mr. Trudeau has been this engaged with lobbyists. “He’s defi nitely demonstrated from Day 1 in offi ce that he’s out and about across the country meeting with Canadians, but also meeting with organizations across the various communities across the country.”

Hunter Tootoo (Nunavut), who was fi sheries minister until resign-ing this position and his spot in the Liberal caucus in late May to deal with addiction issues, was tied with Heritage Minister Mélanie Joly (Ahuntsic-Cartierville, Que.) for being the 14th most lobbied person who has held a cabinet position in this government. Each had 38 com-munication reports.

National Revenue Minister Diane Lebouthillier (Gaspésie-Les Îles-de-la-Madeleine, Que.) was the least lobbied cabinet minister with only six reports since this government took offi ce.

National Defence Minister Har-jit Sajjan (Vancouver South, B.C.) had the second least number of communication reports with eight. Indigenous Affairs Minister Caro-lyn Bennett (Toronto-St. Paul’s, Ont.) was also near the bottom of the list with 16 reports, as was Gov-ernment House Leader Dominic LeBlanc (Beauséjour, N.B.), who has since taken over as fi sheries minister, also with 16.

Mr. Boudria said he under-stands why Mr. Sajjan would be among the least lobbied ministers. He said most of lobbying interest in defence is related to procurement, and Public Services Minister Judy Foote (Bonavista-Burin-Trinity, N.L.)—who was the 22nd most lob-bied minister with 23 communica-tion reports—would be taking on most of that lobbying.

“You want to sell something, you talk to [Ms. Foote],” said Mr. Boudria, who held that same portfolio when it was called public works.

With regard to Mr. Sajjan, Mr. LaRocque said ministers in charge of portfolios where a lot of procure-ment is pending are often reluctant to meet with lobbyists in the event that it creates a perception that certain parties are being favoured.

Mr. Boudria, who was also once government House leader, and said it’s not surprising Mr. LeBlanc would be seeing relative-ly little lobbying in this role, given that it’s people who work in the House that are demanding most of his attention. However, he said Mr. LeBlanc will likely get more attention from lobbyists in his new position of fi sheries minister.

Ms. LaRocque said Ms. Ben-nett is an accessible public fi gure, though the nature of her portfolio means a lot of her engagement is with First Nations offi cials and much of it would not be subject to lobbying reporting rules, particu-larly meetings that are initiated by Ms. Bennett herself.

dabma@hilltimes.comThe Hill Times

Bains most lobbied minister in Liberal government

Continued from page 1

MINISTERS

LOBBYING COMMUNICATION REPORTS FILED FOR LIBERAL CABINET MINISTERS’ SINCE TAKING OFFICE:

Innovation Minister Navdeep Bains 116Agriculture Minister Lawrence MacAulay 82International Trade Minister Chrystia Freeland 77Natural Resources Minister Jim Carr 74Transport Minister Marc Garneau 70Health Minister Jane Philpott 66Science Minister Kirsty Duncan 54Finance Minister Bill Morneau 52Environment Minister Catherine McKenna 50Small Business and Tourism Minister Bardish Chagger 46Prime Minister Justin Trudeau 43Veterans Affairs Minister Kent Hehr 41Employment Minister MaryAnn Mihychuk 39Heritage Minister Mélanie Joly 38Former fi sheries minister Hunter Tootoo 38Infrastructure Minister Amarjeet Sohi 37International Development Minister Marie-Claude Bibeau 35Immigration Minister John McCallum 34Sport and Persons with Disabilities Minister Carla Qualtrough 34Treasury Board President Scott Brison 25Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale 25Public Services Minister Judy Foote 23Foreign Affairs Minister Stéphane Dion 20Democratic Institutions Minister Maryam Monsef 20Justice Minister Jody Wilson-Raybould 19Social Development Minister Jean-Yves Duclos 18Government House Leader and Fisheries Minister 16Domenic LeBlancIndigenous Affairs Minister Carolyn Bennett 16Status of Women Minister Patty Hajdu 10National Defence Minister Harjit Sajjan 8National Revenue Minister Diane Lebouthillier 6

Source: Federal lobbyists registry

The most often lobbied cabinet minister of the Trudeau government is Innovation Minister Navdeep Bains. The Hill Times photographs by Jake Wright

7THE HILL TIMES, MONDAY, JUNE 27, 2016NEWS BREXIT

BY CHRISTOPHER GULY

The way Brits voted in last Thursday’s United King-dom referendum on leaving the European Unions should provide Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s government direction with how it approaches some key domestic and international issues, say Con-servative MPs with ties to Britain.

With a 72 per cent voter turn-out, 52 per cent voted to leave the 28-nation European Union, while 48 per cent voted to stay.

“I celebrate the act of democra-cy that is a referendum,” said Con-servative foreign affairs critic Tony Clement (Parry Sound-Muskoka, Ont.), who was born in Manchester, England, 55 years ago.

Mr. Clement said that if the Brit-ish are given the chance to decide whether to leave or stay within the European Union in a referendum, “it’s not so much to ask Mr. Trudeau to allow a referendum to decide on the future of how we elect our MPs.”

The Conservatives have called for a referendum on Canadian electoral reform, which a special committee of MPs will be examin-ing over the summer.

In a statement on the results of what became the Brexit vote, inter-im Conservative Leader Rona Am-brose (Sturgeon River-Parkland, Alta.) said: “There is no substitute for the direct democratic voice of a country’s citizens in determining the answers to critical questions about their future. I recognize that the U.K. government, but more importantly the people of the U.K., have engaged in a vigorous debate and have made their voices heard.”

Conservative MP Alexander Nuttall (Barrie-Springwater-Oro-Medonte, Ont.), who was born in Liverpool, England, noted that voter

turnout was higher in last Thursday’s British referendum than it was for last year’s federal election in the U.K. in which 66 per cent of registered voters exercised their franchise, illustrating that Brits wanted to be engaged on the future of their coun-try within the EU.

“The Liberals claim that they haven’t endorsed a referendum [on electoral forum] because they want wider consultation, but the turnout in the U.K. shows that people view the referendum process as a great opportunity to have their say,” said Mr. Nuttall, who was four years old when his family immigrated to Canada.

“To those who says referen-dums only reach out to people who only vote in elections, nearly two million more people signed up to vote in the U.K. referendum and galvanized people to become involved in the process.”

While Mr. Trudeau (Papineau, Que.) was silent on the implica-tions the Brexit vote might have on Canadian electoral reform, he focused on concerns over the U.K. referendum results that sent global markets into a tailspin on Friday.

“The U.K. and the EU are important strategic partners for Canada with whom we enjoy deep historical ties and common values,” the prime minister said in a state-ment. “Canada’s connections to our partners around the world are among its greatest assets, and these relationships contribute greatly to the prosperity of all Canadians.”

Finance Minister Bill Morneau (Toronto Centre, Ont.) also sought to provide assurances in light of the U.K.’s future departure from the EU. In a statement issued Friday, he said that he had spoken to his G7 counterparts and central bank governors, “and we reaffi rmed our confi dence in the U.K.’s economy and fi nancial sector.”

“We respect the choice of the British people and will remain a strong partner of the U.K. and the EU. Our shared histories make us natural trading partners, and I look forward to maintaining those close economic ties.”

One of the top fi les for Interna-tional Trade Minister Chrystia Free-land (University-Rosedale, Ont.)

is to fi nalize the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) between Canada and the EU, with ratifi cation expected next year. But once the U.K. withdraws from the EU—which will require a two-year legal process—Canada will need to negotiate a separate trade pact with Britain, said Mr. Clement, who was a member of the Conservative cabinet when former prime minister Stephen Harper (Calgary Heritage, Alta.) announced in Brussels in 2013 that Canada and the EU had reached an agreement in principle.

“We have a great historical tradi-tion and connections to the U.K., and many jobs in Canada rely on trade with the U.K.,” Mr. Clement said. “It’s in the interests of everyone to have a comprehensive trade agreement with the U.K. as well as the EU.”

Mr. Clement declined to say how he would have voted if he was a U.K. resident.

Mr. Nuttall, however, said he was in favour of Britain leaving the EU.

“I would have voted to leave the EU,” said Mr. Nuttall, who was a Barrie, Ont., city councillor before entering federal politics last year.

He said the core issue for U.K. voters was British sovereignty.

“The message I kept hearing over and over was the great concern people had about policies being dictated out of Brussels [the EU’s de facto capital], rather than voted on and legitimized in the British Parlia-ment,” said Mr. Nuttall, who previ-ously worked in the fi nance industry.

“Voting to leave gives the U.K. a greater bargaining position to reform its relationship with Eu-rope into a strictly economic one.”

Conservative MP Peter Kent (Thornhill, Ont.), who was born in a Canadian Army hospital in Sussex, England, in 1943, where his parents were stationed during the Second World War, said that as a believer in the benefi ts of free trade, he would have “thought long and hard, and would have been inclined to vote ‘remain.’ ”

“But I also know that as a Canadian I would never agree for Canada to be part of a similar federation in our hemisphere,” said Mr. Kent, a former minister of state for foreign affairs in the

Americas in Mr. Harper’s cabinet.“The EU is not today what it

was originally, and the economic uncertainty attached to some EU member states—particularly Greece—may well have persuad-ed me to vote ‘leave.’ ”

In fact, last week’s pro-Brexit vote seems to have sparked similar leave-EU interest in Greece, along with Sweden and Denmark. And in the U.K. itself, referendum talk regarding sovereignty has returned to Scotland, where 62 per cent of voters sided with the pro-EU remain side last week compared to 47 per cent of voters in England.

Most voters in Northern Ire-land also supported staying with the E.U., and calls for a united Ireland have already begun.

But current and would-be foreign leaders need to tread cautiously when commenting in advance of elections or referen-dums, said Mr. Kent, who worked in the U.K. several times during his four-decade-long career as a broadcast journalist, including stints with CBC, CTV, and NBC.

Mr. Kent said U.S. President Barack Obama “stepped over the line a little bit when he said the United States wouldn’t be interested in ne-gotiating a bilateral trade agreement” with the U.K., while presumptive Re-publican presidential candidate Don-ald Trump was “a little goofy when he said in Scotland [last Friday] that Brexit was great.”

Mr. Trudeau, Mr. Morneau, and Ms. Freeland “may have slightly overstepped the bounds by making statements that were cautiously supportive of Canada-Europe,” added Mr. Kent, who was working in the U.K. in 1972 when the British parliament passed leg-islation to join what was then the European Economic Community.

“I understand those who refuse to give up the pint and the pound,” said Mr. Kent, Conser-vative deputy critic for foreign affairs.

“It’s an emotional issue, and I certainly felt emotional tugs, too. But I bit my tongue until now because I think it really was for Britons to decide.”

news@hilltimes.comThe Hill Times

British born Canadian Conservative MPs use Brexit vote to support calls for referendum on electoral reform Tony Clement says that if the British are given the chance to decide whether to leave or stay within the European Union in a referendum, ‘it’s not so much to ask Mr. Trudeau to allow a referendum to decide on the future of how we elect our MPs.’

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Trade Minister Chrystia Freeland, and Brit Prime Minister David Cameron. Conservative MPs Tony Clement and Peter Kent were both born in England. Mr. Clement says the U.K. referendum on leaving the EU was an ‘act of democracy.’ Mr. Kent says Mr. Trudeau shouldn’t have interfered. The Hill Times photographs by Jake Wright and Andrew Meade

THE HILL TIMES, MONDAY, JUNE 27, 20168

EDITORIAL FAMILY-FRIENDLY HOUSE LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

The House Affairs Committee re-leased a minor report recently on how to make the House more “family friendly,” which is long overdue for married MPs with young families. The committee suggested small steps, but committee members couldn’t agree on eliminating Friday sittings, extending Monday to Thursday hours, and could not decide on electronic voting in the House Chamber. It decided to study proxy voting for MPs who are sick or unable to be in Ottawa to vote. The MPs defi nitely try to make the House more family friendly, but it should not cut back on House sittings.

The MPs recommended hold-ing votes right after Question Period instead of in the evenings, except for Thursdays when most MPs are re-turning to their ridings. The MPs also suggested releasing the House calendar six months in advance so MPs can plan better. They suggested doing away with long sitting blocks of fi ve weeks, “not conducive to productive parliamentary work.” The MPs also want the House information security services to come up with a way for family members and staffers to access any changes to an MP’s mobile electronic calendar. They want the House Board of Internal Econ-omy to be less transparent on MPs’ travel points because “family members have felt reluctant, if not discouraged, from making use of a travel point to

visit a spouse or parent.” The MPs, who don’t pay into the employment insur-ance system and are excluded from receiving benefi ts, will further study parental leave or family leave.

One Liberal MP Arif Virani, who rep-resents Parkdale-High Park, Ont., and is married with two young children, told The Huffi ngton Post Canada recently that MPs should be “incentivized” to pro-create and said the weekly grind to and from the riding is “incredibly hard” and “not ideal.” Said Mr. Virani: “Everyone prepares you for how to win a nomina-tion and win an election, but no one prepares you how to be an MP, really. It’s a great job, don’t get me wrong, but it’s a demanding job.”

Government House Leader Dominic LeBlanc told reporters recently that Parliament should be modernized to encourage younger people and parents of young children to run for federal politics. He also suggested cutting Fri-day sittings and said they “don’t offer a maximum use of an MP’s time.”

But the fact is, MPs only sit about 25 or 27 weeks, or about 127 sitting days, less than half a year. They just left a week early two weeks ago. They’re gone for 13 weeks. They don’t need to sit less, but they could make better use of their time while in Ottawa which is where they also need to be in order to do their jobs as federal law-makers. Yes, it’s a tough job, but it’s also meaningful and extremely rewarding.

The future of Canadian publishing is increasingly at the forefront of debates around copyright, rights holders, and users. We in the educational sector highly value a thriving, vibrant Canadian publishing landscape. In support of this, Canadian post-secondary institutions continue to be among the largest purchas-ers of copyrighted content in the nation, and employ vast numbers of authors.

Our currently balanced copyright system is the result of countless rounds of consultations with Canadians across a multitude of sectors. The Copyright Act provides authors with certain rights to their content. It also provides the Canadi-an public at large, including educational users, with certain rights to use that con-tent. The Supreme Court has entrenched and—following many tests—continues to hold that copyright’s proper balance lies “not only in recognizing the creator’s rights but in giving due weight to their limited nature.” The court considers bal-ance essential, and sees user rights as integral to advancing the public interest.

For better or worse, we have witnessed a shift from paper to electronic delivery of educational content. This shift has fun-damentally changed the way copyrighted works are accessed and used, and how rights holders are compensated. Academ-ic libraries now typically spend 70 per cent to 75 per cent of their acquisitions budgets on electronic resources. Often acquired as large bundles licensed from multinational vendors, these electronic resources cost post-secondary institutions millions of dollars annually, paid directly to publishers.

Students access licensed materials directly from the publisher’s website or via links in institutional learning manage-ment systems and electronic course re-serves services. Licensing terms covering these electronic resources often provide for broad educational uses, including copying and distributing selected content for use in specifi c courses. In such cases, fair dealing is unlikely to come into play since the content is used in accordance with licenses negotiated and paid for by educational institutions.

As for fair dealing, in 2012 the Su-preme Court confi rmed teachers’ copy-ing of short excerpts for use by students could qualify as fair dealing for purposes of research and private study, and Parlia-ment amended the Copyright Act to in-clude education as a fair dealing purpose. But in truth, well before 2012, libraries and educational institutions exercised fair dealing to disseminate educational mate-rials to students, and students themselves have relied on fair dealing to copy works needed for research and private study.

Coursepacks (collections of excerpted works) represent a small and, in fact, diminishing, fraction of the copyrighted works used at post-secondary institutions. Students continue to purchase textbooks, anthologies and other published works as required course materials. Libraries continue to purchase and subscribe to educational materials—books, journals, video libraries, and the like—in a variety of physical formats to support their insti-tutional curricula. And many, if not most, post-secondary institutions, now have copyright offi ces dedicated to educating their communities about copyright law and assisting with copyright permissions and the payment of royalties when needed.

Authors and publishers will continue to thrive under Canada’s copyright regime, as extensive amounts of copyrighted con-tent continue to be purchased or licensed by educational institutions and students. Libraries and educational institutions strongly desire to be an equal partner in efforts to ensure the delicate balance inherent in our copyright system is pre-served. We aspire to be active participants in creating a sustainable system in which creators and users benefi t equitably.

Bobby Glushko, head, Scholarly Communications and Copyright Offi ce,

University of TorontoRobert Tiessen, Books and Media

Collection Development Librarian, University of Calgary

Heather Martin, Copyright Offi cer, University of Guelph

Rumi Graham, University of Lethbridge Copyright Adviser & Graduate Studies

Librarian

MPs should not cut House of Commons

sitting time

Libraries, educational institutions want copyright

system preserved

EDITORIALSENIOR REPORTERS Tim Naumetz and Laura RyckewaertREPORTER, POWER & INFLUENCE ASSISTANT EDITOR Rachel AielloNEWS REPORTERS Chelsea Nash, Marco VigliottiPHOTOGRAPHERS Sam Garcia, Andrew Meade, Cynthia Münster, and Jake Wright POWER & INFLUENCE ASSISTANT EDITOR Christina LeadlayEDITORIAL CARTOONIST Michael De AdderCONTRIBUTING WRITERS Denis Calnan, Simon Doyle, Christopher Guly, Leslie MacKinnon, Carl Meyer and Cynthia MünsterCOLUMNISTS Keith Brooks, Karl Bélanger, Andrew Cardozo, John Chenier, David Coletto, Sheila Copps, David

Crane, Jim Creskey, Murray Dobbin, Gwynne Dyer, Michael Geist, Greg Elmer, Alice Funke, J.L. Granatstein, Éric Grenier, Dennis Gruending, Cory Hann, Tim Harper, Chantal Hébert, Jenn Jefferys, David T. Jones, Joe Jordan, Warren Kinsella, Camille Labchuk, Gillian McEachern, Arthur Milnes, Nancy Peckford, Kate Purchase, Tim Powers, Michael Qaqish, Jeremy Richler, Susan Riley, Ken Rubin, Sarah Schmidt, Rick Smith, Evan Sotiropoulos, Scott Taylor, Ian Wayne, Nelson Wiseman, Les Whittington and Armine Yalnizyan

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Authors and publishers will continue to thrive under Canada’s copyright regime, as extensive amounts of copyrighted content continue to be purchased or licensed by educational institutions and students, write the authors. The Hill Times photograph by Jake Wright

LETTER TO EDITOR

As mayor of Kingston, it is a very real pleasure to thank Mark O’Neill and his entire team at the Canadian Museum of History for all they did earlier this month to help Kingston mark the 175th anniversary of the fi rst united Canadian Parliament meeting here in 1841. Thanks to the Canadian Museum of His-tory’s eagerness to take their collections directly where possible to all Canadians in communities outside of Otta-wa, I am proud to inform Hill Times readers that an original window from the fi rst Parlia-ment of the United Province of Canada will be on display at Kingston’s Agnes Ether-ington Art Centre at Queen’s University all summer.

Canadian Museum of His-tory staff joined with Kings-ton’s deputy mayor, the acting CEO of Kingston General Hospital—where the fi rst Par-liament met and that building is still proudly in use today—Queen’s, local political history enthusiast Arthur Milnes, Queen’s representatives, and a Kingston Police represen-tative as the window was unveiled. Your readers will be interested to know that both Queen’s and Kingston Police are also marking their 175th anniversaries this year in Kingston. And all three levels of government have also now worked together to offer guid-ed tours of historic Kingston Penitentiary this summer and fall. It is therefore also a great pleasure to invite all members of the Parliament Hill commu-nity to visit with us in Kings-ton this summer. By doing so I’m confi dent all will see why we in the Limestone City believe a great mistake was made in moving the capital from here so long ago. But that’s another story.

Bryan PatersonMayor of Kingston

Kingston, Ont.

Kingston tips its hat to

Museum of

History’s O’Neill

9THE HILL TIMES, MONDAY, JUNE 27, 2016COPPS’ CORNER BREXIT

OTTAWA—British Prime Minister David Cameron was the fi rst casualty of Brexit. But he certainly won’t be the last.

The decision is a boost for Trumpism and separatism.

Presumptive Republican nomi-nee Donald Trump has been suc-cessfully beating the anti-immi-gration drum in the United States, promising to build a wall to shield his country from Mexicans. He

welcomed a similar undercurrent in the Leave campaign.

Trump even fl ew to Scotland to bask in the vote results, saying he was happy that voters chose to “take back your country.”

The threat of further splintering looms, as voters in Scotland, North-ern Ireland and London clearly broke ranks with the rest of the United Kingdom. The narrow result of the vote does not bode well for healing future divisions.

Scotland is now ripe for another separation referendum and there is a discussion in Northern Ireland about leaving the United Kingdom in favour of a united Ireland.

Even the tiny outpost of Gi-braltar, which voted overwhelm-ingly to remain in the European Union, is now facing a renewed sovereignty claim by Spain.

The fallout across the rest of the European Union could be equally bloody, as dissatisfi ed member states may not be able to resist an internal backlash to leave the EU in the face of rising nationalism.

As for Canada, the political uncertainty will fan the dying embers of separation. Separatists

will point to the razor-thin margin of victory in Brexit to bolster their case for the legality of a simple majority referendum vote.

Prime Minister Cameron was literally driven out of offi ce under police guard, as unhappy Remain voters mobbed his motorcade.

Cameron’s folly got the country into this mess in the fi rst place.

He could not even convince his own cabinet to support his choice. Classmate, and Conservative friend Boris Johnson led the charge to leave the union. Justice Secretary Michael Gove even called Cameron a liar on the campaign trail, only to return to sit in cabinet.

Cameron’s primary ally in the Remain alliance was supposed to be the Labour Party. But his natural political opponents also stood to gain from Conservative party turmoil.

Labour strongholds did not vote in suffi cient numbers and their margin of support for stay-ing was overstated.

In the end, observers misread the depth of dissatisfaction and Euro-scepticism in the United Kingdom. That angst was defi nitely understood by the Leave campaign. New York-born Boris Johnson, who beat an incumbent for the London mayoralty by targeting Muslims and immigrants, knew just how to play those divisions.

His team’s negative campaign strategy was reminiscent of the current divisive state of American politics.

The Exiters took everyone by surprise, including their own

leadership. On the day of the vote, Exit supporter and United King-dom Independence Party Leader Nigel Farage publicly conceded defeat, only to revoke his conces-sion statement when the surpris-ing results poured in.

Even British betting shops, notorious for picking winners, got it wrong. By voting day, Britons had wagered almost $38-million on the outcome, and 80 per cent of their money was on staying.

The Brexiters used anti-immigra-tion advertising and messaging that obvious resonated. That response was unexpected, partly because of the recent London mayoralty race, where anti-immigrant rhetoric back-fi red and prompted the election of the fi rst Muslim mayor.

The win by the Exit team will reinvigorate those Quebec sover-eignists who have put separation on the back burner in favour of economic issues.

Like the British Exit demo-graphic, separatist support is dis-proportionately large in smaller rural communities. It also appeals to those Quebecers who are fear-ful of immigrants.

Deep divides in the Conser-vative Party were not healed by the referendum. Doubts about Cameron’s leadership, which prompted the initial referendum, were confi rmed during multiple campaign missteps. Conservative Party divisions have now been infl icted on the whole country.

Brexit celebrations went on into the wee hours of the morning. The hangover will last much longer.

OAKVILLE, ONT.—This week when we celebrate the world’s most generic-sounding national holiday, otherwise known as

“Canada Day,” we can all take pride in the fact that our country is a successful democracy.

Truthfully, we Canadians are a shining example to the rest of the world, proving as we do that a beer-loving, hockey-watching, winter-hardened people can dem-ocratically govern themselves.

But, of course, in 1867 when Canada was offi cially “born,” our ruling class wasn’t exactly enam-oured with the whole concept of government by the people and for the people, an idea they consid-ered too republican, too Ameri-can, too boorish.

Indeed, our fi rst-ever prime minister, John A. Macdonald, feared that too much democracy would empower what he called the “unreasoning masses.”

This is why, in their wisdom, the Fathers of Confederation burdened future generations of Canadians with an unelected, unaccountable, and apparently unreformable Senate.

Thanks a lot, Fathers of Con-federation.

Anyway, things are much different in 2016 because today

our ruling classes appreciate that democracy means trusting the people to make the right … hey, wait a minute, now that I think about it, things really haven’t changed that much at all.

Our leaders, in fact, still seem to view regular, everyday Cana-dians as something akin to an unreasoning mass.

Consider, for instance, how the Liberal government is adamantly refusing to hold a referendum to give the unreasoning masses ... oops I mean the people, a direct voice on whatever radical changes it plans to make to our voting system.

To me such a refusal seems odd.I mean, if you’re going to

reform democracy, shouldn’t the process itself be democratic? And isn’t a referendum the purest form of democracy?

Apparently, the Liberals don’t see it that way. Maybe they don’t think Canadians are smart enough to vote on a complex policy issue.

“Democratic reform” for them, in other words, means democracy if necessary but not necessarily democracy.

And that’s only one example of how our leaders seem to doubt the reasoning ability of Canadians.

Their distrust is also shown, for example, in the way politi-cians are continually imposing rules to restrict the ability of both parties and private groups to spend money for the purposes of political advocacy.

Yes, I know such restrictions are put in place for the lofty goal of removing the infl uence of money in our elections, i.e. to stop the “rich” from buying votes, but

such a thought process actually betrays a sad view of the Cana-dian electorate, suggesting as it does that regular people are gull-ible, feeble-minded, halfwits who will be bamboozled by whatever wealthy demagogue comes along with a glitzy TV ad campaign.

Shouldn’t we give our citizens more credit, otherwise why not just set up an enlightened dictatorship?

That’s not to say regular Canadians are fl awless; like all humans we can at times be over-emotional, short-sighted and biased.

That means “The People” can, and often do, make mistakes when electing politicians.

But this has always been the main drawback of self-govern-ment.

As Winston Churchill once put it, “The best argument against de-mocracy is a fi ve-minute conver-sation with the average voter.”

One can only imagine the dire things Churchill would say about democracy if he was alive today and spent fi ve minutes on Twitter.

Keep in mind, however, that the individuals who make up our ruling classes—prime ministers, cabinet ministers, premiers—are also fl awed humans. They too can make mistakes.

That’s why democracies need built-in safeguards; that’s why de-mocracy itself should have limits.

But here’s a key point: in a true democracy, government doesn’t impose limits on the people; the people impose limits on the government.

Gerry Nicholls is a communi-cations consultant.

www.gerrynicholls.comThe Hill Times

Cameron’s fi rst casualty of Brexit, won’t be the last

Referendums, democracy and unreasoning masses

Brexit celebrations went on into the wee hours of the morning. The hangover will last much longer.

Democracies need built-in safeguards; that’s why democracy itself should have limits. But here’s a key point: in a true democracy, government doesn’t impose limits on the people; the people impose limits on the government.

POST-PARTISAN PUNDIT DEMOCRACY

GERRY NICHOLLS

SHEILA COPPS

Canadian Museum of History’s Mark O’Neill. The Hill Times photograph by Denis Drever

TORONTO—And so it ends, not with a bang, but a whimper.Late last week, in a secluded

part of Centre Block, staff were seen packing up Stephen Harper’s parliamentary offi ce. Anyone wandering by could see the mov-ing boxes and the packing tape, in plain view. Harper, the 22nd prime minister of Canada, had cast his last vote in the Commons. He was heading home to Calgary.

Harper hadn’t said a word in the Commons since being defeated by Justin Trudeau in the fall. But he had shown up to vote, plenty of times—more than the NDP’s Tom Mulcair, reportedly. Even after that night when Trudeau had strong-armed the Conservative whip—even when the Liberal prime minister had elbowed a female NDP MP in the chest, no less—Harper had kept silent. You can’t picture Brian Mulroney ever exercising that kind of restraint.

And so, he’s going, and will soon to be gone. Harper will resign his Calgary seat over the summer,

and head off to do what former prime ministers and presidents usually do—write memoirs, sit on some boards, give some speeches, play golf together. Sleep in.

Unlike some folks, and cer-tainly unlike many Liberals, I did not detest Stephen Harper. There are 10 reasons for this, all of them much more personal than political.

1. When my Dad was dying, he phoned me and my Mom to talk about fathers. He did this despite the fact that Yours Truly had ripped him, on TV and radio and in newspapers, for years. He was kind to my grieving Mom, and I never forgot that.

2. On the aforementioned TV and newspaper and radio and newspaper platforms, I pre-dicted—as did many others—that, with a parliamentary majority, he would make abortion and gay marriage illegal, he would consti-tutionalize property rights, and so on. He did none of those things.

3. I, and others, thought he was an admirer of Republican-style manifest destiny—and that he would therefore lead us into illegal wars to curry favour with the likes of George W. Bush. He didn’t do that, either.

4. Unlike some former and present Liberals I will not name, he was always immensely respectful towards my politi-

cal father, Jean Chrétien, even when Chrétien ran him down in the papers. He told me he admired Chrétien’s commitment to Canada, and his discipline, and his fi scal probity. And it showed.

5. One time, I can now reveal, Harper called me up to talk about ways to prevent some grossly homophobic Jamaican rappers from getting into Canada. His offi cials had told him there was nothing he could do, and he was unhappy about that. He said I knew something about both popular music and bigotry, and wanted to talk to work on ways to keep these gay-bashers out.

6. Similarly, when I was Chrétien’s special assistant in op-position—and when the neo-Nazi Heritage Front was infi ltrating Reform Party riding associations in Toronto—Harper actually told Tom Flanagan to send me their relevant membership lists, so I could tell them who was a sus-pected Nazi. With Chrétien’s ap-proval, I did that. They kicked out the ones I spotted. It impressed both Chrétien and me.

7. As a charter member of the Alberta diaspora, that unkillable Central Canadian insinuation that all Albertans were follow-ers of Jim Keegstra and the Ku Klux Klan always pissed me off. It clearly pissed off Harper, too.

But, unlike me, he did something about it: he dragged Alberta into the centrist Canadian political mainstream—paving the way, par-adoxically, for the likes of Rachel Notley and Justin Trudeau to later win lots of seats there.

8. Even though I was a dirty rotten Liberal, he twice hired me to be a ministerial special representa-tive on aboriginal issues, which are pretty important to me. (He did likewise with Chrétien’s nephew Raymond, too.) Under his watch, spending on aboriginal programs grew, signifi cantly. I discovered Harper wasn’t what some of his detractors said he was, at least in respect of those things.

9. As a war room guy, I always admire a worthy adversary. Ste-phen Harper was always a worthy adversary. Me and my fellow Grits grossly underestimated him for a decade. We paid the price: in 2006 and 2008 and 2011, he kicked our asses.

10. Finally, I thought he might wreck the place. He didn’t wreck the place. This is still the best country in the world, and I think—if those of us who opposed him are honest with ourselves—he clearly thought so, too.

Per T.S. Eliot’s The Hollow Men, above, the world did not end with Stephen Harper. And, per Eliot’s Prufrock, nor was he “full of high sentence, but a bit obtuse,” ever.

Stephen Harper wasn’t obtuse. He was many things, but never that.

Warren Kinsella is a Toronto-based lawyer, author, and com-mentator. He has been a special assistant to prime minister Jean Chrétien.

The Hill Times

THE HILL TIMES, MONDAY, JUNE 27, 201610THE WAR ROOM STEPHEN HARPER

Top 10 good things about Stephen Harper, personal and political When I was Chrétien’s special assistant in opposition, and when the neo-Nazi Heritage Front was infi ltrating Reform Party riding associations in Toronto, Stephen Harper actually told Tom Flanagan to send me their relevant membership lists, so I could tell them who was a suspected Nazi. They kicked out the ones I spotted. It impressed both Chrétien and me.

WARREN KINSELLA

Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada’s Dr. Thomas Dignan Indigenous Health Award 2016

Congratulations to Dr. Nadine Caron, member of CIHR’s Governing Council

Prix Thomas Dignan en santé des Autochtones 2016 du Collège royal des médecins et chirurgiens du Canada

Félicitations à la Dre Nadine Caron, membre du conseil d’administration des IRSC

Canadian Institutesof Health Research

Instituts de rechercheen santé du Canada

11THE HILL TIMES, MONDAY, JUNE 27, 2016IN PROGRESS JASON KENNEY

OTTAWA—So Jason Kenney, the highest-profi le social con-servative in the Conservative cau-cus, is letting it be known that he’s got a dream: he’s willing to abandon plans to lead the federal party that appears keen to soften its edges on social issues to lead

a merged provincial conservative party in the next Alberta election.

It’s a curious development given the ongoing troubles of Al-berta’s fractured conservatives to tame the radicals in their midst.

In other words, is Kenney, a hard-edged social conservative with radical positions on everything from abortion to education to foreign af-fairs, really the right guy for the job?

There’s no doubt Alberta looks very different from it did in 1997. That’s when Kenney fi rst took his seat in the House of Commons in Ottawa, where he’s had a “perfect” voting record on “life and family issues,” according to Campaign Life Coalition.

Since his foray into fed-eral politics, Kenney has spent a chunk of time on the road, travel-ling outside Alberta to win over immigrant communities for the federal Conservative Party.

This travel to cities in suburban Toronto and Vancouver really picked up in 2008 when Kenney took over the immigration portfolio in Stephen Harper’s cabinet. Even during election campaigns, voters were always more likely to fi nd Kenney in

Brampton, Mississauga, Richmond, or Surrey rather than knocking on doors in his home riding in Calgary.

During this period, Kenney’s home province was undergoing its own transformation—and moving in a direction decidedly unfriendly to social-conservative politicians who hold radical positions.

Just ask Calgary Mayor Na-heed Nenshi, elected as Canada’s fi rst Muslim mayor in 2010. The social progressive beat Ric McIv-er, who carried the mantle for the city’s conservatives. (McIver is now interim leader of the Alberta PC Party.)

In his second election, Nenshi won handily, winning 74 per cent of the vote. Conservatives didn’t bother to put up a candidate. Instead, the head of one of Cal-gary’s biggest developer devised a plan to raise $1-million for the Manning Centre to train con-servatives to get elected as city councillors so they could outvote Nenshi on the council fl oor. That idea didn’t come to pass either.

Or ask Brian Jean, the embat-tled leader of the Wildrose Party, one of the conservative parties

(the other is the Alberta PCs).Ever since then, conservative

kingmakers in Alberta have been trying to fi gure out a way to unit