Chris Hall: So who is to blame for the temporary foreign worker mess?

An email arrived this week from a self-described Conservative of 22 years. He wanted to talk about the increasingly maligned Temporary Foreign Worker Program that's been the hot, no make that the heated topic of debate in the Commons this week.

His main point: no conservative government should meddle in free markets, yet that's exactly what's happening with this program, which encourages employers to bring in non-Canadians to fill vacant jobs in this country.

"This is leading to all kinds of problems, which we are now seeing,'' my correspondent wrote. "Canadians losing their jobs so that TFWs can be hired, creating higher unemployment as more TFWs flood into Canada, keeping wages low in these industries, and reducing the job opportunities for summer students who need the jobs so they can afford to finish their education.

"I don't like the program at all."

It's that last line that neatly sums up the problem faced by Employment Minister Jason Kenney. Critics abound, even among members of the minister's own political base, and these critics insist temporary foreign workers are costing Canadians jobs.

Now, Kenney is one of this government's most capable ministers. In fact, he's often Stephen Harper's Mr. Fixit.

Handed the task of overhauling Canada`s immigration system, he did.

Directed to breathe life into the government's still-born Canada Job Grant Program, designed to address a shortage of skilled workers, he bargained, wheedled, compromised and cajoled reluctant provinces to sign on — using money the feds had previously earmarked to train the least-skilled Canadians.

It was no small feat that, rescuing the cornerstone of the Conservative 2013 budget.

But now Kenney faces the equally daunting task of explaining to Canadians — including Conservative supporters like my correspondent  — why the Temporary Foreign Worker Program is not an evil necessity, let alone a necessary evil.

Guilty parties

This task is going to take every bit of political skill Kenney has.

On Tuesday, New Democrats and Liberals lined up to pillory a program that, as first revealed by CBC News, is being abused by some employers, largely but not exclusively in the food services industry.

Opposition MPs ran through a list of guilty parties on Tuesday: banks, hotels, even strip clubs have applied to bring in workers under the program.

"The Temporary Foreign Worker Program has been open to abuse resulting in the firing of qualified Canadian workers, lower wages and the exploitation of foreign workers," said Jinny Sims, the NDP's employment critic.

Kenney has already banned restaurants from using the TFW program. He is also in the midst of another review to impose further regulations, though his department said he is not able to speak publicly about those plans because they have not been approved by cabinet.

But Kenney is under no such restriction when it comes to attacking the motives of his political opponents, calling NDP and Liberal MPs "hypocrites" who publicly lambaste the program while privately lobbying him on behalf of employers in their ridings who want to bring in, among others, computer game designers, fish plant workers and musicians.

"Do they not find it peculiar that they say one thing in this debate, but something else whenever it comes to an interest group that they favour."

In response to a Liberal question, Kenney waved a letter written by Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau asking the Canadian Embassy in China to reconsider a rejected work permit application for a restaurant in his riding.

It was all too much for Liberal MP John McCallum.

"Why doesn't this minister look in the mirror and admit to Canadians that this mess is a Conservative mess. It's his mess and nobody else's mess," he yelled over hoots and catcalls from both sides of the House.

What to do?

So there you have it. It is Conservative mismanagement that is behind the abuse. Or it's NDP hypocrisy. And, just to even it all off, it's really the Liberals' fault because they brought in the temporary foreign worker program in the first place back in the 1970s.

No matter how you cut it, the TFW program has morphed into something it was never intended to be.

The original intent was to find high-skilled workers to fill jobs when no qualified Canadians could be found. Now it is open to fast-food restaurants that can't find local people to do the jobs.

One of the biggest, and most accepted, users of temporary foreign workers is the agricultural sector, which brings in thousands of workers at harvest times. (Canadian Press)

Kenney argued on Tuesday that the vast majority of temporary foreign workers are not in what the government calls the ''low-skilled stream,'' but are executives, academic researchers and other high-skilled temporary foreign workers who come for a short period of time to work on specific projects.

Some of these are reciprocal programs that allow Canadians the same mobility rights to work in other countries.

But that doesn't address the legitimate concerns that the program is being abused, and that some employers find it more convenient to bring in foreign workers instead of hiring Canadians or permanent residents — an aspect of the TFW program that took off on the Conservative watch.

At least one study, by the non-partisan C.D. Howe Institute, pegged the number of temporary foreign workers in Canada at nearly 340,000 — three times the number from just a decade ago.

At the same time, jobless rates among Canadians remain stubbornly high, especially among young people.

It doesn't take much effort to connect those dots.

More difficult is addressing the underlying conditions that discourage Canadians from taking available, low-skilled jobs.

Conservative MP James Rajotte says a number of small business owners in his Edmonton-area riding can't survive without temporary foreign workers. He says these small business voices are being drowned out by the chorus of criticism.

So what can Kenney do?

Part of the government's response will almost certainly be to force employers to do more to prove that they have done everything possible to fill jobs with Canadians or permanent residents.

Another is to try to work with the provinces to raise the minimum wage to make the job of serving coffee, answering phones or flipping burgers if not more rewarding, at least more lucrative.

Still another would be to put real emphasis on the "temporary" by setting strict time limits on how long TFWs could stay.

It's a complicated problem that defies easy fixes, even for the Harper government's Mr. Fixit.

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Telecoms refuse to release information on private data given to feds

Canada's privacy commissioner says telecom companies are refusing to tell her office how many times they have handed over personal customer information to the federal government without a warrant.

Chantal Bernier, the interim privacy commissioner, said her office has repeatedly asked telecom companies to disclose statistics and the scope of warrantless disclosure of data, to no avail.

"I'm not disputing that there are times when there is no time to get a warrant — life is in danger," Bernier said Tuesday.

"What we would like is for those warrantless disclosures to simply be represented in statistics so that Canadians have an idea of the scope of the phenomenon."

Bernier said the companies have only provided her office with aggregate data, which shows how many times the telecom industry as a whole gives the government customer information without a warrant.

That data was provided a few years ago, she added.

"We have tried many times. We have sought out information from the telecoms to find out," she said. "They've given us very general comments." 

Empowering citizens

Bernier said she would like to see statistics published so Canadians know how many times their personal information is given to the government without a warrant. 

"It would give a form of oversight by empowering citizens to see what the scope of the phenomenon is." 

Last month, the Chronicle Herald newspaper in Halifax reported the Canada Border Services Agency alone accessed telecom customer data almost 19,000 times over one year -- and no warrant was used more than 99 per cent of the time.

The law allows Canadian telecom companies and Internet providers to hand over customer information without a court order to help law-enforcement investigations.

In January, Bernier's office released a report calling on Communications Security Establishment Canada — the federal government's electronic eavesdropping agency — to tell Canadians more about what it's doing.

One of the recommendations, intended to bolster protection of privacy rights in national security efforts, called on CSEC to disclose annual statistics on cases in which it assists other federal agencies with requests for interception, which can include monitoring of Canadians.

Privacy commissioner investigating Bell

The Canadian Wireless Telecommunications Association, which represents the industry, said several of its members provided the privacy commissioner's office with "an aggregate number of lawful access requests" a few years ago.

"It was a one-time exercise and hasn't been repeated since," spokesman Marc Choma said in an email.

Bernier spoke to reporters after her appearance at a Senate committee looking into changes to Bell Canada's privacy policy.

The privacy commissioner's office has received 170 complaints about the way Bell collects and uses its customers' personal information to target online advertisements, she said.

Her office is investigating Bell's privacy policy and Bernier says a finding is expected by the end of the year. 

Representatives from Bell are scheduled to appear before the same Senate committee on Wednesday.

Telecom-Disclosures by TheCanadianPress

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The 2 landmines that could shatter Quebec's Liberal calm: Michelle Gagnon

Quebec is a finicky province, to say the least.

The texture of daily life here has changed so dramatically since the Liberal's April 7 election win that it feels like a completely different place.

The high-octane atmosphere of the campaign has dissipated, and gone is the months-long state of siege imposed by the Parti Québécois' proposed charter of values.

Instead, a kind of calm prevails. It may just be election hangover — dare we say a Liberal honeymoon? — or a hiatus afforded by the changing of the guard in Quebec City, but it's as if the whole province is on pause.

Into the void has come endless speculation about everything from the future of separatism to how Quebec's new federalist Liberal government might affect the 2015 federal election (won't help Justin Trudeau seems to be the consensus), to whether Pierre Karl Péladeau has the PQ leadership all sewn up (apparently not, according to yesterday's CROP poll which placed a for now uninterested Gilles Duceppe in the lead).

As Quebec resets, however, two old hang-ups — language and debt — have also risen to the surface, and for new Premier Philippe Couillard they are the ones with the potential to shatter the calm.

Language

The perceived vulnerability of the French language was invoked too late in the campaign to make a difference. But within Quebec it is widely considered a self-evident concern, and remains a stronger hook for identity politics than the values charter.

It also has the potential to ignite with very little warning.

For an example, look no further than last week's Ron MacLean imbroglio, when the Hockey Night in Canada host took a mid-week shot at "French-Canadian referees," and asked whether they should be allowed to ref Montreal Canadiens playoff games.

The controversy was played out within a day in the rest of the country, but here it went on for several, through the weekend in a back and forth over racism, tribalism and what MacLean really, truly meant.

In her tearful goodbye, the outgoing PQ leader Pauline Marois enlisted the protection of French as one of her two lasting concerns for the province.

And despite Couillard's repeated attempts to recoup the campaign gaffe in which he touted bilingualism as a must even on the factory floor, Quebec's most overtly federalist premier in years remains vulnerable on this point.

Indeed, he seems to recognize this himself, witness the rather wily appointment of Hélène David, the sister of Françoise David, one of the leaders of the sovereigntist Quebec Solidaire, as the minister responsible for the protection and promotion of the French language.

Of course, Liberal leaders from Robert Bourassa to Jean Charest have always been easy prey on the language front.

Simply, the PQ set the agenda decades ago with Bill 101, and has successfully maintained its image as defender of the faith.

It's spin, but decades of spin have made it stick. And when Liberals do try to tap into the cause they often fumble, as Charest did during the 2012 election, suggesting on a Monday that he'd extend Bill 101 to federal institutions in Quebec, then backing off by Tuesday.

Follow the money

The other potential landmine for Couillard is the provincial debt. It's almost a Quebec tradition now that every change of government brings with it the sudden discovery of a shortfall in its predecessor's accounting.

True to form, late last week Couillard announced that this year's deficit is greater than the previously estimated $1.75 billion, and that his government will need to cut an additional $3.7 billion from this current year's spending if it is to meet its promise of a balanced budget by 2015-16.

Appearing confident and in charge, Couillard used his first press conference to announce coming cuts, including an immediate hiring freeze, and a wider-ranging plan to cut programs, with the details to be unveiled in a June budget.

The news was bad but not unexpected. Quebec has been living beyond its means for years, its economy beleaguered by a perfect storm of lagging revenues, increased expenses, and an aging population.

It was just over a year ago, March 5, 2013, when university students turned out in huge numbers to protest against the PQ's three per cent tuition increase, and the Marois government was considered a friend of the students. Much bigger, longer and louder protests helped bring the Charest government down. (Graham Hughes / Canadian Press)

An old story, yes, but one that has never been well received. Almost all Quebec premiers in recent memory, including such prominent PQ ones as Rene Lévesque and Lucien Bouchard, have met huge resistance in their attempts to scale back the public sector; Charest faced massive demonstrations almost immediately after being elected in 2003.

Couillard's planned cost-cutting has drawn some criticism, mostly for not having outlined anything like this in his election platform and for seeming to borrow his new-found ideas from the rival Coalition Avenir Quebec.

Still, there also appears to be something close to a consensus in the press at least that it's time Quebecers get on board with the business of frugality.

But the press is not the public, of course, and Couillard, a former health minister, likely knows well how partisanship and fierce public attachment to entitlements have long stood in the way of reforming the province's cherished public sector icons.

The 2012 student protests were the most recent, tangible manifestation of this opposition, and, if they stand as any example, Quebecers are likely to quit coasting the moment austerity begins to bite and wonder just what kind of government it is that they have wrought.

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Parliament is back on Wednesdays with Kady!

Chat preview

MPs are back in Ottawa to discuss the fair elections act and the Temporary Foreign Worker program

CBC News Posted: Apr 30, 2014 8:18 AM ET Last Updated: Apr 30, 2014 8:18 AM ET

Parliament is back!

And after weeks of heated debate, the fair elections act is about to head back to the House of Commons for a final vote. But first, the committee studying the bill has to go through a long list of proposed amendments. What will the final version of C-23 look like?

MPs are also dealing with the fallout of the Temporary Foreign Worker program controversy. How will the minister responsible for the file, Jason Kenney, respond?

Kady O'Malley will answer your question about all the big political stories of the week at noon ET.

Mobile users can follow the live chat here.

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• Pierre Poilievre's sudden change of mind on the controversial Fair Elections Act Apr. 26, 2014 7:00 AM This week on The House, Evan Solomon explores the government's sudden reversal on the controversial Fair Elections Act. The Minister of State for Democratic Reform Pierre Poilievre explains why he's changing some of the most contentious aspects of the bill. We also take a look at the Supreme Court's historic ruling on Senate reform with Saskatchewan Premier Brad Wall, and his Prince Edward Island counterpart Robert Ghiz.

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Jim Prentice understands oil opposition, says B.C. chief

Former federal environment minister Jim Prentice hasn't yet formally announced his intention to seek Alberta's premiership, but he's already attracted a backhanded endorsement from a tough oil and gas opponent next door.

Stewart Phillip, the grand chief of the Union of British Columbia Indian Chiefs, said he's been "eye-to-eyeball" with Prentice in negotiations in the past and respects the willingness of the former land claims negotiator to hear his opponents' point of view.

"I think Mr. Prentice is an intelligent, perceptive man. He deeply considers the landscape," Phillip said in a telephone interview Tuesday.

The landscape that Prentice, currently a senior executive with CIBC, has been considering of late is the bitterly divided gulf between opponents and proponents of the Northern Gateway project, a proposed pipeline from Alberta's oilsands to the northern B.C. coast.

Prentice was hired two months ago by Enbridge to negotiate the pipeline with First Nations.

No headway on Northern Gateway

The move came very late in a long regulatory process that now has the project awaiting approval from Prime Minister Stephen Harper's Conservative cabinet, of which Prentice was once a member.

With his pipeline peace mission incomplete, Prentice has signalled he plans to jump into the leadership race for Alberta's Progressive Conservatives, a job that comes ready-made with the premiership when the race concludes in September.

Notwithstanding his reputation as a skilled negotiator with experience in both First Nations and environmental files, Prentice has made no headway on Northern Gateway, said Phillip.

"My sense is at the outset he was set with the unenviable task of resuscitating a dead horse," said the chief.

Prentice gave it a good beating, Phillip added, "but dead is dead."

"I think he underestimated the deeply entrenched opposition to Enbridge's Northern Gateway proposal."

But Phillip said the process may help Prentice bring some understanding and creative solutions to the growing energy impasse in the country.

"There's got to be better, more creative solutions than simply pumping heavy oil sludge from the tar sands to the West Coast. There's got to be some deeper thinking with respect to that," he said.

"Who knows? Maybe he will look toward other solutions."

May already be influencing environmental policy

Prentice's pending official campaign launch may already be influencing Alberta environmental policy.

Multiple sources suggest provincial and federal civil servants have agreed on new oil and gas regulations to replace the current provincial carbon levy, which expires in September.

The province, according to sources, has agreed to a "double-double" formula that would see the current $15-per-tonne levy on large emitters who fail to reduce emissions intensity by 12 per cent doubled to a charge of $30 per tonne and reductions of 24 per cent.

But while such an announcement was said to be "imminent," a provincial source said Prentice's entry into the leadership race will likely push off any major news until September.

"You're not going to have an interim premier [Dave Hancock] make a pretty significant policy development with respect to the Sept. 1 provincial regs," said the source, who was not authorized to speak for the government.

It is more likely the province will simply roll over the current regime for an interim period, since it must be replaced before it expires Sept. 1.

The case for delay is bolstered by the entry of a clear front-runner like Prentice who has an environmentalist brand to his public appeal, said the source, and may want to put his personal stamp on the decision.

Praised for efforts

The Prime Minister's Office confirmed Harper met with Hancock on Monday in Ottawa, where the two discussed a range of issues — including energy.

A Prentice spokesman did not respond to a request for comment.

Ed Whittingham, the Alberta-based executive director of the Pembina Institute, said Prentice did good work on conservation issues while in the Harper cabinet but failed to implement Harper's long-promised regulations on Canada's oil and gas sector.

"But I think in Jim's case you could say it wasn't for a lack of effort or lack of trying," Whittingham said in an interview.

"I think he genuinely gets that good environmental management is part and parcel of good energy business. I would hope that were he to become premier, he would continue to push for that."

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What's fuelling the opposition to Northern Gateway and Keystone pipelines?

High-stakes oil pipeline projects have taken a public lashing lately, whether in a plebiscite in British Columbia, more protests in Washington, D.C., or from a former U.S. president and several Nobel laureates coming out strongly against billion-dollar plans to move the diluted  bitumen from Alberta's oil sands to international markets.

The anti-pipeline pressure has been mounting for a while, but observers say that the ramped-up opposition to the Northern Gateway and Keystone XL proposals is no coincidence.

Rather, the turmoil is a result of a confluence of issues ranging from deep-seated environmentalism and concern about climate change to the aggressive tactics of energy companies and governments that want to see the pipes in the ground sooner than later.

Toss in some politics — midterm elections in the U.S. this fall, and anticipation of the federal decision on Enbridge's $5.5-billion Northern Gateway project within a few weeks — and conditions have become ripe for ever more public push-back.

"I certainly don't see any chance of the opposition receding," says Michael Byers, a political science professor at the University of British Columbia who holds a Canada Research Chair in global politics and international law.

On the West Coast, in particular, he says, the roots of protest run deep.

In the psyche

"People in the rest of Canada need to understand the environmental movement was born in British Columbia, and it has a deep history here and is very wide-reaching," says Byers.

"It's almost part of the collective psyche here on the West Coast and that's something that Enbridge clearly did not understand, and that the Harper government at least for its first four or five years did not understand.

"And when you add that to the unextinguished aboriginal rights, and the lack of appropriate consultation that took place, you have almost a perfect storm for opposition to pipelines."

Northern Gateway Pipelines president John Carruthers listens during the Northern Gateway hearings in Prince Rupert in December 2012. (Jonathan Hayward/Canadian Press)

In Kitimat, B.C., the coastal community that would serve as the endpoint of Northern Gateway, and the place where supertankers would fill up with Alberta bitumen, residents recently voted "No" to the project.

The plebiscite isn't binding on anyone, but it sent a signal, and left Enbridge with another reminder it might have done things differently in the early days of the project.

"Something we've certainly learned is that we definitely needed an earlier, stronger presence on the ground," says John Carruthers, president of Northern Gateway Pipelines.

"We have had an office in Kitimat since 2008, but I think the key is you have to be there early and you have to be there often to work with people and build trust and provide information about what we are doing to address the concerns."

Changing the route

Carruthers says the company has won support in instances where it has sat down, talked with people and come up with solutions for particular issues such as river crossings.

"We made a number of changes to the route based on public input."

Responding to concerns from aboriginal groups, Enbridge revised 24 crossings, including for the Pembina, Athabasca, Smoky and Murray rivers, according to the joint panel review for the project.

Enbridge's Northern Gateway Project would bring diluted bitumen from Alberta to the deepwater port in Kitimat, B.C., where it would be loaded on supertankers and shipped to Asia. (Darryl Dyck/Canadian Press)

​

Carruthers says that between 2009 and 2013, there were "tens of thousands of exchanges with stakeholders through face-to-face meetings, coffee chats, presentations, public forums, technical meetings, community meetings, Community Advisory Boards, blogs, social media sites, receptions, community investment events, emails, telephone calls, letters, advertisements and website postings."

Enbridge's approach to working with communities is an "evolving process,"  he says. "It doesn't stop with the plebiscite. It doesn't stop with the joint review panel recommendation, or even the decision by the federal government.

"It's ongoing, so there will be continued consultation, discussions, all the way through the process."

However, Byers says there was a lack of serious consultation by Enbridge with the coastal First Nations in the early going, and that "is a mistake that both Enbridge and the Harper government must rue to this day. Essentially that failure to take aboriginal rights seriously in those early years I think created a situation today where the project cannot proceed."

He sees "more sensitivity" being shown around discussions of Kinder Morgan's Trans Mountain project to expand capacity of an existing pipeline running from Alberta through the Fraser Valley to Burnaby, B.C.

"Kinder Morgan has made a significant public outreach effort. The Harper government has not weighed in with the same degree of passion and divisiveness that it did on Northern Gateway."

Another Exxon Valdez?

As Byers sees it, the big issue of climate change figures prominently in this debate, particularly for environmentalists. "But for the person on the street, the concern is about a repeat of the Exxon Valdez." 

"That oil spell happened just north of Kitimat on the southwestern coast of Alaska and people here look at the fact that oil continues to be found along the Alaskan coastline from that spill more than two decades later."

For his part, Byers sees some distinction between the kind of opposition that these pipeline projects in B.C. have garnered with that exerted on TransCanada's $7.6-billion US Keystone XL project, which would pipe Alberta bitumen to the Texan Gulf Coast. "With Keystone XL, the debate is mostly about climate."

A presidential decision on Keystone XL has been delayed again, and won't likely come until after the Nov. 4 midterm elections, which some are seeing as a win for its opponents.

For environmental groups that want fossil fuel production to stop, "slowing down crude infrastructure is actually one of the politically easiest targets," says James Coleman, an assistant professor in the University of Calgary's faculty of law and Haskayne School of Business.

Coleman sees a "dramatic" increase in the push-back against pipelines, something he attributes to several factors, including increased pressure for climate regulation, along with a desire for increased to "takeaway capacity" from Alberta because of the increased production there.

Times change

"People sometimes forget Keystone XL is just the second part. There was an original Keystone pipeline that was approved in the U.S. in 2008 and was defended by President [Barack] Obama's administration," says Coleman.

"But the dramatic thing is that pipeline was approved with no consideration at all of the climate effects of increased oil production."

Native Americans, farmers, ranchers and cowboys rally to protest against the Keystone XL pipeline in Washington on Tuesday, April 22, 2014. (Alex Panetta/Canadian Press)

Now, a few years later, he notes, there's a section of the U.S. environmental impact statement on Keystone XL devoted to the greenhouse gas output of increased oilsands production, and President Barack Obama says the key factor determining the project's fate is whether it's going to increase greenhouse gas emissions because of increased oilsands production.

"It's all about climate change. It's not the pipe itself," says Richard Dixon, executive director of  the centre for applied business research in energy and the environment at the University of Alberta in Edmonton.

"The issue is what's going through the pipe," he says, and how that has become a symbol of dealing with climate change.

"It's not about the amount of emissions. I mean, we're one-10th of one per cent of world emissions. It's negligible."

Finding the weak link

Dixon says the opposition to pipelines has become more organized, and that more environmental groups are involved. Environmentalists have also identified the "weak link" energy companies have in their efforts to be sustainable: access to markets.

"So they've focused on that and as they've gained more and more strength, they're able to then focus on the issue of climate change."

That was the focus of a letter signed by former U.S. president Jimmy Carter and a group of Nobel laureates who urged Obama to reject Keystone XL.

The letter sent earlier this month says the president's decision will either signal a "dangerous commitment" to the status quo, or "bold leadership" that will inspire millions counting on him to do the right thing for the climate.

Dixon argues, though, that "if the goal of the environmentalists is to get us off oil, in fact, it's doing the opposite," as the public opposition is prompting energy companies to improve pipeline technology.

"It will make sure that our pipelines are safe so that you can't really complain about them. So that's the irony of it — that it will improve pipeline technology. Quite an irony actually."

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Wi-Fi hotspots coming to Canadian parks

Parks Canada requesting tenders from contractors to install internet access points at 150 locations

The Canadian Press Posted: Apr 29, 2014 7:36 AM ET Last Updated: Apr 29, 2014 9:42 AM ET

The quiet solitude and refuge from the connected world that many Canadians yearn for will soon be no more in dozens of Canada's wilderness zones.

Parks Canada wants to install wireless Internet access hotspots at up to 50 of its parks this year, and it expects to triple that number soon afterward.

The agency is requesting tenders from contractors to install Internet access points at 150 locations over the next three years.

Some may see Canada's national parks as places where families can escape the hustle and bustle of modern life without being tethered to online video games, social media and email.

But Parks Canada says visitors want to be able to stay in touch with work, friends and family, stay up to date on the news and connect with social media.

And it says modern cellphone coverage is either partial or non-existent at many of its parks and historic sites.

The agency says it expects to offer the service free of charge in some locations, but charge a fee in some cases, such as where the cost is excessive or the location particularly remote.

Many provincial and private parks across Canada currently offer some type of Internet access.

Ontario's provincial parks authority has been experimenting with wireless Internet access since 2010 while Manitoba started installing Wi-Fi hotspots at its parks last year.

It's not yet clear which national sites will offer Wi-Fi access.

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Jim Prentice forming team for Alberta Tory leadership race

Jim Prentice is forming a team for a bid to become Alberta's next premier, a move one observer says is an "earthquake" for the province's politics.

A source working with Prentice confirmed the former federal cabinet minister has been talking to caucus and cabinet and has received encouragement to run for the leadership of Alberta's governing Progressive Conservative Party.

"He'll make a formal announcement in the next couple of weeks, at which time he will outline his vision for the province," said the source, who spoke on the condition of anonymity. "He's been getting a lot of encouragement."

Since CBC News reported that Prentice will be running in the PC leadership race, several Alberta MLAs have spoken publicly of their support for him.

Neil Brown, PC MLA for Calgary-Mackay-Nose Hill, tweeted his support in reaction to Prentice's reported decision to run, saying, "If so, Jim will have my full support."

Provincial Health Minister Fred Horne, Education Minister Jeff Johnson and acting Municipal Affairs Ministre Greg Weadick have also given their support.

Last week, Health Services Minister Manmeet S. Bhullar and Associate Regional Recovery Minister Kyle Fawcett, told reporters that they would support Prentice if he decided to run.

The Tories are looking to hold a leadership vote in September to formally replace former premier Alison Redford, who resigned last month amid allegations of lavish spending and party infighting.

Sources tell CBC News that Prentice had contacted Alberta cabinet ministers and members of the PC caucus in recent days to gauge support, and had been told he should run.

He has since begun putting together a campaign and finance team to make the run.

The leader of Alberta's Wildrose Party, Danielle Smith, also tweeted to welcome Prentice into the race, saying, "Welcome to the [PC leadership] race, [Jim Prentice.] We've been looking forward to you stepping into the arena."

Earlier in the day, Smith had accused Redford of trying to hold on to her Calgary seat so Jim Prentice could potentially take it in a byelection.

Danielle Smith's office said in a news release Redford is trying to use her constituents in Calgary-Elbow "in an effort to clear the way for Jim Prentice's possible leadership bid."

Redford has not attended the legislature since her resignation last month, and last week it was revealed she had informed the Speaker of the Alberta Legislature that she will continue to be absent.

If Smith's accusation sticks, political scientist Tom Flanagan said it could affect Prentice's reputation.

"The other parties will be able to interpret this as a black mark against Prentice," he said. "He's supposed to be coming in from the outside as the saviour and he's unsullied by the history of cronyism and special dealings that we've seen in the PC Party."

Prentice left federal politics three and a half years ago after holding several key portfolios in the government of Stephen Harper, including environment and aboriginal affairs.

Since then he's been vice-chairman of CIBC and, more recently, took on the role of helping Enbridge work with First Nations opposed to the company's proposed Northern Gateway pipeline through British Columbia.

Prentice is seen as a so-called Red Tory, but he retains strong connections and a solid working relationship with both the Harper government and Alberta PCs.

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Election bill a cautionary tale against governing by talking point

There is much worth mulling over in former PMO communications director Andrew MacDougall's musings on political communications in the age of the internet.

You'll find few journalists able — or willing — to counter his caveats on the dangers of the always-on news cycle.

That said, you'll find at least one — hello there! — who will argue that the trials and tribulations endured by Democratic Reform Minister Pierre Poilievre recently in defence of his efforts to rewrite the country's election law make a pretty good case for knowing when to step away from the talking-point generating machine, and listen to the response.

As Poilievre announced last Friday, his bill will itself be rewritten as a direct result of the ensuing furor.

By week two on the front lines, Poilievre must have been muttering darkly about sharper teeth, longer arms and freer hands in his sleep — presuming, that is, that he was getting any sleep by that point, what with his seeming omnipresence on television, radio and in print.

It's fair to say, in this case at least, reciting the same bumper-sticker-ready motto as an all-purpose response to questions, concerns and criticism swiftly transformed it into a sort of rhetorical white noise — a verbal tic, like an extended "um," that one could safely ignore in favour of a more substantive comment, which is pretty much the opposite of the intended goal of most strategic communications.

An example, albeit one deliberately vague on the details in order to protect the identity of the other party (a now reflexive practice for Hill journalists that likely deserves its own column at some point):

Shortly after Poilievre revealed his intention to bring forward amendments, I was chatting with a mid-level government staffer about one of the few lightning-rod elements of the bill the minister hadn't addressed: namely, the oft-repeated demand for the elections commissioner to be given power to compel testimony, as is currently the case for his counterpart at the Competition Bureau.

Instead of simply replying with the standard talking point that not even the police have that power, my friend pointed out that, unlike the Competition Bureau, which relies on a system of fines and administrative penalties, cases investigated by the elections commissioner can potentially lead to criminal charges, which is why the government doesn't believe it would be appropriate to give him the ability to force witnesses to talk against their will.

Context is key

Now, that's obviously a point wide open for debate — and indeed, had it been made in the course of the discussion of the bill, almost certainly would have been.

But every time the question came up at committee or on a political panel, the Conservative on defence duty at the time seemed to fall back on the "not-even-the-police" line without providing any additional context — context that, in this case, would have made their argument more compelling, if not necessarily convincing.

Is that, as MacDougall suggests, simply an unavoidable consequence of the 24/7 news cycle?

Not necessarily — although I'll agree it certainly doesn't help.

In the case of C-23, even the minister would likely quietly agree that, in hindsight, much of the sound and fury that has accompanied discussion of the bill thus far could have been sidestepped had the government opened up the floor to the audience from the get-go, rather than spending more than a month insisting that it was "terrific" as written.

Yes, Poilievre did claim from the start to be open to the possibility of amendments, but let's be honest: given this government's aversion to making major (or even minor) tweaks to legislation at committee, if it was always his intention to keep an open mind on improvements, he should have made it clear that this time, he really meant it.

If he hadn't allowed — and even, some might argue, tacitly encouraged — the debate to degenerate into a Mobius loop of partisan rhetoric, that message would have been quickly picked up and propagated by the very same news-famished media maw that his former colleague bemoans.

Of course, for that to happen, we of the aforementioned maw would have to do our part to boost the signal at the expense of the noise — namely, not instantly declaring any indication of an openness to reconsider or willingness to compromise as a tacit admission of defeat.

Sausage-making

Finally, one last minor plea: For heaven's sake, enough with the dismissal of "process stories" as somehow unworthy of journalistic attention.

In politics, at any rate, "process" is How Stuff Happens, which can often be invaluable in understanding why it happens and, ultimately, what it means. Without knowing what went into a legislative sausage, how can Canadians make an informed decision on whether to take a bite?

Take that same election bill — which, it's worth noting, will change the process whereby Canadians exercise their very democratic franchise by casting a vote — as a textbook example of why process matters.

Had the initial ingredients and cooking methods not been so painstakingly detailed in the press, it's entirely possible there would have been no ensuing uproar.

Without that uproar, the minister may not have been persuaded to tweak his original recipe to better suit the public taste.

Mobile users, view the full list of proposed government and opposition amendments here.

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Jason Kenney on hot seat as controversy rages over temporary foreign workers

In the midst of a fresh eruption of abuse allegations surrounding the government's troubled temporary foreign worker program, Jason Kenney's reputation as a capable task-master is taking a beating.

The employment minister was on the defensive Monday in the House of Commons, but he's also under attack from business groups, labour unions and — perhaps most troubling for Kenney with a federal election looming — everyday Canadians who believe the Conservatives have made it easier for foreigners to swipe their jobs.

"The minister has been responsible for the temporary foreign worker program for the past six years," NDP leader Tom Mulcair said during question period.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper has publicly maligned companies who import workers with "the intention of never having them be permanent and moving the whole workforce back to another country at the end of a job," Mulcair continued.

"The prime minister has had this figured out for some time but why, in the six years the minister has been taking care of the program, has he never figured it out?"

Kenney replied with what's becoming a common refrain.

"If and when there are abuses, we act clearly and quickly," he said, referring to the temporary ban he placed on restaurants last week preventing them from accessing the temporary foreign worker program.

"We are about to come out with another phase of further reforms to ensure that Canadians always and everywhere get the first crack at available jobs, and that the program is only used as a limited and last resort by employers."

Kenney pledged to reform program in January

What a difference a few months makes.

In January, Kenney pledged another round of reforms as employers and trade associations bemoaned the procedural red tape and lengthy delays they say resulted from rule changes enacted a year ago.

That initial crackdown came after the Royal Bank of Canada found itself in hot water for replacing Canadian staff with temporary foreign workers.

Kenney suggested those changes, originally expected this month, could include a limited fast track for workers in high-demand professions in regions of the country with low unemployment.

But in the face of more allegations about employers, most of them fast-food restaurants, Kenney is sounding a different tone.

His office has been inundated with complaints to its tiplines in recent weeks, employment ministry officials say, and the overwhelming majority of them involve restaurants.

Minister hints tougher rules may be on horizon

Rather than easing restrictions, Kenney is now hinting even tougher rules are on the horizon.

That follows a difficult few days for the employment minister, during which the C.D. Howe Institute released a study that said the influx of temporary foreign workers over the past 10 years — from about 110,000 a decade ago to 338,000 today — had served to hike the joblessness rate in B.C. and Alberta.

CBC also released a damning audio recording of the CEO of McDonald's Canada, John Betts, denouncing the crackdown on temporary foreign workers to franchisees and telling them that Kenney "gets it."

"If Jason Kenney 'gets it,' that means he supports going out and hiring all sorts of temporary workers," said Liberal MP John McCallum, the party's immigration critic.

"If he 'gets it,' it means he's not really wanting to enforce the rules."

In an interview, McCallum said the temporary foreign worker controversy is resonating with all Canadians at a time of relatively high unemployment -- not just those in B.C. and Alberta, a Tory stronghold.

"It's going to hurt them across Canada, not exclusively in the West," he said.

"When Canadians fear their jobs are being taken away by foreigners, or see tearful waitresses on TV who lost their jobs after almost three decades -- that really resonates with Canadians at a time of relatively high unemployment, when people are looking for their jobs or their kids are. It's something everyone directly relates to."

File 'impregnated with bad optics'

Peter Woolstencroft, a political science professor at the University of Waterloo, agrees.

"This file is impregnated with bad optics; there are no good optics at all," Woolstencroft said.

"This is the kind of thing that angers ordinary folks; they understand that they could go into work one day and despite working there for years, be told they're going to be replaced.

He's moved very quickly, however, so he'll at least be credited for that."

Both the NDP and the Liberals say the auditor general should be called in to investigate the program.

Kenney said Monday the auditor general is "free to investigate whatever he deems appropriate without direction from the government."

An official in Kenney's office defended the minister's handling of the abuse allegations.

"We learned about abuses and we literally threw the book in ways we've never thrown the book before," said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he wasn't authorized to discuss the matter publicly.

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Elections bill illustrates Harper's vindictiveness, pragmatism: Tom Flanagan

The federal government's controversial proposed overhaul of election laws illustrates the ruthless, vindictive and hyper-partisan side of Prime Minister Stephen Harper's character, a former chief of staff says.

But Tom Flanagan says the fact the Conservative government has suddenly backed down on some of the most objectionable aspects of the bill shows another side of the prime minister -- his capacity to be pragmatic and realistic.

"The whole episode illustrates the complexity of the man," Flanagan said in an interview.

As originally proposed, Bill C-23 would muzzle the chief electoral officer, hive the investigator of election law breaches off Elections Canada, boost campaign spending and donation limits, create a loophole that would allow rich, established parties to spend untold millions more during election campaigns and potentially disenfranchise tens of thousands of Canadians by ending the practice of vouching for voters without proper ID.

'Antipathy to Elections Canada for decades'

Flanagan noted that Harper has had "this antipathy to Elections Canada" for decades, dating back to his time as head of the National Citizens Coalition, when he challenged limits on third party campaign spending all the way to the Supreme Court.

That hostility was exacerbated by the watchdog agency's successful prosecution of the Conservative party for orchestrating a scheme to spend more than $1 million over its spending limit during the 2006 campaign.

"So, the initial version of the bill really did seem to be aimed at Elections Canada, taking away powers, clipping what it can do and, along the way, putting in some features that would appear to help the Conservatives at the expense of other parties," Flanagan said.

"So you might say that bill, the original bill, may have expressed the vindictive side of the prime minister, you know, pay-back time."

Changes may show Harper's pragmatism

Last Friday's partial climb-down, however, showed Harper's pragmatic side, he added.

Pierre Poilievre, the minister responsible for democratic reform, announced that he's willing to drop the campaign spending loophole, unmuzzle the chief electoral officer and institute an alternative to vouching, among other things.

While polls suggest most Canadians have not been paying attention to the controversy, Flanagan, who has been cut out of Harper's inner circle for some years, speculated that the prime minister may have feared the near-universal expert criticism of the bill would eventually cause the public to sit up and take notice.

"If you can make a plausible charge that one party is rigging the rules of the game to suit itself, that's something that is potentially very damaging.

And that was the way that it was unfolding so I think they took, I would say, the right decision to back off some their changes that were hard to defend."

"Politics with Stephen is always exhausting. It's never smooth and straightforward.

He is combative and gets in this highly partisan frame of mind but often you'll get a much more realistic denouement."

In his latest book, Persona Non Grata, Flanagan writes that he quit as Harper's chief of staff in 2005 and went back to teach at the University of Calgary because he was "tired of all the psychodrama."

'Dark, almost Nixonian side to the man'

"I was also worn out from trying to work with Harper. He has enormous gifts of intelligence, willpower, and work ethic; but there is also a dark, almost Nixonian side to the man," he writes.

"He believes in playing politics right up to the edge of the rules, which inevitably means some team members will step across ethical or legal lines in their desire to win for the Boss.

He can be suspicious, secretive, and vindictive, prone to sudden eruptions of white-hot rage over meaningless trivia, at other times falling into week-long depressions in which he is incapable of making decisions."

The important point, Flanagan said in the interview, is that despite his complicated personality, Harper has managed to succeed politically.

However, he said the cost of that success has been an ever-shrinking inner circle around the prime minister as insiders quit or get thrown under the bus.

Flanagan has the distinction of having both quit and been thrown under the bus.

His close personal relationship with Harper ended shortly after he returned to academe and wrote a book about the prime minister's rise to power.

Last year, Harper's office joined the public "mobbing" of Flanagan after he challenged conservative orthodoxy that jail time might not be the best way to punish the viewers of child pornography for their "taste in pictures" -- remarks that were secretly videotaped and posted on You Tube under the misleading caption that Flanagan was "okay with child pornography."

New book chronicles 'The Incident' 

Without waiting for any explanation by Flanagan, a spokesman for Harper called the remarks "repugnant, ignorant and appalling."

Flanagan was similarly instantly disowned by Alberta's Wild Rose Leader Danielle Smith, former Reform party leader Preston Manning and the University of Calgary.

He was dumped as a CBC political commentator and saw speaking engagements cancelled.

Persona Non Grata is a detailed account of "the Incident," as Flanagan refers to it.

More broadly, it's an examination of how instant communications in the Internet age is, in Flanagan's opinion, leading to the death of free speech.

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Foreign worker program suspension leaves Alberta restaurant short-staffed

The suspension of the federal foreign workers program is leaving some Calgary restaurants struggling with a labour shortage.

In Alberta, the hungry oil and gas industry has consumed much of the local labour pools and the shortage of workers is particularly affecting the restaurant industry. At one popular Calgary sushi restaurant, the Temporary Foreign Workers Program moratorium could mean big trouble for managers grappling with the high turnover prevalent among local workers.

Roughly 30 per cent of Globefish staff across three locations are foreign workers. (CBC)

"Throughout three locations, 30 per cent of our workers are foreign workers and we depend on them quite a bit," said Amane Kanai, manager at Globefish. "I do hire people [locally] but then they get another job, an office job, in the oil field — it's big in Alberta."

In light of the program suspension, Globefish says it will have to begin closing one day per week to make up for a lack of staff.

Several potential employees from Japan were set to move to Canada to work for the restaurant but now, Kanai says they are in limbo.

"That's a lot of big trouble for us."

This isn't the first time Alberta's food services sector has felt a labour drought.

The province and the Conference Board of Canada have both called for action on the shortage and in 2006, warned the problem was likely to continue over the next 20 years despite high numbers of migrant workers attracted by the booming resource economy.

Within the last decade, employers have been offering wages above minimum wage to try and attract committed workers.

Some, like Globefish, had to start shutting down on certain days.

And while many may be panicking over what the program suspension means for their business, Calgary Conservative MP Joan Crockatt says people should stay calm.

"This isn't a permanent measure," she said. "It's a temporary measure so we can rejig and make corrections as needed."

The decision to suspend the Temporary Foreign Workers Program came on Thursday following a government investigation of allegations raised during a series of CBC News investigations.

In a written statement announcing the suspension, Employment Minister Jason Kenney said "serious concerns" remain following the government's' investigation.

CBC's Go Public team produced a series of stories about how some McDonald's franchisees were allegedly abusing the Temporary Foreign Workers Program.

The CEO of McDonald's Canadian operations, John Betts, called the recent criticism of its use of foreign workers "bullshit" during a private conference call provided to CBC earlier in the week.

"This story has been brewing for a lot of years. And you know at the end of the day we just happen to be the business that got tapped into it and we weren't the first. Obviously, RBC was," said Betts, referring to a previous CBC Go Public story.

He also accused the CBC of being unfair and unbalanced in its reporting of the story, but CBC's director of journalism standards and practices, David Studer, said "CBC News stands by its stories."

The moratorium will remain in place until Kenney's department completes its review.

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National Defence mulls 30-minute emergency response time

Critics say it would be too expensive

The Canadian Press Posted: Apr 27, 2014 2:28 PM AT Last Updated: Apr 27, 2014 3:07 PM AT

National Defence is once again taking a look at establishing an around-the-clock 30-minute response time for Canada's search-and-rescue squadrons, an idea the air force has long dismissed as too costly and manpower-intensive.

The Harper government has been under pressure to address the issue ever since a critique last year by the auditor general and the high-profile death two years ago of a young boy in Labrador.

Two reports that examine search-and-rescue incidents and the cost of a 24-7 operation were recently delivered to the headquarters that oversees both domestic and out-of-country missions.

A defence spokesman, Daniel Blouin, would not say what the studies have concluded or when a decision would be made on their findings.

The research builds on a 2008 air force study that rejected the higher level of alert as expensive and only marginally better than the existing framework in terms of saving lives.

In order to meet the around-the-clock posture, the military would need to add between nine and 11 extra crews to the rotations and buy extra aircraft — or reassign existing ones.

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How the internet hurts political reporting and breeds spin

The CBC's Neil Macdonald last week posted a piece bemoaning the lack of clarity in today's communications, whether it be political or academic. It got me thinking about my own views on political reporting and communication.

In my old life as director of communications to Prime Minister Stephen Harper, I would often quip that I would love to have had my job in the days before smartphones and the internet. With 700 to 800 emails and dozens of calls a day, the life of a modern political communicator is full-on, to say the least.

What must it have been like in the leisurely age of teletype, radio, the nightly broadcast and the next day's paper? No wonder hacks and flacks would get drunk together in the afternoon — they didn't have to worry about Twitter, Facebook, some crank's blog or filling up their website with reams of copy. And if people were behaving badly at the bar, or dipping their pens into each other's company ink, no one had access to the instant canvas of the internet to gossip about it.

In the pre-digital era, the days had a rhythm and the news had a cycle. Reporters had one broadcast or a set number of column inches. There were one or two wire services, and they — and only they — had the responsibility of banging out a quick blast on the latest news. The rest of the reporting world could take their time, read the material, make a few inquiries and interview a few people, knowing that most punters wouldn't have a chance to watch, listen or read their work until that night or the next morning.

Nowadays, every reporter is a wire service and it's everyone's job to rush out copy the second news breaks. It's equally everyone's job to do it when no news breaks at an event. After all, you wouldn't want a competitor's news site to have a story that you don't have, right?

The internet and 24/7 "news" channels, married with the decline in revenues at news organizations, have too often turned reporting — and especially political reporting — into a demented auction where over-worked and under-resourced reporters bark at competing political parties for reaction all day, updating their stories at each bid. It has also turned political communications staff into email dispensers of talking points.

Spin cycle

In my opinion, the worst job in journalism in the modern era are the poor souls who have to go on TV a minute after something has just happened to "explain" what the hell just happened, and why it's important. Just once, I wish the talking head would say "how the hell would I know, IT JUST HAPPENED! Come back to me in an hour after I've read the freaking press release!"

Don't get me wrong, I loved talking to these reporters. After all, "Andrew, what is the prime minister going to say, I need to do a hit right after the announcement" was a license for me to fill their ears with spin that would then faithfully appear on screen. Who wouldn't want to shoot fish in a barrel?

This isn't to suggest there is anything wrong with spin. It's a fact of life and we all do it. Spin has been around at least as long as the first caveman was pooped on by a bird in front of a friend and was smart enough to call it a sign of good luck.

But spin runs wild in the 24/7 news environment. As the comedian Dennis Miller once quipped: "politicians used to speak in sound bites, now they think in them."

'It would help if we could all recognize that news isn't meant to be a gas that expands to fill any container — at some point it stops being news and just becomes gas'

Which bring us to the talking point. Twenty-four hour news might not have invented the talking point, but it has made it the No. 1 weapon of choice in modern political communication.

It makes sense. If you're being asked for reaction all day, every day, on every issue, at a moment's notice and with tight deadlines, you'd dig deep in your bag of rhetoric to come up with something, anything, to say.

Because if you're not in that first story with a reaction, any reaction, there's a greater chance your phone will melt down as the legions of lemmings try to match the story that's just been slapped onto the web.

The worst part is, the pace of digital news and communication too often results in talking points being dispensed for "legit" stories. The need to say something quickly invariably wins out of the need to wait, gather the facts, produce an explanation and communicate it.

Add to that the feeling that the barrier for reporting has dropped perilously low, and you have the recipe for a fatuous political environment.

The internet's limitless canvas

It used to be that a politician would say something dumb and people would titter, call him a "moron" and move on. Now reporters, opposing flacks, or a random passerby tweets it for all to see. And then people retweet it. Then it's officially a thing.

It used to be a reporter would have to make the case to his or her editor why valuable inches in the paper or minutes in the broadcast were needed for this brain-dead comment. Now, with the limitless web and social media, no editor needs to make that call. Everything goes.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper speaks to reporters at UN headquarters in New York in 2011. The pressure on reporters to produce stories is one reason politicians and their staff rely so much on talking points, Harper's former chief spokesman says. (Jessica Rinaldi/Reuters)

The internet's limitless canvas also happens to be the primary reason for talking points. In the cluttered communications environment, messages have to be repeated endlessly before they punch through (to be clear, it was ever thus but is even more so now) and with everything now being reportable, no matter how inconsequential, sticking to script is essential.

Knowing that every gaffe, no matter how trivial, will be endlessly circulated and discussed, the instinct is to hunker down, say little and not add fuel to the fire. This leads to lack of candour and increasing frustration on both sides of the hack/flack divide.

I don't envy flacks or reporters. The strain on PM trips was evident: reporters needed to wake up with news, have more news at noon, a tidbit for mid-afternoon and then a main course by supper time. Equally, people in my position had to have something to say multiple times a day even if there was no substance to underpin it. No wonder we tried to make news off the same announcement three or four times a year.

Where will this environment lead us? I haven't a clue, but I'm not hugely optimistic. It would help if we could all recognize that news isn't meant to be a gas that expands to fill any container — at some point it stops being news and just becomes gas. Smelly, unedifying gas.

Too often, the premium for reporting is set on speed, not analysis and context. This inevitably leads to the quick sugar-rush of process coverage: who's in, who's out, who's up and who's down.

That said, the internet is toothpaste out of the tube and news organizations aren't going to figure out their resourcing issues anytime soon, if ever. No one has the luxury of time anymore and we're not going to find a way to buy more.

What I can guarantee you is that whichever government succeeds the Harper government, be it the Glorious Haired One or the Angry Bearded One, in 2015 or 2020, it won't change this new approach to political communication. The 24/7 communications environment won't allow it.

Andrew MacDougall is a former director of communications to Prime Minister Stephen Harper. He is now the Senior Executive Consultant at MSLGROUP London. Follow him @agmacdougall

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Online consultations ask feds to dump Economic Action Plan ads

Canadians who offered advice online in the runup to the 2014 federal budget had a consistent message for the Conservative government: dump those Economic Action Plan ads.

A so-called e-consultation organized by Finance Canada in the months before the Feb. 11 budget heard from almost 3,000 people, the highest participation of the last five years.

On the question of where the government might find savings to help balance the budget, a frequent answer was: "discontinue Economic Action Plan advertising."

And asked for general comments on the Economic Action Plan, respondents frequently gave the same answer: ditch the ads.

No special-interest-group campaign driving responses

A Jan. 27 internal report on the online consultations was obtained by The Canadian Press under the Access to Information Act.

The Finance Canada analysis noted that unlike previous years, there were no apparent special-interest-group campaigns driving the responses.

The 82-day consultation period began Nov. 7, and drew responses from all regions, also unlike previous consultations which were skewed regionally.

Participants were asked to volunteer information about their gender, income, location and occupation.

The results showed the typical respondent was a well-to-do, older man in Ontario, Alberta and British Columbia -- not dissimilar to the Conservative caucus.

"The ratio of men to women contributors was almost 4:1," says the analysis, prepared for late finance minister Jim Flaherty.

"They self-reported as being between 40 and 60 years old with an average income of $100,000 or more." The most-common occupation cited was "professional," followed closely by employee, business person and retiree.

Other frequent answers: cut taxes, abolish Senate

Other frequent answers to the seven questions posed in the online consultation: cut taxes, remove red tape, reduce the size of government, and abolish or reorganize the Senate.

There was also strong support for income-splitting for families, as promised by Prime Minister Stephen Harper in the 2011 election campaign, but only when the books are balanced.

The released analysis did not provide actual numbers for each response theme, simply pointing out their relative prevalence.

The Harper government has conducted e-consultations in the runup to budgets since first being elected in 2006.

Responses peaked at 7,760 for the 2007 budget, and hit 7,421 for budget 2009, but participation rates have been anaemic since then, averaging less than 1,000.

Finance Canada, however, made special efforts to boost participation for the 2014 round, using Twitter and YouTube videos to generate interest, driving the number up to 2,935.

Department can't explain why older, white males over-represented

Political scientists and others have called the process a sham and a gimmick, giving only the illusion of consultation.

The analysis acknowledges the format "does not lend itself to a precise qualitative or quantitative analysis."

Finance spokesman Jack Aubry declined to speculate why older, wealthier males were over-represented in the latest round.

The e-consultations were only one avenue for soliciting advice, he added.

"Our government closely reviewed Canadians' thoughts on the budget and consultations were circulated," he said.

"Members of Parliament and ministers also went across the country to gather the thoughts of Canadians.

"Direction from the consultations to reduce government spending, increase support for families and increase support for business development and growth were included in EAP (Economic Action Plan) 2014."

$10 million budgeted for ads in 2013-2014

Aubry did not answer directly when asked whether EAP advertising would continue, saying only that such decisions are driven largely by the Privy Council Office, the prime minister's department.

Five years of public-opinion polling by Finance Canada have shown that action-plan ads, dubbed Conservative propaganda by critics, are being tuned out by more Canadians each year.

Most appear on television, but are also placed on radio, billboards, newspapers and the Internet.

The department budgeted $10 million in 2013-2014 for Economic Action Plan ads. 

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Ukraine crisis: talks begin over detained observers

The de facto mayor of the eastern Ukrainian city of Slovyansk said on Sunday mediators from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe who are seeking the release of a group of detained observers have arrived in the city.

Members of the 'Donbass volunteer battalion' say they founded the force to defend their region against pro-Russian separatists. They say they are privately funded and could use more money and guns. (Nahlah Ayed/CBC)

The self-proclaimed mayor, Vyacheslav Ponomaryov, told reporters he was heading into talks with the mediators.     

One of the international observers detained by pro-Russian separatists in Slovyansk said on Sunday that all in the group were in good health, but added they have been given no indication when they might go free.

At a news conference organized by the separatists, a German member of the observer mission, Col. Axel Schneider, told reporters he had "not been touched," and that there had been no physical mistreatment of the group.

"All the European officers are in good health and no one is sick," he said. "We have no indication when we will be sent home to our countries."

Ponomaryov has accused the monitors of being NATO spies.

As the observers from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe spent their third day in custody, there were reports pro-Russia insurgents in eastern Ukraine captured three Ukrainian security service officers on Sunday.

Pro-Russian rebels in Ukraine's flashpoint town of Slavyansk presented on April 27 the eight detained European members of an international OSCE military observer mission to a news conference. (Kirill Kudryavtsev/AFP/Getty Images)

The officers were shown to journalists bloodied and blindfolded with packing tape. Stripped of their trousers and shoes, the captive officers sat with heads bowed in the security service headquarters in Slovyansk early Sunday.

Ukraine's Security Service confirmed that its officers had been seized by armed men. The officers were on a mission to detain a Russian citizen suspected in the killing of a Ukrainian parliament member, the agency said in a statement.

Igor Strelkov, who has been identified as the commander of the armed insurgents, said the three Ukrainian officers were on a mission to seize leaders of the pro-Russia force when they were captured.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry has urged Moscow to do all it can to bring about the release of the European  observers. In a telephone conversation with his Russian counterpart on Friday he also expressed concerns of provocative Russian troop movements close to the border.

Other western diplomats have urged Moscow to do more to free the 13 men who are being held after the bus they were travelling in was seized on Friday.

Russia's Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Ukraine must end military operations in the east of the country as part of measures to defuse the crisis. But Ukraine's interim Prime Minister Arseny Yatseniuk said it was up to Moscow to solve the crisis.

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Longtime Canadian election monitors left out of Ukraine mission

The non-profit civil society group responsible for running previous Canadian election monitoring missions in Ukraine found out earlier this week that they won't be involved in the government's plan to send 500 observers to cover the upcoming presidential elections.

CANADEM executive director Paul Larose-Edwards told CBC News the organization is "very disappointed" that they won't be involved with the bilateral mission.

"We successfully deployed the 500 observers in 2004, and fully ran the missions in 2010, 2012, and 2013," he noted — all, he says, to "rave reviews."

This time around, however, that job will go to Canadian Election Observation Missions, or CANEOM, a newly-created group affiliated with the Forum of Federations, an Ottawa-based international organization.

While primarily focused on international governance issues, Forum has been looking into ways to "diversify its business line," according to its president, Rupak Chattopadhyay.

"For a while, we've been investing in building up capacity to do election monitoring," he told CBC News.

"So we put in a proposal for the Ukraine mission, and that's how we got into this."

In Ukraine, he explained, "'federalism' is a fraught word these days," which is why the more neutral-sounding CANEOM was set up.

CANEOM is also supported by volunteer-based development group CUSO International, as well as the Ukrainian Canadian Congress, according to its website, which initially included virtually no background information on who was behind the project, or what the purpose of the mission would be.

As of Friday afternoon, a detailed overview of its mandate had been posted, as well as biographies of the independent team members hired by the Forum "to run the actual mission on the ground," as Chattopadhyay told CBC News.

CANADEM still part of OSCE mission

Chattopadhyay says they were invited to bid on the upcoming mission several weeks ago, but declined to provide further details on the estimated cost for their successful bid, noting that such questions would be better put to the government, He noted the government would have an "envelope" for such efforts.

As yet, he said, the organization hasn't received any money, and he was unsure how much total funding would be provided.

Meanwhile, CANADEM, which bills itself as "Canada's civilian reserve," is still slated to take part in the main Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) mission.

According to Larose-Edwards, a total of 150 CANADEM-affiliated observers will be on the ground in Ukraine — 15 long-term observers who are "already out there," and an additional 135 short-term observers who will be joining them soon.

On Friday, The Canadian Press reported that an internal government assessment on the 2012 Ukraine election concluded that Canada may have sent too many bilateral observers.

It also found that OSCE "was the 'most credible' organization to conduct election monitoring."

Both groups get funding

A spokesman for Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird was unwilling to answer questions on why the government chose to work with CANEOM instead of CANADEM in the upcoming vote.

"The government … is financially supporting the deployment of Canadian election observers through credible implementing organizations," Adam Hodge told CBC News.

"Both CANADEM and CANEOM received funding from the Government of Canada to do important election observation work in Ukraine."

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3 roadblocks to the robocalls probe — and their possible fixes

Investigators ran into a series of problems in trying to probe what came to be known as robocalls, allegations of misleading or nuisance calls across Canada in the 2011 federal election.

In a report released Thursday, Yves Côté, the commissioner of Canada Elections, said no charges would be laid following complaints of misleading or nuisance live calls and robocalls. He noted a number of problems that limited the ability to investigate the complaints.

In the end, it was difficult to sort out the legitimate calls made to encourage people to vote, or to vote for a specific party, from the calls alleged to be misleading or harassing.

The fair elections act would bring in some improvements, but leaves out a number of others. Here are three problems identified by investigators and how they may — or may not — be fixed under Bill C-23.

1. Limited information

National parties don't have to submit receipts and other documents to back up the expenses they claim for reimbursement from Elections Canada, so investigators didn't have access to contractual information between the national campaigns and telemarketing companies used to make the calls.

"The challenge lies in the limited information that must be provided to Elections Canada," the report said.

Candidates do have to submit supporting documents, but, the report noted, "the purpose for which a firm was retained, the phone numbers called, and the text of any calls made is not reported."

The Fair Elections Act would force the companies to keep scripts of live calls and recordings of robocalls, but parties still won't have to submit any records to back up their expense claims. Elections Canada officials have for years called for the ability to acquire those records, particularly because parties get 50 per cent of their spending reimbursed.

While the bill says the scripts and live calls will have to be held for a year, Minister of State for Democratic Reform Pierre Poilievre said Friday that he is asking for the bill to be amended to have the records held for three years.

2. Inability to compel witnesses

Elections Canada officials have asked repeatedly for the ability to go to a court and ask a judge to compel oral evidence from witnesses.

Côté's report notes that limitation, combined with the difficulty in getting production orders without significant progress in an investigation, made the robocalls probe harder.

"After a certain point, investigators had to rely on the voluntary participation of any concerned entity or person to obtain relevant information," the report said.

Marc Mayrand, the chief electoral officer, says many other regulatory agencies have that power, as well as provincial electoral agencies. Poilievre says police don't have that power and he isn't about to give it to Elections Canada.

"It's reasonable to expect that he [the commissioner] go to a judge and seek a court order to produce documents," Poilievre said. "That's what judges do… but I don't think that it's fair to give an election investigator powers that are not even available to police officers who are investigating the most violent and serious of crimes."

3. Robocall records

"There are no binding industry standards for the creation and retention of records by telephone service providers and telemarketing companies," Côté said in his report.

In the case of the complaints following the 2011 election, media reports the next year drew attention to the problem and elicited thousands of complaints. The vast majority of those complaints came nine months later, making the investigation harder.

The proposed bill will force the companies that provide calls to register with the CRTC, and Poilievre's new amendments will have them keep script and call recordings for three years. But they still won't have to keep the lists of phone numbers called, which would give investigators an additional avenue to pursue if new allegations surface in the future.

The investigators also pointed to technological challenges that allow callers to mask their phone numbers to prevent being traced.

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Advice for politicians caught in the media firestorm

For bad news buffs, particularly those of a political bent, recent headlines themselves have been bad news.

That's because some political news of late relating to the federal government has been, well, good news:

My reason for highlighting these is not to cheer or jeer any individual or party. It is to focus on that most feared of political phenomena, widely known as the "media feeding frenzy" or "media firestorm."

Speaking from painful experience (sometimes as a result of my own mistakes), it's my observation that anybody who engages in public life with a desire to make a contribution will sooner or later, and probably more than once, go through this "living hell."

Being savaged day after day across all forms of media from coast to coast in a relentless scorching really is something you should never wish even on your worst enemy. (Though I have to admit, when your worst enemy is getting fried in that furnace it's hard to not to feel a teeny bit of glee.)

Add to the countless self-appointed flame throwers on social media. Many of these folks seem infused with a prior condition of bitterness towards anybody who dares to have a different view than theirs.

Focus this incendiary mix on the apparent missteps of one individual or organization and you have all the components of a personal thermonuclear experience.

I need to add I am a sincere advocate of the democratization of freedom of expression through the availability of social media. Though I'm often dismayed at the inability of some to engage in robust debate without spewing invective, I will always vigorously defend their right to do so.

As a matter of fact, though I decry bullying and intimidation, I worry when we see rulings that are an encroachment of freedom of speech just because a particular opinion is unpopular or may make some people feel uncomfortable.

But for those who face or will face the firestorm, there is hope for recovery.

There is increasing evidence the broader public is becoming a tad dismissive of what some in the media refer to as an "explosion in the Twitterverse" on any particular issue.

When people start to do the math, one or two themes may emerge.

First, the "universe" that is exploding is often only a tiny — albeit activist — sliver of the overall population.

Second, many times the apparently spontaneous expression is actually a result of coordination among groups that have well-honed lists of responders willing and able to fire out intimidating messages to media networks or even to advertisers on those networks.

This observation is not to diminish the importance of any view, enraged or not. It is simply to advise the recipient of attacks to not overreact, especially if the attack is unfair or untrue.

If the attackers are correct, it's never wise to cover up — better to 'fess up. But don't rush to confess to something that is not accurate just to turn down the heat.

As my three examples at the start of this article demonstrate, patience and grace under fire are not easy virtues, but often they will have the last word.

I often recall the advice given to me as a young, newly elected rookie by a seasoned veteran of political wars.

"Just because somebody in media says 'Boo!,' doesn't mean you have to jump."

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CRA fails to create new strategy for cheats after 3-year effort

After a three-year effort, the Canada Revenue Agency has failed to produce a new national strategy to combat the underground economy — despite repeated requests to do so from cash-starved provinces.

The provinces, especially Ontario and British Columbia, have been pressing the agency since late 2010 to update its strategy for extracting taxes from the underground economy, estimated to be worth more than $35 billion annually.

'We seek to detect [underground economy activities] early, to bring taxpayers into compliance quickly and in serious cases of non-compliance the agency files charges.'- CRA spokesman Philippe Brideau

The current guiding document is a decade old, and changes since then — including the advent of cash-register "zapper" technology that conceals sales — have made it increasingly out of date.

The agency regularly audits offenders in three most-active underground sectors, that is, construction, retail trade and food services, including table-waiting staff.

In 2011-12, the last year for which statistics are available, the agency carried out almost 11,000 underground-economy audits, finding more than $300 million in unpaid taxes.

But internal documents from last October show that an updated strategy for targeting the right businesses and workers, with enough resources and agency-wide co-ordination, has eluded officials.

"A number of stakeholders have been consulted, all with varying opinions and suggestions as to what the focus and direction of the strategy should be, such that a strategy has not emerged," says an Oct. 23 report to the CRA's senior management.

The report suggests there were too many differing views among provinces and agency officials about exactly what constitutes the underground economy — and warns against bad targeting.

"The risk of future non-compliance increases if compliance interventions are targeted at the wrong people or if taxpayers feel they are not treated respectfully," it says.

"The CRA has finite resources and deterrents such as audit are costly. As such, deterrents should be focused on the highest-risk UE [underground economy] participants."

The document was obtained by The Canadian Press under the Access to Information Act.

The failure to update a key guidance document echoes a similar finding by Canada's auditor general last fall.

CRA praised for efforts to recover taxes from people who hide money in offshore accounts.

Michael Ferguson's Nov. 26 report to Parliament generally lauded the agency's efforts to recover taxes from people who had hid their money in offshore accounts in Liechtenstein.

But he criticized CRA for using an outdated guide that has failed to keep pace with modern banking practices, especially as they relate to hiding taxable funds offshore.

"The current audit guide for offshore banking is from 2001 and was developed before the agency received large informant leads such as the [Liechtenstein] one in 2007," says his report.

Ferguson noted the agency was developing a "wiki-type" online page to enable its auditors to share information.

A Statistics Canada report commissioned in 2012 estimated that the underground economy has been shrinking somewhat, to 2.3 per cent of GDP in 2009 from 2.9 per cent in 1992.

The types of businesses failing to report taxes are also changing, with more emerging in mining, oil-and-gas extraction and others.

The Canada Revenue Agency, for example, has in recent years targeted the unregulated couriers, paramedics and drivers who work on contract for big resource firms in British Columbia's remote Peace River region.

That two-year probe into tax cheats working in the area's resource sector uncovered almost $2 million in unpaid taxes, and officers levied another half-million dollars in fines and interest.

"Zapper" technology, responsible for up to $3.25 billion in unreported sales, has also been a recent focus, with new sanctions recently implemented by Parliament to combat electronic suppression of sales software.

A spokesman for the agency confirmed that a 2004 document continues to guide tax-collection efforts in the underground economy, but is "complimented by new measures developed in response to emerging risks."

"The CRA makes UE activities a priority," said Philippe Brideau. "We seek to detect it early, to bring taxpayers into compliance quickly and in serious cases of non-compliance the agency files charges."

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Poilievre opens door to amendments in fair elections act

Minister of State for Democratic Reform Pierre Poilievre says he's open to an amendment to the fair elections act that would allow people without ID showing their address to sign an oath proving their residence.

Poilievre says he's also open to killing a provision that would have exempted the cost of fundraising calls and mailouts from the spending caps set for federal parties during elections.

"To be frank, this proposal is not particularly important. It can go," Poilievre told reporters on Parliament Hill.

Critics said that would have let parties spend as much as they wanted on promoting themselves under the guise of fundraising. 

The government's proposed changes to how federal elections are run and how Canadians vote included removing vouching, a process that lets a voter have someone swear to where he or she lives. At the same time, voters have to show identification that proves who they are and where they live.

Democratic Reform Minister Pierre Poilievre said Friday that he'll support major changes to his fair elections act. The bill would change how Canadians vote and how federal elections are run. (Adrian Wyld/Canadian Press)

The measure was controversial because few pieces of identification include a voter's address.

Under the amended bill, Poilievre said every voter will have to show identification, but voters will be able to sign a written oath as to their address. Another voter with proper ID will co-sign, and Elections Canada will have to check the list to make sure no one votes twice.

Major changes

Poilievre listed a number of other major changes Friday and said he has already provided copies of the proposed amendments to the chair of the procedure and House affairs committee, which was studying the bill.

Other changes include:

• Clarifying that the chief electoral officer can freely speak or report on any matter.
• Encouraging Elections Canada to support programs that explain voting to primary and secondary school students.
• Maintaining Elections Canada's discretion in appointing central poll supervisors. 
• Extending from one to three years the amount of time for which calling companies must retain scripts and recordings from election calls.

Another change included in prepared remarks, but which Poilievre didn't say during his opening statement, is an amendment to "expressly clarify that the commissioner [of Canada Elections] and the CEO can communicate with each other and the public."

The commissioner investigates allegations of wrongdoing in elections.

Many of the changes Poilievre announced were recommended in a preliminary report by a Senate committee that looked at the bill.

'Dropping a little ballast'

NDP Leader Tom Mulcair, speaking in Kingston, Ont., said it's a step in the right direction but that the bill needs to be improved in other ways.

As examples, however, Mulcair pointed to measures that Poilievre had just said would be made.

"Mr. Poilievre has been telling us for months that he's got a terrific bill that needs no changes. Today he's accepting a bunch of terrific changes," Mulcair said.

"Mr. Poilievre is dropping a little ballast today because he knows how much this is hurting his government," he said, adding the government is still limiting the time spent debating the bill.

"If they are still trying to use their majority to force through these changes without the approval of any of the other parties in Parliament, it is unprecedented in Canadian history to do this sort of thing with no support from any other expert or from any other political party."

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Foreign worker program abuse won't be tolerated, Jason Kenney warns

The government's decision to impose a moratorium on the fast-food industry's access to the Temporary Foreign Worker Program will send employers "a very clear message" that abuse will not be tolerated, says Employment Minister Jason Kenney.

Kenney's comments came during a news conference in Vancouver on Friday, a day after CBC released an audio recording of the CEO of McDonald's Canada speaking to franchise owners during a private conference call earlier in the week.

"This has been an attack on our brand. This has been an attack on our system. This is an attack on our people. It's bullshit OK! I used those words when I described my conversation with the minister last week. He gets it," McDonald's Canada CEO John Betts is heard saying.

In a written statement on Friday, McDonald's Canada said it acted "swiftly and forcefully" to investigate allegations some of its restaurants has misused the Temporary Foreign Worker Program.

"We do not tolerate any misuse of the [program], any breach of employment standards or any infractions of any kind against our employees," the statement said.

McDonalds also accused CBC News of being unfair and unbalanced in its reporting of the story, saying the network had "relied on a handful of disgruntled individuals, mostly ex-employees, to attempt to tarnish the reputation of one of Canada's leading employers."

 CBC's director of journalism standards and practices David Studer said "CBC News stands by its stories." 

Despite the CEO's claim that Kenney "gets it," the minister today denied any suggestion that he is onside with McDonald's.

"I think that corporation understood very well how serious we were to freeze that corporation's access to the program and they therefore decide to take action unilaterally," Kenney said on Friday.

Kenney said he did not hear the CEO's comments for himself but that he was aware of the media reports about the recording.

"What  I can tell you is that I am happy when any employer takes disciplinary action or to self-police. If indeed this corporation wasn't serious about that, that I find very regretful. And we will not tolerate efforts to skirt the rules of this program, period," Kenney said.

Kenney took aim at employers saying they should raise wages and increase training for Canadians.

Opposition parties react

NDP Leader Tom Mulcair said when members of Parliament return to Ottawa next week, the New Democrats will use their opposition day in the House of Commons on Tuesday to move a motion to address the alleged abuses with the program.

The motion will call on the government to put a moratorium on the use of the program for low-skilled jobs, and request the auditor general to lead an independent review of the program.

Speaking on CBC News Network's Power & Politics on Friday, Mulcair said, "To see McDonald's charging people off their pay to live in apartments owned by them, it's quasi-slavery frankly, and it's absolutely unbecoming [of] a country like Canada."

In an interview scheduled to air Saturday on CBC Radio's The House, Kenney characterized Mulcair's comments as typical of his "tendency towards extreme hyperbole."

Kenney also made it clear that "any abuse of people's rights is totally unacceptable and there must be severe legal consequences."

A foreign worker recruited from Belize accused McDonald's Canada last week of treating him and other workers like "slaves."

The Liberals also filed a motion today calling for the human resources commons committee to hold televised hearings on the problems with the program.

Liberals would like to call Kenney to testify as well as two former longtime waitresses — Sandy Nelson and Shaunna Jennison-Yung — who told CBC News they believed they had lost their jobs to workers hired under the TFW program.

Liberal immigration critic John McCallum asked the auditor general to audit the program on Tuesday, saying it could shed light on whether "the program is being used to displace Canadian workers or drive down wages."

More than just fast-food jobs

Kenney took to Twitter following his announcement Thursday to say that "debate on the TFW Program should be based on facts, not myths." 

Canadian employers hire temporary foreign workers to fill more than just jobs in the food sector and shutting down the program would have negative consequences for the Canadian economy.

Kenney noted that temporary foreign workers make up only two per cent of the 1.1 million people employed in Canadian restaurants.

"Those calling for the TFWP to be 'shut down' should understand that this would be have vast, negative consequences for our economy," Kenney said in a post on Twitter.

"Shutting down the TFWP would be for our trade in services what closing our borders to imports would be to our trade in goods," Kenney said.

The moratorium does not extend to farmers, for instance, who hire foreign workers through the Seasonal Agricultural Worker Program.

"If aspects of TFWP are being abused or are distorting our labour market, let's address them. Let's also have some nuance in the discussion," Kenney said.

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