Question Period Notes
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In accordance with the Access to Information Act, the government proactively publishes the package of question period notes that were prepared by a government institution for the minister and that were in use on the last sitting day in June and December.
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• The Bank of Canada released its Monetary Policy Report (MPR) today, providing an updated view on the global and Canadian economies.
• Overall, the recoveries are proceeding largely as envisioned in July, with global and Canadian growth paths shifting to markedly slower paces after initial rebounds when containment measures were lifted.
• The recoveries are partial and advancing in highly uneven ways, however. This is expected to keep both global and Canadian inflation pressures in check.
The Government of Canada has created a COVID-19 Supply Council which brings together a diverse group of leaders to provide the government with advice on the procurement of critical goods and services required as part of Canada’s COVID-19 response and recovery.
As part of the Government of Canada’s reaffirmed commitment to invest in Canada’s military, as announced in the 2017 Defence Policy, Strong, Secure, Engaged, the Government launched an open and transparent competition in December 2017 to permanently replace Canada’s fighter fleet with 88 advanced jets—the Future Fighter Capability Project.
Notes:
- All questions related to capability gap, security and interoperability requirements, costs, and Canada’s participation in the Joint Strike Fighter Program should be answered by the Minister of National Defence
- All questions related to the Industrial and Technological Benefits Policy and the assessment of bidders’ impact on Canada’s economic interests should be answered by the Minister of Innovation, Science and Economic Development (ISED)
- All questions related to trade issues should be answered by the Minister of Foreign Affairs
Media reports indicate that Black and Indigenous offenders were between 24 and 30 per cent more likely to end up with a higher security classification compared with white offenders.
As part of the business of supply, the President of the Treasury Board tabled the government-wide Supplementary Estimates (B) 2020-21 in Parliament on October 22, 2020.
The Speech from the Throne, delivered on September 23, 2020, reiterated plans to ensure that revenues of online platforms is shared more fairly with Canadian creators and media. On October 22, 2020, News Media Canada released a report on the Sustainability of Journalism in Canada. It underlines the importance of credible news to a democracy, details the deteriorating state of the news sector in Canada and recommends that Canada pursue a model similar to Australia, putting in place a framework that would allow news media organizations to collectively bargain with online platforms. A number of news articles have made reference to the findings of the report, underlining the estimates that news publishers could recover $620 million in annual revenues.
On October 20, 2020, Telefilm Canada joined Netflix, the National Bank and the Canada Media Fund as a major partner of the Being Black in Canada program of the Fabienne Colas Foundation. The Fabienne Colas Foundation, a professional non-profit artistic organization, is dedicated to the advancement of education and diversity through the arts as well as to support for the creation, production, promotion and distribution of cinema, art and culture both nationally and internationally. Being Black in Canada is the largest mentorship, training and creation program in Canada entirely dedicated to Black filmmakers. The Canada Media Fund announced its support for the Being Black in Canada program in July 2020.
The Government of Canada is operationalizing the Essential Services Contingency Reserve (ESCR) to provide essential services workers with access to personal protective equipment (PPE), non-medical masks and disinfection products to meet urgent, short-term needs.
An article in the Toronto Star has suggested that the working while on claim provisions under EI are less generous than those of the Canada Recovery Benefit.
The World Rugby Union (WRU) released its approved Transgender Participation Guidelines on October 10, 2020. These guidelines recommend that transwomen not play contact rugby on the basis of safety and fairness. Transmen will be permitted to participate in men’s contact rugby. Rugby Canada has taken the position to not adopt these recommendations at the domestic level and to continue with their current Trans Inclusion Policy. WRU has indicated that Unions will have the flexibility to determine how to best address trans inclusion in their jurisdiction on a case by case basis.