What to know about ArriveCan debacle | Key weeks ahead for Liberal-NDP deal | CAPITAL DISPATCH

Welcome to ctv’s Capital dispatch with Rachel iello well did I call it or did I call it the arrive can application and the otter General support into it blew up here on the hill this week that’s one of three things that happened in Ottawa that I want to chat about so on Monday

Karen Hogan the auditor general released this damning report into the government’s handling of the arrive can application really slamming CB the Border Agency for its Contracting practices management of this app Hogan said essentially in her time as an auditor general she’s never seen Financial recordkeeping this bad what

Started out as around a $2 million contract ballooned to 60 million or so and that’s her best guess because she still can’t get all of the answers about how much money was spent working on this traveler contact application created during the pandemic has evolved in the years since stemming from this Pier PV

The conservative leader took you know the prime minister to task in the House of Commons asking you probably heard this WTF uh where’s the funds this has now become a merch uh option for them uh but really challenging them to get more answers Hogan said she was more

Surprised about what she was not able to find than what she did really affirming a lot of the reporting that has been happening for months around uh some of the Contracting practices connected to this firm GC strategies and noting as well that there are elements of this entire Affair that have

Been referred to the RCMP PA have pushing the RCMP now to expand their probe uh latest on this is the government has kind of given us a sense of the scale and the scope and the size and the cost of these contracts that specifically GC strategies has received

Headline coming out of that they’re no longer eligible to participate in federal government tenders so this file is far from closed but certainly as we saw and as I anticipated late last week if you’re watching the last video this was going to blow up and it definitely

Did the other two files that I wanted to flag first there is a Rebrand of the carbon tax rebate so previously the climate action incentive is now the Canada carbon rebate pretty sure that’s it uh this comes uh amid an increased scrutiny of this government program after the fall saw the government roll

Out a series of carve outs and then promised there was going to be no more carbon tax carve outs important to note here this Rebrand of the program is only to the name of it the substance the content the way the uh pollution price is collected from Canadians and then

Return to them the amount they get none of that has changed it’s just the name uh Sheamus oan and some other ministers came out to announce this this week suggesting that uh they were aware that Canadians weren’t understand understanding what this climate action incentive payment was when it landed in

Their bank account so now they are working with financial institutions to get the name kind of put in so when you hit into your bank account see that direct deposit you’re going to see that it’s the Canada carbon rebate uh or refund rebate and then you’ll know

That’s what it’s for uh obviously this prompted some questions about whether this was as the taxpayers association said lipstick on a pig suggested this is a good move because even those who cover the climate file didn’t really know what this climate action incentive was so now they’re hoping Canadians will understand

What this rebate is really absorb it as a rebate from the government specifically on climate change uh we’ll see if this does enough to turn the tides on another Financial matter uh this week NATO reminded Canada but it is still far from meeting its 2% of GDP spending on defense built Blair

The defense minister went on the defensive telling people this week that Canada is going to work towards that Target of course no timeline uh on when we’re going to be spending that you know billions of dollars more on our military that NATO wants us to uh connected to

This POV came out this week and said that he would cut um International Aid funding in an effort to try to meet that NATO Target so those are kind of the big three uh topics dominating tension here on the hill this week let me just say something else I mean

Because I think it’s very easy to say oh Rebrand you know that’s going to save the world it isn’t but like you listen to people the climate action incentive is 8 years old right as a name and look if we can if we can speak the language

That people speak because people say the words carbon they say the words rebate right and if we can speak that language that’s important so people understand what’s going on here look I’d be the first to say some of this I’ve said it before is kind of counterintuitive but

The bottom line is that the Canada carbon ref rebate Canada carbon rebate is revenue neutral it does help eight out of 10 families more they get more right and when ever we’re talking about ax the tax very catchy slogan um certainly taken off in the House of Commons during

Question period but can we have a serious conversation about how this is going to face how this is going to affect people’s budgets every month at home because that $1,200 a month for family for in new finon Labrador or $600 for a single senior they are budgeting

That money that is money they are budgeting in their household budget per month so that was Sheamus oan the uh labor Minister speaking about this rebranded carbon tax rebate and the reason I picked this as my quote of the week was because the message here is a clear strategy change for the Liberals

You know wording verbatim aside what he’s signaling here is going forward the Liberals are going to be framing this as a benefit check that Canadians get and try to make them realize that in pv’s plan to ax the tax he would also be axing the benefit so Sheamus in this

Press conference was speaking about how Canadians really need to understand and some of them do appreciate that this is money in their accounts that they are banking on they have become used to getting these free bait checks and it’s money that helps make ends meet uh and

They need to realize that the ax the tax proposal from the opposition leader if he becomes PM would mean these benefit checks stop rolling into their accounts I think it’s an interesting strategy obviously we’ll have to see how it works but this is clearly their attempt to maintain the carbon tax their

Price on pollution plan and try to find new ways to sell it to Canadians so what am I watching next week well it’s a break week in the House of Commons so dispatch is going to take a onewe pause but when they come back I’m really going to be watching for where

The government goes with this legislative agenda since they came back last month they’ve really been focused on advancing bills that had kind of been left to languish over the Christmas holidays and they haven’t really introduced new legislation and so what I’m going to be watching for is

Is it time for them to start tbling new bills you know they’ve promised online harms legislation they also have this massive outstanding commitment to the NDP on pharmacare what we heard on that file this week is it’s not going well the NDP have been pretty absolute that

If they don’t get what they’re asking for in this legislation deadline to table that is March 1 then they are ready to pull out of the deal and this could all unfold in quite a dramatic way uh because this deadline is March 1st we would be expecting the next federal

Budget likely in the weeks to follow and so if the Liberals lose their dance partner their supply and confidence agreement partner ahead of that that budget is going to be a key confidence vote and if they haven’t secured the support of another party well the minority liberals don’t have enough to

Maintain the confidence of the house on their own now there’s a lot of steps between now and then but I just think this is really going to be when they come back a week from now everyone’s Focus where is the pharmacare bill how is it going is it in a place that both

Sides are happy with and ready to be tabled

Capital Dispatch: Auditor General Karen Hogan’s report into the government’s troubled COVID-era ArriveCan app landed on Parliament Hill with a bang… but if you watched Capital Dispatch you already knew that was a possibility.

This week, CTV News’ Rachel Aiello looks into the fallout after the bombshell findings.

Also, the federal government has announced a ‘rebrand’ for the Climate Action Incentive Payment. It will now be known as the Canada Carbon Rebate, however the program will remain the same.

Then, Canada was reminded by NATO it is failing to meet its defence spending targets — Bill Blair says Canada is working on it, but didn’t give any timelines.

The Capital Dispatch Quote of the Week is Labour Minister Seamus O’Regan’s explanation of the ‘Canada Carbon Rebate,’ Rachel explains why.

Finally, what should you be keeping an eye on over the next few weeks? The future of the Liberal-NDP confidence-and-supply agreement. There’s a big challenge to solve in the weeks ahead. Will pharmacare be the end of the pact?

This week in politics (0:00)
Capital Dispatch Quote of the Week (4:33)
What to watch next week (7:00)

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