Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - September 30, 2021, Winnipeg, Manitoba C M Y K PAGE A13 THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 30, 2021 ● WINNIPEGFREEPRESS.COM A 13NEWS I CANADA / WORLD OTTAWA — All federal parties except the Conservatives say they believe members of Parliament should be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 before entering the House of Commons when it resumes in the fall. They are split, however, on whether Parliament should be allowed to func- tion under any kind of virtual hybrid model as was the case throughout the pandemic and leading up to last month’s election call. It’s an issue parliamentarians will have to decide on as Prime Minister Justin Trudeau prepares to name his new cabinet next month after saying Parliament would be recalled sometime before Dec. 21. During the election campaign, which saw him re-elected for a third time with a slightly larger Liberal minority, Trudeau made it a rule that all Liberal candidates without a medical exemp- tion must be double-vaccinated against COVID-19. The federal NDP and Bloc Québécois required the same. “With the return of Parliament this fall, this will be a relevant issue,” said Simon Ross, press secretary for Liberal Government House Leader Pablo Rod- riguez. “We believe MPs who choose to set foot on the floor of the House of Com- mons and committee rooms should be fully vaccinated, unless there is a valid medical exemption. This will be a key part of future discussions on the return of Parliament. It’s a matter of safety for all MPs, their communities and for all staff who work at the House of Com- mons.” The Conservatives saw 119 MPs, including incumbents and new can- didates, elected on Sept. 20, after the party spent the race dogged by ques- tions about its opposition to making vaccines mandatory as a tool to defeat COVID-19 because it believes in the rights individuals have to exercise their own health choices. Conservative Leader Erin O’Toole refused to say on the campaign trail whether he knew how many of those running for the Tories had been fully vaccinated, saying he told campaign teams that those who are not immun- ized against COVID-19 should take daily rapid tests. “If Mr. Trudeau believes it was safe enough to have an election during the fourth wave of the pandemic, it’s safe enough for the House of Commons to resume in-person sittings,” said O’Toole’s director of communications Chelsea Tucker. “Canadians deserve a government that is accountable to its constituents and that’s why under no circumstances will Conservatives support virtual Par- liament.” It’s unclear how many members of the Conservative caucus are fully vac- cinated against COVID-19 and how many may not be. They will convene next week for their first in-person cau- cus meeting since the election, where they will have to decide whether they want to review O’Toole’s leadership fol- lowing its loss. MPs will be expected to follow pub- lic health guidelines, like keeping their distance, but it’s not yet known whether those elected who may be unvaccinated are expected to undergo daily testing. Bloc Québécois Leader Yves-Fran- çois Blanchet said Wednesday he wants to see Parliament resume quickly with MPs having to be fully vaccinated in or- der to be there in person because now vaccines against the novel coronavirus are more widely available. “They get fully vaccinated or they stay home,” Blanchet said of Conserva- tive MPs who might not have had their shots. “Parliament should not come back under any kind of hybrid formation… now we know that we can go on with the way this building is supposed to work, and we should not refrain from doing so because a few persons don’t believe that the vaccine works. This belongs to another century.” NDP MP Peter Julian said in a state- ment that because Canada is battling a fourth wave of the virus, the party wants to talk to others about continu- ing some of the hybrid practices when Parliament resumes. “All of our NDP MPs are vaccinated and we’ve been very clear that federal government em- ployees must be vaccinated too. Getting vaccinated is the right thing to do and elected leaders have a responsibility to set a good example by following public health advice,” Julian said. The call for MPs to be vaccinated comes as Trudeau works on bringing in a mandate requiring the federal civil service, along with those working in its federally regulated industries, to be fully vaccinated. His government has promised to make it a rule by the end of October that travellers flying or taking a train in Canada have to be immunized in order to board. — The Canadian Press Only allow vaxxed MPs in Commons, parties say STEPHANIE TAYLOR OTTAWA — Environment Minister Jonathan Wilkinson says a detailed plan showing how Canada might finally meet a greenhouse gas emissions tar- get will be ready in a few months but not likely in time for this fall’s global climate change conference in Scotland. Wilkinson is in Milan this week for meetings with his global counterparts to set the final agenda for negotiations that will take place at the full United Nations climate change meetings in Glasgow in early November. The meeting, known as Conference of the Parties, or COP, is to happen an- nually, but the Glasgow conference was delayed a year because of COVID-19. That delay also pushed back the 2020 deadline for countries to submit more ambitious emissions-cutting targets. “Canada, as you know, has raised its target, as have the United States and Europe, but there are many countries that have not yet and that’s part of what we’re going to be working (on) to en- courage greater ambition,” Wilkinson told The Canadian Press. A United Nations report two weeks ago said where pledges currently stand, emissions will be 16 per cent higher globally by 2030, pushing global warm- ing close to 2.7 C by 2100. The Paris agreement said it must be kept as close to 1.5 C as possible to avoid catastrophic climate change. Canada’s original goal was to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 2030 to 30 per cent less than they were in 2005. Canada submitted its new target to the UN in July, raising the cut to 40 to 45 per cent below 2005 levels by the same deadline. Practically that means Canada has to cut between 292 million tonnes and 328.5 million tonnes of emissions a year within nine years, or 3.5 to four times what all the passenger cars in Canada collectively produce. Last fall Wilkinson unveiled a sharp- ened climate policy, which experts said finally showed the path to getting to the original 2030 goal. Months later, the new target was introduced but the detailed plan to get there is still in the works. Some of the broad strokes for the new goal came in the Liberals’ platform in the recent election, most notably a promise to cap emissions from the oil and gas sector for the first time and to lower that cap every five years until it hits net-zero emissions by 2050. Net zero means any emissions still produced are captured by nature or technology. The Liberals also say every passen- ger car sold in Canada must be electric by 2035, and that same year, have a net- zero emitting electricity grid. But Wilkinson said the “fully mod- elled plan” showing how the new poli- cies will be implemented, when, and how they’ll achieve the new target, is still in development and it’s unlikely it will be ready before Glasgow’s meet- ings start. “We need to come forward with a fully modelled plan, and we intend to do that over the coming few months,” he said. Further complicating things is that Wilkinson is still not 100 per cent cer- tain if he’ll be the minister of environ- ment in November. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is to shuffle his cab- inet in the next few weeks, and while Wilkinson said he has no reason to be- lieve he is being shuffled, he serves at Trudeau’s pleasure. “We’re in this kind of weird caretaker moment right now where we do need to get somebody firmly in the chair,” he said. “I’m in the chair right now, but (who is going to be) firmly in the chair, and who is going to be responsible for carrying this forward?” Eddy Pérez, the international dip- lomacy manager at Climate Action Network Canada, says not having the modelling before COP isn’t the end of the world but warns there is not a lot of time for Canada to delay implementing the new plans. Canada’s emissions are higher now than they were when the government signed the Paris agreement six years ago and Pérez said the country is suffering from a reputation of having good plans on paper that never play out in reality. “There is a lot that is on paper that is positive,” said Pérez. “I think where we need to see much more before COP26 and at COP26 is on the details, on the very practical details of the implemen- tation of these policies.” — The Canadian Press Detailed GHG plan coming in ‘months’: minister MIA RABSON W ASHINGTON — His govern-ment overhaul plans at stake, President Joe Biden appeared unable Wednesday night to swiftly strike agreement with two wavering Democratic senators trying to trim back his potentially historic US$3.5- trillion measure that will collapse with- out their support. With Republicans solidly opposed and no Democratic votes to spare, Biden cancelled a trip to Chicago that was to focus on COVID-19 vaccinations so he could dig in for a full day of intense ne- gotiations ahead of crucial votes. Aides made their way to Capitol Hill for talks, and late in the day supportive House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Ma- jority Leader Chuck Schumer met with Biden at the White House. The risks were clear, but so was the potential reward as Biden and his party reach for a giant legislative accomplish- ment — promising a vast rewrite of the nation’s balance sheet with an ever-slim majority in Congress. His idea is to es- sentially raise taxes on corporations and the wealthy and use that money to expand government health care, educa- tion and other programs — an impact that would be felt in countless Amer- ican lives. “We take it one step at a time,” Pelosi told reporters. Attention is focused on Sens. Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona, centrist Democrats. They share a concern that the overall size of Biden’s plan is too big, but have infuriated colleagues by not making any counter-proposals public. In a possibly ominous sign, Manchin sent out a fiery statement late Wednes- day, decrying the broad spending as “fiscal insanity” and warning it would not get his vote without adjustments. “I cannot — and will not — support tril- lions in spending or an all-or-nothing approach,” he said. Together, the two senators hold the keys to unlocking the stalemate over Biden’s sweeping vision, the heart of his campaign pledges. While neither has said no to a deal, they have yet to signal yes — but they part ways on spe- cifics, according to a person familiar with the private talks and granted ano- nymity to discuss them. Manchin appears to have fewer ques- tions about the revenue side of the equa- tion — the higher taxes on corporations and the wealthy — than the spending plans and particular policies, especially those related to climate change that are important to his coal-centric state. He wants any expansion of aid programs to Americans to be based on income needs, not simply for everyone. Though Sinema is less publicly open in her views, she focuses her questions on the menu of tax options, including the increased corporate rate that some in the business community argue could make the U.S. less competitive overseas and the individual rate that others warn could snare small business owners. With Democrats’ campaign promises on the line, the chairwoman of the Con- gressional Progressive Caucus, Rep. Pramila Jayapal of Washington state said of Manchin: “He needs to either give us an offer or this whole thing is not going to happen.” Pelosi suggested she might postpone today’s vote on a related US$1-trillion public works measure that Manchin, Sinema and other centrists want but that progressives are threatening to de- feat unless there’s movement on Biden’s broader package. Today’s vote has been seen as a pres- sure point on the senators and other centrist lawmakers to strike an agree- ment with Biden. But with Manchin and Sinema dug in, that seemed unlikely. “Both bills are must-pass priorities,” according to a White House readout of the president’s meeting with the con- gressional leaders. At the same time, Congress is start- ing to resolve a more immediate crisis that arose after Republicans refused to approve legislation to keep the govern- ment funded past today’s fiscal year- end and raise the nation’s debt limit to avoid a dangerous default on borrow- ing. Democrats are separating the gov- ernment funding and debt ceiling vote into two bills, stripping out the more- heated debate over the debt limit for another day, closer to a separate Octo- ber deadline. The Senate is poised to vote today to provide government funding to avoid a federal shutdown, keeping operations going temporarily to Dec. 3. The House is expected to quickly follow. With Biden and his party stretching to achieve what would be a signature policy achievement, there is a strong sense that progress is being made on the big bill said an administration of- ficial who requested anonymity to dis- cuss the private talks. The president is highly engaged, meeting separately with Manchin and Sinema at the White House this week and talking by phone with lawmakers shaping the package. He even showed up at Wednesday evening’s annual con- gressional baseball game, a gesture of goodwill during the rare bipartisan event among lawmakers. To reach accord, Democrats are poised to trim the huge Biden meas- ure’s tax proposals and spending goals to reach an overall size Manchin and Sinema are demanding. “I think it’s pretty clear we’re in the middle of a negotiation and that every- body’s going to have to give a little,” said White House press secretary Jen Psaki. Psaki said members of Congress “are not wallflowers” but have a range of views. “We listen, we engage, we ne- gotiate. But ultimately, there are strong viewpoints and what we’re working to do is get to an agreement.” Besides senators, Biden’s problems with fellow Democrats also include a small number of centrist House Demo- crats who are also are bristling at the far-reaching scope of his domestic agenda, which would expand health care, education and climate change programs, all paid for by the higher tax rates. Progressive lawmakers warn against cutting too much, saying they have already compromised enough, and threatening to withhold support for the companion US$1-trillion public works measure hey say is too meagre without Biden’s bigger package assured. Republicans are opposed to Biden’s bigger vision, deriding the US$3.5-tril- lion package as a slide toward socialism and government intrusion on Amer- icans lives. The House did vote Wednesday to ex- tend the debt limit through Dec. 16, but it’s doubtful that Democratic bill will pass the Senate in the face of GOP op- position — shelving that debate for an- other day. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen has told Congress it has until Oct. 18, wen her department will likely exhaust all of its “extraordinary measures” being taken to avoid a default on the govern- ment’s obligations. — The Associated Press Biden unable to budge senators on US$3.5-trillion measure LISA MASCARO AND ALAN FRAM J. SCOTT APPLEWHITE / THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Sen. Joe Manchin sent out a fiery statement late Wednesday, decrying the broad spending as ‘fiscal insanity’ and warning it would not get his vote without adjustments. A_13_Sep-30-21_FP_01.indd A13 9/29/21 10:11 PM ;