Releasing it on second thought

Within less than 24 hours, the Conservative government decided that perhaps it was being a bit foolish and chose to release the report on the Champlain Bridge, which apparently wasn’t as bad as intimated. The report laid out some replacement options, one of which is a tunnel that would cost more to build and may have some added benefits. Suffice to say, this will all serve as fodder for further opposition calls for the replacement process to begin as soon as possible. (And look, the Liberals are holding a press conference on that very subject this morning. Who would have guessed?)

The federal government has reintroduced the ecoEnergy home renovation tax credit – for another year. This year-to-year funding creates a problem for the energy-retrofit industry: it can’t get off the ground and reach a sustainable level because there’s no stability. This announcement just creates more of the same rather than providing a tangible benefit for the industry.

Now that provincial long-gun registries are being discussed, it sounds like Ontario is interested (provided that the Conservatives don’t win provincially this autumn) while Nova Scotia is not. MP Candice Hoeppner, whose bill nearly succeeded in the last Parliament, is decrying the registries as bad because she says that provincial lists would be “inaccurate and incomplete.” Apparently, the reduction in incidents of domestic violence and suicide isn’t reason enough. And then there’s the issue of the previous Supreme Court reference on firearms, which said that it’s under federal jurisdiction because it deals with public safety.

What’s that? We should actually explain the immigration and refugee system to Canadians? But how else are the Conservatives going to have fundraising drives for their base when they can’t make gross distortions?

Oh, look – we’re being asked to take more action on the humanitarian crisis in eastern Africa. Too bad that Canada has pretty much disengaged from that continent to focus on territory closer to home (with no actual game plan for doing so, it should be said).

And here’s a look at the syphilis boom in Alberta – the province where it’s a human right to pull your kids out of class whenever any discussion of sexuality comes up. Coincidence? Unlikely.