West Block’s food production facility to move to east end Ottawa

Parliamentarians should not fear the loss of their culinary delights when the food production facility in West Block is moved out to the east end of Ottawa. Collette Déry, a communications officer in the House Speaker's Office, confirmed that while the food production facility will be moving off the Hill in a few years under the Parliamentary Precinct's Long Term Vision and Plan, the Parliamentary Restaurant in Centre Block will still serve fine cuisine the likes of lamb, duck confit and fresh fish. "The Parliamentary Dining Room is going to stay exactly as it is, instead of being supplied with the prep work from West Block, it will be from this other place, but there's a full stocked kitchen and kitchen staff in the dining room and that's going to continue exactly as before," Ms. Dery said. "It's not going to be rubber chicken or frozen burritos coming into the dining room." The government advertised recently in newspapers for a bid to build a new food production facility for when West Block is used as "swing space" during renovations on Centre Block. Under the Long Term Vision and Plan, this is not projected to occur until 2011-2012. Ms. Dery said the new food production facility will be permanent after Centre Block renovations are completed but the cafeterias and the Centre Block dining room "will continue to provide the same high quality of service to Members." The new building will be built by a private sector company and then sold to Public Works. The House of Commons would then lease the building as it does the Parliament Buildings. –Bea Vongdouangchanh Kennedy sends out fundraising letter to Liberal Party members While the Harper Conservatives were busy holding their annual caucus retreat in Charlottetown, P.E.I., last week, Liberal candidate Gerard Kennedy, the Liberal election chair, sent out a fundraising letter to the party members. Declared Mr. Kennedy in the fundraising letter: "The Conservatives may be choosing Liberal policy knock-offs to dress up in their own colours for the fall session of Parliament, or they may be deciding which U.S. Republican misdirection tactics to spend their big war chest on. Liberals led by Stéphane Dion, meanwhile, are working hard on the latest version of the real thing– practical ways to have a fairer, richer, greener Canada. " The federal Conservatives, meanwhile, continue to out-fundraise the Liberals. Since January, the Conservatives have raked in more than $8-million from 80,000 donors while the once ruling Liberals raised only $1.8-million from 14,000 individuals during the same time.–Abbas Rana Bloc, Libs and NDP name candidate in Roberval-Lac-St-Jean The Liberals last week named their candidate for the Quebec riding of Roberval-Lac-St-Jean, left vacant by Bloc MP Michel Gauthier who officially resigned his seat on July 30. Mr. Gauthier, who was first elected in 1993, won the riding in January 2006 with 45.1 per cent of the vote. Louise Boulanger, co-owner of St-Félician Speedway, will run for the Liberals, The NDP's candidate is Eric Dubois and the Bloc's candidate is Céline Houde. The Tories have not yet announced a candidate.–The Hill Times Canadians support national identity card: public opinion poll As the United Kingdom moves to implement a national identity card program in 2009, a recent Angus Reid poll showed that a comfortable majority of Canadians favours a similar program in this country. According to the poll, conducted online July 18&sbquo;Äì19 and released last week, 72 per cent of Canadians agree with implementation of a national identification card. Quebec (79 per cent), Manitoba (77 per cent), and Saskatchewan (77 per cent) show the most support for the program, while Alberta (64 per cent), British Columbia (70 per cent), and Ontario (70 per cent) are least supportive. Those respondents who identified with the Conservative Party were much more likely to support a card than their Liberal or New Democratic counterparts. Some 83 per cent of Conservatives, 68 per cent of Liberals, and 69 per cent of New Democrats support the card, respectively. The British Identity Card, implemented as part of the Identity Cards Act 2006, will be phased in throughout 2009-10. It includes biometric data–"unique personal characteristics" like fingerprints and irises, according to the British Home Office–and citizens' biographical footprints, which includes name, date of birth, and address. When British citizens are accepted for a card, their personal information is entered into the National Identity Register. Beginning in 2009, British citizens can apply for the card. The Angus Reid Poll randomly selected 1,010 Canadians considered accurate within 3.1 percentage points, 19 times out of 20.–Nick Taylor-Vaisey Belgian, Dutch, American lawmakers denounce Canadian seal hunt The Belgian government has prohibited the import of any seal-related products, and several federal Conservative Cabinet ministers have denounced the move as contravening Belgium's international trade obligations under World Trade Organization rules. According to a press release last week, Canada may request that the WTO establish a panel to adjudicate the case under its dispute settlement process. Foreign Affairs Minister Peter MacKay, International Trade Minister David Emerson, and Fisheries Minister Loyola Hearn each defended the Canadian seal industry, calling it "an important way of life for many Canadians, including Inuit and other Aboriginal peoples", and arguing, "people's livelihoods are at stake." According to an Aug. 1 article in Embassy, the Dutch Parliament enacted similar legislation in July that will enter into force in September, and animal-rights groups are pushing other European governments to do the same. The United States House of Representatives recently called on the Canadian government to halt the seal hunt in a resolution passed unanimously. Democrat California Senator Tom Lantos, the chair of the U.S. Congressional House Foreign Affairs Committee, called the seal hunt an "inhumane practice is far beneath the dignity of the people of Canada."–Nick Taylor-Vaisey Humanitarian crisis worsening in Iraq, says latest Oxfam report Oxfam and the NGO Coordination Committee in Iraq released a report on July 30 outlining the alarming reality of the humanitarian crisis in Iraq. The report, entitled "Rising to the Humanitarian Challenge in Iraq," called on a number of involved actors–the government of Iraq, other governments involved in the conflict, the United Nation, and international donors–to cooperate on political, social, and economic fronts to improve the plight of the Iraqi people. The report found that eight million Iraqis are in need of emergency aid, including two million who have been displaced within their own country. It said, "many more are living in poverty, without basic services, and increasingly threatened by disease and malnutrition", and that "if people's basic needs are left unattended, this will only serve to further destabilize the country." It also called the exodus of more than two million Iraqi refugees the "fastest-growing refugee crisis in the world." Among its recommendations, Oxfam called on the Iraqi government to help its citizens more directly by helping the most vulnerable, including widows and displaced people; the Iraqi and international armed forces should order their troops to avoid involving citizens in conflict; international donors should aid the Iraqi government in its implementation of social programs; and the UN should bolster its presence in the country.–Nick Taylor-Vaisey Referendum on reforms to take place with Ontario election There will be a referendum accompanying the provincial election in Ontario on Oct. 10, and the result has the potential to dramatically alter the first-past-the-post (FPTP) system that has been used in Ontario since elections in 1792. In order to educate the public, Elections Ontario has set up services available to voters around the province. Services now in place as part of a public-education campaign include a website at www.yourbigdecision.ca, a dedicated hotline (1-888-ONT-VOTE), and referendum resource officers are available to speak to community groups. The Ontario Citizens' Assembly on Electoral Reform, a 103-member committee struck by the Liberal government last year to study different electoral alternatives to FPTP, decided to endorse a model called mixed-member-plurality (MMP), which combines geographical constituencies with candidates selected from party lists. The Ontario legislature at Queen's Park in Toronto would be composed of 90 constituency-based members, plus an additional 39 list members, for a total of 129 MPPs. In Ottawa, pro-MMP forces are mobilizing. One group calling itself the 'Democracy Squad' will blitz in different parts of the city every Friday until the election in October. The group, part of the Vote for MMP campaign, claims to be multi-partisan and active in chapters throughout Ontario. According to an Environics poll released on June 19, the Elections Ontario public-education campaign is necessary. It showed that 70 per cent of respondents were unfamiliar with the new voting system, including 51 per cent who "had no familiarity at all." Only 28 per cent of voters knew about the proposed system, and four per cent were "very familiar." Of those polled, 36 per cent supported it and 32 per cent opposed it. A third of those polled had no opinion. A majority of those respondents familiar with the initiative (55 per cent) supported the adoption of MMP. 40 per cent of Liberals and New Democrats, and 33 per cent of Progressive Conservatives, supported MMP.–Nick Taylor-Vaisey Governing Conservatives stagnant in national poll, lose support in earlier poll in Maritimes A new Ipsos-Reid Poll released on Aug. 2 reported that the federal Conservatives have the support of 34 per cent of voters, down from 36 per cent in the 2006 general election. They are barely ahead of the Liberals, who garnered the support of 32 per cent of poll respondents. The NDP and Greens followed at 17 per cent and eight per cent, respectively. The Bloc Québécois also found eight per cent support. The Liberals led polling in Ontario (40 per cent) and the Atlantic provinces (41 per cent), and were tied with the Conservatives for second in Quebec (23 per cent), behind the Bloc (33 per cent). The Conservatives led in every western province, and trailed the Liberals by five per cent in Ontario. The NDP was strongest in the prairies, where the party trailed the Conservatives (35 per cent) by only two points, gaining eleven points since June. The Greens were strongest in British Columbia and Alberta, where they commanded the support of 11 per cent of respondents. In a press release, the polling firm commented, "as the federal Conservative caucus meets in Charlottetown this week to reflect on the past 18 months and to plan the government's agenda for the fall session of parliament, some Tories may be scratching their heads to figure out what they have to do to pull away from the Liberal Party." Meanwhile, a June 8 poll conducted by Corporate Research Associates showed that voters' satisfaction with the Conservative government shrank to 17 per cent in Newfoundland, 37 per cent in Nova Scotia, 49 per cent in New Brunswick, and 46 per cent in Prince Edward Island. In February, the Conservatives enjoyed the support of 47 per cent of Newfoundlanders and 50 per cent of Nova Scotians. The massive slide has been blamed largely on the dispute over equalization between the federal and provincial governments during budget negotiations.–Nick Taylor-Vaisey CIRB faults Bank of Canada for violating good faith bargaining The Canada Industrial Relations Board recently ruled that the Bank of Canada broke bargaining rules while negotiating with the Public Service Alliance of Canada. Some 33 security guards entered collective bargaining with the bank, and the PSAC negotiated on their behalf. According to a PSAC press release, the CIRB ruled the bank "violated its obligation to bargain in good faith," after "persistent refusal to provide the union with information about the guards' salary and premium structure." The board "rejected the bank's argument that privacy concerns and the requirements of the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Document Act (PIPEDA) prevented it from divulging the salary information requested by the union during bargaining."–Nick Taylor-Vaisey

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