OTTAWA — Justin Trudeau’s emergency economic decisions are taking shape in a virtual war room in which the prime minister is plotting Canada’s coronavirus response by teleconference.
Out of these meetings, the Trudeau government is expected to introduce new legislation on Tuesday that will give Finance Minister Bill Morneau more powers over taxation and spending without the need for parliamentary approval.
Trudeau started working remotely after his wife, Sophie Grégoire Trudeau, tested positive for COVID-19 on March 12.
From self-isolation at his home, Trudeau has been holding phone calls with advisers, including officials from his own team and the Privy Council Office, “pretty much all day every day,” a government official tells POLITICO.
Morneau has been a regular on the calls advising Trudeau, with the finance minister bringing forward recommendations based on information that has come up through the public service, the insider said.
Teleconferencing itself has been an adjustment. The official said, for instance, the more-technical exchanges ahead of last week’s aid announcement had to be done by phone without the visual aid of charts and graphs.
The behind the scenes details provide offer a glimpse at the conditions in which Trudeau’s decisions have been made — as well as a peek at the process informing his economic calls.
The prime minister has been working from his home office in the physical presence of only his three young children — no staffers and no ministers have been in the house.
An inside look at the work also reveals some of the people advising the prime minister as he tries to address the rapid advance of an economic crisis.
For example, the official said many of Morneau’s recommendations to Trudeau have come via input from the Finance Department’s deputy minister, Paul Rochon, and its associate deputy minister, Ava Yaskiel. The official said ideas and analysis from different departments across the government are flowing into the Finance Department on Morneau’s request.
They are then turned into policy options ready for possible implementation.
The official said the key people with input into the recommendations have included such officials as Rochon and Yaskiel, deputy ministers from other departments, key policy experts and Privy Council Clerk Ian Shugart.
Other officials said to be driving their departments’ answers to questions from Morneau and Trudeau have included deputy health minister Stephen Lucas, deputy employment minister Graham Flack and Canada Revenue Agency commissioner Bob Hamilton.
Economic decisions, the official said, are also brought before Trudeau’s cabinet and the ministers on his government’s Covid-19 cabinet committee, which is chaired by Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland.
For instance, the official said in the lead-up to Trudeau’s multibillion-dollar economic announcement last week the prime minister held multiple phone discussions with some of these officials — including Shugart and Rochon — in the virtual war room. The aid package featured C$27 billion in support for workers and businesses and another C$55 billion in tax deferrals to help keep money moving in the economy for a few extra months.
There are parliamentary checks on some of Trudeau’s emergency economic measures, which must be passed by MPs before implementation. The House of Commons will reconvene Tuesday with 32 MPs representing all parties to vote on parts of the aid package.
MPs will also consider legislation that would give Morneau the authority to make tax changes without the need for parliamentary approval.
Trudeau, as it happens, won’t be present Tuesday in the House. His 14-day period of self-isolation is only due to lift closer to the end of week.
Source: https://www.politico.com/news/2020/03/24/justin-trudeau-coronavirus-teleconference-146174
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The Article Was Written/Published By: Andy Blatchford
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