In this era of 24-hour news cycles and instant online headlines, keeping track of political issues can be difficult as news moves quickly.
Foothills MP John Barlow held an online town hall Jan. 6 to bring constituents up to speed on a number of national issues affecting the riding.
Covid-19
As the dominating news item of 2020, the pandemic drew many questions from constituents. Mr. Barlow made clear he did not travel outside the riding during the holidays.
“This is not something that I think elected officials should have done. We need to lead by example,” he said.
Mr. Barlow took the opportunity to travel across the riding to speak with business owners about how they were handling the challenges of imposed government restrictions and determining how well the support programs were supporting their needs and what improvements could be made.
He noted adjustments had been made to small-business rent subsidies so more businesses could access supports. During the first wave, only 10 per cent of funding set aside for rent subsidies was used because the program initially accepted only applications from landlords, not renters.
Easing of requirements, said Mr. Barlow, has made the application process simpler. He encouraged small businesses to speak with landlords or call his office for help applying for the subsidy.
Though initially offering financial support through the Foothills Recovery Task Force, he said the program had not yet been renewed as the duration of the current lockdown is still up in the air. He doesn’t expect any drastic revamping to the program unless the restrictions are extended a greater length.
Lockdown restrictions
Since health measures are determined by provincial governments, Mr. Barlow was unable to comment on when the current lockdown might be lifted. Equally hard to predict is when land crossing across the Canada-United States border will again be opened, since an agreement must be reached with the U.S. for the entire border.
While optimistic the rapid testing available at the Coutts pilot project could encourage the border reopening to non-essential travel, he says the federal government’s failure to invest in widespread rapid testing across the country has placed Canada well behind other countries in keeping the economy open while limiting the coronavirus spread.
“When this is all said and done, I think this is going to show a massive failing of the Liberal government,” said Mr. Barlow.
He said that over 80 countries have been utilizing rapid testing for the past three months, with Canada only recently getting on board. Additionally, allies like the U.S. and U.K. both approved rapid test kits through a Calgary company called ClearMe before Canada.
“I find it to be completely unacceptable,” said Mr. Barlow, “when you have a made-in-Canada solution, that will offer us an opportunity to minimize the need for lockdowns, keep our businesses operating, and allow Canadians to get back to their normal lives — why on earth are we not using this technology?”
The federal government has made some 3.8 million rapid test kits available to the provinces since November — a small portion compared to the 37 million national population, especially when considering individuals will require multiple tests.
Rapid testing would specifically benefit the air industry, which was blindsided last week by a federal requirement that air passengers provide a negative Covid test taken within 72 hours before boarding a plane entering Canada.
The decision, Mr. Barlow said, was not thought out.
“Usually we’d get a technical briefing from the minister or sort of an outline on a change in policy and how it’s going to work, and certainly there would have been some consultation not only with other members of Parliament but perhaps the public safety committee or the transport committee, certainly the airlines — but none of that was done. None of it. The airlines had no idea that this was happening,” he said.
“You cannot just willy-nilly throw these new restrictions on.”
Vaccines
Canada’s delay in offering the vaccine was also touted as a government misstep. “This is something I think the Liberals are going to have to be held accountable for,” Mr. Barlow said.
He added that the government put too much stock in an agreement with a Chinese company and has had to scramble since August to secure doses.
The delay has put Canada significantly behind other G7 countries like the United States and the United Kingdom, where it’s anticipated the entire populations will be vaccinated by the end of spring, Mr. Barlow said. It’s expected the general Canadian public won’t receive vaccinations until the fall or even into the start of 2022.
Part of the problem is waiting on shipments of doses to come from manufacturers. Securing a licence to manufacture the vaccine in Canada, he said, would speed up the process. Why the government has not been able to receive such licencing, he added, would be a topic discussed by the Commons standing committee on health at the end of the month.
In the meantime, he also disagreed with who the government was identifying as a priority for receiving the vaccine, most notably inmates in federal penitentiaries.
Vaccines will be administered to inmates identified as high risk, but the fact there have been just over 1,100 cases and only three deaths in prisons across the country indicates to him the government’s plan is flawed.
“The priority has to be on those most vulnerable in society. The priority must be our elderly citizens in long-term care facilities, our front-line health-care workers — doctors, nurses, and paramedics — that has to be the priority,” he said.
Rural issues
Even after vaccination is widespread, the trend of working or completing school from home is something Mr. Barlow said would continue. Continuing to provide access to high-speed Internet through the federal Connecting Canadians Program will be paramount, especially in attracting businesses and individuals to move to rural communities.
“The first question they’re going to ask is ‘What is my access to high-speed Internet?’ he said. Communities “have to have a good answer to that.”
Another issue a constituent asked about was how to apply political pressure to overturn the added gun restrictions imposed by the government in 2019.
Mr. Barlow answered that the best way to help gun owners’ voices be heard is to utilize the tight community across the country and have electors communicate to rural NDP and Liberal MPs that they oppose the gun buy-back plan.
Although the gun restrictions were amended through an order in council without any debate, the buy-back program requires legislation that must go through the House of Commons.
The process will allow opportunity to highlight flaws in the restrictions, most of which, Mr. Barlow said, urban supporters of gun laws don’t fully understand.
The amendments, added Mr. Barlow, weren’t based on hard evidence as the majority of gun crimes are committed by weapons illegally smuggled into Canada from the U.S. Rather than spend money on a costly buy-back program, he said, the government needs to invest in better border control.
“Confiscating firearms from law-abiding firearms owners is not going to address the situation whatsoever,” Mr. Barlow said. “That is not going to reduce gun crime. All it’s going to do is punish law-abiding firearms owners.”
Mr. Barlow also addressed a question concerning his view of western secession from Canada.
“I am not there yet. I’m not supportive of Albertan independence,” he said. “There’s lots of issues that come with that.”
“I don’t want Justin Trudeau to be the reason that I have to leave Canada,” Mr. Barlow continued. “The actions of one man and his group of advisors are the ones that are causing this damage, and a change in government resolves most of the issues that are the root cause of this western alienation.”
If the Liberals were to be voted in again, however, Mr. Barlow said some hard conversations would need to occur in order to ensure Alberta benefits from Confederation.
Protecting farmers
The Foothills MP also provided an update on his private member’s bill, C-205, which would amend the Health of Animals Act.
The amendments would enact new penalties and stiffer punishments for protestors and organizations that carry out protests by trespassing onto private farm property.
“Where this really came from was the incident in Fort Macleod last fall where a farm family came to check their turkey barn and found about 40 protestors had broken into their land, broken into their barn, and were doing a sit-in,” explained Mr. Barlow.
Though charges were laid in the incident, only two protestors faced an injunction, which included 50 hours of community service and no contact with the farm in question.
The group of protestors had performed a similar protest at a hog farm in British Columbia the week before the Fort Macleod incident, raising significant concerns over the potential for transferring bacteria between locations.
“These protestors I don’t think quite understand the potential consequences of them going from operation to operation, not understanding the biosecurity protocols that are in place not only to protect the farm family and their workers but also the animals and their industry,” Mr. Barlow said.
The bill aims to help reinforce legal protections supporting the food chain and animal health, as well as the mental health and security of farm families and their employees.
With support from the Bloc Quebecois, the NDP and several Liberal MPs, he is optimistic the bill will pass second reading at the end of February before going on to third reading in the fall.
Federal election and budget
In light of the conflict surrounding accusations of voter fraud in the U.S. federal election, Mr. Barlow took a moment to address concerns expressed by a constituent over the legitimacy of the next Canadian election.
“We do things very differently here than what they do in the United States,” said Mr. Barlow. “In the United States, things are much more sporadic in that individual states and regions and counties have their own rules, even on federal elections.”
Since Canadian elections are uniformly administered through Elections Canada, the voting process is much more smooth, though the need to potentially expand mail-in ballots is something Mr. Barlow said is being looked at in depth in case an election should be needed during the pandemic.
The only election issue he identified was the lack of personal identification needed for an individual to vote.
“I had to show my ID when I renewed my gym membership, so to ask Canadians to show identification and a photo ID when they go to vote in a federal election I don’t think is too much to ask,” he said.
Asked when he expected the next election to be called, Mr. Barlow indicated that a spring election would be unlikely, though the Conservative party is ready to campaign if needed.
Pressures for a fall election, said Mr. Barlow, would mount once Canadians start seeing how far behind Canada is in Covid vaccinations compared to other countries. He also said the upcoming federal budget would play a factor in how soon the next election might occur.
“The free-spending ways that the Liberals did even before Covid put us on very rocky financial footing as a country, and it’s only become much worse after Covid,” Mr. Barlow said.
With the federal government hopefully releasing its budget in the next couple of months, Mr. Barlow said, the spending impact of pandemic support programs will be an important consideration.
“We want to make sure that there’s some accountability there to ensure the dollars were spent wisely,” he said.
Mr. Barlow also noted that the last budget released by the federal government was in the spring of 2019. The two-year span, he said, was unacceptable.
Engagement
Mr. Barlow is hoping to hold virtual town halls over Facebook once a month so constituents have a platform to make their voices heard. He also encouraged constituents to reach out to his office with their questions and concerns.
“Give us some ideas, give us some insight,” he said. “Your opinions and your feedback is what drives me and gives me the right direction of where I need to go and things I need to focus on.”
Constituents can call the office at 403-603-3665 or email their member of Parliament at [email protected].
