Latvia’s Which top Whittington, foreign diplomat Taylor, Gurski: minister wrote a novel on Canada’s that became three takes on mission, NATO an Oscar- London’s terror attack spending winning fi lm? pp. 12-13 p. 3 p. 21 TWENTY-EIGHTH YEAR, NO. 1421 CANADA’S POLITICS AND GOVERNMENT NEWSPAPER WEDNESDAY, MARCH 29, 2017 $5.00 News Access to Information News Foreign Aff airs Canadian envoys lack security Liberals won’t training: internal report BY CHELSEA NASH internal report from the foreign ministry. commit to Canadian diplomats abroad A man slammed his SUV need more security training, into pedestrians on Westminster even in so-called safe countries, Bridge in London on March 22 if they are to be better prepared before crashing it into the gates of meeting for the kind of attack that gripped the British parliament buildings, the United Kingdom last week, platform according to a newly released Continued on page 4 promises on Comment Remembering Bill Rompkey transparency Bill Rompkey and me: How a young PC staffer and a Liberal by next MP sparked a 20-year friendship long-time Parliamentarian who passed away last week at the age election of 80, possessed them all. Romp- key was the kind of guy you’d want to grow up to be, or show Conservative MPs called for you the ropes—as he did for me. Rompkey was born in the tiny the Treasury Board president community of Belleoram, N.L. An Tim Powers educator by trade, he was fi rst to explain the delay on access Plain Speak elected to Parliament in 1972, as to information reform to the a Liberal, representing the old OTTAWA—Class, grace, and riding of Grand Falls-White Bay- House Ethics Committee, kindness aren’t often words you Labrador. He went undefeated hear associated with politicians in six subsequent elections and but were voted down by the nowadays. Bill Rompkey, the for- mer cabinet minister, Senator, and Continued on page 10 committee’s Liberal majority. News House Finance Yurdiga biggest spender in the The ‘objectivity’ of the federal public service is top of mind for the government as it draws up its plan to House for most of 2016, Speaker make government information more accessible to the public, says Treasury Board President Scott Brison. Regan among the thriftiest Publications Mail Agreement #40068926 The Hill Times photograph by Jake Wright BY MARCO VIGLIOTTI Alta.) expensed $216,644 in staff salaries, $9,200 in gifts and hospital- Conservative David Yurdiga billed ity expenses, and $9,560 on printing BY PETER MAZEREEUW wouldn’t commit to complet- a brief interview with The Hill materials such as householders, ing before the next election the Times on March 26. taxpayers $427,322 for travel, liv- ing, and advertising costs, meals, according to House members’ The government’s lead on changes to Canada’s access to Mr. Brison didn’t directly expenditure reports for the fi rst Access to Information Act reform information regime that the gov- confi rm or deny if he would keep gifts, and offi ce expenses over the last nine months of 2016, the most three quarters of the 2016-17 fi scal isn’t making any promises to ernment has promised—including the promises before the election. year, publicly released by the House change the law before Canadians opening up ministers’ offi ces to Instead, he repeated the rationale of any MP during that span, new House of Commons statistics show. of Commons Board of Internal go to the polls again in 2019. access to information requests given to the Canadian Press last Economy last week. Treasury Board President and completing a review of the As part of his offi cial duties, Mr. Scott Brison (Kings-Hants, N.S.) Access to Information Act—in Continued on page 7 Yurdiga (Fort McMurray-Cold Lake, Continued on page 6 2 WEDNESDAY, MARCH 29, 2017 | THE HILL TIMES Canadians reporting contacting an elected than 25,000 signatures. offi cial themselves. Earlier this month, Government House “Canada is seen internationally as an Leader Bardish Chagger (Waterloo, Ont.) example of a vibrant and well-functioning released a discussion paper on proposed democracy,” Samara executive director changes to House standing orders, ask- Heard on the Hill Jane Hilderman said in a statement. ing MPs to consider changes such as a “However, these grades tell us that U.K.-style question period dedicated to the there’s still room for much improvement. prime minister, the elimination of Friday by Marco Vigliotti Given recent events around the world, sittings, curbing the ability of members to Canadians have reason to remain vigilant, fi libuster committee meetings, and permit- avoid complacency, and redouble their ting MPs to vote electronically. efforts to strengthen their own democracy The major opposition parties, though, and engage more fully with it.” have accused the government of pursuing After brief sojourn At 54 per cent, Canadians gave MPs and unprecedented changes that would curb political parties poor but passing grades the power of individual MPs, and mounted in regards to doing their core jobs, while a brief fi libuster last Wednesday delaying Star diversity in the House of Commons contin- the introduction of the budget in protest. at the , Paul Wells ues to be a challenge, with young people They want the Liberals to agree to and women still “signifi cantly under-repre- not pursue any changes unless they are sented,” Samara found. unanimously approved, while the govern- Despite the uptick in voter turnout, the ment maintains that the discussion paper prepares to return Samara report recorded a one percentage is merely the fi rst step in a conversation point drop from 2014 in those participating about improving Parliament. in a form of activism, as well as a fi ve per- The feud over the proposed changes Maclean’s centage point drop among those who signed has sparked heated meetings of the House to a petition. Procedure and Operations Committee, with Nationally, 71 per cent of Canadians said opposition members last week mount- they were satisfi ed with how democracy ing a fi libuster to protest the prospective Veteran works, though there were regional variances. changes. political At 69 per cent, Albertans and Quebec- The House is on a break this week but columnist Paul ers were least satisfi ed with democracy, will resume sitting on April 3. It will sit un- Wells, pictured while those from Manitoba and Saskatch- til April 13 before breaking for two weeks. alongside ewan and the Atlantic provinces were Alison Uncles, the most satisfi ed, at 80 and 76 per cent, editor-in-chief Shooting hoops for a good cause respectively, according to the report card. of Maclean’s, Parliamentarians and Hill journalists In the most populous province, Ontario, is returning will be hitting the hard-court next month to 70 per cent of respondents reported being to the raise funds for a summer camp for disad- satisfi ed with democracy. newsmagazine vantaged kids. as a senior The call has gone out seeking play- writer after Rempel lashes out against PM ers for the annual Parliament Hill charity less than a basketball tournament, set to be held on in an explicit Twitter post April 30 at Ottawa’s Adult High School in year with the The feud over reforming House proce- Toronto Star. the city’s Little Italy area. dure is spilling over to Twitter. The Liberals, Conservatives, NDP, and The Hill Times Conservative MP Michelle Rempel (Cal- fi le photo Press Gallery will fi eld one team each at gary Nose Hill, Alta.) took to the microblog- the single elimination tournament. The ging site Friday night to call out the Liberals winners of the fi rst two games, played si- for attempting to change House rules. multaneously, advance to the champion- “JT [Justin Trudeau] we are the resis- ship, while the losers duke it out in the tance. Giddyup. Good luck with your shitty third-place game. caucus meeting. We’ve got your number,” The tournament raises funds for Chris- she wrote in a post alongside a screengrab tie Lake Kids, a charity that offers recre- photo of a petition she sponsored urging ational and skill development programs the government to halt any plans to alter at no cost to economically disadvantaged procedural rules without the unanimous children in the Ottawa area. It’s most well- consent of all parties in the House. known for its free summer camp program. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau (Pap- The camp itself is located southwest of ineau, Que.) hosted a caucus retreat for the Ottawa, near Perth, Ont. governing Liberals on Parliament Hill this eteran political columnist Paul Wells is His book on Stephen Harper, The Lon- The Hill basketball tournament raised past weekend. heading back to Maclean’s. ger I’m Prime Minister, won the Shaugh- $20,000 for the charity in 2016. V As of March 28, the online petition on Mr. Wells announced Friday on Twitter nessy Cohen Prize, the John W. Dafoe [email protected] the offi cial Parliament website had more that he would return to the magazine as a Book Prize, and the Ottawa Book Award. The Hill Times senior writer after less than a year with the Toronto Star. Canada’s democratic Conservative MP Michelle He said he’ll be based in Ottawa and infrastructure nets Rempel took to Twitter to start next week. lambast Prime Minister “This amounts to a personal decision improving grade Justin Trudeau and to about where I feel most at home. I’m look- Canadian democracy has made sub- tout the thousands of ing forward to new adventures at [Ma- stantial improvements over the past two signatures for the petition clean’s],” he posted on Twitter.