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Analysis

Victorian Premier Denis Napthine. Photo: Alex Ellinghausen

Youd think a Liberal party room meeting at the start of a crucial parliamentary sitting week in an election year might focus on the big questions confronting the government.

Things like: how to recapture the political high ground; how to wedge Labor; whether opinion polls matter eight months out from an election; how best to allocate scarce resources.

The fact the Liberal Party spent the best part of an hour on Tuesday morning talking about itself is a very worrying sign indeed for Denis Napthine.

The party is starting to bicker. The danger is this develops into open hostility which can quickly become a downward spiral. Just ask the federal Labor Party.

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There are tensions along several fault lines. Old factional wounds have been reopened between progressive and conservative elements of the party. There are tensions as key players jockey for place as Napthines heir apparent and there are tensions between state and federal Liberals.

If Victorian Liberal president Tony Snell was expecting an easy run when he addressed the party room on Tuesday morning, he was sorely mistaken. Snell was asked by Napthine to simply address the party on the process for upper house pre-selections.

What he got was a barrage of angry questions, highlighting the extent of the tensions dogging the party. Former Premier Ted Baillieu arced up, asking whether federal MPs will be told to ''stay out'' of future preselection brawls.

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Liberals risk downward spiral

Ontarios governing Liberals say theyre willing to put up $1-billion to develop an all-season transportation corridor to the Ring of Fire if the federal Conservatives match the funds.

Ottawa must help bear the cost of building the infrastructure thats needed to develop the mineral-rich region, create jobs and boost northern Ontarios hard-hit economy, they said Monday.

We are coming to the table with our best offer and we need the prime minister and his team to join us there, said Michael Gravelle, Ontarios minister of northern development and mines.

The province has maintained that the Harper Conservatives should be actively involved in the Ring of Fires development as they have for other projects, such as the Alberta oilsands.

The Ontario Chamber of Commerce has estimated that the project could generate $9.4-billion in new economic activity over the next decade and support 5,500 jobs a year.

It said it would also provide the federal, Ontario and municipal governments with almost $2-billion in revenue over that period and $6.7-billion over 32 years.

But the lack of a transportation route has been a major barrier to developing the Ring of Fire about 500 kilometres northeast of Thunder Bay, Ont. which is believed to contain one of the largest chromite deposits in the world.

The project suffered a major setback last November, when a big mining company that was going to pour $3-billion into the Ring of Fire suddenly pulled out.

Cliffs Natural Resources Inc. suspended its operations indefinitely, saying it couldnt keep spending money while the question of whether it would be able to build an all-weather road to the remote site remained in doubt.

Noront Resources Ltd., which wants to develop its Eagles Nest and Blackbird mining projects, said the provinces commitment is a vital milestone that will benefit remote First Nations communities.

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Ontario pledges $1-billion for Ring of Fire

Andrea Janus, CTVNews.ca Published Monday, April 28, 2014 3:58PM EDT Last Updated Monday, April 28, 2014 7:23PM EDT

The auditor general should be called in to probe the Temporary Foreign Workers Program, the Liberals said Monday, days after the Conservative government suspended the food-service sector from the program over reports of abuse.

Employment Minister Jason Kenney announced last Thursday that the restaurant industry will be unable to access the program pending an investigation by his department.

The issue came up quickly during question period in the House of Commons on Monday as MPs returned to work after a two-week Easter break.

Liberal MP Ralph Goodale said problems with the program extend beyond the food-service sector, and asked the government to go beyond an internal investigation by calling in the auditor general.

We know there are problems, as well, in banking and mining and other industries, too, Goodale said.

Over a year ago Liberals warned about this. To save the program, we asked for full review to get rid of the abuses. The government voted no and the trouble got worse. The department cannot investigate itself. Isnt it time for the auditor general to get on this file?

Kenney replied that the auditor general is free to investigate whatever he deems appropriate without direction from the government, and said the government responds when it receives reports of abuse.

In terms of the program, of course, if and when there are abuses we act clearly and quickly, Kenney told the House. If we see any distortion of the labour market we are going to address that.

Kenney noted that reforms were introduced to the program last year, which led to a significant drop in applications. He will unveil further changes in the coming weeks to ensure Canadians always and everywhere get the first crack at available jobs and that the program is only used as a limited and last resort by employers.

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Liberals demand feds call on Auditor General to probe foreign workers program

He said that Paddy Ashdown was "not the only parliamentary party member whose secretary was valued for more than her typing skills", while another MP entertained "two attractive boys" in a "dodgy backstreet club" instead of attending a party event.

He recalled Smith as a "viciously mean bully", who used his "grotesque physical size" as a "form of intimidation".

However Lord Steel, the former Liberal leader, admitted last year that he had been aware of Cyril Smith's "unusual behaviour with boys" since 1979 but accepted his denials of wrongdoing.

In 1979 the Rochdale Alternative Press, a local magazine, published details of Smiths abuse at Cambridge House. A spokesman for Lord Steel, then leader of the Liberal Party: "All he seems to have done is spanked a few bare bottoms."

Mr Wilson said: "Was there a deliberate, cynical cover-up by the leadership? I am a believer in the cock-up theory of politics rather than the conspiracy one.

"I think they got the biggest spade they could find, dug the biggest hole in the sand they could manage, and buried their collective heads in it, hoping the rumours were unfounded or that it would all go away. In other words, it was cowardice rather than conspiracy."

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Liberals had too many 'guilty secrets' of their own to confront Cyril Smith

TORONTO - Ontario's governing Liberals or whichever party succeeds them should work with the private sector to deliver public services at less cost, former Liberal finance minister Dwight Duncan said Thursday.

The cash-strapped Liberals are running an $11.3-billion deficit and have doubled the debt to $272 billion since they took office in 2003.

Duncan, who was treasurer from 2007 to 2013 when the province racked up record deficits, said all three parties will be compelled to look at more efficient ways to provide services.

Ontario has a "staggering" debt, insufficient infrastructure, gridlock in the Toronto area and an aging population that will drive up health-care costs, he said.

But this isn't the "same old tired mantra of privatization," said Duncan, who left politics last year for the private sector.

"The idea is to save money while delivering the same services and being able to apply the savings to those priority areas, whatever priority areas the government of the day identifies," he said.

Many countries have saved money by working with private companies on prison management, health and administrative services, according to an Ontario Chamber of Commerce report that Duncan helped put together. But the province is lagging behind, it said.

Teranet, a private company that has a licence to provide electronic land registration services, is a success story, Duncan said. The Ontario government got $1 billion and 50 years of royalty payments in the deal and still controls fee increases, the report said.

But other deals were massive failures, such as Ontario's Ornge air ambulance service, a not-for-profit entity that ended up under police investigation for financial irregularities. The auditor general rapped the Liberals on the knuckles for failing to oversee Ornge, despite giving it hundreds of millions of dollars.

"I concur Ornge did not work out that well and there are bad deals done," Duncan said.

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Duncan urges Liberals to look to private sector