Ottawa winds down for the holidays This is the second-last Politics Insider of 2020. We're taking a holiday hiatus until New Year's Eve, when you can expect a special end-of-year edition. Did someone forward you this newsletter? Sign up here to get it delivered weekday mornings. Bill C-7 needs more time. The Liberal government's medical assistance in dying legislation passed second reading in the Senate, but the upper chamber wasn't about to rush its royal assent. Sen. Marc Gold, the government representative in the Senate, supported the bill as striking a "reasonable balance between the rights of individuals to seek access to MAID and the safeguards necessary to protect the most vulnerable in society." But Gold also acknowledged a "legitimate desire" among his colleagues "to fulfill their constitutional role of sober second thought." A Quebec court granted an extension on its order for Parliament to rewrite the original MAID law by Dec. 18. The new deadline is Feb. 26, 2021. Boeing's 737 MAX aircraft are closer to a return to Canadian skies. Transport Minister Marc Garneau announced yesterday that his department had validated the model's design changes since it was grounded around the world after two deadly aviation disasters. This handy infographic offers a timeline on the aircraft's tumultuous recent history—and its projected return to commercial service as early as next month. (That's when the feds will officially lift the NOTAM, fancy jargon for notice to airmen, currently barring flights.) The Canada Revenue Agency published a tax-gap report that tracks how much income tax the feds are still collecting that's outstanding for previous years. The top-line findings explain that individual Canadians have cut down their tax owed on 2014 income by 76 per cent. Corporations have collectively only repaid 38 per cent. Even though small businesses make up 99 per cent of corporations, they account for only 54 per cent of the corporate tax gap. The median tax owed by big corporations is $30, but the average, however, is $966,310. Sure sounds like some large outliers haven't paid up. The department of Canadian Heritage is putting out a contract for an "Impact Analysis Report on Canadian Broadcasting." Place your bets on how long down the road it'll be before this turns into a nasty headline, one way or another. Bardish Chagger on a tumultuous 2020: In a year-end interview, the minister for diversity and inclusion and youth hopes the Liberals can document their lessons learned in a pandemic for the benefit of future governments, but she's not willing to say much about the failed student service grant for which she came under intense scrutiny. Chagger did, however, say the country might have gotten used to a faster-paced federal bureaucracy: It’s sometimes just a matter of looking at the processes. A longer process doesn’t necessarily make it more effective. That’s where we do need to look at the pace that government travels. I think we’re going to have to have these conversations. Now that Canadians know we can respond quicker, there might be a new expectation out there. Indigenous leadership is crucial to protecting the planet: Writing in the Maclean's Year Ahead issue, outgoing Sen. Murray Sinclair argues, "The planet needs Indigenous leadership, and we have no time to waste. In 2021, the federal government must act with courage and honesty to advance reconciliation in a serious way." Sinclair offers a road map to environmental stewardship: Science increasingly affirms what Indigenous peoples have always known, and what many Canadians are rediscovering: everything is connected. This is true not just of you and I, but of all life forms of Creation. This is why my people, the Anishinaabe, use the term “nii-konasiitook,” which means “all of my relations,” when speaking. It reflects the belief that all people owe each other as well as the environment, including animals and plants, a duty of respect. In turn, a healthy environment provides for our well-being, through clean air and water, plentiful food and favourable weather. The respect is mutual. Mea culpa: In our haste yesterday, we mistakenly wrote that 17,602 Canadians suffered opioid-related deaths in the first half of 2020. In fact, those numbers represent deaths between 2016 and 2020—still a scary number, but on a broader time-scale. Sen. Jim Munson felt reflective as he left the Senate building for the last time in 2020. Munson turns 75 next year, so he'll retire before another Christmas in the capital. He pointed his camera to one of the marvellous windows in the beaux-arts Senate building that was once a downtown train station, and let loose a little democratic inspiration befitting the season: "Let there always be a window of light." —Nick Taylor-Vaisey | 
