So long, Navdeep Bains Did someone forward you this newsletter? Sign up here to get it delivered weekday mornings. This newsletter was going to start with some news yesterday from Government House Leader Pablo Rodriguez, the man who sets the parliamentary agenda and teased one of his first bills of 2021. More on that later, because late-breaking news overtook the agenda, as is sometimes the wont of power players in Ottawa. CBC News reported Innovation Minister Navdeep Bains would be leaving cabinet—and declining to run in the next election. Bains's departure means someone new gets his job. Typically, rumours of cabinet shuffles spark weeks of speculation. Not so much this time, as Prime Minister Justin Trudeau might already have made the moves by the time you read this (the ceremony was set for 9 a.m. ET, and Trudeau will talk to reporters later this morning before a virtual cabinet retreat). So who's playing musical chairs? CBC's sources say François-Philippe Champagne will replace Bains, surely a demotion for the foreign minister. Marc Garneau, the transport minister who's worked with other countries in, you know, outer space, will reportedly take over Champagne's job. And Mississauga MP Omar Alghabra leaps into Garneau's old post at transport. Back to Rodriguez, who tweeted one of his government's first orders of business when the House of Commons sits again later this month. The Liberals will look to pass a law that would prevent returning travellers from claiming a sickness benefit that gives $1,000 to workers who are forced to take short-term leave because of COVID-19. "We ask opposition to help pass this on Jan. 25," he said, making the to and fro of minority government sound so darn cordial. Watch your mailbox: iPolitics reports the Canada Revenue Agency will soon be sending millions of CERB tax slips in the mail. The benefit was always going to be taxable, so 8.9 million recipients who supplemented their overall income with the response benefit will have to do the math on how much they owe. (Thousands of other applicants who are ruled ineligible will still, unless the government reverses its position, have to repay every cent they received.) Follow the charts: As provinces claim they're running out of vaccine doses and the feds promise more are on the way, useful context is buried on the Public Services and Procurement Canada website. The department has forecasts for vaccine distribution until the end of February. By the end of February, just over 3 million doses of the Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna vaccines should be dispersed to the provinces—about four per cent of Canada's population (everyone needs two doses). Who can administer the vaccine? In normal times, provinces have pretty strict rules on who can inoculate. But as the largest immunization campaign in the history of Canada ramps up, the word of the moment is adaptation. Red River College in Manitoba created a program that, writes Patricia Treble, will train "everyone hired by Shared Health Manitoba for its vaccination program who didn’t have specific immunization credentials." That's 384 students, and counting. It took two weeks and 20 people for Red River College to get the program up and running by Dec. 13, explains Bill Rutherford, the college’s business development manager. The eight-hour tuition-free course consists of five hours of theory, delivered online, as well as three hours in skills labs, held at Red River College in Winnipeg as well as Assiniboine Community College in Brandon, with other sites due to open shortly. Calling all consultants: Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada is looking for someone to whip up some business and economic analysis of the government's $950-million "innovation supercluster" initiative. The successful bidder will collect evidence and dispense advice on the superclusters' "current and potential achievements." Last October, the parliamentary budget officer reported the feds had spent tens of millions less than planned on the program, though (as of today, former) minister Navdeep Bains responded by showcasing key projects —the department claimed 200 were underway—later in the fall. Our leaders have failed us: Scott Gilmore, writing in Maclean's, argues for stronger leadership from political leaders as COVID-19 cases, hospitalizations and deaths rise and rise and rise with no end in sight: So much has been lost. Over 650,000 Canadians have been infected with the coronavirus. Sixteen thousand are dead. Today, another 160 will die. It’s the equivalent of a fully loaded Boing 737 crashing and killing everyone on board, day after day after day. And these grim numbers hide the human tragedies behind every death. People are dying alone. Families are being broken. Every day new widows, new orphans. And worse still, it didn’t have to be like this. Canada's Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions, a federal regulator of banks and insurance companies, is asking the folks it oversees to talk about the risks posed by climate change, from physical (flooding that damages homes) to transition (the costs of reducing greenhouse gas emissions) to liability (exposure to climate-related litigation). File this one under: "Reports that prove climate science has gone mainstream". 38 million Canadians: When Canada hit that milestone last year, Statistics Canada generated some headlines. But yesterday, the agency published a more sobering stat. As immigration slowed to a trickle amid a deadly pandemic, the country's population grew by just 0.1 per cent in the second quarter of 2020. Don't forget: Tonight, we crown this year's Parliamentarians of the Year. Take one last look at the finalists, and follow #macleansPOTY tonight as we roll out the winners—starting at 7 p.m. ET. —Nick Taylor-Vaisey | 
