Alberta to Conduct Newborn SMA Screening
Plus the Liberals delay small business tax break, the redacted costs of the CanSino deal, and Stampede wrap-up
Alberta to Conduct Newborn SMA Screening
This week, I joined Minister of Health, Tyler Shandro, to announce that Alberta will add a new rare disease, spinal muscular atrophy, to all newborn screenings. This will allow SMA patients to be treated earlier and more effectively.
SMA is an inherited disease that affects nerves and muscles causing muscles to become increasingly weak. SMA is typically diagnosed in infancy or early childhood. If left untreated, it is the most common genetic cause of infant death. Earlier this year, Alberta announced a temporary interim agreement for Zolgensma, a life-saving, one-time gene replacement therapy for kids with SMA, Zolgensma works better the earlier the condition is caught.
As a parent who has spent countless hours in clinics visiting specialists and hospital waiting rooms while doctors tried to figure out the diagnosis for my own kids, I know that this newborn test will give parents extra peace of mind.
This has been a long time in the making. The Palmer family in Calgary Shepard told me about the condition, and I have worked with Jessica Olstad, a fierce advocate for SMA screening for several years to get SMA added to the list of newborn tests.
I’d like to thank the Alberta government for continuing to listen to innovate science and enacting measures that will improve the Health of Albertans.
Watch the Full Announcement:
Liberals Delay Conservative Bill That Would Give Tax Breaks to Small Businesses and Farms
It should not be more expensive to sell your business or farm to your kids or grandkids than a stranger, but that’s the way the tax code was written. In Bill C-208, Conservative Member of Parliament from Manitoba, Larry Maguire, proposed changes to the tax code that fix this problem.
This bill was debated and passed by the House of Commons, the Senate, and received Royal Assent. This is quite a feat considering that less than 3% of bills proposed by Members of Parliaments pass. Bill C-208 is a great piece of legislation that would help small businesses and farms, which is why it received support from the Liberal backbenchers and other opposition parties.
Despite the passage of Bill C-208, the Liberals decided to delay enacting the bill until 2022. This information was convened in a Department of Finance memo on June 30, the day after the bill received royal assent. This directly contravenes parliamentary convention and the federal Interpretation Act which state that a bill comes into effect the day that it receives royal assent.
The Finance Committee was recalled to investigate why the Liberals delayed the bill. At the committee, Department of Finance officials said the directive to delay this tax break for farms and small businesses and contravene parliamentary convention and the Interpretation Act came directly from the Finance Minister.
After the Finance Committee meeting, the Liberals walked back on their changes and agreed to finally implement the bill.
Featured Work on Holding the Government Accountable Over Undelivered Vaccines
Full Article Originally Published in the Western Standard.
MP Tom Kmiec filed an access to information request that revealed a secret government payout to a Chinese vaccine company, and raises many questions about the Liberal government’s handling of COVID-19
Calgary Shepard MP Tom Kmiec and his office recently filed an Access to Information request that unearthed some alarming information about a contract between the National Research Council and a Chinese biological company called CanSino.
Kmiec describes the discovery as beginning with the National Research Council (NRC), a government agency responsible for putting out grants and conducting research. The NRC was delegated during the pandemic to do research on COVID-19 vaccinations.
Kmiec said, “… the contract I got was one that was signed between the NRC and CanSino Biologics.” He went on to say CanSino, “… has a very close connection to the central commission in Beijing, which is the government there. So basically they, [the NRC] paid that a contract and… it said there was a non-refundable, non-creditable nominal fee, which basically means it’s an upfront cash transfer from the NRC to CanSino to do research”
“So CanSino would then bear the costs of the lab work, paying all the scientists, doing all this stuff. It’s basically a signed contract to do the COVID-19 vaccine research and procurement in it, and that’s what that contract was all about.”
Kmiec also provides access for the public to view the contract to make a decision for themselves.
“I made the whole ATI public so the whole contract is public. There’s a few redacted components, mainly- primarily- the actual moneys that were transferred. It’s avialbe if you clock on my Facebook page, publicly available to anyone. It’s section 10 through 14 of the contract- one that says the NRC will pay the collaborator, which is the company- this non-refundable, non-creditable material transfer that they have an estimate of how much it will be.”
“Then when you continue, they also agree to a performance of work and they’ve attached something called a statement of work and deliverables. This is the explanation of what this contract is all about, and they’ve also attached a general conditions clause,” said Kmiec.
“Now I’ve seen in the news some people reached out to the minister’s office like other journalists have asked, and they response they got there was, ‘Well, we never transferred any actual cash ‘cause the deal fell apart so quickly’/
“That doesn’t make any sense to me. If the government signed a deal, and just didn’t transfer the money, that seems like a very weird thing to do. And if the deal did fall apart they still signed an agreement, they were still going to pay them out a huge sum of money.”
Kmiec said although the Access to Information filing redacted the actual dollar amount that was paid to CanSino, the black square over the top of it was very long- indicating a payment estimated to be in the millions.”
“You can also tell that it is a huge sum of money just based on how big the blackout area is. They can’t modify the original document, when they provided an ATI, so it has to be…in the millions because that would be sufficient amount of zeros if they’re using the two decimal points after the four pennies. I think it’s in the billions just based on how big the space is.”
Liberal MP’s, including Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, have consistently denied not only the amount of money paid to CanSino, but the entire contract itself.
Stampede Wrap-Up
The Stampede wrapped up last Sunday, and capped off an amazing ten days in Calgary. The attendance at the Stampede was over 500,000. It was great to be with so many constituents over the Stampede.
I helped out at breakfasts throughout the riding. I was able to hear concerns from constituents and talk about the Conservative plan to secure the future.