Rex Murphy: It is a good thing to see that SNC is back receiving government contracts. It’s all about “jobs, jobs, jobs,” remember? And there will be jobs, even though this particular contract is a little vague.
We know it was a $150-million contract for COVID-19 field hospitals that was signed five months ago. But there was “no fixed delivery date” for the project, according to a government memo. And where was the company supposed to build these field hospitals? “No formal request has been made by a province or territory to date as these units have been ordered in anticipation of a potential need by the Government of Canada for a broad range of situations,” read another memo.
Well, la-di-da. When it’s fighting for jobs, jobs, jobs, this government finds no barrier too challenging. Even, it seems, if a potential product is not asked for, and has no fixed delivery date (they could come after COVID, for all we know).
The message is that this government fights for every Canadian job. Except when it doesn’t. Take note of the great storm over the Keystone XL pipeline. When U.S. President Joe Biden, on the very first day of his presidency, cancelled Keystone, the uproar from Ottawa, and the prime minister in particular, was deafening. The Peace Tower itself trembled from the rage emanating from the Prime Minister’s Office. Thunderous denunciations rolled down Parliament Hill and echoed throughout Ottawa.
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