Omnibus budget bills are now so unwieldy MPs are voting on legislation they haven’t read or don’t understand, say critics. The Speaker of the Commons yesterday ordered that the latest 851-page bill be split into separate votes at Second Reading: “Mistakes can be made.”
Environment Minister Catherine McKenna’s claims of climate change fatalities are contradicted by new data. McKenna repeatedly pointed to a surge in deaths in a July heat wave in Québec as proof of the need for a national carbon tax. Figures show the death rate in July was the same as last year.
The Québec Institute of Statistics said deaths across the province for the month totaled 5000, the same as the identical period last year. Deaths for July were comparable to the ten-year average and below a peak of 5,072 deaths in July 2010, when average temperatures were two degrees cooler.
“The number of deaths in July is identical to last year’s estimate,” said Frédéric Payeur, a demographer with the Institute. “It is in fact a bit counter-intuitive since we heard about many heat wave-related deaths last summer. We will update this number tomorrow, but I don’t expect the new preliminary estimate to be much different.”
Final estimates will be completed by 2020, said Payeur. “We will need to look into precise causes of deaths for a proper estimate of heat wave deaths,” he said. “It is difficult. In these kind of deaths, causality is not straightforward.”
Various media reports last July claimed 93 “suspected deaths” in Québec including 53 in Montréal in a two-week period due to a heat wave. Media attributed figures to unnamed local authorities. No comparable figures were reported in Ontario though the same heat wave extended through the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence River valley.
Environment Minister McKenna cited the deaths in promoting a 12¢-a litre carbon tax under the Greenhouse Gas Pollution Pricing Act. “We are all paying the cost of extreme weather events like floods, like droughts, like forest fires, and 90 people died in Québec this summer because of extreme heat,” McKenna told the Commons on October 26.
“We’re seeing the impacts of climate change across the country, whether you live in the West, where you see these extreme forest fires; you live in the Prairies where you see droughts and flooding; or you live in the East, where you see extreme heat that’s literally killing people,” McKenna told reporters October 29. “We need to work together. We owe it to our kids.”
Environment Canada data show temperatures in Montréal were unmistakably higher this past July, though the number of deaths was not. Average daytime highs were 30° compared to 25° for the same period in 2017.
Overnight lows in July remained above 20° for 11 days, compared to 9 days for the same period last year. Québec’s Ministry of Health did not comment on the statistics.
“The Ministry entrusts the National Institute of Public Health of Québec with the mandate to produce an annual monitoring report on the impacts of extreme heat,” said Marie-Claude Lacasse, spokesperson for the ministry. “This report will be finalized at a later date.”
Canada’s deadliest heat wave occurred in Manitoba and Ontario in July 1936. Deaths numbered 1,180 by official estimate, including 400 drownings amid 40° temperatures. The 1936 heat wave forced factory shutdowns in Winnipeg, cooked fruit on the trees in Hamilton, buckled a Canadian Pacific Railway trestle at White River, Ont. and was blamed for 64 forest fires.
Health Canada in a 2018 study Qualitative Research On Health Professionals’ Awareness And Perceptions Of Heat Health Issues concluded that “extreme heat is not viewed as a major problem”. Doctors surveyed by department pollsters described heat-related deaths as “very rare” in Canada.
By Staff 
Cabinet proposes to name and shame scofflaw banks that breach consumer protection regulations, and increase 20-fold the maximum penalty for violations. The provisions in omnibus budget bill C-86 follow complaints of weak enforcement by the federal Financial Consumer Agency: “We were promised a financial consumer code.”
Most crime victims never receive court-ordered compensation, says Department of Justice research. Analysis of thousands of orders issued by courts in one province, Saskatchewan, found only about 1 in 10 are paid in full though sums are modest, typically less than $1,500: “I think it is bulls—t.”
Canadians are leaders in stealing copyright material online, the Commons industry committee was told yesterday. The Department of Industry estimates 26 percent admit to illegally accessing music, e-books, movies, software, TV shows and video games: ‘It is a pervasive problem.’
The Department of Public Works says its government surplus auction website is just as good as Kijiji. Members of the Commons public accounts committee yesterday questioned returns on sales: “Anything that will make us look better, we’ll look at it.”
The Canada Border Services Agency has asked travelers what’s in their wallet even if cash amounts were permitted by law, according to Access To Information records. Enforcing Acts of Parliament can be tricky, said one staff memo: “We have received a number of complaints.”
Federal regulations cost individuals and companies more than $2 billion last year, new data show. Costs were up 33 percent from the previous year despite a 2015 law that promised to cut red tape: “It seems to be arbitrary.”
Tariff layoffs threaten to number in the thousands, the Commons trade committee has been told. The chamber of commerce in one Ontario county said it faces 5,000 manufacturing job losses if cross-border duties on steel and aluminum are not repealed: “That’s 1 out of every 4 jobs in our market.”
Health Canada says it is now in full compliance with its own drug safety law after a federal judge faulted the department for misconduct. Staff breached a 2014 law opposed by drug companies that promised public disclosure of data to protect patients: “It was all a façade.”
Victoria has Canada’s lowest urban jobless rate and is near full employment, according to Statistics Canada data. The British Columbia capital’s rate approaches previous records set by two Prairie cities: ‘Restaurants have shortened hours because they can’t get staff.’
Villages burned to the ground.
Mass gang rapes.
Genocide in Myanmar.
In Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh,
close to a million Rohingya find refuge.
Among them, Unia,
a proud mother of four.
Today, a mother of two.
Her shelter,
two blankets tied with ropes
held by twigs.
She looks at the camera,
wonders if anyone cares.
Canada listens, responds.
In a unanimous vote,
the House of Commons
passes a motion
to revoke Aung San Suu Kyi’s
honorary citizenship.
Carleton University
even strips her
of honorary doctorate.
(Editor’s note: poet Shai Ben-Shalom, an Israeli-born biologist, examines current events in the Blacklock’s tradition each and every Sunday)
Cabinet is repealing a law affecting cross-border travelers after losing a landmark 2017 court case. Judges upheld rights for travelers subject to searches for unreported cash: “The Canadian government has turned the Act into a kind of lobster trap.”
Cabinet yesterday declared in force regulations that would see companies fined $100,000 for failing to report breaches of customers’ personal information. Critics cautioned the measure contains numerous loopholes: ‘If I’m a large organization $100,000 is much less of a risk to me than having to go out and disclose.’
A bill to proclaim a new federal holiday should prompt provinces to follow Parliament’s lead, the bill’s sponsor yesterday told the Commons heritage committee. New Democrat Bill C-369 would declare June 21 National Indigenous Peoples Day: “It holds a special significance.”
