Blacklock's Reporter

The profit-driven housing market is “harming people” and must be regulated by Parliament, Federal Housing Advocate Marie-Josée Houle said yesterday. Only regulations will lower prices, she said: “Corporate investment in housing is a serious human rights issue.”

A 33 percent increase in mandatory security fees will cost air passengers more than a quarter billion next year, the Parliamentary Budget Office said yesterday. Cabinet raised the fees for the first time since 2010 though figures showed revenues were an average 12 percent more than the cost of airport X-ray scanning: “It has become a cash cow, not a fee for service.”

The Royal Canadian Mint yesterday released figures confirming it lost millions on a failed digital currency venture. Management would not comment: “The Mint considers that information is commercially confidential.”

The Canada Pension Plan Investment Board rates China a good investment despite human rights atrocities. “We are exceedingly, exceedingly cautious,” said Michel Leduc, senior managing director with the Board: “We recognize any investment in China needs to be handled with care.”

MPs yesterday by a 170 to 150 vote defied cabinet in demanding a roundup of Chinese spies and mandatory registration of foreign agents in Canada. Cabinet expelled the first Chinese agent as the Commons voted for tough action against subterfuge: “We don’t know if there are others.”

The chief of the Canadian Human Rights Commission yesterday said she was sorry for mistreatment of Black employees. Members of the Senate human rights committee said the lack of Black executives at the agency diminished the apology: “This is an issue for Blacks, so why isn’t there a Black person on the executive sitting here?”

The Commons human resources committee today opens hearings on corporate landlords and tax treatment of real estate investment trusts. One MP called it a bid to “demonize private sector landlords.”

English speaking Canadians remain indifferent to French despite 54 years of official bilingualism, says in-house federal research. A majority of residents in two provinces, British Columbia and Alberta, said they did not know a single French person: “Positive statements about bilingualism are higher among those living in the eastern part of the country than in the West.”

The pending loss of a federal riding in northern Ontario comes at a “very fragile time for democracy,” says New Democrat MP Charlie Angus (Timmins-James Bay, Ont.). A federal commission has recommended redrawing much of Angus’ riding into a new constituency 520,300 square kilometres in size: “Is your opposition to cutting a seat in northern Ontario about protecting your own riding?”

The Department of Industry now expects a heavily-subsidized Volkswagen battery factory will last perhaps “dozens of years,” says Deputy Minister Simon Kennedy. Industry Minister Francois-Philippe Champagne had predicted it would survive 100 years. Kennedy did not explain the discrepancy: “Is that a challenge?”

Cabinet’s National Housing Strategy Act has financed construction of 106,000 homes since 2019, new figures show. CMHC has estimated builders are short of demand by 400,000 a year: “We have a large task in front of us.”

The Department of Public Safety is finally installing full body scanners in federal prisons 15 years after the devices were first introduced at Canadian airports. Parliament approved their use in prisons in 2019: “The use of body scan search technology is considerate of inmate, staff and visitor gender considerations.”

Successful prosecutions under federal usury laws number only four or five a year, according to Department of Justice figures. Cabinet wrote revisions to loansharking bans into Bill C-47 its Budget Implementation Act: “We haven’t seen much.”

One of Canada’s largest mortgage brokers describes as “a fishing expedition” an investigation of its business practices by anti-trust lawyers. The federal Competition Bureau seeks a court order compelling Dominion Lending Centres to surrender confidential records: ‘It is essentially a fishing expedition.’