A Saskatchewan investigation has found repeated breaches of private medical records on victims and survivors of the 2018 Humboldt Broncos disaster. A Crown agency responsible for managing a patients’ database identified snooping of young players’ medical files: “I find that privacy breaches occurred.”
A federal report says Parliament could face a climate change challenge under the Charter Of Rights. Staff questioned whether “environmental rights” could be written into the Constitution: “What is the state of the law in Canada?”
A defence department campaign to recruit more women will take years to reach its targets, the Commons defence committee was told yesterday. Female focus groups uncovered strong negative views of military life: ‘We’re not seeing much progress.’
The Commons has given quick Second Reading to a jurors’ aid bill co-sponsored by Conservatives, Liberals and New Democrats. The bill followed agonizing committee testimony from jurors who attended murder trials: “You don’t know what you’re getting into.”
Records on costly construction and design defects in newly-opened Parliament buildings run to more than 100,000 pages, says the Department of Public Works. MPs and senators complain of numerous errors, from doors that don’t open to sound systems that don’t amplify. Renovations cost more than $1.1 billion to date.
“It seems we are in a situation where responsibility and accountability seem to be rather weak,” Senator Eric Forest (Independent-Que.) earlier told the Senate committee on internal economy: “We were told there would be no problem, and now we find ourselves with a serious problem now that the work has been finished.”
“We do not see these people,” said Forest. “We have informed them they have been paid handsomely, in my opinion.”
Blacklock’s on January 29 filed an Access To Information request for one year’s worth of records, files and correspondence “regarding deficiencies in construction, engineering, design and architecture at Parliament’s West Block and the new Senate chamber.” Public Works Canada said the records total “over 100,000 pages”: “This estimate does not yet take into account the extraction and uploading of further information pertaining to this request from our various Branch systems and email accounts,” wrote staff.
Manon McMillan-Bruyere, Access To Information manager with the Department of Public Works, said records will not be disclosed for years. “Your request as such is extremely bulky,” wrote McMillan-Bruyere. “A request of this magnitude will take several months, or should I say years, to process. Consultation with third parties and other departments will also be necessary and will push the deadline even further.”
“We are looking for at least five years to process a request that is over 100,000 pages,” said McMillan-Bruyere.
“We’ll All Be Wiser”
The department closed Parliament’s 1920-era Centre Block on January 28 for renovations expected to take decades. The closure of the building forced the Commons to relocate to a West Block chamber, and the Senate to move to a former Grand Trunk Railway Central Station across the street.
Costs of refitting the West Block to house MPs were initially budgeted at $460 million in 1992, later revised to $769 million, and currently estimated at $975 million – more than double the original budget. MPs using the West Block for the first time noted inoperable doors, poor signage, and water damage from a burst sprinkler pipe that forced the evacuation of a cafeteria on January 29.
MPs have also complained acoustics in the Commons are so noisy they cannot hear debate. “It is impossible to hear,” Conservative MP Tom Kmiec (Calgary Shepard) earlier told the House: “I cannot hear the member sitting only a few rows away.”
The new Senate chamber was refitted at a cost of $200 million. The Senate committee on internal economy noted the building had so many deficiencies, senators could not move in until February 18. The move was originally scheduled last fall.
“I have not spoken to the architect or any of the engineers there but often they are so concerned about their design and what they want something to look like, it supersedes all functionality issues,” Senator Donald Plett (Conservative-Man.) told a December 13 hearing. “That was one of the things here: ‘This is what this building is supposed to look like, and you will simply have to suffer with some issues as a result of that.’”
Defects in the new Senate building included unfinished drywall and acoustics so poor “it made it virtually impossible for participants to hear the person who had the floor,” said Senator Scott Tannas (Conservative-Alta.): “I think we’ll all be wiser when we’re onto the next big one.”
There is no deadline and no budget for mammoth renovations to Parliament’s Centre Block. Department staff told the Commons House affairs committee last December 11 that a “budget or schedule has not been firmly established”.
Cabinet in 2007 approved a Long-Term Vision Plan that suggested renovations would take 10 years. Public Works sources indicate the closure is more likely to take from 13 to 20 years.
Total costs of Hill renovations were put at $1.4 billion by the Auditor General in 1998, then revised to $1.5 billion by a federal advisory committee in 2001, and estimated at $5 billion by the Auditor General in 2011. “I can foresee an outraged Canadian public looking at the total bill for this,” said Conservative MP Scott Reid (Lanark-Frontenac, Ont.).
By Staff 
The Department of Agriculture spent more than $200,000 on focus group tests of Twitter ads including a gag on cow burps, accounts show. Researchers stressed the importance of “fun facts” about farm science: “I really like the cow burps.”
The Senate energy committee has voted to hold cross-country hearings on a federal rewrite of oil and gas regulations. One Senator proposed lawmakers “go and see the devastation” from Alberta industry: “That would be new information that I would like to look at.”
Hockey Hall of Famer Eric Lindros yesterday told MPs that body-checking should be banned in minor hockey under age 15. Hockey Canada permits checking by players as young as 13: “Why are we starting to hit when not everyone has gone through puberty?”
A labour board has upheld the firing of a federal employee who went on leave for seven years. Managers cannot wait indefinitely for staff to return to work, said the Public Sector Labour Relations & Employment Board: “The employer was under no duty to do anything more.”
The Commons heritage committee yesterday endorsed a bill to create a new federal statutory holiday, First Nations, Inuit and Métis Peoples Day. The Canadian Labour Congress earlier noted the country has comparatively fewer holidays than other nations: ‘We’re honouring survivors.”
Federal carbon tax rebates should be income tested, the Canadian Public Health Association said yesterday. Taxpayers rich or poor will receive identical rebate cheques this year in four provinces without a carbon tax: ‘It is a wasted rebate for people that don’t need it.’
The Commons ethics committee yesterday voted to summon Democratic Institutions Minister Karina Gould for questioning over cabinet’s plan to monitor foreign and domestic “disinformation” this election year. Gould on January 30 announced surveillance of Facebook posts, online news coverage and editorials: “The government seems to have announced it on the fly.”
Parliament could cut 1 in 4 federal regulations without any impact on Canadians’ health or safety, business advocates yesterday told the Commons industry committee. A 2015 red tape reduction bill was “too narrow and needs to be expanded”, said the Canadian Federation of Independent Business: “The system rewards regulators for being regulation makers.”
Liberal and New Democrat MPs yesterday proposed Parliament create a Special Committee on Animal Rights. The proposal followed testimony at the Commons justice committee on a cruel practice called trunking: “We can see a government piece of legislation that implements much broader reforms.”
Cabinet yesterday introduced a bill to appoint a Commissioner of Indigenous Languages. Ancient languages and dialects are most common on the Prairies, where the number of Cree speakers in Manitoba and Saskatchewan outnumber francophones by 69 percent: “We should have done it before.”
