Blacklock's Reporter

Most smokers tell Health Canada they consider themselves hardworking, friendly and responsible citizens. The department spent $145,412 on focus group interviews with smokers as part of a campaign to get millions to quit by 2036: “I enjoy it and don’t want to.”

Migrants working illegally in Canada may claim Employment Insurance benefits, a Tax Court judge has ruled. The order came in the case of 14 Guatemalans at Victoriaville, Que. who were denied a claim since they had no valid contract with their employer: “They were easy targets.”

The bungled federal Phoenix Payroll System failed in part because it couldn’t read decimal points, say Access To Information records. The program has cost taxpayers $2.6 billion to date, by official estimate: “This is causing an issue.”

Canadians continue to run up home equity lines of credit despite rising interest rates, says the Bank of Canada. The bank said the trend may be “concealing emerging financial distress” by consumers: ‘Households were continuing to borrow even as borrowing conditions tightened.’

Cabinet yesterday proposed “increased discretion” in fining companies that conceal breaches of Canadians’ privacy. Regulations last November 1 set maximum penalties at $100,000. No penalty has yet been imposed: “Organizations may want to comply but have difficulty understanding what they need to do.”

The National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls paid contractors $300 an hour, records show. The $92 million Commission yesterday would not say who it hired, or why: “We will find the truth.”

A first-ever federal law guaranteeing prompt payment to subcontractors on public works should be amended to guard against bankruptcy of general contractors, says a bond association. Losses due to insolvency in construction totalled more than $500 million last year, the Commons finance committee was told: “It’s real. It’s not hypothetical.”

Bureaucratic delays are now so commonplace it’s like a “Monty Python movie”, a parliamentary committee has been told. MPs and senators learned even urgent matters like protection of endangered species are pointlessly delayed for months: “Just do it. This is nonsense. Get it done.”

Cabinet has issued a rare directive ordering regulations on minimum care for air passengers affected by tarmac delays up to three hours. A broader passengers’ bill of rights is to take effect July 1: It’s regardless of whether the delays are outside an air carrier’s control.’

Lawmakers have proposed numerous revisions to the Fisheries Act three years after cabinet pledged to restore habitat protection “pretty much to the T”. Amendments passed by the Senate fisheries committee followed appeals from industry: “It lightens the administrative and financial burdens.”

Blacklock’s pauses for the Victoria Day holiday with best wishes to subscribers and friends. We’re back tomorrow — The Editor.

The only federal investigation of the SNC-Lavalin Group Inc. case will not be complete before Parliament adjourns for the summer, Ethics Commissioner Mario Dion yesterday told the Commons ethics committee. Dion would not commit to finishing his work before election day, October 21: “It does take time.”

The Green Party yesterday proposed to abolish gas and diesel-powered cars and require all homeowners to renovate their property by 2030 under a “climate emergency”. The Party would insist on the program as a condition of support in any minority Parliament, said leader Elizabeth May: “It’s time to get serious.”

The Senate budget committee by a 10 to 5 vote yesterday agreed to pay a $15,255 expense for polling by Senator Donna Dasko (Independent-Ont.), a former pollster. One lawmaker warned the vote opens a Pandora’s box of dubious spending: “What we’re doing is setting precedent.”