Blacklock's Reporter

Canada’s chief bank inspector yesterday said interest rate shocks on mortgage renewals remain a top risk. Peter Routledge, Superintendent of Financial Institutions, said billions in variable rate, fixed payment home loans were particularly worrisome: “Mortgage payments no longer cover the full interest costs or the principal.”

Public Safety Minister Dominic LeBlanc yesterday said he’s ensuring success for shippers with a new October 21 start date to collect border tariffs electronically. Shippers and Customs officers predict a costly failure: “We have no confidence in where we are now.”

Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault yesterday garbled figures in claiming the carbon tax has cut greenhouse gas emissions by a third. Guilbeault itemized figures totaling about two percent of emissions, not 33 percent: “I will be the first one to recognize it is complex.”

The carbon tax has no impact on most greenhouse gas emissions in Canada, a Department of Environment manager said yesterday. John Moffet, assistant deputy minister, said the fuel tax likely affected only a third of emissions at best: “It is impossible.”

Housing Minister Sean Fraser yesterday said critics must “not interfere” in his plan to build 3.9 million homes. Fraser’s remarks followed an observation from one MP that the construction target would require a new home to be built every 60 seconds: “Have a field day.”

It will take a generation to see any climate benefit from cabinet’s proposal to plant two billion trees, the Department of Natural Resources said yesterday. The 2019 election promise announced by then-Environment Minister Catherine McKenna will cost $5.9 billion, by Budget Office estimate: “I can’t give an exact date on when the two billion trees will be planted exactly.”

Cabinet should count all foreigners let into Canada in its annual Immigration Levels Plan, the Senate social affairs committee said yesterday. The true number is quadruple the official figure: “The Department of Immigration bears the majority of responsibility.”

Commons Speaker Greg Fergus yesterday saved his job with NDP support after again breaching rules on non-partisanship. Fergus earlier complained critics held him to a “higher standard” because he is Black: “Being the first, you are held to a higher standard.”

The Canadian Human Rights Commission was so upset by a backlash over Christmas it says it feared for staff safety. The Commission in 2023 provoked an uproar in Parliament after publishing a report denouncing Christmas as a racist observance “grounded in Canada’s history of colonialism.”

Most federal records on the Freedom Convoy, 87 percent, were never disclosed by a 2023 inquiry, says the Privy Council. Canadians will wait decades to see the confidential memos and emails: “These questions would need to be posed to former Commissioner Justice Rouleau.”

A third of marijuana users still buy from black market dealers who offer better product, price and service, says in-house Department of Public Safety research. Cannabis users said they were indifferent to dealing with organized crime: ‘Cannabis is legal and it doesn’t matter where they get it.’

Federal prisons this summer will begin buying full body scanners five years after Parliament approved their use, says a Correctional Service report. Scanners have been commonplace in federal airports since 2008: “We anticipate awarding the contract to the successful vendor in summer 2024.”

The Department of Foreign Affairs is abandoning its luxury embassy in Rome. The move follows an earlier  program to sell costly foreign real estate: “There may be a perception the government is not obtaining fair value or managing such properties prudently.”

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