The Commons human resources committee yesterday rejected a $54 million-a year tax on real estate investment trusts. Critics including cabinet’s Housing Advocate blamed current tax breaks for “financialization of housing.”
A windfall profit tax on oil and gas companies would raise $4.2 billion, the Budget Office said yesterday. Green MP Mike Morrice (Kitchener Centre), who requested the figures, said Parliament must impose heavier taxes on energy firms: “We are not going to ask.”
Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault yesterday promised federal regulators will not step into provincial jurisdiction on impact assessments. The comments followed two court challenges by Ontario against interference in local projects: “What is going to happen to projects that aren’t just in federal jurisdiction?”
The economy will be worse in 2024 than expected, Bank of Canada Governor Tiff Macklem said yesterday. Macklem six weeks ago predicted there would be no recession but said now it cannot be ruled out: “We expected a slowing. We’re seeing a little more slowing. It’s hard to be super precise why it slowed a little more.”
The Commons yesterday by a 208 to 115 vote passed a private Liberal bill to ban junk food advertising to children. Advertisers said the ban would cost a billion a year: “Those revenues, nearly $1 billion, would be lost by Canadian media operations.”
The Covid recession caused more business closures than the 2008 financial panic, Statistics Canada said yesterday. Data confirmed the phenomenon of “zombie businesses” whose owners never filed for bankruptcy but simply walked away: “Formal insolvencies are not the whole story.”
The Commons yesterday by a 205 to 114 vote rejected a private Conservative bill prohibiting any revival of federal Covid-19 vaccine mandates. The last mandates expired October 1, 2022: “The Prime Minister had the temerity to go on television about three months ago and claim he never forced anyone to get vaccinated.”
Chinese-Canadian dissidents yesterday named domestic media and community groups they considered friends of the Communist Party. Awareness of Party propaganda “is relatively lacking on the part of the Canadian public,” said the Falun Dafa Association: ‘Newspapers have been regurgitating propaganda.’
Federal Housing Advocate Marie-Josée Houle in a report to Parliament suggested MPs consider decriminalizing drug trafficking in tent cities. The proposal was among “potential solutions shared with the Advocate during her engagement so far.”
Housing Minister Sean Fraser yesterday would not comment on complaints against a Toronto landlord he singled out for praise as an affordable housing provider. The landlord faces allegations of rent gouging in a tenants’ strike: ‘Rent increases were excessive and unwarranted.’
Cabinet yesterday rejected a petition signed by almost a tenth of MPs demanding a ceasefire in Israel. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau suggested a brief “humanitarian pause” instead. The 33 petitioners included nine Liberal committee chairs and parliamentary secretaries: “Every country has the right to defend itself.”
The Commons public accounts committee yesterday agreed to summon federal managers to justify an $8 million expense for a solar-powered warehouse at Rideau Hall. It follows a separate report demanding that Governor General Mary Simon cut spending on Beef Wellington and silk jackets: “The list of ridiculous spending keeps growing.”
Parliament must enact legislation to unmask foreign agents, the Commons ethics committee yesterday wrote in an all-party report. A private bill to introduce a foreign registry has languished in the Senate for 18 months: “Why don’t we do our job?”
Most Canadian homeowners now spend more than $200 a month for heat and light, says in-house research by the Department of Natural Resources. A fifth of Canadians, 21 percent, said “my home energy costs are a significant financial burden.”
The Commons public safety committee yesterday voted to investigate Canada’s growing black market trade in vehicles hijacked for export. Insurance claims on stolen cars, trucks and SUVs last year totaled $1 billion: “This is an issue that is actually quite personal to me as my vehicle was stolen.”
