Covid lockdowns sharply cut church attendance, Statistics Canada said yesterday. The Public Health Agency within days of the pandemic’s outbreak recommended cancellation of masses and prayer meetings: “Some people reported that because of the pandemic they prayed more or their faith got stronger.”
Prosecution of tax cheats takes too long, says a Canada Revenue Agency report. Auditors warned the Agency runs a risk of seeing scofflaws beat criminal charges due to lengthy delays: “Cases rarely go to trial within eighteen months.”
Elections Canada paid researchers more than $84,000 for personality profiles of federal voters. Working-age women are typically “planners” while rural Canadians are “in control as opposed to stressed,” said a report: “Personas were born out of conversations with Canadians who shared their opinions.”
The next three years will determine whether the Canadian TV system survives, says a CRTC report. Research pointed to loss of viewership and advertising to internet broadcasters like Netflix and YouTube: “How much time do we have? Best guess given current trends: three years.”
The Department of Health lost track of thousands of computers under haphazard IT management, say auditors. The department’s Public Health Agency was earlier cited for keeping inventory by hand at nine warehouses leased to stockpile emergency pandemic supplies: “With hindsight would I have liked it to have been different?”
Saving the French language is fundamental to preserving the nation, says a federal briefing note. A cabinet bill pending in the Commons promotes use of French-language computers and French-speaking managers in the federally regulated private sector: “The French language is threatened.”
Election time
in the City of Ottawa.
I check the list of candidates.
They all promise the same
as others before them:
more jobs, better roads, low taxes.
But
who will confess
they have no solution
to homeless shelters
who will disclose
there’s no definitive deadline
for the Light Rail Transit project
who will admit
they cannot reroute trucks
away from the downtown core
who will acknowledge
organic garbage recycling program
doesn’t meet its goals
who will confirm
the city’s $2 billion debt
is here to stay
who will remove
the dead squirrel
from Alta Vista Drive
(Editor’s note: poet Shai Ben-Shalom, an Israeli-born biologist, writes for Blacklock’s each and every Sunday)
Claims of economic damage from Freedom Convoy protests were so inflated cabinet couldn’t give away half the millions it budgeted to compensate businesses, records show. One compensation fund saw 82 percent of grant money go unclaimed: “Up to 1,900 businesses in Ottawa could potentially receive support.”
Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino yesterday said he was careful to avoid any interference in the federal appointment of a personal friend as a judge. “I recused myself,” said Mendicino.
The Commons foreign affairs committee today convenes rare July hearings into cabinet waivers on sanctions against Russia. Opposition MPs demanded the committee meet ahead of Sunday protests on Parliament Hill: “Canada has failed to step up.”
Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland yesterday said she will rewrite portions of a luxury tax that lobbyists called a job killer. The ten percent tax on private aircraft over $100,000 was to take effect September 1: “If you’re selling fewer aircraft you’re manufacturing fewer aircraft, you have fewer jobs.”
Cabinet members’ Speaking Points must avoid jargon and acronyms especially in Question Period, says an Access To Information guide for political ghostwriters. Staff are also instructed to deflect questions by reciting past achievements or finding an “alternate angle.”
Canadian health care workers, especially nurses and paramedics, have had high rates of vaccine hesitancy, according to data cited in a peer-reviewed periodical. Findings were drawn from a survey of more than 15,000 people nationwide: “Our finding of high vaccine hesitancy among health care workers is consistent with other studies both within and outside of Canada.”
Pandemic relief payments to school-age teenagers averaged $5000 each, Statistics Canada said yesterday. Hundreds of thousands of high schoolers received Covid relief cheques intended to aid jobless taxpayers facing eviction or foreclosure: “God love the 15-year old who got a $2,000-a month CERB cheque courtesy of taxpayers.”
Canadians should expect an economic slowdown by winter with continued high costs of living, Bank of Canada Governor Tiff Macklem said yesterday. “That does imply some pain,” Macklem told reporters: “Yes, the economy is going to slow.”
