Federal departments spent nearly $26 million at Amazon.com last year, records show. Expenditures came despite federal research showing the web giant hurt small business in Canada: “The percentage of Canadian online retailers with revenue in a product category falls when Amazon.com expands.”
Consumers face a long run-up of rising food prices at rates much higher than those estimated by Statistics Canada, the Commons finance committee was told yesterday. One economist who last December predicted five to seven percent food inflation said the estimate is already out of date: “I don’t think Canada will run out of food but it will get pricier.”
The Department of Immigration acknowledges public skepticism of Minister Sean Fraser’s claim that foreigners bring net benefit to Canada. In-house research questioned the impact of record high quotas: “Prioritize Canadian workers until Canada’s economy recovers from the pandemic.”
The Commons yesterday voted 168 to 155 to revive a Special Committee on Canada-China Relations to investigate Communist espionage. The election campaign last September 20 interrupted the committee’s probe of the firing of Chinese scientists at a federal lab: “Much more needs to be done.”
Complaints over federal concealment of public records are now running at the rate of a thousand a month, Information Commissioner Caroline Maynard said yesterday. Maynard said in a third of cases federal departments and agencies did not even bother to acknowledge Canadians’ requests for records: “We are not able to keep pace.”
Air travelers will pay higher user fees without federal relief for operators, the Canadian Airports Council yesterday told the Commons transport committee. Mandatory airport improvement fees range as high as $42 per traveler: “The more debt we take on, the more debt that is coming back to the passenger.”
Taxpayers will “likely” recover billions spent on the Trans Mountain Pipeline, says Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland. The less hopeful forecast follows cabinet assurances the pipeline would earn a profit: “The Canadian approach will be to ensure that we make a profit so that’s where we are on that.”
A federal agency paid a pollster almost $47,000 to interview 49 people, records show. The topic was financial literacy. “Participants were asked how much time they typically spend in a month on their household’s finances including activities such as paying bills.”
A far-reaching dispute over whether employers have a right to question jobseekers’ immigration status goes to the Ontario Court of Appeal June 15. The case targets an Imperial Oil questionnaire that asked, “Are you entitled to work in Canada on a permanent basis?”
A recurring date for tabling of federal budgets should be fixed by Parliament, says Budget Officer Yves Giroux. Cabinet three times in the past three years failed to table a budget in time for the new fiscal year or write any budget at all: “Your recommendation to have a fixed date for the budget, is that not too rigid?”
MPs have given Second Reading to a Senate bill to criminalize organ trafficking. Legislators for years tried to pass private bills banishing the trade: “Think of the victims and the people who have suffered horribly as a result of forced organ harvesting and trafficking.”
On the way to work,
an ant with a broken leg.
Limping. Vigorously.
Drawing a circle in the
sandy pavement.
Antennae slapping in the air.
I debate whether to end her suffering.
Or let the pain run.
Sun will desiccate the
fragile body.
A bird might come.
A predatory bug.
I remember a cross-section under the microscope.
Hundreds of lenses in the compound eye.
Thousands of sensors.
A pinhead-sized brain, more complex than
anything man-made.
100 million years of evolution.
A life that cannot originate in the lab.
The three-thousand-year-old debate on
body and spirit.
The possibility of an act from above.
End of day.
Walking back to my car.
On the way, the ant,
slowly drawing her circle.
Antennae softly in the air.
A goodbye to a faraway colony.
I debate whether to step on her.
(Editor’s note: poet Shai Ben-Shalom, an Israeli-born biologist, writes for Blacklock’s each and every Sunday)
New Democrat and Liberal MPs yesterday questioned if federal measures are needed to curb political protests. The proposals followed a Tuesday incident in which NDP leader Jagmeet Singh was jeered by profane hecklers: “How much longer do we have to wait before we actually treat this seriously and put in place the tools to prevent this?”
Penalties for Parliament Hill ethics violations lack punch, MPs on the Commons ethics committee said yesterday. Maximum penalties range from a public apology to $500 fine: “$500 is certainly not significant in the eyes of many Canadians and I would agree with them.”
Federal Debates Commissioner David Johnston yesterday acknowledged 2021 campaign telecasts “did not deliver.” Johnston, 80, said he was personally unaware of specific complaints of bias: “Changes need to be made in the future to better serve the public.”
