Blacklock's Reporter

A federally-funded advocate of a home equity tax yesterday told the Commons finance committee homeowners got rich “while sleeping and watching TV.” Professor Paul Kershaw of the University of British Columbia proposed a yearly tax on property assessments for principal residences: “Think about how do you calculate the additional minor tax we’re asking people to contribute over the years that they’re living in their home.”

Electric car subsidies have cost taxpayers the equivalent of more than $600 for every tonne of greenhouse gas emissions saved, according to figures. The Department of Transport yesterday praised subsidies as successful: “I think it’s essential to ensure the well-being of Canadians.”

The Senate last night took up a private Conservative bill to legalize bookmaking. The Senate sponsor cited a lobbyist-commissioned report that tax revenues from single event sports betting could top a half-billion a year: “Imagine the impact of these revenues.”

The Commons yesterday by a 210-122 vote gave Second Reading to a bill mandating climate change targets leading to net zero emissions within a generation. There are no penalties for non-compliance: “Fascinating.”

VIA Rail faces a slow recovery from the pandemic, the Senate national finance committee was told yesterday. The Crown railway in 2020 received a $187.5 million bailout to offset declines in ticket sales: “They are at a very slow service level.”

Heritage Minister Steven Guilbeault yesterday lost NDP support to speed a YouTube censorship bill through the minority Parliament. New Democrats on the Commons heritage committee said they must determine if the bill violates the Charter Of Rights And Freedoms: “It’s important for people to have dissent.”

Canadians are divided over federal plans for a mammoth data scoop on every citizen who crosses the border, according to in-house research. First-ever regulations to take effect in 2028 would allow the Canada Border Services Agency to keep records on everyone who leaves Canada for any reason: “Do they want to know how much money I make?”

MPs must be wide awake to subterfuge by agents of China in Canada, a former national security director last night told a parliamentary hearing. “They are very subtle, these activities,” said Richard Fadden. “There’s no smoking gun.”

Canadian reporters “who do not see themselves as racist” are responsible for “half-truths” that blame Asian investors for high urban house prices, says a Liberal Senate appointee. Senator Yuen Pau Woo (B.C.) did not comment on cabinet’s proposal for a $175 million-a year equity tax on offshore real estate speculators: “Anti-Asian racism (in) Vancouver is fueled by false narratives around ‘Chinese’ culpability for housing affordability.”

The federal Department of Environment says greenhouse gas emissions are up again in British Columbia, hailed by cabinet as a model for the federal carbon tax. The province on April 1 raised its provincial tax to $45 per tonne: “That is exactly what we know will work right across the country.”

Heritage Minister Steven Guilbeault relied on claims from a lobbyist subsidized by his own department to counter criticism of a YouTube censorship bill. Guilbeault’s department approved a $375,000 grant to the lobby group Coalition for the Diversity of Cultural Expressions of Montréal prior to its endorsement of Bill C-10: “This is a huge issue.”

Labour Minister Filomena Tassi fabricated claims a “life and death” longshoreman’s strike at the Port of Montréal disrupted deliveries of pandemic medicine. The Department of Transport confirmed of thousands of shipping containers tied up at the Port not one contained vaccines: “Covid fearmongering is not a valid or compelling argument.”

About 1,400 Covid carriers arriving in Canada by international flights were unwittingly released from hotel quarantine, says the Public Health Agency. Cabinet last February 22 ordered passengers into three nights’ quarantine at designated hotels under a $225.6 million program: “I’m wondering how this can happen.”

Methamphetamine addiction has become a scourge in rural Canada, says a New Brunswick Senator. David Richards said the country has lost “a whole generation of kids” addicted to illegal drugs: “These kids are on the streets day and night with bolt cutters and hacksaws to break into places because they need a meth fix.”

Cabinet must “shine light” on the true owners of corporations registered in Canada, says Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland. Testifying at the Senate national finance committee, Freeland said cabinet was committed to creating a public registry of corporate owners that would be searchable by name: “Setting up a register is pretty complicated.”