Blacklock's Reporter

The latest federal attempt to regulate the internet must be revised to protect free expression, a former CRTC chair yesterday told the Senate communications committee. Cabinet since 2019 has introduced bill after bill to regulate web content. None have passed to date: “It is Canadian consumers who choose what we want to watch.”

Natural Resources Minister Jonathan Wilkinson’s department spent more than $3 million on a tree planting campaign without planting any trees, records show. Staff salaries were a leading expense: “The department did not spend any funding to plant trees directly.”

Any future Conservative cabinet should formally recognize Taiwan, MP Scott Aitchison (Parry Sound-Muskoka, Ont.) said yesterday. The proposal by the candidate for the Party’s September 10 leadership vote follows a Commons health committee proposal endorsing Taiwan’s bid for membership in the World Health Organization: “Taiwan is an independent and sovereign country.”

Meeting cabinet’s target on military spending would cost every Canadian another $500 each this year, Parliamentary Budget Officer Yves Giroux said yesterday. Canada ranks 25th out of 30 NATO countries on defence budgeting: “We’ll see.”

The Freedom Convoy crackdown should not be a “template for dealing with the public,” says the Commons finance committee. Even MPs who supported action targeting political protesters said it must not happen again: “Refrain from using the precedent.”

The federal agency that runs passport offices suspended hundreds of employees under its vaccine mandate, new records show. The disclosure came as lineups at passport offices ran to as much as six hours again yesterday: “Canada is a G7 country, not a Third World Country.”

Marijuana wholesalers yesterday complained at parliamentary hearings of low profits and high costs. “There is more money in a winery,” one British Columbia producer testified at the Commons agriculture committee: “It has almost made it impossible.”

CMHC research shows homeowners of Chinese ethnicity including new immigrants and longtime citizens own the priciest real estate in Canada. The federal mortgage insurer compiled the race-based data on a theory of discrimination in housing: “Further research is needed to understand.”

The 2,400-kilometre boundary between Nunavut and the Northwest Territories has not been fully surveyed, says the Department of Natural Resources. Only piecemeal surveys were completed at mining sites to avoid squabbles over royalties: “The short answer is no.”

The Department of Immigration is reviewing whether to permit a third of a million foreign students to work full time in Canada, says a senior manager. MPs recommended the change though the jobless rate for school-age Canadians is ten percent: “There are people who really need to be hiring those students.”

Federal subsidies for charging stations have cost taxpayers thousands for every driver of an electric car, new figures show. The subsidy per driver in some provinces was $4,000 or more: “I have never ridden in or driven a zero emission vehicle.”

A $20 million federal Covid Alert app was discontinued due to lack of interest, says a federal report. Only a fraction of Canadians used the app despite appeals from the Prime Minister to download it as a civic duty: “Several challenges persisted which prevented the app from reaching its full potential.”

Attorney General David Lametti is appealing to Parliament to quickly pass a bill to “address the gap in the law” created by a May 13 Supreme Court ruling. Judges struck down as unconstitutional a provision that self-induced intoxication was no criminal defence: “I think this is lightning speed, quite frankly.”

A single bankruptcy, Sears Canada, was to blame for a tripling of claims under a federal wage compensation program, says a newly-released audit. Some 18,000 were thrown out of work when the retail giant collapsed in 2017: “They used their program payment to catch up on unpaid bills.”