Opposition MPs on the Commons environment committee yesterday overruled cabinet objections in approving a bill to ban plastic waste exports. “Our worry is the domestic situation that could occur,” said Liberal MP Raj Saini (Kitchener Centre, Ont.).
Defendants in criminal court can be ordered to remove face masks even in a pandemic, an Alberta judge has ruled. Court of Queen’s Bench Justice Douglas Mah called it an unusual order, the first of its kind: “Under normal circumstances his face would be completely visible.”
Federal regulators yesterday stepped back from major restrictions on two common farm pesticides. The neonicotinoids eight years ago were rated “very highly toxic to aquatic invertebrates,” but yesterday were upgraded to “acceptable.”
Few green energy projects are viable without subsidies, says an internal report at the Department of Natural Resources. Auditors called it a market failure: “Analysis of the financial information was revealing.”
CMHC waged a media misinformation campaign to conceal research on a home equity tax, according to Access To Information records yesterday disclosed by the Canadian Taxpayers Federation. Documents show the agency and its CEO Evan Siddall withheld details of research into Canadians who “get rich” on home ownership, and sought to discredit Blacklock’s reporting on the tax study.
Siddall yesterday did not comment. Records show Siddall specifically contacted researchers to produce a study on taxation. “I like the idea,” Siddall wrote in a May 22, 2019 email. “Very worthwhile.”
Homeowners currently do not pay tax on the sale of a primary residence. The Canada Revenue Agency since 2016 has required tax filers to report the sale of a primary residence under threat of an $8,000 fine even though sales are not taxable.
Blacklock’s last July 17 revealed CMHC awarded $250,000 to researchers at the University of British Columbia to study taxation of home equity. Siddall and his staff at the time told the Wall Street Journal the story was “misleading,” and assured a Yahoo Finance reporter the article was “not accurate.”
Siddall went further in posts on his Twitter account, calling the story “untrue and poor reporting,” “not true,” “horrible reporting” and “untruths by substandard news outfits without checking the facts,” “inaccurate, “a non-story” and “insistent, argumentative reporting that ignores the facts.”
“CMHC is NOT spending $250,000 to consider any tax on housing,” Siddall tweeted last July 20. “I know you got this info from media sources. You’ve been a victim of irresponsible reporting.”
However Taxpayers Federation records confirmed a home equity tax was the primary focus of the research despite CMHC denials. The agency in one briefing note A Place To Call Home Or An Investment Vehicle? wrote: “Why deliver? Remember purpose. Before Covid-19 housing costs had shot higher than many could afford. Why? In part because we allowed them to, knowing many Canadians bank on profits from home ownership to secure their financial future and gain wealth.”
“We must unravel this pre-existing catch-22,” wrote staff: “We need to rethink the policies that, by encouraging the financialization of housing, push the cost to buy or rent a home even further out of reach.”
Professor Paul Kershaw of UBC, the lead researcher, in a memo to CMHC spelled out the equity tax plan. “Currently there is an inequitable and uneven playing field,” wrote Kershaw.
“One key source of this intergenerational inequality is tax policy that privileges home ownership and shelters housing wealth, especially in principal residences, from taxation,” wrote Kershaw. The research “will examine tax and other public finance policy opportunities to level the intergenerational playing field.”
Kershaw in a June 19, 2019 email to CMHC complained homeowners were trying to “get rich,” and that Parliament was “sheltering much housing wealth from taxation.” Kershaw added, “There is a potential for a tax shift.”
The taxpayer-funded research has not been released to date. Professor Kershaw in a 2019 podcast with CMHC’s Siddall complained that “some people won the lottery” on home ownership.
“People who bought homes decades ago now, especially in our big cities, can be living in multi-million dollar properties,” said Kershaw. “Amazing, eh?” replied Siddall. “Amazing.”
“Home ownership has become a driving source of inequality in Canada,” said Kershaw. “For sure it has,” replied Siddall.
Kershaw yesterday did not comment.
By Staff 
Cabinet yesterday defended attempts by the Department of Health to promote its pandemic image through paid tweets. The department was doing the best it can, said Senator Marc Gold (Que.), Government Representative in the Senate: ‘They are providing information to Canadians to the best of their ability.’
The Senate last night gave Second Reading to a bill threatening $250,000 fines and directors’ liability for companies that import slave-made goods. The bill would require annual reporting by large importers: “Ethics cost money.”
Ex-Governor General Julie Payette faces the loss of lucrative pension and expense payments under a bill introduced in the Senate yesterday. Senator Claude Carignan (Que.), the sponsor, said the mere thought of Payette drawing benefits for life was preposterous: “It makes no sense.”
Rogers Communications yesterday assured MPs its proposed $26 billion buyout of Alberta-based Shaw Communications will not lessen competition. Members of the Commons industry committee disputed the claim: “The reason why this acquisition is happening is not because you’re really hurting.”
Government House Leader Pablo Rodriguez yesterday said MPs have no claim to cross-examine political aides over cabinet dealings with We Charity. MPs have ordered testimony from staff in the Prime Minister’s Office on negotiation of a failed $43.5 million grant: “This is preventing Canadians from getting answers.”
Liberal MPs on the Commons environment committee last evening slowed consideration of a private Conservative bill to outlaw exports of plastic garbage. Cabinet has said it would disrupt cross-border trading in waste: “It’s just a piece of paper, and what’s the point?”
Consultants with Deloitte received more than $100 million in contracts from federal departments and agencies last year, records show. An MP who requested the figures earlier questioned why the company remained qualified under an Integrity Regime for contractors: “We are aware.”
The number of company insolvencies fell by almost a third last year but only because of pandemic closures at bankruptcy courts. Superintendent of Bankruptcy Elisabeth Lang has warned rates will rise: “We are keeping a close eye on insolvency rates.”
“Extraordinary borrowing” by Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland will cost $635,000,000,000 this year, nearly triple what Parliament spent to fight the Second World War. Freeland in a debt report to Parliament urged Canadians to reflect on the pandemic’s impact: “Take stock of what really matters.”
The CRTC will regulate “all programming” including internet video under a cabinet bill, says the CEO of the Commission. Ian Scott told the Commons heritage committee a longstanding hands-off treatment of the internet “has changed.”
