The Commons transport committee by an 11-0 vote yesterday ordered disclosure of confidential federal records regarding payment of billions in refunds to air passengers. The Department of Transport had feared “economic consequences” if airlines were forced to refund travelers: “It could be hundreds of documents.”
The Department of Agriculture spent $61,611 to ask 62 people to pick their favourite “Canada Brand” symbol. Researchers acknowledged the study was not useful: “A majority are at least somewhat satisfied with the program, although few are very satisfied.”
The Supreme Court today in a 6-3 decision ruled the federal carbon tax is lawful. The Court dismissed constitutional challenges by Alberta, Saskatchewan and Ontario.
“Climate change is real,” wrote Chief Justice Richard Wagner. “It is caused by greenhouse gas emissions resulting from human activities, and it poses a grave threat to humanity’s future. The only way to address the threat of climate change is to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.”
Justice Wagner said since climate change “has no boundaries” Parliament was within its rights in passing the 2018 Greenhouse Gas Pollution Pricing Act. The original Act capped the federal carbon tax at $50 per tonne, the equivalent of 12¢ per litre of gasoline.
“All it does is to require persons to pay for engaging in specific activities that result in the emission of greenhouse gases,” wrote Justice Wagner. “The Act leaves individual consumers and businesses free to choose how they will respond, or not, to the price signals.”
However three judges in dissenting opinions wrote the Act was a clear intrusion in provincial powers, and granted cabinet unprecedented powers to raise the tax at any time. “When an Act endows a select few with the power to rewrite, and thus re-engineer, a law which affects virtually every aspect of individuals’ daily lives and provincial industrial, economic and municipal activities, it goes too far,” wrote Justice Suzanne Côté of Québec.
“The Act as it is currently written employs a discretionary scheme that knows no bounds,” wrote Justice Côté.
Cabinet last December 11 announced it would use its powers under the Act to raise the carbon tax 240 percent to $170 per tonne by 2030. The higher charge is the equivalent of an extra 27¢ per litre of propane, 34¢ more per cubic metre of natural gas, 40¢ more per litre of gasoline, 44¢ for aviation fuel and an extra 47¢ per litre for diesel.
Justice Russell Brown of British Columbia in a dissenting opinion called the Act “a deep foray into industrial policy that falls within matters of provincial legislative authority,” while Justice Malcolm Rowe of Newfoundland and Labrador cautioned: “It is no simple matter to tinker with the Constitution.”
“The importance of the matter has nothing to do with whether it is a matter of national concern,” wrote Justice Rowe. Provinces regulate property rights, not Parliament, he wrote.
“The goal of the financial charges, ‘just paying money,’ is to influence behaviour, in this case both consumer and industrial,” wrote Justice Rowe. “The point is that ‘just paying money’ hardly captures the intended impact of the Act, let alone its potential impact.”
By Staff 
Health Minister Patricia Hajdu’s department is paying people to say nice things about it on Twitter and Facebook. The department yesterday said it will pay minor celebrities to tout its work “as a trusted source of health information” on social media after being faulted for pandemic mismanagement: “We are continuously adapting and learning.”
Taxpayers will see no refunds on more than $700 million worth of pandemic ventilators the Department of Public Works bought from sole-sourced contractors but didn’t need. “I do have the Canadian taxpayers’ interests at heart when I am doing my job,” Minister Anita Anand said yesterday. “I am very, very concerned with that issue myself.”
A first-ever federal proposal to block websites in the name of public safety is a “slippery slope” to curbing free speech, says a national internet manager. The CRTC seeks network-wide blocking of websites to limit botnets: “Technical measures to make the internet safer must not allow for a slippery slope towards blocking content or free speech.”
A Customs officer suspended three days for allowing coworkers to cross the border to buy duty-free U.S. beer has won a federal labour board appeal. The practice was commonplace at a Coutts, Alta. crossing, the board was told: “I allowed what I had seen done over the years.”
The Commons by a 272-61 vote yesterday rejected a New Democrat bill to fix climate change targets in federal law. “We are running out of time,” said MP Leah Gazan (Winnipeg Centre), sponsor of the bill: “Our ability to survive depends on what we do.”
The Department of Foreign Affairs spent $10,900 trying to get Bill Morneau a job in Paris, according to financial records. Expenses did not include pay for nineteen employees who worked part-time on Morneau’s failed campaign for election as secretary-general of the OECD: “This result was not what Canada hoped.”
The Commons finance committee yesterday by a 7-4 vote upheld a 56 percent increase in the federal debt ceiling, from $1.168 trillion to $1,831,000,000,000. The vote came in advance of an April 19 budget: “Why not two trillion? Why not five trillion? Why even have a ceiling?”
The Commons transport committee in an 11-0 vote yesterday ordered the Canada Infrastructure Bank to surrender details of confidential million-dollar bonuses to executives. MPs have sought the information for a year: “Frankly I don’t think the performance of the Bank to date has warranted bonuses.”
The NHL yesterday endorsed a bill to legalize bookmaking in Canada after it invested in four legal bookies in the U.S. and Australia. Betting on a single sporting event has been a crime in Canada since 1892. “We are not turning our venues into casinos,” said a League official.
Commons Speaker Anthony Rota yesterday ruled a pandemic election bill can proceed despite confusion over counting of mail-in ballots. A Conservative MP had said the legal text was so garbled the bill should be withdrawn and rewritten: “The error could be corrected.”
A Canada Infrastructure Bank intended to save taxpayers’ money on public works has not attracted a penny in private investment in four years, the Parliamentary Budget Office said yesterday. “Projects don’t get built in a day,” Infrastructure Minister Catherine McKenna earlier told MPs.
Health Minister Patricia Hajdu’s department paid more than $700 million for pandemic ventilators it didn’t need, MPs were told yesterday. Ninety-eight percent of costly devices delivered under rush orders through sole-sourced contracts were warehoused: “It’s come to light that we do need less.”
