Blacklock's Reporter

Federal agencies spent a fortune on a three-month Twitter and Facebook ad blitz without any assurance the marketing actually works, says an MP who requested the data. Social media ads cost taxpayers $1.58 million in the period from February to April, newly-released accounts show: “That’s my money”.

Canadian cities face extreme weather events that threaten local water and sewer systems, warns a municipalities’ report. The cost of needed refits and repairs is estimated at $80 billion: “This is particularly problematic”.

No DNA privacy bill will pass this Parliament as a genetics protection Act remains stalled in the Senate. The bill would outlaw insurance companies’ use of DNA testing on policyholders: “The Senator is still working on her notes”.

The Senate last evening rejected further witness testimony on a bill compelling unions to publicly disclose confidential data. The Senate’s Conservative majority dismissed the opposition motion without comment by a vote of 40 to 23: “This will really be something”.

A federal survey of pension planners cost the equivalent of more than $150 per brief phone call, according to accounts. The Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions paid researchers $41,189 to call 272 executives asking if they were satisfied with the service: “Overall, how effective do you think the Office is?”

Cabinet has approved a 2016 Census questionnaire that will again ask how many same-sex couples have wed a decade after gay marriage was legalized. The last national survey found gay couples accounted for 0.8 percent of families nationwide: “What is the relationship?”

Environmental Canada has been lax in monitoring chemical dumping in the Great Lakes under an agreement signed three years ago, say advocates. Eleven million Canadians draw their drinking water from the lakes: “The federal government is just not paying attention”.

A protection agreement with Chinese investors will have far-reaching impact and should not be repeated with other foreign speculators, says a legal scholar. The Canada-China Foreign Investment Promotion & Protection Agreement binds cabinet to a 31-year pact: “It’s a very expansive notion of property rights of foreigners”.

The Conservative chair of the Senate banking committee is defending an exhaustive 15-month study of bitcoin at the expense of other bills to modernize usury laws and lower merchants’ credit card fees. The committee’s bitcoin report was fed to an industry group and Bitcoin Magazine before it was given to reporters or the public: “Another big thanks needs to be given to Irving Gerstein’s former assistant”.

Cabinet is again delaying regulations that would force airlines, cruise ships, passenger trains and ferries to test their drinking water for E.coli bacteria and other contamination. The health department gave no reason for the delay in updating rules from 1954: ‘The cost is small enough’.

Health Canada proposes mandatory reporting of drug shortages by pharmaceutical companies. It follows the 2014 defeat of a Commons bill that would have compelled drug firms to give six months’ notice of planned or foreseeable shortages under threat of $10,000-a day fines: “Shortages are an immediate, pressing challenge”.

Cabinet has enacted new regulations on aquatic pests, with several exemptions. The regulations federalize rules already in place in Manitoba since 1987, and Ontario from 2007: “You really have to wonder if they are taking this seriously”.

Canadians must be prepared to pay more if regulators are to curb imports of sweatshop garments, a Senate committee has been told. The Department of Public Works is conducting an inquiry on “ethical procurement” in federal contracting: “Consumers are a selfish lot”.

Liberal senators have piled more amendments on Bill C-377 as the Senate heads for a final vote on the measure to force disclosure of confidential union records. Opposition lawmakers proposed renewed hearings after complaining witnesses opposed to the bill were given short shrift: “Look at yourself in the mirror”.