Blacklock's Reporter

Poet Shai Ben-Shalom, an Israeli-born biologist, writes for Blacklock’s each and every Sunday: “A snowstorm paralyses Vancouver. The city deploys half their fleet in a bid to reopen the roads…”

The Department of Northern Affairs spent more than $1.4 million installing solar panels in the most sunless region of Canada, records show. The climate change program was to aid Arctic hamlets that rely on diesel generators for heat and light in winter months: "We funded solar projects."

The Commons health committee must investigate why public agencies continue to distribute China-made pandemic supplies, Opposition Leader Erin O’Toole said yesterday. “We need made-in-Canada supplies of personal protective equipment,” O’Toole told reporters: "Have we not learned anything?"

The company that invented the coffee pod yesterday was ordered to pay almost $4 million in damages and costs over misleading recycling claims. Keurig Canada acknowledged its plastic K-Cup pods are not in fact recyclable in most provinces: "Misleading claims by businesses to promote ‘greener’ products harm consumers."

Transit operators seek billions in ongoing subsidies for declining fares under a Covid grant program originally promised to be a temporary measure. The last of nearly $2.4 billion in federal aid for bus and train systems expires this year: "The pandemic has severely impacted ridership."

Taxpayers are liable for nearly $3 billion in costs to clean up abandoned mines in the territories, say federal auditors. Remote sites like Yukon’s Faro Mine have been rated among the most polluted industrial sites in Canada: "Initial remediation costs are revised generally upwards."

CMHC-funded researchers yesterday proposed a $6 billion annual equity fee on taxpayers it depicted as lazy homeowners. The federal insurer paid $250,000 for the study by University of British Columbia researchers who complained rising real estate values see longtime homeowners get rich “while they sleep and watch TV.”

The Department of Public Works yesterday faced demands for a full accounting of emergency field hospital equipment contracted through SNC-Lavalin Group Inc. One MP questioned the whereabouts of 200 hospital beds complete with ventilators and self-contained generators bought as back-up for overcrowded intensive care units: "We want to know where that money went and what it actually did."

More than a thousand members of the military have applied for medical and religious exemptions from vaccination, according to Federal Court records. Six soldiers, sailors and air crew filed a legal challenge of the Canadian Armed Forces policy threatening discharge for those who decline a Covid shot: "They are opposed to a vaccine mandate."

Reid Sirrs, the ambassador who fled Kabul though Canadian citizens remained trapped in Afghanistan, will be recalled for questioning. The Opposition yesterday said Sirrs must testify at committee hearings after cabinet hurriedly reassigned him to another foreign post over Christmas: "He can explain what exactly happened."

The military will introduce gender-neutral uniforms to allow soldiers, sailors and air crew to “choose the uniform that makes them most comfortable,” says a Department of National Defence briefing note. The department yesterday did not say when the dress code will be rewritten: "Non-binary members would have the option to describe themselves as they wish."

Each Canadians’ share of the net federal debt last year topped $24,000 for the first time in history, Statistics Canada said yesterday. The figure represented a 43 percent increase from pre-pandemic levels: "We are at the brink."

Court documents detail the scope of an alleged $5 billion bread price-fixing scheme with seven of Canada’s largest retailers named as defendants including Walmart Canada and Loblaw Companies. An Ontario judge unsealed records gathered by federal anti-trust investigators over two years: "Victims of the conspiracy are alleged to be millions, or perhaps tens of millions, of consumers."

Canadians driving gas and diesel cars should be taxed to finance green rebates, says an electric auto trade group. Environmentalists have also petitioned the Commons finance committee to impose a $4,000 SUV tax: "Make polluting passenger vehicles pay."

The pandemic prompted more tax avoidance, says the Canada Revenue Agency. Expanded use of internet sales “amplified the risk online that income is not reported or is under-reported by individuals and businesses especially since it cannot be identified using conventional techniques,” said an Agency report.