Blacklock's Reporter

It’s the fact that never fails to provoke nostalgia, anger or simple disbelief. For one magic generation from about 1952 to 1972, Canadians lived in a workers’ paradise. A single wage earner made enough to support a whole family. Most everyone could buy a home even if it was only 1100 square feet, and a typical Canadian had steady work with one, maybe two employers on the promise of a gold watch and pension.

Historian Graham Broad of Western University argues we have this all wrong: the golden years actually started a decade earlier. If the 1940s are cast as a gaunt era of wartime sacrifice, Broad notes that for the 99 percent of Canadians who were not in combat those years were frankly wonderful. “It’s a terrible thing to say, but I hope the war goes on for a long time,” as one Depression survivor told a newspaperman.

If the government rationed coffee in 1942, the quota was a none-too-dire 12 cups a week, and even that was lifted by 1944.  If cabinet slapped a 25 percent luxury tax on jewelry, retailers reported it had no apparent impact on sales. Butter was rationed but only to stop hoarding. Wartime farm production actually doubled nationwide. If 1944 was the year Canadians fought their way up the boot of Italy, it was the same year Maclean’s reported that “night life in Montréal is booming like Big Ben on Armistice Day.”

Cabinet budgeted more than $81 million to enforce Covid rules for employees though fewer than 5,000 are unvaccinated. Treasury Board President Mona Fortier under Commons questioning could not explain over-budgeting for test kits: "How does the government justify this?"

More Canadians are stealing food to beat rising prices, a report by agricultural economists and researchers said yesterday. Shoplifting averages as much as $200,000 a year or more at some supermarkets, said Canada’s Food Price Report 2022: "A growing phenomenon related to increasing food insecurity caused by high inflation is theft from grocery stores which is anticipated to intensify in 2022."

The Public Health Agency spent more than $600 million enforcing a hodgepodge of quarantine rules that still left the border unsecure against Covid, a federal audit said yesterday. “This is not a success story,” said Auditor General Karen Hogan: "The Public Health Agency is unable to show us whether or not these border measures are effective."

It is unclear whether governments have a legal right to compel Canadians to disclose their vaccination status to access public services, Privacy Commissioner Daniel Therrien said yesterday. Therrien is investigating numerous complaints under the Privacy Act: "Requiring individuals to provide health information such as vaccination status is certainly a reduction of privacy."

Federal managers have no incentive to save money, Parliamentary Budget Officer Yves Giroux yesterday told the Senate national finance committee. Giroux confirmed the annual “March Madness” spending blitz that sees managers burn through unused budgets before the expiry of the fiscal year: "It is what we observe fairly frequently."

Federal regulators knew of suspected CERB fraud within weeks of the program’s launch, the Commons finance committee was told yesterday. Auditors have yet to detail the scope of theft under the $82 billion program that offered $2,000 cheques to jobless taxpayers facing eviction or foreclosure: "They would see clients receiving benefits under different names."

Fears of Covid mask robberies have prompted the Public Health Agency of Canada to tighten security at Winnipeg warehouses stocked with federal pandemic supplies. The hiring of private security guards follows a multi-million dollar mask heist in Hamilton in 2020: "The products were not recovered."

A CBC Alberta pundit who critiqued a news story he never read breached the network’s own code of conduct, an ombudsman said yesterday. Max Fawcett had libeled Blacklock’s as “shamelessly dishonest” in publishing a carbon tax story he did not read: "Yes, there was a violation."

The Commons yesterday by a 179-156 vote ordered special hearings into the collapse of Afghanistan, including disclosure of confidential documents detailing Canadian diplomats' unpreparedness. Cabinet opposed the Conservative motion: "Were there mistakes made? Could we do better?"

Cabinet yesterday joined a “diplomatic boycott” of the Beijing Winter Olympics. One Liberal MP and former Olympian described the protest as meaningless to athletes: "I don’t think the athletes are concerned with which diplomats are there."

The actual cost of cabinet’s latest pandemic relief bill may be billions higher than estimated, the Commons finance committee was told yesterday. The Department of Finance was in a “continued race to push money out the door,” said one MP: "Things have been lax during Covid."

Airports, banks, radio stations and other federally-regulated employers face cash fines if they do not mandate vaccination of workers, the labour department said yesterday. Cabinet stopped short of repeating an earlier threat to strip workers of legal rights to challenge vaccine orders: "Get vaccinated. That’s what Canadians expect."

Carbon tax waivers will save farmers nearly a half billion next year while tax credits for oil and gas companies are worth an average $1.8 billion annually, the Parliamentary Budget Office said yesterday. The figures were requested by Senator Rosa Galvez (Que.), sponsor of a Senate motion to declare a climate crisis: "We owe Canadians."

Cabinet last night served notice it will speed passage of a bill promoting paid sick days. The Parliamentary Budget Office put the cost of the legislation at about a quarter billion by 2025: "Canada's antiquated labour laws are sorely in need of attention."