Blacklock's Reporter

The territories are a 60-year experiment in state planning. The result is a succession of little victories and big defeats. Ottawa spends $64 million a year on food subsidies, yet chicken costs $45. The jobless rate in Nunavut is 18 percent. Homeless shelters in Yellowknife face periodic outbreaks of tuberculosis. Yukon’s GDP has shrunk three years in a row.

“Canada’s North has always been a colony to southern interests, a fact that has profoundly marked its historical development,” writes editor Chris Southcott in Northern Communities Working Together. “Despite current trends towards increased self-government, the territorial North is still heavily dependent on the federal government for the provision of services and decision making.”

Health Canada faces demands it table thousands of documents in Parliament involving a regulatory decision that drove a Manitoba company out of business. MP James Bezan said he suspected regulators were “over-zealous” and may have skirted federal law: "The department tried to wear them down in the hope they would go away".

Thousands of municipal landfills nationwide are being studied by Environment Canada to ensure they’re safely capped. The department said its concerned material used to cover current and decommissioned dumps is safe and effective: "Historically we don't know".

Women’s rate of participation in the workforce is stagnating after strong postwar gains, according to new federal research. Statistics Canada said the rate of women at work has slowed markedly since the 1990s: "Further analysis is warranted".

The Supreme Court is declining to hear an appeal from a British Columbia man who alleged he got bad advice from a lawyer in purported conflict of interest. The barrister had taken the case without charge: "Clients frequently complain".

Liberals’ newly-appointed parliamentary secretary for international development was fired as a consular adviser a year ago, and unsuccessfully filed a human rights complaint against her Mexican hosts. The Embassy of Mexico yesterday declined an interview on the appointment of MP Karina Gould. “We have no comment on Ms. Gould,” an official said.

Cabinet is revoking a 5¢ increase in stamp rates scheduled to take effect January 11. Canada Post had proposed the increase, the sixth in five years: "Those price increases have been substantial".

Despite decades of internet retailing Canadians still shop with their feet, says new federal research. Statistics Canada reported the vast majority of retail sales occur at the old-fashioned checkout counter: "You go to the mall, you eat, you talk with friends".

The reopening of a British Columbia Coast Guard station cited in a 2015 oil spill should signal restoration of cuts to the marine service, says an MP. Vancouver’s Kitsilano station will be reopened “as soon as possible”, the fisheries department said: "Coast Guard neglect has hurt".

A fire sale of Crown real estate has seen overseas properties dumped at millions below value, according to Access To Information records. The foreign affairs department in one memo expressed relief that few media or legislators took notice: "There may be a perception the government is not obtaining fair value or managing such properties prudently".

A Crown agency, Farm Credit Canada, loaned $64,000 on depreciating farm equipment worth about $50,000 according to documents in a Regina lawsuit. The details follow a warning from the Parliamentary Budget Office over lack of oversight on lending practices by Crown corporations: "We emphasize risk management".

Greenpeace is expressing alarm over Canada’s participation in a forum to develop a regulated commercial fishery in the Arctic. The “exploratory” initiative by the U.S. State Department saw endorsements from Russia, China and other states: 'All industrial extraction should be prevented'.

Auditor General Michael Ferguson is being petitioned to probe undisclosed payments to losing bidders on federal contracts. The New Democratic caucus in a letter to Ferguson alleged payments worth millions have been made as “compensation” since 2005: "Why some bidders and not others?"

An Ottawa lobbyist has paid $16,281 by Court order for copying Blacklock’s news content in breach of the Copyright Act. Dan Paszkowski, president and CEO of the Canadian Vintners Association, had declined a pre-litigation settlement of $314. “I don’t have a lot of time to spend in court,” he said at trial.

The Senate is expected to complete a landmark study of obesity rates amid a cabinet pledge to ban marketing of processed foods to children. Senators are due to continue a committee investigation begun in 2014 that also heard demands for a sugar tax: "The sooner we deal with it the better".