Blacklock's Reporter

In 2012 a small group of Taiwanese Buddhists applied for charity status for a nunnery in Prince Edward Island. They had modest habits, according to Access To Information filings with the Canada Revenue Agency. “All the nuns are vegetarians,” they wrote on their application. They spent 16 hours a day at silent prayer and chores to “joyously engage in resource conservation,” “promote Buddha’s teachings” and “reveal the ultimate truth of life and universe” in the hamlet of Vernon Bridge, P.E.I.

Their application was approved. “Congratulations on becoming a Canadian registered charity,” auditors wrote the Great Wisdom Buddhist Institute Inc. in 2013. “We wish you every success.”

And how. The nunnery by 2023 held $85.1 million in securities, $61.7 million in assets including land and buildings, $2.3 million in “furniture and fixtures” and $1.1 million worth of vehicles. Clearly there was more to the Great Wisdom nunnery than prayers and salad.

Cabinet’s signature housing plan saw a modest five percent increase in select housing starts, the Budget Office said yesterday. Housing Minister Gregor Robertson has said starts must double to restore affordability: "I don’t see how we will attain it."

Households will be able to access a keyword-searchable website to gauge flood risk to their property as early as this fall, says the Department of Public Safety. The initiative is the first step to eliminating blanket disaster relief for at-risk property owners who decline flood insurance: "Canadians surveyed expressed confidence the government would take care of them and their property in the event of a major flood, signaling a potential misunderstanding."

A federal judge has certified a class action lawsuit against Canada Post over fuel surcharges. The post office had sought to dismiss the claim by commercial customers, saying its surcharge was common practice in the delivery business: "Everyone uses this."

Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation is asking a federal judge to seal files regarding mortgages it “inadvertently” insured at Montréal’s Laurentian Bank. CMHC said it had confidential reasons for defying a federal order to release the records under the Access To Information Act: "There is a reasonable expectation that harm could occur."

A federal labour board has upheld the firing of a Canada Revenue employee for reading his own tax file on Agency time. Managers called it a breach of their zero tolerance policy on snooping: "He should have known better."

Federal inspectors this year are on pace to levy record fines against employers for breach of migrant labour regulations, figures show. Steep penalties levied in the first six months of the year followed cabinet complaints that Canadian employers had “gotten addicted” to using the Temporary Foreign Worker Program: "We have gotten complacent."

Annual pensions for retired MPs averaged $81,140 last year, according to new Treasury Board figures. Payments indexed to inflation went up 11.4 percent compounded in the past two years: "Pensions under the plan are indexed annually to cover increases in the cost of living."

Federal hiring is so convoluted that jobseekers wait months after filling out “repetitive and time-consuming questionnaires,” says a Public Service Commission report. Even managers in charge of hiring complained paperwork was “burdensome.”

Federal compensation for Covid vaccine-related deaths and injuries has nearly tripled in two years, new figures showed yesterday. Managers of a Vaccine Injury Support Program had withheld scheduled reporting of payments for an undisclosed reason: 'It is still a drug and there are potential risks even if they’re rare.'

A labour board has dismissed allegations by a former Teamsters business agent that his union failed to properly disclose use of members’ dues for “non-core” activities like political campaigns. Cabinet 10 years ago revoked an Act of Parliament that would have forced all unions to publish confidential financial records: "I’ve often wondered whether or not Bill C-377 would have passed if we had a secret ballot."

Cabinet’s $393,000-a year science advisor Dr. Mona Nemer in a draft memo proposed to examine the feasibility of contacting alien civilizations. Nemer assigned seven employees to her Sky Canada Project at an undisclosed cost: "There are the problems of distances and timing. Two civilizations might not exist at the same time."

An internal ArriveCan investigators’ report long sought by MPs has been sealed by Federal Court order. A judge blocked distribution of the findings at the request of Cameron MacDonald, a former Canada Border Services Agency director briefly suspended over the $63 million program: "The allegations each side makes against the other are most serious."

The cost of keeping an inmate in federal prison averages $436 a day, a new record, according to Correctional Service figures. Inmates at women’s prisons were the most expensive at an average $779 per day: "The Correctional Service of Canada is among the highest resourced correctional systems in the world."

Québec residents surveyed in a federal focus group say they’ve never heard of the Order of Canada. The civil honour has been awarded nearly 8,000 times since it was introduced 58 years ago: "None had any specific candidates in mind."