Blacklock's Reporter

Poet Jeff Blackman writes: “Member of the National Energy Board: yes is a straight line; watch for the Y-shaped imitator. Member of the Security Intelligence Review Committee: ask a few more times what’s new. Chair of the Canada Mortgage & Housing Corporation: remember no one can see everyone you’ve left behind, because you won’t…”

Mr. S, a British Columbia pensioner, took his $325,000 in life savings and left it all with Union Securities of Vancouver. He was an “unsophisticated investor,” as the investment industry puts it. He believed what the salesman told him.

By the time Union Securities was finished with Mr. S virtually all his savings were wiped out. Mr. S might have sued. Instead he complained to the Ombudsman for Banking Services and Investments, a dispute resolution office created by banks and investment dealers. The ombudsman agreed Mr. S was badly treated and recommended compensation. Union Securities refused and that was it. Mr. S did not get his savings back. The ombudsman issued a news release.

Alternative dispute resolution systems like the Ombudsman for Banking are growing ever popular. It is privatized justice promoted as quicker, more efficient and cheaper than public courts, writes Professor Trevor Farrow of Osgoode Hall. Lawsuits are undoubtedly expensive. Even an Ontario Superior Court judge once marveled that “excess appears to be the norm” in legal fees that run to as much as $1,000 per hour.

MPs “will not be censored” in scrutinizing federal executives over management of immigration, Conservative MP Michelle Rempel Garner (Calgary Nose Hill) said yesterday. Her remarks followed a formal protest from a deputy minister that criticism at committee hearings made it unsafe for managers to testify: "These clips fuel anger among members of the public who then target our officials."

Cabinet last year approved an 84 percent increase in the number of federal managers paid more than $150,000 a year, records show. It coincided with public statements by the finance minister that “these are hard times for Canadians.”

Managers at Shared Services Canada, the federal IT department, recommended cancelling coffee breaks for a month due to Ramadan, Access To Information records show. An estimated 100 of 9,393 employees self-identified as Muslim though not all were observant: "It’s important to be respectful of Muslim colleagues who may be fasting."

Canada Post is seeking more emergency funding from cabinet, a Department of Public Works manager yesterday suggested. MPs have speculated the post office requires another $500 million after receiving a $1.034 billion line of credit last January 24: "Given their current projections, they will likely need to have some additional support on an ongoing basis."

Municipal development charges pose “a significant constraint to housing affordability” in some cities, CMHC said yesterday. Analysts documented mandatory fees as high as six figures: "Development charges account for a significant part of the cost of a new housing unit."

Prime Minister Mark Carney was director of a charity, the Rideau Hall Foundation, that agreed to create tax credits for corporations whose donations were used to pay federal contractors on public works, records show. Carney yesterday did not comment: 'It was issuing tax receipts.'

The Department of Public Safety says it is “very close” to launching a foreign registry ordered by Parliament 18 months ago, but will not set any deadline after twice skipping promised dates to begin tracking foreign agents. “We are very close,” one manager told the House affairs committee: "You need top secret clearance."

Winter propane stocks are as much as 30 percent below normal, federal regulators cautioned yesterday. The Canada Energy Regulator said it was unclear from conflicting long-range weather forecasts whether customers faced a repeat of a 2014 price spike that prompted a federal investigation: "Where there is high demand for a finite good, and propane like all energy is a finite good, prices tend to rise."

The Department of Veterans Affairs denies basic fairness to ex-soldiers, sailors and air crew who seek internal reviews of benefits claims, Ombudsman Colonel (Ret’d) Nishika Jardine said yesterday. “It’s not fair,” she said: "These appeal decisions affect people’s lives."

An income tax cut intended to “deliver real change” will save the working poor about $11 a year, the Senate national finance committee was told. The cost of the tax cut is $5.8 billion, by official estimate: 'It provides effectively no benefit to those in poverty.'

Governor General Mary Simon and her husband Whit Fraser promised federally regulated companies a charitable tax credit for money donated to build a $4 million skating pavilion at her official residence. At least $350,000 in contractors' pay contractors was funneled through a registered charity to generate a tax credit, records show: "Consultations with relevant federal authorities were made."

More than 700 foreign criminals are at large, the Canada Border Services Agency said yesterday. The Agency said it had already deported 845 foreign criminals in the past year: "We are constantly scooping water out of that bathtub but the bathtub is filling up."

The Department of Finance yesterday acknowledged then-Minister Chrystia Freeland imposed a $389 million luxury tax without any cost-benefit analysis. The tax saw new registration of pleasure boats drop by almost a tenth: "Consumers will simply choose to take their discretionary spending elsewhere."