Blacklock's Reporter

Blacklock's pauses for the Victoria Day holiday with best wishes to subscribers and friends. We're back tomorrow -- The Editor.

Poet Shai Ben-Shalom, an Israeli-born biologist, examines current events in the Blacklock’s tradition each and every Sunday: “Canada has yet to find a replacement for the aging F-18. Process dragged for over a decade. Budget tight. The enemy may never come…”

The only federal investigation of the SNC-Lavalin Group Inc. case will not be complete before Parliament adjourns for the summer, Ethics Commissioner Mario Dion yesterday told the Commons ethics committee. Dion would not commit to finishing his work before election day, October 21: "It does take time."

The Green Party yesterday proposed to abolish gas and diesel-powered cars and require all homeowners to renovate their property by 2030 under a “climate emergency”. The Party would insist on the program as a condition of support in any minority Parliament, said leader Elizabeth May: "It's time to get serious."

The Senate budget committee by a 10 to 5 vote yesterday agreed to pay a $15,255 expense for polling by Senator Donna Dasko (Independent-Ont.), a former pollster. One lawmaker warned the vote opens a Pandora’s box of dubious spending: "What we’re doing is setting precedent."

A failed program to streamline federal payroll departments will cost taxpayers $2.6 billion, the Parliamentary Budget Office said yesterday. Costs did not include proposed compensation for employees who reported hardship when they were shortchanged on cheques: "We saw how that didn't work."

Asking Parliament’s permission each year to increase the federal debt limit is too risky, the Department of Finance has told the Senate national finance committee. A current law allows cabinet to borrow at will to the debt ceiling of $1.16 trillion: "We need parliamentarians to wonder."

The Commons by a 227 to 42 vote yesterday rejected a New Democrat motion to declare a “climate emergency”. Liberals complained the motion had too many strings attached, including abandonment of the Trans Mountain Pipeline expansion: "This is not fearmongering."

Journalists testifying at the Commons finance committee yesterday expressed wariness over practical or perceived government meddling in news coverage under a $595 million industry bailout. One MP called the program a “blank cheque” that leaves cabinet appointees to decide which publishers win subsidies: "If the impression is left to linger that the government is forking over cash grants to their journalist buddies, trust in media will only plummet further."

The Commons heritage committee yesterday endorsed sweeping copyright reforms to raise by millions the royalties paid to authors, musicians and performers. Creators testified they earned a pittance – one bestselling novelist reported a $12,000 annual income – due to Copyright Act exemptions: “They need to keep producing the works that we love.”

The Office of the Auditor General says it is so short of funding it's cutting audits. MPs on the Commons public accounts committee expressed alarm: "This is about as big as it gets."

A federal labour board has upheld the firing of an $86,000-a year auditor at the Canada Revenue Agency for snooping through tax files. “Employees are required to conduct themselves in an exemplary manner,” says the Agency’s Code Of Ethics And Conduct: "No, no and no."

Cabinet has proposed 11th hour amendments to the Fisheries Act to allow more exemptions to habitat protection. The changes introduced in the Senate fisheries committee follow lobbying by farmers and industry: "The government is balancing the needs."

Health Canada faces a federal lawsuit over its long phase-out of a pesticide rated lethal to bees. Four environmental groups in a Federal Court application allege regulators breached their own Act: 'The effect is the environment is exposed to unacceptable risk for years.'

Federal agencies will publish an A-list of newspapers and websites deemed reliable under a multi-million dollar subsidy program, the Department of Finance yesterday told the Senate national finance committee. Subsidies to federally-approved news media invite government meddling in a free press, cautioned one senator: “It’s very dangerous ground.”