Housing Minister Sean Fraser yesterday said critics must “not interfere” in his plan to build 3.9 million homes. Fraser’s remarks followed an observation from one MP that the construction target would require a new home to be built every 60 seconds: "Have a field day."
It will take a generation to see any climate benefit from cabinet’s proposal to plant two billion trees, the Department of Natural Resources said yesterday. The 2019 election promise announced by then-Environment Minister Catherine McKenna will cost $5.9 billion, by Budget Office estimate: "I can’t give an exact date on when the two billion trees will be planted exactly."
Cabinet should count all foreigners let into Canada in its annual Immigration Levels Plan, the Senate social affairs committee said yesterday. The true number is quadruple the official figure: "The Department of Immigration bears the majority of responsibility."
Commons Speaker Greg Fergus yesterday saved his job with NDP support after again breaching rules on non-partisanship. Fergus earlier complained critics held him to a “higher standard” because he is Black: "Being the first, you are held to a higher standard."
The Canadian Human Rights Commission was so upset by a backlash over Christmas it says it feared for staff safety. The Commission in 2023 provoked an uproar in Parliament after publishing a report denouncing Christmas as a racist observance “grounded in Canada’s history of colonialism."
Most federal records on the Freedom Convoy, 87 percent, were never disclosed by a 2023 inquiry, says the Privy Council. Canadians will wait decades to see the confidential memos and emails: "These questions would need to be posed to former Commissioner Justice Rouleau."
A third of marijuana users still buy from black market dealers who offer better product, price and service, says in-house Department of Public Safety research. Cannabis users said they were indifferent to dealing with organized crime: 'Cannabis is legal and it doesn't matter where they get it.'
Federal prisons this summer will begin buying full body scanners five years after Parliament approved their use, says a Correctional Service report. Scanners have been commonplace in federal airports since 2008: "We anticipate awarding the contract to the successful vendor in summer 2024."
The Department of Foreign Affairs is abandoning its luxury embassy in Rome. The move follows an earlier program to sell costly foreign real estate: "There may be a perception the government is not obtaining fair value or managing such properties prudently."
Blacklock's pauses for the Victoria Day observance with warmest wishes to friends and subscribers. We're back tomorrow -- The Editor.
Poet Shai Ben-Shalom writes: “Number of positions that may be staffed with this advertised process is 1. We encourage members of equity groups and all interested individuals to apply…”
The city of Lens, in the most uninteresting part of France, is about the size of Moose Jaw. Lens has auto parts stores and townhouses. The city sits in “the bottom of a shallow saucer encircled by hills on three sides,” explains Capturing Hill 70. As homely as it is, Lens more than a hundred years ago was much worse, “ringed by slag heaps, coalfields and nearly a dozen industrial, red-brick suburbs that had been pulverized by shelling,” writes historian Mark Humphries of Wilfrid Laurier University.
Lens lays claim to an indelible part of Canadiana. Here in August 1917 Canadian soldiers fought for the first time under a Canadian general with Canadians in charge of nearly all the fighting formations. “A landmark battle,” says Capturing Hill 70. It was heroic and pointless, extraordinary and tragic. If the whole maddening story of the First World War could be summarized in 288 pages, this is it.
The former federal executive responsible for ArriveCan yesterday testified he was proud of the work despite the $59.5 million cost and ongoing audits and police investigations. John Ossowski, former $273,000-a year president of the Canada Border Services Agency, said others were to blame for wrongdoing: "It is shocking to me that would be your testimony."
The Canada Revenue Agency says it now knows of $10 billion in pandemic relief cheques paid to ineligible applicants, the highest figure disclosed to date. Only a fraction has been recovered with billions in additional losses anticipated through ongoing audits: "That was back in 2020 and it’s now 2024.”
Information Commissioner Caroline Maynard is petitioning cabinet for $700,000 to cover what she called a “structural deficit” in her annual $15.9 million budget. The shortfall spelled longer delays for Canadians filing Access To Information requests for public records, she said: "This reduction in my budget will spell longer delays."
