Your mid-week jaunt into spring ...
The budget will balance itself through space and time and through hearts ... or something:
Canadian Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland said on Tuesday she would present the first federal budget in two years on April 19, promising it will offer the support needed to those struggling during the pandemic, plus a plan to boost growth.
I'll just leave these right here:
The Commons finance committee yesterday by a 7-4 vote upheld a 56 percent increase in the federal debt ceiling, from $1.168 trillion to $1,831,000,000,000. The vote came in advance of an April 19 budget: “Why not two trillion? Why not five trillion? Why even have a ceiling?”
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Ongoing deficits ensure future tax increases are certain, the Commons finance committee was told yesterday. The finance department projects deficits will total two-thirds of a trillion by 2025: “Those numbers are astonishing.”
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Lumber prices are out of control: A 2×4 that cost $4 a year ago is now north of $15. Canada’s Food Price Report is seeing grocery prices rise faster than at any point since they started tracking them. Oh, and there’s that little issue of an absolutely untamed housing bubble reaching every corner of the Canadian map. Gasoline is also spiking up in value, but petroleum is always a bit of a wildcard, so best not to lump it in with other consumer spending.
In its purest form, inflation means that everything gets more expensive. The value of a dollar goes down, so you need more of them to buy a Big Mac (which is why a Big Mac cost $0.88 in 1978 and $5.69 in 2021). So it’s very reasonable to assume that if your dollar suddenly can’t buy you nearly as much as it used to, then it might have begun to devalue.
Surely we can trust these guys:
A Canada Infrastructure Bank intended to save taxpayers’ money on public works has not attracted a penny in private investment in four years, the Parliamentary Budget Office said yesterday. “Projects don’t get built in a day,” Infrastructure Minister Catherine McKenna earlier told MPs.
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The Department of Foreign Affairs spent $10,900 trying to get Bill Morneau a job in Paris, according to financial records. Expenses did not include pay for nineteen employees who worked part-time on Morneau’s failed campaign for election as secretary-general of the OECD: “This result was not what Canada hoped.”
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Trudeau's staff detailed potential changes to the Emergencies Act last year to force price caps on manufacturers and “expand” the authority of the procurement minister, Anita Anand, while the prime minister publicly rejected the need for such amendments.
The proposals were made at the same time that Justin Trudeau went on record denying the need to bring in a defence production act, similar to the one invoked under U.S. President Donald Trump.
Public Services and Procurement Canada staffer Joel Tallerico brought up the following possible changes to the Emergencies Acts in an email sent on the evening of March 19, 2020:
Should we amend the Emergencies Act to include provisions related to the following: Ability to re-assess costs and profit; Statutory Right of First Refusal to acquire Goods and Services required to respond to the pandemic; Obligation to Advise Canada of its Capacity to Supply; Retroactivity; and Capping Price or Profit?
Is there another Act where we could make these amendments?
Would the department be supportive of making such amendments to expand the Minister's authority and if so, what are the next steps to advance this?
(Sidebar: but no one thought of putting all major industries under one Canadian roof.)
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Health Minister Patricia Hajdu’s department paid more than $700 million for pandemic ventilators it didn’t need, MPs were told yesterday. Ninety-eight percent of costly devices delivered under rush orders through sole-sourced contracts were warehoused: “It’s come to light that we do need less.”
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The Public Health Agency yesterday was ordered for a second time to disclose records detailing mismanagement of medical stockpiles. The Agency earlier ignored a November 2 order that it detail actual numbers of masks and other supplies it threw out before the pandemic: “We threw away millions.”
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To fully appreciate the great gobs of cash WE gave the Trudeaus before he approved a half billion tax dollars for them—watch this. pic.twitter.com/dEuqb6xv0c
— pierrepoilievre (@PierrePoilievre) March 20, 2021
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Victor Li, chief financial officer for We Charity, yesterday was threatened with contempt of Parliament if he does not answer MPs’ questions by Friday. The Commons ethics committee has sought details of We Charity finances for eight months: “I am just getting rather frustrated with the sense of entitlement.”
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The statement announces that the Conservatives are calling for Trudeau Advisor Ben Chin, PMO Policy Director Rick Thies, and Senior Policy Advisor at Finance Canada Amitpal Singh testify "regarding their roles in setting up the $500 million Canada Student Service Grant with WE Charity, an organization which paid roughly a half-million dollars to the Prime Minister's family."
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Justin Trudeau's visual communications staffers nixed a highlight “presser clip” of the Prime Minister because the delivery “had some stumbles”.
The directions were emailed from Hilary Allaire to Johnna Robinson on June 2, 2020, and suggested focusing on Trudeau's House of Commons remarks.
SUBJECT: SIGNAL CHECK: PM Presser Clip
Hi Johanna,
For today, we would recommend standing down on clipping something from the PM presser at Rideau Cottage and instead focus on the HoC remarks because there is no announcement and the delivery today had some stumbles. If you'd still like us to promote the speech, we could post a tweet with a link to the video on YT. If there's still interest in a clip from these remarks, we'd propose the section highlighted below. Let us know what you think.
Thanks!
The country is in the finest and least partisan of hands.
Oh, wait!:
Several family members of women killed in the 1989 Ecole Polytechnique massacre say Prime Minister Justin Trudeau will no longer be welcome at annual commemorations unless his government strengthens recently tabled gun-control legislation.
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Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says he's fed up with "Quebec bashing" following controversial remarks from a University of Ottawa professor.
(Sidebar: why would even a nuisance like Amir Attaran spew that out? Let's see: Justin's hatred of Alberta, his inability to tell other Asians apart from his Chinese bosses. his blackface-wearing ... He simply doesn't like Canada. He does like deflection, though. A cowardly leftist just like dear, old dad.)
Managing the screw-up:
Health Canada on Thursday said the benefits of AstraZeneca’s COVID-19 vaccine “continue to outweigh the risks” after investigating reported blood clots in several countries, and encouraged Canadians to receive it if offered.
(Sidebar: this Astra-Zeneca.)
Ukraine’s health agency has reported that a female military member died after receiving AstraZeneca’s CoviShield CCP virus vaccine, but stressed that the public shouldn’t jump to conclusions.
The agency said the woman didn’t complain of any side effects before her death. She died about two days after receiving the shot, officials said on the health ministry’s website, reported Reuters.
The woman had underlying heart problems and other underlying health conditions. Her cause of death is being investigated, the health ministry said
Also:
A St. Catharines, Ont., company that says it could have played a role vaccinating Canadians against COVID-19 but was passed over, now wants the federal government’s help to vaccinate the developing world.
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New government data released on Wednesday underscores the colossal toll that COVID-19 restrictions took on Canadian businesses early in the pandemic, with more than 100,000 businesses closing their doors in April 2020 alone.
Statistics Canada released a study of the ripple effects of pandemic lockdowns in the spring of 2020, when employment in the country fell by nearly one million people in March 2020 and by nearly two million people in April.
The “largest employment declines were observed in small businesses” in terms of proportion, the report found, as small businesses were forced to trim back their hours and lay off staff. Most layoffs over that period came from businesses that stayed open but were forced to cut staff, accounting for 900,000 lost jobs in March and 1.5 million in April.
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while local private businesses are shuttered and shattered, Ontario's public health administrators have profiteered. Chief medical bureaucrat in City of Ottawa increased pay by $110,817 (43%). In Peel by $99,779 (39%). Shame on insolent public sector. https://t.co/8OPKyZPM4l
— Stephen McIntyre (@ClimateAudit) March 20, 2021
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Communist countries like China do this sort of thing:
A British Columbia court has ruled that the province’s public health restrictions on church services are a justifiable violation of rights, even though they infringe upon freedom of religion.
Canada seems to excel in this sort of tyranny:
A majority of Canadians, nearly sixty percent, oppose federal regulation of internet speech, says in-house government research. The Privy Council study contradicted claims by Heritage Minister Steven Guilbeault that “a very high proportion of Canadians” want regulation: “This is an issue of concern for more and more Canadians.”
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The Senate has passed a bill to expand access to medical assistance in dying, including eventually to people suffering solely from mental illnesses.
By a vote of 60-25, with five abstentions, senators accepted Wednesday a revised version of Bill C-7, even though the government rejected or modified amendments made by the Senate.
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Iain Stewart, president of the Public Health Agency, last night refused to tell MPs why two Chinese scientists were fired from a federal lab while under RCMP investigation. MPs said the case smacked of a security breach involving the husband and wife research team that that made numerous trips to China: “That is just bureaucratic butt-covering.”
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Commons Speaker Anthony Rota yesterday ruled a pandemic election bill can proceed despite confusion over counting of mail-in ballots. A Conservative MP had said the legal text was so garbled the bill should be withdrawn and rewritten: “The error could be corrected.”
In China, she would have no kidneys about now:
A lawyer for Canada’s attorney general says it was entirely reasonable for border officers to question Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou before her arrest at Vancouver’s airport in 2018.
On the Korean Peninsula:
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un broke ground for 10,000 new apartments in the capital city of Pyongyang, state media reported on Wednesday, despite economic crises that have left other signature construction projects stalled.
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North Korea on Friday said it was cutting diplomatic ties with Malaysia to protest a court ruling that allowed a North Korean to be extradited to the United States to face money laundering charges.
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North Korea fired short-range missiles this past weekend, just days after the sister of Kim Jong Un threatened the United States and South Korea for holding joint military exercises.
The missile tests were confirmed by two senior Biden administration officials who briefed reporters on condition of anonymity. They come as North Korea has ignored offers from the new administration to resume negotiations, and Secretary of State Antony Blinken last week pressed China to use its “tremendous influence” to convince North Korea to abandon its nuclear program.
The officials, however, sought to downplay the significance of the missile tests, noting that they are not covered by U.N. Security Council resolutions meant to deter North Korea from pursuing a nuclear program.
Rather, they have no ruddy idea how to handle this.
Can't a father comment on his daughter?:
The warrant was issued by a judge for the arrest of a father after calling his biological female child his "daughter," and referring to her with the pronouns "she" and "her." The father was found to be in contempt of court.
The father is a father to a gender non-conforming biological female 16-year-old who identifies as transgender and prefers the use of male pronouns. The father has repeatedly called this person his daughter, though the court has forbade it. The transition has been underway for more than two years.
On Tuesday at 10 am Vancouver time, the father surrendered himself to the court in response to the Attorney General of British Columbia's warrant his arrest for contempt. He was the arrested and jailed. The warrant was issued by Judge Tammen on March 4, 2021.
Mutilating this girl is as creepy as a drag queen caught with obscene child images.
Silence from the parents who put their children in harm's way ...
See, bullying is alright when some people do it:
The Assembly of First Nations yesterday did not comment on claims political aides to National Chief Perry Bellegarde bullied Indigenous women reporters. The allegations are detailed in a federal report to a United Nations agency: “Intimidation against female Indigenous journalists can come from Indigenous political leaders.”
Also:
Chiefs of New Brunswick's six Wolastoqey First Nations are claiming victory following a court decision that will see the province share a portion of carbon tax revenues.
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