Your middle-of-the-week Advent calendar ...
If we had proper communism, people's expectations would be lower by default!:
The private sector has raised Canadians’ expectations of faster, better service, says a Department of Employment report. Managers said the private sector “evolved rapidly through ever-advancing technologies” while the department struggles with months-long backlogs for benefits like Canada Pension Plan cheques: “Clients increasingly expect the delivery of government services to keep pace.”
Loblaw Cos. Ltd. chairman Galen Weston made an inaccurate statement about Australian grocery rules to a House of Commons committee, according to groups representing independent grocers, food suppliers and farmers.
The letter sent Tuesday to MP Kody Blois, who chairs the agriculture committee studying food prices, asked the committee to disregard this part of Weston's testimony when they draft their final report.
Speaking before the committee on Dec. 7, Weston told MPs that Canada's nearly complete grocery code of conduct would put too much power in the hands of large suppliers when it comes to price negotiations with retailers, which could raise prices for Canadians.
Using Australia's grocery code as an example, Weston said it has a third-party mechanism that has "supported increases in costs in essentially 100 per cent of cases," and that if this "had happened in Canada, since the beginning of last year, it would have resulted in $750 million in additional inflation pressure for consumers."
Weston's comments are "not correct," Chris Leptos, the independent reviewer for the Australian code, told The Canadian Press.
The Australian code does not have a mechanism for price negotiations, said Leptos in an email.
Weston was making a point about the potential costs of a “flawed dispute resolution process in Canada,” said Loblaw spokeswoman Catherine Thomas, adding that the focus seems to be on his comments regarding Australia “instead of the inadequacies of the draft Canadian code.”
“The code in Canada, as drafted, will make it harder for retailers to push back on cost increases from suppliers,” said Thomas, noting that multiple retailers have raised concerns about excessive price increase requests from large multinational suppliers.
Canada on Tuesday released final regulations mandating that all passenger cars, SUVs, crossovers and light trucks sold by 2035 must be zero-emission vehicles (ZEVs), part of the government's overall plan to combat climate change.
ZEVs must make up at least 20% of all cars sold by 2026 and at least 60% by 2030. Industry officials say electric vehicles (EVs) represented 12.1% of new vehicle sales in the third quarter of 2023.
Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault said the regulations provided industry with the certainty it needed to address the issue of limited availability of EVs.
"(This) ensures Canadians have access to our fair share of the global supply of these vehicles," he told a televised news conference in Toronto.
Transportation accounts for about 22% of Canada's greenhouse gas emissions.
The rules are similar to those adopted by California, which says 100% of new cars sold in 2035 must be plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEV), EVs or powered by hydrogen fuel cell. A total of 17 U.S. states have agreed to adopt the regulations.
A Conservative cabinet would repeal electric car mandates as a tax on the poor, Opposition Leader Pierre Poilievre yesterday said in a radio interview. Poilievre made his remarks ahead of cabinet’s publication today of a Regulatory Impact Analysis Statement on the cost of requiring drivers to buy electrics: “They have no idea how people are going to pay for it.”
The Liberal government was informed that selecting the Boeing P-8 as Canada’s new surveillance aircraft would be the least risky option, but would provide few economic benefits to the country’s aerospace industries, according to various reports done for federal officials.A little more than six years after declaring Boeing an industrial partner they couldn’t trust, the Liberals on Nov. 30 awarded the U.S. aerospace giant a sole-source deal worth $8 billion for a fleet of P-8 surveillance planes.But, before that decision was made, a series of three reports were done to provide government officials with background on which planes could replace the Royal Canadian Air Force’s fleet of Aurora aircraft.Analysts told federal officials that none of the aircraft examined, including the P-8, could meet all of Canada’s high-level mandatory requirements, but the P-8 was a mature aircraft that was the least risky to purchase for Canada’s multi-mission aircraft program, the reports noted.The P-8, however, offers “the lowest opportunity for economic benefits,” analysts pointed out.
Prince Edward Island signed a $94-million deal with the federal government to fund improvements to the province's health-care system.
This makes P.E.I the second province to come to an agreement with Ottawa after British Columbia signed a similar one in October.
The bilateral deals are part of a $196-billion, 10-year national health accord Prime Minister Justin Trudeau offered to premiers in February.
On their end, provinces and territories are expected to commit to massive upgrades to digital medical records and the collection of health-care data, as well as being held to account for meeting targets and timelines.
In exchange for its share of the funding, P.E.I has agreed to build 16 new patient medical homes, invest in mental health and make improvements to the health workforce over the next three years.
Quebec remains the only province that hasn't agreed in principle to the accord, with Premier François Legault pushing back against conditions the federal government has put on the funding.
As Liberals and New Democrats negotiate what a future national drug plan should look like, a new survey suggests pharmacare is not at the top of the priority list for most Canadians.
The survey shows that when asked to name their top two health-care priorities, only 18 per cent of those surveyed said the government should prioritize creating a new, universal, single-payer drug plan.
More funding toward surgical wait times, building more long-term care homes and expanding mental-health services all garnered significantly more support, at 36 per cent, 32 per cent and 30 per cent respectively.
“All of that comes before having a universal single-payer drug plan,” said Christian Bourque, Leger’s executive vice-president.
“It’s not at the top of Canadians’ priority list.”
Healthcare shouldn't even be at the top of the list.
Expecting the same government that caused the problem to fix thing is a definition for insanity.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's national security and intelligence adviser Jody Thomas is retiring after a tumultuous few years that saw her respond to the convoy protests in Ottawa, allegations of foreign interference and new wars.
In a letter to colleagues obtained by CBC News, Thomas said she's announcing her retirement on Jan. 26 with "a tear and a smile." She was appointed to the role in January 2022.
"To serve as the national security and intelligence adviser to the prime minister at this extraordinary time in our history has been an exceptional honour and privilege," the senior public servant wrote.
"I would like to thank the prime minister for listening to me, debating with me and giving me the space to do my job."
Thomas became a critical government player this year when Trudeau's cabinet confronted questions about its response to allegations of Chinese election interference and intimidation of a Conservative MP's family.
While Thomas denied some of the allegations levied at the government, she told a parliamentary committee in June that there was a breakdown in the flow of information and called for better management of intelligence.
"There is no one person. There is no single point of failure," Thomas told MPs.
"There was a flaw in the process."
She also played a crucial role in the government's response to the anti-public health measure protests in the winter of 2022 that gridlocked Ottawa and border points. The government invoked the Emergencies Act for the first time in the law's history to break up the protests.
During the inquiry reviewing that decision, Thomas defended her advice to government.
"This was a national crisis," Thomas told the Public Order Emergencies Commission.
"The violent rhetoric was increasing rapidly and exponentially. The number of threats against public figures was increasing."
Recently, Thomas has had to advise the government on Russia's war on Ukraine and the Israel-Hamas war. She also travelled to India this August as Canada was amassing intelligence for its investigation into the death of a Sikh activist in B.C. — a murder the government has since laid at the feet of India's government.
The trauma is overwhelming. Top mental health professionals say there is no clinical precedent for dealing with child hostages, in particular; for children who watched their parents get murdered and were then taken captive. Some kids have been released but their fathers remain with Hamas. And the women. We know that rape and extreme abuse continues with female hostages. Not all, but many. Men, too.
Virtually every released hostage left someone behind. They are all tight-lipped, no doubt fearing that if they divulge too much, their friends and family will pay a steep price.
Also:
A majority of Canadians believe both antisemitism and Islamophobia are problems in the country, according to a new survey from the Angus Reid Institute. Published Wednesday(opens in a new tab), the survey also found notable differences of opinion between age and religious groups.
"Indeed, three-quarters see both as significantly problematic, while just 11 per cent of Canadians feel that each is 'not really a problem,'" the survey explained. "However, there are varying perceptions of the severity of the problem both antisemitism and anti-Muslim attitudes pose."
Islamophobia is a made-up word.
It is used whenever people are horrified by bombings, murders, violence, baby-beheadings and frightening children who want to see Santa.
Toronto’s city council approved a motion last week to change the name of the city’s landmark Yonge-Dundas square to “Sankofa Square.” The renaming is part of a $700,000 taxpayer-funded initiative to scrub the name of late 18-Century Scottish politician Henry Dundas from city-owned assets, due to his minor association to the trans-Atlantic slave trade, and despite the fact he was an abolitionist. Interestingly, the square’s new moniker, Sankofa, was first used by those who were active in the very same slave trade that Dundas opposed.
“Sankofa,” a word taken from the Twi language of Ghana’s Akan people (the largest of the West African country’s 17 major ethnic groups), loosely translates to “go back and get.” The concept is attached to the visual symbol of a bird contorting its neck backward to reach for an egg. The term dates back to the early 1800s, a derivative of a proverb imparted by then Akan king Adinkra. ...
But “Sankofa’s” roots add another layer of complexity to the story. The people who coined the term were highly active participants in the early modern trans-Atlantic slave trade. The Akan-controlled Asante Empire, which held power at the height of the global slave trade in the 18th and 19th centuries, was, in fact, an indispensable supplier of Black slaves to British and Dutch traders.
“The (Asante) Kingdom played an instrumental role in the slave trade,” Akuffo told me, commonly bartering prisoners from neighbouring kingdoms, such as the Fante, in exchange for Western goods like whiskey and gunpowder.
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