Wednesday, May 31, 2017

PLAN 2014 IN ACTION ON THE ST. LAWRENCE SEAWAY

Chamber of Marine Commerce president Bruce Burrows said suspending shipping traffic would be an expensive proposition with far reaching economic fallout.
“Those affected in Canada and the U.S. could potentially lose over $50 million in sales per day,” he told CTV Ottawa in a statement.

BROUGHT TO YOU BY THE LETTERS W-T-F

Homolka reportedly supervised kindergarten children from Montreal’s Greaves Adventist Academy on a field trip in March and once brought her dog to the school for students to pet. The academy, a private Christian school, was aware of Homolka’s criminal past before she started volunteering there.

43 TO 44 IN BC

Christy Clark may not have enough seats to win a confidence vote, but she won’t resign without a fight.
Clark told reporters Tuesday she would test the confidence of the house rather than give up her post as premier. That test will come as early as next month, she said.

THE POPE AND THE PM

NP:  Pope Francis is wiser, better and presumably grateful now that Justin Trudeau has bestowed a visit upon him. At least I gather as much from the Canadian media coverage.
   But I wonder whether Pope Francis raised abortion, same-sex marriage, or euthanasia — all vital issues where Trudeau blithely defies his church. Or even humility. If so, it apparently wasn’t newsworthy.

BLOCKING THE TRANS MOUNTAIN PIPELINE

If there was any hope for pipeline peace in our time, it’s gone now, deflated by B.C. Green Party Leader Andrew Weaver’s attack on Premier Rachel Notley.
He was patronizing, petty, inaccurate and inflammatory. Weaver gave not the slightest nod to Notley’s climate-change policy, which is far more vigorous than B.C.’s.
NDP Leader John Horgan stood right beside him, smiling and nodding at everything Weaver said. So much for Notley’s hope of a friendly wave from her coastal NDP counterpart.

Tuesday, May 30, 2017

PLAN 2014 IN ACTION

The flow is at the maximum volume that the system can take before the Seaway is closed to ships, he said. With rain forecasted to contribute another centimetre to the Lake Ontario levels over the next three days, the board will have to decide whether to open the taps further and shut down the Seaway at least temporarily, he said.

QUEEN'S PARK QUACKS

“Ontarians are paying $1 billion a month in debt interest payments alone, but the Wynne govt has $200k for a giant floating duck,” tweeted Aaron Wudrick, federal director of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation.

Monday, May 29, 2017

THE DIONNE QUINTUPLETS

At four months old, their parents had already been approached about putting the babies on display at fair exhibits. The family was poor, which made the offer that much more tempting. But when the province of Ontario got wind of it, authorities decided the infants were in danger of exploitation, declared them "wards of the king," and proceeded to, well, exploit them.

SPECULATORS TARGET BC FARMLAND

Sales of farmland in B.C. surged and prices jumped immediately after the provincial government announced a foreign buyer tax on residential land in July 2016, a Postmedia investigation shows.

POLICE CHIEFS & PROSECUTORS OPPOSE WYNN'S LAW

I suspect most Canadians share the view public safety is always a paramount consideration for police chiefs and Crown prosecutors. And for the most part, that's undoubtedly true.
But there are occasions where, arguably, self-interest outweighs public interest.
Case in point: the recent House of Commons Justice committee hearings on Bill S-217, also known as Wynn's Law, which would require an accused’s criminal record to be introduced at a bail hearing.

DEPORTING CRIMINAL ILLEGAL ALIENS

Officials in El Salvador held emergency meetings after seeing a sharp increase in the number of violent gang members being deported back to the country from the United States under the Trump administration.

1400 YEARS LATER, THEY'RE STILL FIGHTING

   The Sunni-Shia conflict defines the political structure of the Middle East, from the international rivalry between Iran and Saudi Arabia to the internal politics of Muslim nations. And yet, Western politicians, eager to portray Islam as a “religion of peace,” speak of Muslims as homogenous.
  In truth, there are Shiite Muslims who do not think Sunnis count as Muslim at all, and vice versa. Adherents of the more extreme sects within the Sunni and Shia schools view moderate followers of the same basic tradition as apostates.

SINGH SAVES RURAL ONTARIO

Pat Stogran, who acquired a reputation for being outspoken as the former federal veterans ombudsman, challenged Ontario politician Jagmeet Singh after he suggested "an act of love" is required to connect with Canadian voters.
"I think that what it takes ... to understand the realities of small and rural communities or communities that are isolated, it takes an act of love to understand that we are all in this together," Singh said.

Sunday, May 28, 2017

TURTLE TRUMPS TURBINE: ROUND TWO

PRINCE EDWARD COUNTY — The Bland­ing’s turtle is proving to be more powerful than a wind turbine protest group.
A Prince Edward County wind turbine project, located along the south shore south of Belleville, had originally been approved to include 29 turbines. But in late April, the province’s Environmental Review Tribunal (ERT) ruled that more than half of those turbines pose a threat to the Blanding’s turtle.

SUIT AGAINST H CLINTON DISMISSED

A federal judge in Washington has dismissed a lawsuit alleging that Hillary Clinton's lax security surrounding her emails led to the deaths of two of the Americans killed in the 2012 attack on the U.S. diplomatic compound in Benghazi, Libya.
In a ruling Friday, U.S. District Court Judge Amy Berman Jackson tossed out the wrongful death claims as well as allegations that Clinton essentially slandered the parents of the deceased by contradicting accounts the parents gave of events related to their children's deaths.

"TRUMP'S INABILITY TO INTEGRATE"

In the end it was not mean to be. As discussed on Friday, during Trump's first G-7 summit, world leaders including German Chancellor Angela Merkel and new French President Emmanuel Macron, had hoped to persuade the the US president to endorse the Paris Agreement climate pledge to fight global warming. By the end of the summit - held at a luxury hotel in Taormina, Sicily that was once a Dominican monastery and base for the Nazi air force during World War Two - they realized they had failed, as Trump "underscored his determination to break the global mold" by refusing to follow the Group of Seven line not only on global warming but also by resisting measures on trade.

NEW CONSERVATIVE LEADER

TORONTO — Andrew Scheer, an apple-cheeked social conservative and former House of Commons Speaker seen by some as a pragmatic, mainstream echo of Stephen Harper, survived a 13-ballot battle Saturday with rival Maxime Bernier as he eked out the narrowest of wins in the fight for the helm of the federal Conservatives.

Saturday, May 27, 2017

WHO VOTED FOR THIS IDIOT?

The duo improvised a fort worthy of two Canadian leaders. Devoid of any pillows, Bella and Trudeau rearranged chairs, added couch cushions and made use of the wooden table in Trudeau’s office.

HOLY COW

What is significant is that the new rules will be applicable not just to Maharashtra, Gujarat, Haryana and other states already having comprehensive laws banning slaughter of cattle (the cow and its progeny) and consumption of beef. They would extend to the whole of India, includes states where no such blanket prohibition exists.

RELATED: Ramadan festivities

ONTARIO JUDGE BLASTS THE CROWN

NP:  Rarely are pitches to acquit an accused in mid-trial successful.
It’s even rarer when police officers are on trial for assaulting an innocent bystander.
Rarer still is to see a Crown lawyer dressed down by a judge after arguing rather weakly to dismiss a directed verdict application and keep a trial going.
But that’s what happened in the Ontario Court of Justice Thursday afternoon as a joint assault charge was dismissed against two of three St. Thomas police officers.

RUMBLINGS IN THE OILPATCH

One of Canada's largest oil companies says it quit a major industry lobby group for refusing to join the Saskatchewan premier's war against a carbon tax.
The decision by the firm, Crescent Point Energy, to quit the oil industry group, the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers (CAPP), has stunned industry watchers and sparked a war of words between the premier and a federal Liberal member of Parliament over the decision.
 

"CANADIAN POSITION MAY NOT BE UNIVERSALLY EMBRACED"

TAORMINA, Italy — Donald Trump and his six fellow G7 leaders,  agreed Friday to do more to counter violent extremism, but remained far apart on issues like climate change and free trade.
 Prime Minister Justin Trudeau went into the meeting intending to champion the benefits of free trade and action on climate change at the summit, even with Trump trying ever harder to steer the world in a different direction.

SUCKING & BLOWING SIMULTANEOUSLY

Maxime Bernier on supply management;  "I will follow the party."

Friday, May 26, 2017

NO SH*T SHERLOCK

Alberta has received another credit downgrade, with a rating agency warning about “continuing budgetary performance deterioration and growing debt” under the NDP government.

POP! GOES THE TORONTO HOUSING BUBBLE

A few days ago, Moody’s Investors Service downgraded Canada’s six largest banks on concerns over their exposure to the housing bubble and household indebtedness that ranks among the highest in the world.

TAXPAYER FUNDED LAND RUSH

Since 2013, the province has invested $12.7 million through the Northern Ontario Heritage Fund Corporation to improve 25,500 acres of Northern Ontario agricultural land to strengthen and grow agricultural production.

WHEN WHORES GET TOO OLD

They let the world in on dirty family secrets.

PLAN 2014 IN ACTION

This would not normally be a problem, however, the waters of Lake Ontario have already been running high over the past month, and according to the Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory (GLERL) and the U.S. Army Core of Engineers, they are currently at 75.86 metres - the highest they've been since record keeping began in 1918.

WE'RE FROM THE GOVERMENT

And we're here to help"

JIHADISTS IN CANADA

“In other cases, we’ve assessed that they’re back, they’re sorry, they’re working to try to get their heads straight and we’re relying on family members or other professionals.”
That’s right. If jihadists say they’re sorry and their moms promise to keep them on the straight and narrow, the RCMP opt not to charge them. It’s madness.
Back in the summer of 2015 the standing Senate committee on national security and defence released a report on countering terrorism.
Here’s recommendation 19: “The Government encourage police and Crown prosecutors to enforce provisions of the Criminal Code in all relevant matters involving terrorism in the criminal pre-criminal space.”

ANYONE ONE ELSE WOULD BE FIRED

A judge with a history of releasing reasons for judgment years late was reprimanded by Ontario’s top court Thursday for “frustrat(ing) the proper administration of justice.”
This time, it resulted in the court ordering a new trial for a case involving serious allegations of domestic and sexual violence.
 

WYNNE BLAMING LINE REPAIR COSTS

Premier Kathleen Wynne is making no apologies for the Liberals’ 25 per cent hydro rate cuts that a legislative watchdog warns will cost at least $21 billion over the next three decades.  “We’re talking about a 30-year window here. It took at least 30 years, probably 40 years, to let the electricity system degrade to the stage that it had in 2003,” she said, noting “we were having blackouts and brownouts around the province” before her party took office that year.
 

Thursday, May 25, 2017

"BLOODY FARCE"

Bill Wilson, a hereditary chief and the father of federal Justice Minister Jody Wilson-Raybould, says the national inquiry into missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls is a "bloody farce" and the commissioners leading it need to be replaced.

TRUDEAU'S PARTISAN SWAMP

When Meilleur left active politics last summer, she had her heart set on securing a Senate appointment. That was until it was made clear that Trudeau’s more independent Senate was no place for a just-retired Liberal politician.
That is how she came to set her sights on the then-soon-to-be-vacant post of commissioner of official languages. She applied for it like anyone else. Before and during her years in politics Meilleur had been a strong advocate for French-language rights. Earlier this month her name emerged as the prime minister’s choice for the post.
 

URGENCY, MY A$$

NP:  Back in November, when the Liberal government announced it would be making an “interim” purchase of 18 Super Hornet fighter jets from Boeing, it was all about the need for speed.
There wasn’t time to hold an “open competition” to select a permanent replacement for the air force’s aging fleet of CF-18s, as the Liberals had promised during the election. The reason: the government had discovered a critical “capability gap” in our air defences that had to be filled at once.
Well, here we are in May, and the Super Hornets that were supposedly so urgently necessary to the defence of our national borders turn out to be just another in the apparently endless list of pawns to be sacrificed in pursuit of the Trudeau government’s real and only strategic objective, propping up Montreal-based Bombardier Inc.

LONG TERM FISCAL PAIN FOR ONTARIANS

Short-term gain on your hydro bill could translate into long-term fiscal pain.
The Liberal government’s “Fair Hydro Plan,” which lowers electricity bills by 25 per cent, will ultimately zap Ontarians to the tune of $21 billion over the next three decades, the province’s budget watchdog has found.
In a 15-page report released Wednesday, Financial Accountability Officer Stephen LeClair said the scheme will cost the province $45 billion over the next 29 years while saving ratepayers $24 billion for a $21-billion net expense.
 

$142MILLION TO SOLVE PHOENIX PAY SCREWUP

The federal government is pouring more money into the bug-addled Phoenix payroll system in hopes of getting closer to solving the ongoing boondoggle — and it's blaming the previous Conservative government for the extra cost.
The Liberals will spend $142 million over two years to hire 200 temporary workers on top of the 300 hired to date to deal with the problems wrought by Phoenix, which left tens of thousands of public servants underpaid, overpaid or not paid at all.
And they're still blaming PM Harper....

Wednesday, May 24, 2017

BRAINWASHING OF ALBERTA CHILDREN BEGINS

A main plank of the new curriculum is to turn students into “agents of change,” as one curriculum spokesperson has put it

GET RID OF YOUR GREEN ENERGY PLAN TOO

According to Ontario Economic Development Minister Brad Duguid, the Wynne government is keeping a close watch on U.S. President Donald Trump’s proposed cut to the U.S. corporate income tax rate.
 Duguid suggested his government is prepared to lower its own corporate rate to remain competitive.


MOODY'S DOWNGRADE CHINA

Moody's Investors Service downgraded China's credit ratings on Wednesday for the first time in nearly 30 years, saying it expects the financial strength of the economy will erode in coming years as growth slows and debt continues to rise.
The one-notch downgrade in long-term local and foreign currency issuer ratings, to A1 from Aa3, comes as the Chinese government grapples with the challenges of rising financial risks stemming from years of credit-fueled stimulus.

UK RAISES THREAT LEVEL

MANCHESTER, England -- As officials hunted for accomplices of a suicide bomber and Britain's prime minister warned another attack could be "imminent," thousands of people poured into the streets of Manchester in a defiant vigil Tuesday for victims of a blast at a pop concert -- the latest apparent target of Islamic extremists seeking to rattle life in the West.

Tuesday, May 23, 2017

BOMBING AT MANCHESTER ARENA, UK

Traumatised families have told of the scenes of carnage they witnessed after a suicide bomb set off a ball bearing bomb at a packed pop concert, killing at least 22 people, including children, and injuring around 60.
Witnesses told of nuts and bolts tearing into young music fans when the blast was detonated in the foyer area of the Manchester Arena as a concert US pop star Ariana Grande ended.
 


TAKING CARE OF BOMBARDIER

Quebec's premier says the province needs to take care of Bombardier because of its unique importance to the province.
Philippe Couillard is urging Quebecers to support the transportation company, which has recently faced a strong public backlash over planned hikes to executive pay.

FOREIGN MONEY IN CANADIAN ELECTIONS

Foreign money funnelled towards Canadian political advocacy groups affected the outcome of the 2015 federal election, according to a document filed last week with Elections Canada and obtained in part by the Herald.

Monday, May 22, 2017

ABOUT THAT GREEK DEBT

Finance Ministry inspectors are about to start seeking out the owners of undeclared properties, while the law will be amended to allow for financial products and the content of safe deposit boxes to be confiscated electronically.
Tax authorities will receive support from the Land Register to that end, as by end-September IAPR inspectors are set to obtain access to the company’s database to draw details on properties. 

WELL PAID LIBERAL HANG OUTS

Charitable agencies that receive more than $1 million in annual funding from the Ontario government are required to disclose top salaries on the province's Sunshine List of public-sector earnings.

BAN-TARIO

The province is looking at regulating the sale, trade and ownership of exotic animals.

$6 TOMATOES

MANOTICK — SunTech Greenhouse owner Bob Mitchell installed LED lights — his bright pink greenhouse lights lit up the night sky — two years ago to grow tomatoes year round. He switched off the lights last fall when he pencilled out that his Hydro One electricity bill was about to soar. The price of hydro spiked from 16 cents per kilowatt hour to 27 cents per kw/h starting last October. He figured his hydro bill from last October to the end of February this year was going to cost him $250,000.

INCREASING PRICE OF ONTARIO FARMLAND

Ontario farmland prices continued to climb last year but there were no wild price spikes, says a report from Farm Credit Canada (FCC).
The annual farmland value report said Ontario prices were up 4.4 per cent last year over 2015. While that’s a healthy price increase, it’s down from the double-digit price hikes that farmers saw each year from 2011 to 2014, including the phenomenal 30 per cent land price spike in 2012.
The average price of Ontario farmland rose 5.1 per cent last year in Eastern Ontario. FCC defines Eastern Ontario to include Stormont, Dundas and Glengarry, Prescott-Russell, Ottawa, Leeds-Grenville, Lanark, Frontenac and Renfrew.

WHAT MADELEINE WANTS....

Former city councillor, francophone rights activist and provincial cabinet minister Madeleine Meilleur seems well qualified to become Canada’s next commissioner of official languages. But the twists and turns of her candidacy leave a lot to be desired, given that the office is supposed to be strictly non-partisan.
Meilleur blandly told a Commons committee this week that after leaving Ontario politics, she approached Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s top aide about a federal job.

MINISTRY DRINKING THE REHABILITATION KOOL-AID

As a recent Global News investigation found, the probation system in this province is a joke - it’s a 9-to-5 operation that relies largely on the offenders promising to comply with their release conditions and rarely any compliance checks to make sure that they do.
   On an average day, the Ministry of Community Safety and Correctional Services is responsible for supervising about 44,000 offenders, which include those on probation, conditional sentences, parole and temporary absences. In a scathing 2014 report, Ontario’s auditor general found “probation and parole officers did not use effective measures to ensure that more stringent conditions imposed on offenders, such as curfews and house arrest, were enforced.”

GERMANY SHOULD PAY THE CONSEQUENCES

JarosÅ‚aw KaczyÅ„ski, chairman of Poland’s ruling Law and Justice Party (PiS), says it was Germany’s decision to open Europe’s borders, not Poland’s, and his countrymen should not have to pay for their neighbour’s mistakes.

BOEING VS BOMBARDIER

Canada’s minister of foreign affairs says “there will be consequences” for American aerospace giant Boeing after a trade spat with Montreal-based Bombardier Inc. erupted earlier this week.

Sunday, May 21, 2017

TRUDEAU'S SMIRKING DISRESPECTFUL ARROGANCE ON DISPLAY

This video showed one of the most egregious displays of political obfuscation, disrespect for opponents, and smugness turned up to a degree that is hard to believe actually occurred on the floor of the Canadian Parliament.

LAKE ONTARIO AT HIGHEST LEVEL EVER

Water levels on Lake Ontario were at their highest Monday since records started being kept in 1918, says Gail Faveri, secretary of the Canadian Section of the International Lake Ontario-St. Lawrence River Board.
“It was 75.85 metres — three centimetres higher than the record in June 1952,” said Faveri, adding the readings come from an average of seven gauges in Ontario and New York.
As of 3 p.m. Wednesday, she said the outflow from Lake Ontario was increased to 9,200 cubic metres per second to alleviate flooding on both sides of the border.

GANG WARS IN KELOWNA

On a sunny Sunday afternoon in August 2011, outside a popular hotel and casino, a Porsche Cayenne carrying gangsters from Metro Vancouver was sprayed by gunfire.
When the shooting stopped, notorious Red Scorpion Jonathan Bacon was dead, his Hells Angels pal Larry Amero was seriously wounded, and their Independent Soldier associate James Riach was grazed and in shock.
Eighteen months later, three men linked to a rival gang — Jujhar Singh Khun-Khun, Jason Thomas McBride and Michael Kerry Jones — were charged with first-degree murder and attempted murder.

CROWN LAND COMING UP FOR SALE IN ONTARI-OWE

Since 2005, the province’s beef farmers have shrunk their operations nearly 25 per cent, losing more than 100,000 cattle to fickle global markets and rapidly rising land costs in southern Ontario. For years, farmers have lobbied for a fix, and last week the Liberals announced one: they’ll release Crown land to northern farmers, allowing them to expand their properties to 2,000 acres.
But don’t expect a Wild West land rush anytime soon: so far, the government has simply agreed to the idea in principle and put the bureaucratic wheels in motion. Matt Bowman, president of Beef Farmers of Ontario, said he’s optimistic but isn’t expecting land sales to start tomorrow.

CHANGES TO ONTARIO BUILDING CODE

The new requirements also support Climate Change Action Plan commitments through new requirements for the installation of electric vehicle charging in new houses and workplaces

QUEBEC SQUATTER'S RIGHTS

 It’s not the kind of case you expect to be decided in Canada’s highest court, but the Supreme Court has found in favour of a woman who essentially argued possession is nine-tenths of the law.
A Quebec woman, Hélène Allie, has been awarded property rights over a parking spot she used for 17 years following a years-long court battle that ended at the top court.
The judgment only affects the law in Quebec because it hinges on the province’s civil code.

Saturday, May 20, 2017

TRUDEAU'S TAX ON EVERYTHING

The Trudeau Liberals are moving forward with their national carbon tax scheme, or, what Saskatchewan Premier Brad Wall calls “one of the largest tax increases in Canadian history.”
In typical governing fashion, the Liberals are trying to downplay the devastating economic consequences of the tax. They’re trying to disguise the very fact that this is a tax hike.
It’s not a carbon tax, it’s a “behaviour-changing measure,” said one government official.

QUOTING THE DOG

And then a tipping point was reached.
Historians of journalism will argue over when the dam broke. Was it the age of Obama or of Trump? But the day arrived. The sun rose over the CNN Center in Atlanta, the K Street digs of the Washington Post and the offices of other media organizations. And it was no longer a question of selective reporting. We were no longer arguing about the injection of opinion into news stories or journalistic double standards.
The age of fake news had arrived. We no longer have a free press. All we have is a fake press.

IMMIGRATION LAWYERS BLAME CONSULTANTS

The council that oversees thousands of immigration consultants in Canada is in the midst of what many describe as a crisis, beset by resignations, infighting and harsh criticism from lawmakers and lawyers.
The regulatory council, which was set up in 2011,  sets the rules for how immigration consultants conduct themselves, providing education, licensing and discipline. It's needed to help and protect those who want to come to Canada, overseeing approximately 4,000 consultants. It is run by a 15-member board of directors.

MISTAKE AFTER MISTAKE

Will add  BILLIONS on Ontario electricity bills.

RELATED: Hydro One's energy conservation survey, to develop programs, to SAVE electricity.

Friday, May 19, 2017

WHY WOULD IT BE ANY DIFFERENT THIS TIME?

The organization that was the loudest voice in calling for a public investigation of why so many Indigenous women have been murdered or gone missing in Canada says the inquiry launched to determine the societal causes of the tragedy has, so far, been a dismal failure.

WYNNE GREASING THE ELECTION RAILS

Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne is expected to announce a high-speed rail project on Friday that would eventually connect Toronto to Windsor, according to media reports.
The province plans to spend $15 million on an environmental assessment of the project to examine the design and specifications needed for the high-speed rail line, according to CTV News.
 

MAKING ROOM AT THE LIBERAL TROUGH

The former Ontario Liberal cabinet minister who has been nominated by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to serve as the next Commissioner of Official Languages says she met with senior Trudeau advisers to discuss appointment options in the months after she resigned as an MPP.
The Conservatives and the New Democrats oppose the selection of Madeleine Meilleur as language commissioner, one of the eight Officers of Parliament who are expected to operate independently of the government. They say she is a partisan and that they were not consulted before her nomination, as is required by law.
 

Thursday, May 18, 2017

ALBERTA FORECLOSURE SPIKE

“Due to the commodity crisis, the oil patch being depressed, a lot of people lost their jobs, there’s a lot of single-income households right now and that’s been really driving the increase of foreclosures over the last year to a year-and-a-half,” said Tim Reid with Phoenix Real Estate Investing.

BIG PHARMA FUELS THE OPIOID CRISIS

Despite widespread attention paid to the opioid crisis, the number of prescriptions filled for the powerful painkillers and the number of people taking them have continued to rise in Ontario, a new report says.
More than 9.1 million opioid prescriptions were filled in the province in 2015-2016, a jump of about 5 per cent from three years earlier, according to the study, which also found that approximately 12,000 more individuals were prescribed the potentially addictive morphine-like medications in 2015-2016 than in 2012-2013.
RELATED:Sol Stern, a family doctor in Oakville, Ont., and one of 13 panel members who voted on the standards, has been a paid speaker and advisory board member for drug companies, including the pharmaceutical giant whose pain pill triggered Canada’s deadly opioid epidemic.

WYNNE'S HANDS ON $2.8 BILLION

The Ontario government’s coffers just got a jolt of cash.
The sale of the latest batch of Hydro One shares has raised $2.8 billion, the Ministry of Energy said Wednesday. In total, the Liberal government has made $9 billion off the Hydro One sell-off.

PRIVATE COST OF PUBLIC QUEUES

One measure of the privately borne cost of wait times is the value of time that is lost while waiting for treatment.

LIBERALS STALLING AUDITS

Michael Ferguson is entering his sixth year as Canada's auditor general and, not surprisingly, his reports during that time have found numerous examples of government waste, excess and neglect.
But his most recent batch of audits released this week exposed a significant hurdle to ensuring government programs provide good value for taxpayers' money.
In two cases, both involving the Finance Department, auditors were denied access to key documents they needed

Wednesday, May 17, 2017

WEEDS BLOWING IN THE WIND?


Azure Farms is a working, Certified Organic farm located in Moro, Central Oregon, in Sherman County. It has been Certified Organic for about 18 years. The farm produces almost all the organic wheat, field peas, barley, Einkorn, and beef for Azure Standard.

Sherman County is changing the interpretation of its statutory code from controlling noxious weeds to eradicating noxious weeds. These weeds include Morning Glory, Canada Thistle, and Whitetop, all of which have been on the farm for many years, but that only toxic chemicals will eradicate.

Organic farming methods – at least as far as we know today – can only control noxious weeds—it is very difficult to eradicate them.

TRUDEAU'S MOST EXCELLENT CHRISTMAS VACATION

The Bahamas island where Prime Minister Justin Trudeau took a vacation that is now the subject of an ethics investigation is owned by a company connected to a secretive web of corporations located in countries known to be offshore tax havens.

RELATED: Trudeau recuses himself from Ethics Commissioner selection

Tuesday, May 16, 2017

WAR DRUMS FOR TRUDEAU

Aboriginal chiefs backing a pipeline through northern British Columbia plan to challenge Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s “ill-conceived” moratorium on oil tanker traffic off the northern section of Canada’s West Coast.

ONTARIO'S DOCTORS VS THE PROVINCE

There appears to have been a breakthrough in the long-standing contract dispute between Ontario’s Liberal government and the province’s doctors.
The Toronto Sun has learned that an agreement on a binding interest arbitration “framework” is expected as soon as Friday between the Ontario Medical Association and the provincial government.

JIHAD IN DENMARK

Other Danish politicians reacted with similar degrees of "shock" -- appearing utterly surprised by basic tenets of Islam, which have only been public for 1400 years.
Søren Pape hopes to solve the issue by prosecuting the imam. In December 2016, Denmark introduced a new provision in the penal code aimed at religious preachers. It is known in Denmark as the "imam provision," as it is, in practice, mainly aimed at imams. According to the provision, speaking approvingly of terror, murder, rape, violence, incest, pedophilia, coercion and polygamy, whether at private or public events, is prohibited and punishable by fine or prison of up to three years. The "imam provision" exists in addition to the general provision in the penal code, according to which it is prohibited and punishable by fine or prison publicly to threaten, insult or demean a group of persons because of their race, skin color, national or ethnic origin, faith or sexual orientation.

P!SSING OFF PUTIN

NATO builds infrastructure for permanent military presence near Russia's borders.

Monday, May 15, 2017

WHEN WHORES GET TOO OLD

They cozy up to the Heritage Fund.

ABOUT THOSES ONTARIO UNEMPLOYMENT RATES

In fact, outside of the Greater Golden Horseshoe (especially Toronto) and Ottawa, labour market performance has been extremely weak since the 2008/09 recession. In fact, as of the end of 2015, total employment in Ontario outside of the Greater Golden Horseshoe had still not recovered to pre-recession levels. 

MEANWHILE IN GERMANY

The units, which are owned by a private landlord, are in need of repair and have been vacant since 2012. A trustee appointed by the city is now renovating the properties and will rent them — against the will of the owner — to tenants chosen by the city. District spokeswoman Sorina Weiland said that all renovation costs will be billed to the owner of the properties.

Sunday, May 14, 2017

DISAGREEING WITH LIBERALS

That’s typical of Ontario’s Liberals who, after 14 years in power, tend to view any criticism of them as unwarranted or partisan.
Disagree with their sex education curriculum and you’re a homophobe.
Disagree with their confused, wasteful and ineffective green energy program and you don’t care about Ontario towns being flattened by tornadoes.
Disagree with their health care spending priorities, or lack of them, and you’re on the side of greedy doctors who are milking the system.

FELLING CANADA'S SOFTWOOD INDUSTRY

MONTREAL—Hundreds of Quebec forestry workers are experiencing the first sour tastes from the softwood lumber battle with the United States as they prepare for the start of layoffs.
Starting Monday, Resolute Forest Products is cutting shifts at seven sawmills and delaying the start of forest operations that will affect 1,282 workers.
 
 

BANK RUN ON HOME CAPITAL GROUP

When we first said three weeks ago that the spectacular, sudden implosion of Canada's largest alt-lender Home Capital Group or HCG - whose fate we had followed closely since 2015  - was Canada's own "New Century Moment", the parallels were more than just the obvious: like in the US, it took the market nearly a year to realize the full implications of the subprime collapse which first manifested in the failure of New Century and its subprime lender peers. When all was said and done, the world's central banks had to pump (and still do) trillions into the financial system to stop it from disintegrating.
Slowly but surely, Canada is starting to appreciate just how serious the Home Capital failure is, and how the unprecedented bank run ]that has led to 94% of retail deposits fleeing the troubled lender
... is just the first step of what will likely be a very painful process, which will likely culminate with either a government bailout, or a financial system on the verge of panic.
How quickly can a financial institution go from seemingly healthy and solvent to being on the verge of liquidation? The answer: hours..

ALBERTA'S BALANCING POOL UNDER INVESTIGATION

Alberta's electricity market watchdog is investigating a provincial agency for its handling of controversial power contracts that are losing billions of dollars.

THE RING OF FIRE ROAD INTO NORTHERN ONTARIO

Last week, Ms. Wynne held a tense meeting at Queen’s Park with chiefs of the nine Matawa First Nations, five of which are fly-in reserves, to tell them that her patience is running out and she cannot guarantee the money will stay on the table if decisions are not made quickly. It was conspicuously missing from the Ontario budget in April.

SH*T CREEK AND THEN SOME

Heavy rain and winter runoff in the month of May has affected more than people's homes along the Ottawa River.
The river itself, often polluted with sewage overflow after a day or two of heavy rain, has had to absorb more than 600-million litres over the past week alone, according to figures released by the City of Ottawa. 

Saturday, May 13, 2017

HISTORY OF THE ST LAWRENCE SEAWAY

Canada 150: How the St. Lawrence Seaway changed the channel.
It took decades of talk before Canada and the United States got to work on the St. Lawrence Seaway, but the result was amazing.
 

EIGHT DAYS UNDER WATER

 How the people of Ottawa and Gatineau faced a '100-year flood'

VANCOUVER'S DISASTROUS DRUG STRATEGY

Neighbourhoods like the Downtown Eastside don’t happen by accident. Every community across Canada has addiction problems, but it’s only through years of poor planning that an out-of-control disaster like Vancouver’s starts to develop.
It is a noble and moral thing to prevent addicts from dying of overdoses in alleys and dingy apartments, and none of the problems cited above are reasons to not build a safe injection site. But it is perverse to look at the Downtown Eastside and claim that it is in any way a holistic success. It is palliative care on a mass scale; a system that can keep hearts from stopping, but little else.

LIBERALS' BILL: MANDATORY BREATH SAMPLES

The Liberal government has mounted a pre-emptive defence of its contentious new impaired driving bill, arguing that mandatory breath samples will serve as a strong deterrent and will not violate constitutional rights.
A charter statement from Justice Minister Jody Wilson-Raybould, tabled in the House of Commons today, outlines why the Liberals believe Bill C-46 upholds the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

Friday, May 12, 2017

ARE THEY USING A SOLAR POWERED PLANE?

NASA will be flying over much of Northern Canada this summer as part of a 10-year project to better understand the impacts of climate change on Arctic and Boreal ecosystems.

DEPOSITORS WITHDRAW 94% OF FUNDS

According to its latest daily update, Canada's biggest non-bank lender Home Capital Group showed the rate of withdrawals by depositors was slowing, one day after the company raised doubts about its ability to continue as a going concern, albeit for a simple reason: there are almost none left. In other words, over the past six weeks, depositors have withdrawn 94% of funds from Home Capital's high-interest savings accounts since March 28.
Also overnight, Home Capital released the terms of the usurious credit facility with the Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan, that was first announced April 26 in a May 11 filing.

OTTAWA RIVER FLOOD

Doug Antler has run the Kingfisher Lodge, a fishing/hunting outfitter and campground, at Deux Rivières for 34 years, during which he’s seen the river go up and down like a yo-yo and even helped monitor water levels. He believes the downstream floods this year were partially man-made because “two-and-a-half feet” of water was drawn down on his stretch — and sent downstream — on April 27.

NO TAX PRIVACY IN NORWAY

Would you be happy to have your tax return displayed for everyone to see? In Norway, no one can disguise their earnings, as every citizen’s is made available for everyone else in the country to inspect. Workers can see what their colleagues earn and neighbours can snoop on how much the people next door make - all legally and online.

ONTARIO'S HYDRO PRICES TO SOAR

Electricity prices are to soar after four years, says a secret Liberal cabinet document.
According to briefing materials obtained by the Progressive Conservatives, rates would start rising 6.5 per cent a year in 2022 and top out at 10.5 per cent in 2028, when average monthly bills hit $215.
H/T SDA

Thursday, May 11, 2017

FLOODED...HERE'S WHY

With the implementation of Plan 2014, we will continue to see magnified, drastic changes in water levels and property owners in shoreline communities across Wayne County will be left with no guaranteed compensation." said NY Congressman John Katko, in a joint statement with Congressman Collins. "Together with Rep. Collins, I’ve fought against Plan 2014 from the start and this week we’ve urged the administration to permanently withdraw from Plan 2014 to avoid further damage."

Wednesday, May 10, 2017

BROUGHT TO YOU BY THE LETTERS W-T-F

Documents show fictional characters Fred Flintstone and his daughter, Pebbles, have taken out very real liens against a Perth, Ont. woman's van.

COMEY BOOTED

But why fire Comey now? The answer is simple. The day before, President Barack Obama’s former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper repeated, under oath, what he told NBC News’ Chuck Todd on Meet the Press on March 5 — that he had seen no evidence of collusion between the Trump campaign and the Russian government. That gave the Trump administration the breathing room to dismiss Comey — which it simply did not have before

REPROBATE'S PENSION

Disgraced Sen. Don Meredith has resigned after acknowledging his sexual relationship with a teenage girl, but he’ll still receive an annual $25,000 pension.

BC SQUEAKER

VANCOUVER -- British Columbia has its first minority government in 65 years as the Liberals squeaked out a razor-thin victory over the NDP on Tuesday, with the Green party holding the balance of power for the first time in Canadian history.

Tuesday, May 9, 2017

NOTHING TO SEE HERE MOVE ALONG

The problems swirling around a troubled mortgage lender are hitting close to Home for Ontario’s Liberal government.
Home Capital Group’s apparent connections to Premier Kathleen Wynne’s administration have raised the ire of the 130,000-member Ontario Public Service Employees Union.

SO YOU THINK YOU HAVE FLOOD INSURANCE....

Increasingly severe weather in Canada has made for changes in home insurance that could leave homeowners unprotected if their house is damaged in a flood.
The first thing to know: most home insurance policies don't include flood insurance at all, explained Pete Karageorgos, director of consumer and industry relations with the Insurance Bureau of Canada.

WHEN FACTS SPOIL THE NARRATIVE

Over 100 days into Donald Trump’s presidency, there still remains no evidence of collusion between his administration and Russian agents, despite mainstream media reports to the contrary.

THE EU HAD ITS CHANCES

Following an unfortunate combination of wrong decisions at the top and the uncontrolled flourishing of a self-serving bureaucracy, the union has moved in a direction where it has become a prisoner of its own constructed reality.
 The EU was a great idea but it has been ridden to death. Back in 1992, almost half of Swiss voted to join the European Economic Area, including the traveller. If there was a vote today on joining the union, the latest polls say just 15 per cent would vote yes.
The EU had its chances. It squandered them, and maybe it will come to an end in the foreseeable future under the weight of its burdens

Monday, May 8, 2017

HOGTOWN GETS THE INFRASTRUCTURE BANK

The government unveiled details of the bank last month in a proposed law enacting parts of its annual budget, including that it will be led by a chairperson and at least eight directors. It gave Trudeau’s cabinet broad power over the bank, including to appoint or dismiss the chair and directors, and to approve the board’s appointment of a chief executive officer, who government will also have the power to dismiss. The finance minister will also have powers over loan recommendations.

PLAN 2014

All of this may come as a surprise to those dealing with high water levels on the Canadian side of the lake, where most people have never heard of Plan 2014 and where local news reports on the situation do not reflect the fractious political tone seen in U.S.-based coverage.

Since wetland species of plants and animals can only thrive in the zone between high and low water, the increased range, which is closer to what the lake experienced before the dam was built in 1958, will help keep wetlands from shrinking.

VIOLATING YOUR RIGHTS

Bill 68 — the Modernizing Ontario’s Municipal Legislation Act, 2017 — affects you, your family and your future.
Remember back in 2015, when people were upset because they weren’t going to get their day in court if they received a parking ticket under the Administrative Monetary Penalty System (AMPS)?
It’s back in Bill 68.
But this time it’s much worse because Bill 68 covers all bylaws with which you’re not in compliance.

PAYING TO WIN A SEAT AT THE UN

Canada is on track to spend millions over the next three years in its bid to win a rotating two-year seat on the United Nations' Security Council — even as some inside and outside the UN say the election process needs an overhaul.
According to the government's own estimates, Canada has already spent almost $500,000 on its campaign, which pits Ottawa against Ireland and Norway for the two available spots, opening in 2021.
That includes everything from postage stamps to travel to hospitality. It does not include the salaries of the 10 government employees appointed to work full-time on Canada's bid.

Sunday, May 7, 2017

THE POPE'S SERMON FOR SUNDAY

May 1, 2017 -"Pope Francis came out last week with a scathing assault on libertarians. 'I cannot fail to speak of the grave risks associated with the invasion of the positions of libertarian individualism at high strata of culture and in school and university education,' the Pope said in an message sent to members of the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences meeting in the Vatican....

TRUDEAU'S TAX DOLLAR GIVEAWAY

It was interesting to read David Akin's numbers on Trudeau's dollar handouts in his first 100 days in office. By his calculations it amounts to 5.3 billion dollars, of which slightly less than a billion dollars was spent inside Canada.

$4.3 billion spent outside of the country will buy you a lot of thanks from some organizations such as the UN or from climate change conferences. That type of spending will also earn you a lot of selfies to up your political profile. But in the end it is our taxpayers footing the bill.

HOW THE LIBRANO'S ROLL

Cash-for-access is back. Justin Trudeau is set to resume the high-priced fundraising events that proved so controversial for the Liberals when it emerged the party was raising millions of dollars through elite fundraisers attended by the prime minister in private homes.

VANCOUVER'S MAYOR MOONBEAM

Vancouver’s city council is taking radical steps to limit the use of natural gas in the city in support of a “100 per cent fossil free” slogan that the mayor’s left-wing party is hoping will secure re-election for another term in 2018. Unfortunately, many residents are not laughing at this, given that the cost of living in the city is already the public’s top anxiety.

Saturday, May 6, 2017

CASE DISMISSED!

A judge in Canada has dismissed a case against a Toronto activist who gave water to pigs heading to the slaughter on a hot day, bringing an end to a two-year case that had become a rallying point for animal rights campaigners around the world.

MEANWHILE IN EMERSON, MANITOBA

Justin, put your pull ups on, and come and see!

POKING A STICK IN TRUMP'S EYE

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau told the leader of timber-rich British Columbia that he would consider her request to ban thermal coal shipments in retaliation for new U.S. tariffs on softwood slumber.

HOLY COW

Cow vigilantism has been portrayed as a blowback against the Muslim community’s insistence on consuming beef, unmindful of the fact that slaughtering cows hurts Hindus who worship the animal. This depiction has framed the cow as an incendiary issue between Hindus and Muslims, an irreconcilable clash of cultures, so to speak.

Related: They're even talking about our PM Selfie in India!

THE WELCOME GIFT FOR JUSTIN'S PEOPLE

Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne has stood by her government’s decision to spend nearly $54,000 on Canada Goose winter jackets.

KENTUCKY DERBY SATURDAY

A famous story of a famous horse: Northern Dancer

PRAISING HUGO CHAVEZ

However, Venezuela’s problems date back to 1999, with the election of socialist president Hugo Chávez, whose mass redistribution of wealth and financial mismanagement laid the groundwork for the country’s economic collapse.
Like his successor, Chávez was an authoritarian who clamped down on press freedom and regularly locked up his opponents. His government also funded gangs known as colectivos, tasked with intimidating poor communities into supporting him, while distributing pro-government propaganda across the country.
Nevertheless, Chávez’s regime received plaudits from numerous left-wing academics, politicians, and celebrities who have now gone quiet on the matter

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MUSKRATS AND POWER DAMS

Four months after an international body approved a new plan for regulating Lake Ontario’s water level, property owners who had claimed the rules favoured muskrat lodges over lakeside homes are piling sandbags against just the kind of floodwaters they had feared.
Lake Ontario has been artificially controlled by the Moses-Saunders Dam since 1960 for the benefit of St. Lawrence Seaway shipping, recreational boating, hydroelectric power generation and protection of millions of dollars’ worth of coastal property. Plan 2014, which is designed to more closely mimic the lake’s natural ups and downs, adds muskrats, fish and other wildlife to the list of interests regulators must consider when they decide how much water to release.

Friday, May 5, 2017

WYNNE'S CAP AND TRADE BULLSH!T

A Fraser Institute report released Thursday argues three conditions are necessary for government carbon pricing schemes to lower industrial greenhouse gas emissions linked to climate change efficiently.
And that Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne’s cap and trade plan doesn’t have any of them.
The Fraser Institute report here.

FLOODING IN EASTERN ONTARIO AND WESTERN QUEBEC

Flooded areas prepare for more rain.

POLITICIANS' GREEN-NESS COMPETITION

FP:  The B.C. election’s strangest twist is that it’s pitting greens against greens. Weaver, for example, has taken shots at the B.C. NDP for being latecomers to the climate change debate, while “I’ve been involved at the very highest levels internationally of climate policy for my entire career.”
The B.C. NDP and the Alberta NDP don’t see eye to eye, either. While Horgan wants to kill the Trans Mountain expansion, the Alberta NDP needs it badly to demonstrate its climate change plan, including a carbon tax that is weighing heavily on the province’s depressed economy, is worth the pain because it will lead to pipeline approvals. Alberta Premier Rachel Notley is so mad she’s barred her staff from participating in the B.C. election.

LIBERALS SUSPEND AUDITS OF CHARITIES' POLITICAL ACTIVITIES

The Liberal government is suspending the few remaining political activity audits of charities after an expert panel report recommended removing a political gag order imposed on them by the Conservatives five years ago.

Thursday, May 4, 2017

TRUDEAU'S FAKE NEWS

Once again, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has misrepresented Canadian policy on the world stage.

MERKEL'S GERMANY

In a sane world, the government would take steps to protect its own citizens from such "protection-seekers". Not in Merkel's Germany.


RELATED: In an announcement tonight, eurocrats said there was no
justification for keeping police checkpoints at frontiers within the
bloc and said they must be removed by the end of the year.

The diktat means that Austria, Germany, Denmark, Sweden, and Norway
will all have to swiftly find alternative ways to police irregular
movements of people across their borders.

CANADA'S TOOTHLESS GUARD DOG

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau should recuse himself from having anything to do with choosing Canada's next ethics watchdog, says a Conservative member of Parliament's ethics committee.
Pat Kelly said he is concerned about the prospect of the prime minister helping to choose a new ethics commissioner while under investigation by that office for his trip to the Aga Khan's private island in the Bahamas.
Under the government's rules, the prime minister is the minister responsible for the Office of the Conflict of Interest and Ethics Commissioner.

CENSUS 2016

The growing age gap, gender ratios and other key information about the Canadian population.

LIBERALS MUZZLING THE PARLIAMENTARY BUDGET OFFICERS

The head of an agency that has spent years shining a light for Canadians on the sometimes-opaque world of government spending is slamming the Trudeau government for its plan to give his office a makeover.
Parliamentary budget officer Jean-Denis Frechette laid out detailed arguments Wednesday on how proposed legislation would limit the freedom and capabilities of an office with a track record of getting under the skin of governments.

Wednesday, May 3, 2017

BROUGHT TO YOU BY THE LETTERS W-T-F

The co-chairperson of a group providing oilsands advice to the Alberta government has placed her support firmly behind the anti-pipeline B.C. NDP ahead of that province’s election next week.

ELECTORAL REFORM FOR LONDON, ONTARIO

Despite opposition from bureaucrats, city council’s majority — led by first-term politicians — voted Monday to make London the first Canadian city to ditch the traditional first-past-the-post voting system, for the 2018 civic election.
The unprecedented electoral reform, made within hours of a provincial deadline, will introduce a more complex ballot allowing voters to rank multiple candidates in order of preference.

NEGOTIATING WITH THE BITTER, VINDICTIVE EU

Sterling slumped overnight, and tensions between the UK and Europe escalated after EU negotiators hiked their initial demand for Britain's Brexit bill over recent weeks, widening the divide between Brussels and London, which in turn questions whether it owes anything at all before Brexit talks start next month. Hours before chief negotiator Michel Barnier was due to give more details on the EU's standpoint, the Financial Times said the EU might seek an upfront payment in 2019 of up to €100 billion, drawing an immediate rejection from Britain's Brexit Secretary David Davis that he would pay that sum.

PARTISAN TOOL ABUSING THE RULES

Liberal MP Larry Bagnell, chair of the House Affairs Committee, adjourned the filibuster meeting without unanimous consent, forcing Conservative MP Scott Reid to chase him and other Liberal committee members out of the room, while yelling 'that is bullshit, Mr. chair!'

SAJJAN IS ALL HAT AND NO CATTLE

Harjit Sajjan, the minister of National Defence, needs to resign from his post over what he is now calling his “mistake” taking credit for planning a major campaign against the Taliban when he was serving in Afghanistan in the mid-2000s.
By claiming to have been the mission’s mastermind, Sajjan dishonoured the real architects and, more importantly, he dishonoured the 12 Canadian soldiers killed during Medusa by attempting to steal some of the glory from their sacrifice.

Tuesday, May 2, 2017

TRUDEAU STICKING IT TO THE MIDDLE CLASS

Affordable energy has historically been a Canadian advantage. Canada’s energy resources are an integral part of our economy’s overall competitiveness. Affordable energy is a benefit because it fuels the daily life of Canadians and so much other economic activity, especially in Canada’s industrial sectors.
But today, most Canadian governments are actively working to make energy more expensive by imposing rising levies on fossil fuels with direct carbon dioxide emissions taxes and indirect cap-and-trade schemes, but also new de facto taxes, like the proposed clean fuel standard.