CHINA'S RECORD IRON ORE GLUT

Earlier this week we discussed the reason for the recent drop in iron ore prices, which had been attributed to the discovery of massive data fabrication and misrepresentation of commodity production cuts in China (think OPEC), whose biggest steel-producing province was found lying about mandatory output reductions, and instead of curbing was in fact accelerating production. As Reuters reported at the time, Hebei, China's biggest steel-producing province, launched a probe into steel overproduction in the city of Tangshan "amid concerns that firms have continued to raise output despite mandatory capacity cuts."

QUEBEC'S FLAWED DAYCARE PROGRAM

In 1997, Quebec instituted a system of subsidized daycare, providing daycare spots at a daily rate of $5 per day regardless of parental income. Despite some modest reforms, this “universal” daycare program retains its original structure.

Quebec’s system is expensive. The government spends over $9,000 per child served, for a total cost of approximately $2.6 billion in 2014/15.

GENEROUS ONTARIO TAXPAYERS

The CEO of Ontario Power Generation earned nearly $1.2 million last year, making him the
 highest paid public-sector employee in the province on a growing list of those earning $100,000 or more.  A round up of the top earners on Ontario's Sunshine List.

BLAME IT ON WALL

Premier Rachel Notley, is upset that the premier next door, Saskatchewan’s Brad Wall, is trying to lure Alberta companies away to his province.
Notley said Thursday that Wall may have breached the New West Partnership (NWP) trade agreement by sending letters earlier this week to several Alberta-based energy companies letting them know that taxes, royalties, regulations and rents are lower in his province.

ONTARIO'S SUNSHINE LIST

😎 The list here.

🐷  Who is the top hog in the trough?

AH YES, THE OLD "CLERICAL ERROR" EXCUSE

Still, money problems didn’t stop his family foundation from ponying up $10,000 to the B.C. Liberals in December. But that’s a problem, too.  Under the B.C. Elections Act, non-profit organizations are prohibited from making political contributions. Plus, the foundation is a federally registered charity and banned under the federal Income Tax Act from making political donations or being involved in politics.

INDUSTRIAL STRATEGY/EXTORTION RACKET

Ford of Canada is bringing some mighty expensive jobs to Ontario, with more than $200 million in public money underwriting new truck engines in Windsor and research on “connected cars” in Ottawa, Windsor and Oakville.
Ford Motor Co. is 115 years old. It made $10 billion in profits last year, on revenue of $150 billion, making it larger and distinctly more profitable than the government of Ontario. It’s not a little company struggling to get big, or grappling with a once-in-a-lifetime freak event like the 2008 lockup of global credit markets. Engines for pickup trucks are a fairly well-established technology. They’re not a science-fiction dream that needs government support because they’re just too risky for the private sector to develop.

SUNNY WAYS!

Despite a skyrocketing number of asylum claims, Ontario faces a 37 per cent funding reduction from Ottawa this year for legal services for refugee claimants.

AN 'UNOCCUPIED TAX" IN THE WORKS FOR TORONTO

The province and city are eyeing a tax on vacant houses and condos to address Toronto’s soaring real estate prices that are putting the squeeze on home ownership and rental vacancies.

WHEN WHORES GET TOO OLD THEY DECIDE TO SAVE THE PLANET

Environment Canada told Catherine McKenna early in her mandate as minister that a price on carbon would have to go as high as $300 per tonne in 2050 for Canada to meet its climate targets, a secret briefing document shows.

ONTARIO'S VERSION OF BALANCED BUDGET

The government forecasts it will add approximately $9.1 billion to the provincial debt per year, on average, through to the end of 2018/19, and its Financial Accountability Office (FAO) projects it will continue to accumulate new debt at a similar rate in subsequent years.

LES COCHONS BOMBARDIER AT THE TROUGH

Bombardier's senior executives saw their compensation rise by nearly 50 per cent last year at a time when it laid off thousands of workers, sought government aid and saw the first CSeries passenger jet take flight.
Total compensation for the Montreal-based company's top five executives and board chairman Pierre Beaudoin was US$32.6 million in 2016, up from US$21.9 million the year before, according to a proxy circular ahead of its May 11 annual meeting.

UPDATE: TRUDEAU DEFENDS GOVENMENT AID TO BOMBARDIER
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is defending his government’s decision to provide federal assistance to Bombardier after the company’s senior executives saw their compensation rise by nearly 50 per cent last year.

QUEBEC; 4 YEARS, $45MILLION LATER

The Charbonneau corruption inquiry ended a year ago, on Nov. 24, 2015, with a 1,741-page final report that found “widespread and deeply rooted” corruption and collusion in the awarding of public construction contracts.
Has anything changed since then?
Quebec has introduced six bills that cover some recommendations, but critics say Couillard’s Liberals – deemed more corrupt than previous governments in opinion polls –are shying away from effective corruption-busting moves.

BRAD WALL INVITES ALBERTA COMPANIES TO SASKATCHEWAN

 Saskatchewan Premier Brad Wall is taking a turf war with Alberta to its economic heart, inviting energy companies based in Calgary to move their headquarters to his province.

In a letter to Whitecap Resources (TSX:WCP) dated Monday, Wall offers to subsidize relocation costs, trim taxes and royalties and help find space in unused government buildings if the oil and gas firm moves to Saskatchewan.

LIBERALIST

One of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s closest friends is benefiting from an exclusive agreement between his data analytics company and the Liberal Party of Canada.

Data Sciences Inc, run by Trudeau’s boyhood friend, Tom Pitfield, is providing the party with “digital engagement” and support services for its powerful voter-contact database, Liberalist.

A 20% SUGAR TAX

The narrative has begun.

TRIGGERED!

😭 Michael Moore loses it.

QUEBEC BUDGET

The budget projects the province’s third consecutive balanced budget in 2017/18 with balanced budgets expected through 2021/22.

MEANWHILE IN CORNWALL, ONTARIO

In my opinion, there will be mass migration north," says Lafave. "The largest number of people are moved by boat because it has the least chance of detection and you can move the greatest amount of people."

THE CBC

Trudeau's state broadcaster.

UNTRUSTWORTHY LIBERALS

NP:  The 18 months of the Trudeau government have been an education in cynicism. Every time you think you have plumbed the depths, every time you believe you have pierced the many veils of their duplicity, you are delighted to discover still another con wrapped inside the last — usually delivered by some smiling minister tweeting variations on “Better is Always Possible” and “Diversity is Our Strength.”

PICKERING: WORST IN CLASS GENERATOR

Queen’s Park has been busy looking for ways to lower hydro bills for irate ratepayers, ​but it has missed the elephant in the room — the Pickering nuclear plant.​
Pickering was initially planned to close in 2020, but Ontario Power Generation (OPG) — the provincially owned generation company — is now proposing to spend more than $300 million to keep four of plant’s units running until 2024 and two until 2022.

THERESA MAY SIGNS BREXIT LETTER

What happens once article 50 is triggered?

GREEN ENERGY MONEY PIT

For months now, as frequent readers know, I have been warning that Alberta’s New Democrat government is following its Ontario Liberal counterparts into the money pit of “green” energy.
But I may have overlooked one significant difference. The Ontario government doesn’t have a Heritage Fund to cover up its expensive miscalculations; the Alberta NDP does.

LIBERALS APPEASING CHINA

The Trudeau government has approved a Chinese takeover of a Montreal high-tech firm, a deal that national-security agencies had warned Ottawa in 2015 would undermine a technological edge that Western militaries have over China.

MAKERS OF OXYCONTIN PLEAD INNOCENCE

Everett, Washington has filed a lawsuit against the pharmaceutical company alleging the corporation allowed its OxyContin pills to be funneled into the black market.

GO MAXIME!

Conservative leadership candidate Maxime Bernier says he would dedicate more resources to address the flow of migrants crossing the U.S.-Canada border illegally. And if that doesn't work, he'd consider temporary measures, including deploying the military to the border.

ALL KINDS OF CRITTERS BIG AND SMALL

UPDATE: On the Husky spill in the summer of 2016, near Maidstone Saskatchewan.

STILL IN THE ONTARIO WINTER DARKNESS AND COLD

The Ontario Energy Board confirmed Thursday that one month after the legislature passed its bill banning winter cut-offs, about half of the affected customers are without still power. The OEB says when the ban went into effect on Feb. 23, 845 residential customers were disconnected and 831 had load limiters.

Their most recent information shows that 407 of those customers had their power connected. Fewer than 150 customers still have load limiters.

CHEECH AND CHONG JUST CHILLIN'

Canadians should be able to smoke marijuana legally by July 1, 2018, the Prime Minister's Office has confirmed.

WE'RE CANADIAN EH?

With the passing of Motion 103 wife beating becomes part of the Canadian Values

TRUDEAU'S BROKEN PROMISES

Given that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau once said budgets balance themselves, it’s perhaps not surprising his major broken election promises to date are in the areas of tax cuts and government spending.
Indeed, after 16 months in office, Canadians have cause to be concerned about where his government is headed, financially.

RUSSIAN DEMONSTRATIONS

Police arrested dozens of protesters across Russia on Sunday, including opposition leader Alexei Navalny, after thousands took to the streets to demonstrate against corruption and demand the resignation of Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev.

BATHROOM BATTLEGROUND

Sheila Cavanagh, professor of gender studies at York University and author of the book Queering Bathrooms, said washrooms have served as battle grounds for activists fighting for everything from racial desegregation to LGBTQ equality.

AVERAGE POWER BILLS ACROSS ONTARIO

An interactive map.

**Also includes a comparison of electricity rates across North America**

GORE: CLIMATE CHANGE CAUSED BREXIT

Like when the former vice president says climate change is to blame for Brexit:  Brexit was caused in part by climate change, former US Vice-President Al Gore has said, warning that extreme weather is creating political instability “the world will find extremely difficult to deal with”.

 

EARTH HOUR

On Saturday, March 25 Eco-warriors are encouraged to turn off their lights for one hour starting at 8:30 p.m. this evening. Have some fun and write a little (or long) poem and letting others know how you plan to celebrate the event:
"Roses are red
Violets are blue
I'm firing up the welder
How about you?"

REST IN PEACE CANADA SAVINGS BONDS

The Canada Savings Bond, a ubiquitous savings vehicle that grew from humble postwar origins into a household name by the 1980s, died this week after a lengthy decline.

She was 71 years old.

SASKATCHEWAN BUDGET DETAILS

Rural Saskatchewan is taking its share of the hit in the provincial budget announced March 22.

ALBERTA MUST RESPECT PROPERTY RIGHTS

It wasn’t a big deal in Alberta’s largest cities, but in the last provincial election the former Tory government’s attack on property rights was a significant issue. Out where people raise cattle, grow grain, cut timber and explore for oil, they worried (correctly) that their land had become subject to seizure if it was wanted for electricity transmission lines, pipelines, dams, oil upgraders or "regional development."

Under former Premier Ed Stelmach and his then-Justice Minister Alison Redford, the Tories passed and amended a trio of bills that significantly limited property owners’ rights. Bills 19, 36 and 50 gave cabinet the power to change land-use rules without legislative approval. The acts also stripped landowners of many of their rights to appeal the decisions of government ministers and agencies and limited the amount of compensation the government had to pay for land it took.

OVER CAPACITY IN ONTARIO'S HOSPITALS

Officials with the regional health network, which oversees health care in this part of Ontario, say they have been watching overcrowding at local hospitals with concern. Both the Queensway Carleton and The Ottawa Hospital, the city’s major health-care centre, have been over capacity in recent months. Outside of Ottawa, the Cornwall Community Hospital has been as high as an eye-popping 138 per cent.
The overcapacity crisis is partly due to the season — winter brings more cases of flu and respiratory illnesses, and this year has been a bad one. But the situation also reflects a growing demographic reality: The long-predicted grey tsunami, as baby boomers enter the later stages of life, has arrived at the shores of Ottawa’s hospitals. And it’s only going to get worse, experts predict.

SILENCING PUTIN'S CRITICS

NP:  MOSCOW — Not everyone who has a quarrel with Russian President Vladimir Putin dies in violent or suspicious circumstances — far from it. But enough loud critics of Putin’s policies have been murdered that Thursday’s daylight shooting of a Russian who sought asylum in Ukraine has led to speculation of Kremlin involvement.

LIBERALS' ATTEMPTED POWER GRAB

NP:  There’s a line in politics that even the most robust majority governments cross at their peril: whenever the party in power follows a course of action that unites all its political opponents in a coalition against it, trouble is sure to ensue.
That’s exactly what is happening in the House of Commons, which is transfixed not by Wednesday’s budget, but by the government’s attempt to unilaterally change the rules of parliament.

ONTARIANS' SLOBBERING BIGOTRY

The screams from Westminster Bridge have barely died down and the Wynne government is already lecturing us on racism and Islamophobia.
“We know that hate continues to spread,” reads a joint sermon from two of her ministers hours after the U.K. terror attack, “even in the most diverse regions of our province.”

ANTWERP ON HIGH ALERT

Belgian authorities tightened security Thursday in the port city of Antwerp after a Frenchman drove his car at high speed through a busy shopping area, forcing pedestrians to jump out of the way.

The federal prosecutor’s office said the car was intercepted late Thursday morning at the port docks and police arrested a man, identified as 39-year-old Mohamed R. , who has been living in France.

In the car, authorities found knives, a shotgun and a gas can with an unknown liquid. 

BROUGHT TO YOU BY THE LETTERS W-T-F

Alberta's education minister is ordering two private Edmonton-area Christian schools to allow students to form gay-straight alliance groups.

BLOWBACK ON THE BUDGET

This budget completely fails to address the urgent economic challenges facing our country,” says Peter Coleman, President and CEO of the National Citizens Coalition. “Instead of providing relief for hard-working, over-taxed Canadians this government continues to make life more expensive and limit future opportunities.”

CHINA HUISHAN DAIRY HOLDINGS GOES SOUR

Shares of China Huishan Dairy Holdings collapsed 85% in Hong Kong before the company halted trading on Friday, wiping out about $4.1 billion (£3.2 billion) in market value.

Shares were down by as much as 91% before recovering slightly to 0.42 Hong Kong dollars before the lunchtime trading break, with more than 779 million shares changing hands.

TRUMP APPROVES KEYSTONE XL

It's official: moments ago TransCanada said the U.S. Department of State issued a presidential permit for the construction of the Keystone XL Pipeline, ending a multi-year controversial, at times acrimonious debate over the future of the pipeline

CALIFORNIA AG INDUSTRY UNDER ENVIRO ATTACK

Excess water storage was welcome news to California's farmers in the Central Valley because it implied that after years of drought, fallowed acreage, economic losses and 0% water allocations from the state and federal water projects, that they might actually get a full allocation for the 2017 crop year and live to fight another day. 

THE SNOWFLAKE CRY SONG

By Chad Prather

THE GREEN ENERGY STAMPEDE

Although smaller-scale community-organized solar farms have, so far, been left in the lurch, there’s good news for farmers and other rural landowners interested in solar.

Growing Forward 2 offers grants of up to $50,000 for ‘micro-gen’ solar projects where the power is used in the production of a primary commodity.

LIBERALS EMBRACE DIGITAL ECONOMY "NOT!"

Finance Canada has signed a $554,000 contract with an Ottawa-based printer for the blizzard of budget documents to be released March 22.

That's almost a quarter-million dollars higher than the last Conservative budget in 2015, when the department said it was starting to cut back on paper copies. The amount is also significantly higher than the $490,000 the Liberals spent to print their inaugural budget last year.

CASTRO WOULD BE PROUD OF JUNIOR

With little notice, the Liberals moved Tuesday to have the Procedure and House Affairs committee study major changes to standing orders put forward by Liberal House leader Bardish Chagger, giving a tight June deadline and offering no indication that they wouldn’t use a majority to impose changes to House rules without opposition consent.

QUELLE SURPRISE!

City staff have called in the police after Toronto’s auditor general uncovered suspected examples of outside contractors bid-rigging on city paving jobs to drive the price up.

RESIST THE WALL ACT

A new piece of legislation from California

ONTARIO'S BASIC INCOME PROJECT

The Ontario government is moving forward with a basic income pilot project after it released a report that summarizes all the feedback from the public on how to design and deliver the pilot project.

The province is looking to create a pilot that would test how basic income might benefit people living in low income situations, including those who are working.

BERNIER AND SUPPLY MANAGEMENT

The future of Canada’s supply management system for milk, eggs and poultry has been thrust onto the national political agenda like never before by leading candidate for the Conservative party leadership, Maxime Bernier.

WHEN WHORES GET TOO OLD

They resort to doing the accounting for the Conservation Authority.

KIDNAPPING & DRUG CHARGES DROPPED

Thirty five people accused of serious crimes like kidnapping and drug trafficking saw the cases brought against them in a major RCMP investigation into the Montreal Mafia dropped on Tuesday because the Crown no longer wants to prosecute them.

CAP-AND-TRADE CASH GRAB FOR WYNNE

Whatever the number, the cost of living for Ontarians will increase because, while Wynne and Climate Change Minister Glen Murray insist carbon pricing “makes polluters pay”, the reality is these businesses simply pass along their increased costs to the public in the form of higher retail prices for most goods and services.

POWER LINE TO NOWHERE

Yes, How about not charging Hydro One customers, 5 million in interest charges per year, for nothing.

BROUGHT TO YOU BY THE LETTERS W-T-F

Trudeau has come under fire in the House of Commons for taking the trip over the Christmas holidays and for his office's initial refusal to disclose where he was vacationing

CUSTOM MADE FIRST NATIONS ELECTION SYSTEM

The federal government must help ensure that any movement towards custom election systems definitively improves Indigenous well-being.

VENEZUELA'S BREAD WAR

The goal of what Maduro has taken to calling the "bread war" is to enforce price controls that have become increasingly unwieldy amid triple-digit inflation and widespread shortages. As part of spot checks targeting some 700 bakeries, authorities even announced the arrest of two people for illegally making brownies.

HOW ARE YOU "FEELING" ON THE EVE OF MORNEAU'S BUDGET?

“But seriously. We look at what’s gone on around the world, is there anybody who questions that we should be focused on how people feel? 

8.33$ PER DAY

The ministry has marginally improved food funding over the past few years (without an annual commitment to do so), but the ongoing struggle to give residents healthy and culturally appealing meals is well documented. A 2015 report by the Dietitians of Canada concluded that Ontario homes are “serving cheaper protein foods and fewer fresh fruits and vegetables due to budget constraints.”

FROM MICHELLE REMPEL'S TWITTER FEED

The immigration minister confirms that only 10% of government sponsored Syrian refugees have found work.
AND

So, 22500 Syrian refugees will require social assistance payments.

MEANWHILE BACK IN EMERSON, MANITOBA

The local Salvation Army estimates it has spent $100,000 to help asylum seekers since Feb. 18, including $8,000 on clothing and the cost of about 4,000 meals. This weekend the shelter said it housed three families with four children.

TIM ALLEN UNDERFIRE FOR COMMENTS

“You’ve got to be real careful around here,” Allen said of speaking positively of President Donald Trump in Hollywood. “You get beat up if don’t believe what everybody believes. This is like ’30s Germany. I don’t know what happened. If you’re not part of the group -- ‘You know, what we believe is right’ -- I go, ‘Well, I might have a problem with that.’”

SPRING TIME IN CANADA

Manitoba

Nova Scotia

YES, CAN THE PREMIER EXPLAIN

“Vuteq, one of the largest employers in my riding, said that on a single bill the charge for the electricity they used was about $38,000, but when you add on this government’s global adjustment and other charges the final monthly bill was $385,000. Can the Premier explain why this major employer is paying more than $350,000 or 90% of their bill for extra charges?” 

PAY UP!

Voter opposition to politicians who price carbon dioxide emissions is increasing. The public is learning that a tax on emissions is one paid for by ordinary families and businesses. And voter disapproval could strengthen if Canadian jobs are lost or move south as Washington makes it clear the U.S. will not pursue similar policies. 

WHERE WILL IT END?

The Cornwallis Street Baptist Church will change its name because Halifax founder Edward Cornwallis was an "oppressor of our First Nations brothers and sisters," pastor Rhonda Britton says.

M-103 IS A TRIAL BALLOON

A quarter of the countries in the world have some form of anti-blasphemy and apostasy laws, many of which are fuelled by a broad definition of Islamophobia. For too many of their citizens, opposing Islamophobia means locking up contrarian bloggers or cartoonists who draw the prophet. This is what we’re at risk of normalizing.

MOCKING THE SPECIAL SNOWFLAKES

A conservative comedy duo has turned the Garth Brooks classic "Friends in Low Places" into a hysterical anthem mocking special snowflakes. The musical parody by Chad Prather and Steve "Mudflap" McGrew hit the web last week, and the pair has taken their satirical song on the road for their "Friends in Safe Spaces" comedy tour.

BRAZILE BLAMES RUSSIA

Former DNC chairwoman and disgraced CNN commentator Donna Brazile has admitted that she relayed confidential questions to Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign in advance of last year’s primary debate.

TELLER: CUSTOMERS ARE PREY TO ME

Documents obtained by Go Public show tellers who fail to reach their sales goals are called "underperformers" and placed on a "Performance Improvement Plan," which involves daily coaching and monitoring by managers. If sales performance doesn't improve, employees are warned "employment could be terminated."
A CBC report earlier this week about TD employees pressured to meet high sales revenue goals has touched off a firestorm of reaction from TD employees across the country — some of whom admit they have broken the law at their customers' expense in a desperate bid to meet sales targets and keep their jobs.

UNSOLVED IN THE OTTAWA VALLEY

The flat, four-kilometre stretch of Thompson Road, just outside of Morewood, is home to a smattering of family farms, some vast cornfields and a gravel pit. Patches of forest mark division lines between properties.
It looks like any other rural road in North Dundas Township. Yet this stretch of quiet country road in “Canada’s dairy capital” has seen more tragedy than most inner city streets.Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4

THE ERA OF INSTANT OUTRAGE

Two weeks ago, Ottawa’s Carleton University removed weight scales from its campus fitness centre. When the move became public last week, it sparked a backlash online that accused the university’s recreation and athletics department of being hyper-sensitive.
There are persistent reports from Carleton that the scales were taken out because some students complained stepping on them was “very triggering” emotionally for people with eating disorders and others struggling to be comfortable with their physiques.

KENNEY NEW ALBERTA PC LEADER

Jason Kenney is the new leader of Alberta’s Progressive Conservatives.
Kenney was elected on a promise to dissolve the party and merge with Wildrose to create a single conservative force in Alberta politics.

PARIS CLIMATE TREATY DEAD

Trump’s budget director, Mick Mulvaney, made the president’s intention crystal clear Thursday.
“Regarding the question of climate change ... We’re not spending money on that anymore,” Mulvaney said. “We consider that to be a waste of your money ... ”
That means the U.S., the world’s second-largest emitter of industrial greenhouse gases (China is first), has effectively pulled out of the Paris treaty, regardless of whether it formally withdraws.
As the leader of the developed world, America’s participation in the Paris treaty was vital to the United Nations’ Paris treaty.

RETURN OF THE AMERICAN CHESTNUT

Then, in less than 50 years, the trees were gone. An exotic blight, accidentally carried over on an Asian chestnut variety, began infecting American chestnuts as the 20th century dawned. By 1950, up to four billion trees had died, two million of them in Ontario, wiping out 99.9 per cent of the species and radically reshaping the forests it once dominated.

Now, a century later, an American research team has an equally unprecedented solution: a genetically modified American chestnut. By splicing a single gene from wheat into the tree’s genome, scientists from the State University of New York’s College of Environmental Science and Forestry (SUNY-ESF) have engineered blight-resistant saplings.

 

FAILED REFUGEES REMAIN IN CANADA

There are 44,773 outstanding warrants for individuals who are to be deported from the country, the Canada Border Services Agency reports.

DANGEROUS MIX OF CHURCH AND STATE

 "As many of you know, M103 has been introduced to the House of Commons ... 'on how the government could develop a whole-of-government approach to reducing or eliminating systemic racism and religious discrimination including Islamophobia'.... This has many free speech advocates quite concerned, especially since “islamophobia” is not defined. The Libertarian party of Canada recently put together [a video] about this dangerous motion.... 

CRAZY DOWN UNDER

Housing has skyrocketed beyond belief and so have property taxes and rent. Homeowners now stack bunk beds and rent out 4-person shared rooms for $120 a week.

CANADA'S FOREIGN AID SURPASSES 10 BILLION

Ahmed D. Hussen, Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship, on behalf of Marie-Claude Bibeau, Minister of International Development and La Francophonie, announced on March 17, 2017 that Canada will provide $119.25 million in humanitarian funding to respond to needs of crisis-affected people in Nigeria, Somalia, South Sudan and Yemen.

CANADIAN AMIGO'S

Canada's border authorities detained more Mexicans in the first 67 days of 2017 than they did annually in any of the three previous years.

RELATED:

Canada issued 72,450 travel authorizations to Mexican citizens between Dec.Dec. 1, Dec.1 2016, and March 10, 2017 -

Canada issued 72,450 travel authorizations to Mexican citizens between Dec. 1, 2016, and March 10, 2017 - a

NOVA SCOTIA RURAL DOCTORS TAKING A PAY CUT

Emergency room doctors at Northside General are currently paid $147.62/hour but the coming pay cut mean they will receive $140 less per 10-hour shift. ER doctors at Cape Breton Regional Hospital will receive closer to $200/hour because it's a larger hospital that sees more patients. 

CRITICIZING RELIGIONS IN CANADA

"Islamophobia" label is silencing valid criticism. 
The 24 Muslims sent a public letter to Le Devoir that starts by criticizing those who describe all Muslims as extremists, but then goes beyond the obvious.
The Muslim letter writers simultaneously disagreed with ultra-conservative Muslims who exploit the ambiguities of “Islamophobia” to shut down criticism of radical Islamism.
“We reject attempts to manipulate the concept of Islamophobia in order to muzzle opposition to Islamist currents. These attempts are, to a large extent, responsible for the climate of hostility toward Muslims,” the Muslims said, in the French-language letter

REMEMBERING THE SEAFORTHS

As the 100th anniversary of Canada’s victory at Vimy Ridge approaches, the Seaforth Highlanders regiment is doing its bit to preserve a rare memorial cross that was first erected on the site of its bloody battle to take the high ground.
The wooden cross is three-metres high and was put up as a memorial on the Ersatz Crater where 206 Seaforths were killed, wounded or went missing on April 9, 1917.

LIBERALS LOSING DEATH GRIP IN TORONTO?

 Is Toronto — ground zero for latte-sipping elitists and the Liberal machine — poised to paint itself Tory blue in the next provincial race?
A Forum poll, released exclusively to the Toronto Sun, shows that the Progressive Conservative lead in Toronto over the Kathleen Wynne-led Liberals has jumped four percentage points in the last month — with 36% of those polled saying they’d vote Tory in the 2018 election, compared to 31% for the Grits.
Now what will Patrick Brown promise to The Big Smoke?

WYNNE RUNS OUT OF ONTARIANS MONEY

It’s not entirely Wynne's fault. She shares the blame with her Liberal predecessor, Dalton McGuinty.
Together, they more than doubled the $138 billion debt the Liberals inherited from the previous Conservative government in 2003 to over $300 billion, making Ontario the most indebted sub-sovereign (non-national) borrower in the world.
That explains the shell game Wynne is now playing as the clock ticks down to the next election scheduled for June, 2018.
It explains her reducing electricity bills to hydro ratepayers, by having them subsidized by provincial taxpayers.
Unfortunately, they’re the same people.

SELF-CONGRATULATORY LIBERAL ADS

TORONTO - The Liberal government’s new ads on hydro rate cuts don’t pass muster with Ontario’s Auditor General. However, Bonnie Lysyk says her office had no choice but to approve a slew of new taxpayer-funded radio spots from the Liberal government about its plan to slash hydro rates 
  Both opposition parties slammed the ads, calling on the Liberals to release the cost to taxpayers. Progressive Conservative leader Patrick Brown is also demanding Ontario’s Liberals pull the plug on “self-congratulatory” spots.

SPECIAL SNOWFLAKES AT MCMASTER U

Protesters threw glitter, blew horns and tried to shout down University of Toronto Professor Jordan Peterson Friday as he spoke about free speech and political correctness at McMaster University.
“This was by far the most contentious event that I’ve been to,” Peterson said. “They did everything they could to shut it down.”
Peterson — who was invited to speak at McMaster — has sparked controversy by refusing to use gender-neutral pronouns, such as ze and zir, and by denouncing political correctness run amok in post secondary institutions.

TOO MANY PATIENTS TO CARE FOR

Michael Hurley, president of the hospital union council, called on the provincial government to add 200 permanent hospital beds in the city (Ottawa) to reduce the overcrowding that has become chronic at some hospitals.  Hurley said the overcrowding is a symptom of too few hospital beds at a time when baby boomers are aging and putting growing pressure on the health care system.
“We should not pretend that this overcapacity is a symptom of a virulent flu season. The issue is that too many beds and staff have been cut while the population has grown and gotten older. There is absolutely no surge capacity in the system and hospital staff, from nurses to cleaners, are working at an exhausting pace, because they have too many patients to care for.”

BRUTALIZATION OF THE YAZIDI

NP:  Of all the oppressed and terrorized minorities fated to live through this grim era, the Yazidis of northern Iraq are clearly among the most wretched.
Through no fault of their own they are enemies of the most venomous faction on the planet, the Islamic State, or ISIL. A newsletter from ISIL described Yazidis as a pagan minority and claimed that their continued existence “is a matter that Muslims should question as they will be asked about it on Judgment Day.”

DESPERATION OF SAUDI ARABIA

Indeed, the country’s own energy minister told a conference audience in Houston last week that Saudi Arabia refused to be “used” by others.
Clearly, this is aimed at both oil producers within OPEC’s own ranks and elsewhere. Non-OPEC producers that also signed on to the agreement to cut, notably Russia, aren’t yet delivering the goods (or rather still delivering too many of them).
Yet Saudi Arabia likely hopes U.S. shale producers — which didn’t collapse as expected in the crash and got back to work unnervingly quickly after oil went back above $50 a barrel — are also listening. Indeed, OPEC members met with shale producers in Houston last week for talks about the market. For OPEC, that’s a sign of desperation; for the latter, it’s something they should think twice about repeating if they value public support for their industry.

WALKING, TALKING FISCAL MORONS

Ontario Liberals did such a good job fixing hydro prices, they’re now looking at rent control

NOTHING TO SEE HERE, MOVE ALONG

Among the top 50 donors to the B.C. Liberals — who have collectively given more than $30 million in the past decade — more than half have received supplier payments or transfers from the B.C. government.
The payments and transfers totalled $885 million between 2007 and 2016, according to the Postmedia analysis of B.C. public accounts figures.

MORAL FAILINGS OF A MINISTER

TORONTO — Embattled Sen. Don Meredith begged forgiveness for his "moral failing" over his sexual relationship with a teenager but said Thursday he was not ready to resign. 
The senator said Wednesday he believes he has been the victim of racism since the allegations about his affair first surfaced in the summer of 2015.
"Absolutely, racism has played a role in this," Meredith said. "This is nothing new to me. There is always a double standard that exists in this country."
Meredith, an ordained minister and father of two, was adamant there was no criminal case against him.

HOW LEGAL AID ONTARIO WASTES TAX DOLLARS

Abdulaali vs. Salih

ALBERTA BURNING THROUGH ASSETS

This nearly unbroken string of budget deficits is taking a substantial toll on Alberta’s finances. The province entered the financial crisis with $35 billion in net financial assets (all financial assets minus liabilities). However, by 2016/17, Alberta’s debts exceeded its financial assets for the first time since 2000/2001.

RELATED: 2017 Budget

THE CHATEAU MONTEBELLO, QUEBEC

This is a hotel. Typically, guests at a hotel have a room. So clearly praying in the most inconvenient and public areas is not about religious devotion, but about establishing primacy for their religion. After all, if you were to gently tap them on the shoulder and ask them where the gift shop was, which would be appropriate behaviour in a hotel lobby, likely you would be thrown out as if you disrupted a service at a mosque.

DUTCH ELECTION SUMMARY

Make no mistake, this election is a huge jump to the right. It’s also a huge move for less immigration.

OPG: GOOD NEWS/BAD NEWS REPORT

Other “good/bad” news indicates OPG sold their Head Office on University Avenue in Toronto with closing scheduled for the second quarter of 2017. They expect the sale will generate an after-tax profit of $200 million.  The bad news is, OPG is obligated to turn over the profit to the Consolidated Revenue Fund. The land, building and maintenance costs fell to the ratepayers of Ontario to pay for via the electricity rates, yet the profit generated on its sale will be tossed into the bottomless pit of the Finance Ministry, instead of going towards reducing OPG’s costs of generation which could have benefited ratepayers.  That $200 million won’t even pay the interest on Ontario’s debt for a week!

CRAP AMENDMENT TO ONTARIO BUILDING CODE

The Ontario government is amending the Building Code and if you have a septic and you don't have the proof that is was pumped, within the last 5 years, you can be fined $10,000 a day (see section 36 Building Code). If you are a corporation it's $100,000 minimum.

ALBERTA'S NDP BOZO ERUPTION

To be fair, NDP Deputy Premier Sarah Hoffman says no way and no how was she talking about conservative-minded supporters of the official opposition when she spoke the words "sewer rats."
She wasn't saying they were sewer rats. Oh no. Definitely not. Where did anyone get that idea?
She understands why people may have taken it that way but they got it all wrong.

PANDA CAPERS

Laugh

RUN FOR THE HILLS ONTARIANS

Wynne’s own words should have Ontarians running for the hills: “I’m quite comfortable saying to my grandkids that, you know, in order for your mom and dad to be able to do the things that they want to do for you right now, we’re going to ask you to pay a little bit for electricity that you’ll be using.”
Translation: Wynne has no qualms imposing massive debt on present and future generations.

PAY FOR YOUR OWN DAMNED FOOD

A report quietly considered at a Toronto District School Board (TDSB) committee last week shows trustees and six-figure board bureaucrats chowed down on $49,342 worth of taxpayer-funded food last year.
Reached Sunday, Pilkey, who makes $35,507 and gets a discretionary budget of nearly $17,000, defended the food costs as “reasonable.”
She said the free food is provided to trustees, staff and community volunteers who sit on their advisory committees.

HYDRO HAMMERING HOSPITALS

Ontario:  Royal Victoria Regional Health Centre in Barrie has seen rates increase by $200,000. The Timmins and District Hospital has seen rates increase by $375,000. The Collingwood General & Marine Hospital has seen an alarming 35% rate hike, and at the Sault Area Hospital we’ve seen them explode by 45%. This represents massive chunks of a hospital’s operating budget, but they won’t see a single cent of relief come under this expensive new hydro scheme.
And, we’re starting to see the effects of these soaring rates where it hurts the most: The front-line care our most vulnerable patients receive. Hospitals are being forced to lay off staff in order to afford these ever-increasing fixed costs.

ALBERTA'S CLASSY NDP

NP:  If Marie Casey was still alive when she received a bill from the province, demanding she return her $100 rebate from the NDP’s carbon tax, the feisty great grandmother wouldn’t have minced words.
“She’d tell them to stuff it and keep it,” said Darlene Piche, the daughter of the recently passed Strathmore woman, who was floored when she received the notice from the government to her mom’s estate, calling for the return of the cash just six weeks after Casey died.

DUTCH ELECTIONS

Citizens in the Netherlands will vote on Wednesday for a new government.

It’s going to be a mess forming a coalition.

CANADIAN BANKSTERS

Meanwhile, calls for a government probe are growing. NDP finance critic Alexandre Boulerice is now calling for a parliamentary inquiry into the sales practices of Canada's banks. "We expect banks to be honest with their clients ... and now we are learning that those employees are under considerable pressure to sell, sell, sell to boost profits of the banks," he said. "This is so greedy. It is not acceptable."

SOME ANIMALS ARE MORE EQUAL THAN OTHERS

Premier Kathleen Wynne made a commitment to eliminate hydro delivery charges for those First Nations living on-reserve.

OH CANADA!

Middle-class Canadians earn about 35% of all income and pay about 36% of all income tax. However, for every dollar our incomes have gone up in the past three decades, governments of one level or another have taken nearly an extra dollar in income tax, gasoline tax, sales tax, property tax, utility taxes, import taxes, sin taxes and, soon, carbon taxes.

DO NOT MISS THIS OPPORTUNITY

The federal Liberals are asking you to vote on a design for their new spring T-shirt.
Apparently the economy, global warming, housing, refugees, Islamophobia, legalizing weed, Donald Trump, public transit, ISIS, trade deals, slumping oil prices, and the pursuit of world peace are not keeping them busy enough.
“Brainstorming for our new spring T-shirt is an all-time favourite time of year here at LPC HQ,” gushes Liberal Party of Canada creative director Darrell Dean.

CBC WHINING ABOUT FARM SUBSIDIES

A number of Saskatchewan experts and academics privately told CBC News that various farm subsidies were excessive or unnecessary, but refused to discuss the issue on the record. Some declined to return calls after they learned the subject matter.

B.C.'s HIGH HEEL LAW

Clark says she backs the intent of a private member's bill introduced last week by B.C.'s Green party leader, Andrew Weaver.

The bill he introduced on International Women's Day would prevent employers from setting footwear requirements based on gender.

SMACK DOWN!

A fascinating exchange in which French presidential candidate Marine Le Pen informs a reporter that no one trusts the media highlights how incredibly disconnected from reality the establishment press really is.

THE DEPLORABLE SEWER RATS

Today, the Wildrose Official Opposition called on Deputy Premier Sarah Hoffman to apologize for saying Wildrose supporters are “sewer rats”.

DEAR P.E.T.A.

Where are you now?

PAY TO PLAY IN B.C.

Lobbyists and other power brokers are routinely buying their way into British Columbia’s political inner circles by donating generously to the party in power several times a year, a practice industry insiders consider the cost of doing business in a province with an entrenched pay-to-play culture.

SCOTLAND INDEPENDENCE

Nicola Sturgeon has confirmed she will ask for permission to hold a second referendum on Scottish independence.

WYNNE'S ONTARIO

The hydro bill at the Sault Area Hospital has jumped nearly $1 million at the same time as the Wynne government has frozen hospital funding – and that pressure is leading to front-line health care cuts.

HAPPY SESQUICENTENNIAL

And the taxpayers wept with the waste of their hard earned tax dollars.

THE MONEY TRAIN

Off the rails.

ONTARIO'S HEALTHCARE DEAL WITH THE FED'S

They join six other provinces that, one at a time, signed deals with the feds to take offers that they’d collectively dismissed as totally unacceptable just before Christmas. To be precise, they’ve taken a worse deal than Health Minister Jane Philpott offered in December.

LIBERALS ARGUING AGAINST THEIR OWN LAWS

The Trudeau government is in the bizarre position of preparing to go to the Supreme Court to argue against a federal law passed with the support of its own MPs.

LIBERAL MATH

A reason cited in the report is that the spending estimates are presented in such a complicated way that Frechette’s office couldn’t find the money.

RELATED

MEANWHILE ON PARLIAMENT HILL

The Trudeau government is handing over information on people showing up at the border and claiming refugee status to U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration, Canada’s public safety minister confirmed Friday.

“We have provided information about the specific documents that were presented at the border because those are American documents,” Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale told reporters on Parliament Hill.

KANSAS WILDFIRES

In Kansas this week, where grass fires have scorched more than 650,000 acres, devastating farming and ranching communities.

NO SHOW NOTLEY

Premier Rachel Notley was back at the Alberta legislature Thursday after a three-day trip to Texas. But she was too tied up in meetings to attend question period.

On Wednesday, Notley cancelled a telephone conference with reporters on short notice and didn't make herself available to Alberta reporters on Thursday.

However, she did appear for the launch of a bike-a-thon fundraising event at Strathcona High School in her constituency Thursday morning.

ONTARIO PC'S PROPERTY RIGHTS PANEL

Headed up by Jack MacLaren.

The Preliminary Report

“Property rights are the foundation of democracy, freedom, and are the underpinnings of a prosperous and healthy society,” it says. Yet they are not entrenched in the Canadian Constitution and without them, Ontario has gone astray.

DAZED AND CONFUSED

Melanie Joly.

THE U.S. DEBT CLOCK

The numbers will amaze you.

UP IN SMOKE

And Cheech and Chong wept.

MAXIME BERNIER WON'T BUDGE

ST-GEORGES — Conservative leadership candidate Maxime Bernier is not caving in.
Despite the unusual and unprecedented mobilization of Quebec’s agricultural producers to block his election as head of the party, Bernier said he won’t back down on his plan to abolish the country’s supply management system.

BOMBARDIER BRIBERY SUSPECT

STOCKHOLM — A Russian employee in the Swedish offices of plane and train maker Bombardier has been detained in pretrial custody for two weeks on suspicion of aggravated bribery, a Swedish prosecutor said Friday.

Thomas Forsberg said Evgeny Pavlov, a Russian national living in Stockholm, was one of several Bombardier employees “suspected to have been colluding” with Azerbaijan railway authorities “in order to adapt a contract” to fit Bombardier.

 

CODE BLUE ONTARIO HEALTHCARE!

“Yes, this is what our health care has come to,” she said in a Facebook comment posted under a Citizen story about the overcrowding crisis in Ottawa hospitals. 

RESOLUTION M-103

• Although these motions against "Islamophobia" are not legally binding, extremists have already started demanding them as laws.

TELL ME AGAIN

Why Canada would ever need a carbon tax to combat global warming.

SOPHIE STEPS IN SHINY PONY'S TURD

The wife of Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau  has faced a huge backlash after she tweeted on the eve of International Women's Day, suggesting that men should be celebrated too.

MEANWHILE IN EMERSON, MANITOBA

Cold enough for ya, eh?

Related: Mo' money!

OFA FIDDLES

While rural Ontario burns.

HEAD'S UP ALBERTA!

That makes it doubly staggering to watch the Alberta NDP government (which has been in office nearly two years), willingly, deliberately, cheerfully repeating the same budgeting and “green” energy mistakes committed over the past decade by the Ontario Liberal government – mistakes that have had devastating effects on Ontario’s economy and on Ontarians’ taxes, electricity bills and lifestyles.