CUSTOMS AGENTS MOVE TO QUEBEC FROM GTA

    Border and customs agents are being pulled from the Greater Toronto Area to handle a a “significant” influx of asylum seekers across the U.S. border into Quebec over the summer months.
   The move is expected to lead to delays for travelers embarking from overseas and U.S. flights at Toronto’s Pearson International airport – the country’s busiest airport – and land-border crossings in southern Ontario.

MORNEAU STILL POUTING

    Morneau was seriously offside with the CFIB in the summer of 2017 with his proposed tax changes for small business — reforms that were eventually rolled back in the face of a massive outcry from doctors, farmers and entrepreneurs all over Canada.
   But even before that uproar last summer, Morneau had been rebuffing the CFIB’s requests for a meeting — and he certainly hasn’t been available since.
   “This is new, to have a government that is so afraid of criticism that it won’t meet with us,” Kelly said.
  Though tax reform has faded out of the headlines and much of the outright fury of 2017 has died down, Kelly says that a lot of bad feelings linger — and that Morneau’s inaccessibility isn’t helping to dispel the dismal state of relations between the government and small business.

72% ONTARIANS: CARBON TAXES ARE MONEY GRAB

    The online poll of 1,197 Ontarians didn’t just tell us carbon taxes are unpopular. It found 72 per cent of Ontarians think they’re just a government tax grab – even a majority of Liberal supporters said so; it also found 67.7 per cent think that carbon taxes are “a pointless symbolic gesture that will cost Ontarians a lot of money and do little for the world’s climate.”
    The carbon tax, a technical mechanism to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions, is no longer a question of policy – in Ontario, at least, it’s a matter of faith. The Ipsos poll suggests Ontarians have lost faith.
Darrell Bricker, chief executive officer of Ipsos Public Affairs, noted polls regularly find a majority of Canadians are concerned about climate change. But now Ontarians are starting to equate climate issues with actually paying something. “That’s where the rub is coming in,” Mr. Bricker said. In Ontario, climate ranks far lower in voters’ concerns than hydro rates.
   Ontarians don’t seem to believe carbon taxes reduce emissions. Mr. Bricker said people don’t really see the effect, so they see it as tax grab.

TRUDEAU HAS THE POLITICAL DEPTH OF A FINGER BOWL

   EDMONTON — Alberta United Conservative Leader Jason Kenney is standing by his personal attack on Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, whom he called empty and clueless.
    Kenney says, from his experience, Trudeau struggles with nuanced political issues, particularly the contentious debate around the expansion of the Trans Mountain pipeline.
   "I know Justin. He doesn't have a clue what he's doing. This guy is an empty trust-fund millionaire who has the political depth of a finger bowl," he is quoted as saying.
   "He can’t read a briefing note longer than a cocktail napkin, OK."

AUSTRALIA'S GOT IT RIGHT

   The Australian government deploys military forces to intercept boats filled with migrants, who are then detained in offshore processing centres on Nauru and Manus Island in Papua New Guinea.

   Joe Bissett, a former longtime federal immigration official and researcher, said Australia's approach serves as a strong deterrent and it does not deserve international scorn. Countries like Canada are helping the wrong people by welcoming asylum seekers instead of assisting more legitimate refugees, he said.
   "I think Australia's got it right and we've got it wrong," he said. "If you keep taking them in, they'll keep coming."  

  

LIBERAL POLICIES DRIVING AWAY INVESTORS

   ATCO chief executive Nancy Southern, one of Alberta's most prominent business leaders, lashed out at Prime Minister Justin Trudeau during her company's annual meeting on Tuesday, blaming his policies for scaring away investors and questioning his leadership.
   Speaking on the same day Trudeau arrived in Calgary to make a civic funding announcement, Southern told shareholders and employees that watching Canada's economic competitiveness decline is "heart-breaking" and makes her want to cry. Southern pointed to increased regulations, labour laws and taxes as reasons why companies would rather invest outside of Canada.
   ATCO, best known for its utilities business, continues to spend in Alberta on infrastructure projects but is diversifying through major acquisitions and expansion in South American, Australia, Mexico and the United States.

HER IQ THE SAME AS THE CONTENTS OF A DIAPER

    When sexuality educator Deanne Carson went on Australian news network ABC to talk about consent, her analogy completely took a turn.
    To understand and teach children why consent matters, Carson told the broadcaster that parents, for example, should ask their babies for consent before changing their diapers.
    “‘I’m going to change your nappy now, is this OK?’ Of course, the baby isn’t going to respond … but if you leave a space and wait for body language and wait to make eye contact then you’re letting that child know that their response matters,” she told ABC.