Former "confidant" of PM fined for illegal lobbying

   Canada column for Sunday, Nov. 6/16

   THE CANADIAN REPORT

   (c) By Jim Fox

   A “confidant” of former Prime Minister Stephen Harper has been fined $50,000 for illegal lobbying.

   Ontario Court Judge Catherine Kehoe said the fine for Bruce Carson is a necessary deterrent.

   He was convicted on three counts for his work on the national energy strategy while a director of the Canada School of Energy and Environment and later vice-chair of the Energy Policy Institute of Canada.

   Court was told he was under a five-year prohibition from lobbying public office holders since he had worked in the Prime Minister’s Office until February 2009.

   He had been paid about $600,000 for lobbying work from 2009 to 2011 and the judge ruled he had contact with officials of numerous government offices.

   “It is necessary to impose a significant fine to deter Mr. Carson and others who would engage in lobbying and ignore the law, which goes to the heart of the integrity of government and public trust of government,” the judge said.

   Carson was found not guilty last year of influence-peddling for attempting to have government officials buy water filtration systems from a company that employed his former escort girlfriend.

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No plans yet to eliminate Canada's 5-cent coin

   Canada column for Sunday, Oct. 30/16

   THE CANADIAN REPORT

   (c) By Jim Fox

  First it was the $1 bill and then the $2 note switching to coins in Canada, followed by the elimination of the penny.

   So, could the nickel be facing retirement next?

   Not so fast, the government insists as an internal analysis on the pros and cons of keeping the nickel says it will stay for now.

   There are “no plans to discontinue the nickel,” said David Barnabe of the finance department, even though New Zealand and South Africa have eliminated the coins over the past decade.

   Even as the purchasing power of the nickel “has eroded over time (down 40 percent over 25 years) relative both to prices and incomes,” the analysis found it is still cost effective to mint them.

   “As there are virtually no goods or services that can be purchased for a nickel, or several multiples thereof, the coin is generally used only to make change as part of larger transactions,” the study reported.

   The nickel entered circulation in 1858 while the penny was dropped in 2013, leaving businesses to round up to the nearest nickel amount.

   Some Canadian bankers suggest the nickel won’t be around five years from now.

Gloomy economic outlook: Bank of Canada confirms

   Canada column for Sunday, Oct. 23/16

   THE CANADIAN REPORT

   By Jim Fox

   Canada’s central bank has presented a gloomier picture of the country’s economic growth.

   The Bank of Canada downgraded economic predictions noting an expected drop in housing sales due to new government rules and a lingering decline in exports.

   Bank governor Stephen Poloz said the economy also continues to struggle from the plunge in oil prices that began two years ago.

   The economy isn’t expected to return to full capacity until mid-2018 instead of the late 2017 time frame it had expected a few months ago, he said.

   The Gross Domestic Product is expected to expand by 1.1 percent this year, down from the July projection of 1.3 percent, with growth of 2 percent next year, down from 2.2 percent.

   Bank members considered lowering the trendsetting key interest rate of 0.5 percent where it has been since July 2015 but has again kept it there for now.

   Finance Minister Bill Morneau will deliver his fall economic update to the House of Commons on Nov. 1.

   There are indications it will include ways the Liberal government can stimulate the stalled economy.

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Canadians don't like Trump's remarks about their health care program

   Canada column for Sunday, Oct. 16/16

   THE CANADIAN REPORT

   (c) By Jim Fox

   Canadians are taking issue with Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump for referring to their health-care system as being “catastrophic.”

   Canada’s “mostly free” publicly funded doctor and hospital services can’t cope with demand, resulting in people going to the U.S. for treatment, Trump said.

   The Fraser Institute said 45,619 people sought non-emergency medical procedures outside of Canada last year largely because of long wait times at home.

   The number is about 1 percent of the patients of physicians who responded to a survey, the report said.

   Data from doctors gives a “general estimation” of the number of “medical tourists,” said Bacchus Barua of the Vancouver-based institute.

   The numbers are then applied to the total number of medical procedures carried out in Canada, as recorded by the Canadian Institute for Health Information, he added.

   Some critics are skeptical of the institute’s methodology.

   Even so, Ron Labonte, a health-sciences professor, said the number of people leaving for hospital care is very small.

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Mortgage finance rules could force some Canadians into less expensive houses

   Canada column for Sunday, Oct. 9/16

   THE CANADIAN REPORT

   (c) By Jim Fox

   First-time home buyers might have to settle for less expensive houses than previously with a tightening of Canadian mortgage lending rules.

   The federal government is moving to protect buyers from getting too deeply into debt should interest rates begin rising.

   New rules to take effect on Oct. 17 will limit the amount home buyers can borrow so they can keep up with their payments at higher rates.

   A “stress test” will be used for all buyers putting down less than 20 percent of the cost of the house – a condition that previously applied only to those opting for variable or fixed rate mortgages with renewable terms of less than five years.

   It’s aimed at ensuring buyers can make their mortgage payments and cover other costs related to home ownership.

   This happens at a time when single detached houses in Vancouver sell for an average of $1.5 million and $1 million in Toronto.

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Canada's Liberals spending their way to economic growth: Finance minister says

   Canada column for Sunday, Oct. 2/16

   THE CANADIAN REPORT

   (c) By Jim Fox

   Spending by the Liberal government elected last October has hit an “unprecedented rate,” a report by the “budget watchdog” says.

   Jean-Denis Frechette, parliamentary budget officer, found that expenditures were nearly $3.4 billion, or 5.7 percent, higher in the first quarter of the fiscal year compared with a year earlier and the biggest increase in six years.

   His report notes the cash included an additional $1.22 billion for infrastructure-related spending along with some leftover commitments made by the previous Conservative government.

   First-quarter spending was $62.9 billion and also included more than $1 billion extra for higher child-benefit payments to families.

   Finance Minister Bill Morneau said this has led to economic growth as the government promised to spend to stimulate the economy after a Conservative decade of low growth.

   “We will continue to make those investments,” he said.

   Infrastructure Minister Amarjeet Sohi said 729 projects have been approved for funding and more than 60 percent of them are underway.

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Cyberattack concerns caused Canadian officials to react, plan

   Canada column for Sunday, Sept. 25/16

   THE CANADIAN REPORT

   (c) By Jim Fox

   The threat of a major cyberattack on the electrical grid and telecommunications systems in Canada has government officials planning with critical infrastructure operators.

   An internal document said “insiders” could unleash devastating viruses and cripple systems.

   This has officials consulting with operators of electrical grids, transportation hubs and other key infrastructure facilities.

   The briefing notes for Public Safety Canada, obtained by the Canadian Press newswire under the Access to Information Act, said the “insider threat is difficult to detect and can cause real damage.”

   Rogue employees, state-sponsored hackers, sophisticated criminals, “cause-motivated hacktivists” and people out to make mischief online all pose a threat, the document warns.

   No special hacking skills are required to wreak digital havoc, just a portable memory key loaded with a malicious code, it said.

   The document was prepared for Monik Beauregard, a senior assistant deputy minister at Public Safety Canada, who chaired a panel on Friday at an intelligence conference on the global implications of the challenges to cybersecurity.

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