Canada's Conservative government presses the reset key by taking a break

   Canada column for Sunday, Aug. 25/13

   THE CANADIAN REPORT

   (c) By Jim Fox

   Canada’s government is taking a time-out as Prime Minister Stephen Harper prepares to lead his Conservative party into the next election.

   Harper said his decision to prorogue, or suspend, the current session of Parliament until mid-October is to prepare a new economy-focused agenda.

   The action effectively ended the parliamentary session and killed legislative bills not yet enacted to await a new direction for governing.

   By pressing the reset button, Harper is buying time to deal with stalled political support after a recent shuffling of Cabinet positions and to prepare for his fifth election campaign as leader.

   In the election, expected in 2015, Harper will face a reinvigorated opposition with new leaders – Justin Trudeau for the Liberals and Thomas Mulcair of the New Democratic Party.

   The break also comes when the government deals with the Senate expense-claim scandal.

   Former Conservative Senator Pamela Wallin, now an Independent and Harper appointee, has been told to pay back $138,970 for ineligible travel expense claims.

   The Mounties are investigating Wallin’s claims and those of senators Patrick Brazeau, Mike Duffy and Mac Harb.

   (For more news of the week from Canada, click "Read more")

Senator's "questionable" travel expenses being investigated

   Canada column for Sunday, Aug. 18/13

   THE CANADIAN REPORT

   (c) By Jim Fox

   The Mounties are now investigating Senator Pamela Wallin’s “questionable” travel expense claims amounting to more than $140,000.

   Wallin, a former TV broadcaster named to the Senate in 2009 by Prime Minister Stephen Harper, said it was a “fundamentally flawed and unfair” audit of her claims.

   A former Canadian consul general to New York, Wallin has been told to pay back tens of thousands of dollars plus interest from among $321,000 in expenses under review.

   The audit, which cost taxpayers $126,998, flagged $121,348 in inappropriate expenses and called for further review of nearly $21,000 in additional claims.

   “I never intended to seek, nor sought, reimbursement for travel expenses in any situation where I did not believe such a claim was proper," she said.

   “Where I made mistakes, I have already paid money back (amounting to $38,000),” said Wallin, a former Conservative senator who is now an Independent.

   Former TV news broadcaster, Senator Mike Duffy, who also left the Conservative caucus and became an Independent, has repaid $90,000 in disallowed claims through a “loan” from former Harper chief of staff Nigel Wright.

   The Mounties are also looking at Duffy’s claims while audits showed improper housing claims by Senators Patrick Brazeau and Mac Harb.

(For more news of the week, click)

Huge python that killed two boys was being kept illegally, New Brunswick authorities say

   Canada column for Sunday, Aug. 11/13

   THE CANADIAN REPORT

   By Jim Fox

   New Brunswick authorities say a pet store owner was illegally keeping a 15-foot-long African rock python that killed two children.

   The snake managed to squeeze out of its enclosure and smother Connor Barthe, 6, and his brother Noah, 4, who were sleeping in an apartment in Campbellton.

   The 100-pound snake escaped from its glass tank and made its way into the living room where the boys were during a sleepover with the store owner’s son.

   They were in the apartment above Reptile Ocean, an exotic pet store, owned by the friend’s father, Jean-Claude Savoie.

   Police said he had taken the boys to farm before the sleepover and it is suspected the snake was attracted by animal scents on their clothing.

   The snake has been euthanized and other animals, including four large alligators, six crocodiles, tortoises, turtles and snakes, were seized and sent to Magnetic Hill Zoo in Moncton and the Indian River Reptile Zoo near Peterborough.

   Mountie Sgt. Alain Tremblay said preliminary results of autopsies showed the boys were asphyxiated.

   “We recognize that this has touched the hearts of people across the world and that people want to know how this could have happened,” he added.

(For more Canadian news of the week, click)

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Proposed pipeline would ship Alberta oil to Canada and U.S. east-coast ports and overseas

   Canada column for Sunday, Aug. 4/13

   THE CANADIAN REPORT

   (c) By Jim Fox

   TransCanada Corp. plans to ship western Canadian oil to east coast markets in Canada and the United States through a proposed new pipeline.

   The company announced the $12-billion project as environmental protests and U.S. political delays continue to stall its proposed Keystone XL pipeline to carry crude to Texas from Alberta.

   The Calgary-based company said the Energy East pipeline would deliver up to 1.1-million barrels of crude oil a day to Quebec by late 2017 and to New Brunswick a year later.

   Plans call for converting a portion of TransCanada's underused natural gas main line to ship the oil to near the Quebec-Vermont border from Alberta.

   There would be new pipe built to Saint John, New Brunswick to feed Irving Oil's to-be-expanded refinery and shipped overseas to energy-hungry markets such as India.

   It would also allow shipments to refineries along the U.S. eastern seaboard, an 800,000-barrel-a-day market, as well as to Europe.

   TransCanada chief executive Russ Girling called it “historic” for the company and Canada, comparing it to construction of the Canadian Pacific Railway, Trans-Canada Highway and the company's cross-country natural gas mainline.

   The project will free eastern Canadian refineries from expensive oil imports from countries such as Saudi Arabia, Nigeria and Libya.

   Environmentalists say they plan to challenge the proposal that requires Canadian government regulatory approval.

   More news of the week . . . click below

Crime rate in Canada dips to four-decade low

   Canada column for Sunday, July 28/13

   THE CANADIAN REPORT

   By Jim Fox

  

   Canada’s crime rate has fallen to its lowest level in 41 years with a large drop in murders and violence.

   The figures from the Canadian Center for Justice Statistics also show that Toronto had a seven-percent drop in police-reported crime last year – the lowest rate among municipalities for the sixth year.

   There were almost two-million criminal incidents investigated by the police last year, about 36,000 fewer than the previous year.

   Of that number, 543 homicides were reported across Canada, 55 fewer than in 2011.

   That brought the murder rate down to its lowest level since 1966, the report said.

   Crime rates overall fell in most provinces except New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island and the territories.

   The highest police-report crime rates were in Kelowna and Regina while Quebec City followed Toronto with the lowest.

   The statistics listed Winnipeg, Saskatoon and Thunder Bay as the most violent cities.

   Coinciding with the drop in crime were initiatives taken by the federal government to get tough on criminals including the passing last year of an omnibus crime bill with stiffer penalties.

Big retailer merger of Loblaw taking over Shoppers Drug Mart in Canada

   Canada column for Sunday, July 21/13

   THE CANADIAN REPORT

   (c) By Jim Fox

  

   Canada’s evolving retail industry – increasingly threatened by U.S. competitors – has led to two of the country’s largest retailers planning to combine their operations.

   Grocery chain Loblaw Companies is buying Shoppers Drug Mart Corp. for $12.4 billion in cash and stock.

   "With today's transformational partnership between Loblaw and Shoppers Drug Mart, we are changing the retail landscape in Canada," said Galen Weston, executive chair of Loblaw.

   Competition is heating up as new arrival Target expands its store network across Canada and a price-war with established Walmart is expected, both of which sell food and pharmacy items.

   Last month, Atlantic-based grocer Sobeys bought the Canadian Safeway stores for $5.8 billion in a deal that included 199 in-store pharmacies.

   Quebec-based supermarket chain Metro Inc. has expressed an interest in pharmacy retailer Jean Coutu and recently sold its stake in convenience store chain Alimentation Couche-Tard.

   With the latest acquisition, the Shoppers' name and stores will remain as a separate division of Loblaw.

More demands to abolish Canada's non-elected Senate

   Canada column for Sunday, July 14/13

   THE CANADIAN REPORT

   (c) By Jim Fox

  

   There’s more support across Canada to abolish the non-elected Senate that’s caught in a negative light over a spending scandal.

   Federal New Democratic Party Leader Tom Mulcair and Saskatchewan's Premier Brad Wall and his Saskatchewan Party believe the upper body serves no useful purpose and should be abolished.

   Prime Minister Stephen Harper had campaigned on reforming the Senate and wanted to find a way to have senators elected by the provinces they represent.

   Senators now are appointed for “life” – until age 75 – by the Governor General on the advice of the prime minister.

   Harper’s Conservatives have so far failed to reform the 105-member Senate that is responsible for considering government bills and giving “royal assent” or final approval.

   Constitutional experts say demands to abolish the Senate are “pointless.”

   That’s because the Constitution requires the approval of at least seven provinces representing 50 percent of the population to make any significant changes – and that’s far from possible at present.

   The Senate’s reputation has been rocked recently over allegations that four senators have made major improper housing or travel expense claims that are now being investigated.

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   All but 200 of the 2,000 people forced from their homes when a runaway oil-tanker train derailed, killing up to 50 people, have been able to go home in Lac-Megantic, Quebec.

   Mayor Colette Roy-Laroche met with Quebec Premier Pauline Marois to arrange for the distribution of $60 million the provincial government has pledged towards reconstruction and aid to families.

   Police are investigating whether the engineer properly set the brakes when he left the 73-car freight train parked for the night.

   It later hurtled eight miles downhill, derailed and exploded destroying a large part of the downtown and killing 24 people, with about 26 still missing.

   “I feel absolutely awful about this; I'm devastated by what's occurred in this community,” said Ed Burkhardt, head of the Montreal Maine and Atlantic Railway Co., who visited the site.

   ---

   News in brief:

   - The heaviest one-day rainfall in Toronto’s history dumped almost five inches last Monday causing havoc with commuters and cut power to 300,000 customers and trapped people in high-rise elevators. Flood waters brought the subway system to a halt and surrounded a GO Transit commuter train. The 1,200 passengers on the two-level train were removed by police over five hours using inflatable boats near the Don River.

   - Three would-be Canadians are complaining to the Ontario Superior Court that they shouldn’t be forced to pledge allegiance to the Queen for citizenship. The three – from Ireland, Israel and Jamaica – oppose the oath on religious or conscientious grounds and suggest that pledging allegiance to Canada should be sufficient.

   ---

   Facts and figures:

   Canada’s dollar has advanced by almost two cents to 96.19 cents U.S. while the U.S. greenback is valued at $1.0395 in Canadian funds, before bank exchange fees.

   The Bank of Canada’s key interest rate is steady at 1 percent while the prime-lending rate is 3 percent.

   Stock markets are higher, with the Toronto exchange index at 12,488 points and the TSX Venture index 893 points.

   Lotto 6-49: (July 10) 7, 8, 11, 19, 25 and 46; bonus 17. (July 6) 21, 23, 24, 33, 38 and 44; bonus 45. Lotto Max: (July 5) 5, 12, 15, 39, 44, 46 and 49; bonus 18.

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   Regional briefs:

   - British Columbia Premier Christy Clark is once again a member of the legislature after winning a by-election in Westside-Kelowna. After engineering the surprising come-from-behind Liberal win in last May's provincial election, Clark was defeated in her own district of Vancouver-Point Grey. Former Liberal politician Ben Stewart stepped aside to let Clark run.

   - A memorial garden was dedicated in Toronto at the site of one of Canada's worst aviation disasters. It was there Air Canada Flight 621 slammed into the ground with the deaths of 109 passengers and crew on July 5, 1970. The DC-8 was en route to Los Angeles from Montreal when it was attempting to land at Toronto's international airport.

   - Devastating floods that hit Calgary last month have resulted in many animals looking for new homes after some enclosures were destroyed at the Calgary Zoo. The Magnetic Hill Zoo in Moncton, New Brunswick is the new home for two Hyacinth Macaws, the largest parrot species, as well as two giant anteaters.

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Jim Fox can be reached at canadareport@hotmail.com