Advert Circulating UK and US about the Alberta Tar Sands Horror

Environment Canada has not fulfilled its reporting obligations under the Canada Water Act

2.75 Under the Canada Water Act, Environment Canada is required to prepare an annual report to Parliament “on the operations under this Act.” We found that, from 2004 to 2009, the Department did not submit annual reports to Parliament as required under the Act. For example, the reports for the period 2006 to 2009 were submitted in 2010. The report for the year ending 31 March 2010 has yet to be submitted to Parliament. In addition, departments are required to submit annual departmental performance reports to Parliament on the performance of their programs. We found that information on key aspects of program performance and results for these two programs were not included in Environment Canada’s Departmental Performance Reports.

Source: Commissioner of the Environment and Sustainable Development (2010). 2010 Fall Report of the Commissioner of the Environment and Sustainable Development. Chapter 2: Monitoring Water Resources. Ottawa: Office of the Auditor General of Canada.

Best Quotes from the Posters

Join a forum and read the posts because not all the news is fully developed. Many times you'll get additional feedback from how legislation affects people in real terms instead of just the abstractions of policy language.

Health Care

Hey Mr. Flaherty, how about adding 6% a year to my pension. I might even forgive you for the theft from my Retirement Savings Account by reversing (lying about) the Cons election promise about the treatment of Income Trust dividends.

Question Period in the House Raises Concerns About Abuses

Government Fiscal Irresponsibility in a Time of Restraint

• Conservatives also expect us to vote tomorrow for a budget without telling Canadians what their waste is going to cost:
• waste on corporate tax giveaways;
• waste on prisons; waste on jets, which they do not have accurate costing on for Canadians.
  
• Instead of telling Canadians the truth, they went out last week and spent millions of taxpayer dollars on government partisan advertising. Ignatieff

Mr. Speaker, Bruce Carson was illicitly using his government connections to finance the purchase of $400 million worth of water filtration units.

According to the contract witnessed by Mr. Carson, his fiancé stood to gain $80 million from the scam. Carson had inside information that could only have come from the Prime Minister's office, like, for example, who would be the next minister of Indian affairs.

Who in the Prime Minister's office was funnelling information to Mr. Carson? Have they, too, been referred to the RCMP?

Conservatives Hold Grudges Against Quebec

Mr. Speaker, Quebec's finance minister, Raymond Bachand, said that negotiations between Quebec and Ottawa regarding harmonizing GST with sales tax are far enough along to conclude an agreement. He even sent a draft agreement to his federal counterpart on February 22. The ball is in the Conservative government's court.

Will the minister finally resolve the sales tax harmonization issue and include in the budget the $2.2 billion the federal government has owed Quebec for years now?

Secrecy
Mr. Speaker, when Canadians hear of secretive, controlling governments that have political operatives, they likely think of other countries. Yet last week the Information Commissioner revealed that this was happening in Canada and the RCMP had to be called. We know she is studying other departments for interference in access to information.

How can we trust the Conservative regime when every week there is evidence of new abuses? How can we trust a government that hides information? How can we trust a government that does not believe Canadians have the right to know?

Mr. Speaker, after four months of stonewalling Parliament, the Conservative regime continues to hide the true costs of their U.S.-style prison bills. It is treating this Parliament and Canadians with contempt. Canadian taxpayers have a right to know how much these U.S.-style prison bills will cost.

Mr. Speaker, that minister told Canadians that his prison bill would cost $90 million. Now he is talking $2.1 billion. Canadians cannot trust the government's numbers. It is a government that has spent Canada into a $56 billion deficit and now it continues to hide the true cost of its prison bills. The Conservatives are ignoring the Speaker's ruling. They are asking MPs to vote on legislation without telling us what the costs will be for Canadians.

Source: http://www.parl.gc.ca

Keep the Guns out of the Hands of Civilians

Police Seizure of Automatic Weapons Triple in 2011 due to Border Laxity

automatic weapons seized in B.C. coming from the U.S.

Well just because some guy wants to get through the border five minutes faster, we might be shot at if in the wrong place, just as in the States.  Yessiree.  The drunk gangs have been cleaned up from South America and Mexico is now the leader in the drug trade.  Marijuana from B.C. travels south from B.C. in hollowed out logs and cocaine moves north for cross Canada distribution.  Given the declining job prospects in Vancouver, little wonder that the gangs may grow as they did in L.A.  All because of three key ingredients:  laxer border security, dissolution of the gun registry, and very desperate people who are out of work and have no future job prospects. 

I'm using this blog to add content as it comes up from twitter and other feeds. Here's the source for what follows: VanObserver Vancouver Observer American #guns, Canadian deaths: VO investigates. ht.ly/8jspA #Vancouver @CanBorder #guncontrol.  So that you might want to follow @VO  or use the other search terms yourself.



Today's issue is the recent attempt to end the gun registry. What that means to every Canadian is that we would be coming closer to normalizing a gun culture as so often seen in films these days. Most of us live in cities and read about shootings, random gun violence in the streets. Even though Ontario is statistically low in per capita crime, guns are still being used by criminals and often in domestic violence.

We must end the symbolism attached to gun ownership. No individual is above the law. We don't need to kill animals; farmers can call the Animal control to deal with wildlife and have it humanely relocated.

City people pay agencies to remove skunks, racoons. Farmers don't need guns as their lives are not on the line.

Follow this issue on twitter under #Coalition4GunControl
Show support for a re-enstatement of this legislation. Conservative Jim Hilyer makes gun shooting signals after the vote to ban registry goes through. Remember it is still be contested by Quebec to keep their files. Hope they win.