National
Canada’s Digital ID Drama Heats Up as Regulators Sidestep Parliament
From Reclaim The Net
These dangers range from data security, and cost of implementation, to various ways centralized databases containing people’s most sensitive personal information can be abused.
And those, again, range from security – to the risk of digital IDs getting turned into effective tools for government mass surveillance and control of the entire population’s behavior.
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Canadian regulators plan to move ahead with introducing national digital ID without the parliament’s involvement.
Leaving the process out of the parliament in terms of approval and oversight is sure to add to the existing controversy around the issue of digital ID, which was in the past criticized and even rejected precisely by a number of Canadian MPs and parliamentary committees. On the other hand, this might explain why the regulators might rather take a route bypassing the lawmakers, despite the risky – in terms of proper democratic process – nature of such maneuvering. Critics are now calling this (another) example of Canada’s Liberal government’s overreach. Reports about these goings-on are based on Shared Services Canada (SSC), a government IT agency, recently announcing how the work on setting up a digital ID system for the whole country was progressing, while presenting this as essentially no different than current forms of obligatory ID (for instance, Canada’s equivalent to the social security number in the US). But opponents in the parliament, and beyond, have been consistently for years reiterating that the scheme is fraught with dangers that are not comparable to those affecting traditional ID systems, neither in depth nor breadth. These dangers range from data security, and cost of implementation, to various ways centralized databases containing people’s most sensitive personal information can be abused. And those, again, range from security – to the risk of digital IDs getting turned into effective tools for government mass surveillance and control of the entire population’s behavior. But SSC and other digital ID backers address these issues almost in passing while selling the benefits to the public as more convenience via unified access to government services, and even as something “empowering” citizens. However, what the most prominent individuals and organizations that push for global digital ID adoption (like Bill Gates, Tony Blair, the EU, and the WEF…) present as a way to usher in more equity and equality is seen as creating exactly the opposite effect. “Segregation and discrimination” is how one report out of Canada put it, the context being recent: Covid vaccine “passports” and the treatment received by citizens who decided against taking the jab. |
The Canadian Taxpayers Federation is calling on the federal government to immediately end the carbon tax.
“Newly announced Liberal leader Mark Carney is set to be sworn in as prime minister, and he needs to make good on his pledge and get rid of the carbon tax right now,” said Kris Sims, CTF Alberta Director. “When he was running for Liberal Party leadership, Carney said he would remove the consumer carbon tax and he needs to do that immediately.
“Canadians should not be paying the carbon tax for one minute longer.”
Carney was announced as leader of the Liberal Party on Sunday, March 9, making him set to be the next prime minister. During party the leadership race, Carney promised to “immediately remove the consumer carbon tax.”
The government has the ability under the Greenhouse Gas Pollution Pricing Act to immediately reduce the carbon tax rate to $0 with no legislative change required, even with Parliament prorogued.
That means the federal government can effectively end the carbon tax immediately.
The carbon tax is scheduled to increase to 21 cents per litre of gasoline, 25 cents per litre of diesel and 18 cents per cubic metre of natural gas on April 1.
The carbon tax will cost about $15 extra to fill up a minivan, about $25 extra to fill up a pick-up truck and about $250 extra to fill up a big rig truck with diesel.
The average Canadian family will pay up to $440 extra in carbon tax on their natural gas home heating bills this winter.
“Half of Canadians are broke, and within $200 every month of not being able to make the minimum payments on their bills, they cannot afford to pay this carbon tax for a minute longer,” said Sims. “The carbon tax is an unfair tax on everything because it punishes Canadians for driving to work, heating their homes, delivering goods and growing food – it needs to be scrapped immediately.”
From the Fraser Institute
With a federal election looming, a group of Canadian automobile associations want Ottawa to pull the plug on the Trudeau plan to mandate that all new light-duty vehicles sold in Canada be emission-free by 2035. The Canadian Vehicle Manufacturers’ Association, the Global Automakers of Canada and the Canadian Automobile Dealers Association collectively made the request after the government recently ended its incentive program, which included rebates of up to $5,000 for electric vehicle (EV) purchases. Quebec’s EV subsidies are also drying up.
Brian Kingston, head of the Canadian Vehicle Manufacturer’s Association, said the government’s mandate is now “increasingly unrealistic.” No doubt because Canadians remain reluctant to embrace EVs. According to recent report, while 48 per cent of Canadians will shop for a car this year (up from 42 per cent last year), only half (50 per cent) will consider EVs, down 2 per cent since last year.
Similarly, an Auto Trader survey finds that while almost half of non-EV owners are open to buying an EV for their next vehicle, interest in EVs declined for the second year in a row, from 68 per cent to 56 per cent. Things are somewhat rosier for plug-in hybrid vehicles, with purchase consideration for traditional gas-electric hybrids (HEVs) and plug-in hybrids (PHEVs) increasing.
Another 2024 report from J.D. Power finds that “Just 11% of new-vehicle shoppers in Canada say they are ‘very likely’ to consider an electric vehicle (EV) for their next purchase, down 3 percentage points from 2023.” And a recent report from RBC said a softening economy and inflation helped lead to only 28 per cent of Canadians considering an EV purchase in 2024, down from 47 per cent in 2022.
It’s increasingly clear that the Trudeau government’s vaunted EV revolution, where all new cars sold in 2035 are to be EVs, is unlikely to come to pass—particularly without large subsidies that the Trudeau government ended and that Donald Trump is dismantling in the United States. Neither Canadians nor Americans are particularly interested in buying EVs that come with high price tags and inferior performance compared to traditional internal combustion vehicles.
The next federal government—whoever that may be—should heed the call of Canada’s vehicle trade associations and pull the plug on the EV sales mandates for 2035. And allow automakers to plan for making vehicles consumers want now, and will likely still want in 2035.
Kenneth P. Green
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