Harper accused of silencing anti-abortion protesters

Organizers of this year's March for Life events were on Parliament Hill Wednesday accusing Prime Minister Stephen Harper of shutting down any form of discussion or debate on abortion.

Attendees of the annual rally, to be held Thursday, are coming to Ottawa after months of procedural wrangling and debate on the abortion issue and freedom of speech on Parliament Hill.

The annual anti-abortion events get underway today with a candlelight vigil at a human rights monument in a park not far from Parliament Hill, Thursday protesters will march through downtown Ottawa and hold a rally on the Hill and a youth conference will take place on Friday.

At a news conference on the Hill to kick off the events, organizers from the Campaign Life Coalition said the federal government is ignoring an issue that Canadians want to talk about.

"As thousands of pre-born children at various stages of development are killed every year in this country, our government continues to do everything in their power to avoid having an intellectual conversation on this fundamental human rights issue," said Matthew Wojciechowski.

This year's theme is "end female gendercide" and youth co-ordinator for Campaign Life Coalition Alissa Golob said sex-selective abortion is a serious problem in Canada.

"Yet our prime minister continues to stifle the outcry of the people he is supposed to govern by stifling any debate or discussion when the 'a word' is brought up," she said.

"This year's March for Life gives Canadians an outlet to have their voices heard at the steps of Parliament Hill when they are being silenced not only in some of their constituencies but by the government that prides itself on freedom of speech and human rights," Golob said.

MP thanks organizers in House

She called on Harper to publicly condem the practice of sex-selective abortion and said if he doesn't, people should assume he supports it.

The March for Life events were highlighted in the House of Commons Tuesday by Conservative MP Leon Benoit during his member's statement before question period.

"I am proud to stand here today to thank everyone involved in the pro-life movement for the work they do, and to congratulate them for the efforts they put forth to have this wonderful March For Life, which is such an important issue for all of us," he said.

How and when MPs make their member's statements and a motion related to abortion have caused recent controversy on Parliament Hill.

Conservative MP Mark Warawa was set to make a statement in the House of Commons in March, the day after a motion he proposed condemning sex-selective abortion was deemed by a House committee to be ineligible for a vote. He was told about 15 minutes before he was to stand in the House that he'd been taken off the list provided by his party whip's office to the Speaker.

That set off a controversy about MPs' freedom of speech and Warawa made a formal complaint to Speaker Andrew Scheer arguing that his rights and privileges had been breached. He had several Conservative MPs backing him, raising questions about rifts in the Conservative caucus. Benoit was one of the Tory MP's who said that his rights had also been taken away before by his own party.

Questions about caucus conflict were also raised in the fall when the House voted on another Conservative MP's motion that would have seen a committee investigate when life begins. Kitchener Centre MP Stephen Woodworth's motion was defeated but a number of Tories voted for it, straying from Harper's commitment to keep the abortion debate closed.

With the most recent motion from Warawa opposition MPs argued that it came too close to reopening the abortion debate and the NDP called on Harper to clamp down on his caucus members who propose motions and bills related to abortion.

The MP for Langley, B.C., could have appealed the committee's decision to block his motion but he eventually decided to drop the issue.

Woodworth, however, plans to introduce another motion in the House whenever he next has the opportunity to that would affirm a human's "equal worth and dignity." Woodworth told CBC News on Monday once it is agreed that a human being has a right to dignity and equality, there can be a public and parliamentary discussion on the definitions of "human being," "dignity" and "equality."

Warawa and Woodworth are among the MPs who are expected to attend Thursday's rally on the Hill.

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Government should 'grow up' on climate change, scientist says

A group of 12 prominent Canadian climate scientists called out the federal Natural Resources Minister Joe Oliver on his support for the expansion of oil infrastructure in a letter released today.

The scientists wrote that building pipelines and developing fossil fuel production delays the transition to an economy that relies less on oil and gas.

The scientists urged Oliver to move away from the high-carbon approach that will lead to climate warming of more than 2 C.

"If we invest in expanding fossil fuel production, we risk locking ourselves into a high-carbon pathway that increases greenhouse gas emissions for years and decades to come," wrote the group that includes Mark Jaccard of B.C.'s Simon Fraser University, Gordon McBean of the Centre for Environment and Sustainability at Western University in London, Ont., and David Keith, a Canadian who is teaching public policy and engineering at Harvard University.

The group went on to say that if Canada wants to avoid dangerous climate change it "will require significantly reducing our reliance on fossil fuels and making a transition to cleaner energy."

"I'm not arguing necessarily for totally closing down the tarsands. I just think they ought to be more responsibly developed and in a way that is compatible with properly addressing climate change," said John Stone, one of the signatories and a geography and environment professor at Carleton University in Ottawa.

Stone said the country needs to have a proper discussion about energy policy and the way forward.

Need for balance

Keith was blunt in his assessment of the Canadian government's stand on climate change and resource development. He wants the government to "grow up" and represent the two important but very different needs of the country.

"They need to balance the long-term environmental risks and the benefits to Canadians ... not using the atmosphere as a waste dump for carbon. And they need to balance that against desire in current laws, for companies to export oil," Keith told CBC News.

"Those are two different goals. They are somewhat contradictory but an adult government needs do to that in a serious way. And I don't hear it."

Oliver is travelling through Europe this week as part of a campaign to promote the country's resources and to convince the European Union not to discriminate against Canadian oil by labelling it dirtier than other fuel.

Chris McCluskey, a spokesman for Oliver, said it's unrealistic to think the world can move off oil.

"Cutting off oil production would create great economic hardship, especially for the poorest nations who already suffer from an energy deficit," McCluskey said. "Indeed, one and half billion people are now without electricity. We have an obligation to responsibly develop our resources, protect the environment, create economic growth for Canadians and share our energy with the world."

Letter to Joe Oliver

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Sex-selective abortion adds new focus to annual Hill protest

Thousands of protesters are expected on Parliament Hill today for an annual anti-abortion rally, weeks after Conservative backbenchers said they weren't allowed to talk about abortion in the House of Commons.

The protest organizers say the theme will be what they call gendercide, or sex-selective abortion, an issue Canada's political parties have gone out of their way not to deal with.

Conservative MP Mark Warawa tried to spark a debate on sex-selective abortion in March, but found out shortly before he was to make a statement in the House that he'd been removed from a list of MPs selected to speak that day. An all-party committee of MPs declared his motion ineligible and he instead submitted a private member's bill that will limit where sex offenders can live.

Those who support limits on abortion have seized on sex-selective abortion as a way into the broader debate.

Faytene Grasseschi organized a walk from Montreal to Ottawa that saw 25 women spend 10 days making the 200-kilometre trek. Grasseschi wants a law banning sex-selective abortion, a practice that often sees female fetuses aborted in families that favour male children.

"I think there are several pieces of legislation that are moderate, that Canadians on every side of the discussion will agree with. I think one of those pieces of legislation would be about gendercide," she said in an interview with CBC News.

Grasseschi says she'd also like Parliament make it illegal for people to coerce women into abortions and to encourage informed consent before someone undergoes the procedure.

In 2010, MPs voted down Conservative MP Rod Bruinooge's private member's bill, C-510, which would have explicitly made it illegal to coerce a woman to have an abortion, including by badgering or threatening to withdraw financial support.

'Comfortable with those decisions'

Ashley Williams, who made the trip from Montreal to Ottawa, said she walked because she felt pressured by her then boyfriend into having an abortion.

"The emotional side-effects were really damaging and it took me a long time to heal," she said Wednesday as the women set out from Orleans, an Ottawa suburb, on the last day of their walk.

"For me it just wasn't worth it, at all."

Kelly Gordon, a PhD candidate in political studies at the University of Ottawa, says it's important to remember not every woman regrets ending her pregnancy. Gordon and Paul Saurette, a political studies professor at the university, are writing a book about how discussion about abortion is changing.

"That is not most women's experiences with abortion," Gordon said.

"We also need to frame it in the larger context of women seeking abortions for many different reasons and being very comfortable with those decisions."

There isn't a great deal of evidence about the effect of abortion on women, Saurette said.

"The abortion harms women arguments, I think when you look at the medical evidence behind it, it's extremely questionable," he said.

"I think what you're seeing on a lot of the rhetoric right now are a lot of assertions without a lot of evidence."

Saurette said people opposed to abortion are adopting new language to make their case.

"It's much more centred on the argument that abortion harms women and that's why Canadians should support the anti-abortion position."

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Ex-Laval mayor Vaillancourt arrested by anti-corruption unit

Gilles Vaillancourt, the embattled former mayor of Laval, Que., has been arrested in a wide sweep by provincial anti-corruption investigators.

Vaillancourt was arrested at his Laval apartment this morning.

He was taken to provincial police headquarters in Montreal early this morning for questioning.

Police also arrested as many as 30 other people on allegations related to corruption and collusion.

According to Radio-Canada, former construction magnate Tony Accurso is also among those arrested.

It's the latest arrest for Accurso, who faces allegations of tax evasion as well as fraud, conspiracy, influence-peddling, breach of trust and defrauding the government in connection with an investigation into how the Montreal-area municipality of Mascouche awarded more than $40 million in contracts.

The province's anti-corruption unit (UPAC) has scheduled a news conference for 10 a.m. ET.

No information on pending charges has been released.

Vaillancourt resigned in November amid mounting pressure from a UPAC investigation and testimony before the province's corruption commission. A few weeks prior the former mayor's safety deposit boxes were searched by UPAC investigators.

That raid coincided with allegations against the mayor that surfaced at the Charbonneau inquiry into corruption in Quebec's construction industry.

A key witness, the former head of the now-bankrupt construction firm Infrabec, Lino Zambito, testified Vaillancourt collected a 2.5 per cent kickback on all public works contracts.

At the time of his resignation, Vaillancourt continued to deny all allegations of corruption.

Managers arrested

"We're facing allegations that, even without proof, are altering the reputations of those in whom you have placed your trust," he said in November. "I am one of these people, and I have been deeply hurt. Regardless of what I do or say, it is clear that the damage has been done."

The latest arrests come several days after the city's manager, Gaétan Turbide, and assistant city manager, Jean Roberge, were suspended from their duties, with pay, for an indeterminate time.

The two men are scheduled to appear as witnesses next week at the province's corruption commission.

Turbide and Roberge worked closely with Vaillancourt.

Laval's city council unanimously backed interim mayor Alexandre Duplessis in his motion to suspend the two employees.

Vaillancourt was a political fixture in Laval, on Montreal's North Shore, for nearly four decades. For the 10 years prior to his resignation, his PRO-des-Lavallois party was unopposed at city hall.

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Expenses audit faults both senators and rules

An independent audit on the housing claims for three senators, due in the Senate today, will conclude they shouldn't have made the claims but that the rules are also unclear, CBC News has learned.

Senators Mike Duffy, Mac Harb and Patrick Brazeau have claimed tens of thousands of dollars in housing allowance claims in recent years.

CBC's Hannah Thibedeau reported that the Senate committee handling the audit report met Wednesday night and that Duffy and Harb were both there. Brazeau, a former Conservative who now sits as an Independent, is currently suspended from the Senate over a criminal charge in a separate matter.

The senators expenses were investigated by the accounting firm Deloitte. The Senate is expected to release a response to the report this afternoon that will include new rules for senators.

Thibedeau reported that the rules around claiming per diems are changing. Senators currently can claim a per diem for any day that they are in Ottawa, whether the Senate is sitting or not. That will change, so that per diems can only be claimed if the senators are in Ottawa for Senate business (when the Senate is sitting or to attend committee meetings for example), plus 20 extra days if they are in Ottawa for other activities related to Senate work.

Other areas where the rules will be tightened up include mileage and taxi claims. Receipts will now be required for all taxi use; previously, senators could claim $30 without a receipt.

It was the housing allowance claims being made by senators that first prompted the Senate to launch the review.

Since 2010, Harb has been claiming his primary residence is outside the capital, even though he had lived in Ottawa for decades before that time and owns several properties in the city. However, he says that he moved to a bungalow near Pembroke, Ont., about 145 kilometres from Ottawa and has been claiming expenses for maintaining what he says is a secondary residence near Parliament Hill he needs when he attends Senate sittings.

Senators who live more than 100 kilometres from Ottawa are allowed to claim housing expenses of up to $22,000 a year.

Harb's home near Pembroke is now for sale. He says he is selling the property because he has lost his right to privacy. He listed it about two weeks ago.

A media report Tuesday said Harb will be ordered to reimburse the taxpayers $100,000 for claiming expenses for housing and meals. However, Harb told CBC News he is "100 per cent confident" the Deloitte report will vindicate him.

Brazeau audited as well

Senator Brazeau is also being audited by Deloitte, because he claimed his primary residence is in his father's apartment in Maniwaki, Que.

Senator Patrick Brazeau talks to the media on Parliament Hill on Feb.12, 2013. His housing and meal expenses have been scrutinized by an independent auditor. (Adrian Wyld/Canadian Press)

Brazeau, however, also lives in a house in Gatineau, Que., just across the river from Ottawa.

Duffy is also under review by Deloitte. However, Duffy has already repaid the Senate $90,000 for claiming a house in P.E.I as his primary residence although he has been a longtime homeowner in Ottawa. Outside the Conservative caucus room Tuesday, he told reporters, "The process is working as it should."

Harb did not want to speak about the Deloitte report, because, he said, the Senate told him not to until it was released.

A fourth senator, Pamela Wallin, is also being audited by Deloitte, but the firm has asked for more time to complete its report on her travel expenses between Ottawa and Saskatchewan.

The Senate has already passed new rules stating that senators must provide a driver's licence, health card and proof of where they pay provincial income tax before they can receive the $22,000 housing allowance.

Charlie Angus, the ethics critic for the NDP, asked in question period in the House of Commons Wednesday: "Will the government promise to turn over tomorrow's internal Senate audit to the police to ensure that there at least be some investigation of the senators who have been ripping off the Canadian taxpayers? At least do that."

Government House leader Peter Van Loan replied: "None of us yet know what those audits say. They will be looked at by the Senate committee tomorrow. Then, I believe, they will be released. Certainly that is our expectation, as it is very much our government's expectation that the rules must be followed and that if any monies were inappropriately reimbursed, they must be reimbursed to the government."

The RCMP does not have to be asked by government to open an investigation.

Early Thursday, an internal Senate committee will receive the Deloitte audit and review it in a private meeting. The committee will then table the report in the Senate, and shortly after, the report is expected to be made public.

The report can only make recommendations. If Harb and Brazeau are found to have claimed money inappropriately, an order to reimburse the funds will come from the Senate.

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Senator Mac Harb disputes report he must repay $100K

Liberal Senator Mac Harb says a media report that he must repay $100,000 for inappropriate housing expenses is "totally false" and contains "false information."

Harb's expense claims have been under review by an independent auditor appointed by the Senate. The review by Deloitte is expected on Thursday, but a media report Tuesday said Harb will be ordered to reimburse the taxpayers for claiming expenses for housing and meals because he said his primary residence is outside the capital. However, Harb told CBC News he is "100 per cent confident" the Deloitte report will vindicate him.

Harb, a former Ottawa MP and city councillor, appointed to the Senate for Ontario in 2003, had been claiming out-of-town expenses for living in a residence more than 100 kilometers outside Ottawa.

He told CBC News today that the media report was inaccurate.

Harb, who owns several properties in Ottawa, began claiming expenses for living in the city in September 2010, because he said he had moved to a bungalow near Pembroke, Ont., about 145 kilometres from the capital.

The Senate allows senators who live more than 100 kilometres from Ottawa to claim housing expenses of up to $22,000 a year.

Harb's home near Pembroke is now for sale. He says he is selling the property because he has lost his right to privacy. He listed it about two weeks ago.

Other Senate audits

"I love the place," Harb told CBC News. "It was like heaven for me. But I lost privacy. I'm a public figure. I don't feel safe there anymore."

Former Conservative Senator Patrick Brazeau is also being audited by Deloitte, because he claimed his primary residence is in his father's apartment in Maniwaki.

Brazeau, however, also lives in a house in Gatineau, just across the river from Ottawa. He currently sits as an independent after being tossed from the Conservative caucus due to a criminal charge he's facing in a completely separate matter.

Conservative Senator Mike Duffy is also under review by Deloitte. However, Duffy has already repaid the Senate $90,000 for claiming a house in P.E.I as his primary residence although he has been a long-time homeowner in Ottawa. Outside the Conservative caucus room Monday, he told reporters, "The process is working as it should."

Harb did not want to speak about the Deloitte report, because, he said, the Senate told him not to until it was released.

Liberal Senator Colin Kenny, speaking outside the Liberal caucus room in the House of Commons, told reporters that he thinks the housing expenses issue has hurt the reputation of the Senate.

Liberal Senator Pierrette Ringuette said it's her understanding the Deloitte audit will be made public once the Senate releases it.

Liberal Senate House Leader Jim Cowan told reporters he expects there will be a discussion among senators about whether the Deloitte audit should be referred to the RCMP.

"As I understand it, there's no requirement — the RCMP doesn't need a formal request in order to take action on any document which is a public document," he said.

Despite the fact that the RCMP independently decides whether to open criminal investigations, NDP MP Alexandre Boulerice demanded in question period on Tuesday that the government refer the housing expenses matter to the Mounties.

'No penalty'

"When an ordinary Canadian makes a false claim for money they're not entitled to, the government calls it fraud," asked Charlie Angus, the NDP's ethics critic. "Why is there no penalty for ripping off the Canadian taxpayer?"

Speaking for the government, Conservative House leader Peter Van Loan replied that the Senate intends to review the Deloitte report which will be released to the public "shortly." He said that if money is owing, senators will pay it back.

Outside the Conservative caucus room, Conservative Senator Andrée Champagne, who lives 200 kilometres from Ottawa in Sainte-Hyacinthe, Que., told reporters that rather than buying a residence in Ottawa and charging expenses for it, she stays in a hotel. "I think I did the right thing," she said.

Champagne added that she was advised by the Senate's board of internal economy, the body that approves expenses, to stop staying in Ottawa on Thursday nights. The Senate does not normally sit on Fridays.

"So I started leaving on Thursdays to go back home," she said.

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Harper says foreign worker program is being fixed

The government has been acting on problems with the temporary foreign worker program for more than a year, Prime Minister Stephen Harper said Tuesday in response to opposition accusations the government was hiding information and denying that it wasn't working properly.

The accusations arose during several feisty exchanges in question period between the government and the NDP over the temporary foreign worker program following a CBC story about a memo for Human Resources Minister Diane Finley on the controversial program.

CBC News reported on Monday that Finley was warned last year that employers were hiring temporary foreign workers in the same jobs and same locations as Canadians who were filing employment insurance claims. One example cited in the memo showed the number of temporary foreign workers who were allowed to work as food counter attendants and the number of people who claimed employment insurance who cited experience in that sector in the same province.

The briefing note prepared by Finley's deputy minister last May was obtained by CBC's Power & Politics under the Access to Information Law.

In the House of Commons on Tuesday, NDP Leader Tom Mulcair accused Harper of denying that there were any problems with the temporary foreign worker program until changes to it were announced last week.

"Exactly the contrary is true. The government indicated for some time that it would be reforming the temporary foreign worker program," said Harper, adding that measures were already introduced to better match job vacancies with people on employment insurance.

"We've been very clear we need to do a better job of matching the demand for EI and the demand for temporary foreign workers, that's precisely what the government has been doing for a year and a half while, by the way, the NDP's been writing us demanding more temporary foreign workers for their ridings," Harper said.

The temporary foreign worker program has been the subject of much controversy lately on Parliament Hill. Last month, CBC reported that dozens of employees at RBC were losing their jobs to temporary foreign workers.

Earlier this year, two labour unions took Huiyong Holdings Group to court, after the mining company hired more than 200 temporary foreign workers from China for its coal mine in northeastern B.C.

Mulcair accuses government of hiding information

Mulcair asked whether Finley has been hiding information from Harper or if Harper has been hiding information from Canadians about how the temporary foreign worker program was being used.

"The minister brought in changes last year to make sure that people who are on EI, employment insurance, get first crack at jobs rather than temporary foreign workers, but guess what? Guess who opposed that? The NDP opposed it," Harper responded.

Finley and Citizenship and Immigration Minister Jason Kenney defended the government's actions on reforming both the employment insurance and temporary foreign worker programs.

"We recognized this problem a year ago and in fact before that and we've been talking about it publicly since and in fact that's exactly why we introduced changes to the employment insurance and temporary foreign worker programs," said Finley.

Employers are more aware of qualified unemployed people and those seeking work are more aware of employers who are seeking to fill vacancies, she said.

Kenney said the information in the memo was being cited in speeches and interviews a year ago and that it's the NDP that is behind on the issue, not the government.

"Why did it take the NDP a year to catch up with reality?" he said.

New study on labour market

The debate on Parliament Hill came as a new report suggested Tuesday that the increasingly controversial system "could be distorting" the natural supply and demand of the country's labour market.

The University of Calgary study suggests Canada isn't facing a wide-scale labour shortage but rather is experiencing a "serious mismatch" between the skills of its labour force and the demands of the labour market.

Kevin McQuillan — lead author of the study titled "All the workers we need: debunking Canada's labour shortage fallacy" — said improving the balance in the labour marketplace does not require an increase in the labour supply.

"Indeed, the TFWP (temporary foreign worker program) is sometimes being used to fill jobs with foreign workers in regions that already suffer from relatively high unemployment rates," wrote McQuillan.

"Temporary foreign workers could be distorting the labour market forces that would bring together more Canadian workers and jobs."

McQuillan suggested an improved immigration policy — that could adjust intake levels with labour market needs and reduce the number of temporary foreign workers brought in — as part of the solution.

"The country is not likely to benefit from a growing class of low-paid, temporary residents," he wrote. "Canada needs to make more effective use of its homegrown human resources."

Education could address labour needs, report says

In 2012, some 213,516 people entered Canada via the temporary foreign worker program, more than three times the number admitted a decade ago.

The private sector brought in 25 per cent more foreign labourers last year than the number of economic immigrants accepted by the government, which has long insisted caps on its own programs are necessary so as not to flood the Canadian labour market.

McQuillan's report conceded there are worker shortages in specific industries and certain regions, but he argued that young Canadians need to be encouraged to pursue an education and careers in fields where jobs are available.

He said this could be done through government funding into educational institutions with programs that match labour market needs and tuition pricing that charges more for study in a field where there is already an excess of labour.

He also suggested the government should find ways — such as a tax break — to entice Canadian workers to move from high-unemployment regions to provinces where workers are needed.

Statistics Canada's labour market survey placed the unemployment rate at 7.2 per cent in March.

Proposals come amidst overhaul

Tuesday's report refocused attention on the temporary foreign worker program, which the Conservative government was recently forced to admit is due for an overhaul after weeks of public outcry over the scarcity of Canadian jobs.

Under the proposed changes, employers will no longer have flexibility to set the wages for foreign labour, putting an end to a rule that allowed businesses to pay foreign workers up to 15 per cent below median wages, if that's what they were paying Canadians.

The Conservatives also called for a temporary freeze to a program that fast-tracked the ability of some companies to bring in workers from outside Canada through what's known as an accelerated labour market opinion.

The two key changes are part of a larger overhaul of the program that also includes stricter rules for applications, new fees for employers who apply and a promise of stricter enforcement.

With files from the Canadian Press

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RCMP travel limits breach parliamentary privilege, senator says

MPs and senators are expressing concern over the RCMP's decision to keep an officer from testifying before a Senate committee, saying the move is a breach of parliamentary privilege and a violation of the Criminal Code.

CBC News reported Cpl. Roland Beaulieu was supposed to be in Ottawa on Monday to testify before the committee about harassment within the force. Beaulieu has been off duty sick because of work-related stress, which he blames on harassment within the RCMP.

'The right of witnesses to appear before Parliament unobstructed and the right of parliamentarians to hear from witnesses are fundamental rights in the parliamentary process,'—Senator James Cowan

But last week an RCMP doctor sent him an email saying if he is well enough to travel and testify at the committee then he's well enough to return to administrative work with the force.

"Since you are ODS [off duty sick], you have effectively declared that you are not able to engage in these tasks at work. Therefore I am not supportive of you engaging in these tasks to get to the hearing," said an email issued by RCMP health services officer Isabelle Fieschi.

"Should you feel that you are physically and cognitively able to participate in these hearings and to travel there, I would consider you fit for administrative duties at your unit immediately."

The move followed the rollout of a new policy announced Friday by the RCMP that says any officer on sick leave must have written approval to travel.

Minister responds in question period

On Tuesday, the issue was raised in question period in the House of Commons by Randall Garrison, the NDP MP for Esquimalt-Juan de Fuca.

"It seems that not even ill RCMP members wanting to speak about their experiences are safe from Conservative gag orders…. What is this minister afraid of? Why is he muzzling RCMP officers who want to speak out on reform of their organization?" said Garrison.

Public Safety Minister Vic Toews responded that there was no attempt to stop Beaulieu from testifying.

"As I understand it, the officer indicated that he wanted to testify and there was nothing stopping that officer from testifying, so I don't know why that member is making this up," said Toews.

Criminal Code violated alleges senator

In the Senate, Liberal Opposition Leader James Cowan said the RCMP's new policy limiting travel of officers on stress leave, actually violates the rights of senators to hear evidence from any witness they like.

"The right of witnesses to appear before Parliament unobstructed and the right of parliamentarians to hear from witnesses are fundamental rights in the parliamentary process," said Cowan.

The senator said restricting Beaulieu's ability to testify before the committee on national security and defence, which is holding hearings on Bill C-42, was a violation of the Criminal Code of Canada and a breach of parliamentary privilege.

"Witnesses who wish to appear before us should not be subject to intimidation," he said.

Cowan suggested to the CBC the committee may even travel to B.C. to hear the RCMP officer's testimony if necessary.

The Speaker of the Senate is now considering Cowan's motion on whether the Senate privilege has been breached. But the Speaker's ruling will likely not have any impact on the passage of Bill C-42 to modernize the RCMP, which is expected to pass quickly,given the Conservative government majority.

On Monday, Senator Romeo Dallaire, who suffered from severe PTSD after leading UN peacekeeping troops during the Rwandan genocide, criticized the new RCMP policy, saying it was unreasonable to suggest those suffering from PTSD were not fit travel or testify.

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Baird cool to military solution as MPs debate role in Syria

MPs held an emergency debate in the House of Commons on Canada's role in Syria amid renewed concerns about chemical weapons and Israel's involvement in the civil war that has created a growing refugee crisis as people flee the conflict.

Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird spoke during the debate, which started just after 6:30 p.m ET Tuesday.

"The only way to end the suffering of the Syrian people is through a political solution to this crisis," Baird said Tuesday evening.

Liberal foreign affairs critic Bob Rae, who requested the debate, as well as NDP foreign affairs critic Paul Dewar led the opposition's questions.

"This evening's emergency debate is an opportunity to ask the Canadian government vital questions about the conversations it is having with our allies, what actions it is taking, and equally, to debate the role Canada ought to be playing in the international effort to support the Syrian people," Rae said in a statement earlier Tuesday.

During the debate, Rae reiterated the need to have informed discussions about how to suport the Syrian people, and he said more information is needed about the structure of the opposition and who might follow Assad.

No Canadian Forces role just yet

The foreign affairs minister said earlier in the day that he doesn't see Canadian Forces getting involved in Syria's civil war right now.

Baird said this is a conflict that will be solved politically, not with the military.

"Our view has always been the only way to end the suffering of the Syrian people is through a political solution," he said on CBC News Network's Power & Politics.

"The more some countries and groups have sent arms in to arm the opposition, what it's caused is significantly higher levels of violence from the Assad regime which has led to more bloodshed and more death."

Eyewitness accounts are suggesting the use of chemical weapons in recent days, but it's unclear if they're being deployed by the forces of President Bashar al-Assad, opposition groups, or both.

Baird said he's "working hard" to get the facts about who's using banned chemical weapons in Syria's conflict, since there's "overwhelming evidence" they've been used.

"We are deeply concerned, [U.S.] President Obama has spoken out about that," Baird said after Tuesday's question period.

"We better bloody well get the facts and make sure we're right."

Baird said the Canadian government has given more than a million dollars to United Nations chemical weapons inspectors, but they aren't being allowed into the country.

He also said Canada is helping with the humanitarian crisis in Syria and the surrounding countries by providing food, shelter and medical support.

During Tuesday evening's debate, Baird talked about his experience visiting an ever-expanding refugee camp in Jordan and praised the UN's efforts at registering and feeding refugees who have been fleeing Syria in growing numbers.

Helping the right people 'awfully difficult'

Earlier, Rae told Power & Politics host Evan Solomon on Monday that he wants to see Canada find a way to help "democratic" elements of the Syrian Coalition forces without arming them.

"Canada is not going to be a player in the providing of arms, we're not that kind of country," he said.

"We've been a country that's has always asked the question 'What's the consequences of these actions and how can we ensure greater stability in a situation that right now is enormously unstable?'"

Baird said it's difficult to sort out what those elements are.

"The Syrian opposition that a big chunk of the world has recognized as the legitimate government of Syria doesn't have command and control on the ground," he said on Power & Politics.

"In fact, there isn't one opposition, there are many; it gets awfully difficult at times to separate the good guys from the bad guys."

During Tuesday's debate, NDP foreign affairs critic Paul Dewar made note of the growing number of refugees and urged the government to do more to reunite families affected by the conflict in Syria.

"We have Syrian-Canadian families right now who want to help their family members," said Dewar, who also urged the government to step up humanitarian assistance and reach out to women affected by the violent conflict.

U.S. secretary of state in Russia

Israeli officials have said airstrikes this weekend were meant to stop Iranian weapons from reaching the Hezbollah militia in Lebanon, although its government has not formally confirmed its involvement.

A Palestinian militant group's spokesperson told The Associated Press on Tuesday that Syria's President Assad has given them permission to set up missiles and attack Israel.

"We saw this with Turkey [which earlier launched airstrikes inside Syria] and now with Israel," Dewar said on CBC's Power & Politics on Monday. "We all have to be concerned this conflict doesn't spread beyond the borders of Syria."

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry was in Russia on Tuesday to discuss the situation in Syria with Russian President Vladimir Putin, whose country is the most powerful ally of Assad's regime.

More than 70,000 people have been killed in Syria since protests began against the regime in March 2011.

With files from The Associated Press

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Canada's foreign-born population soars to 6.8 million

The debut of Canada's controversial census replacement survey shows there are more foreign-born people in the country than ever before, at a proportion not seen in almost a century.

They're young, they're suburban, and they're mainly from Asia, although Africans are arriving in growing numbers.

But the historical comparisons are few and far between in the National Household Survey, which Statistics Canada designed, at Prime Minister Stephen Harper's behest, to replace the cancelled long-form survey, which was eliminated.

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The new survey of almost three million people shows that Canada is home to 6.8 million foreign-born residents, or 20.6 per cent of the population, compared with 19.8 per cent in 2006, and the highest in the G8 group of rich countries.

It also shows that aboriginal populations have surged by 20 per cent over the past five years, now representing 4.3 per cent of Canada's population, up from 3.8 per cent in the 2006 census.

Almost one in five people living in Canada is a visible minority.

And in nine different municipalities, those visible minorities are actually the majority.

'Voluntary survey 'has very good quality'

Statistics Canada, however, isn't handing out detailed comparisons to the results shown in the 2006 census.

That's because many comparisons with the past can only made reliably at a national or provincial level, said Marc Hamel, director general of the census. He said the agency suppressed data from 1,100 mainly small communities because of data quality, compared with about 200 that were suppressed in 2006.

"For a voluntary survey, it has very good quality. We have a high quality of results at a national level," said Hamel.

Until 2006, questions on immigration, aboriginals and religion were asked in the mandatory long-form census that went to one-fifth of Canadian households. When the Conservatives cancelled that part of the census in 2010, Statistics Canada replaced it with a new questionnaire that went to slightly more households, but was voluntary instead of mandatory, skewing the data when it comes to making direct comparisons.

The result is a detailed picture of what Canada looked like in 2011, but it is a static picture that in many instances lacks the context of what the country looked like in the past at the local level.

Industry Minister Christian Paradis said the NHS "provides useful and usable data for Canadian communities, representing 97 per cent of the population," and that more Canadians responded to the survey than its predecessor.

"More than 2.5 million households returned the survey, achieving a response rate of 68 per cent and making this the largest voluntary survey ever conducted in Canada," Paradis said in a release. "Our government will be looking at options to improve the quality and reliability of the data generated by the 2016 census cycle."

Most immigrants from Asia, Mideast

What the NHS does show is that, overwhelmingly, most recent immigrants are from Asia, including the Middle East, but to a lesser degree than in the early part of the decade. Between 2006 and 2011, 56.9 per cent of immigrants were Asian, compared with the 60 per cent of the immigrants that came between 2001 and 2005.

The Philippines was the top source country for recent immigrants, with 13 per cent, according to the National Household Survey. although a footnote warns that the survey data "is not in line" with data collected by Citizenship and Immigration Canada. China and India were second and third as source countries.

The decline in the share of Asian immigration was offset by growth in newcomers from Africa in particular, and also Caribbean countries and Central and South America.

As in the past, newcomers are settling in Canada's biggest cities and are generally younger than the established population. Newcomers have a median age of 31.7 years, compared to the Canadian-born population median age of 37.3.

Of Canada's 6.8 million immigrants, 91 per cent of them live in metropolitan areas, and 63.4 per cent live in the Toronto, Montreal or Vancouver areas.

The Toronto area continues to be the top destination for immigrants, but newcomers are increasingly settling elsewhere, especially in the Prairies. Winnipeg, Saskatoon, Calgary, Edmonton, Halifax and Montreal all saw their shares of newcomers expand, compared to the 2006 census.

While Statistics Canada did not make the comparison, the Toronto area drew in just 32.8 per cent of recent immigrants in the past five years, compared with 40.4 per cent in the 2006 census and 43.1 per cent in the 2001 census.

Analysts had been anxious to see whether province-driven immigration policies had led to growing numbers of immigrants settling in smaller towns and cities, but the NHS does not make comparisons at that level.

The survey does show that suburbs in particular are a magnet for visible minorities. The Toronto suburbs of Markham, Brampton, Mississauga and Richmond Hill all have visible minority communities that make up well over half the population. The same pattern is seen in areas around Vancouver: in Richmond, Greater Vancouver, Burnaby and Surrey.

Aboriginal population rises

Aboriginal peoples are also claiming a larger share of the Canadian population. More than 1.4 million people told Statscan they had an aboriginal identity, comprising 4.3 per cent of the population compared to 3.8 per cent in the 2006 census.

The aboriginal population grew by more than 20 per cent between 2006 and 2011, compared with 5.2 per cent for the non-aboriginal population. However, Statscan warns that not all of this growth was because of people having more babies. Rather, changes in legal definitions and survey methodology account for some of the difference.

First Nations populations grew by 22.0 per cent, while Métis people grew 16.3 per cent and Inuit by 18.1 per cent.

While the data so far does not delve into social conditions among Aboriginal peoples, the NHS does offer a glimpse. aboriginal children are far more likely to be living with a single parent, usually a mother. Half the foster children under the age of 14 are aboriginal, the survey shows. And less than half of First Nations children live with both parents.

As for religion, Canadians are increasingly turning their backs.

While two-thirds of Canada's population said it was Christian, almost one quarter of respondents said they had no religious affiliation at all. That's up from 16.5 per cent a decade earlier in the 2001 census.

At the same time, immigration patterns have led to growth in the numbers of Muslim, Hindu, Sikh and Buddhist worshippers.

The 2011 NHS collected social and economic information that communities need to plan services such as child care, schooling, family services, housing, roads and public transportation, and skills training for employment, Statistics Canada says.

The other two parts of the survey will be released on June 26 (covering labour, education, place of work, commuting to work, mobility and migration and language of work) and Aug. 14 (providing data on income, earnings, housing and shelter costs).

With files from CBC News

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Enbridge breaks safety rules at pipeline pump stations across Canada

The biggest oil and gas pipeline company in Canada is breaking National Energy Board safety rules at 117 of its 125 pump stations across the country, but Enbridge says it's not to blame.

Enbridge was ordered by the Canadian energy regulator to disclose whether or not it had backup power to operate emergency shut-down systems in the facilities that keep oil flowing through its pipes. The company told the NEB only eight of its pump stations complied with the board's backup power system regulation.

On top of that, Enbridge disclosed that 83 of its pump stations were missing emergency shut-down buttons.

But the NEB admits that it has only just started to concentrate inspections on regulations covering backup power and shut-down systems. The regulations are anywhere from 14 to 19 years old.

"Enbridge would never knowingly operate outside of regulatory requirements. In fact, we do more than ask people to trust us, we say look at the evidence. We say look at our record, which is better than the industry average," said Enbridge spokesperson Graham White.

He added that the minimum for Enbridge is compliance with NEB regulations, but said at the vast majority of facilities the company goes above and beyond.

In the case of backup power, that rule has been on the books since 1999. The emergency shut-down button has been a must since at least 1994.

White said Enbridge's non-compliance is a problem of interpretation. He said that the NEB has changed the way it interprets the backup power regulation.

"We had an expectation that was indicated to us from previous inspections by the NEB, where these issues were not raised," said White.

The problems with Enbridge's pipeline safety came to light in 2011 during an NEB inspection of facilities on the company's Line 9 pipeline between Sarnia, Ont., and Montreal and at its Edmonton terminal. Inspectors found that the terminals at Edmonton, Sarnia and Westover (near Hamilton, Ont.) and pump stations at Westover and Terrebonne (near Montreal) were missing emergency shut-down buttons. The pump stations were also missing backup power systems.

Shawn Gaetzman works in the main control room at the Enbridge Pipelines oil terminal facility at Hardisty, Alta. (Larry MacDougal/Canadian Press)

Once the discoveries were made about these stations and terminals, the NEB asked Enbridge for and received information about the rest of the pump stations in its Canadian system.

Enbridge has since installed emergency shut-down buttons at all 83 pump stations. It also has an NEB-approved plan to retrofit all 117 pump stations with backup power although no timeline has been made public for when facilities will be brought in line with regulations.

The NEB admits that it has only just switched the focus of its inspections to make these particular safety regulations a higher priority.

"The company is always at fault. The regulator's purpose is to make sure the regulations are met," said Iain Colquhoun, the NEB's chief engineer. He went on to explain that, in the past, the NEB didn't see the need for backup power systems as a high risk priority.

"So perhaps it has not got the attention that it has in the past. But now that it has got our attention, we absolutely require companies to have an auxiliary power unit [emergency backup power] that's capable of closing down the station in an emergency," Colquhoun said.

To outside observers, the safety situation at Enbridge is problematic for the regulator.

"From a public perspective, going this long never looks good. I mean that's just common sense," said Richard Kuprewicz, an independent pipeline safety engineer, based in Seattle, Wash. But Kuprewicz said it isn't really the regulator's fault.

"Not having the backup power supplies on pump stations if they're required to have certain protections to kick in during a power failure is a very serious thing. And so that's a more grievous issue and that needed to be addressed and should be, like basic pipeline 101," Kuprewicz told CBC News.

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Conservatives' interest in Canadian history raises eyebrows

The House of Commons heritage committee has launched a study of how history is preserved in federal, provincial and municipal programs, and how easily Canadians can access historical information.

However, it backed down from a plan to examine how history is taught in schools after a barrage of complaints from the opposition, which had accused the government of intruding on provincial jurisdiction, which includes school curriculum development, and of wanting to revise history in its own image.

The committee began hearing from witnesses for its history study on Monday.

The Conservative-dominated committee, which went behind closed doors last week April 29 to discuss the motion to conduct the study, said it would also "undertake a thorough and comprehensive review" of what it called "significant aspects in Canadian history." The committee wants to hear from people who have first-hand accounts of significant historical periods. It will also invite the CBC, the National Film Board and other broadcasters to discuss their role in promoting Canadian history.

There will be a focus on events such as the Battle of Vimy Ridge, the Battle of Ortona, the Battle of the Atlantic, the Korean conflict as well as peacekeeping missions, the suffragette movement, constitutional development, the Afghanistan conflict, and Canada since the early 20th century.

'This is interference, pure and simple'

Raymond Côté, an NDP MP, said in the House of Commons last week, "That has nothing to do with promoting Canadian history. That is interference, pure and simple. The former Reformers now want to control everything. What is the world coming to?"

Bloc Québécois MP André Bellevance said, "This flagrant intrusion in a jurisdiction that belongs exclusively to Quebec is right in line with the Conservatives' desire to impose new Canadian symbols — military ones, especially — even if it means rewriting history."

After the uproar about possible interference in the provinces' jurisdiction over education, the committee, including the Conservative majority, voted Monday to remove the most controversial line of the motion that dealt with a study of history programs in primary and post-secondary institutions in each of the provinces and territories.

However, another motion, from the NDP, which demanded the committee immediately halt its study on Canadian history, was defeated.

The landing in Sicily

The committee's first witness Monday was Steve Gregory, who described himself as "a business guy from Montreal." Gregory told the committee he was surprised to find little information for his 11-year-old son's school project about Canadians' participation in the beach landing in Sicily during the Second World War.

Over 500 Canadians died during the four-week Sicilian campaign, which was part of the liberation of Italy, but even the museum in Catania, Sicily dedicated to the Allied landing on the southern coast of Sicily on July 10, 1943 makes no mention of Canadians, Gregory said.

His voice breaking as he described how Canadian soldiers gave their rations to starving Italian citizens, Gregory, the head of a civilian project called Operation Husky 2013, is planning to lead a group of Canadians to Sicily this summer to erect a monument and grave markers for the Canadians who are buried there.

Speaking to reporters Sunday in Quebec City at a commemoration of the 70th anniversary of the Battle of the Atlantic, Veterans Affairs Minister Steven Blaney, when asked if his government was trying to associate itself with the country's military past, said, "I would remind you that the [Canadian] War Museum was built under the Liberal government."

Blaney continued that there's nothing wrong with the way history is taught in schools, but wondered if Canadians actually knew how many soldiers participated in the Korean conflict and how many ships were sunk by Germans during the Second World War.

The Battle of the Atlantic was also commemorated in Ottawa on Sunday. Asked whether Canadians knew a lot about the battle at sea during the Second World War, Vice-Admiral Paul Maddison, the commander of the Royal Canadian Navy, said he thinks Canadians are becoming more aware of the Battle of the Atlantic every year, which he described as the Navy's "Vimy" in terms of importance.

However, Maddison said, "I think our provincial educators might put a little more emphasis on celebrating what the sacrifice of our men and women in uniform and especially what their families meant to them as well."

Senator Colin Kenny, former chair of the Senate national security and defence committee, and the only Liberal politician invited to the ceremony Sunday, pointed out that the government did not celebrate the 30th anniversary of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms last year.

Asked if the Conservatives tended to favour promoting military events, Kenny said, "It might say that you're in favour of a robust military, but they've been cutting military spending, so there's a bit of a mixed message here."

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RCMP muzzling testimony at Senate committee, says officer

A B.C. RCMP officer on stress leave says the force is preventing him from travelling to a Senate committee hearing in Ottawa to testify about harassment in the force.

Cpl. Roland Beaulieu was supposed to be in Ottawa on Monday, but late last week an RCMP doctor sent him an email saying if he is well enough to travel and testify at the committee then he's well enough to return to administrative work with the force.

'I would call it violence psychological violence for what they did to me in my career.'—RCMP Cpl. Roland Beaulieu

"Should you feel that you are physically and cognitively able to participate in these hearings and to travel there, I would consider you fit for administrative duties at your unit immediately," said the email sent by Dr. Isabelle Fieschi, a health services officer with the RCMP.

But Beaulieu says he thinks the real reason he was sent the email was to prevent him from testifying at the hearings.

According to the new policy dated May 3, Mounties off duty on sick leave cannot travel to Ottawa or anywhere else outside their jurisdiction without written approval from RCMP medical staff and management.

"I believe they did this because they don't want me to speak to the Senate about violence in the workplace because it is systemic," said Beaulieu.

'Psychological violence'

The 27-year veteran Mountie suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder, and has been on stress leave for two years after what he calls years of harassment by unfair, dishonest bosses.

"I would call it bullying violence. I would call it violence, psychological violence, for what they did to me in my career," he said.

Cpl. Catherine Galliford, who is also on sick leave, appeared in Ottawa to speak about sexual harassment in the force two weeks ago. (Senate)

Beaulieau said that he after he stood up to management over a 10-day shift that violated the occupational health and safety portion of the labour code, his chance at a promotion was killed suddenly by negative assessments.

"I was being targeted and they wouldn't change it and I went to my locker, hung my gun up and walked out, and haven't been back to work since."

He suspects the RCMP stepped in to prevent his travel after Cpl. Catherine Galliford, who is also on sick leave, appeared in Ottawa to speak about sexual harassment in the force two weeks ago.

"I had various supervisors trying to be intimate with me," said Galliford last month in Ottawa.

Sen. Romeo Dallaire outraged

The move has outraged Liberal Senator Romeo Dallaire, who also suffers from PTSD after leading UN peacekeeping forces in Rwanda.

The former general pointed out that he was still capable of testifying against Rwandan war criminals when he was suffering from severe PTSD.

"If I was told that I wouldn't be able to testify in front of an international criminal court, there'd be a bunch of people not in jail right now. I'm having a real problem with that philosophy," said Dallaire.

The move has outraged Liberal Sen. Romeo Dallaire, who also suffers from PTSD. (Senate)

The new rule follows a government order issued in March to senior Mounties not to speak to any MPs or senators without prior government approval.

NDP public safety critic Randall Garrison has concerns about the trend.

"This appears to be another of those attempts by the minister to reach into operations of the RCMP to try and prevent other voices from being heard," said Garrison.

CBC contacted the public safety minster's office, which issued a statement in response: "The RCMP has a responsibility to the Canadians who pay our salaries, and our officers who rely on each other for support and backup, to manage our workforce responsibly. We cannot, in good conscience, pay a full salary indefinitely to an employee whose health prevents them from performing duties within the RCMP."

The RCMP officers who did testify told the Senate that Bill C-42, which is intended to modernize RCMP discipline, gives their bosses too much power and must be rewritten.

Rae Banwarie, the president of the Mounted Police Professional Association of Canada, agrees.

He said officers who speak out without permission – including himself and Cpl. Beaulieu — all risk losing their jobs.

"The fact that I am speaking here to you I am placing my own career in peril along with the executive. I believe there will be follow up, and there will be consequences to that. Absolutely," said Banwarie.

But Banwarie said officers who speak out only do so for the good of the force.

"We're not here not here to make the organization look bad. We're here to fix it," he said.

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Temporary foreign workers hired in areas with EI claimants

The minister responsible for the temporary foreign worker program was told last year that employers were hiring temporary foreign workers in the same jobs and same locations as Canadians who were collecting employment insurance, CBC News has learned.

On May 29, 2012, the deputy minister for Human Resources and Skills Development Canada wrote a briefing note to the minister, Diane Finley, which cited four examples in which there was deemed to be a "disconnect" between the temporary foreign worker and employment insurance programs.

The briefing note was obtained by CBC's Power & Politics under the Access to Information Law.

One example cited in the briefing note revealed that "in January 2012, Albertan employers received positive confirmation for 1,261 TFW (Temporary Foreign Worker) positions for food counter attendants. At the same time, nearly 350 people made a claim for EI who had cited significant experience in the same occupation and province."

"Evidence suggests that, in some instances, employers are hiring temporary foreign workers in the same occupation and location as Canadians who are collecting EI ( Employment Insurance ) regular benefits," the note states.

The memo was written to Finley as she was preparing to meet with Allen Roach, PEI's minister of innovation and advanced learning. In anticipation of the meeting, Finley was given background information about the controversial temporary foreign workers program.

Last month, CBC reported that dozens of employees at RBC were losing their jobs to temporary foreign workers.

Earlier this year, two labour unions took Huiyong Holdings Group to court, after the mining company hired more than 200 temporary foreign workers from China for its coal mine in northeastern B.C.

Finley forced to announce changes

In both instances, Finley was forced to announce changes to a program that it had made easier for some businesses to use.

Kellie Leitch, the parliamentary secretary to the minister of human resources and skills development, says that the problems identified in the documents have been addressed, and the government has moved forward. (Fred Chartrand/Canadian Press)

Kellie Leitch, the parliamentary secretary to the minister of human resources and skills development, told Power & Politics host Evan Solomon that the problems identified in the documents have been "addressed," and the government has "moved forward."

But Jinny Sims, the NDP's immigration, citizenship and multiculturalism critic, disagreed. She argued that the documents and examples like the food counter attendants in Alberta demonstrate that the government "sat on this information" and has "failed" to take action.

Alberta, as it turns out, is the top user of the temporary foreign worker program, according to a CBC News analysis of data from Human Resources Canada obtained through access to information.

Between January 1, 2009 and April 30, 2012, the department issued nearly 60,000 labour market opinions. Employers submit these opinions to the minister when they can't find Canadian workers for specific jobs.

The opinions are submitted to Citizenship and Immigration Canada, which may give employers the green light to hire foreign workers. It is unclear how many of the employers on this list received permission to hire workers.

In that time period, Alberta submitted 16, 271 opinions, followed by Ontario, which submitted 16,236 opinions and B.C., which asked for 12,016.

Alberta	16271
Ontario	16236
British Columbia	12016
Quebec	6223
No Province Specified	2999
Saskatchewan	1787
Manitoba	1437
Nova Scotia	1029
New Brunswick	711
Newfoundland and Labrador	305
Prince Edward Island	190
Saskatchewan	120
Northwest Territories	102
Yukon Territory	91

The top users of the program were: the Banff Lodging Company Division Banff Caribou Properties Ltd, (13 opinions); Tim Hortons, (12 opinions) and SNC-Lavalin Inc (seven).

Banff Lodging Company Division Banff Caribou Properties Ltd	13
Tim Hortons	12
SNC-Lavalin Inc	7
Boston Pizza	7
Genivar Inc	6
Coras Breakfast Lunch	6
Aramark Canada Ltd	6

Critics have pointed out that in many instances, employers aren't searching hard enough to find Canadian workers, especially in higher unemployment areas, a concern that seems to be suggested in the briefing note.

Government trying to conduct balancing act

The note was also written at a time when the government was trying to conduct a balancing act: ensure that employers were looking harder for Canadian workers before going abroad, while also making it easier for some companies to use the program.

In the 2012 budget, the government said it had "reduced the paper burden on employers and shortened processing times" in order to "meet employer demand and improve the responsiveness" of the program.

Despite the fact that the minister's office insists that there is nothing new in the briefing note, and that changes are in place to fix past problems, it's unclear if the government took any action to address the specific abuses discussed in the briefing note from May 2012.

When pressed for an answer to that question, Leitch was non-committal, continuing to stress that the government was fixing the problem.

"The young people in my riding are delighted that they're actually hearing about jobs so they can apply for them now," she said.

Minister Finley briefing note - temporary foreign workers (PDF)
Minister Finley briefing note - temporary foreign workers (Text)

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McGuinty admits moving gas plants was his decision

Former Ontario premier Dalton McGuinty said Tuesday it was his decision to close gas plants in Oakville and Mississauga, which he testified were too close to schools and homes.

Speaking before the legislature's justice committee, McGuinty said he only knew the full cost of cancelling the Mississauga plant when it was made public by the auditor general on April 15.

Relocating the Mississauga plant was originally tipped to cost $195 million, but the auditor general later determined it cost more than $275 million.

Last week, it emerged that the cost of moving the Oakville plant has jumped from estimates of $40 million to more than $300 million.

Progressive Conservative MPP Vic Fedeli grilled McGuinty about when he knew the full cost of cancelling both plants.

"When did you know the cost of Mississauga was more than $190 million and more than $40 million for Oakville?" Fedeli asked

"We found out about these numbers when they were made public by the OPA [Ontario Power Authority] and by the auditor," said McGuinty.

McGuinty also said he took responsibility for relocating the plants, which he said was the right thing to do because of their proximity to schools and residences.

"We got 17 gas plants more or less right, but we got two very, very wrong," he said.

Fedeli pointed to a memorandum of understanding that suggested government officials knew the full cost of cancelling the plants was much higher than what the government was saying publicly.

"I don't believe your answer," said Fedeli.

In his questions, NDP MPP Peter Tabuns suggested the decision to relocate the plants had more to do with preserving Liberal seats in ridings where the gas plants were due to be located. The plants were cancelled a year apart, the Mississauga decision occurred just days ahead of the 2011 provincial election.

"There was a strong sense that my government had made a mistake in choosing those locations," said McGuinty.

McGuinty admitted he should have cancelled the Mississauga plant sooner.

McGuinty had blamed the heated debate over the gas plant cancellations last fall when he suddenly prorogued the legislature and announced his resignation as premier.

Both opposition parties say Premier Kathleen Wynne wasn't as forthcoming as she could have been when she testified about the gas plants last week.

Wynne has said she was not involved in the government's decision to scrap either plant.

With files from the CBC's Lisa Naccarato and The Canadian Press

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StatsCan braces for release of survey data Wednesday

Has Statistics Canada — renowned around the world for its ability to take snapshots of Canadian life — lost some of its zoom?

The answer will come Wednesday, when the agency's National Household Survey reveals how much critical information was lost in the controversial transition two years ago from a mandatory long-form census to a voluntary questionnaire.

Experts and observers say they expect the very specific, neighbourhood-by-neighbourhood information about certain types of Canadians — long a hallmark of the census — will be much more limited.

To be sure, the results of the inaugural National Household Survey will still include detailed information about immigration, birthplace, aboriginal Canadians and visible minorities, among other categories.

But the folks who develop policy and plan for items such as roads, hospitals, low-income housing, recreation centres and immigrant services across Canada are worried about how far they'll be able to drill down into the numbers.

"This information is important so each of the communities will be able to push the government on programs and benefits and actions that are needed to address disparities," said Avvy Go, director of the Metro Toronto Chinese and Southeast Asian Legal Clinic.

"It's not just visible minorities as a category or women as a category, we need more detail within that category."

The Conservatives cited concerns about personal freedoms in 2010 when they eliminated the long-form census, which famously threatened fines or even jail time for those who didn't want to fill it out.

That decision prompted an outcry from municipalities, economists, cultural and religious groups and the opposition parties, among others.

Statistics Canada has already signalled that the quality of the information won't be the same.

Mandatory long-form census scrapped

One-third of Canadian households received the National Household Survey in 2011, and of those, 68.6 per cent completed it fully, compared with the typical 94 per cent response rate of a mandatory questionnaire.

What worries statisticians isn't so much how many Canadians who ignored the survey, but who: some groups are less likely to fill out the forms, making it harder to get a reliable picture — a phenomenon called "non-response bias."

The agency conducted simulations of the survey in three cities, and concluded that low-income earners, registered aboriginals and black Canadians were among the groups less likely to participate.

"For many users, the data will be fine," said Ian McKinnon, chairman of the National Statistics Council.

"For some small areas, and for some small groups, the data may not be robust enough to meet publication standards, and so they'll be suppressed."

John Campey, executive director of Social Planning Toronto, said he's been analyzing 2006 census data for a new community centre that's opening in the city's downtown core.

"It's an area where there's significant development, and they want to know who's moving in, do they have kids, how many kids, what are the main languages spoken, all of those kinds of things," Campey said.

"This information will be much less accurate because one in three people didn't fill it out."

Statistics Canada has been using the data from the last mandatory long-form census in 2006 to check the information gathered in 2011 and weed out data that simply doesn't make sense.

But by 2015, which is when the next National Household Survey will be distributed, that 2006 benchmark will be five years older and even less reliable than it is now.

As a result, other federal surveys that used to depend on the mandatory long-form census as an anchor — the Labour Force Survey, which helps create employment statistics, is one example — will no longer have it as a backstop.

If there is a silver lining for Statistics Canada, it's that the agency has learned a tremendous amount about response bias and sampling errors, and how to address such issues, McKinnon said.

"They have done so much work to ensure that, given the limitations, this will be as high-quality as ever," he said.

"If they were to be able to apply what they've learned ... to a regular long-form census, it would be a better census form a statistical viewpoint."

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Federal government looks for next great invention

The federal government wants to tap the skills of obscure basement inventors and turn their tinkering into innovative consumer products.

A new survey for Industry Canada has found that almost 13 per cent of Canadians are so-called "private innovators," who have improved on consumer goods or created new products in the last three years.

Recent research in the United States and elsewhere has found similar numbers of ordinary basement tinkerers, regarded by some as a talent pool that consumer-products firms need to harness to find fresh profits.

"The consumer innovations uncovered by researchers abroad arise in many sectors, including software, gaming, sporting equipment and automotive," says an Industry Canada description of the survey project.

"Consumers either freely shared their innovations with other consumers or with producers, or carried on as entrepreneurs themselves."

A landmark 2011 research paper by lead author Eric von Hippel, an MIT professor in Cambridge, Mass., argued that consumer-products companies need to pay more attention to these amateur inventors.

"Companies will have to help their own product developers look at consumer-developed innovations with new eyes — not just as poorly engineered amateurish efforts," says the paper.

History is full of consumer innovations that went from obscurity to millions of dollars of sales in short order.

Among them, the dishwasher, invented in 1886 by a wealthy matron in Illinois who wanted to avoid the chipped dishware that was the inevitable result when her servants did the washing. Josephine Cochrane made extra dishwashers for friends, and eventually created a company that became part of Whirlpool Corp.

Skateboards began as roller-skate wheels nailed to boards by teenagers, a home-grown product later adopted and improved by manufacturers for profit.

Industry Canada paid $80,000 to a survey firm, Ekos Research Associates Inc., to determine how many Canadians were themselves making the products of tomorrow in their workshops. Ekos then interviewed some 1,000 so-called consumer innovators.

The report, delivered in March, found that Canada's basement inventors are primarily young males with degrees in science or technical disciplines.

Basement inventors

Those who immigrated were more likely to have come from the United States or South Asia. Most worked alone. Almost nobody patented their inventions, but created products solely for their own use.

"The majority of consumer innovators have developed a product that is essentially the same in functionality as other similar products or services that are available in the market (40 per cent) or an improvement to something that already exists (28 per cent)," says the report, obtained under the Access to Information Act.

"Most consumers developed their innovation in a relatively short period of time, averaging 30 hours, and six in 10 spent money to develop their innovation."

The report does not describe individual inventions, but notes most of them were household fixtures and furnishings, followed by sports equipment and products for children or education.

The least common types were medical products and computer software.

Parallel surveys in the United States, Japan and Britain have found demographic similarities with Canada's innovators.

The range of amateur products in those three countries was broad, from a rice pressure-cooker that is used in a microwave oven, to a line of clothing that can be put on and taken off using one hand, for an amputee.

Companies that in the past have protected their products by resisting tampering will have to learn to invite potential improvements by consumers, argues the von Hippel research paper.

"Microsoft first deplored the hacking of its Kinect product by users seeking to use it in new ways," it says of the motion-sensing device for game consoles.

"Then, within days, it reversed course and applauded those same users — recognizing the potential for mutual gains."

Von Hippel, who founded the field 35 years ago, said in an interview that consumer innovators represent a "form of market failure."

"They are inventing for themselves. They get a direct return. But then they have a view of others who might benefit from their innovation as an externality."

Unlike consumer-products companies, "they don't have an inbuilt incentive" to spread the benefits, said Von Hippel.

Governments need to create regulatory environments that encourage innovations, such as allowing unlicensed users access to some radio spectrums to experiment, he said. And some web sites, such as www.thingiverse.com, can act as marketplaces for basement inventions.

But change will not come overnight as researchers are still measuring the phenomenon and its economic potential, von Hippel said.

Industry Canada has said the Ekos survey is part of a larger project to encourage product development through consumer-innovators, including "framework laws, expenditure programs and regulatory-standards systems."

Spokesman Michel Cimpaye said in an email the department "intends to benchmark the Canadian results to similar surveys carried out in other countries."

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MacKay looks to give presidential choppers a 2nd life

Some helicopters from U.S. President Barack Obama's cast-off fleet may yet find their way into the service of the Royal Canadian Air Force.

The Canadian Press has learned Defence Minister Peter MacKay recently ordered National Defence to take another look at whether some of the nine VH-71 aircraft — purchased for spare parts to keep this country's search-and-rescue choppers flying — can be made fully operational.

MacKay plans to tour the hangar, at IMP Aerospace in Nova Scotia, where the discarded presidential fleet has been housed since the Harper government spent $164 million to acquire it from the Pentagon.

Both the air force and the department's material branch have insisted the American helicopters were only suitable for spares because they do not have an air worthiness certificate, nor an electronics suite for search and rescue.

But MacKay, in an interview with The Canadian Press, says he's ordered a review to see what sort of work would be needed to bring as many as four of them on to the flight line.

"This is something we're very serious about," he said, noting it would be cheaper than buying additional CH-149 Cormorants.

"I'm not saying it would be cost-neutral but I can't think of anything that would have more of an immediate impact" on search and rescue operations, MacKay said.

A spokesman for MacKay said no decision has been taken on the aircraft and that the minister has only initiated a preliminary discussion.

"Minister MacKay will leave no stone unturned when it comes to his determination to investigate how best to deliver military mission success," Jay Paxton said in an email to CBC News.

MacKay ordered the second look before last week's searing auditor general report, in which National Defence was told it didn't have enough new aircraft or the right kind of helicopters devoted to saving lives in the hinterlands.

Specifically, Michael Ferguson took aim at the air force's use of CH-146 Griffon utility helicopters out of Canadian Forces Base Trenton, Ont. The light chopper cannot make it all of the way to the Arctic or other far-flung destinations without refuelling.

The Griffons were placed at Central Canada's major search-and-rescue hub because the Cormorants, purchased by a previous Liberal government, faced routine, often infuriating, spare parts shortages.

The problem has largely been eliminated with the purchase of the used VH-71s, which are similar to the EH-101 airframe on which the Cormorant is based.

The air force has also managed to acquire a much larger stock of spares from the aircraft-manufacturer, AugustaWestland.

Maj.-Gen Mike Hood, the deputy commander of the air force, said outfitting some of the former presidential helicopters with mission systems "remains a consideration, but going forward we are focused primarily on the parts and enabling our present system."

He was cautious in his assessment of whether the U.S. planes could be converted.

"I'm certainly not going to preclude anything," Hood said in a brief interview. "We're going to have to work with industry to see what is the art of the possible."

Opposition MPs have often asked why some of the VH-71s could not be converted and pressed into service to relieve the overburdened search-and-rescue system, and now MacKay is asking the question himself.

"I know they were concerned about spares, but I think our Cormorants are in a much better place than they were several years ago, and we have dealt with things," MacKay said.

Internal defence department documents say the number of aircraft sidelined because of a lack of parts on any given day has been cut to two from five.

The Canadian military bought 15 Cormorants, but lost one in a training accident in 2006.

The fleet has suffered a variety of problems, including cracks in the tail rotor and corrosion.

Shortly after taking office, the Obama administration cancelled the VH-71 program of new presidential helicopters, which was started under former president George W. Bush.

The projected cost had doubled to $13 billion US.

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House essay: Recipes for corruption abound

Evan Solomon, host of CBC Radio's The House, reflects on corruption and its threat to democracy in his weekly radio essay as heard on May 4, 2013.

Welcome to Chez Charbonneau, the commission where they serve up the finest buffet of wrongdoing, influence peddling, bribery and corruption allegations in all of Quebec.

And this week, more gravy was poured on the plate of payola poutine by a man named Gilles Cloutier.

Cloutier is a special witness at this commission, that's already heard all sorts of serious allegations.

Think of Cloutier as a five-star chef of election cooking and now he's ready to reveal his secret recipes, like this one:

He alleges a Quebec Superior Court judge once committed fraud.

What's that recipe?

Cloutier claims Michel Déziel, once gave him $30,000 cash "in a white envelope" to help win an election.

Cloutier says 40 people were supposed to "donate" $750 to a candidate but that they would then be reimbursed for the money and the winning candidate would give an engineering firm a contract.

I think the technical term here is cooking the books. But Chef Cloutier cooked up so many schemes and he admitted to them all — rigging up to 60 elections, he said.

But if all that doesn't put you off your democratic dinner, reserve a table at Chez Elections Canada.

A report released this week commissioned by Elections Canada found there were 165,000 serious errors in the last federal election.

That averages out to over 500 errors in every one of Canada's 308 ridings.

The chief electoral officer said that shakes the faith in the entire electoral system.

And then there was the auditor-general of Canada reporting that there is $29 billion dollars in unpaid taxes in Canada.

The federal deficit is only $15 billion.

What is going on here? Corruption? Tax cheats?

You might think Canada is rotting at the core, but hang on, Europe apparently is worse.

In a startling speech back in January, the Secretary-General of the Council of Europe Thorbjorn Jagland claimed the biggest crisis affecting the EU is not the financial crisis but actually corruption.

"According to the EU Commission's data almost three-quarters of EU citizens perceive corruption as a major problem in their country," Jagland said.

He goes on to outline a series of stunning corruption scandals, all Charbonneau-like in their scope, in countries from Finland to Slovenia.

What's the recipe to stop this?

According to Jaglan, you need three things:

First, an independent judicial system. Here in Canada, check!

Second, a free press. Here in Canada, check!

Third, he says you need citizens who care. Citizens who care enough to demand answers.

And that's the one ingredient that people like the self-confessed election cooker Gilles Cloutier count on as missing.

Well Chef — with the Charbonneau Commission, not any more.

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Greg Weston: How a terror suspect slipped through immigration's cracks

Almost 20 years after Raed Jaser was ordered kicked out of Canada as a bogus refugee with a fake passport and a criminal past, he was still alive and well and living in Toronto last month when police charged him with plotting an alleged al-Qaeda-backed attack on a Via Rail passenger train.

Far from being deported, Jaser had been pardoned for his previous crimes, while his illegal entry into Canada was equally forgiven with the ultimate immigration hug — permanent residency.

While most Canadians were no doubt horrified by the alleged plot to derail a passenger train, Jaser's stunning history of avoiding deportation has also raised fundamental questions about Canada's immigration system, and what it takes to get kicked out of this country.

Even Immigration Minister Jason Kenney confessed that the Jaser file gave him a holy cow moment, and prompted him to call a full investigation.

How could this have happened?

Was Jaser just a bureaucratic screw-up that spanned almost two decades? Or has Canada been running an immigration system verging on the theatre of the absurd?

CBC News spoke to senior officials in a half-dozen different areas of government for answers to these and other questions raised by the Jaser case, and this is what we found out.

The story so far

Raed Jaser was 15 when he arrived at Toronto's Pearson airport on March 28, 1993, with his mother, father and two siblings.

Artist's sketch of alleged Via Rail attacker Raed Jaser and his lawyer in a Toronto courtroom in April 2013. (Reuters)

He was born in the United Arab Emirates where his Palestinian family had moved from Gaza, and where his father had worked for more than two decades. They came to Canada from Germany where they had lived as refugee claimants for about two years.

The family arrived in Toronto with fake French passports, and immediately claimed refugee status.

A year later, in 1994, the Immigration and Refugee Board rejected their refugee claim and ordered the whole family deported. But that decision was immediately appealed to the Federal Court.

Almost four years later, the appeal still had not been heard.

In the meantime, the then Liberal government of Jean Chrétien had introduced a new refugee program to try to deal with a growing backlog of appeals, but it, too, turned into something of a fiasco.

It was called the "deferred removal order class" and, in a nutshell, it allowed failed refugee claimants to apply for immediate permanent residency on the grounds that they had been waiting a long time to be deported.

Between 1994 and 1997, over 10,000 questionable refugee claimants became permanent residents under the program before it was cancelled when authorities admitted the obvious: thousands of people with deportation orders were intentionally stalling their cases to the point that the whole system was grinding to a halt.

5 counts of fraud

No matter, Jaser's family was accepted under the program just before it was cancelled in 1997, and before its appeal could be heard.

All of them — except Raed — eventually became Canadian citizens.

That same year, at age 20, Raed was convicted of five counts of fraud, automatically making him ineligible to apply for permanent residency under the deferred removal program.

Instead, the following year, the Federal Court confirmed he was a bogus refugee to be deported forthwith.

At that point, he applied for a "pre-removal risk assessment," claiming that his safety would be in jeopardy if he were deported.

That assessment was negative, and there was nothing stopping his deportation.

But enforcing deportation orders is the job of the Canada Border Services Agency, and for six years no one showed up to escort Raed Jaser out of the country.

He wasn't the only one. The government has long admitted that at any given time, authorities lost track of tens of thousands of failed refugee claimants and other people ordered deported.

Court records indicate that, during those six years, Jaser may have lived under multiple aliases.

Pardoned and more

But it was not as though he was impossible to find — in 2001, he was convicted in court of uttering threats.

Finally, in 2004, a full decade after he had first been ordered out of the country, Jaser was arrested for immediate deportation.

But at a court proceeding equivalent to a bail hearing, Jaser's lawyer argued that the accused was a stateless Palestinian, and therefore had no country to which to be deported.

The immigration official hearing the case ordered Jaser released on a $3,000 bond until the government figured out where to send him.

At the time, Canada was successfully finding foreign homes for many failed refugees claiming to be "stateless." But for some reason that never happened with Raed Jaser.

Shortly after his release on the $3,000 bond, he applied for permanent residency on "humanitarian and compassionate grounds" — a move generally considered in the immigration world to be the appeal of last resort.

That process kept the deportation police at bay for another several years.

In 2009, almost 16 years after Jaser and his family arrived in Canada with false papers, he applied to the federal parole board for a pardon from his convictions for fraud and uttering threats.

The fact that he was still under a deportation order at the time apparently had no effect on the decision, and he was granted his pardon.

But the pardon certainly had an effect on his threatened deportation, then in its 15th year.

With his criminal record effectively expunged, he was eligible to apply for permanent residency.

That delayed any further deportation hearings until his residency was granted in 2012, ending all further proceedings.

In the meantime, much has changed since Jaser's 20-year ride through the immigration system.

The former Liberal government got rid of its own "deferred removal order class." And more recently, the Harper government has streamlined the appeal process for failed refugee claimants, and no longer allows deportees to apply for "humanitarian and compassionate" exemptions.

It has also changed the criteria for pardons, but not in a way that would have affected Jaser's case.

It is not known if or when Jaser celebrated officially becoming a permanent resident of Canada last year.

Perhaps, as police allege, he was too busy plotting a terror attack against his adoptive country.

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Shipbuilding contract holds $250M mystery

This story has been updated.

A CBC News investigation has uncovered a $250-million mystery at the heart of Canada's ambitious shipbuilding program.

Public Works Minister Rona Ambrose and Defence Minister Peter MacKay announced March 7 in Halifax that Ottawa will pay Irving Shipbuilding $288 million just to design — not build — a fleet of new Arctic offshore patrol ships.

Irving will then build the ships under a separate contract.

However, a survey of similar patrol ships bought by other countries shows they paid a fraction of that $288 million to actually build the ships — and paid less than a tenth as much for the design.

In addition, the design of Canada's new ships is based upon a Norwegian vessel whose design Ottawa has already bought for just $5 million.

The KV Svalbard, an offshore patrol vessel belonging to the Norwegian Coast Guard, is the parent design for Canada's Arctic offshore patrol ships. It was built for about one-third of what Canada is paying just to design, not build, a similar ship. (Marcus Bengtsson/Wikipedia)

The Norwegian ship, the Svalbard, was designed and built for less than $100 million in 2002.

Experts say the design price is normally 10-20 per cent of the total cost of the ships.

Another country with Arctic interests, Denmark, acquired two patrol ships for $105 million in 2007.

They have modest ice-breaking capability, similar to the Canadian project, which allows for the ships to crunch through "summer ice" – about one-metre thick.

The Irish navy now is building two offshore patrol ships for $125 million.

In all cases, these prices include the design.

Why is Canada paying more?

Ambrose, MacKay and Public Works officials running the Canadian project were not able to explain why Canada would pay so much more to get so much less: shelling out more than twice as much merely to produce a blueprint for similar ships, without building any.

In an interview, Ambrose referred the CBC to her officials for details. But those officials, in a prepared briefing for CBC News, said they were unable to provide details on where, exactly, the $288 million is going.

CBC News also asked MacKay to explain why Canada would pay Irving 10 times as much for the design as other shipyards say it should cost.

MacKay replied "other shipyards are wrong," and left it at that.

The shipbuilding program has been portrayed by the Harper government as a model of transparency and rigour, in contrast to the ill-fated commitment to buy F-35 jet fighters.

The ship plan has its origins in a 2005 pledge by then opposition leader Stephen Harper that a Conservative government would build three Arctic icebreakers to assert Canadian sovereignty in the North.

In 2007, as prime minister, Harper scaled that back. He pledged instead to build six to eight smaller Arctic offshore patrol ships at a price of $3.1 billion.

Critics dubbed the ships "slush-breakers," but Harper insisted that Canada's stake in the Arctic meant "use it or lose it."

Still, the project encountered many delays, which experts blame on the fact that Canada's shipyards have been in decline for 30 years. They say that recreating a world-class shipbuilding capability, instead of buying ships from foreign builders, is expensive.

Numbers 'staggering'

The size of the Irving design contract is "inexplicable," according to a senior shipbuilding source, who declined to be identified because his company also does business with the government.

He said the design cost is "obviously vastly higher" than is the case in similar projects overseas.

The government's shipbuilding strategy, he said, "is going badly wrong ... [it] will be much more expensive than the F-35 acquisition. It has the potential to be an even bigger fiasco."

Another source with long experience in building combat ships said of the Irving design contract, "the numbers are staggering.… There is no rhyme or reason for such a vast amount of money, especially not without clarity" on where it's all going.

He said $10-15 million would be a reasonable amount, not $288 million.

A third expert with inside knowledge of the design work said of the Irving contract, "I'm choked on that number to say the least."

He said that the basic design for the Svalbard was bought by the federal government for only $5 million.

Although the Svalbard design would need extensive revisions to adapt it to Canadian purposes and produce final blueprints, the expert said those might drive the bill up to $20 million — certainly not to $288 million.

"I have no idea where you find another $200-plus million [just for the design.] That's more than the estimated value of building the ship. As a taxpayer, it doesn't make sense."

As minister in charge of the procurement, Ambrose noted that the new ships are complex, although she did not identify any features that were more costly to design than those in other navies.

Ambrose also insisted that spending more on the design would save money later on.

"We are implementing what's called a design and then build strategy," the minister told CBC News. "What that means is that we are spending more money up front on the design and production phase. That's important because we want to make sure that the shipyards, and the navy, and the coast guard, get the design correct."

However, Ambrose did not cite any other country that fails to design first and build later. Interviews with both Ambrose and her officials were interrupted by government media handlers who cut off further questions.

Offshore patrol ships mean offshore jobs

Another criticism of the project is that much of the design work – in a project meant to create Canadian jobs – is actually going overseas.

Although Irving will manage the design project in Nova Scotia, it has subcontracted the actual production of final blueprints to a Danish firm, OMT. Seventy Danish ship architects will work on those.

The job of designing the systems integration is going to Lockheed Martin and the propulsion system will be designed by General Electric, both U.S. companies.

This is only to be expected, say supporters of the project.

"We've been dormant here for better than two decades now. We don't have the skill sets inside the industry," said Ken Hansen, editor of the Canadian Naval Review in Dartmouth, N.S.

Hansen agrees that Canada should develop its shipbuilding capacity, but says it will be costly because "we simply don't have the skills in Canada."

As for whether Canada will, indeed, get the six to eight ships originally announced six years ago, most sources doubt it.

The design contract is supposed to produce a final price for the actual ships. Until then, the government says it doesn't know how many ships it can buy for its $3-billion budget.

But even one ship would be worth it, MacKay said in announcing the design contract March 7.

"This is a new capability," he said. "So if we have only one more ship, that would be one more than we have now in terms of our ability to provide this kind of capability and Arctic coverage."

Irving responds with ad

Following the broadcast of this story, both the federal department of Public Works and Irving Shipbuilding objected to it. The government called it "misinformation" and Irving, in a newspaper advertisement, called it "inaccurate."

However, neither Irving nor the government denied that Canada is, indeed, paying far more to design its patrol ships than other countries pay to build them. Equally, neither explained why this is so.

Nevertheless, Irving did claim that its contract to design the ships is not a "design contract" but a "definition contract" including some items which are not strictly "design."

The government, however, agreed that 70% of the contract is, indeed, design. As the government announced on March 7th, "with this contract, Irving Shipbuilding Inc. will refine and complete the Arctic/Offshore patrol ships design to production level prior to construction in 2015."

Neither the government nor Irving claimed that the non-design items would change the fact that Canada's design bill alone is much higher than the price paid by other countries to put completed ships in the water.

Irving did not place any value on these non-design items, but said they include "engineering and detailed 3D electronic modelling."

Its advertisement did not say why this would not qualify as normal design work in the shipbuilding industry. It also noted that the contract includes HST.

Irving's ad says, though, that the contract also includes "down payments on major equipment items like radar and engines that must be ordered well in advance."

CBC News took these fully into account, and the amounts do not alter the conclusion that Canada is paying far more for the design work alone than other countries pay to build similar ships.

Asked to provide figures to contradict this, the department of Public Works did not do so either before or after the broadcast.

Irving also says the contract includes construction of "a large section of the first ship to test the design."

That, too, was also known and taken into account by CBC News, after discussion with Public Works officials, who described the test module as "optional" and were unsure of its cost.

Experts consulted by CBC estimated it at $5 – $10 million.

Public Works officials would not provide the cost, or an estimate.

But they suggested $10 million was not an unreasonable amount for what they termed a "test" production module, to "test" Irving's shipyard.

"We haven't yet negotiated that cost," an official told CBC News.

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