A Newfoundland & Labrador chocolate factory received thousands in federal grants to create a single job, say Access To Information records. Funding was approved as then-Tourism Minister Bardish Chagger called funding by the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency “quite motivational”.
Extra Employment Insurance benefits for chronically-unemployed seasonal workers will cost about $900 per claimant, cabinet yesterday estimated. A similar program ended in 2012. Typical beneficiaries were men over 45: “Times have changed.”
An Ontario judge overseeing a murder trial has ruled defence counsel may ask prospective jurors if they don’t like minorities. The decision comes as the Senate considers a cabinet bill to ban peremptory challenges: “We would be naïve to assume none of the members of our jury panels hold some racist or prejudiced views.”
The labour department in Access To Information records acknowledges it’s late in keeping a promise to revive a Fair Wages Policy. Parliament repealed the law six years ago under lobbying by non-union contractors: “The work is somewhat delayed.”
Environment Minister Catherine McKenna has yet to meet in person with her own federal Sustainable Development Advisory Council, a member told the Senate energy committee. McKenna joined in a brief phone call but “had a meeting come up or something”, senators were told: ‘Staff were the ones corralling us.’
Ratepayers have little chance of getting plain facts on budgeting in most Canadian cities, says research by the C.D. Howe Institute. Analysts yesterday marveled the simplest information is concealed from the public: “Documents often bury key numbers.”
The Federal Court has thrown out a $347,386 wrongful dismissal award to a truck driver due to a botched Canada Labour Code arbitration hearing. A judge cited the arbitrator for “unjustified remarks” against the employer: “There is no doubt that he failed.”
The Department of Public Works says its property projects run late and over-budget about 40 percent of the time. The internal audit follow claims from the Clerk of the Privy Council that the department is 100 percent on-target on big projects: “We have the most effective public service on the planet.”
The Department of Canadian Heritage says it has no idea how lieutenant governors spend nearly a million a year in federal grants. Staff recommended future audits be dropped due to lack of information: “A few concerns were identified.”
A federal judge has dismissed a free-speech challenge of election law to permit voters to mark “none of the above” on their ballots. More than 100,000 ballots were rejected for such markings in the last federal campaign: “There is no genuine issue.”
A federal judge has thrown out another cash claim by a French-language traveler against Air Canada. The Supreme Court in 2014 ruled the airline was not obliged to pay damages for technical breaches of the Official Languages Act: ‘Harm is minimal.’
MPs will vote extra funding for a National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls that will raise the total cost to $92 million. The notice came at the same Commons budget hearing in which the Transportation Safety Board warned it will cut 10 percent of its workforce by year’s end without $3 million in emergency funding: “We don’t have enough money.”
A legislator has faulted the chair of the Senate banking committee for inviting a registered corporate lobbyist to join in releasing a report advocating corporate tax cuts. The lobbyist was an esteemed colleague, reporters were told: “Avoid reinforcing any preconceived notions that we are beholden to the most powerful.”
Taxpayers face millions in losses on a failed green technology venture once predicted to power every home in Atlantic Canada. The collapse of OpenHydro Technology Canada Ltd., promoters of the nation’s first commercial tidal farm, is detailed in Halifax bankruptcy court: ‘The beauty is — ‘
Auto dealers, art galleries, auctioneers and mortgage insurers face new surveillance of cash dealings under a proposal by the Commons finance committee. MPs recommended Parliament expand a 2001 Act to counter money laundering, and again suggested it include lawyers: ‘Measures could potentially create a burden on the private sector.’
