Bill Morneau is dodging an MPs’ request to reappear for questioning over his involvement with We Charity, a member of the Commons ethics committee said yesterday. The ex-finance minister abruptly resigned August 17 under threat of a censure motion: “You need to come back and explain.”
The Department of Environment claims Canadians suffer climate change “eco-anxiety” and have been driven to suicide by extreme heat. Staff provided no supporting data: “Urgency of the climate change challenge cannot be overstated.”
An Alberta judge yesterday dismissed a Charter challenge of a mandatory mask bylaw. The lawsuit was thrown out as “an abuse of the Court.”
The Public Health Agency worried it didn’t have enough body bags for pandemic victims after failing to stock up on masks and other medical supplies, according to internal emails. “It is a somber but necessary part of pandemic planning,” wrote staff: “Do we need special ones to deal with people who died from Covid-19?”
The Department of Industry pressed for the purchase of $200 million pandemic ventilators that federal health managers didn’t want, according to internal emails. The sale by Thornhill Medical of North York, Ont. was personally endorsed by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau after an unidentified official told health staff they were “too fussy.”
The Department of Foreign Affairs ignored warnings for a background check on a China security company named a federal contractor, records show. “I am really concerned,” a procurement officer wrote weeks before the department approved a $6.8 million standing offer for Nuctech Company Ltd., partly owned by state-run China National Nuclear Corporation: “Are the facilities not secured?”
A Montréal daily La Presse is the first newspaper in the country to be officially endorsed by the Canada Revenue Agency. Tax managers called La Presse a “qualified Canadian journalism organization,” a designation required for any publisher seeking taxpayer subsidies. La Presse had no comment: “It is a terrible concept.”
A federal prison bank has failed a national audit. Investigators found overdrafts, dormant accounts, unverified cheques deposited as cash and an unusually high number of transactions marked “miscellaneous.”
The carbon tax will keep rising “until we reach our targets,” cabinet’s representative in the Senate said last night. “We will be seriously fighting climate change for the first time,” said Senator Marc Gold (Que.), who had earlier promised the 12-cent a litre tax on gasoline would never go up: “Yes, there is an increase.”
The Public Health Agency threw out millions’ worth of pandemic supplies to save $900,000 a year on warehouse leasing costs, according to internal memos. Masks, gloves and face shields were landfilled not due to budget cuts but a consultants’ report that called warehouse closures “more cost efficient.”
Internal memos show the Public Health Agency was surprised by a public announcement by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau that Canada as early as June was prepared for a vaccine roll-out. Staff complained a vaccine task force hadn’t even met at the time: “The procurement strategy does not exist.”
A U.S. conglomerate 3M Company beat out 499 other prospective bidders including Canadian firms to win a lucrative federal contract for high-grade pandemic masks, records show. The contract is worth a minimum $111.6 million and as much as a quarter-billion over ten years: “No issues have been raised.”
The pandemic is no excuse for concealing government records, a Northwest Territories information commissioner has ruled. Disclosure of public documents is as important as combating Covid-19, wrote Commissioner Elaine Keenan Bengts: ‘It is a fundamental check and balance on the exercise of emergency powers.’
Cabinet will hike the carbon tax 240 percent despite repeated promises to freeze rates set by Parliament two years ago. “We have always said we needed to take additional climate action,” said Infrastructure Minister Catherine McKenna. Cabinet waited until the Commons adjourned for Christmas before disclosing the increase: “We will win the race against climate change.”
Parliament must appoint an independent Inspector General to watch for sweetheart contracting, a former crime-busting Québec prosecutor testified at the Commons ethics committee. “You are thinking because of the pandemic everything goes,” said Denis Gallant, deputy counsel at a 2011 inquiry that exposed graft in the Québec construction industry: “As a taxpayer I have to wonder.”
