MPs yesterday expressed unease with an auditors’ proposal to report all delinquent Canada Student Loan borrowers to credit bureaus. Write-offs have cost taxpayers $2.7 billion: “We don’t want to penalize youth right off the bat coming out of university or college.”
The military can take months to fill internal vacancies for civilian employees, says an audit. The Department of National Defence blamed “systemic bottlenecks” involving the shuffling of files between managers: “Delays were noted.”
Cabinet is raising its federal debt ceiling an unprecedented fifty-six percent to near $2 trillion. Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland yesterday put the current deficit at $381.6 billion with more borrowing scheduled for the next five years: “Taxpayers are on the hook for every single dollar.”
Funding for We Charity was so hurriedly approved it was never reviewed by the one federal agency mandated to oversee federal spending, the Treasury Board. MPs last night were told Youth Minister Bardish Chagger was given authority to approve a $43.5 million grant for the group: “We Charity money didn’t go through Treasury Board at all?”
Cabinet proposes 100 percent loan guarantees for hotelkeepers and others in the tourism sector hammered by the pandemic and recession. The Hotel Association of Canada said occupancy rates plummeted so far members could not get bank loans: “We were hit first, hit hardest, and will be the last to recover.”
Canadians should wish China well on its “journey to become a fully developed economy,” says the leader of the largest Senate group. Senator Yuen Pau Woo (B.C.) called China a neighbour with “a proud and ancient civilization.”
Federal promotion of foreign aid “does not seem to work” with Canadians, says the Department of Foreign Affairs. The department said few taxpayers know or care about foreign aid, with a small fraction aware Canada still provides millions to China: “What if anything have you read, heard or seen recently on Canada’s international development efforts?”
