Federal managers have no incentive to save money, Parliamentary Budget Officer Yves Giroux yesterday told the Senate national finance committee. Giroux confirmed the annual “March Madness” spending blitz that sees managers burn through unused budgets before the expiry of the fiscal year: “It is what we observe fairly frequently.”
Federal regulators knew of suspected CERB fraud within weeks of the program’s launch, the Commons finance committee was told yesterday. Auditors have yet to detail the scope of theft under the $82 billion program that offered $2,000 cheques to jobless taxpayers facing eviction or foreclosure: “They would see clients receiving benefits under different names.”
Fears of Covid mask robberies have prompted the Public Health Agency of Canada to tighten security at Winnipeg warehouses stocked with federal pandemic supplies. The hiring of private security guards follows a multi-million dollar mask heist in Hamilton in 2020: “The products were not recovered.”
A CBC Alberta pundit who critiqued a news story he never read breached the network’s own code of conduct, an ombudsman said yesterday. Max Fawcett had libeled Blacklock’s as “shamelessly dishonest” in publishing a carbon tax story he did not read: “Yes, there was a violation.”
The Commons yesterday by a 179-156 vote ordered special hearings into the collapse of Afghanistan, including disclosure of confidential documents detailing Canadian diplomats’ unpreparedness. Cabinet opposed the Conservative motion: “Were there mistakes made? Could we do better?”
Cabinet yesterday joined a “diplomatic boycott” of the Beijing Winter Olympics. One Liberal MP and former Olympian described the protest as meaningless to athletes: “I don’t think the athletes are concerned with which diplomats are there.”
The actual cost of cabinet’s latest pandemic relief bill may be billions higher than estimated, the Commons finance committee was told yesterday. The Department of Finance was in a “continued race to push money out the door,” said one MP: “Things have been lax during Covid.”
Airports, banks, radio stations and other federally-regulated employers face cash fines if they do not mandate vaccination of workers, the labour department said yesterday. Cabinet stopped short of repeating an earlier threat to strip workers of legal rights to challenge vaccine orders: “Get vaccinated. That’s what Canadians expect.”
Carbon tax waivers will save farmers nearly a half billion next year while tax credits for oil and gas companies are worth an average $1.8 billion annually, the Parliamentary Budget Office said yesterday. The figures were requested by Senator Rosa Galvez (Que.), sponsor of a Senate motion to declare a climate crisis: “We owe Canadians.”
Cabinet last night served notice it will speed passage of a bill promoting paid sick days. The Parliamentary Budget Office put the cost of the legislation at about a quarter billion by 2025: “Canada’s antiquated labour laws are sorely in need of attention.”
A spokesperson who assured reporters Justin Trudeau “wasn’t on a beach” on Reconciliation Day was demoted yesterday. The Prime Minister was twice photographed on a beach. Trudeau had promised to “set a higher bar for openness and transparency in government.”
The Commons finance committee yesterday rejected a bid by cabinet to speed billions in new pandemic relief spending. Too much has already been spent too quickly without oversight or auditing, the committee was told: “We don’t want to waste another $100 million, $200 million, a billion dollars on mismanagement or fraud.”
The Bank of Canada has suspended without pay a Christian manager who pleaded for a work-at-home exemption from compulsory vaccination. The latest enforcement measure follows a landmark Supreme Court ruling that governments had no business validating religious convictions: “It hurt so badly. I just wanted to work.”
Reid Sirrs, Canada’s last ambassador to Afghanistan, faces questioning at parliamentary hearings over his abrupt departure from Kabul. Ambassador Sirrs fled the country though an estimated 1,250 Canadians left behind were at risk of kidnapping and murder: “Get to the bottom of it.”
Pandemic relief for business was so hurried and haphazard taxpayers may never see recovery of all loans, a federal agency said yesterday. Deficit spending from the outbreak of the pandemic has totaled $508.9 billion overall: ‘Programs may not include controls to prevent major errors.’
