The federal Green Party in a 2022 membership vote will see its fifth leader in three years, a parliamentary record. Interim leader Amita Kuttner yesterday said someone else could have the job: “I’m going to try to get out of it.”
Money is not the problem in maintaining minimum drinking standards in First Nations, the Parliamentary Budget Office said yesterday. The report followed an internal audit that complained federal agencies spent billions on new water plants but failed to ensure there were managers to run them: “This needed to be fixed yesterday.”
A federal manager coached a favoured contractor how to invoice one penny below the Treasury Board threshold on a sweetheart contract, according to Access To Information records. Neither the contractor nor manager would comment yesterday: “Hello, Raj. Our contracting folks inform me that the total contract value cannot exceed $40,000.”
A federally-funded agency yesterday claimed wide public support for internet regulation in a survey that asked Canadians if they’d like to ban hate speech. Parliament already banned hate speech in 1970: “This is really an important point.”
A federal law that prohibits voting by children faces a constitutional challenge. A legal clinic and group of young plaintiffs yesterday filed their claim in Ontario Superior Court: “Denying Canadian citizens under the age of 18 the right to vote is unconstitutional.”
The Senate yesterday took up a bill to honour essential workers killed by Covid, from doctors to truckers. The total number is not known, though victims among health care workers are estimated at 55: “With the current numbers of Covid in Canada, everyone will have known someone who died of this coronavirus.”
Pay equity regulations to take effect in 2024 will cost about $620 million a year, the Parliamentary Budget Office said yesterday. Companies will have up to eight years to adjust wages for underpaid women: “I would love to have seen this corrected overnight.”
