The Privy Council in a confidential report complains Canadians have little trust in cabinet’s climate leadership. The report did not mention Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault by name but found “few Canadians” think cabinet is fair, transparent or competent on climate issues: “Most respondents indicated they had little trust.”
Canada Border Services Agency President Erin O’Gorman yesterday could not account for the disappearance of federal documents used in sweetheart contracting under the $59.5 million ArriveCan program. “If there is wrongdoing it needs to be found out,” O’Gorman told the Commons public accounts committee: “We have received allegations that emails were deleted.”
The Ukrainian Canadian Congress sponsored VIP treatment for an ex-Waffen SS soldier, the House affairs committee was told yesterday. “The past history of this gentleman was unknown to us all,” testified Government House Leader Steven MacKinnon.
Budget Officer Yves Giroux yesterday cautioned taxpayers to beware of cynical or manipulative “Musical Ride” cuts to this year’s half-trillion federal budget. Giroux invoked the RCMP’s threat to cancel Musical Ride performances 30 years ago when confronted with a demand to cut waste: “That’s a well-known phenomenon within the public service, offering the Musical Ride.”
All Canadians share a “moral failure” for homelessness, Housing Minister Sean Fraser said yesterday. Fraser promised a response to a federal report recommending a ban on policing of tent cities with free food, utilities and medical care for residents: “What kind of country do we want to live in?”
MPs will issue subpoenas compelling committee testimony from reluctant ArriveCan witnesses, the chair of the Commons government operations committee said yesterday. The committee “will call every witness and compel every document,” warned Conservative MP Kelly McCauley (Edmonton West).
The ArriveCan program cost taxpayers millions more than originally feared amid widespread irregularities that were “the worst I have seen,” Auditor General Karen Hogan said yesterday. Hogan said crucial records were missing but did not comment on whether paperwork was destroyed to foil investigators. “Many of the questions you are asking just can’t be answered,” said Hogan.
Federal subsidies have turned national media into a government-paid press reliant on the Prime Minister’s Office, Opposition Leader Pierre Poilievre yesterday told reporters. Any future Conservative cabinet will end direct federal subsidies to newsrooms, he said: “We believe media should be driven by readership, viewership and listenership.”
The Commons yesterday by a 173 to 150 vote demanded cabinet revise current record immigration quotas within 100 days. All but Liberal MPs supported the Bloc Québécois motion: “This used to be a Québec thing.”
More than 120,000 small and medium sized businesses vanished with Covid lockdowns, new federal data show. The Department of Industry said nationwide there are now fewer small businesses in Canada than in 2020: “Insolvency is a lagging indicator.”
Catherine Tait, $497,000-a year CEO of the CBC, ran up more than $119,000 in expenses at the same time the network complained of “immense pressure” on its finances, Access To Information records show. Charges included business class junkets from Prague to Hollywood: “The public broadcaster faces chronic underfunding.”
Canada Student Loan defaults referred to tax collectors total nearly $3 billion, new records show. Figures follow a warning from the Budget Office that write-offs are expected to rise year over year: “The value of unpaid student loans will continue to grow.”
Historical tributes to Samuel de Champlain are now under review as too “colonial,” says the Historic Sites and Monuments Board. Federal authorities as late as 2015 praised Champlain for promoting “friendly relations” with Indigenous people: “This essentially says that Indigenous history started when Champlain showed up.”
The post office is hiking rates an average eight percent effective May 6. Canada Post management in a legal notice Saturday said the $23.8 million increase, the first in four years, was unavoidable due to inflation: “Each year there are fewer letters to deliver to more addresses.”
The Department of Industry last year bought more than $1.5 million worth of American-made electric Ford pickups at $96,000 apiece, records show. “We’re in the big leagues,” Industry Minister François-Philippe Champagne earlier told reporters.
