Senators must stand up for transparency in determining if any foreign agents are in the Upper House, a Liberal appointee said yesterday. “The Senate has to stand up and speak up,” said Senator Percy Downe (P.E.I.).
Ex-broadcaster Tom Clark yesterday said he would not resign from his $205,000-a year post as New York Consul amid criticism he lied to a parliamentary committee. Members of the Commons government operations committee said Clark was deliberately evasive over his role in the purchase of a luxury Manhattan penthouse at taxpayers’ expense: “Your champagne tastes weren’t being met.”
Chief Electoral Officer Stéphane Perrault yesterday said he was never told of a cabinet plan to rewrite the Elections Act to guarantee pensions for 28 Liberal and New Democrat MPs. Perrault confirmed he attended secret meetings with political aides from the two parties but said the pension question was never raised: “No, that never came up.”
The Public Health Agency increased its payroll after the pandemic was over, new figures show. No reason was given. The data follow Budget Office estimates that employee costs for all federal departments and agencies were $69.5 billion last year: “Yes, there is room to reduce.”
Immigration Minister Marc Miller yesterday enacted new regulations he acknowledged will cost Canadian jobs, a first for any federal cabinet. Miller’s department in a legal notice quietly reneged on a public promise to limit foreign students in the workforce: “This may result in increased competition for Canadians.”
Cabinet proposes to spend $46 million this winter on preparations to host soccer’s 2026 World Cup with more funding due next year. The figure is among millions in discretionary spending buried in budget bills that Government House Leader Karina Gould described as essential: “These are things that matter to Canadians.”
Hundreds of criminal gangs have turned to wholesale production of fentanyl, says a confidential federal memo. Canada is now a net exporter of fentanyl to the United States and Australia, officials say: “Canada is now a source and transit country for fentanyl.”
The Canada Revenue Agency has begun writing off millions in tax owed by bankrupt marijuana dealers. Unpaid excise taxes overall are more than a quarter billion since Parliament legalized cannabis: ‘66% of licensees have an outstanding tax debt.’
Cabinet members yesterday expressed regret over the dismissal of Employment Minister Randy Boissonnault on complaints he faked claims of Cree ancestry. Boissonnault’s ouster provoked a sharp exchange in the Senate where one legislator said the Minister should have been fired months ago: “Why did it take so long?”
Cabinet is three to four weeks away from budget trouble due to ongoing Commons gridlock, Treasury Board President Anita Anand said yesterday. An Opposition filibuster has blocked passage of all money bills: “That is extraordinary. We must vote on these.”
MPs accusing Employment Minister Randy Boissonnault of identity fraud yesterday were ejected from the Commons for unparliamentary language. Boissonnault for years claimed to be Indigenous, once stating a Cree grandmother told him as a boy: “We come from the land, Randy.”
Cabinet has doubled the cost of executive salaries since 2016, new records show. The disclosure follows a Budget Office warning that growth in federal payroll costs was worrisome: “Yes, it is worrisome.”
Labour Minister Steven MacKinnon yesterday told MPs his unprecedented use of cabinet orders to force unions into binding arbitration was intended to “ensure industrial peace.” MacKinnon in testimony at the Commons human resources committee did not say if he would act to end a five-day strike by the Canadian Union of Postal Workers: “How can we not hear?”
A total 880 Canada Revenue Agency employees fraudulently claimed pandemic relief cheques, the highest figure disclosed to date, Revenue Minister Marie-Claude Bibeau said yesterday. It followed claims by an Agency executive that “not very many” employees were cheats: “We have a zero tolerance policy for fraud.”
Taxpayers should expect a loss in any sale of the Trans Mountain Pipeline despite cabinet assurances, Budget Officer Yves Giroux said yesterday. Giroux recommended MPs audit billions’ worth of cost overruns: “That is a very interesting question.”
