Ron Hallman, the $327,000-a year Parks Canada CEO responsible for forest management, was given a hero’s farewell in retirement with an Army band and testimonial by a former prime minister, Access To Information records show. No mention was made of the disastrous 2024 Jasper fire: “Showcase Ron’s accomplishments.”
Cabinet yesterday approved a rare deer cull at a national historic site. The Department of Environment in a legal notice called it a question of public safety: “A controlled cull was determined to be the most effective approach.”
Taxpayers must wait until a fall budget update for details of costs to households and industry from retaliatory tariffs, Finance Minister François-Philippe Champagne said yesterday. Cabinet detailed a limited $7.5 billion aid package that business groups dismissed as cumbersome and ineffectual: “Is Canada still committed to a fiscal anchor?”
Conservatives yesterday invoked Prime Minister Mark Carney’s misrepresentations over the Gordie Howe International Bridge in demanding he now disclose terms proposed by Canada to avert a continental trade war. Carney secretly agreed to toll concessions as “a good deal for Canada,” then denied the terms and called toll splitting proof of erratic behaviour by Americans: “Transparency is essential.”
Billions in retaliatory tariffs on U.S. goods from farm equipment to smartphones are intended to punish Republican voters, Industry Minister Mélanie Joly said yesterday. Retaliation was “wise and strategic,” she said.
A federal labour board has dismissed a constitutional challenge of the use of Social Insurance Numbers to catch government employees who falsely claimed pandemic relief benefits. The Canada Revenue Agency had “a legitimate interest” in knowing whether any staff were cheats, ruled adjudicators: “It knew that some wrongdoing had occurred, and it had a legitimate interest in discovering the extent.”
The military in an annual update on suicides said there were no “statistically significant” changes in rates, and that suicide overall was no more common among Canadian Armed Forces members than the general public. The Commons veterans affairs committee has recommended yearly reporting on suicide rates: “A detailed and nuanced understanding of the epidemiology of suicide is essential.”
Cabinet will do “whatever it takes for as long as it takes” to compensate Canadians for losses in a widening trade war, Finance Minister François-Philippe Champagne said yesterday. His remarks came five months after Champagne promised to control deficit spending: “How are you going to bring your spending under control?”
Leaders stung by a widening trade war yesterday piled insults onto the U.S.A. Ontario Premier Doug Ford likened trading with America to sending weapons to Iranian terrorists and said U.S. President Donald Trump could “kiss my ass.” Prime Minister Mark Carney in separate remarks said America was as unreliable as Russia. Trump in reply called both men “clowns.”
Parliament must be recalled from its 13-week summer recess to address a widening continental trade war, Opposition Leader Pierre Poilievre said yesterday. The Commons trade committee in 2024 held emergency hearings under similar circumstances: “Canadians elect Parliament to defend their interests and decide the hard questions.”
Nearly 900 million pages of historic records, the vast majority of the collection held by Library and Archives Canada, are inaccessible to the public, says an internal briefing note. Archivists blamed in part the fact that “boxes must be physically retrieved from storage.”
Maintaining embassy lawns and tennis courts abroad is important for the “representational image of Canada,” the Department of Foreign Affairs said yesterday. Diplomats served notice they’re hiring full-time gardeners to tend the acreage at the Canadian Embassy in Rome and nearby Villa Grandi, a luxury estate occupied by the ambassador: “Maintain the tennis court.”
An expanded trade war has cabinet “constantly looking at our tax system,” Prime Minister Mark Carney told reporters Saturday. The Budget Office had warned of larger-than-forecast deficits even before the shock of 50 percent tariffs: “We will borrow.”
Carmakers repeatedly warned cabinet any permanent tariff on vehicles for the first time since 1964 would leave Canada without an auto industry. Records show industry lobbyists met with MPs and officials 53 times in a seven-week period prior to the collapse of trade talks: “There is no Canadian auto industry without the United States.”
Cabinet says it has no plans to mandate national digital identification despite budgeting billions to develop and test a digital ID system. The pledge came in reply to a Commons petition sponsored by Conservative MP Leslyn Lewis (Haldimand-Norfolk, Ont.): “Testing in stages, first in controlled environments, then in real world pilots, is standard practice.”
