Canada Post is seeking more emergency funding from cabinet, a Department of Public Works manager yesterday suggested. MPs have speculated the post office requires another $500 million after receiving a $1.034 billion line of credit last January 24: "Given their current projections, they will likely need to have some additional support on an ongoing basis." READ MORE
Municipal development charges pose “a significant constraint to housing affordability” in some cities, CMCH said yesterday. Analysts documented mandatory fees as high as six figures: "Development charges account for a significant part of the cost of a new housing unit." READ MORE
Prime Minister Mark Carney was director of a charity, the Rideau Hall Foundation, that agreed to create tax credits for corporations whose donations were used to pay federal contractors on public works, records show. Carney yesterday did not comment: 'It was issuing tax receipts.' READ MORE
The Department of Public Safety says it is “very close” to launching a foreign registry ordered by Parliament 18 months ago, but will not set any deadline after twice skipping promised dates to begin tracking foreign agents. “We are very close,” one manager told the House affairs committee: "You need top secret clearance." READ MORE
Winter propane stocks are as much as 30 percent below normal, federal regulators cautioned yesterday. The Canada Energy Regulator said it was unclear from conflicting long-range weather forecasts whether customers faced a repeat of a 2014 price spike that prompted a federal investigation: "Where there is high demand for a finite good, and propane like all energy is a finite good, prices tend to rise." READ MORE
The Department of Veterans Affairs denies basic fairness to ex-soldiers, sailors and air crew who seek internal reviews of benefits claims, Ombudsman Colonel (Ret’d) Nishika Jardine said yesterday. “It’s not fair,” she said: "These appeal decisions affect people’s lives." READ MORE
An income tax cut intended to “deliver real change” will save the working poor about $11 a year, the Senate national finance committee was told. The cost of the tax cut is $5.8 billion, by official estimate: 'It provides effectively no benefit to those in poverty.' READ MORE
Canadians talk about the golden age of television in the 1950s. It wasn’t that golden. It was elitist and very political. It’s a terrible thing if you become pontifical about broadcasting. To me it’s everyman’s service, and should have programming available for everyone. The idea was to keep TV small, and keep it only CBC. People weren’t allowed to watch anything else, but they didn’t want to watch. God forbid the public should be able to say, “I want that channel, not this one.”
