The Commons by a 164 to 153 vote yesterday confirmed Prime Minister Mark Carney’s nominee as Budget Officer. Annette Ryan, 55, a former assistant associate deputy finance minister, acknowledged she knew Carney when both studied at Oxford in the 1990s but denied any partisan leanings: "Will you commit to never censoring or watering down a report at the request of the government, bureaucracy or Prime Minister’s Office?" READ MORE
Canada Post yesterday said it will cut 30,000 jobs through attrition after reporting a “seismic” pre-tax loss of $1,569,000,000 last year. “Some changes will raise concerns,” CEO Doug Ettinger wrote in an Annual Report to Parliament: "Change is never easy, especially at Canada Post." READ MORE
Auto executives yesterday warned cabinet concessions to Chinese automakers undermine Canadian jobs. Cabinet on March 11 granted Chinese battery electric cars low-tariff access to the Canadian market with an initial quota of 49,000 vehicles this year, rising by 6.5 percent annually: "It is a major mistake." READ MORE
The Canadian Human Rights Commission in a report to the United Nations said it's upset by anti-Black bigotry. The federal agency made no mention of mistreating its own Black employees, prompting censure by the Treasury Board and a public apology by the Chief Commissioner: "There needs to be a swift and complete overhaul of the Commission’s senior management." READ MORE
Enlistment is up in the Canadian Armed Forces, according to figures released yesterday by Defence Minister David McGuinty. Recruiters noted it still takes more than four months to process an application to join the Army, Navy or Royal Canadian Air Force: "We’d like to bring that down to 30 days." READ MORE
A federal judge yesterday dismissed an attempt by two ArriveCan executives to challenge an internal report on alleged wrongdoing. The two former Canada Border Services Agency managers, Antonio Utano and Cameron MacDonald, were ordered to pay a combined $41,709 in costs. READ MORE
A Nova Scotia wind farm run by friends of the Liberal Party required $206 million in public financing since no private lender would touch it, says the CEO of the Canada Infrastructure Bank. Ehren Cory said the costly venture was deemed too risky: "Private lenders alone were unwilling to provide the required financing." READ MORE
All families have skeletons. Ours is illegal betting. My grandfather’s incarceration was an embarrassment for my mother. He served his time at Burch Industrial Farm near Brantford, Ont. Over the years I have spoken to people who knew of these events, but none really told me anything. Parliament wrote an epilogue to my grandfather’s story. Now if someone in Canada wants to bet on a boxing match or hockey game, it’s as simple as downloading an app.
