Thirteen Liberal ridings are among the first in the nation to lose doorstep mail delivery under a target list released yesterday by Canada Post. Constituencies facing service cuts include Carleton, Ont., won by first-term Liberal MP Bruce Fanjoy in an upset over Opposition Leader Pierre Poilievre one year ago: “Make difficult decisions, show political courage and move forward.”
Canadians should question self-censorship by subsidized press, a leading economist and commentator yesterday told the House affairs committee. La Presse, the largest daily in Québec, admitted to canceling a regular column by Professor Sylvain Charlebois after he criticized hidden subsidies for daily newspapers: “This raises broader questions about how comfortable we are collectively with challenging prevailing narratives.”
Seven years of federal subsidies have permanently compromised media in Canada, current and former editors yesterday testified at the Commons heritage committee. A 2019 bailout originally promised to be temporary has instead marked the end of independent journalism, MPs were told: “Sooner or later, news media will run out of other people’s money.”
One of the largest unions in Canadian newsrooms yesterday sought federal controls on what people say about media on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Government regulation of lawful but hurtful criticism was supported by “95 percent of media workers,” said the president of the Canadian Media Guild: “The toxicity we face online and in person while doing our jobs is becoming overwhelming.”
Cabinet remains adamant that dairy quotas will never be negotiated in United States trade talks, Intergovernmental Affairs Minister Dominic LeBlanc said yesterday. The U.S. has singled out dairy quotas as unfair: “You confirm you will not touch a hair on the head of supply management?”
Housing Minister Gregor Robertson’s department budgeted $1.2 million for a camera giveaway to homeless people to take photographs for an “arts-based exhibition,” Access To Information records show. The grant was approved under a Veteran Homelessness Program: “With your camera, take pictures of your surroundings.”
Cabinet yesterday denied pork barreling in Sarnia-Lambton, Ont. after Conservative MP Marilyn Gladu defected to the Liberal caucus. MPs questioned an interview Gladu gave to a local reporter in which she boasted of receiving a call from the Minister of Housing’s office to “talk about all the things we need in Sarnia” hours after floor-crossing.
Cabinet is serious about regulating legal internet content now that it has a parliamentary majority, Heritage Minister Marc Miller said yesterday. “There are some opportunities here,” he told reporters.
The Department of Immigration in a report says it is continuing to process special permits for Gazans seeking to enter Canada. Nearly a thousand war refugees have arrived to date: “It is intended to be temporary.”
The Department of Natural Resources billed taxpayers to install electric auto charging stations at federal buildings that are almost never used, records show. Thousands of stations averaged fewer than one car a day: “It is not realistic at this time.”
A “net zero” federal garage in Whitehorse cost taxpayers much more than was disclosed by the Department of Environment, new figures show. The garage budgeted to be completed in two years at $754,000 instead took seven years and $1,774,927 without any parliamentary oversight: “Availability of other storage options was considered.”
An Ontario college yesterday was named by the Commons immigration committee for “extreme” practices that took advantage of foreign students. Conestoga College of Kitchener, Ont. led the nation with the highest number of foreign students, a total 40,565 at its peak: “Are you aware of what the youth unemployment rate is?”
More than a tenth of first time homebuyers nationwide now rely on parents to co-sign mortgages, the Bank of Canada said yesterday. The rate of parental co-signs nearly tripled since 2004, wrote analysts: “We asked a simple question: What if parents had not co-signed?”
Cabinet effective April 20 will suspend the federal excise tax on gasoline and diesel until Labour Day. “That’s real relief,” Prime Minister Mark Carney told reporters: “Canadians want government to govern.”
Current federal law is inadequate to deal with copper theft, a Senate committee said yesterday. Utilities have sought jail for thieves who sabotage costly telecom lines for scrap copper that sells for $6 a pound: “Copper theft is a threat.”
