Canadians consider federal anti-trust enforcement “lacklustre” and “ineffective,” says a Department of Industry report. The anti-trust Competition Bureau has acknowledged failures in permitting consolidation in key sectors like grocery retailing: “Large corporations are gaining too much control.”
Critics yesterday ridiculed a federal sales tax holiday on new rental construction as a “limousine Liberal measure.” Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland introduced a GST holiday bill that dropped cabinet’s 2015 promise to link the tax break to construction of “affordable rental housing.”
The president of the Canadian Labour Congress yesterday petitioned MPs for a 25 percent windfall tax on corporate profits. Proceeds should go to low income families to buy food, Bea Bruske testified at the Commons finance committee: “Use the revenue to fund an extension of the existing grocery rebate program.”
Bank of Canada management including Governor Tiff Macklem would face tighter public scrutiny under a private bill yesterday introduced in the Senate. Critics have demanded Macklem be fired over erratic forecasts: “The Bank is not above Parliament.”
The Canada Revenue Agency claims a typical taxpayer waited only nine minutes on the phone to speak with an agent this past tax season. The Agency earlier admitted to faking customer service data: “Monkeying around with these departmental results reports to play with the numbers to make it look good will come out. We will find you.”
Federal airport rents will top a half billion next year, by Department of Transport estimate. Airport operators have called rents a straight charge on passengers: “The more expensive we are for aviation in Canada, the more expensive it is for Canadians.”
More than half of foreigners ordered out of the country remain in Canada, new figures show. The Canada Border Services Agency had pledged to increase its deportation rate: “Everyone ordered removed from Canada is entitled to due process before the law.”
Cabinet will not direct a pending public inquiry into foreign interference to delve into activities by Indian agents, Public Safety Minister Dominic LeBlanc said yesterday. LeBlanc said he considered India’s alleged involvement in the shooting of a Surrey, B.C. activist to be a police matter: “I am not going to answer questions about what the RCMP investigation is looking into.”
David Johnston in three months as cabinet “rapporteur” on Chinese interference awarded millions in sole-sourced contracts to favoured consultants, records show. Payments included fees to a publicist to “identify columnists and key opinion leaders” to promote Johnston: “Actual expenditures for the Independent Special Rapporteur have not yet been finalized.”
Cabinet billed more than a quarter million for a three-day cabinet retreat on inflation, records show. Expenses for the meeting at a Vancouver Hyatt a year ago included tens of thousands of dollars for food with catering from one café that sells an $88 “millionaire’s cut” steak and lobster plate: “The cost of living, that is our focus.”
Crime costs Canadians more than $43 billion a year, says a landmark report by the Department of Justice. Researchers totaled expenses from police overtime to victims’ lost wages, funeral expenses and trauma: “The effects of crime are far reaching.”
Some of Canada’s largest corporations seek waivers under a pending federal ban on replacement workers in strikes and lockouts. The labour department yesterday was noncommittal but reiterated a bill will be introduced by year’s end: “These stakeholders consider all or at least part of their work as essential.”
Oil companies should pay costs of wildfires, a New Democrat yesterday told the Commons. MP Charlie Angus (Timmins-James Bay, Ont.) said it was unfair to charge firefighting expenses to taxpayers since oil companies were “burning the planet.”
Tax evasion is “prevalent” in high priced real estate markets, says in-house research by the Canada Revenue Agency. An Agency report concluded tax cheating was commonplace and deliberate: “Non-compliance in real estate is prevalent throughout Canada and is likely more widespread than many are aware of.”
A four-month vacancy at the Office of the Ethics Commissioner left a backlog of complaints, Interim Commissioner Konrad von Finckenstein said yesterday. Von Finckenstein said reviews are pending on allegations against 11 public office holders he would not name: “Let’s not pussyfoot around.”
