Intergovernmental Affairs Minister Dominic LeBlanc’s sister in law yesterday stepped aside as acting Ethic Commissioner. Critics had protested the interim appointment: “You’re ineligible to win the Tim Hortons Roll Up The Rim contest if you’re a family member of an employee. This is ethics 101.”
Taxpayer guarantees now cover more than $5 billion in equity loans under a CMCH program intended to aid first time homebuyers. However figures show the program was of little or no use in the costliest cities: “Options are few across the country for people starting out today.”
A long-sought bill to shield private sector pensions in corporate bankruptcies has been passed into law by the Senate. Reforms most recently prompted by the collapse of Sears Canada were first proposed in 1975: “Pensioners’ groups have been calling for this legislation for a long time.”
Budget Officer Yves Giroux yesterday said it was unclear whether cabinet has “lost control of its spending.” The Department of Finance is forecasting half-trillion budgets for years to come with ongoing deficits through 2028: “We are going over a psychological hurdle, a very large one.”
The largest federal public service union last night launched a national strike for the first time in 19 years. “Our members are prepared to fight for a good, decent, fair collective agreement,” said Chris Aylward, national president of the Public Service Alliance of Canada, as picketers prepared to protest outside Parliament and the Prime Minister’s Office.
The Commons health committee yesterday by a 7 to 4 vote cleared a private Liberal bill to ban advertising of junk food to children. The committee passed a similar bill five years ago that subsequently lapsed in Parliament amid protests from marketers: “A blunt instrument is being applied here.”
More than 360,000 new Canadians swore the citizenship oath at ceremonies last year, new data show. The Department of Immigration has proposed replacing ceremonies with a check box on a federal website: “The negative concerns I have heard about this idea are legion.”
Air passengers deserve more generous compensation for poor service, the Commons transport committee said yesterday. Transport Minister Omar Alghabra has proposed to draft new regulations by June: “The committee heard from many witnesses on the shortcomings.”
Industry Minister François-Philippe Champagne yesterday ignored a request from MPs for details of new federal subsidies for Volkswagen that are suspected of running into billions. The Commons industry committee gave Champagne one more week to disclose the VW contract: “This government is afraid to give Canadians the number.”
The largest federal union, the Public Service Alliance, set a deadline of 9 pm Eastern this evening for a strike that “can shut the government down,” President Chris Aylward said yesterday. Any job action by 155,000 employees would be the largest in 19 years: “Together we wield incredible power and can shut the government down to secure a fair contract.”
Parliament must mandate public disclosure of foreign agents, a three-term Liberal MP yesterday told the Commons. “We need that to happen,” said MP Francesco Sorbara (Vaughan-Woodbridge, Ont.), a member of the Canada-China Legislative Association: “I am completely for a foreign lobbyist registry.”
Capitalism and white supremacy are to blame in part for climate change and must be corrected, a Public Health Agency report said yesterday. Findings were based on health department interviews with 30 academics and experts: ‘If we don’t address capitalism we eventually drown.’
Parliament should restrict federal disaster aid where municipalities permit development on flood plains, a federal report said yesterday. A cabinet-appointed task force complained taxpayers are left to compensate owners of costly, uninsurable waterfront property: “Disaster costs are borne by the level of government that has minimal influence on decisions that create or increase disaster risk.”
U.S. seizures of illegal marijuana from Canada have ballooned 900 percent since Parliament legalized cannabis, new data disclose. Brisk cross border bootlegging represents “potential harm to Canada’s international reputation,” said a federal report: “The overall increase of illegal cannabis exportation from Canada worldwide since domestic legalization could be as high as 2,000 percent.”
A top Liberal aide says there was no talk of dropping a 2021 Toronto candidate over allegations of secret contacts with Chinese Communist agents. “I was never involved in a conversation on the subject,” Katie Telford, the Prime Minister’s chief of staff, said when questioned regarding MP Han Dong (Don Valley North, Ont.): “Conversations did occur?”
