The labour department after years of review will ban the hiring of children for dangerous work in the federally-regulated private sector. Injuries involving child labour in Canada are rare but not unprecedented: “It is vital and it’s more than symbolic.”
Federal debt servicing charges this year are up 80 percent from pre-pandemic levels in 2020, budget documents show. “We are investing,” Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland told the Commons.
Upkeep of the Prime Minister’s 16-room lakeside residence is costing taxpayers almost $20,000 a month, records show. Expenses disclosed by cabinet carry vague budget line items like “snow and ice control” and “pest removal.”
Cabinet proposes to assume regulation of payday loans with a cap on borrowing rates. Parliament in 2007 transferred regulation to provinces where interest charged on two-week loans runs from 200 to 500 percent: “Many lower and modest-income Canadians rely on high interest, short term loans to make ends meet.”
Air passengers face millions in new security fees under cabinet’s 2023 budget. The mandatory Air Travelers Security Charge will increase by a third: “This is a tax on the flying public.”
New aid for Ukraine puts federal spending in the region at $8 billion, according to budget documents. Cabinet yesterday pledged another $2.4 billion loan for Ukraine though the country defaulted on its foreign debts last July 21: ‘Canada has helped by paying pensions and delivering essential government services to Ukrainians.’
Cabinet is proposing to grant itself wide powers to ban advertising of sugary foods to children. Advertisers have estimated any ban would cost a billion a year: “What about yoghurt? Fifteen grams of sugar, 18 maybe. Would that be considered acceptable, unacceptable? Would that be on the list?”
The Department of Environment yesterday promised to cut costs at its next climate change conference. Delegates at the last United Nations meeting spent a fortune on air fares and booked a hotel with a disco, camel rides and room rates up to US$1,270 a night: “Be consistent when you fly around the world as the Prime Minister does, preaching to everyone about the environment.”
Walmart Canada saw shrinking profits on groceries last year, the company CEO last night testified at the Commons agriculture committee. There was no profiteering on food inflation, he told MPs: “I know our customers.”
MP Han Dong (Don Valley North, Ont.), now threatening to sue media for libel, eight years ago as a Liberal member of the Ontario legislature helped pass a law restricting libel suits. The free speech law was to “preserve the democratic rights we enjoy in this country,” Dong said at the time.
Public school books should be rewritten to remove stereotypes about Muslims, federal Special Representative on Combatting Islamophobia Amira Elghawaby said yesterday. Elghawaby was earlier director of an advocacy group that wrote a booklet for schoolchildren that identified the Red Ensign as a hate symbol: “Education is very, very critical.”
Cabinet has “a long way to go” in achieving its promise of 100 percent internet coverage nationwide, Auditor General Karen Hogan said yesterday. The latest audit found only 60 percent of Canadians outside cities have reliable, affordable internet service: “This report is pretty startling.”
MPs are demanding to question David Johnston, 81, “special rapporteur” on suspected election fraud. The Prime Minister has asked Johnston to take two months considering whether to call a public inquiry already sought by Commons vote: ‘People talk about him like he’s Spiderman, that he’s going to fix everything because he is a great guy.’
Canadian delegates to a climate change conference booked a luxury resort rated one of the least environmentally-friendly hotels in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, records show. Room rates ranged from $405 to $1,300 a night at the resort with a mediocre Green Star rating but 13 bars: “How much was spent?”
A Jamaican sun holiday for Prime Minister Justin Trudeau last Christmas cost taxpayers almost $163,000, records show. Trudeau prior to the trip said he recognized holiday time was “difficult for many Canadians” due to inflation: ‘Everyone knows well that Canadians are facing tough times.’
