Budget Officer Yves Giroux yesterday defended research indicating cabinet misled taxpayers on the recovery of green technology subsidies. “I don’t have a vested interest,” Giroux told the Commons industry committee: “As soon as we publish a report that sets the record straight there are accusations we have not understood the problem or have a bone to pick.”
Federal financing for energy refits of a luxury Toronto hotel is “grotesque,” says Conservative MP Leslyn Lewis (Haldimand-Norfolk, Ont.). The MP challenged the Minister of Housing to justify the funding when “Canadians are sleeping in garages.”
Parliament must curb deficit spending now or “pick up the pieces” later, former Bank of Canada governor David Dodge yesterday told the Senate banking committee. Canadians had no choice but to confront an “unpleasant” future, he said: “I mean, Canadians are pretty realistic.”
Animal rights advocates yesterday opposed a bill threatening jail and six-figure fines for trespassing on farms. Camille Labchuk, executive director of Animal Justice, called it an “ag gag law” to conceal cruel farm practices: “This includes things like keeping pregnant pigs in gestation crates which are metal cages so small the mothers can’t even turn around.”
There is no excuse to delay release of a decades-old blacklist of 20 suspected Nazi fugitives in Canada, Immigration Minister Marc Miller said yesterday. Miller said he had not seen the confidential list but questioned if any suspects were still alive: “There’s no excuse for delay.”
More than 800 depositors have been “de-banked” nationwide in the past five years at bankers’ discretion, say Access To Information Records. Federal law does not allow banks to cancel accounts except in cases of suspected criminality: ‘How many depositors have been de-banked in Canada for reasons other than substantiated terrorism or money laundering?’
Governor General Mary Simon must economize in her $24.7 million annual budget, the Commons government operations committee said yesterday. MPs protested spending was so lavish that Rideau Hall did not tell the whole truth when questioned about the cost of overseas junkets: “You got caught red-handed.”
The Public Health Agency has censored thousands of pages of data on cellphone users it collected in the name of pandemic lockdown enforcement. The Agency invoked commercial confidentiality in refusing to disclose weekly reports drawn from cell tower tracking data on millions of mobile customers: “We have developed internal policies to limit access to these data.”
The Commons ethics committee last evening targeted an investigation of alleged “green-washing” by a federal foundation suspected of sweetheart subsidies for environmental technology firms. Industry Minister François-Philippe Champagne suspended funding for Sustainable Development Technology Canada over “allegations of mismanagement.”
Canadians should be ashamed over mistreatment of Indigenous people, says Senator David Arnot (Sask.). The former Saskatchewan human rights commissioner said “ritualized boilerplate statements” of contrition are insufficient: “Be shocked, appalled and ashamed.”
Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland’s department yesterday said it does not know how many billions it is currently spending on debt interest charges. One senator expressed disbelief: “All the smart people are in the Department of Finance.”
A tax holiday for apartment builders will cost more than $4 billion, the Department of Finance disclosed yesterday. Expenses are triple those estimated two years ago by the Budget Office: “We are talking about $4.5 billion over the next five years.”
Cabinet under a 2009 international pact has an obligation to name Nazi fugitives let into Canada, a Liberal-appointed Senator said yesterday. Authorities will not release the confidential 1985 list of 20 suspected war criminals: “They knew.”
Canada is unsafe for Canadian Broadcasting Corporation reporters, says CEO Catherine Tait. The network chief in a report to Parliament claimed CBC employees “face rising threats to their safety both online and in the field.”
Parliament yesterday elected its first Black Speaker 55 years after Black MPs entered the Commons. Liberal MP Greg Fergus (Hull-Aylmer, Que.) told the House he was “nothing more than a referee.”
