Immigration Minister Lena Diab yesterday permanently ended a requirement that refugees in Canada undergo a medical exam when applying for permanent residency, effective immediately. It followed questioning over rising costs of a half-billion dollar program that covers medical expenses for refugee claimants and illegal immigrants: ‘It covers all sorts of things seniors do not get.’
The Ontario government hired $1 million-a month American trade lawyers for help on cross-border disputes even as Premier Doug Ford publicly expressed confidence in the Prime Minister’s negotiating skills, records show. The costly retainer was signed October 25: “We need to work as Team Canada right now.”
Cabinet is extending debt collections until 2028 on Canadians who falsely claimed $2,000 pandemic relief cheques. Auditors have complained of slow recovery of billions in wrongful payments: “It’s a lot of money.”
Attorney General Sean Fraser yesterday said cabinet will not attempt to ‘copy and paste’ earlier bills on censorship of legal internet content. Two bills have failed since 2021 amid a public outcry: ‘You should not expect to see that.’
New immigrants are no strain on the health care system since many are doctors, Immigration Minister Lena Diab said yesterday. Cabinet’s Immigration Levels Plan will let 1,068,650 foreigners into Canada this year on permanent and temporary permits: “How many doctors are driving taxis?”
Calls to a federal tip line on abuse of the Temporary Foreign Worker Program nearly doubled last year, labour department figures show. No reason was given. Thousands of complaints prompted on-site inspections: “Businesses have taken advantage.”
Cabinet acknowledges it does not know how many children have been fed under its national school lunch program. Ministers have repeatedly claimed a figure of 400,000 in recounting anecdotes praising the program as a success: “The department does not collect detailed program-level data.”
A multi-million dollar federal art collection will no longer lend pieces after more than 100 artworks vanished, says Crown-Indigenous Relations Minister Rebecca Alty. Her department has declined to say why police were never called to track paintings, sculptures or photographs that went missing from the Indigenous Art Collection: ‘These are cultural treasures.’
A Covid-era program funded by Parliament to aid cultural groups facing bankruptcy went unspent even as bankruptcies doubled, says a federal report. Auditors wrote they were puzzled: ‘It’s raising important questions.’
The Commons last night passed a Ways And Means Motion on the federal budget 170 to 168 on warnings MPs didn’t know what they were voting for. “The government is hiding information from us,” said Conservative MP Kelly McCauley (Edmonton West) following a Budget Office protest that cabinet was concealing figures on budget impacts: “Parliamentarians need this information and we need it now.”
Cabinet yesterday defended unusual expense claims by the president of the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission, Pierre Tremblay. The Commission was part of “the best nuclear system in the world,” said one minister.
Cabinet yesterday would not discuss consequences for federal managers who failed to achieve goals on Indigenous issues despite billions in new spending. “Has anybody been fired?” asked Conservative MP Jamie Schmale (Haliburton-Kawartha Lakes, Ont.).
A subsidized newspaper publisher had numerous conflicts with the Department of Canadian Heritage over terms of its grant applications, internal records show. The department will not say why it continued to fund Discourse Community Publishing Ltd. of Sun Peaks, B.C. even after the company was fined for breaching migrant labour regulations: “It can be difficult to provide exact information on how the costs of our business are broken down.”
Cabinet must ensure any digital identification program is strictly voluntary, Conservative MP Leslyn Lewis (Haldimand-Norfolk, Ont.) yesterday told the Commons. The Department of Employment is proceeding with legislative changes to have Canadians use digital ID when applying for Employment Insurance and Old Age Security: “We must be on guard.”
Pierre Tremblay, the $343,000-a year president of the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission, billed taxpayers for limo rides, a stay at a French resort hotel and dozens of flights between Ottawa and Toronto rather than take the train, Access To Information records show. Tremblay hiked his travel and hospitality budget 85 percent this year despite cabinet directives to cut unnecessary spending: “These are tough times.”
