Audits for waste in pandemic spending will take “many years” to complete, Auditor General Karen Hogan warned yesterday. Hogan said investigators are unable to audit all pandemic relief programs by 2021: “We will not be able to audit each and every federal program associated with Canada’s Covid-19 response.”
The taxpayer-owned Canada Infrastructure Bank yesterday rejected demands from the Commons finance committee for details of bonuses paid to its former CEO. Pierre Lavallée abruptly resigned April 3 with three years remaining in his contract: “Well, that’s unacceptable.”
Cabinet could have “picked better words” to discourage cheats under a $60 billion pandemic relief program, Employment Minister Carla Qualtrough said yesterday. A draft bill to jail scofflaws would not be retroactive, she said: “I hear you.”
VIA Rail yesterday reported its steepest deficit in five years despite record revenues. The Crown railway also acknowledged trains are running later than ever: “The service is no longer a viable travel alternative in between and around Winnipeg, Saskatoon, Edmonton, Jasper and Vancouver.”
Parliament yesterday said it will not remove the n-word from its federal website. The slur is included in a poem republished by Parliament’s former poet laureate: “I’m not interested in censorship.”
Elections Canada has dismissed complaints over a private mid-campaign fundraiser in New York by Indigenous Services Minister Marc Miller. The agency said it “found no information” to suggest he breached the Canada Elections Act though auditors did not speak with Miller or anyone who attended a party that included charges for hundreds of dollars in liquor: ‘It is a meet and greet.’
Retailers nationwide, all but grocers and cannabis dealers, have seen the sharpest collapse in sales since the Depression, according to federal data. The fall in storekeepers’ receipts due to pandemic closures eclipsed rates seen in 1932: “I’ve talked to countless business owners who have seen their life’s work crumble in their hands.”
Details of secret RCMP surveillance of federal prison guards associating with drug dealers have been disclosed by a labour board. Guards at Abbotsford, B.C. were identified as consorting with criminals in a 2015 sting operation: “A correctional officer is expected to act within the law and to serve as a role model.”
SNC-Lavalin Group is still eligible for federal contracts under terms of its latest out-of-court settlement with federal prosecutors. The Public Prosecution Service would not disclose the text of its agreement that saw SNC-Lavalin penalized for bid-rigging: “Are you consulting SNC-Lavalin?”
A federal program on equity contracting is being audited by MPs. Members of the Commons government operations committee voted 10-0 to see all records on so-called “social procurement” under a program launched two years ago: “Why is it so difficult?”
The Department of Health has invoked privacy in refusing to disclose the locations of hundreds of medical marijuana producers across Canada. The department claimed even their home cities was secret, prompting a federal lawsuit by the Information Commissioner: “Canadians have a right to request information from the government.”
Old Jason
remembered how he used to carry his son
on his shoulders.
Those were the best of times.
The laughter,
mischief.
Running out of breath.
Miniature hands grabbing his head,
pulling his hair.
Tiny feet tight against his chest.
Years went by.
His son grew taller,
stronger than he ever thought possible.
Same laughter,
mischief.
But Jason could no longer carry him on his shoulders.
The flight from Kandahar
landed at CFB Trenton.
Jason saw his son
getting off the plane.
Carried on the shoulders
of eight of his comrades.
(Editor’s note: poet Shai Ben-Shalom, an Israeli-born biologist, examines current events in the Blacklock’s tradition each and every Sunday).
The Commons industry committee yesterday voted to summon supermarket executives to explain their repeal of a $2 an hour pandemic bonus for employees. MPs questioned whether Loblaw Companies Ltd. and two other chains are in compliance with the Competition Act: “They can explain to this committee and the Canadian public.”
The federal debt is a trillion dollars, the Parliamentary Budget Office said yesterday. Unprecedented spending on pandemic relief programs follows twelve years of deficits: “The government’s total liabilities reached $1,514 billion.”
Federal privatization of airport security is delayed indefinitely due to the pandemic, the Senate national finance committee was told yesterday. Parliament voted in 2019 to transfer all airport screening to not-for-profit buyers: “We are waiting.”
