CMHC yesterday budgeted less than $3 million for the start of a new equity loan program for first-time homebuyers. Mortgage brokers have predicted little take-up of the plan due to restrictions on borrowers: “You are limited.”
The Commons yesterday for the first time in 152 years elected an Italian-Canadian Speaker. “Grazie,” said five-term Liberal MP Anthony Rota, son of immigrant parents from Calabria: “Noi non potemo avere perfetta vita senza amici.”
Nearly eight in ten Canadian parents say their children recognize McDonald’s, according to Department of Health research. Staff commissioned surveys with families nationwide in advance of a national kids’ food ad ban: “We noted stronger evidence of widespread brand recognition beginning at an early age.”
CBC-TV advertising revenues have declined by more than half in five years amid a shrinking audience, according to financial records. One CBC executive earlier told MPs it “requires visionary talent” to manage marketplace downsizing of the Crown broadcaster: “Unfortunately we are in a downsizing environment.”
The Privy Council in confidential pre-election focus groups polled Canadians on a catchier name for pharmacare, according to Access To Information records. Cabinet has set no deadline to implement a proposal by its own advisory panel to enact a universal $15.3 billion-a year prescription drug plan: “‘Universal pharmacare program’ sounds made up.”
The Federal Court of Appeal has upheld the firing of a curt human resources manager cited for rude emails. Coworkers complained the federal employee was needlessly abrasive: “I can be honest in a not so nice way.”
The Department of Environment in a climate change bulletin said this past summer was cooler in much of the country than in the 1950s. Data followed election claims the planet was “burning”.
The Department of Natural Resources yesterday said it will look at the viability of paying Canadian homeowners to move off flood plains. A million waterfront homes nationwide are rated at high risk of flooding, according to the Insurance Bureau of Canada: “We cannot move a million homes.”
The military in newly-declassified Cold War files drafted plans to round up more than 8,000 suspected Communists and keep them under armed guard at barbed wire camps. In Calgary, subversives were to be housed in a downtown office building. A camp in Nanaimo was to be have eight-foot fences: ‘Troops assigned to guard Communists should know how to deal with inquisitive civilians.’
Atheism is not a bona fide belief for charitable purposes, says the Federal Court of Appeal. Judges upheld the Canada Revenue Agency’s refusal to grant religious charity status to a small congregation of atheists in the hamlet of McDonald’s Corners, Ont.: “Registration is a privilege, not a right.”
Auditors have faulted Library and Archives Canada for slipshod management of a grant program intended to support community groups. Managers failed to save postmarks to prove applicants met filing deadlines, while other records were so haphazard it was impossible to know why some applicants received grants and others did not: “Staff did not keep the envelopes.”
The Treasury Board yesterday said it does not know the full multi-billion dollar cost of a failed Phoenix software program to upgrade payroll services for federal employees. Costs to date are $2.6 billion but don’t include compensation for employees shortchanged on cheques: “We saw how that didn’t work.”
Federal agencies should drop references to “golden years” when speaking to pensioners, says in-house research by the Department of Social Development. Seniors complained the term is patronizing: “There is nothing golden about getting older.”
The Department of Canadian Heritage budgeted a quarter-million dollars to commission stage plays observing 1969 Criminal Code amendments on homosexuality, according to Access To Information records. “The total budget for this project is potentially substantial,” wrote staff.
The Department of Foreign Affairs in pre-election research paid pollsters $78,964 to test voters’ response to images promoting foreign aid. Photos of laughing children were most popular: “Simple information should be used.”
