Canada Post is funding $500,000 in research on financial services after introducing a currency exchange home delivery program. A postal union yesterday predicted a return to some form of postal banking for the first time in more than fifty years: “I think we’re going to move forward.”
Deficit spending is unsustainable, Parliamentary Budget Office Yves Giroux yesterday told the Senate national finance committee. Giroux said this year’s budget shortfall is now an unprecedented $260 billion and counting, five times the previous record of $55.6 billion set a decade ago: “We’d be looking at a level of taxation that’s not been seen for generations.”
Environment Minister Jonathan Wilkinson’s delegation to a UN climate change conference last December in Spain cost more than $680,000 including $178,000 in air fares and the expense of two chauffeurs. Delegates were told “our house is on fire”.
The taxpayer-financed Canada Infrastructure Bank endorsed a scale of million-dollar bonuses for its CEO, according to records. The Bank had withheld the disclosure under Access To Information: “It’s a little hard to ask questions about the Bank because nothing is really public at all about it.”
A media outlet suing for the privilege of asking questions of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says in a Federal Court affidavit it was banned from accreditation by the Parliamentary Press Gallery. The Gallery is intended to be nonpartisan. The executive last night did not comment: ‘It is government influenced.’
The Department of Justice loses almost a third of lawsuits at a taxpayers’ cost in legal fees averaging more than $200 million a year, says a newly-released audit. Of cases settled out of court, 44 percent were paid out just before trial.
“Stakeholders believe Justice Canada could engage in forms of dispute resolution more often,” said an Evaluation Of Litigation Services. Sixteen percent of federal lawyers interviewed said the department “never or does not often use these methods and that substantial improvements in this area are needed.” Another 27 percent of lawyers said “at least some improvement is needed”.
Auditors examined tens of thousands of lawsuits managed by the department over a five-year period from 2015 to 2019. Costs to taxpayers of legal fees averaged $222 million a year not including the expense of settlements and court awards. The Government of Canada last year paid out $405.9 million in settlements and court awards to successful litigants.
Over the period a total 58,045 cases never went to trial and were either dismissed outright or settled. “There may be room for improvement in the case of certain dispute resolution methods such as mediation, arbitration and neutral evaluation which can be used to avoid lengthy court trials,” said Evaluation. The report noted “about half of files are settled” after federal lawyers had billed thousands of hours in costs, “which means that substantial resources have been devoted to the file”.
“Justice Canada is spending more hours on files with higher risk and complexity,” said the report. Auditors estimated 31 percent of cases were settled or lost at trial.
“Overall the expectation is that demand will continue to increase for litigation services based on a number of factors including an increase in class action litigation consistent with trends seen across our society,” said Evaluation. The department handles an estimated 30,000 cases a year.
Federal departments most often sued are the Canada Revenue Agency, Department of Immigration and the Department of Crown-Indigenous Relations. Immigration cases had declined since 2014 with a larger number of complaints resolved by the Immigration and Refugee Board instead of Federal Court.
“Counsel across Justice Canada are required to assess legal risk and complexity on their files,” wrote auditors. “These assessments are an important method for the department to communicate with clients about the work it is undertaking for them in a consistent and coherent way so that clients have a clear understanding of the legal risk and complexity of their litigation files.”
Federal lawyers bill an average 1.29 million hours each year, by official estimate. Cabinet in 2016 struck a committee to review civil litigation. The committee never issued any public findings.
By Staff 
Canada needs about three billion pandemic masks as the economy opens up, says a federal contractor. The Public Health Agency had just 100,000 high-grade N95 masks in a national stockpile before the Covid-19 outbreak: “We’re going to need a lot more.”
Federal 1-800 centres have improved their rate of dropped calls by not answering the phone. The president of Shared Services Canada, the federal IT service, said an undisclosed number of jobless callers seeking benefits received endless busy signals: “The call would never get dropped, it would just never get answered.”
The Federal Court of Appeal has dismissed a consumer group’s demand for cash refunds on pre-paid flights. The Canadian Transportation Agency in 2019 said that “compensation must first be offered in cash or equivalent”, but waived the rule as a pandemic measure: ‘The airline industry has been seriously affected by Covid-19.’
Canadians should avoid using the word “aboriginal”, says a federal language guide. The term may give offence and has no legal meaning, wrote researchers: “Using appropriate language is fundamental.”
Cabinet yesterday said it will discuss with provinces a New Democrat proposal to mandate ten days’ paid sick leave for all workers nationwide. No cost or deadline was discussed: “It is just beyond imagination.”
The Public Health Agency for the first time acknowledges it ignored its own advice and stockpiled only a “small amount” of pandemic supplies before the Covid-19 outbreak. Managers would not say if they ever warned cabinet: “If you could give a yes or no answer…”
The Department of Canadian Heritage admits it garbled a historical “fact” in a report to Parliament. Minister Steven Guilbeault tabled the claim Black people had a presence in Nunavut dating back 400 years. They didn’t: “You can’t pick and choose facts.”
Parliament should pass a law denying $2,000 Canada Emergency Response Benefit relief cheques to anyone who won’t take a job, the Commons human resources committee was told. The Department of Employment said it is curbing clear abuses of the program such as payments to dead people: “The priority was to provide the benefit.”
The Canada Revenue Agency may withhold tax refunds for a year or more, a federal judge has ruled. The decision came in the case of a business denied a GST refund after auditors decided to review the company’s books: “This is for the Minister to decide.”
