The Canadian Tourism Commission is paying U.S. publicists up to $320 an hour to pitch travel-friendly features to American media, accounts show. The total budget surpassed the $100,000 spent by VIA Rail in 2014 to offer free train trips to U.S. travel writers: “We will be speaking to our lawyer.”
The National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls is ending its work in Federal Court. Lawyers filed an application with a federal judge considered so damaging, the Department of Justice immediately sought to have the record concealed from the public: ‘It remains concerned about confidential information.’
The Crown prosecutor at the heart of the SNC-Lavalin Group Inc. political scandal is being honoured by a global lawyers’ group. Director of Public Prosecutions Kathleen Roussel yesterday served notice she was named a part-time director of the International Association of Prosecutors: ‘Unless the Attorney General intervenes, the final decisions are mine.’
A photogenic family on the cover of the 2019 budget Investing In The Middle Class are an actual Canadian, middle-class mother and son and not professional models, says the Québec City photographer who sold the image to Finance Canada. The department halted its use of paid models after MPs protested the spiraling cost of budget artwork: “Putting faces on the budget cover is a great idea.”
The Department of Foreign Affairs in an internal contracting review acknowledges it skirted disclosure rules, breached the Canada Labour Code and repaid suppliers twice for the same work. Misconduct was uncovered by auditors reviewing $740 million in contracts: “Global Affairs Canada does not have effective controls.”
The Department of Public Safety in an Access To Information memo says it remains convinced lawyers are susceptible to money-laundering and should be watched. The memo was written months after the Federation of Law Societies told a parliamentary committee that self-regulation has worked: ‘They have specialized knowledge and expertise.’
The Federal Court in one of its first rulings in a wave of asylum claims by illegal immigrants has ordered a Haitian-American family out of the country. A judge ruled the family had no claim of hardship, and only entered Canada for “better health care”.
The Commons ethics committee by a 5 to 4 vote yesterday rejected hearings on the SNC-Lavalin Group Inc. political scandal. The vote by the panel’s Liberal majority followed a March 20 decision by MPs to end public hearings at the House justice committee: “You hold the majority of the votes, and we all can count.”
The Department of Industry in an Access To Information memo says it was “surprised” the Senate launched public hearings on the Broadcasting Act without telling staff. Cabinet last June 5 started its own closed-door review of the CBC: “The government is pouring hundreds of millions into CBC.”
Illegal cannabis use by high schoolers has grown with Parliament’s legalization of recreational marijuana for adults, says a University of Waterloo study. Researchers said the rise contradicted a steady decline in marijuana use by teenagers in previous years: “There is a type of normalization.”
A federal agency today will announce another subsidy for a New Brunswick kindling factory that’s received more than $1.6 million in aid to date. The firm that sells bagged firewood has 12 employees.
The Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency yesterday did not comment on the latest funding for Fiready Inc. of Clair, N.B. The small company has received federal grants and loans on an almost-annual basis since it opened in 1999, a total thirteen separate subsidies.
Federal assistance for Fiready Inc. does not include $866,693 in firewood purchases made by Parks Canada for campers’ use at Fundy and Kouchibouguac National Parks, according to accounts. Subsidies to date included:
Accounts show the company received an additional $200,000 in loans from the Business Development Bank, and subsidies worth $160,000 from the Government of New Brunswick. The province in 2015 described Fiready kindling as a “value-added wood product”: “Smart investments such as this one demonstrate our commitment to moving New Brunswick forward,” said then-Labour Minister Francine Landry.
“You’ve got to be innovating and reducing production costs to stay viable,” Ian Clair, the company’s production manager, said in a 2015 statement.
Fiready Inc. in corporate statements explained it recycles scrap wood from New Brunswick lumber mills and bags it as firewood that is “clean, dry, insect and mildew-free”. The kindling comes with tips on how to light a fire: “Place two firewood sticks next to each other in the fireplace. Light one end of the fire-starter with a match. Insert the lit fire-starter between the two sticks of firewood.”
By Staff 
A federal labour board has upheld the firing of a human resources case officer for rudeness. Witnesses said the woman barked at coworkers, complained about Excel software and sent needlessly aggressive emails: “She did not know that using all capital letters was inappropriate.”
The Department of Public Safety in an Access To Information report proposes that Parliament limit the amount of cash Canadians can carry. Staff also suggested a new federal registry of businesses dealing in large volumes of cash as a crime prevention measure: “Large denominations are especially an issue.”
Cabinet will not meet an MPs’ deadline for quick action on dealing with gross mismanagement by federal executives. Public Works Minister Carla Qualtrough in a letter to the Commons public accounts committee said work is incomplete: “The Titanic was heading for an iceberg; anyone would have said, ‘Oh my God.'”
The Competition Bureau is expanding a probe of sales practices in home water heater rentals. The investigation has been ongoing since 2012. The Bureau in Federal Court asked that Enbridge Gas Distribution Inc. disclose contracts and fees: “We don’t think people should be locked into rental agreements.”
