Confidential 1995 cabinet records declassified yesterday indicate then-Prime Minister Jean Chretien threatened the President of France not to act if Québec voted for independence. France would “find itself isolated in the United Nations,” Chretien said.
A cabinet bill to penalize taxpayers slow to comply with Canada Revenue Agency demands for documents is needlessly harsh and likely unconstitutional, tax experts have told the Commons finance committee. One group, Tax Executives Institute Inc. of Toronto, said under Bill C-31 a single parent in a $750 tax dispute with auditors could be charged $1,500 in penalties: ‘It is grossly disproportionate.’
Benefits for seniors and children will cost more than $140 billion annually by 2030, the equivalent of a quarter of the current federal budget, data show. The Budget Office yesterday calculated payouts of children’s benefits grew 16 percent in the past three years: “This is all tied to debt growth.”
A federal agency responsible for airport security proposes to introduce face and fingerprint scanners for passengers by 2031, according to a report tabled in Parliament. The Canadian Air Transport Security Authority yesterday did not comment: “The Authority will implement biometric deployments at pre-board screening to improve efficiency.”
A Whitehorse judge in a rare order has jailed two businessmen in a civil dispute with municipal authorities. Operators of a local trucking company never said they were sorry for defying an order to stop operating in a City quarry and ignoring a $7,500 fine, said the Yukon Supreme Court: “Once our laws are flouted and orders of our Court are treated with contempt, the whole fabric of our freedom is destroyed.”
Security at the Canada Border Services Agency is so haphazard a team of auditors posing as passersby was able to wander through high-risk facilities pulling confidential documents out of filing cabinets and accessing employees’ passport numbers, says an internal report. It was the second failed security audit at the Agency in two years: “Failure to adequately protect and ensure physical security can result in serious consequences.”
Conservatives have identified $150 billion in savings in the federal budget, Opposition Leader Pierre Poilievre said yesterday. MPs were “scouring budget information” ahead of Monday’s resumption of Parliament following a 13-week summer recess, he said: “Our number one priority when we get back to the House, number one priority, is to save you money.”
Newly-disclosed records show cabinet in secret session in 1992 feared consequences of rising immigration quotas. “Canadians perceived the immigration system to be out of control,” then-Immigration Minister Bernard Valcourt told cabinet: “The refugee system was being abused and the number of failed claimants who could not be removed was growing at the rate of 1,000 per month.”
Many homebuyers tell federal focus groups they would not buy prefabricated houses as promoted by Prime Minister Mark Carney. A Privy Council report said that, while buyers acknowledged factory-built homes were less expensive, many preferred traditional construction: “Several were of the impression that traditional homes typically had better plumbing and electricity systems.”
Hotelkeepers say they could help ease the housing crisis with a change in federal mortgage insurance rules. Hotels Canada, the industry lobby, petitioned MPs to extend insurance to developers of mixed use buildings: “This policy could create 21,000 new rental units.”
Opposition MPs seek parliamentary hearings into an attempt by the Department of National Defence to conceal a 2023 training session with members of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army. “Canadians deserve answers,” Conservative MP James Bezan (Selkirk-Interlake, Man.), vice-chair of the committee, said yesterday.
Posting photos of homeless people or street addicts on the internet would be criminalized under a Commons petition sponsored by Deputy Government House Leader Arielle Kayabaga. The petition follows complaints, including from MPs, of public disorder in major cities: “There are needles around on the street. There is excrement on the street.”
Prime Minister Mark Carney yesterday claimed cabinet will generate billions through foreign management of the nation’s largest airports though all are currently under 60-year leases with local authorities. The Opposition sought details: “We want to see how it is going to save money for Canadians, because if it doesn’t save money, then why do it?”
Newly-declassified records show then-Prime Minister Brian Mulroney cautioned his cabinet that abolition of the Senate was “not an acceptable political option” for Canada. Confidential accounts of the 1992 meeting were disclosed through Access To Information in advance of a first-ever referendum in Alberta to “abolish the unelected federal Senate.”
A Toronto consulting firm in a written mea culpa to a Senate committee says it was wrong when its co-founder testified in 2017 that robots would cost 42 percent of Canadian jobs. “If even a fraction of these projections come true, it’s still a huge number,” Abishur Prakash warned at the time.
