The Commons last night by a 196 to 139 vote rejected a Conservative motion to support construction of an Alberta oil pipeline to the British Columbia coast. Liberals called the motion a ploy to embarrass Prime Minister Mark Carney: “There’s a risk in voting yes, there’s a risk in voting no.”
The top manager in the Department of Industry yesterday admitted lying to MPs over a contract with Stellantis. “No one asked me to lie,” Deputy Minister Philip Jennings testified at the Commons government operations committee: “I have reflected.”
A record hike in the national debt ceiling is a prudent attempt to cover ongoing deficits through the rest of the decade, the Department of Finance said yesterday. Cabinet proposes to raise the cap 20 percent to an unprecedented $2.54 trillion: “We did decide to err on the side of prudence.”
The Department of Health yesterday confirmed it charged taxpayers an undisclosed sum for crack pipes and other drug paraphernalia under its “safe supply” program. Managers had flatly denied it under questioning October 2 by Conservative MP Dan Mazier (Riding Mountain, Man.): “Do you honestly think Canadian taxpayers want their money to be used for crack pipes?”
The Department of Canadian Heritage is invoking privacy in concealing terms of a settlement with an anti-Semitic consultant. Laith Marouf of Montréal was paid $122,661 for a series of anti-racism lectures before managers discovered he was banned from Twitter for fantasizing about shooting Jews: “Too many people in Ottawa knew about this.”
Prime Minister Mark Carney’s future earnings rely on the success of Brookfield Corporation, the Ethics Commissioner said yesterday. Opposition MPs seek to compel Carney to sell his stock portfolio: “It is clear Mr. Carney’s future compensation is tied to the success of Brookfield.”
A Liberal MP once censured for breach of the Conflict Of Interest Code yesterday complained ethics rules had been “weaponized.” MP James Maloney (Etobicoke-Lakeshore, Ont.), the first parliamentarian ever ordered by the Ethics Commissioner to publicly apologize in the House of Commons, said no public office holder should be subject to “a bunch of allegations.”
Federal departments last year assigned almost 600 employees to promoting diversity, equity and inclusion, records show. Cabinet acknowledged the figure was incomplete since numerous departments declined to report how many managers worked on “representation goals.”
The Privy Council Office yesterday dismissed a request from MPs to interview candidates for appointment as Budget Officer. A standoff over the key appointment will now drag into 2026: “It is so important that the choice of a Parliamentary Budget Office be neutral, unbiased and impartial.”
More than a million homeowners face loss of equity if Parliament does not take steps to confront flood insurance costs, the Commons environment committee was told yesterday. The Department of Public Safety has yet to act on long-promised initiatives to save taxpayers the expense of disaster relief: “We’re not going backwards.”
The Department of Immigration without any parliamentary scrutiny ordered research into enforcement of a national ID system using digital passports, Access To Information documents show. MPs have repeatedly rejected any national identity scheme as costly and dangerous: ‘The assumption is the passport would be used within Canada as an identity document.’
Year-end bonuses for federal executives are not literally tied to departmental performance, says a Treasury Board report. It follows data showing departments typically reward 90 to 100 percent of managers regardless of failure: “There is a system that is broken.”
The founder of a Palestinian activist group in Canada is in federal policing, according to Access To Information records. Documents disclosed an RCMP member is founder of the group that advocated “expressing their Palestinian identity at work” and circulated complaints about Jews testifying at parliamentary committee hearings: ‘It is important to present a narrative in support of Palestinians.’
The Department of Immigration acknowledges it let a million foreign students into the workforce without ever studying the impact on Canadian students. A single questionnaire was sent only to foreigners even as the unemployment rate for Canadian students climbed to 16 percent or more in several provinces: “A survey was sent to international students who would have been authorized to work unlimited hours.”
The RCMP is spending nearly a million a week on Black Hawk helicopters leased after U.S. President Donald Trump threatened 25 percent tariffs over inadequate border security. The Mounties already had an air patrol with 30 aircraft but were faulted by auditors for scrimping on basic equipment like night vision goggles for pilots: “How many times has suspicious or illegal activity been monitored?”
