Statistics Canada yesterday suggested updating decade-old estimates on the number of Canadian citizens abroad who are eligible to vote and claim federal benefits. It follows Parliament’s passage of a bill that created 115,000 new citizens: “Definitely we could benefit from updates.”
Green electricity regulations are “unworkable,” “not achievable,” “unacceptable” and threaten reliable supply, says a report to senators by Canadian utilities. The Department of Environment has acknowledged ratepayers face increasing costs under its Clean Electricity Regulations: “The regulations will create unacceptable reliability and affordability challenges across Canada.”
Cabinet yesterday confirmed it disbanded the office of the Special Representative on Combating Islamophobia headed by former Toronto Star columnist Amira Elghawaby. It followed disclosures Elghawaby lobbied to install Muslim prayer rooms in federal buildings and advocated for employees “speaking out on Palestinian issues.”
Indigenous Services Minister Mandy Gull-Masty’s department has struck nearly 2,000 contractors from its list of accredited Indigenous suppliers. It follows complaints that companies falsely claimed First Nations, Métis and Inuit ownership to land millions in contracts: “Which ones were asked to pay back money due to misrepresentation?”
The Department of Health in a briefing note acknowledges its “safe supply” drug policy led to public disorder. The issue was “highly polarizing,” it said: “Several municipalities and Indigenous communities have declared states of emergency.”
Federal election monitors yesterday said Conservative candidate Joe Tay needed private security due to threats by Chinese Communist Party agents in the 2025 campaign. However authorities said they had no reason to believe foreign interference affected the outcome in Tay’s riding, Don Valley North, Ont.: “What possibly could it take before the threshold would be met to say this is not a free and fair election?”
Levels of public service were mediocre even before job cuts, a Liberal MP yesterday told the Commons government operations committee. MP Iqra Khalid (Mississauga-Erin Mills, Ont.) complained federal employees were “already not doing that great.”
Youth unemployment is so bad it risks impacting lifetime earnings for postsecondary students who can’t find work, Interim Budget Officer Jason Jacques said yesterday. It follows an attempt by managers of the Canada Summer Jobs program to target subsidized hiring for as little as eight weeks: ‘If you are not able to find that first job related to your studies, chances are your lifetime earnings will be lower.’
Cabinet yesterday nominated Anton Boegman, British Columbia’s former Chief Electoral Officer, as Commissioner to oversee a federal registry of foreign agents. A majority of MPs and Senators must ratify the appointment of Boegman, who was ridiculed as incompetent in a 2024 commentary privately circulated by federal election managers: “No one at Elections BC has apologized or assumed responsibility for the embarrassing failures of leadership.”
Drone hobbyists are making it more challenging to track UFOs, says cabinet’s chief science advisor. “Can we identify these devices at night?” Dr. Mona Nemer asked in an Access To Information memo to staff.
Executives in Prime Minister Mark Carney’s Privy Council Office last year awarded themselves bonuses worth nearly $28,000 each, records show. Virtually all executives won an award even as Carney appealed to other Canadians for sacrifices: “We won’t play games.”
Cost of a new GST credit estimated by cabinet at $5.8 billion will come closer to $14 billion including debt interest charges, the Budget Office said yesterday. Finance Minister François-Philippe Champagne did not dispute the report: “We are going to meet the moment.”
Liberal MP Bill Blair (Scarborough Southwest, Ont.), 71, yesterday was named High Commissioner to the United Kingdom. The appointment followed Blair’s dismissal from cabinet after a judicial inquiry found he “dropped the ball” on foreign interference.
Federal regulators yesterday disclosed the Bank of Montreal had paid $3.6 million in compensation after it was caught overcharging 101,091 depositors on discounted fees. Bank managers ignored hundreds of complaints from customers, said the Financial Consumer Agency of Canada: ‘They received over 500 complaints.’
The Federal Court of Appeal has ordered a new hearing into a WestJet employee who questioned women co-workers about breastfeeding and puberty. Judges overturned a labour board finding that the workplace comments were not sexual harassment though admittedly “outside the normal boundaries.”
