Former industry minister Navdeep Bains last night said he couldn’t recall being warned against appointing a Liberal Party donor with a conflict of interest as chair of a federal agency. Auditors in a report Tuesday cited directors of Sustainable Development Technology Canada in 186 conflicts that benefited friends and associates: “Boy it’s great to have amnesia, isn’t it?”
Parliamentarians yesterday complained they were all “under a cloud” with cabinet’s refusal to name lawmakers who spied for foreign embassies. MPs and senators demanded culprits be unmasked and expelled: “I am calling you out.”
A former ArriveCan manager yesterday acknowledged he deleted numerous emails but called it an unfortunate computer error. Minh Doan, former chief information officer for the Canada Border Services Agency, suffered a memory lapse when confronted with one surviving text in which he told a co-worker he “can’t throw Ministers under the bus.”
The Mint yesterday defended its decision to issue a commemorative RCAF centennial coin depicting an American-made cargo plane built for the U.S. Air Force. The Royal Canadian Air Force did not comment: ‘Commemorative coins promote the shared history of people living in Canada.’
Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland’s latest omnibus budget bill includes a ‘shocking’ clause that punishes the blind, say tax lawyers. It follows longstanding complaints that budget bills like the current version amending 48 Acts of Parliament are mammoth, unwieldy and riddled with errors: “I will read it to you. You will be shocked.”
Canadians should enjoy a pre-election rate cut, Bank of Canada Governor Tiff Macklem said yesterday. The Bank lowered its key rate on interbank loans to 2023 levels: “Let’s just enjoy the moment for a bit.”
Cabinet members yesterday expressed unease over a federal report pointing to foreign spies on Parliament Hill. One unnamed public office holder was suspected of “providing information learned in confidence from the government to a known intelligence officer of a foreign state.”
Auditors yesterday documented favouritism in the awarding of millions in federal contracts to McKinsey & Company, a consulting firm formerly led by a friend of Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland. McKinsey received a total $200.4 million in contracts since 2015: “It looks like it was done to suit them.”
Directors of a federal agency dubbed a “green slush fund” had conflicts of interest 186 times, auditors disclosed yesterday. In 90 cases they voted for subsidies benefiting friends and associates: “The federal government is unable to follow its own laws.”
Employment Minister Randy Boissonnault yesterday denied acting as an Edmonton contractor while serving in cabinet. The Ethics Commissioner said he was reviewing Global News reports that an executive called “Randy” was named in texts between executives of a company in which Boissonnault held shares: “I do not know.”
Federal managers beginning June 18 will scope the extent of defaults under a $49 billion pandemic loan program managed by Export Development Canada, records show. An audit of the Canadian Emergency Business Account Program is already underway: “Outstanding principal is $31.5 billion.”
“A few” parliamentarians have spied on colleagues including one MP known to be an informant for a foreign government, a federal committee said yesterday. Felonies may have been committed, said a report: “I want to be careful not to comment.”
David Johnston, 82, is out as acting chief of the Federal Leaders’ Debates Commission. Cabinet in a pre-election order did not fire Johnston outright but voted to replace him with an employee in case of “absence or incapacity.”
The Department of Public Works yesterday said it sent letters to contractors asking for repayment of at least part of the $59.5 million cost of the ArriveCan program. The department did not specify when it expected an answer: “Letters to that effect have gone out.”
The Public Health Agency auctioned $22,000 ventilators as scrap metal for pennies a pound because they couldn’t give them away, documents show. The Agency said the costly StarFish Medical devices were declared surplus within months of their purchase: ‘Why were they sold as scrap?’
