Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland is doubling pre-election federal aid for publishers approved by the Liberal cabinet. Freeland in a Fall Economic Statement yesterday said payroll rebates originally promised to expire in 2024 are now extended past the next election at almost $30,000 a year per newsroom employee: ‘This is to ensure a strong and independent press can continue to thrive.’
The Commons industry committee last night voted to investigate the hiring of South Koreans at a subsidized battery factory. MPs demanded to know how many foreigners will work at taxpayers’ expense: “The motivation is simple: transparency.”
Canada needs South Korean labour at a subsidized electric car battery plant because “we’ve never done batteries,” Industry Minister François-Philippe Champagne said yesterday. Cabinet would not disclose how many foreign workers it agreed to subsidize at a Stellantis factory in Windsor, Ont.: “No one has done batteries in North America before.”
An $8 million solar-powered warehouse at Rideau Hall came in under budget, says the federal agency that managed the project. Members of the Commons public accounts committee yesterday expressed disbelief over the cost: “From photos we’ve seen it looks more like a detached garage with four doors.”
Cabinet yesterday confirmed a tax holiday for apartment builders will cost nearly $5 billion. New terms are to include co-operative housing: “Our country needs more homes and we need more of them fast.”
Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault’s office in an Access To Information letter says it cannot find thank you notes from carbon tax supporters named Bob and Jill. Guilbeault in Question Period cited correspondence from the couple as evidence of the popularity of the tax: “After a thorough search no records were found.”
Cabinet yesterday confirmed it has begun issuing permits to foreign workers to build a taxpayer-funded electric auto battery plant in Windsor, Ont. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau had promised subsidies for the Stellantis plant would create Canadian jobs: “Everything the Prime Minister has said about the Stellantis subsidy has proven false.”
A federal agency yesterday confirmed the abrupt resignation of its cabinet-appointed chair. Annette Verschuren is currently under investigation by the Ethics Commissioner and Commons ethics committee after voting to award her own company a $217,000 grant: “We are just scratching the surface.”
The Commons trade committee yesterday urged cabinet to review its 2022 equity tax on vacant, foreign-owned properties. Witnesses including one U.S. Congressman testified the tax breached free trade rules: “New policy measures do not always have the anticipated effects.”
Spending at Rideau Hall increased 11 percent last year, according to Financial Statements from the Secretary to Governor General Mary Simon. Cost of the vice-regal office is now approaching $40 million annually: “Irresponsible spending by the Office of the Governor General has caused outrage.”
Christmas is discriminatory, says a Canadian Human Rights Commission report. Observance of Jesus’ birth is “an obvious example” of religious bias rooted in colonialism, wrote the Commission: “No one is free until we are all free.”
The Department of Finance has failed a major security audit. An internal report said the department that guarded confidential data from parliamentarians and the public was slack in watching its own staff: “The employee may divulge secret information in exchange for money.”
Newly-declassified records show Prime Minister Brian Mulroney was wary of Conservative MPs’ “small town values” in amending 1980s-era obscenity laws. “Intercourse was alleged to happen all the time even in the government caucus,” said confidential minutes of one cabinet meeting: “Perhaps the idea of ‘current community standards’ should be revisited.”
Cabinet should promote plastic recycling instead of banning products, says Opposition Leader Pierre Poilievre. The remarks followed a federal judge’s decision to strike the 2021 federal blacklisting of all plastic products from building materials to children’s toys as toxic: “None of this is backed up by any science or evidence.”
Electric vehicle subsidies to date will cost taxpayers up to $50 billion and counting including debt financing charges, says a Budget Office report. The figure is triple the value of annual production of the entire Canadian auto sector: “As soon as we publish a report that sets the record straight there are accusations we have not understood the problem or have a bone to pick.”
