Opposition benches yesterday accused a Liberal Member of making an obscene hand gesture as MPs voted to uphold carbon taxes on home heating by natural gas. Liberal MP Ken McDonald (Avalon, Nfld. and Labrador) denied giving opponents the finger: “If they think it’s one finger that’s up to them.”
The Commons health committee is expected to vote tomorrow on a motion to investigate taxpayers’ losses on a vaccine factory in Public Works Minister Jean-Yves Duclos’ Québec City riding. Cabinet awarded $173 million to Medicago Inc. for a plant that quickly closed and vaccines that were never delivered: “Clearly someone made decisions that were wrong.”
New figures confirm the Canada Revenue Agency from 2016 doubled the number of audits targeting small business. Data follow longstanding complaints the Agency chases “low-hanging fruit” instead of multinational corporations with sophisticated tax schemes: “Some question how much energy is put toward tackling the more significant tax avoiders.”
Industry Minister François-Philippe Champagne yesterday promised to fire any appointee responsible for suspected sweetheart contracting at a green technology agency. “The buck stops with me,” Champagne told the Commons ethics committee: “Will you admit today Sustainable Development Technology Canada has seen rampant corruption through conflicts of interest and funding ineligible companies and projects?”
A Liberal parliamentary secretary lobbied on behalf of a Party donor opposed to a Commons farm bill, records show. MP Pam Damoff (Oakville North-Burlington, Ont.) would not discuss the apparent breach of federal ethics law: “I am very proud to have toured there many times.”
Federal managers paid almost $700,000 to consultants for tips on how to save money on consultants. “This is about smarter not smaller government,” said Treasury Board President Anita Anand: “This is not about doing more with less.”
Almost a quarter of the entire country would qualify for subsidies under a proposed federal dentacare program, far more than originally estimated, data show. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau promised free dentistry for lower income households under a 2022 agreement with New Democrats: “This is what working constructively is all about.”
The largest public service union is asking a federal judge to quash surprise paycheque clawbacks for members suspected of being overpaid five years ago. The Public Service Alliance of Canada in a Federal Court filing said almost a thousand members had pay docked without notice or explanation: “The Department of Public Works erred in law.”
Rideau Hall on Saturday formally stripped an ex-Saskatchewan Provincial Court judge of her 2021 Order of Canada for claiming to be Indigenous. The case prompted demands that a Senate committee investigate the phenomenon of “pretendians.”
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A federal contractor paid millions for the ArriveCan app boasted of having pull at the Canada Border Services Agency. Remarks by Kristian Firth, partner with GC Strategies of Woodlawn, Ont., were secretly recorded by a subcontractor and given to the Commons government operations committee: “They’ve got you recorded.”
Cabinet will have to “barrel on” through public complaints over the carbon tax, Labour Minister Seamus O’Regan said yesterday. Cabinet faces a Commons vote Monday on a motion to repeal the 12¢ per cubic metre tax for the majority of Canadian homeowners who heat with natural gas: ‘Everyday folks are just having trouble making things meet and looking for someone to blame.’
Cabinet has not committed to passing a pharmacare bill by year’s end, says Health Minister Mark Holland. He made no mention of a 2022 agreement with New Democrats to pass pharmacare legislation before December 31, 2023: “It’s not something I have committed to.”
Cutting the CBC “would be devastating” for Canada, CEO Catherine Tait yesterday told the Commons heritage committee. The market share for CBC-TV is currently 4.4 percent and falling, according to the Crown broadcaster: “This is a precious asset.”
Prime Minister Brian Mulroney secretly warned cabinet members to treat their chauffeurs as spies and gossips, according to newly declassified records. Political aides were also unreliable, said Mulroney: “Talking in the presence of chauffeurs was a deplorable but common mistake as these persons were notoriously unreliable gossips.”
