Federal managers mistakenly paid 120,000 striking employees millions in regular wages during a 2023 dispute, says the Department of Public Works. Most overpayments have been recovered, it said: “Human error.”
Auditor General Karen Hogan will disclose confidential details of a special audit of the $54 million ArriveCan program February 12, the Commons public accounts was told yesterday. Auditors would not comment when asked if they’d uncovered evidence of criminality: “When we identify issues that could raise the potential of criminality we do identify it for the RCMP.”
The Commons public accounts committee yesterday by a 7 to 3 vote rejected a motion condemning “apparent reprisals” against whistleblowers on the ArriveCan program. Two federal managers were suspended without pay after suggesting Canada Border Services Agency executives lied about the $54 million program: “It clearly goes back to disdain for anyone who would dare challenge their narrative.”
Cabinet is reconsidering its elimination of a 2009 Stephen Harper directive requiring that Mexicans obtain visas prior to boarding flights to Canada. The number of Mexican refugee claimants has grown from 120 to 22,875 since the visa rule was repealed in 2016: “It will be done in a reasoned manner.”
Federal auditors are summoned today to a hearing of the Commons public accounts committee regarding the costly ArriveCan program. MPs by a 173 to 149 vote ordered a special audit of ArriveCan after learning sweetheart contracts paid millions to sole-sourced suppliers: “There is obviously something fishy going on.”
All future cabinets are on notice against misusing the Emergencies Act to quash peaceful protest, civil rights lawyers yesterday told reporters. Asked for comment on cabinet’s appeal of a critical Federal Court ruling, the Canadian Civil Liberties Association replied: “We will fight them tooth and nail.”
Opposition MPs yesterday asked cabinet to reinstate visa requirements for Mexican visitors. Records show Mexico accounts for a larger number of refugee claimants in Canada than any other country: “We are always very much aware of potential criminality.”
Canadians should expect a weak economy and high interest rates through much of 2024, Bank of Canada Governor Tiff Macklem said yesterday. “We are not forecasting a deep recession,” he said: “Growth has stalled. It stalled around the middle of last year. We expect growth to continue to be close to zero.”
Transit use is in long term decline nationwide likely due to office telework, Statistics Canada said yesterday. New figures follow a Department of Infrastructure report warning taxpayers alone cannot carry the cost of system deficits: “The increase in work from home has reduced public transit use.”
Cabinet “delivered for millions of Canadians” under a 2017 National Housing Strategy, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said yesterday. Figures tabled in Parliament show in fact just over 100,000 homes were built under the program: “We are going to continue as we have done.”
Richard Mosley, 74, the Liberal-appointed federal judge who ruled the Freedom Convoy crackdown was unconstitutional, yesterday said civil rights lawyers changed his mind about the case. Ottawa officialdom including the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court had condemned protesters as anarchists: “I was leaning to the view the decision to invoke the Emergencies Act was reasonable.”
Ex-cabinet members who advocated a 2022 Freedom Convoy crackdown yesterday had no comment after the Federal Court ruled their actions were unlawful. Using the Emergencies Act against peaceful protesters was unconstitutional, ruled the Court: “It captured people who simply wanted to join in the protest by standing on Parliament Hill carrying a placard.”
Cabinet will collect nearly a half billion in sales taxes on the carbon tax this year, the Budget Office said yesterday. Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland has repeatedly claimed the carbon tax is “revenue neutral.”
A federal incentive program dating from 2012 has drawn nearly 18,000 doctors and nurses to rural Canada, says a Department of Employment report. Auditors rated Canada Student Loan forgiveness a success though many medical and nursing students never heard of it: ‘They found out about it from family or friends.’
More than $11 million has been paid to families of Canadians who suffered death or injury as a result of Covid vaccines, say managers of a federal compensation fund. The new figures follow Health Minister Mark Holland’s boast that Canada was a world leader in pandemic lifesaving: “Thanks to vaccines and to other measures we saved literally hundreds of thousands of lives.”
