The Department of Environment yesterday introduced the most sweeping lead ban since Parliament outlawed the retail sale of leaded gasoline in 1990. Toxic lead wheel weights are now restricted. Regulators stopped short of banning hunters’ lead ammunition and fishing jigs and sinkers: “We now believe there is no safe level of lead.”
The Commons yesterday by a 172-0 vote gave Second Reading to a bill to reform federal whistleblower protections for employees who uncover corrupt practices. Liberals abstained on the vote to toughen legislation dating back 16 years: “The law is nearly entirely dormant.”
The Canada Infrastructure Bank has approved easy-term climate loans that will see taxpayers wait decades to get their money back, its CEO disclosed yesterday. “Our terms are quite flexible,” said Ehren Cory, $600,000-a year CEO and former McKinsey & Company consultant: “Those projects would not happen without us.”
The Canada Revenue Agency yesterday said it investigated claims made by a caller to a Toronto radio station who boasted employees fraudulently claimed pandemic relief benefits. Misconduct was punishable by firing and a lifetime ban on federal employment, a spokesperson said: “The Agency is aware of the radio call-in show.”
Almost a third of chaplains in the federal prison system are non-Christians, data show. “Service levels to other than Christian faiths have increased by 66 percent” over the past decade, the Correctional Service wrote in a report to Parliament: “Offenders of all faiths receive regular and consistent support to practice their personal beliefs.”
Cabinet has quietly dropped the last of its mask mandates. A requirement that taxpayers mask themselves at Service Canada offices has ended: “That’s been a very recent policy change.”
A ninth member of the government caucus yesterday was cited for unethical conduct. Liberal MP Greg Fergus (Hull-Aylmer, Que.), parliamentary secretary to the Prime Minister, was caught lobbying for a TV license on behalf of a Québec businessman: “I fell short.”
Nearly 4 in 10 Canadians are now borrowing money to pay for groceries, shelter and other daily expenses, say federal researchers. One report described it as the worst of times for many Canadians, “the biggest financial challenges of their lives.”
Parliament must combat the “radicalization of white people in this country,” a former Calgary mayor yesterday testified at the Senate human rights committee. Naheed Nenshi said unnamed politicians “have seen short term political gain in this.”
The Department of Canadian Heritage yesterday admitted it did not do its homework in awarding a six-figure grant to an anti-Semite who fantasized on Twitter about shooting Jews. The department did not explain why it took months to cancel the contract with activist Laith Marouf, now a resident of Beirut: “Has there been disciplinary action for any staff over what happened here?”
Tips from informants led auditors to recover more than $26 million in penalties and incorrect payments under the costliest pandemic relief program, records show. Tipsters led the Canada Revenue Agency to conduct hundreds of audits under the Canada Emergency Wage Subsidy: “How many did the Agency investigate?”
Federal departments have spent at least $50.6 million on hotel bookings for illegal border crossers and lawful refugee applicants since 2015, piecemeal figures show. No department has attempted a complete costing of illegal immigration since the Budget Office put expenses at a billion: “How many hotels?”
Cabinet has replaced its chief pandemic manager for the fourth time in 28 months. Heather Jeffrey, a career civil servant, was named $274,000-a year president of the Public Health Agency. The last three presidents abruptly resigned without completing their contracts: “Was there anyone who faced any discipline at all?”
Trade Minister Mary Ng will not repay the cost of contracts improperly awarded to a personal friend and CBC pundit. The payments for media coaching were the equivalent of more than $2,800 an hour: “Do you think taxpayers should be reimbursed?”
More than a quarter of young children eligible for Covid shots went unvaccinated over parental worries, data show. Mothers and fathers were concerned vaccines had unknown side effects, said the Public Health Agency: ‘They worried not enough research on the vaccine has been done in children.’
