Cabinet is now hiring consultants to check the work of other consultants in the multi-billion dollar Phoenix Pay System failure, the Commons government operations committee was told yesterday. Treasury Board President Mona Fortier would not explain large consulting contracts to fix software that garbled cheques for most federal employees: “It’s an insult to Canadian taxpayers.”
Liberal MPs on the Commons finance committee yesterday rejected a two-year ban on the sale of Canadian residential real estate to foreigners abroad. The Liberal Party promised a ban in the September 20 election campaign: ‘One of my frustrations is the slow pace which the Liberal government undertakes to meet its own commitments.’
Federal regulators yesterday would not commit to enforcing a parliamentary ban on foreign propaganda by Chinese state TV. The Commons voted unanimously for a ban targeting the Kremlin-financed television service Russia Today: “RT has no place on our airwaves.”
Cabinet yesterday banned Russian oil imports to Eastern refineries. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau acknowledged trade was marginal but said the ban “sends a powerful message.”
The Public Health Agency yesterday said it is now almost fully stocked with pandemic medical supplies two years after the outbreak of Covid. The Agency to date has not explained why it ignored its own planners in failing to maintain a four months’ supply of masks, medical gowns and other goods: “It’s unacceptable to get that kind of dissembling to direct questions.”
A majority of English-speaking Canadians cannot carry on a conversation in French despite 53 years of official bilingualism, says in-house federal research. Cabinet as early as today will reintroduce a bill mandating use of French in the federally regulated private sector: “I am just not interested.”
Freedom Convoy truckers were rapists, claims Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino. Testifying at the Commons public safety committee, Mendicino said “threats of rape” by political protesters justified use of the Emergencies Act: “Will you undertake to provide this committee with proof of the allegation?”
Canadians are wary of cabinet’s climate change plan to ban the sale of gas and diesel-fueled cars, pickups and SUVs in the name of “personal choice and freedom,” says in-house Privy Council Office research. Cabinet is mandating that all sales be electric by 2035: “There was anxiety with many believing costs for consumers would go up.”
Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino says he personally contacted reporters and “urged them to be very careful” in dealing with the Freedom Convoy. MPs who voted to invoke the Emergencies Act repeatedly praised coverage of the political protests against vaccine mandates: “As for journalists, trust me, I reached out to some of them.”
A federal employee who fell in default on home loans due to the Phoenix Pay System fiasco has lost a court case with her banker. Québec Superior Court was told the employee was so distressed she quit her job to cash out pension funds to pay the debts she owed: “Its failures are well known.”
Canadians will be carrying Covid masks for months to come, says the nation’s chief public health officer. Dr. Theresa Tam said Canadians should think of mask wearing as a habit like checking the weather: “Be prepared to have your mask ready.”
Millions in donations to the Freedom Convoy appeared to be an honest outpouring of public support, a federal regulator said yesterday. “It wasn’t cash that funded terrorism,” the Commons finance committee was told: “These were people who supported the cause.”
CMHC compiled records on millions of mortgage holders to identify Canadians who owned more than one property, according to Access To Information records. The massive data scoop included details on loans and credit scores for homeowners who were never CMHC customers: “It will only be used for the purposes of identifying if a borrower has more than one uninsured loan.”
Banks that froze millions held in accounts belonging to suspected Freedom Convoy sympathizers have not yet released all funds, cabinet’s representative in the Senate said yesterday. The Emergencies Act order that allowed blacklisting was suspended Wednesday: “Customers have no access to due process.”
A TV announcer’s slip of the tongue on Indian Residential Schools has been censured by a national ombudsman. “The broadcaster demonstrated a lack of the necessary respect,” ruled the Canada Broadcast Standards Council: “Precision in language is what separates journalists from everyone else.”
