The economy is “not going to play out exactly the way we forecast,” Bank of Canada Governor Tiff Macklem last night told the Senate banking committee. Macklem made the remark when asked to predict the likelihood of another recession: “We’ve never come out of a pandemic before.”
The Commons heritage committee yesterday opened hearings on whether to ban hate symbols in Canada. Liberal MPs proposed hearings in response to the Freedom Convoy but deleted a specific reference to “the swastika and the Confederate flag” after one Conservative suggested the ban also apply to blackface: “This cannot continue.”
Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland yesterday permanently put in force regulations requiring crowdfunding platforms to report cash donations over $10,000. The rule was introduced as a temporary precaution during the Freedom Convoy: “What we are facing today is a threat to our democratic institutions.”
Cabinet must educate parents on how to avoid accidental cannabis poisonings of young children, Families Minister Karina Gould said yesterday. Poisonings rose sharply after Parliament legalized cannabis in 2018: “We certainly don’t want to see children going to emergency rooms.”
Overland flooding knocks an average eight percent off property values, says a University of Waterloo report commissioned by CMHC. It follows a federal recommendation that cabinet mandate homeowners’ purchase of climate change insurance: “Canada is an outlier among many advanced economies offering some form of nationalized flood insurance.”
Cabinet relied on CBC stories for justification in using emergency powers against the Freedom Convoy, Attorney General David Lametti testified last night at parliamentary hearings. Lametti said he invoked the Emergencies Act after CBC News falsely reported foreigners bankrolled the protest: “There were reports. CBC reported.”
Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino last night repeated false claims Freedom Convoy protesters attempted to burn down an Ottawa apartment building. Mendicino made the remarks in committee testimony as MPs and senators puzzled over why cabinet declared a national emergency to end the protest: “It’s unacceptable, almost irresponsible.”
Federal managers suspended without pay more than 2,500 employees for declining to show proof of vaccination, records show. Employees stripped of salary and benefits included 66 at the Department of Health and Public Health Agency that spoke against coercive vaccination: “The federal government violated human rights knowing few people can afford to sue.”
Cabinet must protect whistleblowers who allege wrongdoing at the Canada Revenue Agency, Conservative MP Kelly McCauley (Edmonton West) yesterday told the Commons government operations committee. Agency executives are accused of manipulating tax rulings for corporate lobbyists: ‘Will they be protected from retribution for exposing corruption and wrongdoing within the CRA?’
The Canadian military had only two aircraft in Kabul when the city fell to the Taliban last August 15, says Immigration Minister Sean Fraser. Canadian diplomats commandeered one of them to flee the city leaving behind thousands of Canadian citizens and Afghan allies: ‘The U.S. had 110 planes on site; Canada had two and one of them wasn’t in great working order.’
Federal climate programs threaten at least 170,000 jobs with little transitional planning by cabinet, Environment Commissioner Jerry DeMarco said yesterday. DeMarco compared economic fallout to the catastrophic 1992 collapse of the commercial cod fishery: “It’s seven years since they’ve had notice they had to work on this.”
Bank of Canada Governor Tiff Macklem yesterday acknowledged missing repeated inflation targets and warned higher interest rates may risk driving the economy back into recession. “We got some things wrong,” Macklem told the Commons finance committee: “Are there some risks? Yes.”
Paul Rouleau, a Liberal-appointed federal judge, yesterday was named by cabinet to lead an inquiry into the use of emergency powers against Freedom Convoy protesters. Rouleau was previously partner in a Montréal law firm whose associates included Pierre Trudeau: “Will he have full access to cabinet documents?”
The Canada Revenue Agency paid nearly a half million in rent subsidies to a phantom company that had no leases and never filed a tax return, records show. The Agency to date has not disclosed the scope of fraudulent Covid relief claims it paid without cursory background checks: “Some individuals may be taking advantage.”
The Department of Health did not ship a single rapid test kit to any hospital in the first six months of the pandemic, documents show. Dr. Theresa Tam at the time claimed the department was “pulling out all stops.”
