Canada’s largest “clean energy” utility is paying publicists thousands a week to plant industry-friendly messages on Facebook, blogs and other media. Hydro-Québec yesterday would not comment on the publicity campaign aimed at countering Indigenous critics: “No monies will ever be transferred for citizens to engage in grassroots communications to legislators.”
Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault yesterday said he does “not have a secret agenda” as a longtime Greenpeace activist. A cabinet colleague predicted emission targets will bring the greatest economic upheaval since the Industrial Revolution: “It is going to take so much hard work from all of us.”
Vaccinated MPs yesterday protested threats of job loss for Canadians wary of disclosing their personal medical status. “Does your employer tell everybody else what your health information is?” one Conservative legislator asked reporters.
Inflation will run “close to five percent” this winter and remain higher than originally forecast through 2023, Bank of Canada Governor Tiff Macklem yesterday told reporters. Macklem stopped short of advocating a rise in interest rates to control prices: “Can you tell them what exactly the plan is?”
The country’s largest civilian workforce, the 54,000 employees of the post office, today will receive details of a vaccination program that keeps the mail moving. The program is expected to give unimmunized workers until 2022 to take Covid shots without threat of suspension without pay: “This is a complex matter.”
Cabinet will not raise the five percent GST to pay for pandemic debts, Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland yesterday told reporters. There was no consideration to raising personal taxes on middle income earners either, she said: “We need to be thoughtful and careful.”
The CBC must rewrite its language guides to refer to climate change as a “climate crisis,” says a longtime radio host. Laura Lynch yesterday joined subsidized press representatives in advocating more aggressive news coverage of climate and weather stories: “There was no room in our program for any kind of debate.”
Steven Guilbeault, a self-described green crusader and newly-appointed environment minister, yesterday said Canadians must “go faster” on climate change. Guilbeault provided no details: ‘That is why I joined the Liberal Party.’
Cabinet will quickly reintroduce first-ever internet regulations that lapsed in the last Parliament, Heritage Minister Pablo Rodriguez said yesterday. “We promised to bring in some bills very quickly,” said Rodriguez: “It is fundamental.”
Federal lawyers have lost a bid to block a legal challenge of a $20 million benefit for Rogers Media Inc. A former Liberal cabinet minister, Joe Volpe, has sought to overturn Rogers’ lucrative license for a multilingual news program: “What are we doing here?”
More than a third of Canadians believe world events are secretly manipulated by a “small group” of conspirators, says in-house research by Elections Canada. Data show the number of conspiracy theorists ranged as high as 42 percent in one province: “Forty percent of respondents have mixed conspiracy beliefs and 18 percent hold strong conspiracy beliefs.”
A federal contractor that booked Margaret Trudeau as a group speaker received $5.8 million in federal funding prior to the election, records show. CTV News yesterday said the Prime Minister’s mother refused comment when asked if she charged her usual $20,000 speaking fee: “We are not our fathers and mothers.”
The Department of Transport gave favoured suppliers the inside track on sweetheart contracts, according to a review by Procurement Ombudsman Alexander Jeglic. “It appears Transport Canada treated bidders unfairly,” wrote Jeglic. “Some received more relevant information than others.”
Ottawa’s deputy chief oil and gas regulator, Kathy Penney, says she has avoided all dealings with a major energy company that employs her son. Penney in federal ethics filings also said she would avoid “any communication with government officials” regarding TransCanada Energy Corporation: ‘My son Ben participates in a performance share unit program.’
A cabinet policy to ban Canada Summer Jobs subsidies for pro-life groups appears headed for the Supreme Court after federal judges issued contradictory rulings on free expression. Legal challenges date from 2017: “The most sinister threat to free speech is compelled speech.”
