Canada’s best known natural gas fixture, the Centennial Flame on Parliament Hill, will be made “carbon-neutral” due to climate change, says the Department of Public Works. The old gas flame emitted 38 tonnes of carbon emissions annually, it said: “The department has not been purchasing carbon credits.”
Auditor General Karen Hogan yesterday said she didn’t want to dwell on “why things were as bad as they were” at the Public Health Agency prior to Covid. Members of the Commons public accounts committee faulted Hogan for what one MP called a “very timid” exoneration of the Agency in a pandemic that killed more than 25,000 Canadians: “I focused on continuous improvement.”
The Commons today is expected to pass a motion compelling disclosure of uncensored records of an RCMP raid at a federal lab. Two Chinese scientists were suspended, then fired in an incident the Public Health Agency has refused to discuss with MPs: “These concerns were serious.”
Union executives yesterday petitioned the Commons industry committee to speed passage of a private bill to rewrite federal bankruptcy laws. The United Steelworkers said it feared the bill to grant preference to pensioners in corporate insolvency claims will be lost with an expected election: “Please let’s move.”
Senators last night balked at a bill to strip ex-Governor General Julie Payette of her lifetime pension after she quit amid a workplace harassment probe. Senators questioned whether Payette would sue to keep her benefits: “It’s simply a disgraceful situation.”
The Department of Employment paid more than $9 million in pandemic relief to dead people. Cheques were directly deposited into accounts of Canadians who passed away before the pandemic broke out: “Grieving people have no inkling who they should call.”
Filibustering Conservatives yesterday said there is little chance Heritage Minister Steven Guilbeault’s YouTube regulation bill C-10 will pass into law before Parliament adjourns for the summer and an expected election campaign. “It is a disaster,” said one MP.
A federal agency budgeted $56,000 for videos, flyers and webinars to counter what it called “disinformation” by media and patient groups over drug price controls. Staff vowed to “push back more aggressively,” according to Access To Information records disclosed by Conservative MP Tom Kmiec (Calgary Shepard): “Industry has been sucking Canada for decades.”
Cabinet yesterday said nearly $34 million in federal contracts were awarded to a consultant that once hosted a VIP retreat near a Chinese internment camp. The disclosure follow a Commons vote condemning China for crimes against humanity: “I am thinking of the million people detained in camps that the Chinese call re-education centres.”
The head of federal cybersecurity yesterday disclosed his personal accounts have been hacked. Scott Jones, head of the Canadian Centre for Cybersecurity, said data breaches have impacted virtually everyone in Canada: “There is a tremendous amount of information available on each citizen, about all of us, on the web.”
The Privy Council Office has appointed a mental health advisor after nearly a third of employees rated the office as “psychologically unhealthy.” Cabinet said the advisor assists staff troubled with “work-life balance.”
Ethics Commissioner Mario Dion says he never interviewed Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in his We Charity investigation because “an affidavit is just as good.” Dion in a May 13 report concluded Trudeau and his family were “closely involved in We Charity’s affairs” but broke no laws: “Because you believed him you found him innocent.”
Natural Resources Minister Seamus O’Regan says it is “really important to note how important plastics are,” but admitted to the Commons natural resources committee he was unaware industry filed a lawsuit against his own government for listing plastic manufactured items as toxic. The lawsuit was filed two weeks ago: “Plastics are derived from oil.”
Opposition MPs on the Commons health committee are demanding the Privy Council Office explain the ongoing concealment of 992,000 pandemic records sought by a House order. Cabinet aides have been slow to produce emails and files though MPs ordered their release by a 176-152 vote last October 26: “Everybody can see what is happening now.”
The Commons has unanimously passed a bill to designate September 30 a paid holiday for 1.3 million federally-regulated employees. The bill proclaiming a National Day for Truth and Reconciliation now proceeds to the Senate: ‘People might ask how one day that establishes a statutory holiday for a limited number of people can make a difference.’
