The Commons yesterday by a 199-128 vote passed a private bill to cut millions in taxes on family sales of legacy farms. The Department of Finance opposed the bill: “This legislation would impact every single constituency in Canada.”
Cabinet yesterday said it welcomes suggestions on amending the Governor General’s Act to repeal lifetime pension benefits for quitters. It follows a public outcry over six-figure annual benefits for Julie Payette after she abruptly resigned over workplace harassment complaints: “I understand people’s frustration with Ms. Payette.”
The House yesterday by a unanimous 331-0 vote passed a private bill to print an organ donor check-box on federal income tax forms. The Kidney Foundation endorsed the bill: “Canada has one of the lowest donation rates in the world.”
A bill to extend unpaid funeral leave for Canadians stricken by death in the family yesterday passed the Commons on a 332-0 vote. MPs called it a compassionate amendment to the Canada Labour Code: “Parliament can work.”
Heritage Minister Steven Guilbeault’s YouTube regulation bill C-10 will censor everyday Canadians’ uploaded content, a former vice-chair of the CRTC said yesterday. “The government itself doesn’t seem to understand what it is doing,” he said: “All Canadians communicating over the internet will do so under the guise of the state.”
The Department of Transport says it has no evidence mandating Safety Management Systems at Canadian airlines actually improved safety. The department concealed the findings for two years: “A number of interviewees expressed concern that Transport Canada was ‘offloading regulations’ onto operators.”
A $36.3 million program to equip federal employees working from home saw one unidentified manager bill more than $1,100 for an ergonomic chair, while the Department of Finance spent thousands on anti-fatigue mats: “It all adds up.”
The Commons agriculture committee yesterday by a 6-5 vote approved a private bill to expand carbon tax exemptions for farmers. Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland called it a “very legitimate concern.”
Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland yesterday said she will “really act” to rewrite federal usury law for the first time since 1978. The pandemic has dramatized predatory lending practices, Freeland told the Commons finance committee: “Payday lending can impose real hardship.”
Every dollar spent by the federal government benefits the economy, says a senior Department of Finance official. Nicholas Leswick, assistant deputy minister, yesterday told the Commons finance committee all money taxed and spent benefits the nation: “Did I understand that incorrectly?”
MP yesterday summoned Heritage Minister Steven Guilbeault to explain his YouTube censorship bill. Members of the Commons heritage committee voted 11-0 to suspend all further hearings on the bill until Guilbeault explains federal regulation of videos intended for private viewing: “The government has gone too far.”
Liberal and New Democrat MPs yesterday by a 176-155 vote cut short debate on a bill to allow mail-in election ballots to be counted even after federal polls close in an expected 2021 campaign. Elections Canada has predicted a hundredfold increase in mailed ballots this year: “What is the big desire to rush this bill through now?”
MPs last night cited Iain Stewart, president of the Public Health Agency, for concealing facts over the January 20 firing of two Chinese scientists at a federal lab. Stewart invoked the Privacy Act in refusing to release uncensored records to the Commons Special Committee on Canada-China Relations: “What is going on that is being kept from us?”
Taxpayers made about $40 million on the Trans Mountain Pipeline since cabinet bought it for $4.5 billion, the Parliamentary Budget Office said yesterday. Financing costs, write-downs and construction delays were to blame for the low return, said analysts: “The Canadian approach will be to ensure that we make a profit.”
The Canadian Human Rights Commission will formally intervene in a complaint over curbs to paid Covid furloughs for federal employees, the largest public service union said yesterday. Cabinet last November 9 restricted payments to employees who were neither sick nor working from home after costs reached $1.1 billion: “It is largely being used only when necessary.”
