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.’
Federal departments are under-reporting lost and stolen equipment, says an internal audit at the Department of Industry. Auditors found managers waited months, even more than a year to properly report missing computers, cellphones and other equipment: “Sensitive data may be compromised.”
Cabinet yesterday budgeted $3,164,228 to begin work on YouTube regulation though a bill permitting first-ever internet controls has yet to pass Parliament. “We will continue to do all we can to get it through as quickly as possible,” said Heritage Minister Steven Guilbeault: “We have worked hard.”
The Manitoba publisher that spearheaded a 2019 campaign for press subsidies last year received more than $6.2 million in federal aid, according to accounts. Subsidies were equivalent to more than half of net income for FP Newspapers Inc., publisher of the Winnipeg Free Press and Brandon Sun: “Of course there will be newspapers that fail, and you can’t give it to them forever.”
Tracking the true ownership of shell companies in Canada is a “personal priority for me,” Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland yesterday told the Senate national finance committee. Cabinet has budgeted $2.1 million to develop a publicly-accessible website naming names, though the registry will not be operating until 2025: “Realize that we will be seven or eight years behind the U.K.”
A federal labour board has upheld the firing of a Department of Employment manager for nepotism. No investigation of family hiring in the federal public service government-wide has ever been conducted, though a 2018 survey of employees found it a common practice: ‘It raises the timeless question: Was the culprit sorry for his or her misdeeds, or for having been caught?’
A grocery store worker fired for “stealing” $1.80 worth of bread at a self-checkout scanner has been ordered reinstated. A Saskatchewan labour arbitrator ruled scanner price codes were so complicated it was not obvious how any customer could figure them out: “The self-checkout process is anything but straightforward.”
The Public Health Agency breached federal rules in paying out more than $600 million in cash advances to contractors for rush orders on pandemic supplies, auditors disclosed yesterday. The value of money lost on goods never delivered was not revealed: “These contracts are considered riskier.”
The Commons government operations committee yesterday by a 6-5 vote ordered disclosure of confidential emails regarding a sole-sourced federal contract to the Prime Minister’s half-brother. Kyle Kemper, an Ottawa bitcoin developer, was paid to attend a Swiss conference as a “champion speaker” on behalf of the Government of Canada: “What is the suspicion here?”
