Taxpayers will see no refunds on more than $700 million worth of pandemic ventilators the Department of Public Works bought from sole-sourced contractors but didn’t need. “I do have the Canadian taxpayers’ interests at heart when I am doing my job,” Minister Anita Anand said yesterday. “I am very, very concerned with that issue myself.”
A first-ever federal proposal to block websites in the name of public safety is a “slippery slope” to curbing free speech, says a national internet manager. The CRTC seeks network-wide blocking of websites to limit botnets: “Technical measures to make the internet safer must not allow for a slippery slope towards blocking content or free speech.”
A Customs officer suspended three days for allowing coworkers to cross the border to buy duty-free U.S. beer has won a federal labour board appeal. The practice was commonplace at a Coutts, Alta. crossing, the board was told: “I allowed what I had seen done over the years.”
The Commons by a 272-61 vote yesterday rejected a New Democrat bill to fix climate change targets in federal law. “We are running out of time,” said MP Leah Gazan (Winnipeg Centre), sponsor of the bill: “Our ability to survive depends on what we do.”
The Department of Foreign Affairs spent $10,900 trying to get Bill Morneau a job in Paris, according to financial records. Expenses did not include pay for nineteen employees who worked part-time on Morneau’s failed campaign for election as secretary-general of the OECD: “This result was not what Canada hoped.”
The Commons finance committee yesterday by a 7-4 vote upheld a 56 percent increase in the federal debt ceiling, from $1.168 trillion to $1,831,000,000,000. The vote came in advance of an April 19 budget: “Why not two trillion? Why not five trillion? Why even have a ceiling?”
The Commons transport committee in an 11-0 vote yesterday ordered the Canada Infrastructure Bank to surrender details of confidential million-dollar bonuses to executives. MPs have sought the information for a year: “Frankly I don’t think the performance of the Bank to date has warranted bonuses.”
The NHL yesterday endorsed a bill to legalize bookmaking in Canada after it invested in four legal bookies in the U.S. and Australia. Betting on a single sporting event has been a crime in Canada since 1892. “We are not turning our venues into casinos,” said a League official.
Commons Speaker Anthony Rota yesterday ruled a pandemic election bill can proceed despite confusion over counting of mail-in ballots. A Conservative MP had said the legal text was so garbled the bill should be withdrawn and rewritten: “The error could be corrected.”
A Canada Infrastructure Bank intended to save taxpayers’ money on public works has not attracted a penny in private investment in four years, the Parliamentary Budget Office said yesterday. “Projects don’t get built in a day,” Infrastructure Minister Catherine McKenna earlier told MPs.
Health Minister Patricia Hajdu’s department paid more than $700 million for pandemic ventilators it didn’t need, MPs were told yesterday. Ninety-eight percent of costly devices delivered under rush orders through sole-sourced contracts were warehoused: “It’s come to light that we do need less.”
The Public Health Agency yesterday was ordered for a second time to disclose records detailing mismanagement of medical stockpiles. The Agency earlier ignored a November 2 order that it detail actual numbers of masks and other supplies it threw out before the pandemic: “We threw away millions.”
Iain Stewart, president of the Public Health Agency, last night refused to tell MPs why two Chinese scientists were fired from a federal lab while under RCMP investigation. MPs said the case smacked of a security breach involving the husband and wife research team that that made numerous trips to China: “That is just bureaucratic butt-covering.”
Victor Li, chief financial officer for We Charity, yesterday was threatened with contempt of Parliament if he does not answer MPs’ questions by Friday. The Commons ethics committee has sought details of We Charity finances for eight months: “I am just getting rather frustrated with the sense of entitlement.”
Federal labour inspectors have cited Canada Post for breach of health regulations, the fourth citation in eight weeks. The post office had boasted its plants were virtually Covid-free in early months of the pandemic but has since stopped reporting rates of infection: “The employer has failed.”
