Competition Bureau investigators are widening an anti-trust probe in farm chemicals, according to Federal Court records. The Bureau since 2019 has alleged the nation’s largest chemical manufacturers targeted a start-up discounter that promised farmers low-cost pesticides: “If anyone thinks socialism is going to feed the world just call Russia.”
SNC-Lavalin Group Inc. was awarded a $150 million pandemic contract despite former executives being cited for bid-rigging, fraud, bribery and illegal campaign contributions, records show. Opposition MPs have questioned why the Québec engineering firm is not blacklisted as a federal contractor: “We look like a banana republic.”
The Bloc Québécois last night protested a rewrite of the citizenship oath to include the word “constitution.” A cabinet bill revising the oath will be opposed, an MP told the Commons Indigenous affairs committee: “Did this come from the government, this idea to include the word?”
Federal departments installed $2 million VIP electric auto charging stations for exclusive use by cabinet ministers and their deputies, records show. “We absolutely do need to be leading by example,” Infrastructure Minister Catherine McKenna said earlier.
An audit yesterday confirmed proportionately fewer Black jobseekers are hired by federal managers though reasons were unclear. The Public Service Commission audit reviewed jobs posted prior to 2020 Black Lives Matter protests: “There are likely other issues at play.”
A national broadcast ombudsman yesterday cited CTV National News for inaccurate reporting on Donald Trump. The network apologized for what it called an inadvertent error, adding “there was no intent to ‘spin’ the news.”
Parliament’s Budget Officer yesterday said CERB payments to high schoolers will be investigated. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau did not comment on $635.9 million in relief cheques to children, but called the pandemic “potentially scarring” for young people: “That is why we moved forward with unprecedented measures, with the CERB for students for example.”
Canada Post’s pioneering e-post electronic document sharing service launched with fanfare decades ago as “Canada’s first electronic mailbox” will be disbanded, the post office confirmed yesterday. Officials did not detail costs or net revenues of the program overtaken by Google and other competitors: “Other companies are now better suited to meet Canadians’ changing needs.”
Parliament must “protect against social harms” on the internet with regulation of hurtful Facebook and Twitter remarks, a federally-funded commission yesterday recommended. Even a member of the commission objected to the proposal as federal over-reach: “The regulator will need to have both bark and bite.”
The RCMP has seen “erosion” of public confidence in its leadership since the appointment of Brenda Lucki as $368,000-a year Commissioner, says in-house research. “We’re not a perfect organization,” Lucki earlier testified at the Commons public safety committee.
Drug traffickers’ sales for the first time were eclipsed by legal cannabis distribution in 2020 after Parliament legalized marijuana, according to records. The Department of Health said the “displacement of the illegal market” will take much longer: “It will take time.”
The Canada Revenue Agency paid $635,980,000 in pandemic relief to high schoolers including thousands of Grade Nine students, according to Access To Information records. Parliament passed a hastily-drafted Canada Emergency Response Benefit Act that allowed children to apply, though cabinet said $2,000 relief cheques were supposed to help jobless workers facing eviction or foreclosure: ‘It was to pay for groceries or rent.’
Canada’s airline industry faces “frightening” long-term consequences due to delays in federal aid, the Commons transport committee was told yesterday. Unions appealed for relief for an industry that’s seen a ninety percent decline in traffic: “We are completely pissed off.”
Cabinet ignored its own in-house report recommending an end to cash-for-life expense accounts for ex-governors general, records show. The Canadian Taxpayers Federation yesterday released the report through Access To Information: “It’s absolutely crazy.”
A Department of Finance executive responsible for the nation’s fiscal planning yesterday claimed the carbon tax is exempt from GST. It’s not. One MP expressed incredulity over confusion at the department that introduced the levy: “I’m sorry?”
