CMHC spent two years researching a new name then hid the costs from a parliamentary committee, internal emails show. The disclosures are detailed in Access To Information records obtained by Conservative MP Tom Kmiec (Calgary Shepard): “We don’t want THAT.”
Federal regulators quietly granted fish farmers a waiver to use an unlicensed pesticide in the name of protecting Canada’s food supply. The waiver follows a 2018 audit that cited poor monitoring of pesticides in coastal waters: “How can they know?”
Nine out of ten Prince Edward Islanders would take the Covid-19 vaccine if they could get it, but only two-thirds of Manitobans are willing. Statistics Canada yesterday documented a range of Canadians who said they were “very likely or somewhat likely” to get a shot: “Anti-vaccine sentiment is a challenge.”
The Canada Revenue Agency yesterday estimated $28.7 billion a year in federal tax is never collected. Actual tax avoidance is likely worth billions more, according to Budget Office research: “The CRA refuses to be transparent.”
Authorities will not disclose executive pay for the Canadian CEO of a money losing door-to-door sales company in Nairobi that received millions in federal funding. Jesse Moore, a former Toronto child activist, earlier served in a youth leaders’ group with We Charity co-founder Craig Kielburger: “I could conquer the world.”
Climate Change Minister Jonathan Wilkinson and staff took more than $100,000 worth of flights in the past year, records show. “It should not be free to pollute,” Wilkinson said earlier in announcing a 240 percent increase in the carbon tax.
Bill Morneau is dodging an MPs’ request to reappear for questioning over his involvement with We Charity, a member of the Commons ethics committee said yesterday. The ex-finance minister abruptly resigned August 17 under threat of a censure motion: “You need to come back and explain.”
The Department of Environment claims Canadians suffer climate change “eco-anxiety” and have been driven to suicide by extreme heat. Staff provided no supporting data: “Urgency of the climate change challenge cannot be overstated.”
An Alberta judge yesterday dismissed a Charter challenge of a mandatory mask bylaw. The lawsuit was thrown out as “an abuse of the Court.”
The Public Health Agency worried it didn’t have enough body bags for pandemic victims after failing to stock up on masks and other medical supplies, according to internal emails. “It is a somber but necessary part of pandemic planning,” wrote staff: “Do we need special ones to deal with people who died from Covid-19?”
The Department of Industry pressed for the purchase of $200 million pandemic ventilators that federal health managers didn’t want, according to internal emails. The sale by Thornhill Medical of North York, Ont. was personally endorsed by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau after an unidentified official told health staff they were “too fussy.”
The Department of Foreign Affairs ignored warnings for a background check on a China security company named a federal contractor, records show. “I am really concerned,” a procurement officer wrote weeks before the department approved a $6.8 million standing offer for Nuctech Company Ltd., partly owned by state-run China National Nuclear Corporation: “Are the facilities not secured?”
A Montréal daily La Presse is the first newspaper in the country to be officially endorsed by the Canada Revenue Agency. Tax managers called La Presse a “qualified Canadian journalism organization,” a designation required for any publisher seeking taxpayer subsidies. La Presse had no comment: “It is a terrible concept.”
A federal prison bank has failed a national audit. Investigators found overdrafts, dormant accounts, unverified cheques deposited as cash and an unusually high number of transactions marked “miscellaneous.”
The carbon tax will keep rising “until we reach our targets,” cabinet’s representative in the Senate said last night. “We will be seriously fighting climate change for the first time,” said Senator Marc Gold (Que.), who had earlier promised the 12-cent a litre tax on gasoline would never go up: “Yes, there is an increase.”
