The Commons yesterday by a 335-0 vote gave unanimous Second Reading to a cabinet proposal for a $5.8 billion income tax cut. Passage came on a warning from seven New Democrat MPs that they would seek amendments once the bill lands at finance committee hearings: “More troubling are the unintended consequences of this tax measure.”
New electric car sales crashed without taxpayers’ rebates, Statistics Canada data showed yesterday. Dealers saw their steepest decline in sales since pandemic lockdowns: “We are certainly looking at monitoring.”
Senator Daryl Fridhandler (Alta.), a longtime Liberal Party organizer, yesterday had no comment after accepting a directorship with a federal contractor. Fridhandler would not say why he took the post with a beer vending company or what he was pocketing in fees in addition to his $184,800-a year Senate salary.
The Budget Office yesterday forecast housing starts will remain far short of cabinet’s affordability target for years to come. New home construction was predicted to remain below record levels set in 1976: “We are focused on building big.”
Michael Sabia, a former deputy finance minister instrumental in the unlawful use of n anti-terror law to freeze Freedom Convoy bank accounts, yesterday was promoted as head of the federal public service. Sabia told a 2022 judicial inquiry he was undecided on whether peaceful protestors were terrorists: “Who takes responsibility for that?”
The federal New Democratic Party will take years to rebuild after the disastrous April 28 election, former MP Charlie Angus said yesterday. “This is going to be a rough four years,” he told reporters: “I have not spoken to Jagmeet Singh since the election.”
A ranchers’ livestock brand would join Parliament’s inventory of all-Canadian symbols under a private bill introduced yesterday in the Commons. The sponsor called it an enduring symbol of the frontier: “It tells a story.”
Processing military travel expense claims is so onerous the rules run to 370 pages, says a Department of National Defence audit. The in-house review found a typical employee or Canadian Armed Forces member spent more than three hours on paperwork for every claim: “Documents can be a challenge for users to follow.”
The Department of Public Works, largest landlord in Canada, is concealing figures to make it impossible for taxpayers to determine what it spends on office space including leases with suppliers, auditors said yesterday. “The department estimated before the pandemic 50 percent of the office space was underused,” said a report.
Federal managers spent eight months planning a $70,000 Hollywood party at taxpayers’ expense including costs to hire publicists for “red carpet management,” Access To Information records show. The party was cancelled after Blacklock’s reported the expenditure January 17.
Cabinet’s electric car mandate is flexible, says Environment Minister Julie Dabrusin. Federal regulations have mandated a ban on the sale of new gasoline-powered passenger vehicles by 2035: “Is the target mandatory or optional?”
Federal managers may have breached an Act of Parliament in awarding sweetheart contracts to a millionaire ArriveCan supplier, Auditor General Karen Hogan said yesterday. The contractor, GC Strategies Inc. of Woodlawn, Ont., is already under RCMP investigation for alleged fraudulent billing: “At any time we could have been stopped.”
Cabinet is relying on illegal immigrants to leave Canada on their own, Immigration Minister Lena Diab last night told the Commons. Diab would not comment on departmental figures indicating deportees who remain here number up to 500,000 or more: “Does she not understand if you don’t remove people who do not have a legal right to be here, that the system is meaningless?”
Environment Minister Julie Dabrusin last night accused critics of manufacturing controversy over a mandate that new oil and gas projects will only be built with 100 percent consensus. “The most important part is that we work in unity in this moment,” Dabrusin told the Commons.
Cabinet would like to see the “overall cost of housing come down,” Housing Minister Gregor Robertson said yesterday. His remarks followed data showing shelter costs now take up more than half of household incomes on average: “We want to see the overall cost of housing come down.”
