A self-described ‘watchdog for homelessness’ billed taxpayers nearly $14,000 for a business class junket to Cairo, records show. Employees in Access To Information emails questioned expenses charged by Marie-Josée Houle, cabinet’s $213,000-a year Housing Advocate: “It’s my job to be a watchdog for housing and homelessness in Canada.”
Costs to manage the Canada Dental Care Plan have jumped to nearly 9 percent or almost $860 million since the program was launched, records show. Health Minister Marjorie Michel’s department disclosed the program has already been audited but would not release the findings: “The report is confidential.”
The Senate banking committee yesterday endorsed a campaign proposal by Opposition Leader Pierre Poilievre to compel rollbacks in municipal development charges as a condition of receiving federal aid. Ten of 13 senators on the committee are Liberal appointees: “Funding for municipal infrastructure is the main tool available to the federal government to require reductions in municipal fees and boost accountability.”
Canada had no choice but to repeal a 100 percent tariff on Chinese battery electric cars, Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe said yesterday. Moe acknowledged his province was a winner in trade talks with Beijing but denied it came at the expense of others: “To say this is favouring one province or another, that is just simply not a true statement.”
The Navy yesterday said it will pay the Royal Canadian Geographic Society $300,000 to develop “Navy-themed lesson plans” for schoolchildren. It follows declining membership in youth programs like the Royal Canadian Sea Cadets: “Being a cadet promotes pride in Canada.”
Ontario Premier Doug Ford yesterday suggested the Prime Minister lacked backbone in granting Chinese automakers unprecedented access to Canada’s battery electric car market. “At least I know where I stand now,” said the Premier, who last year praised Mark Carney as a shrewd executive: “We get nothing.”
Federal managers should complete an 86-hour course at taxpayers’ expense for certification on “Canada’s colonial history,” says a Treasury Board memo. Workshops and seminars were a “journey that provides historical reflection,” it said.
The Public Health Agency confirms effective April 1 it will directly manage a national program that has paid out more than $18 million to Canadians harmed by Covid shots. Consultants hired to run the Vaccine Injury Support Program were blamed for causing “frustration and hardship.”
The diplomat whose hurried closure of our Embassy in Kabul left 1,290 Canadians trapped in Afghanistan has been recalled from his final overseas assignment. “Goodbyes are sad,” Reid Sirrs wrote in a farewell to colleagues: “Hello to a new adventure.”
Thousands of acres of dead pine left standing in Jasper National Park were a “key contributing factor” to a disastrous 2024 blaze that burned a third of the town, confirms a Canadian Forest Service report. Cabinet had blamed climate change: “Jasper saw a severe Mountain Pine Beetle attack that peaked around seven years before the fire.”
Any Freedom Convoy appeal to the Supreme Court will be heard by a Chief Justice who publicly called protestors anarchists and hostage takers. Chief Justice Richard Wagner’s remarks were “highly inappropriate,” said one legal group: ‘Conflicts of interest may arise from the judge having expressed views evidencing bias.’
Thousands of hunters, sports shooters and collectors face a 70-day deadline to surrender “assault style” firearms under a program federal researchers caution may be a costly failure. Public Safety Minister Gary Anandasangree today launched the national gun buyback, a $742 million campaign already twice over budget: “The program faces a risk of non-compliance.”
Chinese automakers have gained access to about half the battery electric car market in Canada, federal data show. Concessions by Prime Minister Mark Carney followed Department of Finance complaints of predatory practices by Chinese industry: ‘The government is allowing vehicles from a country that won’t allow our vehicles to go there, so they could displace vehicles that are built here.’
The CBC Ombudsman has faulted the network’s Parliament Hill bureau for identifying MPs as Jews in news copy. A 2023 story by reporter John Tasker breached the CBC Journalistic Standards And Practices Guide, the Ombudsman said.
Housing starts despite modest gains last year remain below half the rate needed to restore affordability, CMHC figures show. The latest data follow Prime Minister Mark Carney’s pledge to “build bigger and faster.”
