The equivalent of more than a quarter of federal employees took pandemic leave from work with pay though they weren’t sick, according to Treasury Board records. Ongoing costs total more than $439.3 million: “It’s a stunning figure.”
Federal agents have lost track of 34,700 fugitives wanted for deportation including 2800 criminals, the Auditor General said yesterday. The disclosure came six years after the Canada Border Services Agency boasted of its ability to track foreigners living in the country illegally: “I don’t quite understand why we would tolerate this.”
Finance Minister Bill Morneau yesterday promised he would not raise taxes despite a deficit now six times the largest ever run in Canada. Extraordinary spending totaled $7.8 billion in March and $343.2 billion since April 1 for an unprecedented $351 billion deficit: “Raising taxes would be exactly the wrong response.”
The Department of Health yesterday ordered storekeepers nationwide to remove all vaping advertising “seen by young persons” under threat of $50,000 fines or six months in jail. The crackdown follows an appeal from the Canadian Medical Association: “The addiction was candy-coated.”
Auditors yesterday faulted the Department of Employment for failing to report deadbeat student loan borrowers to credit bureaus. The department said it will comply with the recommendation by 2022: “This would prompt borrowers to repay their loans more quickly.”
Labour Minister Filomena Tassi yesterday allowed federally-regulated employers to avoid immediate payment of wages owed workers on long-term pandemic layoff. Tassi’s department said following the letter of Canada Labour Code regulations could drive companies into bankruptcy: ‘Employers are struggling.’
Payday loans are ungodly, the Liberal chair of the Commons finance committee said yesterday. The remarks followed new data that eight percent of single parents in Canada borrow money at criminal interest rates: “That’s usury.”
The Department of Health in internal memos boasted it was completely prepared for Covid-19 and “working exactly as it should”. Records show Health Minister Patricia Hajdu believed the risk to Canadians was low as late as March 9, two days before the World Health Organization declared a global pandemic: “This is difficult work as you can imagine.”
Twelve percent of Canadians wouldn’t take a Covid-19 vaccination even if it was available, Statistics Canada said yesterday. Two thirds of people, 68 percent, said they were very likely to get immunized: ‘How large a threat is the anti-vaxer movement in Canada?’
The Transportation Safety Board says poor driving habits, not shorter daylight hours, are likely to blame for a statistical spike in rail crossing accidents in winter months. The Board yesterday called train-car collisions “one of the most serious types of rail accidents” with 26 deaths last year: “We need to do more work.”
People cannot be forced to hand over their health cards for ordinary ID, says Saskatchewan’s privacy commissioner. “It is personal health information,” wrote Commissioner Ronald Kruzeniski.
The Commons industry committee yesterday opened hearings on whether Canada’s three largest supermarket chains breached anti-trust law. Executives “should be ashamed” for the simultaneous rollback of $2 an hour pandemic bonuses for employees, said Unifor president Jerry Dias: “You would think people would have some integrity.”
The RCMP Veterans’ Association yesterday accused Prime Minister Justin Trudeau of “humiliating us” by kneeling at a Black Lives Matter protest. The reaction followed remarks by a Liberal-appointed Senator lamenting a “wave of hatred and disrespect” against police: “Our renowned organization has served our country with honour, integrity and devotion for the last 147 years.”
Mismanagement of pandemic supplies by the Public Health Agency of Canada was “my worst nightmare”, a senior advisor to a 2003 SARS Commission said yesterday. Chief public health officer Dr. Theresa Tam failed in her legal duty to stockpile masks, the Commons health committee was told: “They weren’t ready.”
A federal audit has uncovered sweetheart contracting in the Department of Fisheries, including cases where “winning bidders and evaluators were former colleagues”. Procurement Ombudsman Alexander Jeglic cited numerous irregularities in the department that awarded more than half a billion in contracts over the past two years: “There were six cases where the department appears to have manipulated the number of bidders invited to bid.”
