Federal agencies recommend Canadians avoid reference to China when discussing the pandemic. Origins of the coronavirus are irrelevant, the Treasury Board wrote in a guide for employees: ‘Don’t blame people from a specific country.’
Canada Post yesterday cited “fierce and dynamic” competition from non-union Amazon and other rivals in reporting a $153 million pre-tax loss for 2019. The report follows cabinet’s April 1 award of a sole-sourced contract to Amazon to manage distribution of pandemic supplies: “Our inflexible and high-cost structure threatens our ability to effectively compete.”
One in five homeowners is expected to defer mortgage payments by Labour Day amid a forecasted decline in average home prices of up to eighteen percent, says CMHC. The agency’s CEO yesterday said mortgage rules must be tightened to curb household debt one MP called “bloody terrifying”: “As much as one fifth of all mortgages could be in arrears if our economy has not recovered sufficiently.”
Cabinet waited too long to close the nation’s borders, Chief Public Health Officer Dr. Theresa Tam last night told the Commons health committee. Tam acknowledged foreign visitors should have been prohibited long before cabinet restricted travel: “In hindsight, yes, I think people could act faster.”
Incoming Auditor General Karen Hogan yesterday vowed to investigate the Public Health Agency’s failure to prepare for the pandemic. The Agency has admitted throwing away millions of high-grade masks and failing to maintain a national stockpile of emergency supplies: ‘I am known for telling it like it is.’
Facebook makes an average $1.40 per day from active users in Canada, according to details of a federal Competition Bureau investigation. The California corporation in a compliance agreement with Canadian regulators agreed to pay $9.5 million to settle privacy complaints: “Canadians expect and deserve truth from businesses in the digital economy.”
Cabinet yesterday said it will expand a small business relief program that disqualified the smallest operators. “I heard the concerns,” Prime Minister Justin Trudeau told reporters.
Cabinet in an unprecedented measure last night proposed to freeze civil court proceedings from Tax Court challenges to bankruptcies for the next four months. Attorney General David Lametti cited a “problematic situation” due to the pandemic: “There is a risk.”
Taxpayers won’t know for more than a year whether billions budgeted for pandemic relief were well spent, says incoming Auditor General Karen Hogan. Speaking in the Senate, Hogan said auditors aren’t even aware how much has been spent in the past ten weeks: “It’s important to make sure you get to the bottom.”
MPs vow to “get to the bottom” of mismanagement of a $300 million national stockpile of pandemic supplies that led to costly shortages of equipment. Sally Thornton, vice-president of the Public Health Agency in charge of the stockpile, invoked national security in refusing to disclose how much equipment was thrown away before the pandemic: “These supplies literally went into the garbage.”
Cabinet has approved another bailout for newspapers, the second in a year, but only for publishers endorsed by the Canada Revenue Agency. Regulations exclude small, family-run weeklies in favour of large, money-losing media corporations: “I’m a large-L, hard core Liberal.”
A federal hunt for pandemic masks is so haphazard the Department of Public Works prepaid millions to Chinese suppliers of shoddy goods while dismissing offers from Western contractors, MPs were told. The department refused to name its contractors in China: “I think Canadians need to know.”
Even seniors with six-figure incomes deserve a tax-free pandemic grant, says the Department of Employment. MPs on the Commons human resources committee questioned a giveaway to seniors earning more than $128,000 a year: “It’s not a lot of money.”
Finance Minister Bill Morneau yesterday said fraud is a problem in a pandemic relief program that pays $2,000 to the jobless. “It’s not acceptable,” Morneau told the Commons finance committee: “We’re going to have to deal with that.”
The RCMP yesterday said it is placing rush orders for 150,000 cotton masks to protect constables on patrol. The Mounties did not comment on public reaction: “The RCMP has an urgent requirement for cloth facial masks.”
