A Liberal MP’s office yesterday fumed the Canada Revenue Agency is so dysfunctional it can’t even deliver tax forms. A complaint email sent to all 338 MPs came as the Agency boasted it’s world class: “I have had several calls from very upset constituents.”
MPs yesterday expressed astonishment there is still no final budget and no deadline for ongoing multi-billion dollar renovations on Parliament Hill. Members of the House affairs committee drew uneasy comparison with the 1999 construction of a Scottish Parliament that went more than 1,000 percent over budget: “We’re digging a hole on the front lawn but we don’t know what’s going to be in it.”
New Democrat MPs yesterday effectively won a four-figure pay raise on a vote one Conservative critic called embarrassing. The NDP was given approval to appoint each of its members as vice-chairs of Commons committees at a $6,100 yearly bonus: “Boy would they love to give themselves a raise.’
All-Canadian sports associations yesterday declined comment on the latest Commons bill to legalize single event sports betting. Two similar bills failed in 2014 and 2016: “Our government is aware.”
Environment Minister Jonathan Wilkinson yesterday weighed consequences of an Alberta Court of Appeal decision striking cabinet’s signature climate change plan, the carbon tax. “What’s your Plan B if the Supreme Court rules against the government?” asked a reporter. “I’m not going to speculate on what the Plan B is,” replied Wilkinson.
An MP yesterday disclosed records indicating the federal spy agency in 2019 warned the University of British Columbia of its close cash dealings with Huawei Technologies Co. Conservatives demanded an investigation of China’s reach into Canadian universities: “I have a couple of hundred pages of emails.”
Cabinet has apologized after concealing from Parliament nearly $183,000 in contracts it awarded to an environmental group. The figure was reported as “nil” in a statement signed by Natural Resources Minister Seamus O’Regan. A Conservative MP spotted the error: “This shows no respect for the process.”
The chair of a Department of Canadian Heritage panel advocating mandatory registration of internet news media yesterday mistakenly claimed the nation’s largest newspaper chain is already federally licensed. It’s not: “Let me be clear.”
Rewriting a continental trade pact follows years of job losses that saw automakers “go to the cheapest place you can”, a Unifor executive yesterday told the Commons trade committee. The Department of Industry in internal memos acknowledged Canada lost auto jobs to Mexico under the old 1992 North American Free Trade Agreement: ‘It’s decades of damage and neglect.’
Indigenous Services Minister Marc Miller will not disclose names of private New York donors who contributed to his 2019 election campaign. Under the Elections Act candidates must divulge all contributions over $200: ‘It was at a Canadian citizen’s home in New York City.’
New green fuel rules expected to raise the price of gasoline are coming soon, says the Department of Environment. Cabinet has disputed claims the regulations will have four times the price impact of the carbon tax: “This is not some left-wing, radical policy.”
The RCMP is introducing an online ethics course for members after acknowledging it receives hundreds of complaints a year to a confidential hotline. The initiative follows a Federal Court go-ahead for a billion-dollar class action lawsuit alleging widespread harassment in the force: “The RCMP is expected to uphold the highest ethical standards.”
The Department of Transport is studying labour shortages in maritime shipping after a union caught regulators licensing migrant workers in breach of federal law. The case was settled out of court last December 16: “This has been coming for a long time.”
A federal panel has struck the Bake-Off cooking contest off Canada’s trademark registry for “inactivity”. The Pillsbury Company ran the famed one-day competition for sixty-five years: ‘It is clearing the register of dead wood.’
A Senate committee chair yesterday disclosed multiple complaints of harassment are pending under a new zero tolerance policy against workplace bullying. No senators were named: “I’m afraid that’s confidential.”
