The Parliamentary Budget Office yesterday said a Conservative Party hike in tax credits for pensioners would cost more than half a billion next year. The cost of the Age Tax Credit is already projected to top $4 billion for the first time in 2020: “Seniors will benefit.”
The Green Party yesterday proposed to repeal the GST on medical cannabis and lower legal prices for recreational marijuana. Cabinet had grossly overestimated cannabis tax revenues at up to $1 billion a year, according to Access To Information records: “We should be growing cannabis in open fields.”
The Canadian Medical Association yesterday appealed to cabinet for an emergency ban on marketing of vaping products. Cabinet partially regulated vaping in a bill one senator called a “leap of faith”.
Taxpayers have lost nearly $14 million in bad loans to “lonely” borrowers, says an internal audit by the Department of Industry. The Futurpreneur Canada program concealed data confirming as many as 19 percent of borrowers defaulted on easy-term loans at public expense: “Data may not be accurate.”
Conservative Party leader Andrew Scheer yesterday proposed to cut 27 percent of yearly “corporate welfare handouts” but would not comment if he’d leave a $595 million media bailout untouched. Scheer has yet to detail a promised plan for newspapers.
“Canada’s wealthiest and most politically connected have received billions of dollars from Canadian taxpayers who are working harder than ever and just not getting ahead,” said Scheer (Regina-Qu’Appelle). “I will put an end to handouts to wealthy executives.”
Scheer proposed a $1.5 billion annual reduction in corporate funding. Current aid for companies including grants, loans and guarantees averages $5.5 billion a year, according to Industry Canada.
“Hard-working Canadians are rightly offended when they see their tax dollars going to further the interests of the wealthy,” said Scheer: “That’s why I’ll get rid of these unfair handouts and use those savings to help Canadians get ahead.”
Scheer’s campaign yesterday did not comment when asked if a media bailout passed by Parliament June 20 would be reviewed or eliminated. “I certainly do support the work that an independent media does in this country,” Scheer earlier told reporters June 10. “Our preference would be to ensure there are market-based solutions.”
“We’re going to have our own plan, our own solutions to this particular issue that will speak more to market-based mechanisms to help the content creators,” he said.
Amendments to the Income Tax Act will see federally-approved news media receive payroll rebates of up to $13,750 per newsroom employee, and fifteen percent tax credits for digital subscribers. Publishers on a federal panel mandated to set criteria for applicants in a July 18 report suggested competitors including start-ups and small, family-owned newspapers be disqualified from receiving subsidies. “There is always self-interest,” said Bob Cox, publisher of the Winnipeg Free Press and chair of the panel.
The Free Press would receive $1 million a year in subsidies, by company estimate. Aid to the Toronto Star would average $6 million a year, with “between $8 million and $10 million” for Postmedia Network Canada Corp., according to reports to shareholders.
Federal filings show publishers with the trade group News Media Canada hired a Liberal lobbyist to negotiate terms of the bailout. Isabel Metcalfe of Public Affairs Counsel Ltd. of Ottawa held seventy-nine separate meetings with cabinet ministers, deputy ministers, assistant deputy ministers and senior staff, according to Lobbyist Registry records.
“I’m a large-L, hard core Liberal,” Metcalfe earlier told a reporter. Metcalfe was an unsuccessful 2006 Liberal candidate for Parliament in Carleton-Mississippi Mills, Ont., and a current campaign organizer for Environment Minister Catherine McKenna.
By Staff 
The Parliamentary Budget Office yesterday said free dental care for low-income families would cost nearly $2 billion next year under a New Democrat plan. The Party estimated 4.3 million Canadians would benefit from the program similar to aid for First Nations and Inuit: “It’s time.”
Cabinet yesterday issued an order threatening large fines or jail for anyone caught harming a subspecies of the iconic Atlantic salmon. One utility protested the order: ‘Many rivers no longer have any salmon.’
An arbitrator has upheld a human rights complaint over the sale of a used car on Kijiji. Testy emails by a St. John’s auto dealer were found to breach the Human Rights Act: “Read the friggin ad.”
Nearly 300,000 names have been removed from the national voters’ list including dead people and foreigners, Chief Electoral Officer Stéphane Perrault said yesterday. Perrault promised to “clean up the list” by October 21 balloting, but would not commit to investigating how many illegal votes were cast in the 2015 campaign: “It’s not a no or a yes.”
Statistics Canada yesterday predicted Alberta will eclipse British Columbia as the third largest province, and Québec will shrink to 20 percent of the national population within a generation. New figures contradict data used to justify an earlier constitutional proposal to guarantee Québec 25 percent of seats in Parliament in perpetuity: “We opposed it and were called hysterical.”
The Parliamentary Budget Office yesterday said a Conservative Party proposal to increase federal grants for children’s education would cost more than $600 million a year but encourage private savings. The Department of Employment in 2018 complained millions of children are not enrolled in the federal program that offers cash grants to pay for college or university: “It still pays to start saving early.”
A federal judge has dismissed a consumer advocate’s bid to challenge compensation orders for poor airline service. Only people with a “real stake” in claims can represent passengers, said the Federal Court: “I am not persuaded.”
The Department of Labour commissioned secret interviews with non-union workers at federally-regulated job sites for unreported breaches of the Canada Labour Code, according to Access To Information records. The research is to conclude by September 28: “The final report will not be shared with the public.”
The Liberal Party will not disclose independent costing of its campaign promises, the only major party to do so. Party headquarters yesterday would not take questions: “We are leaving it up to the parties.”
Consumers are wary of a Department of Finance proposal to permit data mining by banks, says in-house research. The department since January 11 has reviewed the merits of what it calls open banking: “Almost all do not like it.”
