Auditors at the Department of Foreign Affairs have uncovered improper contracting at the Singapore mission. The disclosures are the latest in an audit sweep that found cronyism and weak financial oversight at Canadian embassies overseas: “The audit team identified instances of improper procurement.”
Cabinet in Access To Information documents grossly overestimated cannabis tax revenues at up to a billion a year. Actual revenues in the first six months of legal sales were a fraction of the forecast: “Organized crime does not share its data with us.”
Cabinet will not say how much the Trans Mountain Pipeline expansion will cost taxpayers. MPs at the only parliamentary hearing on the pipeline – a one-hour session of the Commons natural resources committee – pressed for details: “How much?”
Opponents of a new oil and gas bill predict a long court battle over the measure passed into law by the Senate in a 57 to 37 vote. Energy regulations and passage of a budget bill were the last acts of the 42nd Parliament: “This phase of the battle is over.”
Parliament should compile a national database of all cyberattacks targeting companies and individuals, says the Commons public safety committee. The recommendation follows protests of RCMP inaction: “You can pile up the incidents.”
Elections Canada confirms at least 112,000 foreigners – the largest number disclosed to date – were on federal voters’ lists in the last campaign, but does not know how many cast ballots. Data from the 2015 election show several ridings were won by narrow margins of as few as 500 votes or less: “It is illegal.”
Supreme Court Chief Justice Richard Wagner yesterday blamed social media for waning public confidence in the legal system. “If people lose faith and their trust in the justice system and the courts, that’s the beginning of the end,” said Wagner.
CBC-TV ad revenues have collapsed since the network lost exclusive rights to NHL broadcasts, newly-released data show. Revenues since 2014 fell as much as 75 percent in some markets even as the network claimed it never profited from Hockey Night In Canada: “If you can’t make money on hockey in Canada, I don’t know what you could make money on.”
The Senate by a vote of 49 to 46 last night passed into law a cabinet bill to restrict oil tanker traffic on the Pacific Coast. Oil-producing Prairie provinces opposed the bill as discriminatory, noting it does not apply to the majority of tanker traffic in Atlantic Canada: “There is a glaring double standard.”
Unpaid taxes may total billions more than Canada Revenue Agency claims, the Parliamentary Budget Officer yesterday reported. Analysts counted nearly a trillion a year in electronic cash transfers by Canadian corporations to offshore accounts that had the effect of avoiding tax payments: “The figures are absolutely mind-blowing.”
The Senate yesterday passed into law a rewritten Access To Information Act dismissed as worse than Bulgaria’s. Cabinet did not fulfill a 2015 promise to grant Canadians access to records held by cabinet, the House of Commons or Senate: “There is no way to sugar-coat that.”
Senate Ethics Officer Pierre Legault yesterday claimed a right to covertly browse legislators’ personal email accounts without notice or consent. One senator described Legault’s conduct as “disgraceful”.
The Commons defence committee yesterday recommended the military spend more on recruitment to meet equity targets. Defence department research shows most women and visible minorities surveyed are not attracted to military life: “A conventional view on military service is that it is a career of last resort.”
The Senate has passed into law a cabinet bill to curb animal fighting for sport. Proponents called it a “small effort” leading to tougher animal protection laws in the next Parliament: “Canada’s criminal animal cruelty provisions are a century out of date.”
Parliament has given final approval to a rewritten Fisheries Act that expands protection of habitat. Cabinet accused Conservatives of “gutting” protections seven years ago: “Those are not the types of actions Canadians want.”
