The nation should avoid a 2026 recession if world events are resolved smoothly, the Bank of Canada said yesterday. “If the situation changes, we may need to change course,” Governor Tiff Macklem told reporters.
Employment Insurance claimants have no right to keep undeserved benefits even if they were paid through government error, says a federal judge. The ruling came in the case of a jobless claimant told to repay the treasury $1,366: “She did nothing wrong.”
Finance Minister François-Philippe Champagne shaved $11.5 billion off a near-record 2025 deficit due in part to higher tariff revenues, budget documents showed yesterday. However ongoing deficits are projected to push debt servicing costs to an unprecedented $58.7 billion this year: “Risks remain elevated.”
Cabinet yesterday said it will strip the Canadian Transportation Agency of its processing of air passenger complaints. The federal Agency ran up a backlog of 92,500 complaints, by official estimate: “Beyond the backlog, the government also intends to develop a simpler and more effective regulatory regime.”
The Department of Employment is not close to recovering costs of processing migrant worker permits, records show. An employer’s fee has not increased in 13 years: “What has been the total annual cost to the federal government?”
The purchase of an $8.8 million Manhattan penthouse for New York Consul Tom Clark prompted too much media attention, the Department of Foreign Affairs complained in an Access To Information memo. Lavish spending by diplomats appeared “disconnected from the financial struggles facing everyday Canadians,” it said.
Cabinet yesterday hinted it is prepared to appeal a Federal Court ruling that temporarily suspended the deportation of a trucker responsible for the 2018 Humboldt Broncos disaster. Victims’ families were not given their say, Conservative MP Warren Steinley (Regina-Lewvan) told the Commons: “Harm to the Humboldt Broncos’ victims and their families was not adequately considered.”
Doug Guzman, the Toronto banker hired to oversee defence contracting, yesterday acknowledged longtime dealings with defence contractors but denied any conflict. “I expressed a willingness to serve the country,” Guzman told the Commons defence committee: “I over the course of my career advised or financed probably thousands of companies.”
Cabinet concessions to Chinese automakers “endanger” domestic industry, General Motors of Canada said yesterday. A GM lobbyist told MPs that allowing low-tariff access to tens of thousands of Chinese electrics will “hollow out our skilled automotive workforce.”
A Vancouver climate news site, the National Observer, is the nation’s heaviest user of Department of Canadian Heritage grants, newly-disclosed records show. The “independent news site” received more than $1.3 million in taxpayers’ aid to cover the equivalent of 23 employees’ salaries while its CEO served on a volunteer board responsible for approving grants: “The National Observer record speaks for itself regarding our independence from any government.”
Floor-crossing MPs Lori Idlout (Nunavut) and Marilyn Gladu (Sarnia-Lambton, Ont.) yesterday joined the government caucus in voting 173 to 163 to invoke closure on a motion granting cabinet majority control of all Commons committees. It effectively quashes real-time ethics investigations into Liberal spending, contracting and appointments: “They flattered and recruited a Member who endorsed Avi Lewis and a Member who endorsed the Freedom Convoy, all in the pursuit of power.”
Finance Minister François-Philippe Champagne yesterday without comment introduced a long-promised bill to create a federal Financial Crimes Agency. The Liberal Party first proposed a $200 million-a year white collar crime unit in its 2021 election platform: “We’re not sure exactly how the Agency is going to look.”
Another resignation yesterday left New Democrats with a five-member caucus and just one seat east of Edmonton. Five-term MP Alexandre Boulerice (Rosemont-La Petite Patrie, Que.) confirmed he would quit to seek a seat in the Québec National Assembly: “Every day is a test in this beautiful game of politics.”
Labour Minister Patty Hajdu made up a story about organ donations in attempting to justify a 2025 cabinet order quashing an Air Canada strike, Access To Information records show. It marked the second time Hajdu misled media over a strike ban: “Shipments of critical goods such as pharmaceuticals and organ tissue should continue.”
A federal program to subsidize news media in “underserved communities” instead paid millions to city newspapers operated by conglomerates, records show. Recipients of aid earmarked for poor, rural weeklies included the Toronto Star, Globe & Mail and two Winnipeg dailies: “I think the Local Journalism Initiative is absolutely critical for rural coverage.”
