The Canada Revenue Agency last year wrote off nearly $110,000 in tax debts after misplacing its own paperwork. Complaints of lost records are not uncommon, said one MP: “Service standards are getting worse, not better.”
The Senate yesterday passed a private Liberal bill to publish a yearly blacklist of convicted tax cheats, including those with offshore accounts. No dissenting vote was cast: “All parliamentarians regardless of their political affiliation should come together on the issue.”
The Department of Finance claims 7 in 10 Canadians receiving carbon tax rebates next year will make money on the deal. Members of the Senate national finance committee yesterday questioned how the program would reduce emissions: “I don’t see it.”
A journalists’ group yesterday told MPs it’s “comfortable” with federal subsidies for newsrooms. Blacklock’s neither solicits nor accepts government grants: “Government funding of our free press is controversial, even among journalists.”
Transport Minister Marc Garneau yesterday said he has yet to hear any complaints from industry that the carbon tax is uncompetitive. Plane, train and trucking executives have repeatedly testified at parliamentary hearings that the tax will cost business: “How can you sit here and say you haven’t heard from anybody?”
The Parliamentary Budget Office yesterday estimated that matching Trump tax cuts would cost the federal treasury about $1.6 billion. The calculation follows an October 16 Senate banking committee appeal for lower corporate taxes: “The world will not wait for Canada.”
The Senate last night voted 53 to 25 to force an end to rotating mail strikes. Labour Minister Patricia Hajdu said she expected Canada Post operations to resume nationwide by tomorrow: “The arbitrator will start to make decisions for them.”
MPs on the Commons public accounts committee yesterday lamented the state of federal heritage buildings. Auditors in a November 20 report said agencies including Parks Canada have allowed national historic sites to crumble into disrepair: “You’re just looking for trouble.”
The Federal Court of Appeal has faulted a whistleblowers’ tribunal for needless time and expense in investigating a workplace complaint. The ruling is the first of its kind since MPs urged immediate reforms to a whistleblower law intended to protect federal employees and contractors: “People’s lives are still being destroyed.”
The Prince Edward Island Supreme Court has imposed an unusual 33 conditions on a petty thief convicted of cheating her small business employer. “She behaved in a way that clearly does not show respect for the law,” wrote the Court.
Provincial utilities propose that Canada install small nuclear reactors to meet climate change targets, especially in Arctic towns reliant on diesel-powered generators. The Department of Natural Resources must first “address any misunderstanding” about Fukushima-style disasters, said a report: “The likelihood of this type of accident is low.”
Labour Minister Patricia Hajdu embellished a story about a poor, disabled man facing homelessness to justify back-to-work legislation ending a mail strike. Hajdu would not take questions on the anecdote. Staff confirmed Hajdu never met the man. Canada Post management and employees disputed the story.
Hajdu on November 22 said she’d heard from a man she identified only as Jack who faced eviction from his home due to delays in receiving his disability cheque. “We know that some of the most vulnerable in our country count on Canada Post for their cheques,” said Hajdu.
“These Canadians count on this money to scrape by, and they are put in very precarious positions by any delay, like Jack, who told me that as a person on Ontario disability any delay could mean a loss of housing for him. Many others rely on prompt payment to survive month to month,” said Hajdu.
The labour minister’s office confirmed Hajdu neither met nor spoke with Jack. Hajdu would not disclose the man’s last name, or when the two were in contact. “Jack contacted the Minister on social media to express his concerns about the delivery of his disability cheque,” said press secretary Véronique Simard. Asked to provide a redacted copy of the correspondence, Simard replied: “It’s an exchange of private messages. I apologize, but I can’t share them.”
Canada Post said cheques for disability, Old Age Security, Canada Pension Plan, Guaranteed Income and Employment Insurance benefits were delivered under a longstanding agreement with the Canadian Union of Postal Workers.
“There is no delay,” said Jon Hamilton, spokesperson for the post office; “This has been the approach we’ve taken with CUPW for years without issue. This ensures people received their cheque at the right time and avoids confusion.”
Jack Story “Not Very Convincing”
“I don’t know who Jack is,” said Mike Palecek, national president of the Union of Postal Workers. “What I do know is we have an agreement with Canada Post that we deliver socio-economic cheques, whether they’re pension cheques or disability cheques, throughout any strike action. We’ve done that for decades.”
The post office in a directive How Delivery Will Take Place said monthly benefits cheques were pre-sorted by union volunteers for delivery on November 22, the same day Minister Hajdu told her Jack story in the Commons. “No cheques are to be sorted to the postal boxes or delivered to customers prior to Thursday, November 22,” said the directive.
“The cheques were sitting at all the plants across Canada last Monday and they refused to let us go out and deliver them,” said Daniel Weinkauf, a CUPW member in Ottawa. “They were sitting there, ready to be processed and to be taken out for delivery on Monday at a specific time.”
“We take pride in this,” said Weinkauf. “We are concerned that disabled Canadians actually get their cheques on time, and it’s a commitment that we do.”
Minister Hajdu recounted the Jack story as she introduced Bill C-89 An Act To Provide For The Resumption And Continuation Of Postal Services. The bill would force an end to 48-hour rotating strikes under threat of $100,000-a day fines against the union. “As far as fake news is concerned, it’s a possibility,” said Weinkauf.
“Jack may exist, but I fear it may have been a misleading example on the Minister’s part,” said CCF MP Erin Weir (Regina-Lewvan). “Emotive appeals can be politically effective, so maybe it’s a testament to the labour minister’s political skill. But I think it is quite strained as a justification for the legislation.”
“If the government had made the decision to bring in this legislation on good public policy grounds, I could understand they might try to justify it politically through emotive appeals, but when the Minister can’t answer a question as to whether the legislation is unconstitutional and instead tries to tell an anecdote about someone waiting for a cheque, it isn’t very convincing,” said MP Weir.
Hassan Yussuff, president of the Canadian Labour Congress, said rotating strikes were intended to avoid public hardship. “We don’t have a general strike,” said Yussuff. “There are great lengths the union has gone to, to ensure the public does not suffer a major disruption.”
By Staff 
The Senate today votes on a back-to-work bill to end a mail strike following debate that saw Canada Post called the nation’s worst public sector employer. Several Liberal-appointed senators and a former Liberal labour minister oppose the bill: “The employer is getting everything they want.”
Federal departments and agencies paid consultants nearly a million dollars for media coaching in two-and-a-half years, records show. Liberal and Conservative MPs questioned the spending as pointless: “I’d rather see zero spent on media training and nearly a million bucks go to pumps for people with diabetes.”
Health Canada confirms red-and-black warning labels on foods high in salt, sugar and fat will cut sales. The department in consumer tests said front-of-package labels had shoppers think twice about buying foods deemed unhealthy: “It makes me scared to eat this.”
