Newly-declassified records show Prime Minister Jean Chretien’s cabinet feared a political backlash over 2003 court rulings on same-sex civil marriage. Chretien in one secret meeting warned his cabinet “it would not be helpful to act hastily.”
Natural disasters are good for economic growth but not to excess, Bank of Canada researchers said yesterday. Analysts studied 40 years’ worth of data in concluding earthquakes, droughts, floods and fires boost gross domestic product but only in the short term: “We find a small positive effect on GDP after a disaster.”
A 16 percent cut in this year’s immigration quota was not deep enough, Canadians have told the Department of Immigration. In-house research found widespread support for deeper cuts to record-high quotas: “Why do you say that?”
Liberal cabinet ministers worked up a modest retirement gift for Prime Minister Jean Chretien after 10 years in office, according to newly-disclosed cabinet minutes. Chretien was awarded a flag flown that day from the Peace Tower, the same token given to Toronto Mayor Rob Ford’s widow and a community league in Bognor, Ont.: “The Prime Minister assured ministers that he had no regrets.”
The Commissioner of Elections yesterday confirmed another case of an ineligible foreigner casting a federal ballot. It follows in-house data that found a third of returning officers encountered attempts at balloting by people whose names were not on the National Register Of Electors: “Clean up the list.”
The Canadian Armed Forces yesterday dropped a standard IQ test for new recruits and promised speedier background checks on volunteers that currently take longer than six months. “Recruitment is my number one priority,” said Chief of Defence Staff General Jennie Carignan.
It will be up to future Parliaments to finance a long-promised high speed rail venture, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said yesterday. Trudeau’s latest pledge of bullet train service from Toronto to Québec City came 58 years after the Department of Transport first studied the concept: “This is real now.”
Mark Carney as a federal advisor and prospective prime minister should disclose assets including his stock portfolio, debts and income sources, the Opposition said yesterday. Carney, a multi-millionaire, has to date withheld disclosure of dealings with federally regulated firms: “Carney must come clean.”
Cabinet’s electric car program will take longer than expected and “may be adjusted,” says a Department of Industry briefing note. The document was written three days after Industry Minister François-Philippe Champagne asked Canadians to rally around the industry: ‘There are delays and challenges.’
Former attorney general Jody Wilson-Raybould in a confidential interview with the RCMP urged police to widen their investigation of the SNC-Lavalin Group scandal, newly-disclosed records show. Access To Information files released yesterday by the group Democracy Watch noted Wilson-Raybould’s pleas were ignored: “I don’t know, we didn’t know, we don’t know.”
Small and medium sized businesses lost about $60 billion in the first year of pandemic lockdowns and travel bans, Statistics Canada figures showed yesterday. Data were drawn from firms that applied for interest-free loans at taxpayers’ expense: “We need to keep businesses going.”
A veterans’ petition still gathering signatures in the Commons asks that cabinet apologize for a botched war memorial that misidentified dead heroes. The memorial at Port Hope, Ont. was installed under a Highway of Heroes project that received $3 million in federal funding: “Issue a formal public apology.”
Canada must sharpy reduce immigration quotas due to a national housing shortage, Liberal MP Chrystia Freeland (University-Rosedale, Ont.) said yesterday. Freeland as finance minister had claimed record high immigration was essential to growth: “Tie the number of new immigrants to housing availability.”
Cabinet aides last September considered a federal investigation of “shrinkflation,” records show. No inquiry was held into food processors’ lawful practice of charging consumers the same or more for less: “Boxed macaroni and cheese has gone from 230 grams to 220 grams or 200 grams depending on the brand.”
A federal judge has approved a class action settlement with Canadian veterans who complained of racial discrimination over a 40-year period. Only a fraction of eligible veterans applied for the minimum $5,000 in cash compensation, Federal Court records show: “This is a complex claim.”
