Federal agencies yesterday outlined payroll cuts that were half the 10 percent stated by Prime Minister Mark Carney. The Budget Office had sought the figures for months: “There is a lack of detail.”
A labour arbitrator has overturned Canada Post’s firing of a mail carrier who kept thousands of undelivered letters in his vehicle for months at a time. Inspectors found 6,000 pieces of mail including urgent notices: “This can only be seen as very abnormal behaviour.”
Repeal of U.S. climate mandates set the industry back “at least 15 years,” says a Department of Environment briefing note. Cabinet to date has yet to report on its review of Canada’s electric auto mandate though it was due December 31: “Why the mandate?”
A federal agency is shopping for artificial intelligence software to replace a “specialized team” of bilingual employees paid to translate weather bulletins. The proposal by the Meteorological Service of Canada is the first of its kind in the federal use of AI: ‘It would rely solely on machine to machine communication.’
Liberal MP Chrystia Freeland (University-Rosedale, Ont.) will quit Parliament tomorrow in an abrupt departure that averts any Commons ethics committee questioning over conflicts of interest. Freeland’s announcement came only hours after the committee chair expressed outrage over her conduct: “When did we become a country where laws, ethics and morality don’t matter anymore?”
China represents a “new partnership” for growth, Prime Minister Mark Carney said yesterday in confirming a January 13 trip to Beijing to meet President Xi Jinping. It is the first conference of its kind since Carney called China our worst security threat and a federal inquiry likened Communist Party meddling in Canadian elections to a national crime: “I’ll choose my words carefully.”
A majority of Canadians surveyed, 64 percent, say they changed their household spending habits because of tariffs. Federal researchers found 80 percent concluded U.S. President Donald Trump’s policy had made everyday goods more expensive: “How worried are you that tariffs might reduce your household income?”
The Canada Revenue Agency ten years into its investigation of tax avoidance by wealthy clients of a Panamanian law firm has not laid a single charge in the case, records show. Cabinet a decade ago said the Panama Papers case involved thousands of Canadians deemed “high risk.”
A federal agency is asking how much Canadians are willing to pay to save Lake Winnipeg, one of the world’s largest freshwater lakes. “This research is required,” the Canada Water Agency wrote in a notice to contractors.
Statistics Canada reviewed whether to add a “non-binary” gender category in its monthly jobless reports but concluded the population was too small for accurate data, says a labour department report. Less than a quarter of one percent of Canadians identify as transgender or non-binary: “Given the non-binary population is small, data aggregation to a two-category gender variable is necessary.”
Parliament should federalize rent controls and cover late payments for tenants “at risk of immediate homelessness,” says the only MP in the federal New Democrat leadership race. Heather McPherson (Edmonton Strathcona) yesterday said regulation must not be left to landlords and local authorities: “Affordable housing is non-negotiable.”
A now-suspended tax on foreign-owned vacant residences cost nearly as much to collect as it raised in cash, according to Canada Revenue Agency figures. Finance Minister François-Philippe Champagne announced repeal of the tax last November 4: “The form is six pages long.”
The Department of Health this year will monitor industry’s compliance with a voluntary plan to save billions in health care costs by cutting sodium levels in processed foods. Non-compliance “will inform future actions,” the department wrote in a report to the Senate: “Industry needs to make additional efforts.”
The Public Health Agency yesterday budgeted $80,000 to have pollsters design future surveys regarding Canadians’ willingness to take medical advice from the government. It followed a 2023 report acknowledging “increased distrust of government and science.”
Liberal MP Chrystia Freeland (University-Rosedale, Ont.) only days after consulting Canadian CEOs on investment in Ukraine yesterday accepted appointment as an advisor to Ukraine’s President for “attracting investment.” Federal law prohibits public office holders from using their office to further a private interest: “Oh, is it the right time to invest in Ukraine?”
