Defence Minister David McGuinty yesterday said cabinet for the first time will meet its minimum 2 percent NATO target on military spending by month’s end. MPs have noted the NATO calculations include budget line items of little military value like unarmed Coast Guard lifeboats: “We just can’t have creative accounting to get to 2 percent. We actually need capability to protect Canada.”
Weak growth forecasts for 2026 will get weaker yet, Bank of Canada Governor Tiff Macklem yesterday told reporters. A January 28 outlook is already out of date, he said: “It looks like it is going to come in lower than what we previously forecast.”
A federal labour board has upheld the firing of a Statistics Canada supervisor for dishonesty. Managers said the misconduct did not impact any statistical reports but breached the Agency’s Code Of Conduct that states, “Trust is the defining characteristic of an effective and useful statistical system.”
The Canada Revenue Agency yesterday confirmed it is suspending its fax line for charity filings at month’s end. It is the first federal office to eliminate fax lines since Xerox Corporation introduced the dial-up facsimile machine 60 years ago: “We simply don’t seem to be able to modernize and move quickly.”
A Laval, Que. constable who tracked down the author of an insulting Facebook post has been cleared of abuse of authority. Numerous Québec municipalities including Laval enforce local bylaws against “insulting or abusing a peace office or a municipal employee in the performance of his or her duties.”
Average spot prices for regular gasoline have jumped 24 percent since the outbreak of war in Iran, the Department of Natural Resources said yesterday. Diesel is up 28 percent: “Obviously this could affect growth and inflation.”
The Commons industry committee is recommending cabinet reverse a decade of Trudeau-era tax policy. Canada should be more competitive with the United States, wrote MPs: ‘Examine the impact of tax rates on entrepreneurship.’
More than 53,000 Canadians have petitioned the Commons to force floor-crossers to face a byelection. Thousands signed following the March 10 defection of New Democrat MP Lori Idlout (Nunavut) to the Liberal caucus: “Voters deserve immediate accountability.”
Vancouver activist Avi Lewis has attracted more New Democrat donors than all other contenders combined in final balloting for the Party leadership, federal filings show. Lewis raised more than a million, typically in small contributions under $100, with his campaign to “tax the rich.”
Parliament should federalize forest firefighting, say insurers. Petitions to the Commons environment committee followed in-house Privy Council polling on creating a new Canadian version of the U.S. Federal Emergency Management Agency: “Canada has already entered an era of record-breaking natural disasters with no signs of slowing.”
Canada’s economy is so poor it represents a “human rights crisis,” says the Canadian Human Rights Commission. The agency in a report said inflation, housing shortages and rising poverty rates had put the “the fundamental human right to an adequate standard of living at risk.”
Assigning federal employees to work from home cost the equivalent of more than $4.3 million a year, records show. Expenses included providing staff with laptops, office chairs, printer supplies and other equipment: ‘This included direction on how to ensure safe and ergonomic workspaces at home.’
The Public Health Agency says it’s making progress in discarding a mountain of expired masks and other personal protective equipment following the pandemic. Storage costs alone totaled $17 million since the World Health Organization announced an end to the global emergency in 2023: “Recycling and, if required, disposal is undertaken.”
A multi-million dollar federal program to aid farmers in financial distress has little take-up, says a Department of Agriculture audit. The program intended to provide free mediation for farmers facing insolvency saw few applicants, it said: ‘There is low program awareness.’
The Marxist-Leninist Party is petitioning Parliament to encourage Canadians to holiday in Cuba. Airline cancellations and a federal advisory against non-essential travel to Cuba have prompted a “really difficult situation,” MPs were told.
