Cabinet today expects final ratification of a settlement to the 13-day B.C. ports strike, says Labour Minister Seamus O’Regan. Another strike is out of the question, O’Regan told reporters: “We can’t have it happen again. We cannot go through this again.”
Calling a judicial inquiry into alleged election fraud by Chinese agents is “complicated,” newly-appointed Public Safety Minister Dominic LeBlanc yesterday told reporters. It has been nearly five months since all MPs but the Liberal caucus voted for an independent investigation: “What exactly is the holdup?”
The Prime Minister yesterday appointed a new Treasury Board president for the sixth time in eight years. The newest appointee, MP Anita Anand (Oakville, Ont.), told reporters she was “very well placed at this moment to join a fantastic economic team.”
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau yesterday sacked a fifth of his cabinet. He needed a “team with fresh energy,” Trudeau told reporters: ““There are lots of big things ahead and we’re going to stay focused on delivering them because that’s what Canadians want.”
The Financial Consumer Agency of Canada yesterday would not release findings of a first-ever detailed federal study of payday loan borrowers. The research followed a February 13 report that 38 percent of Canadians were borrowing money to cover daily expenses: “The Agency is currently analyzing the data.”
Canadians are buying fewer groceries due to food inflation, Statistics Canada said yesterday. “Shoppers are spending more but buying less,” wrote analysts: “Many grocery items have continued to increase month after month and on balance are 20 percent above levels reported two years earlier.”
Covid-19 may have started in a “laboratory incident” but the precise cause is unproven, says the Department of Health. The acknowledgment comes three years after then-Health Minister Patricia Hajdu ridiculed “conspiracy theories” about the Wuhan Institute of Virology: ‘You’re feeding into conspiracy theories people perpetuate on the internet.’
Millions spent on the taxpayer-owned Trans Mountain Pipeline are not included in total costs, records show. Additional subsidies were excluded from calculations used in supporting cabinet’s claim that “no more public money will be used to complete the Trans Mountain Expansion.”
“Private capital” is needed to revive public transit, a Department of Infrastructure report said yesterday. Ridership nationwide remains below pre-pandemic levels at a loss to operators of more than $46 million a month, according to Statistics Canada: “Costs of major public transit projects cannot be met by governments on their own.”
The Department of Justice may withhold its litigation costs from taxpayers under “solicitor-client privilege,” the Office of the Information Commissioner said yesterday. MPs have demanded that all expenditures of public money be disclosed including expenses run up by federal lawyers: ‘It is a broken system.’
Most court records sent to federal prisons, up to 80 percent, contain paperwork errors, says a federal audit. The investigation was prompted by the mistaken 2017 release of a British Columbia drug trafficker due to a typographical error: “It is important.”
The Government of Canada paid a foreign contractor blacklisted by allies as a Russian war collaborator, records disclose. Payment was made even after the contractor was censured by allies: “Canada is actively exploring options on next steps.”
Quarantine hotels cost taxpayers more than a third of a billion according to new figures, the highest disclosed to date. Expenses were the equivalent of more than $17,000 for every traveler given shelter for 72 hours: “Costs associated with this program included lodging, meals, security, traveler support and transportation.”
Tax measures should support Canadians who work past 65, says Industry Minister François-Philippe Champagne. The number of pensioners who remain in the workforce is currently the highest in history, according to federal data: “The tax system should not create undue barriers for seniors who wish to return or remain in the workforce.”
Canadians typically don’t know much about the Navy but suspect it is probably racist, says in-house research by the Department of National Defence. More than a third of people surveyed called Navy racism worrisome though they couldn’t point to any particular allegation or incident: “One Black participant did describe the Navy as being as racially diverse as the National Hockey League.”
