Most Canadians have home air conditioners, Statistics Canada said yesterday in the first national survey of its kind. The research was prompted by worries over climate change, wrote analysts: “This study is the first to quantify air conditioning prevalence in Canada at the personal level.”
About 9 out of 10 companies in Canada are exempt from a federal bill mandating disclosure of ownership, says a Department of Industry briefing note. The vast majority of companies are registered in their home province or territory and not covered by the legislation: “Who is actually exercising control?”
Budget Officer Yves Giroux is demanding cabinet surrender terms of its multi-billion dollar subsidy agreements with Volkswagen and Stellantis by month’s end. “I am entitled to free and timely access,” he wrote: “Transparency and accountability are the Budget Office’s primary objectives.”
A petition opposing federal introduction of a public registry of foreign agents has closed with fewer than 2,500 signatures, a fraction of other petitions, records show. Liberal-appointed Senator Yuen Pau Woo had appealed to Canadians to rally behind it: “Sign the petition.”
There is “no limit” on the number of Ukrainian war refugees allowed into Canada, says a Department of Immigration memo. A total 1.1 million Ukrainians applied for free flights prior to a deadline that expired last Saturday: “I know all Canadians are inspired by the remarkably brave people of Ukraine.”
Parks Canada has trademarked a new beaver logo at an undisclosed cost. The old beaver’s crisscross tail (left) was eliminated on the new logo (right) and will look better on uniforms, the agency said: “Parks Canada has updated its beaver logo.”
Crude racism is so commonplace in the federal public service one Black manager says a co-worker taunted her with a stuffed monkey. The allegation was submitted in writing to a parliamentary committee investigating complaints of bigotry: “I left the office in tears.”
Tommy Douglas, founding leader of the federal New Democratic Party, is under review as a national historic figure due to “controversial beliefs and behaviour.” The Historic Sites and Monuments Board acknowledged Douglas was an early advocate of sterilizing unwed mothers: “He later changed his views.”
The Canada Infrastructure Bank last year paid bonuses to all six executives and every single manager at the equivalent of more than $85,000 apiece, records show. Bonuses were paid even as a Commons committee recommended Parliament close the Bank as a costly failure: “Pretty dismal.”
Canadian Pacific Railway is to blame for a wildfire that burned Lytton, B.C., says New York Consul General Tom Clark. The former CTV announcer’s remark to an American interviewer contradicts the findings of a 2021 federal investigation: “Sparks came off the rails. The town was destroyed, burnt out. It was turned into oblivion.”
Ontario will join five other provinces in recognizing the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation as a public sector holiday, a labor arbitrator has ruled. The observance September 30 will see the largest shutdown yet under a bill passed by Parliament in 2021: “It ought to have been granted as a paid holiday in 2022.”
Canada is “in the driver seat” with unprecedented electric car battery subsidies, Industry Minister François-Philippe Champagne’s department wrote in a briefing note. Figures acknowledged the subsidies for one VW plant are equal to the production of Canada’s entire auto sector last year: “This is a game changer.”
Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino’s wife held shares in a Ukraine war defence contractor as he pledged to be “out front in helping Ukraine with military aid,” records show. The holdings are among an extensive stock portfolio in the Mendicino family: “Canada will continue to be there for Ukraine.”
Canada’s “guest of honour” sponsorship of a German book fair with Governor General Mary Simon cost more than $18 million, according to a newly-disclosed federal audit. The event lasted four days in 2021: “Canada assumed significant financial and operational obligations.”
The Department of Veterans Affairs in a briefing note denies inflating the number of ex-military in Canada as an excuse to pad its budget. Census data showed the department over-estimated the number of Canadian veterans by 34 percent: “We will have more clarity.”
