More than a quarter of Atlantic startups that receive federal subsidies fail within five years, says a federal briefing note. The disclosure follows a 2020 audit that faulted the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency for failing to conduct risk assessments on companies applying for taxpayers’ aid: “Once a project is funded the Agency has limited control.”
Snooping by public employees is the worst kind of privacy breach, a Commissioner has ruled. The warning came in the case of an employee of the Town of Hafford, Sask. caught browsing through property records: “Even worse is when an employee snoops and uses the information for potential personal gain.”
The Department of Industry spent $76 million since 2016 in recycling government-issue computers for use by schools and charities, says an internal audit. It was better than throwing them away, wrote auditors: “These results represent a significant second life for equipment.”
Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault’s department says it does not know the extent of ecological damage caused by an all-Canadian contaminant, road salt. Tonnes are used annually, mainly in Ontario and Québec, though federal researchers have rated it a bigger environmental threat than fracking: “Freshwater ecosystems have shown increasing chloride concentrations.”
Exploring the landscape
of the English language,
I find Fee in Coffee,
Off in Office.
There’s Cat in Catastrophe,
Dog in Dogmatic, and
Water in Waterloo.
Even Colour in Colourless
– that’s odd –
now imagine my thrill
to discover God in Pagoda
and Gold in Marigold!
Here’s Paper in Papers
– that’s easy –
but despite my effort
I cannot find
Wisdom, Truth, or Hope, in Trump,
or any Guarantee in Democracy.
There’s no Glory in Aging,
or Fairness in Promotion.
And no Infrastructure in Attawapiskat.
By Shai Ben-Shalom
Two Liberal MPs held shares in Facebook even as cabinet vowed to lead a national advertising boycott against the company. Neither MP commented yesterday after cabinet said it was “doing our part” to cut dealings with Facebook: “If the government and politicians don’t stand up against that kind of bullying or intimidation, who will?”
Employment Minister Carla Qualtrough’s department fired 64 employees as security risks, according to records. One was confirmed as a foreign spy: “For sensitivity reasons we cannot provide additional information on specific cases.”
Cabinet yesterday approved billions more subsidies for battery factories in what the Canadian Taxpayers Federation criticized as a free for all for foreign automakers. Aid totals more than $31 billion for three Ontario plants: “The feds need to draw the line somewhere.”
A federal tribunal yesterday saved General (Ret’d) Jonathan Vance from a summons to testify in a human rights case. Vance last year pleaded guilty to obstruction of justice, a first for a Chief of Defence Staff: “He was untouchable.”
The Conservative Party yesterday released an email from a Liberal cabinet aide as proof of double dealing on suspected election fraud by foreign agents, it said. The email was dated only hours before Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Conservatives were obstructing a public inquiry: “They don’t want answers.”
An order by Heritage Minister Pablo Rodriguez to pull all federal ads from Facebook and Instagram will cost the company $11.4 million, less than one tenth of one percent of annual revenues. It comes seven years after newspaper publishers pleaded with cabinet to stop sending ad dollars to Silicon Valley: “Will ministries in the government and members of your caucus stop posting on Instagram and Facebook?”
Higher prices for basic groceries like cabbage and spaghetti are running at three and four times the rate of general inflation, new Statistics Canada figures showed yesterday. Details of price spikes for specific foods followed cabinet’s celebration of the last Consumer Price Index report as “good news for Canadians,” said Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland.
Military recruitment fell 35 percent last year, records show. Volunteers were harder to find amid “Canada-wide labour shortages,” said a federal briefing note: “The Canadian Armed Forces is experiencing a shortfall in personnel.”
Cabinet effective August 1 will eliminate all credit checks on Canada Student Loan borrowers. “It only creates a barrier,” said loan managers at the Department of Employment: “Difficulties affording postsecondary education can be expected to have long term impacts for all Canadians.”
Canadians asking to see public records must first show their birth certificate, driver’s license or other proof of citizenship or residency under new legal requirements enacted yesterday by Treasury Board President Mona Fortier. The ID mandate was never put to public consultation: “No consultations were deemed to be necessary.”
