A federal agency yesterday warned “costs remain uncertain” in a federal program to subsidize small, experimental modular nuclear reactors. Aid to date includes $27.2 million for a prototype by Westinghouse Electric Canada that counts Prime Minister Mark Carney among its shareholders: ‘Costs can be relatively high.’
A federal agency is hiring a U.S. consultant for tips on “how Washington works” at a taxpayers’ charge of more than $170,000. It did not explain why it bypassed the Department of Foreign Affairs that has 13,235 employees including a fully-staffed Embassy in Washington: ‘It requires specialized knowledge.’
Mark Carney must consult Parliament before recognizing Palestine as a country, B’nai Brith petitioners yesterday wrote the Prime Minister. The historic concession was so “profoundly troubling” and lacking in “moral clarity” it warrants parliamentary debate, wrote petitioners including rabbis and CEOs: “The Canadian public must have a say.”
The Department of Indigenous Service is committed to finding “pretendians” in a federal directory of Indigenous contractors, says a briefing note. Managers have yet to disclose the findings of an audit into how many federal suppliers faked First Nations, Inuit or Métis ownership to qualify for billions in contracts set aside for Indigenous firms: “This is huge.”
The Canadian Embassy in Washington hired a US$2,000-an hour consultant for tips on how to talk to Americans, records show. It followed then-Foreign Minister Mélanie Joly’s boast that Canadian diplomats had expertise that “goes deep at different levels of American society.”
The Canadian Union of Public Employees is asking that a federal judge cite Labour Minister Patty Hajdu for unlawful misuse of her powers to quash a legal strike by 10,500 Air Canada flight attendants. Hajdu yesterday did not comment but earlier told reporters she did not like strikes: “Is your government anti-union?”
The number of homeless veterans has declined steadily, by at least 17 percent in the past two years, says a Department of Veterans Affairs memo. Managers credited in part a program that pays tax-free emergency grants in hardship cases: “I could literally save their life.”
Most high schoolers of the Covid generation spend far in excess of recommended “screen time” on the internet, says a Public Health Agency report. New findings drawn from questionnaires with 26,000 students nationwide followed warnings that pandemic school closures disrupted childhood activities like sports and clubs: ‘Frequent internet use has become especially common.’
Retail startups in Canada are down by more than a fifth since the pandemic, says new Department of Industry research. It followed a 12 percent rise in bankruptcies last year to near levels not seen since the 2008 financial panic: “This report is one of the first to examine the impact of Covid-19 on entrepreneurship.”
A four-day strike by Air Canada flight attendants ended this morning after management came to terms, says the Canadian Union of Public Employees. The tentative agreement at 4:23 am Eastern came a day after strike leaders defied a picket ban imposed by the federal cabinet: “We will not turn our back on these workers.”
Opposition Leader Pierre Poilievre last night reclaimed a Commons seat. “I will never give up,” he said after winning a byelection in Battle River-Crowfoot, Alta. with 80.4 percent support: “The road to success is never a straight line.”
Parks Canada yesterday hurriedly issued a public designation of Brian Mulroney as a national historic person. It followed disclosures the agency’s Historic Sites and Monuments Board voted in secret session to delay for 25 years a public honour for the late Prime Minister that was previously awarded promptly to his Liberal predecessors: “We will continue to monitor this situation.”
The nation is too reliant on the Canadian Armed Forces for firefighting, Emergency Management Minister Eleanor Olszewski said yesterday. Cabinet for years has proposed to federalize wildfire response by creating a Canadian version of the U.S. Federal Emergency Management Agency: “You know, this is not their primary responsibility.”
A labour board has overturned the 2021 firing of a Toronto schoolteacher for wearing an awkward Halloween costume. The appearance of blackface was inadvertent and unintentional, an arbitrator ruled: “He was asked if he was aware of the controversy over Justin Trudeau appearing as Aladdin in blackface.”
Labour Minister Patty Hajdu yesterday would not substantiate her claim a legal strike by 10,000 Air Canada flight attendants threatened deliveries of life-saving medicine and organ tissue. Hajdu was previously cited for fabricating stories to justify strike bans “This is simply unacceptable.”
