The Canada Revenue Agency “could have done some sort of screening” before paying out claims under the costliest pandemic relief program, says Auditor General Karen Hogan. The Canada Emergency Wage Subsidy cost taxpayers $100.6 billion including payments to companies in tax default: “The Agency had information where they could have vetted the eligibility of businesses.”
The Commons yesterday voted unanimously to endorse Taiwan’s bid for membership in the World Health Organization. The House passed a motion sponsored by Conservative MP Michael Barrett (Leeds-Grenville, Ont.) that it concur with a recommendation of the health committee to lift a China ban on Taiwanese participation: “Taiwan deserves a seat at the table.”
Federal managers laughed about backdating documents used in a Federal Court case, records show. Then-Immigration Minister Marco Mendicino approved the 2020 backdating in an apparent bid to mislead a judge: “Ha ha!”
The Department of Public Safety yesterday said it has no specific research indicating new gun controls will reduce gun crime. Initiatives were based on a general sense that fewer legal guns would make for safer homes, witnesses told the Commons public safety committee: “I think Canadians would want to know.”
The ArriveCan app program cemented Canada’s reputation with U.S. travelers as an irritating place to visit, the Commons trade committee was told yesterday. Cabinet suspended the mandatory program last Saturday following an outcry from border cities: “When you have an experience that’s good you tell someone and when it’s bad you tell ten people. That’s exactly what’s been happening.”
The Commons ethics committee yesterday censured the RCMP as reluctant witnesses at parliamentary hearings. It marked the second time in two months that MPs faulted the Mounties for withholding evidence: “Members voiced concern during the RCMP’s testimony that witnesses were being evasive.”
Inaction by the Department of Fisheries has put species at risk, Environment Commissioner Jerry DeMarco said yesterday. DeMarco said the department wasted years in acting to save endangered species: “Once an aquatic species becomes extinct it is lost forever.”
Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino backdated government documents in an apparent bid to mislead a federal judge, records show. Mendicino did not comment. Access To Information files in the case date from 2020 when Mendicino was Minister of Immigration: “Things are on fire over here.”
The Commons ethics committee yesterday by a 6 to 5 vote ordered hearings into allegations of sweetheart contracting at a Québec border crossing used by illegal immigrants. The committee’s majority questioned cabinet secrecy over millions spent at Lacolle, Que. including warehouse leases for a Liberal donor. Liberal MPs opposed the investigation: “There is no scandal here.”
Cabinet does not have “oceans of money” to shield Canadians from the cost of living, Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland said yesterday. Freeland’s remarks to the Commons finance committee followed a 56 percent hike in the federal debt ceiling: “We cannot fully compensate every single Canadian family and every single Canadian business for the higher cost of inflation.”
Federal departments are spending billions on consultants with little oversight, the Commons government operations committee was told yesterday. MPs expressed amazement over amounts of money given to large private firms: “Who is going to step up to protect taxpayers?”
Canadians sympathize with Ukraine but do not want to see our our troops or air crew in combat, says in-house federal research. “Few felt the conflict would end soon with many reiterating concerns regarding the potential escalation into a larger conflict and the possible deployment of nuclear weapons by Russia,” said a Privy Council Office report: ‘This could put Canadian lives at risk.’
Cabinet began repealing Covid mandates within weeks of being warned in a pollsters’ report the measures were unpopular and divisive, records show. “Some felt they had lost their sense of trust in the federal government,” said an internal report: “Participants were of the view vaccine requirements had been largely harmful.”
Canadians in internal federal polling say they resent police treatment of the Freedom Convoy. Even opponents of the protest said freezing bank accounts would never have been necessary if cabinet had done its job: “It was felt use of the Act represented significant overreach by the federal government.”
Parliament should take over regulation of payday lenders from the provinces, says the Consumers Council of Canada. The submission to the Commons finance committee comes ahead of a review of federal usury law for the first time since 1978: “Companies will find workarounds and loopholes to continue to charge excessively high rates.”
