Prime Minister Mark Carney’s “sovereign wealth fund” will cost taxpayers $750 million a year in debt interest charges, finance department figures show. The estimate yesterday followed criticism the $25 billion Canada Strong Fund was not a savings account: “It’s actually a debt fund.”
Labour department managers yesterday could not corroborate Minister Patty Hajdu’s story that a medical emergency justified quashing a legal 2025 strike by Air Canada flight attendants. Hajdu denied making it up though Access To Information records showed Air Canada’s worry was over lost tourism fares, not life-saving organ transplants: “Was it actually true?”
The equivalent of a tenth of Greater Toronto Area residents now eat at a food bank, the CEO of the city’s Daily Bread Food Bank yesterday testified at the Commons finance committee. Many recipients work full time, he said: “Staggering.”
Being a “good person” does not excuse a taxpayer from a justifiable audit, says a Tax Court judge. The remarks came in the latest appeals by participants in what the Canada Revenue called one of the largest tax shelter schemes in the country: “They simply made the same stale arguments.”
Shoplifting has become a flashpoint for public disorder and organized crime that is costing consumers billions, Conservative MP Chak Au (Richmond Centre-Marpole, B.C.) yesterday told the Commons public safety committee. “Shoplifting has become a national crisis,” he said.
The Senate concealed hundreds of thousands of postcards mailed by Canadians opposed to a cabinet bill, the chair of the budget committee confirmed yesterday. Senator Tony Loffreda (Que.), a Liberal appointee, denied any trickery: “This decision was not made to silence anyone.”
A live microphone caught Prime Minister Mark Carney scolding a cabinet minister for acting stupidly. Carney attempted to laugh off the incident when questioned yesterday, then declined comment: “My answer is my answer, thank you.”
Organized crime is targeting the West Coast fishery, a former RCMP deputy commissioner has told the Senate fisheries committee. Senators were urged to press for mandatory disclosure of companies buying lucrative quotas in the crab fishery: “Organized crime is not a distant or hypothetical concern.”
Finance Minister François-Philippe Champagne says the Model T Ford was a start-up failure, proving success with cabinet’s electric vehicle policy will take time. A spokesperson later explained Champagne was tired and meant the Tesla Model S, not the bestselling Model T: “It was a misspeak.”
Liberal MP Steven Guilbeault (Laurier-Sainte-Marie, Que.) yesterday bid farewell to a half-empty House of Commons, confirming he will resign this summer. Guilbeault sat quietly as one Conservative MP faulted him for environmental policies that “caused so much hardship for so many families across this country.”
Federal managers yesterday confirmed Prime Minister Mark Carney’s Buy Canadian policy benefits 100 percent foreign-owned corporations with storefront operations in Canada but couldn’t say if a company hiring temporary foreign workers would qualify. Carney announced the policy last September 5 on a promise to “build Canada strong.”
A Bank of Canada executive yesterday blamed immigration in part for high youth unemployment rates. Nicolas Vincent, external Deputy Governor, said young jobseekers face difficulties not seen in a generation: “Their contribution to the rise in overall long-term unemployment exceeds what we saw during the recession in the early 1990s.”
Federal boundary commissioners renamed several ridings with Indigenous references to promote reconciliation, one participant yesterday told the House affairs committee. A cabinet bill currently before the committee would delete Indigenous names given two ridings: “Indigenous place names are already deeply embedded in Canadian political geography even if we do not always stop to notice: Mississauga, Skeena, Nanaimo, Temiscaming.”
Labour Minister Patty Hajdu yesterday said cabinet seeks “better relationships” with organized labour and employers. Cabinet ten times in two years unilaterally issued orders under the Canada Labour Code to quash legal strikes, a record: “Strikes are very disruptive.”
The Public Health Agency in an April 30 memo said measles was not “widespread across Canada” despite a 2025 outbreak. Canada’s loss of measles-free status with the World Health Organization was merely a “classification used to guide surveillance,” it said.
