Blacklock's Reporter

Airline passengers owed billions for pre-paid tickets on cancelled flights have the choice of accepting vouchers or “nothing at all,” says a federal regulator. Members of the Commons transport committee yesterday accused the Canadian Transportation Agency of bending rules to save airlines from refunding cash payments to customers: “I wonder how you can possibly construe this as a fair situation.”

Paid pandemic furloughs for federal employees who were neither sick nor working from home have now cost $1.1 billion, the Parliamentary Budget Office said yesterday. Analysts estimated 113,362 staffers took time off at full pay and benefits averaging $481 a day: “We’ve made sure to take care of our employees.”

CBC-TV ad revenues continue a historic collapse, falling nineteen percent in six months. CEO Catherine Tait said programming cuts are contemplated despite record subsidies: “We need the public to feel safe and to know that we are a beacon for truth.”

MPs yesterday expressed unease with an auditors’ proposal to report all delinquent Canada Student Loan borrowers to credit bureaus. Write-offs have cost taxpayers $2.7 billion: “We don’t want to penalize youth right off the bat coming out of university or college.”

The military can take months to fill internal vacancies for civilian employees, says an audit. The Department of National Defence blamed “systemic bottlenecks” involving the shuffling of files between managers: “Delays were noted.”

Cabinet is raising its federal debt ceiling an unprecedented fifty-six percent to near $2 trillion. Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland yesterday put the current deficit at $381.6 billion with more borrowing scheduled for the next five years: “Taxpayers are on the hook for every single dollar.”

Funding for We Charity was so hurriedly approved it was never reviewed by the one federal agency mandated to oversee federal spending, the Treasury Board. MPs last night were told Youth Minister Bardish Chagger was given authority to approve a $43.5 million grant for the group: “We Charity money didn’t go through Treasury Board at all?”

Cabinet proposes 100 percent loan guarantees for hotelkeepers and others in the tourism sector hammered by the pandemic and recession. The Hotel Association of Canada said occupancy rates plummeted so far members could not get bank loans: “We were hit first, hit hardest, and will be the last to recover.”

Canadians should wish China well on its “journey to become a fully developed economy,” says the leader of the largest Senate group. Senator Yuen Pau Woo (B.C.) called China a neighbour with “a proud and ancient civilization.”

Federal promotion of foreign aid “does not seem to work” with Canadians, says the Department of Foreign Affairs. The department said few taxpayers know or care about foreign aid, with a small fraction aware Canada still provides millions to China: “What if anything have you read, heard or seen recently on Canada’s international development efforts?”

Cabinet today said it will revive a popular 2007 program that offered $5,000 grants to homeowners for energy refits. The program was cancelled in 2012 on complaints over the cost: “It doesn’t take much.”

We Charity appeared to misunderstand the Lobbying Act in failing to disclose dozens of contacts with federal staff, cabinet and political aides, says Lobbying Commissioner Nancy Bélanger. The charity out-lobbied General Motors in pursuing a $43.5 million grant, records show: “Would that be okay?”

Bob Rae, Canada’s ambassador to the United Nations, is the only current federal public office holder with investments in the marijuana trade. Neither Rae nor the Department of Foreign Affairs would comment on the disclosure: “Bob Rae has dedicated his life to serving Canadians.”

No rules were broken when the Department of Health awarded a $237.3 million contract to a company chaired by former Québec Liberal MP Frank Baylis, says the Commissioner of Ethics. Baylis was not bound by conflict of interest rules since he’d left Parliament six months before the contract was signed: “Can that be considered a conflict of interest?”

Few Canadians fly the flag but are quietly proud of their country as strong and free, says a Department of Canadian Heritage study. The research was conducted after the pandemic forced cancellation of Canada Day observances on Parliament Hill for the first time in forty-four years: “This is where they were born, this is their country and they love their country.”