The Department of Public Works says it does not know if billions’ worth of masks and other pandemic supplies contracted in China are made by slave labour. MPs yesterday called the admission shocking: “Canadians deserve to know if their government is financially supporting forced labour.”
The Public Health Agency is now having to lease warehouse space for pandemic supplies after closing three warehouses and throwing away millions of masks. One MP yesterday called it acknowledgement of a “grave mistake” in managing a federal stockpile of emergency medical goods: “These are literally people’s lives.”
The Royal Canadian Navy blames pandemic shutdowns for delays in getting its costly submarine fleet back to sea. Four-year maintenance costs are now $1,325,330,000, almost double what Parliament spent to buy the subs in 1995: ‘Work has been impacted by Covid-19.’
The Commons ethics committee last night by a 6-5 vote ordered Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to appear for questioning on his family ties to We Charity. MPs also ordered records of speaking fees paid to the Prime Minister, his wife, mother and brother by all third parties since Trudeau’s election to Parliament in 2008: “Be careful.”
Finance Minister Bill Morneau faces an unprecedented censure vote after admitting he failed to disclose $41,366 in gifts from We Charity while approving a federal grant that would have paid the group up to $43.5 million. Morneau yesterday said he will not resign: “How is that even possible?”
Cabinet yesterday vetoed a direct federal bailout of the CFL. Heritage Minister Steven Guilbeault said any football club that needs money should call a bank: “I take it the answer would be no.”
Jobless Canadians calling a federal 1-800 number for help spent an average of more than an hour and a half on hold, says the Department of Employment. The disclosure follows complaints from MPs inundated with thousands of calls from constituents unable to reach the Government of Canada: “Applicants have to try for days to speak to a real person.”
Cabinet yesterday waived millions’ worth of interest on late payments by federal debtors. The relief measure does not apply to taxes unpaid after September 1: “Canadians are working hard and are struggling.”
A federal judge yesterday stuck as unconstitutional a treaty disqualifying refugee claims from foreigners who arrive in Canada from the U.S. An American policy of detaining claimants on their return breached the Charter of Rights, said the Federal Court: “Everyone has the right to life, liberty and security.”
Nearly half a billion in pandemic relief cheques were claimed by Canadians who weren’t entitled to them, says the Department of Social Development. Opposition MPs have questioned why payments were knowingly made to 221,320 people already receiving Employment Insurance: “When it’s obvious someone is not eligible, they shouldn’t ignore that.”
The Privy Council Office yesterday refused to say why it awarded tens of thousands of dollars in undisclosed sole-sourced contracts to We Charity in 2019. The contracts were just below a regulatory threshold that would have made the awards public: “What were those contracts for?”
A federal grant program is paying Indigenous people the equivalent of $154,000 a week to hunt and fish. The Department of Crown-Indigenous Relations yesterday did not comment on the subsidy intended to promote “consumption of traditional and country foods” in remote hamlets: “They will need equipment to go back to their traditional way of harvesting.”
Canadian publishers remain “fragile” and have lost more than $40 million in yearly domestic sales since 2012 changes to the Copyright Act, says a Department of Canadian Heritage report. Textbook companies publish fewer than half the titles they did before the Supreme Court approved wholesale photocopying: “Publishers indicate they have been damaged.”
Another private bill to regulate retailers’ credit card swipe fees, the third attempt in five years, has been introduced in the Commons. The latest bill follows small business complaints of costly fees charged merchants: “Who do we work for?”
Finance Minister Bill Morneau yesterday promised cabinet will never under any circumstance tax Canadians’ primary residences. The pledge followed days of equivocation by CMHC over a $250,000 grant for a study by researchers who blamed current tax policy for “inequality and social division between renters and owners”.
