Cabinet’s signature Canada Dental Care Plan is confusing and bureaucratic with 61 percent of dentists declining to participate, the Canadian Dental Association yesterday told the Commons finance committee. Health Minister Mark Holland said he was confident difficulties will be resolved: “We heard from a lot of dentists.”
Complying with a federal bill on replacement workers will put “a lot more pressure” on the Canada Industrial Relations Board, the chair yesterday warned MPs. The bill mandates rulings within 90 days though the Board currently takes an average seven months to settle Canada Labour Code complaints: “It will be difficult for us to meet the timelines that are in the bill.”
Millionaire ArriveCan supplier Kristian Firth yesterday named names of federal managers he met over meals and drinks to discuss lucrative contracts. Firth’s disclosures followed his summons to the bar of the House as the first federal contactor in 111 years to be cited for contempt of Parliament. Firth said his company GC Strategies Inc. of Woodlawn, Ont. “could have been stopped” at any time as it billed $19.1 million for the ArriveCan project.
A federal contractor’s summons yesterday to the bar of the House of Commons was the first punishment of its kind since 1913. The last contractor named and shamed by MPs was jailed for months as a “prisoner of Parliament.”
Cabinet has a “lot of details that we need to work out” in its latest housing plan, Housing Minister Sean Fraser said yesterday. The plan reiterates CMHC figures suggesting Canada would have to triple annual housing starts to attain affordability: “Details need to be worked out.”
Any federal employees who leaked secret memos on Chinese interference must be “identified and prosecuted,” says Liberal-appointed Senator Yuen Pau Woo (B.C.). The Senator made the demand in a submission to the Commission on Foreign Interference made public yesterday: “Why have the leakers not been identified and prosecuted?”
The next Census will include new questions on “couple relationships” outside marriage and common law, Statistics Canada said yesterday. It follows the first-ever collection of Census data on “gender diversity.”
Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland yesterday proposed billions in new mid-term deficit spending at rates up to 95 percent higher than forecast only a year ago. Freeland revised all deficit projections upwards despite writing in her budget document that “it would be irresponsible and unfair to pass more debt to the next generation.”
A federal ethics investigation of a Department of Industry board will be finalized within 90 days, the Commons ethics committee was told yesterday. Records show then-Industry Minister Navdeep Bains ignored repeated warnings in appointing a Liberal Party donor with a known conflict: “Have you uncovered any element of criminality?”
Elections Canada yesterday detailed plans for a media marketing campaign targeting young voters. Electors under 25 number 2.7 million but fewer than half, 1.2 million, cast ballots in the 2021 campaign: “Most of them intend to vote in the upcoming federal election.”
No one can provide “100 percent clarity” there are no Chinese agents on the federal payroll, says the nation’s spy chief. David Vigneault, director of the Canadian Security Intelligence Service, told MPs he could not discuss ongoing investigations: “We can never rest.”
The Canada Border Services Agency has not successfully intercepted a single shipment of slave-made goods since cabinet announced a federal crackdown on Chinese imports, records show. Critics have called Canada an unwitting leader in importing forced labour products: “Our enforcement to this point has been terrible.”
Cabinet today proposed new controls and taxes on real estate to take effect in 2025. Measures to be detailed in “consultation” documents this summer include a tax on undeveloped property: “The government will consider introducing a new tax.”
Cabinet’s “safe supply” drug policy is prompting public disorder, a Liberal MP yesterday told the Commons health committee. MP Doctor Marcus Powlowski (Thunder Bay-Rainy River, Ont.), an emergency room physician, warned colleagues: “There is certainly the perception by a lot of Canadians that a lot of downtown cores are basically out of control.”
Rideau Hall yesterday had no comment after Governor General Mary Simon personally hosted a conference in support of a bill before Parliament, C-63 An Act To Enact The Online Harms Act. The guest list was limited to Attorney General Arif Virani and supporters of internet regulation: “We discussed this and our Online Harms Act.”
