The Senate will vote on a proposal to appoint a secretive super-committee of three members to oversee its $116 million yearly budget and control all audits. Suggested changes to Rules Of The Senate follow complaints of concealed spending and breach of contracting rules: “I am struck at how secret an institution the Senate is.”
Amazon Canada executives will not take questions on confidential terms of a multi-million dollar contract to distribute pandemic supplies, the Commons government operations committee was told. Cabinet awarded Amazon the $5 million contract on a claim the company was working without profit: “We’re trying to figure out what is the scope and scale of this arrangement.”
A Vancouver cannabis shop must pay $30,000 and stop calling itself Herbs R Us, the Federal Court has ruled. The judgment is the third marijuana-related case under the Trademarks Act: “Adult-themed content said to include nudity and swear words is utterly inconsistent with the reputation of the Toys R Us brand.”
Mom prepares her teenaged son
for the tournament.
She packs his bags
and puts spending money
in his wallet.
40 dollars.
She then takes another 20-dollar bill,
seals it in an envelope,
and writes “For Emergency Only”
in red ink.
She places this one at the bottom of his backpack.
The tournament went well,
and
there is still one dollar left in the wallet.
Mom is happy;
her son showed fiscal responsibility.
Until she learns that he bought pizza for the whole team,
and paid for it
by selling his hockey equipment
and dipping into his contingency fund.
“Why are you mad at me, Mom?
I balanced the budget, didn’t I?”
(Editor’s note: poet Shai Ben-Shalom, an Israeli-born biologist, examines current events in the Blacklock’s tradition each and every Sunday)
The Canada Pension Plan Investment Board yesterday called itself a climate change leader despite millions spent buying stock in Chinese coal companies. “We are thinking about climate change,” Mark Machin, the Board’s $5.9 million-a year CEO, told the Commons finance committee: “We do believe climate change is happening.”
A $60 billion pandemic relief program has attracted swindlers, identity thieves and shady tax preparers, the Canada Revenue Agency said last night. “Where we are focused is organized crime,” Assistant Revenue Commissioner Ted Gallivan told the Commons finance committee: ‘People have gone into senior citizens’ homes to make claims under those names.’
The Department of Natural Resources assigned a single employee and $100,000 in special funding to monitor corrupt practices by Canadian energy companies abroad, says an internal audit. The report cited skimpy resources in questioning the credibility of the program enacted by Parliament five years ago: ‘It’s difficult to know the full extent of compliance due to the hidden nature of corruption.’
MPs yesterday questioned terms of Chinese government bank loans to Foreign Minister Françoise-Philippe Champagne. The two-term MP owes $1.2 million to the Communist Party-run Bank of China: ‘These are matters of personal finance.’
A federal agency billed taxpayers nearly $6,000 for a bowling party and Valentine’s Day chocolates, according to accounts. The Canadian Air Transport Security Authority described the expenses as necessary for “team building”.
Realtors must name names of suspicious clients under new federal regulations introduced yesterday. The rules target offshore speculators and money launderers using shell companies to buy property: “A single transaction in the real estate sector could be used to launder a large sum of money.”
Parliament yesterday ground into gridlock as MPs balked at a cabinet bill threatening jail for Canadians who falsely claimed pandemic relief cheques. “They are not normal times,” said Government House Leader Pablo Rodriguez.
MPs on the Commons agriculture committee last night ridiculed cabinet’s claim the carbon tax is costing farmers as little as 60¢ a day for grain drying. Deputy Agriculture Minister Chris Forbes said it was “probably a question of the average”.
Hot dogs cost 27 percent more in Vancouver than Montréal while shoppers in Toronto pay an average $1.43 more for a litre of milk than Winnipeggers. Statistics Canada yesterday detailed spot prices at grocers nationwide with “interesting trends and observations”.
Federal agencies must question “what messages we want to be sending” with historic designations, Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland said yesterday. The remarks followed a 2019 recommendation to remove a “white race” plaque on a statue in Orillia, Ont.: “It’s a conversation we need to have.”
A labour board has cited a casino operator for using the pandemic to abruptly renegotiate a union contract. The Commons human resources committee earlier heard complaints other companies have sought coronavirus concessions: “The proposals were not made in good faith.”
