A pandemic loan guarantee program for small business will be expanded June 15, a Crown banker yesterday told the Commons finance committee. Loans to the smallest operators may increase total costs: “Every week puts another person closer to bankruptcy.”
Public Works Minister Anita Anand yesterday said she was shocked and surprised by conflict of interest on a federal Covid-19 Supply Council. Six of seventeen appointees are registered lobbyists. One member has resigned to date: “Is your government comfortable with the presence of lobbyists?”
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau yesterday said cabinet cannot predict 2020 federal tax revenues or the size of the deficit. Any budget forecasting would be “an exercise in invention”, he said: “No, no, no.”
Pandemic relief for jobless students will go nearly $700 million over budget, the Parliamentary Budget Office said yesterday. The program intended for college and university students now pays benefits to high school graduates whether or not they’re enrolled on campus: “People have to get back to work.”
The Department of Public Works proposes to mandate the use of “green” cement on all federal construction projects. Cement makers yesterday said they’d sought the order for a decade: “This product is safe.”
The recession will knock $45,000 off average home prices this year with no recovery likely until 2023, says Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation. The federal insurer warned the timing of recovery is “highly uncertain”.
Canada’s anti-spam law is constitutional, the Federal Court of Appeal has ruled. The decision came in the case of a Québec firm that filed for bankruptcy after it was threatened with a $1.1 million fine: “Spam is a nuisance.”
The Canada Revenue Agency audits proportionately fewer businesses in Québec than any other province, data show. Small businesses in British Columbia, Ontario and Newfoundland and Labrador are twice or three times more likely to be audited: ‘It feels to the individual taxpayer like the CRA is focused on them.’
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau yesterday proposed to discuss mandatory police body-worn cameras but stopped short of issuing a directive to the RCMP. A Conservative motion and Liberal Senate proposal to have all police wear cameras lapsed in Parliament over the past decade: “Why do police not want this?”
Rental arrears in public housing are running at about ten percent, a manageable level, advocates yesterday told the Commons human resources committee. Cabinet three years ago outlined a National Housing Strategy promising $2,500-a year rental aid to low income households in 2020: “No tenant has been forced to leave.”
Canadians who falsely claimed to be jobless or refused work to qualify for $2,000 pandemic relief cheques face jail and five-figure fines. Cabinet will introduce legislation on penalties following suspiciously high claims for the Canada Emergency Response Benefit: “The numbers keep rising.”
Made in Canada pandemic masks promised “within weeks” will not be available through an anticipated second wave of infections by Labour Day, says the Department of Industry. “The work is not done,” said Mitch Davies, senior assistant deputy minister: “Obviously this is important.”
The Canadian Press is demanding 100 percent taxpayer grants, the equivalent of $500,000 a week, to offset revenue losses to year’s end. The news agency that calls itself the nation’s “trusted news leader” already received $1.3 million in sole-sourced licensing fees from federal agencies last year: “It would be most efficient if under such a program the grant be allocated directly to Canadian Press.”
The Department of Employment has continued to approve labour permits for temporary foreign workers at the rate of more than 1,600 a week even as unemployment climbed to a postwar high. The department in a report sought by one MP said it will begin rejecting migrant permits in hotel, restaurant and retail trades: “We need to stay focused.”
A CBC executive says the Crown broadcaster is reviewing ethics guidelines that forbid reporters from expressing “personal views” in the news. The internal email by Brodie Fenlon, editor in chief, was obtained by Press Progress. The CBC did not comment: “We are a beacon for that truth.”
