The Commons last night passed a $9 billion pandemic aid bill for students amid warnings over the rising federal deficit. “We all know $200 billion deficits mean future tax increases,” said one Conservative MP.
Jobless youth should be sent to work on farms instead of receiving grants to sit at home, a Conservative MP yesterday told the Commons. One Liberal MP complained young staff have told employers that wages can’t beat federal benefits: “They are making more money staying home doing nothing.”
Parliament has now guaranteed some $16 billion worth of interest-free loans for small business, according to the Department of Finance. MPs said small operators disqualified on technicalities are becoming desperate as competitors reap a windfall: “There are so many holes in these programs.”
The Public Health Agency yesterday acknowledged it underestimated deaths from Covid-19 in Canada. The Commons health committee earlier heard testimony that actual infection rates will be five times Agency estimates: “It’s kind of hard to look at predictions.”
Cabinet has announced so many pandemic relief programs known by acronym – CEBA, CECRA, CERB, CESB, CEWS – only the Opposition yesterday found it improbable when a Liberal MP unveiled a new multi-billion dollar CEAB program on his Twitter account. The lawmaker later apologized for fake news: “There is no announcement.”
Full-time pandemic relief work for military reservists will cost taxpayers nearly half a billion dollars, the Parliamentary Budget Office said yesterday. Expenses are double the cost of the navy’s last aircraft carrier: “The front line is everywhere.”
Federal executives billed thousands in commercial flights for routine business even after the Department of Health advised Canadians to stay home where possible. Records show managers booked unnecessary travel the very day Prime Minister Justin Trudeau asked the public to “figure out how to stay home from work and work from home”.
The CFL season is questionable for the first time in 101 years despite intense lobbying by the league. Health Minister Patricia Hajdu yesterday cited the risk of “spit and all kinds of stuff” in football.
Mismanagement of the national emergency stockpile of pandemic supplies was folly, Opposition Leader Andrew Scheer yesterday told reporters. Federal buyers have overpaid more than $500 million for medical supplies that could have been purchased at a fraction of the cost: “Prices are increasing rapidly.”
Federal employers are giving themselves a poor rating on workplace accessibility a year after Parliament passed a bill to remove all jobsite barriers nationwide. A management survey of staff with partial blindness, deafness, use of wheelchairs and other conditions found widespread complaints of grudging treatment on accommodation requests: “I was bullied and betrayed.”
Federal failure to stock up on vital medical supplies has cost taxpayers some half-billion dollars, according to figures submitted to the Commons government operations committee. The Department of Public Works said it’s now forced to pay a 380 percent pandemic price mark-up for masks needed by doctors, nurses and paramedics: “If the stockpile had been stocked up we would have saved a lot of money.”
Public Works Minister Anita Anand is justifying a pandemic distribution deal with Amazon by claiming it’s a “Canadian company”. Staff would not disclose terms of the Amazon contract after a deputy minister suggested the firm could profit despite cabinet claims to the contrary: “Is Canada Post not capable of doing the same thing?”
The Department of Employment acknowledges pandemic relief programs have been announced without details or even definitions on how benefits will be paid. MPs in the Commons human resources committee questioned the Prime Minister’s offer of $5,000 grants to students “who choose to do national service”.
Cabinet will not detail the multi-billion dollar cost of a pandemic relief program to pay half the cost of commercial rents for shuttered businesses. Restaurants alone pay $750 million a month in rents nationwide, the Commons finance committee was told: “Can you continue to spend at this rate?”
A cabinet appointee who held public office while president of an Ontario construction company breached no conflict laws, says the Ethics Commissioner. Moreen Miller’s conduct as chair of a Crown corporation prompted a $2 million lawsuit pending in Ontario Superior Court: “I find it unlikely.”
