Liberal MPs yesterday expressed alarm that talent fees privately paid to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his family will become public. The Commons ethics committee has sought records from the Trudeaus’ talent agent since July 22: “Once it is out electronically, it’s out.”
Cabinet faces a Commons vote that would force disclosure of uncensored records on its dealings with the now-disbanded We Charity. Staff blacked out whole pages of emails and memos in breach of a finance committee order, according to the Commons Law Clerk: “We have the right to see those documents.”
Parliament must impose a surtax on excess corporate profits, New Democrat leader Jagmeet Singh yesterday told reporters. Singh stopped short of threatening to withhold twenty-four NDP votes from any minority Liberal budget bill: “This is fundamental.”
The Bloc Québécois yesterday proposed the Commons environment committee consider the feasibility of a federal Zero-Emission Vehicles Act mandating electric cars. A similar British Columbia law would abolish the private sale of gas and diesel-powered vehicles by 2040: “Could we provide further incentives?”
A newly-appointed federal Taxpayers’ Ombudsman has friends in cabinet, according to filings with the Ethics Commissioner. François Boileau of Toronto was named to the $153,700-a year post though he had no expertise in tax matters: “They have to be more serious than that.”
The CBC yesterday listed Canadian news publishers it deemed trustworthy and deserving of public support. The list was borrowed from a lobby group that successfully sought a $595 million newspaper bailout: “We provided them with our members.”
Activist judges should mind their own business, says the Federal Court of Appeal. “They should stay in their proper place,” wrote Justice David Stratas. “Their place is not in the public square amongst the partisans and the politicians.”
Cabinet yesterday said it will ban six everyday plastic products as environmentally toxic with scores of other items under review. “These are things that are harmful,” Environment Minister Jonathan Wilkinson told reporters: “Action is needed.”
More than a third of British Columbians fear family life suffers when women get a full-time job. And most Atlantic Canadians say women aren’t interested in math. The findings are among data in federal research by the Office of Women and Gender Equality: “It is a woman’s job to be responsible for birth control since they are the ones who get pregnant.”
One of the longest-serving MPs in the Liberal caucus yesterday warned cabinet cannot “simply pile up debt”. Eight-term MP John McKay, chair of the Commons public safety committee, said constituents have asked: “How are we going to pay for this?”
Parliament has paid more than $186 million in rebates to electric car buyers without any public estimate of the climate change impact. The Department of Transport yesterday did not comment: “The objective is to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, right?”
Department of Industry claims of mammoth job creation from corporate subsidies don’t add up, the Parliamentary Budget Office said yesterday. Actual jobs will be about half the number claimed, said analysts: ‘The nature of these jobs is unknown at this point.’
The House affairs committee yesterday by a 6-5 vote further delayed disclosure of We Charity documents. A lone New Democrat MP Rachel Blaney (North Island-Powell River, B.C.) cast the deciding vote: “I do have some concerns.”
A Liberal appointee yesterday called the Senate the “most colonialistic institution in Canada”. Dr. Mary Jane McCallum (Man.) complained of heavy-handed politicking within a so-called Independent Senators Group rife with “elitism and privilege”, she said.
Cabinet’s parliamentary secretary for finance last night called income inequality a plague in Canada. The Liberal MP appeared to express support for a federal inheritance tax abolished by Parliament forty-eight years ago: “We will not be afraid.”
