Federal agencies enforce about 35,000 regulations with new ones added at the rate of one a day, the Treasury Board yesterday told the Commons committee on government operations. MPs complained of modest savings from a 2015 law that promised to cut red tape: “Regulators regulate. That is what they do.”
A former Canadian ambassador to China yesterday praised Mao Zedong for achieving “great things”, and claimed personal freedom in the People’s Republic has improved for decades. Howard Balloch, ex-Chretien appointee, made the remarks in testimony at the Commons Special Committee on Canada-China Relations: “Freedoms in China grew substantially.”
The Commons ethics committee yesterday by a 6-4 vote rejected further hearings on SNC-Lavalin Group Inc. influence in the Prime Minister’s Office. However Lobbying Commissioner Nancy Bélanger confirmed she reviewed complaints the Prime Minister breached federal law with possible recourse to an RCMP probe: “I would not want to jeopardize the integrity of any police investigation.”
The Department of Public Works yesterday disclosed it spent more than three-quarters of a million dollars digging up a Senate parking lot in a failed search for antiquities. An entire team of “highly qualified archaeologists” was hired for the dig, said staff: “The archaeology program has come to an end.”
Health Minister Patricia Hajdu yesterday predicted most Canadians will not be directly affected by the coronavirus and urged calm. The Toronto Stock Exchange fell ten percent amid tumbling oil prices and a federal warning travelers must cancel cruise ship bookings: “Do you anticipate more deaths?”
Union complaints of federal ‘morality police’ prompted the Department of Fisheries to rewrite a workplace ban on marijuana users, according to Access To Information records. The department had sought to forbid any employee in a safety-sensitive position from using cannabis 28 days before reporting for work: ‘It would regulate the private morality of employees.’
The Department of Public Works went over budget in a failed search for evidence of ancient settlements on Parliament Hill, say Access To Information records. The department would not say how much it spent digging up a Senate parking lot looking for antiquities: “How could this happen.”
One federal department lost nearly two hundred laptops, tablets and USB keys, says an internal audit. Lapses at the Department of Infrastructure included a “lost bag with potential secret documents”, and IT checks so haphazard staff had no real idea how much equipment was misplaced or stolen: “It is difficult to assess.”
The CBC since 2012 has failed to meet all solvency payments to its employee pension plan, according to Access To Information records. Then-Heritage Minister Pablo Rodriguez last August 21 gave the broadcaster its latest waiver from meeting a pension deficit greater than the CBC’s entire English-language TV ad revenues: “You have no objection.”
A federal agency billed nearly $100,000 to trademark a copycat phrase from the national anthem to promote vacation packages. Expenses by the Canadian Tourism Commission included $59,500 paid to an ad agency, Cossette Inc. of Québec City: “This doesn’t make any sense.”
Judges have upheld an eight-year prison sentence for a ringleader in the biggest maple syrup heist in Canadian history. Sixteen people were found guilty in the 2011 theft of $17.8 million worth of syrup from a Québec warehouse: “The absence of a link with organized crime is not a mitigating factor.”
Cabinet’s plan to tax Google, Amazon and Facebook ad revenues is unworkable under current law and would breach a 1984 tax treaty with the U.S., says a federal report. The Liberal Party in its election platform promised to tax tech giants headquartered outside Canada.: “It’s a lot easier to say you’re going to tax them than it is to do it.”
A cabinet appointee attended a farewell Liberal Party fundraiser for defeated cabinet minister Ralph Goodale, records show. Cabinet guidelines forbid appointees from attending party fundraisers: “It’s not like I belong to the Liberal Party.”
The minority Parliament must pass legislation declaring climate change mitigation a human right, the 24-member New Democrat caucus said yesterday. The proposal coincides with a lawsuit by Québec environmentalists claiming failure to meet emissions targets breaches the Charter Of Rights And Freedoms: “There is a risk the debate is only theoretical.”
Two New Brunswick exporters that unsuccessfully challenged federal food inspectors over a paperwork “disaster” have been ordered to pay $77,285 in legal costs. A Saint John judge at trial described Canadian Food Inspection Agency management as “very bureaucratic”.
