MPs huddled in late-night strategy sessions after Government House Leader Pablo Rodriguez threatened cabinet would resign and force an election to preempt committee investigations of federal contracting and conflicts of interest. A Commons vote is expected at 3:30 pm ET: “Is the government trying to hide something?”
The House affairs committee yesterday unanimously endorsed an election readiness motion on a chance the 43rd Parliament quickly unravels. MPs voted to “identify measures” needed to conduct a national vote in a pandemic: “An election could be approaching at any time. We don’t know when.”
Two-thirds of projects approved for funding by Infrastructure Minister Catherine McKenna’s department lacked mandatory checklists for “due diligence”, says an internal audit. Reviewers cited serious “control failures”.
The Department of National Defence nearly tripled a budget to hire current and former reporters to coach officers on “media techniques”, say Access To Information records. Journalists were paid $750 a day to conduct fake interviews with employees: “There were exercises on how to hold a scrum.”
The Commons immigration committee yesterday voted to examine the pandemic’s impact on immigration. Cabinet is expected to lower quotas this fall: “I think it’s safe to say it is doubtful we are going to meet 341,000.”
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau yesterday disclosed he collected more than $1.3 million in speaking fees from private sponsors over a six-year period from 2006 to 2012. Cabinet released the records to preempt Conservative calls for wider disclosure of records: ‘That would paralyze the government.’
The Canada Revenue Agency admits its website is “scattered”, uses “technical language” and is so complicated that “using CRA materials to find information was like finding a needle in a haystack”. The findings of an internal evaluation follow repeated calls to simplify the 3,269-page Income Tax Act: “Our tax system has become a ponderous, unwieldy monster.”
The Commons environment committee yesterday voted 11-0 to study a federal mandate on electric cars. The vote follows Department of Transport data showing rebates for buyers are the costliest federal climate change subsidy: “Canada’s efforts are failing.”
Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation proposes to hire its retiring CEO as a consultant. Evan Siddall in a filing with the Ethics Commissioner said he did not vote to award any contract to himself: “I recused myself in order to avoid a situation of conflict.”
Former Liberal MP Joe Peschisolido yesterday complied with a rare Commons order that he apologize for breaching the Conflict Of Interest Code. The code carries no formal penalty: “No one is perfect.”
VIA Rail is losing more than a million a day and requires emergency taxpayers’ aid to stay in business. The Crown railway in financial statements pleaded with the Department of Transport for a rescue package: “We aren’t there yet.”
Pandemic wage subsidies will cost $83.6 billion by year’s end and are expected to surpass $100 billion this winter. The Department of Finance would not comment on the final cost: “It was like arriving at a house fire.”
Commercial airlines may cancel domestic flights with a simple sixty-day website notice under a regulatory waiver by the Canadian Transportation Agency. The Agency said the measure should come as no surprise for smaller airports hit with pandemic shutdowns: ‘Affected communities will not be taken by surprise.’
Parliament gave nearly half a billion in foreign aid to Ukraine without any overall plan to ensure money was spent wisely, says a Department of Foreign Affairs audit. The report concluded Canada “did not respond cohesively” to needs in the poorest parts of the country, but hired a gender equality advisor at its embassy in Kyiv: ‘Ukraine remains one of the poorest countries in Europe.’
Men-only boards of directors at Crown corporations would be abolished under a private bill introduced in the Commons. One federal agency to date has no women directors: “This is unacceptable.”
