The Department of Canadian Heritage admits it garbled a historical “fact” in a report to Parliament. Minister Steven Guilbeault tabled the claim Black people had a presence in Nunavut dating back 400 years. They didn’t: “You can’t pick and choose facts.”
Parliament should pass a law denying $2,000 Canada Emergency Response Benefit relief cheques to anyone who won’t take a job, the Commons human resources committee was told. The Department of Employment said it is curbing clear abuses of the program such as payments to dead people: “The priority was to provide the benefit.”
The Canada Revenue Agency may withhold tax refunds for a year or more, a federal judge has ruled. The decision came in the case of a business denied a GST refund after auditors decided to review the company’s books: “This is for the Minister to decide.”
Not a single postal worker has contracted Covid-19 on the job, says the Canadian Union of Postal Workers. Public health officers say there is no evidence the coronavirus is transmitted by mail: ‘It’s remarkable; 60,000 employees and not a single Covid-19 case traced back to Canada Post.”
Finance Minister Bill Morneau yesterday vowed he will not increase taxes to pay for the largest deficit in Canadian history. Morneau set no new date for a financial report to Parliament after cancelling a planned March 30 budget due to the pandemic: “We have no plan to raise taxes.”
The Globe & Mail yesterday appealed for more direct federal aid to compensate for sharp revenue losses. Publisher Phillip Crawley provided rare details of finances at the daily, a privately held company owned by the billionaire Thomson family of Toronto: “The long-term outlook for the Globe and many others has darkened because of the pandemic.”
The Department of Industry yesterday said “picking winners” through federal subsidies is difficult. An analysis of thousands of high growth Canadian companies found most were small and already profitable: “They are rare.”
Google Canada yesterday advised users to rely on advice from the Public Health Agency despite contradictions. Disregarded recommendations from the Agency did not count as misinformation, a Google executive told the Commons industry committee: “What about in a situation where the ‘informed source’ is wrong?”
The Federal Court yesterday dismissed a complaint against a Thunder Bay, Ont. judge criticized for accepting a volunteer post at Lakehead University though he wasn’t Indigenous. A judicial investigation prompted by a single CBC News story was “unfair” and “an abuse of process”, wrote the Court.
Members of the Commons health committee yesterday expressed outrage after a Canadian scientist claimed reprisal for publicly criticizing the Public Health Agency and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. The expert witness said he was blacklisted from a grant application by the Agency: “We’re talking about science.”
Applications open May 25 for a $2 billion commercial tenants’ relief package that MPs warn will not work. “We didn’t want to be bailing out failing businesses,” said the CEO of Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation: “I don’t know if people think they can negotiate a program with us, but that’s not the way the world works.”
Persistent shortages of pandemic supplies for health care workers leave the country unprepared for an expected second wave of Covid-19 infections this summer, says the Canadian Medical Association. The group compared doctors’ dilemma to dispatching firefighters into a burning building without personal protection: “They are being told to ration.”
Canada’s national civil aviation authority yesterday said it cut management salaries following the sharpest decline in air traffic in peacetime. Major airports are down to as few as 95 flights a day on average, data show: “The impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on the aviation industry has been profound.”
Federal agencies recommend Canadians avoid reference to China when discussing the pandemic. Origins of the coronavirus are irrelevant, the Treasury Board wrote in a guide for employees: ‘Don’t blame people from a specific country.’
Canada Post yesterday cited “fierce and dynamic” competition from non-union Amazon and other rivals in reporting a $153 million pre-tax loss for 2019. The report follows cabinet’s April 1 award of a sole-sourced contract to Amazon to manage distribution of pandemic supplies: “Our inflexible and high-cost structure threatens our ability to effectively compete.”
