The Department of Foreign Affairs yesterday would not disclose how much it continues to give in foreign aid to China. The Conservative Party proposed to cut global aid spending by 25 percent including contributions to wealthy dictatorships. China has a $13 trillion economy and $10 billion space program: “Information is not available at the present time.”
Parliament should give the vote to 16-year olds, says former governor general Adrienne Clarkson. “Anger is justified”, wrote the former commander in chief of the Canadian Armed Forces: ‘They could create policy and not just suffer from it!’
The Department of Fisheries in an Access To Information memo says it has no suggestions on how to curb foreign influence in the multi-million dollar commercial Pacific fishery. Cabinet never responded to a May 7 report by the Commons fisheries committee that complained of concentrated ownership: “We’ve created a modern-day feudal system.”
A federal judge has ordered the Canadian Human Rights Commission to investigate the complaint of a bank employee who alleged staff exchanged “sex for favours”. The Federal Court faulted investigators for a slipshod review of the case: “All these young guys with very little qualifications are getting promoted.”
A Conservative Party proposal to move Canada’s embassy to Jerusalem from Tel Aviv would cost $2 million, the Parliamentary Budget Office said yesterday. Then-Prime Minister Joe Clark promised a similar move forty years ago but shelved the plan on protests from banks and Bombardier Inc.: ‘We perfectly understand it cannot be acceptable to Arab countries.’
A labour board has upheld the firing of two federal employees arrested for possession of marijuana in 2015. The married couple failed to uphold ethical standards expected of staff, said the Public Sector Labour Relations and Employment Board: “I didn’t think I would get caught.”
The Department of Veterans Affairs says it cannot explain a near doubling in wait times to process disability benefit claims. The department’s report contradicted public remarks by Veterans Minister Lawrence MacAulay: “You can never be sure.”
The Liberal Party forecasts an increase of nearly $7 billion in tax revenue next year with most gains anticipated through spending reviews and closure of undefined tax loopholes. “The whole point here is to be completely transparent,” said MP Ralph Goodale (Regina-Wascana), co-chair of the Party platform committee.
An Alberta judge in an unusual ruling has overturned a bankruptcy court decision and ordered an ex-student to repay thousands in loans. Court of Queen’s Bench Justice Douglas Mah called repayments a “moral obligation” to taxpayers: “Her sole purpose for the bankruptcy was to avoid her student loan debt.”
A Crown bank approved high fees to consultants totaling nearly $9 million in six months. Twenty-two consultants were paid more than an MP, according to Access To Information records at Export Development Canada. The agency censored hourly rates it approved for contractors: “Parliament doesn’t pay too much attention.”
The Department of Finance in an Access To Information memo says no “simple set of words” can fulfill a promise to cut inefficient fossil fuel subsidies. Cabinet has vowed to overhaul aid for oil, gas and mining companies by 2025 but has yet to calculate what subsidies are worth: “Difficult things are difficult.”
Tax Court has upheld a $74,000 penalty against an auto mechanic who falsified his tax return. The case is the latest in the Fiscal Arbitrators fraud that sent a tax consultant to prison: “The penalty seemed very high to me.”
A federal arbitrator after five years of litigation has upheld the firing of a Canadian Pacific Railway engineer who derailed a locomotive while under the influence of cocaine. The railway cited the case as an argument for random workplace drug tests in Canada: “I am appalled.”
A homeowner described as the last man in Ontario with a dial electrical meter has lost a final challenge of the province’s Smart Meter program. Scofflaws opposed the digital meters as a nuisance, health hazard and invasion of privacy: “What’s the point?”
Federal executives billed taxpayers more than $135,000 this year for airline tickets that were never used. Tammy Clifford, vice-president at the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, charged $7,121 for a business class flight to Brussels that she later cancelled: “Transportation shall be based on cost.”
