Interest rates are high enough, Bank of Canada Governor Tiff Macklem said yesterday. Macklem questioned “how long we need to hold” the current benchmark rate of five percent on interbank loans unchanged since last July 12: "Rates are high enough."
Cabinet yesterday proposed to federalize bylaw enforcement in case of national emergency. It follows claims emergency powers were justified against the Freedom Convoy due to a shortage of tow trucks: "That situation still leaves me speechless."
Federal accountants knew of irregularities in the $59.5 million ArriveCan program but were too frightened to speak out, a union executive yesterday told MPs. Accountants feared they’d be “committing career suicide” if they reported the misconduct they see in federal bookkeeping, said Dany Richard, president of the Association of Canadian Financial Officers: "Our members are afraid."
Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland’s current deficit will be 16 percent higher than forecast, the Budget Office said yesterday. Freeland last March 28 predicted her deficit would “decline in every year of the forecast.” It didn’t: "I don’t know if they have lost control."
Rebel News Network Ltd. yesterday filed a $1 million lawsuit over the January 8 handcuffing of a reporter for attempting to question Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland. Police complained the questions were too “aggressive,” Rebel News’ lawyer wrote Ontario Superior Court: "The questions spoke to the federal government’s foreign affairs."
Cabinet’s feud with Facebook cost the CBC millions of website visitors, according to financial statements. CBC.ca had been the longest-running, most popular news site in the country with content uploaded from 1,000 staff, by official estimate: "It is Facebook’s decision."
Federal prisoners have won more take-home pay. The Correctional Service halted 30 percent deductions for telephone calls and other privileges: "The cost of what inmates are supposed to buy for themselves – stamps, candy bars, phone calls – has increased."
Canadians don’t care about media troubles and think subsidies for failing newsrooms would be better spent on urgent needs like affordable housing, says in-house Privy Council research. Cabinet commissioned the poll weeks before it doubled newsroom payroll rebates at another $129 million cost: "Few agreed."
Liberal and New Democrat MPs yesterday by a 6 to 4 vote blocked an ethics committee probe of why cabinet concealed a report into Chinese security breaches at the National Microbiology Laboratory. Conservative and Bloc Québécois MPs sought the investigation: "Why?"
A federal judge has overturned a quarter billion-dollar decision by then-Environment Minister Jonathan Wilkinson under the Canadian Environmental Assessment Act. The Federal Court faulted Wilkinson for “inexplicable” conduct in the 2021 case: 'It was a matter of common sense.'
Corporate landlords have “made rent more expensive,” says a cabinet report to MPs. However Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland stopped short of proposing repeal of preferential tax treatment for real estate investment trusts in her next budget due April 16: "Corporate investors own a significant share of Canada’s rental units."
A federal program offering free snowmobiles to Arctic residents cost $32 million last year, new records show. The cost was four times the $8 million budgeted in 2022: "Snowmobiles can, yes, be available."
Federal auditors are investigating millions in payments through a Crown bank, Export Development Canada, to manage a pandemic relief program. MPs on the Commons public accounts committee said they were puzzled by the $208 million cost: "Is that normal?"
Cabinet would be better off if it could spend five minutes with each Canadian to explain the carbon tax, says Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. He made the remark after being called a tax grabber while touring a seniors club near Sudbury, Ont.: "If I can only have five minutes to explain it like that to every Canadian we’d be better off."
The secret author of an unsigned federal directive asking that journalists submit stories for fact-checking has been named. Maryse Durette, a former CBC employee and spokesperson for the Department of Health, was identified through Access To Information. She did not respond to questions: “A respectable reporter goes to the source for reporting.”
