Canadians should trade their cars for bicycles, says an advocacy group co-founded by former environment minister Steven Guilbeault. The group Équiterre of Montréal petitioned MPs to approve millions in rebates to get commuters on their bike: "Équiterre suggests rewarding Canadians who choose low carbon ways to travel."
Farm Credit Canada CEO Justine Hendricks booked a $44,000 out-of-town cocktail party for directors of the Crown bank after cabinet ordered cuts in federal travel expenses, Access To Information records show. “If you’re asking me, ‘Justine, is there a plan to cut travel?’ No,” Hendricks told a staff meeting.
Liberal appointee Senator Yuen Pau Woo (B.C.) says he is personally embarrassed by Canadians’ refusal to publicly criticize Israel. “This is not the Canada I am proud of,” Woo told reporters. “This is not the Canada I believe in.”
Federally-regulated banks must promote deposit insurance in all marketing including newspaper and TV ads and company websites, regulators said in a legal notice Saturday. Mandatory mention of the Canada Deposit Insurance Corporation takes effect December 1: "Depositors who are confident their money is protected are less likely to run in times of stress."
A fifth of Atlantic Canadians in federal research say a family member had to leave the region to find work in the past five years. Surveys by a cabinet-appointed business panel found residents divided on whether their home province could become “about as prosperous as the rest of Canada.”
Another cable TV channel, French-language TV5 Québec, is petitioning MPs for a bailout due to falling revenues. It follows federal research showing few Canadians under 34 watch conventional television: "The audience was an average 62 years old."
Poet Shai Ben-Shalom writes: “On the way to work, an ant with a broken leg. Limping. Vigorously. Drawing a circle in the sandy pavement. Antennae slapping in the air…”
When Pierre Trudeau died the Calgary Herald published a commentary calling him a Communist. As late as 1989 an Alberta Liberal running for a Senate seat drew protest after describing Trudeau as “a great Canadian.”
The provincial party has not won an election in more than a century. If voters send a handful of Liberals to Ottawa from time to time, statistically a Canadian has a better chance of visiting outer space than earning an MP’s pension as an Alberta Liberal. The last to serve three terms left office 19 years ago.
Industry Minister Mélanie Joly’s department in an Access To Information memo contemplates “legal action” against users on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and other social media sites it suspects of spreading “false and misleading information.” The censored 35-page memo did not explain what action federal lawyers would take: "This strategy seeks to uphold the integrity of and public trust in government information."
The CEO of Farm Credit Canada had her corporate Visa card suspended as “delinquent” for failing to make minimum payments, Access To Information records show. Staff questioned thousands in late fees and interest charges run up by Justine Hendricks in her role as the Crown bank’s $458,000-a year chief executive: "The audit division may find this particular transaction as non-compliant."
A $1.45 billion bailout of Metro Vancouver condo developers is an “opportunity” for taxpayers, Prime Minister Mark Carney said yesterday. He did not explain what profit the public would see in buying thousands of vacant condos from speculators facing losses: "A bad development becomes a good development on the second or third owner, but in between there’s that opportunity."
Cabinet yesterday withdrew a suggestion it might “adjust” a 2019 ban on oil tanker traffic off the northern British Columbia coast. “There is no way,” said B.C. Premier David Eby: "The tanker ban remains."
Artificial intelligence “nonsense” has no place in Tax Court, a judge has ruled. The remarks came in the case of a taxpayer who challenged the Canada Revenue Agency using fabricated case law: "AI is no substitute for real lawyering."
The $458,000-a year CEO of the Crown bank Farm Credit Canada billed four times the expenses of her predecessor including Filet Mignon steak dinners, round-the-world business class flights and a $543 Uber ride, records show. Justine Hendricks had no comment but earlier told employees to "tighten the belt."
Attorney General Sean Fraser’s department says it uncovered an executive implicated in malfeasance but would neither name the person nor explain why police were not called. The latest case is in addition to 37 employees disciplined last year for wrongdoing: "The executive retired."
