Parliament should stop allowing cameras in Question Period, says a spokesperson for the Government House Leader. Canada’s Commons was the first to televise proceedings 49 years ago: "Maybe we could take away the television cameras during Question Period."
Elections Canada is placing orders for 700,000 poll tally sheets and other balloting supplies in anticipation of the next national campaign. Cabinet has denied interest in going to the polls for a second time in two years, though one MP noted “people here are getting worked up.”
A digital identification system will cost $6.64 billion but not a dollar more, federal managers promise the Commons public accounts committee. The ten-year program to digitize claims for Employment Insurance and other benefits is “the largest IT transformation ever undertaken by the government,” wrote the Department of Employment.
Taxpayers should not expect any repayment of billions in Canada Post loans for “several years,” says management. The post office required the second loan in a year to avoid insolvency, according to a cabinet order: "It gets us to break even by 2030."
In 1911, when Richard Bedford Bennett first arrived in Ottawa as the bachelor MP for Calgary West, his choice of accommodation was the Rideau Club. No finer meal could be had. Bennett loved food. “He believed if he put on weight he would present a more impressive appearance,” a friend recalled. In the end Bennett ate his way to diabetes and heart disease and the Rideau Club burned to the ground. But once both were in their glory.
In 1919 an Arctic promoter devised a scheme to convert Baffin Island to a vast reindeer ranch, bigger and more spectacular than anything in Texas or Argentina. More than 100,000 square kilometres of tundra were leased as ranchlands. The scheme collapsed by 1923 – the reindeer died – but the promoter, Manitoba-born explorer Vilhjalmur Stefansson, proved the venture was at least nutritionally sound by sticking to an all-meat diet for an entire year. Stefansson lived to 87.
The Baffin ranches and other believe-it-or-not episodes are detailed in A Historical and Legal Study of Sovereignty in the Canadian North, an encyclopedic work rich in compelling anecdotes. It documents decades of schemes – some tragic, some comic – to plant the flag north of the 60th parallel and make the Arctic pay.
Public Safety Minister Gary Anandasangaree yesterday declined comment when asked if China was a country of laws. “I’m not here as a foreign policy expert,” he told MPs when questioned over the scope of an RCMP cooperation agreement with Chinese police: "There is a need for Canada to expand its trading partners."
MPs yesterday were driven to anger after Veterans Affairs Minister Jill McKnight refused to describe the impact of spending cuts on programs. “I am absolutely furious right now,” said one member of the Commons veterans affairs committee as McKnight appeared confused and distracted: "My 14-year old would have understood my question by now."
Meeting Prime Minister Mark Carney’s NATO commitments would require a $124 billion increase in annual defence spending, the Budget Office said yesterday. “It is our core responsibility,” Carney said last June 25 in promising to spend 5 percent of GDP on national defence by 2035: "I wished we didn’t have to but we do have to."
Cabinet yesterday killed its Trudeau-era electric car mandate eight months after voting to uphold sales quotas on consumers. “Thank you for finally listening,” said one Conservative MP.
Housing Minister Gregor Robertson yesterday introduced a bill he called the “next step in addressing Canada’s housing crisis” with creation of a new Crown corporation. Robertson declined to specify how many housing starts would result: "This is just a start."
Statistics Canada yesterday suggested updating decade-old estimates on the number of Canadian citizens abroad who are eligible to vote and claim federal benefits. It follows Parliament’s passage of a bill that created 115,000 new citizens: "Definitely we could benefit from updates."
Green electricity regulations are “unworkable,” “not achievable,” “unacceptable” and threaten reliable supply, says a report to senators by Canadian utilities. The Department of Environment has acknowledged ratepayers face increasing costs under its Clean Electricity Regulations: "The regulations will create unacceptable reliability and affordability challenges across Canada."
Cabinet yesterday confirmed it disbanded the office of the Special Representative on Combating Islamophobia headed by former Toronto Star columnist Amira Elghawaby. It followed disclosures Elghawaby lobbied to install Muslim prayer rooms in federal buildings and advocated for employees “speaking out on Palestinian issues.”
Indigenous Services Minister Mandy Gull-Masty’s department has struck nearly 2,000 contractors from its list of accredited Indigenous suppliers. It follows complaints that companies falsely claimed First Nations, Métis and Inuit ownership to land millions in contracts: "Which ones were asked to pay back money due to misrepresentation?"
