Cabinet has awarded a retroactive 10.3 percent pay raise to CBC chief executive Hubert Lacroix though he left the Crown corporation five years ago. The Department of Canadian Heritage yesterday would not comment on the backdated pay raise, typically awarded to boost pension payments: "Unfortunately we cannot help you."
Members of the Commons human resources committee seek CMHC records to determine if a director recused herself under a conflict of interest code. Director Janice Abbott of Vancouver is CEO of a building society that received millions in federal aid: "It would be difficult for me to comment specifically on that."
The underground economy grew 50 percent in five years, Statistics Canada data show. The increase of billions in undeclared transactions followed a Canada Revenue Agency threat to begin fingerprinting tax evaders: "A significant number of Canadians are active in the underground economy without giving much thought to its consequences."
An advocate who challenged bylaw enforcement against the homeless by the City of Victoria has lost her case in court. Municipal lawyers called it an “extraordinary” test of authority to clear parks of tent cities: "It could impact the City’s ability to enforce certain bylaws."
Cabinet is demanding MPs take an oath of secrecy as a condition of seeing terms of its $5 billion contracts with vaccine manufacturers. Members of the Commons public accounts committee called it a dangerous precedent to limit scrutiny of federal spending: "It makes you ask, what’s next?"
A last legal challenge of cabinet’s use of emergency powers against the Freedom Convoy goes to Federal Court April 3. Lawyers for the Canadian Civil Liberties Association and Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms said they will press their claim that use of the Emergencies Act was unconstitutional: "That is the job of the courts."
Canada “had a better pandemic” than other Western countries, says Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. Speaking to reporters, Trudeau selectively quoted statistics in crediting his cabinet with strong Covid management: 'We had greater social cohesion than many other places.'
Parliamentarians’ freedom of speech should be monitored to prevent anti-Muslim sentiment, the Canadian Muslim Public Affairs Council says in a Senate submission. The group claimed MPs and senators have used their protection from libel suits to “spread hate.”
Banks, currency dealers, realtors and others face a yearly toll to finance enforcement of anti-terror regulations. The Department of Finance in a notice Saturday said the multi-million dollar cost of enforcement should be carried by business, not taxpayers; 'The scheme is predictable and simple to administer.'
For anyone who’s driven the Trans-Canada Highway from Winnipeg to Toronto by the north shore of Lake Superior, where your only companions are 2,000 kilometres of rocks and trees, an arresting thought: “Canada and Europe rank among the most urbanized areas in the world.”
So Governing Cities Through Regions draws readers into a compelling conflict that’s escaped the attention of most pundits and politicians. “There are now increasing tensions between the demands of more complex urban cities and economies, and the political constitutions and institutions of national affairs,” editors write.
Canada has no Minister of Urban Development. Alberta in 1994 shut down its regional planning commissions as an austerity measure. Planning was strictly voluntary. As Prof. Pierre Hamel of the Université de Montréal puts it, “This standpoint is anything but awkward to observers of the urban scene, as Canadians are increasingly living in cities and have never been more concentrated in city-regions.”
“It’s hardly surprising that government health measures would cause some form of protest in response given their impact on people’s lives. What was surprising was the size and scale of these protests and the way in which they proliferated across the country…”
A looming recession “is not going to feel like what people think of when you say the word recession,” Bank of Canada Governor Tiff Macklem said yesterday. Macklem added, “We don’t have a crystal ball.”
Investigators in random checks uncovered problems with almost two-thirds of claims under the $100.6 billion Canada Emergency Wage Subsidy, says Auditor General Karen Hogan. The rate was so high it “requires you to really look more,” said Hogan: "We want to hope every Canadian is going to be Canadian and be honest, but to maintain the integrity of the tax system there are checks and balances that are needed."
Service Canada workers yesterday protested Social Development Minister Karina Gould’s haphazard lifting of the last federal mask mandate. Gould let the news slip at a committee hearing Tuesday ahead of a “consultation” meeting with the Canada Employment and Immigration Union: "You lack total respect for us. We are left with the only option, to respond in kind."
The Department of Canadian Heritage yesterday refused to disclose its full audit of taxpayer-subsidized Hockey Canada. An auditors’ summary concluded public funds were not used to finance out-of-court settlements of sex crime allegations: "There is something truly revolting here."
