There is no evidence a federal ban on everyday plastic products will reduce plastic pollution, says the Department of Environment. An internal report contradicted claims by Minister Steven Guilbeault that banning six types of single use plastics would make a “sustainable world.”
Federal employees overpaid due to garbled payroll software owe the treasury more than a half billion, say updated figures from the Department of Public Works. The department counted 120,000 current and former employees who received excess payments and have not returned the money to date: "Outstanding salary overpayments stand at approximately $559 million."
The Canada Revenue Agency yesterday expanded a search on taxpayers’ title to U.S. vacation properties. Auditors seek six years’ worth of records on Canadians including names, addresses, tax assessments, lot sizes and the value of American properties bought and sold: "Penalties and interest associated with unreported real estate sales can be substantial."
More than a million college and university students cashed pandemic relief cheques, Statistics Canada said yesterday. New figures did not include benefits paid to almost 318,000 high schoolers: "Almost two thirds of postsecondary students, 65 percent, received emergency benefits."
Minister Diane Lebouthillier’s Canada Revenue Agency de-registered numerous charities after misplacing paperwork, records show. Groups that filed annual returns were stripped of their charitable status after the Agency lost the records then claimed they were never mailed in the first place: "It was atrocious."
Canadians thrown out of work by climate change programs can always get jobs as janitors, says a federal briefing note. The memo to Natural Resources Minister Jonathan Wilkinson said the “green economy” will still require workers without “green skills” like janitors and truck drivers: "Some green jobs will not require workers with green skills to perform their jobs, i.e. janitor or driver working for a solar energy company."
A first-term New Democrat MP is a federal supplier whose firm has been awarded almost a half million in contracts since her election in 2021. MP Lori Idlout (Nunavut) in a mandatory disclosure said she was a major shareholder in a company with ties to an ex-Liberal cabinet minister: "I hold a significant ownership interest in this company."
The military has appointed gay advisors to help “innovate” religious instruction in the Canadian Armed Forces, says a briefing note. It follows a cabinet-appointed panel's recommendation that Catholic chaplains be purged from the army, navy and air force over church teachings that contradict federal policy: "Chaplains provide a ‘safe place’ for members."
Long-running negotiations to create an Indigenous museum across the street from Parliament are expected to continue into 2024, says a federal briefing note. The project is now in Year Six without a start to construction: "We will continue to work with our partners."
Poet Shai Ben-Shalom writes: “You were a few seats away from me. Darkness camouflaged my staring at you. You seemed mesmerized, smiling whenever DiCaprio made his entry. I was mesmerized by my own fantasies…”
More than a fifth of Canadians say the cost of home heating has now become a “significant financial burden,” says in-house federal research. The majority of homeowners who heat with natural gas have seen rates nearly double from last winter: "What is the amount you pay each month for your home heating bills?"
Heritage Minister Pablo Rodriguez’s department says it did a “comprehensive assessment” before awarding a $133,822 grant to a consultant who fantasized on Twitter about shooting Jews. New rules will require grant applicants to swear an oath they are not anti-Semitic, said a department briefing note: 'The project was approved following a comprehensive assessment.'
Airlines were flooded with thousands of complaints over Christmas flight cancellations, delays and lost luggage, the Commons transport committee was told yesterday. Sunwing Airlines, the smallest carrier, said it alone had 7,000 complaints from customers: "We failed."
Cabinet will introduce amendments to toughen penalties for poor airline service by June, Transport Minister Omar Alghabra said yesterday. It follows complaints from the Commons transport committee that current fines are modest and grudgingly applied: "What is the purpose of a $200 fine?"
A Saskatchewan utility has been ordered to pay damages to employees subjected to drug tests after workplace accidents. Testing without some suspicion of impairment was unjustified, a labour arbitrator ruled: "Employees have a right to privacy."
