Former Liberal MP Will Amos (Pontiac, Que.) billed taxpayers for a private five-figure training course he completed a month ago, more than a year after leaving office, records show. Authorities yesterday did not explain why expenses were paid for Amos, now a private consultant after he was censured by the Commons for misconduct: "I’m now serving Canadians in new ways."
Indigenous advisors will be hired to help rewrite a 1990 museum policy to promote “equity, diversity and inclusion,” the Department of Canadian Heritage said yesterday. Payments include $100 per hour to elders and “knowledge keepers” for comment on Canada’s colonial past: "Advisory services will be paid as appropriate."
The Canada Revenue Agency rates poorly on combating tax avoidance by wealthy individuals, says in-house research. The latest finding follows complaints auditors are more likely to hector small tax filers over trivial breaches of the Income Tax Act: "Would you say the Agency does an excellent job?"
Canada this year will have more seniors than children for the first time in its history, data show. Statistics Canada yesterday identified the greyest cities in the country: "The number of beneficiaries of the Old Age Security basic pension is projected to increase."
Unions acted in good faith in accepting employers’ vaccine mandates, a labour board has ruled. The judgment came in the case of unvaccinated Albertans who complained their Natural Gas Employees Association failed to adequately represent them: 'Nothing indicates the union acted in bad faith.'
VIA Rail’s $413,500-a year CEO Martin Landry yesterday avoided all mention of executive bonuses in apologizing for poor service. Landry said he was sorry in a statement issued ahead of Commons transport committee hearings to begin Thursday: "Show them what VIA Rail is all about."
The Commons government operations committee will investigate more than $70 million paid to a contractor that once hosted a VIP retreat near a Chinese internment camp. “What are the results of this management company’s ingenious work?” Opposition Leader Pierre Poilievre said yesterday.
Federal agencies have approved more than $140 million in grants to Ukrainian refugees, records show. Figures were based on the fraction of eligible Ukrainians who applied for funding: "I am really humbled when it comes to how much we should all respect Ukraine."
A federal program to pay $5,000 rebates to electric car buyers went more than 150 percent over budget, say auditors. Rebates cost taxpayer more than three quarters of a billion and were “an ongoing concern.”
The Department of Foreign Affairs is a bloated bureaucracy with 18 assistant deputy ministers and 90 directors general but few employees who know how to speak a foreign language, say former diplomats. “The current situation in the department is dire,” retired staff wrote in a report to a parliamentary committee.
VIA Rail paid millions in bonuses even as it pled hardship in lobbying cabinet for a Covid bailout, records show. The Canadian Taxpayers Federation yesterday disclosed Access To Information records showing 650 VIA managers received bonuses at taxpayers’ expense: "If VIA Rail has enough money laying around to hand out millions in bonuses and raises during a pandemic then it shouldn’t be relying on taxpayer bailouts."
Most Canadians would never report a tax cheat since it is “none of their business,” says in-house research by the Canada Revenue Agency. Taxpayers in focus groups said informing on neighbours with tax troubles felt Communistic: "There is great reluctance to report personal or business tax evasion even when certain."
Deputy Finance Minister Michael Sabia wanted to ‘keep the heat off the bank branches’ after accounts belonging to Freedom Convoy sympathizers were frozen, according to internal emails. His complaints went to the RCMP Commissioner and cabinet: "This is a MISTAKE."
The Commons transport committee yesterday by a unanimous 11-0 vote summoned Minister Omar Alghabra to explain repeated breakdowns in air and rail service. MPs agreed to launch hearings Thursday on travel snafus that stranded Canadians passengers from Kelowna to Havana, Cuba: "We want answers from the Minister."
Public employees cannot take photos of citizens without consent, a privacy commissioner has ruled. The decision came in the case of a Yellowknife hospital employee who allegedly attempted to take a cellphone snapshot of a visitor who complained about a mask mandate: "That action was inappropriate for an employee of a public body."
