Electricity ratepayers or taxpayers or both must pay for greening of the power grid, a utilities’ lobbyist yesterday testified at the Commons environment committee. “There is no third pocket,” MPs were told: "It’s the ratepayer, the taxpayer, who’s paying for it. It’s not clear where all of these costs are ultimately going to fall."
A free children’s dental care program for uninsured households earning less than $70,000 will cost almost a billion a year, cabinet said yesterday. Health Minister Jean-Yves Duclos said grants will be paid on the honour system subject to audit: "It is not a national dental program."
Cabinet commissioned confidential research on federal rent controls, records show. In-house polling by the Privy Council Office found most Canadians said Parliament must do something on housing affordability: "No participants were of the opinion that housing and rental prices should be solely left up to the free market."
Aides to Governor General Mary Simon face questioning on their return from the Queen’s funeral. The Commons government operations committee on Thursday will cross-examine witnesses over exorbitant catering bills at Rideau Hall: "The question is who’s responsible for this?"
The typical small business operator trusts the private sector over government while 25 percent prize “individualism” and “work ethic,” according to behavioural research by the Canada Revenue Agency. Management divided business owners into six personality profiles in a bid to boost tax compliance: "Tax administrations around the world have started using behavioural insights."
Say “Canada” and people in Vietnam think of maple trees and cold weather, says federal research. Questionnaires by the Department of Agriculture follow a series of studies on what foreigners think of Canadians: "When you think of Canada what is the first thing that comes to mind?"
A privacy investigation has ended without conclusion in the case of a Covid patient whose medical history was leaked to a Prince Edward Island blogger. The case is currently before the Island’s Supreme Court: "A privacy breach cannot be undone."
Federally-subsidized companies were given years to repay as little as ten cents on the taxpayers’ dollar borrowed from the Department of Industry, Access To Information records show. Confidential details of easy-term loans were disclosed by order of Information Commissioner Caroline Maynard: "Public funds are involved."
The passport office, now in its six month of public protests over processing delays, is ordering crowd control barriers. Managers in a notice to contractors said delivery of barriers was needed at its Montréal office where police were repeatedly called to calm crowds: "People are crying and freaking out."
Cabinet on Saturday gave notice it will raise the interest rate on student loans. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in the last election campaign had promised to abolish students' interest charges altogether: "The government wants to make sure young people know they matter."
A federal tribunal has reinstated Employment Insurance benefits for a Toronto man fired for being unvaccinated. The judgment was the first successful appeal on behalf of Canadians denied jobless benefits over their medical status, said a lawyer in the case: "To my knowledge it is the first."
Cabinet is rejecting an all-party committee recommendation that it disband a Crown agency, the Canada Infrastructure Bank. A Commons transport committee report called the Bank a costly failure: "The government strongly disagrees with the recommendation."
Alexander Mackenzie, Canada’s first Liberal prime minister, lived near Parliament Hill in a beautiful Gothic Revival home. He was an honest, thrifty fellow who helped transform the country yet could not stand parliamentary life. “Politics is very low,” he wrote. Today the house is gone and forgotten, just like Mackenzie.
Any book that examines the human condition through diet is welcome. Who is not wiser on learning Lester Pearson was so bland his favourite lunch was a poached egg, or that Britain’s Ministry of Food recommended rice soup as a wartime Christmas meal in 1917?
In Eat Local, Taste Global Professors Glen Filson and Bamidele Adekunle of the University of Guelph look at vegetables in documenting Canada’s demographic revolution. The nation has never seen so many different immigrants from so many varied lands – Asian, African, Caribbean, Middle Eastern. Authors note the nation imports 24.9 million pounds of okra annually, a third of it in the Toronto area through the largest vegetable wholesaler in the nation, the Ontario Food Terminal Board.
“While humans are often viewed as rational beings who make informed decisions to optimize their benefits, food decisions are not always rational,” says Eat Local. “This is evident as food serves many purposes beyond nutritional value, including construction of personal identity and pleasure.”
A federal agency struggled to give away millions in subsidies to businesses it claimed suffered due to Freedom Convoy protests in downtown Ottawa. Access To Information records show organizers extended deadlines and went door to door pleading with business owners to apply for cheques: "Go door to door to boost awareness and increase applications."
