Parliament in promoting a federal dentacare program runs a risk Canadian employers will repeal private plans to offload coverage, medical professionals warn the Senate national finance committee. “It is a real fear,” said the Canadian Dental Hygienists Association: "Either incentivize employers to maintain their dental benefits or you disincentivize them through large government fines."
Taxpayers face a half billion write-off on overpayments to federal employees due to payroll bungles, auditors said yesterday. “About half of these request had been outstanding for more than three years,” wrote Auditor General Karen Hogan: 'It may eventually result in the amount being written off.'
Toronto could be a niche market for raw seal meat, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency said yesterday. Federal agencies for years have subsidized attempts to build a market for seal: "Did you say there is a demand for seal meat in Toronto? Is that what you said?"
The Public Order Emergency Commission paid as an expert consultant an Ottawa pollster who described Freedom Convoy supporters as thugs and jihadists. Frank Graves, president of Ekos Research Associates Inc., said he regretted his tweets and deleted them: "The Commission was not aware of Mr. Graves’ tweets."
Heritage Minister Pablo Rodriguez’s department “begged us” to take a subsidy, says an anti-Semite. Laith Marouf in his first public comments on the $133,822 grant said he was contacted by the Department of Canadian Heritage and promised funding in less than a week: "We got the money very fast."
Emergency powers could be used to jam Freedom Convoy cellphones, RCMP Commissioner Brenda Lucki wrote a cabinet aide. Lucki did not advocate use of the Emergencies Act but checked off numerous applications: "Cell phone disruption (but more work to be done)."
Cabinet’s YouTube regulation bill is not close to clearing the Senate communications committee, the chair said yesterday. Parliament must not hurry passage of the bill, said Senator Leo Housakos (Que.): "It would be irresponsible."
Bank of Canada Governor Tiff Macklem yesterday warned Canadians to brace for another interest rate hike in time for Christmas and a likely recession. “Rates will need to rise further” December 7 after increasing six times this year, said Macklem: "There is no easy way out."
Senior officials including police and a deputy minister of public safety drafted a memo to end the Freedom Convoy with the stroke of a pen, in inquiry was told yesterday. A convoy lawyer said the proposal was before cabinet when it opted instead to invoke the Emergencies Act: "The deal would be: Leave the protest and denounce unlawful activity and you will be heard."
Records at the Public Order Emergency Commission show Ottawa business groups lobbied cabinet for subsidies with inflated claims of damage from Freedom Convoy protests. A $20 million federal compensation fund later saw a third of the money unclaimed: "Daily I am getting stories of fear and desperation."
Parks Canada wardens will gain extraordinary police powers under an obscure clause of a bill tabled by Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault. Wardens would be permitted to “enter any place” without a warrant: "What changes do you think this will make?"
Bloc Québécois leader Yves-François Blanchet yesterday said he didn’t mean it when he swore an MP’s oath of true allegiance to the Crown. Liberal MPs immediately demanded Blanchet be censured under an 1867 House rule that has never been enforced: "The Speaker should look into the appropriateness of this Member's continuing to sit in this place."
Federally-regulated private sector employers should expect vexatious complaints under bilingualism law, the Commons languages committee was told yesterday. The Association of Canadian Port Authorities said members received numerous frivolous complaints over petty breaches of the Official Languages Act: "You’re saying people are abusing this, that they’re lining their pockets by trolling the internet?"
The Freedom Convoy “felt” violent though it was not technically violent, interim Ottawa Police Chief Steve Bell yesterday testified at a judicial inquiry. Bell under cross-examination by the protesters’ lawyer acknowledged his repeated reference to the “violence” of the convoy was not meant literally: "So the violence they ‘felt,’ not actual violence, is that what you’re saying?"
February 14 photographs by the mayor’s office showing quiet downtown Ottawa streets have been submitted in evidence at the Freedom Convoy inquiry. The photos were taken hours before cabinet invoked the Emergencies Act on claims that streets were “completely lawless.”
