Banks and insurers face $1.1 billion in new federal taxes this year including a permanent higher rate that would make them the most heavily taxed corporations in Canada. Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland also proposed a minimum tax on one percenters who “make significant use of deductions and tax credits.”
Cabinet will extend for years the payment of $5,000 rebates to electric car buyers despite criticism the program is costly. In-house research by the Privy Council Office showed Canadians considered electrics too expensive for everyday drivers regardless of subsidies: "Several worried about the cost."
All parties yesterday expressed support for a face-saving bill to prevent Québec from losing a seat in the Commons for the first time since 1966. The bill would allow Québec to keep its 78 seats with proportional gains by higher growth provinces: "It is not a significant piece of legislation. That is why I like it."
Cabinet will impose a $15 million-a year tax on house flippers and require all mortgage lenders to report cash transactions. Budget documents today also affirmed Liberal adoption of a Conservative proposal to curb foreign speculators: "I would like to offer one caution."
Canadians favour a federal rent to own program and more investment in co-op housing to help young families, says in-house Privy Council Research. Taxpayers opposed any blanket attempt to lower home prices overall as a threat to the middle class: 'Most indicated they would worry if the value of their own home declined.'
Cabinet may compensate anyone who unfairly suffered financial loss as a result of a bank account freeze on Freedom Convoy sympathizers. Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland said the department did not know of any account holders blacklisted by mistake but would review compensation claims: "The government is not aware of anyone who suffered losses due to accounts being wrongly frozen."
A newly approved oil mega project will have to fit with cabinet’s emissions cap, Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault said yesterday. Guilbeault approved the US$12 billion Bay du Nord venture off the Newfoundland and Labrador coast: "It will have to fit under the cap."
The Ottawa Police Service yesterday confirmed a second person arrested in the attempted arson of a local apartment building had nothing to do with the Freedom Convoy. Public office holders falsely blamed truck drivers for the incident: "People would be burned alive."
Public disclosure of sexual misconduct is fueling a crisis in the military, Canadian Armed Forces Ombudsman Gregory Lick said yesterday. Lick’s office counted 687 outstanding grievances in the Canadian Armed Forces and Department of National Defence including complaints dating back “four to nine years.”
A proposal under “initial discussion” would see federal quarantine inspectors gain police powers to ticket scofflaws, the Public Health Agency said yesterday. Managers complained they had to rely on local police to issue tickets for breach of the Quarantine Act: "The Agency could not issue contravention tickets across the country."
MPs are seeking air rescue flight logs following allegations Reid Sirrs, Canada’s ambassador to Afghanistan, fled the country with staff aboard a half-empty military plane. Cabinet revealed Ambassador Sirrs received military help in Kabul months before fleeing: "They left in a pretty big hurry."
The CBC is the largest beneficiary of a cabinet bill yesterday introduced to exempt news corporations from the federal Competition Act. Bill C-18 the Online News Act allows Canada’s largest subsidized media conglomerates to seek mandatory shares of ad revenues from Google and Facebook: "Monopolies have their thumb on the scale."
Employees used government-issue credit cards to buy personality tests on the internet, Department of Canadian Heritage accounts show. The department defended the practice as team building: "It is to support the training and development activities."
Pandemic wage subsidies to large corporations averaged a quarter million, according to Canada Revenue Agency records. Applicants had a 99 percent chance of being approved under a program Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland called essential to recovery: "That has been one of the most important measures."
Most provinces, six out of ten, failed to increase their number of intensive care unit hospital beds from the outbreak of the pandemic, according to the Department of Health. Figures show provinces either cut capacity or left it unchanged despite billions in federal transfers: 'Funding was committed to address capacity and backlogs.'
