Housing in Canada is so unaffordable CMHC yesterday changed its definition of affordability. Canadians realistically should not expect a return to market conditions of 20 years ago, said the federal mortgage insurer: "Restoring affordability to levels last seen two decades ago is not realistic."
Parks Canada in confidential staff emails as early as 2023 questioned First Nation claims that 215 children were buried on the grounds of an Indian Residential School in Kamloops, B.C. No public statement was made since then-Prime Minister Justin Trudeau had visited the site to “pay my respects to the graves.”
A federal agency boasts in a briefing note its jobs program cost taxpayers the equivalent of more than $13,000 per employee on average. Individual grants approved by the Federal Economic Development Agency for Northern Ontario ranged as high as $62,500 per job: "We would have liked more money of course."
The labour department says it is finalizing new climate change regulations for 1.3 million workers in the federally regulated private sector. New rules would protect workers “affected by very hot or very cold temperatures” on the job: "How are you preparing for this?"
The Department of Foreign Affairs in a 2024 briefing note expressed unease with war protestors who likened Israel to Russia or condemned every Israeli military strike as a breach of international law. "Alleged double standards likening Israel-Gaza to Russia-Ukraine" were disingenuous, wrote diplomats.
Managers of a federal Covid vaccine compensation fund are concealing the number of injury and death claims paid at taxpayers’ expense. It follow a 2021 Privy Council memo that urged staff to downplay vaccine-related impacts: "News reports of adverse events following immunization and the government’s response to them have strong potential to influence public confidence in vaccines."
A federal board in a closed-door ruling vetoed any new historic plaques honouring John A. Macdonald as too "polarizing and controversial.” The Historic Sites and Monuments Board noted in part that Macdonald opposed Chinese immigration: 'The Board recommended no plaque.'
Prime Minister Mark Carney yesterday spoke privately with auto executives and lobbyists to “make Canada’s auto sector more sustainable,” he said. Carney made no mention of an appeal by the Canadian Vehicle Manufacturers’ Association to repeal electric car mandates that take effect in six months: "Scrap the mandates."
Canadians still remember Beaver Lumber though the hardware chain disappeared 25 years ago, federal research shows. In-house polling by Parks Canada that asked the public what entity they associated with the beaver logo found respondents still recalled the all-Canadian Beaver Lumber Company Ltd. that vanished in 2000: "To which Canadian organization does this corporate logo belong to?"
The Department of Agriculture admits it fell far short of a placement target for Canadian youth paid subsidized wages to work on the farm. An internal report quoted one farmer as noting the work would “build character by teaching life lessons.”
The Ukrainian Canadian Congress sent “repeated letters” to federal managers over disclosure of a secret blacklist of suspected Nazi collaborators, Access To Information records show. Cabinet continues to conceal the names of collaborators and suspected war criminals let into Canada after 1945: "This creates a culture of impunity which normalizes this behaviour of referring to Ukrainians as Nazis."
Prime Minister Mark Carney cut short reporters’ questions after acknowledging Canada gained nothing in exchange for promising to repeal its $3.7 billion Google tax. “There is more to do,” said Carney as he walked away from questioning over his abrupt suspension of the Digital Services Tax Act: "It is something we expected."
A Liberal Senate appointee has joined an international think tank promoting liberalized drug laws, records show. Senator Gwen Boniface (Ont.), a former Ontario Provincial Police Commissioner, has advocated decriminalization of simple possession of heroin, cocaine, methamphetamine and other narcotics: "The oft-quoted ‘war on drugs’ approach has proven to be ineffective."
A deputy health minister rebuked by MPs for distributing date-expired pandemic vaccines made the July 1 honours’ list at Rideau Hall. Stephen Lucas, now retired in North Vancouver, was awarded the Order of Canada for his “leadership as deputy minister of health during the Covid-19 pandemic.”
The CBC has lost a Court application to block rival reporters from covering a hearing involving misconduct by one of its own managers. The application marked a reversal of the CBC’s longstanding campaign for open court proceedings: "The request must be rejected."
