A federal agency had ample warning of rising passenger volumes before hours-long delays at airports, figures show. The Canadian Air Transport Security Authority knew for months that travel volumes were predictably doubling and tripling from 2021 levels: "Additional funding will be necessary."
The Public Health Agency yesterday said it will fund new research on the effects of Covid on the nation’s children. It follows an earlier report that school closures and lockdowns were more disruptive than the coronavirus: "There is much we still need to know."
Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault and five staff billed more than $100,000 to attend a United Nations climate conference, newly-released records show. Air fare for the six cost more than $37,000 including $11,246 for Guilbeault, who called for urgent action on climate change: "We need more environmentalists in the House."
A Saskatchewan Conservative MP is the first parliamentarian in 75 years to be barred from her Commons seat. MP Cathay Wagantall (Yorkton-Melville) said she was escorted off Parliament Hill Friday by the Sergeant-at-Arms after declining to disclose her vaccine status. The last MP barred from the House was a Communist spy: "There is nothing that validates this kind of behaviour."
Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland is “too busy” to mind her budget bill, say MPs. Opposition members of the Commons finance committee submitted a rewritten bill with dozens of amendments: "We have suggested to delete, delete, delete."
Federal agencies are warehousing millions of rapid Covid test kits only weeks after Parliament voted to spend billions more with suppliers. Total spending on rapid tests is more than $4 billion to date including millions of kits the government could not give away: "We are just actually in the midst of loading up."
Federal candidates in Prairie provinces and Ontario were most likely to campaign door to door in the nation’s first pandemic election, new data show. An Elections Canada survey also found winning candidates were more likely to have asked for votes in person: 'Despite the need for pandemic precautions 7 in 10 candidates interacted with electors by going door to door.'
Poet Shai Ben-Shalom, an Israeli-born biologist, writes for Blacklock’s each and every Sunday: “A recent poll in the United Kingdom asked people who is best suited to reign after Queen Elizabeth II…”
A third law enforcement executive, former Ottawa police chief Peter Sloly, yesterday denied advising cabinet to use emergency powers against the Freedom Convoy. Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino claimed February 28, “We had to invoke the Emergencies Act and we did so on the basis of non-partisan professional advice from law enforcement.”
Cabinet is concealing the true cost of a landmark bill that would extend official bilingualism to the private sector, the Parliamentary Budget Office said yesterday. Actual costs were more than a quarter billion, said analysts: 'Departments have not announced details and refused to provide these details.'
A shortage of oil and gas workers is a big problem, says Labour Minister Seamus O’Regan. His remarks follow a report that cabinet's climate change plan threatens 170,000 energy jobs, by federal estimate: "Are you spinning us here? Are you serious?"
Federal Covid vaccine mandates would be unlawful under a private bill tabled yesterday in the Commons. “These mandates have been nothing more than a cruel attempt to demonize a small minority and they are absolutely unnecessary and without any scientific basis,” said Conservative MP Pierre Poilievre (Carleton, Ont.), sponsor of the bill: "End this discrimination."
Canada Revenue Agency whistleblowers must be shielded from management reprisals, Privacy Commissioner Daniel Therrien yesterday told the Commons ethics committee. Therrien’s remarks followed the naming of Agency staff who alleged corrupt practices in the treatment of offshore corporate accounts: "Obviously a whistleblower should be protected."
Thefts and losses at federal departments and agencies total more than $1.2 million, records show. Incidents detailed by cabinet ranged from stolen wine at the Department of Foreign Affairs to rampant misuse of credit cards at Parks Canada: "Public servants shall act at all times in a manner that will bear the closet public scrutiny."
Former transport minister Marc Garneau and 13 other Liberal MPs yesterday joined New Democrats in attempting to decriminalize heroin. An opposition bill failed on Second Reading but not without support from senior Liberals including three committee chairs and a former provincial finance minister: "Its time has come."
