Climate change efforts to date are insufficient and must be stepped up, says a report released yesterday by the Department of Environment. The report follows a Parliamentary Budget Office warning that a 62¢ per litre carbon tax on gasoline is needed to meet emissions targets: "Future climate change costs for Canada will be high."
Labour Minister Filomena Tassi yesterday said she will proceed with regulations on “the new reality of working from home.” Tassi has proposed overtime pay for federally-regulated employees who take after-hours Zoom calls, texts and company emails, a Canadian first: "The home is increasingly becoming the workplace."
Canadians are wary of robot cars and don’t trust the software, says Department of Transport research. People surveyed by the department raised liability issues and concerns with computer glitches: "Some note technology is not infallible."
The Canada Revenue Agency in an internal memo said it feared its own employees would help misappropriate pandemic relief money. The memo identified a “moderate” likelihood of misappropriation under one of the costliest pandemic relief programs, the $83.6 billion Canada Emergency Wage Subsidy: "Money has just been going out the door."
Heritage Minister Steven Guilbeault’s office has not received a single letter or email from the general public in support of internet regulation, say staff. Guilbeault had claimed broad support for first-ever controls on web content, claiming only “a minority” oppose it: "A very high proportion of Canadians are asking the government to step in."
A bonus for pensioners will cost nearly $10 billion by 2026, says the Parliamentary Budget Office. The payments for seniors over 75 beginning August 1 are not income tested: "Why not target the most vulnerable seniors?"
Say “Canada” and Italians think of mountains and maple syrup, according to Department of Foreign Affairs research. People in France think of sled dogs and Niagara Falls: "Canada’s image has its strengths and weaknesses."
A navy ship that hasn’t gone to sea in 23 years has cost taxpayers $2,351,241 and counting, according to records. Total expenses for HMCS Cormorant at Bridgewater, N.S. are not yet finalized, said the Canadian Coast Guard: "The work is ongoing."
Poet Shai Ben-Shalom, an Israeli-born biologist, writes for Blacklock’s each and every Sunday: “At my friend’s wedding waitress recommends the free-range quarter-chicken roasted in fine herbs…”
Canada has never seen anything like it. Islam is the fastest-growing religion in the nation with Muslims soon outnumbering Anglicans. In Manitoba, Tagalog has eclipsed French as a second language.
We remain a country largely comprised of descendants of dirt-poor European fishermen, lumberjacks and sodbusters, but these deep currents of post-1967 immigration are about to break the surface. Newcomers now are educated, eloquent and outspoken. Much will change, and some things will not change at all.
“What does it mean to walk down the vast, wintry streets of Toronto and know no part of you had a hand in what looms there?” writes novelist Esi Edugyan. “I stand before the museums and public statues of Ottawa knowing that no one in my family is represented in such edifices. The wars they fought were elsewhere.”
Chinese foreign agents have threatened Canadian citizens here, says cabinet. The disclosure follows Commons committee testimony of harassment campaigns orchestrated by the Chinese Embassy: "This is China’s influence on Canada. Governments should deal with it."
Janice Charette, the $343,000-a year head of the federal public service, yesterday declined comment after praising as an example to all staff a Public Health Agency executive censured for contempt of Parliament. It was the first Commons censure of a federal employee since the 1891 summons of a Superintendent of the Government Printing Bureau for pocketing kickbacks: "He acted in a way that represents public service values and ethics."
Cabinet refuses to release “millions of pages” of documents on pandemic mismanagement in defiance of a House order, the Commons health committee was told. The Commons’ lawyer said cabinet aides simply stopped handing over records though a deadline for full disclosure expired last December 7: 'At this rate it will take 58 years.'
Federal tax law is so complicated the Canada Revenue Agency’s own field auditors have given up calling for interpretation of the 3,279-page Income Tax Act, says a report. No prime minister has ordered a comprehensive review of the Act since John Diefenbaker: "Our tax system has become a ponderous, unwieldy monster."
Minimum wage increases may cost jobs for students and other entry-level workers, says the federal labour department. Cabinet is mandating a $15 an hour federal minimum this year, the first increase since 1996: "These impacts are most evident for teenagers and young adults."
