Prime Minister Justin Trudeau yesterday said he fears some Canadians won’t take the Covid vaccine if they could get one. Internal research by the Public Health Agency shows 45 percent of Canadians will wait to see if the medicines are safe: "If I tell everyone the vaccine is safe, well, we know how people feel about politicians."
The pandemic has claimed its first national airline. Cabinet last evening approved the sale of Air Transat with more than a half-billion owed customers holding pre-paid tickets on cancelled flights: "We can’t wait years until there’s a widely available vaccine to get back in the air."
The taxpayer-owned Canada Infrastructure Bank faulted for failing to finish any projects spent more than $145,000 on marketing and "communications" last year, accounts show. Infrastructure Minister Catherine McKenna in a letter to the board said the Bank “must be open and transparent.”
The Senate will undertake “unconscious bias training,” the committee on internal economy agreed yesterday. It follows complaints from one senator of “racist micro-aggression” on Parliament Hill: "People don't stop to think of how these acts impact on others."
As many as 100,000,000 individual pandemic relief payments have been issued since the outbreak of Covid-19, says the Department of Public Works. Payments include relief for the jobless, business, parents with school-age children, students and retirees: "You don’t know precisely how much money is being spent."
A federal executive defied Prime Ministerial orders by hosting an executive lunch at an upscale restaurant, records show. Francis McGuire, the $226,000-a year president of the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency, yesterday did not comment: "Limit the number of people you see to what is absolutely essential.”
The federal pandemic response has been so secretive, bureaucratic and haphazard “it is hard to have faith,” one Liberal MP emailed colleagues and staff. “I am sorry if the Party may be pissed off,” wrote MP Dr. Marcus Powlowski (Thunder Bay-Rainy River, Ont.), a former consultant to the World Health Organization: "It is hard now to accept reassurances that we are prepared, that we are doing all of the right things, when we can never, ever get any specifics."
Thirteen percent of taxpayers refuse to surrender their bank account information to the government for direct deposit of refunds, data show. The rate of distrust is highest in Atlantic Canada and the Prairies: "I don’t want to share my banking information, and that’s just how it is."
Drug impaired driving is up though federal researchers say data cannot confirm a direct link to legalization of marijuana. Parliament in 2018 allowed random roadside testing of suspected cannabis users under threat of $1,000 fines: "It is no surprise."
The 3M Company won millions in pandemic subsidies after hiring a Liberal lobbyist who boasted of “navigating the government and getting things done,” according to internal emails. Kevin Bosch, former deputy director of the Liberal Research Bureau, yesterday did not comment: "Resolve an issue that Kevin Bosch urgently raised."
Small businesses flooded MPs and federal agencies with complaints of red tape in answering a call to produce pandemic supplies, internal records show. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau asked contractors nationwide to “help out during this critical time.”
A total 440,000 Canadians who claimed $2,000 pandemic cheques were flagged for investigation, Employment Minister Carla Qualtrough said yesterday. Cabinet has not yet detailed the scope of outright fraud under the program: "We can't."
The labour department has cited Canada Post for breach of a public health order at a major mail sorting plant. A Covid outbreak at the Gateway Plant at Mississauga, Ont. prompted managers to close one shift January 23: "Canada Post implemented a mandatory face covering policy to control the spread of the virus."
Cross-border drivers returning home to Canada face $3,000 fines without proof they’re Covid-free, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said yesterday. The rule takes effect February 15: "If they do not have a negative test there will be fines that could go up to $3,000 per person."
The Public Health Agency was so mismanaged it rejected an offer of masks from a major North American supplier eight days after the pandemic’s outbreak, records disclose. Even the Prime Minister’s Office questioned why the lead from Honeywell International Inc. was ignored: "Masks are not the top priority."
