The Canadian Space Agency is spending $450,000 to show Nunavut residents how to grow carrots in the Arctic. The Agency justified the spending as research on future food production in outer space: "That may one day help astronauts grow food off Earth."
A federal labour board has upheld the firing of a longtime Canada Revenue Agency employee for snooping through tax files. The discipline is only the latest since the Office of the Privacy Commissioner in 2013 cited the Agency for “disturbing” laxity in privacy breaches: "621 unauthorized accesses is a very large number."
Fallout from We Charity investigations have impacted the entire sector nationwide, the Commons government operations committee was told yesterday. Charities faced pandemic layoffs and revenue declines even before disclosures of close ties between We Charity and cabinet: "Hell, the committee that hands out Orders of Canada thought they were okay."
Cabinet borrowed more than a half-trillion dollars in 120 days, according to the Department of Finance. No date has been fixed for tabling of a 2020 federal budget: "There will need to be a sharp turn; temporary measures will have to be temporary."
A company owned by former Québec Liberal MP Frank Baylis has received almost $700,000 in federal funding this year including contracts for a pandemic ventilator “not approved in any jurisdiction”, according to Department of Health records. MPs yesterday questioned the arrangement: "Friends are doing just fine."
A Québec firm awarded an untendered ten-year federal contract to supply pandemic masks says it is “proud to be working with the Government of Canada”, but would not disclose who owns the company. AMD Medicom Inc. of Montréal was awarded a $382 million contract to supply Canadian-made masks though it had no factory in Canada: "We have nothing further to add on this topic."
Finance Minister Bill Morneau yesterday vowed to “focus” on his work amid calls that he resign. Morneau faces a formal vote of censure in the Commons finance committee after failing to disclose he accepted thousands of dollars’ worth of gifts from a federal contractor, We Charity: "Put the finance minister out of his misery."
The Department of Public Works paid $8,625,000 to Deloitte Inc. to manage shipments of pandemic supplies from China, according to records. Staff in a Memorandum To The Minister said they had no choice due to “extreme urgency”.
Federal agencies spent nearly $150 million on a Covid-19 test kit that didn’t work in clinical trials. Records show funding for Spartan Bioscience Inc. of Ottawa was approved only weeks before its test kits were recalled: "Results were not positive."
Youth Minister Bardish Chagger yesterday confirmed she called We Charity about federal subsidies five days before the group submitted a winning proposal for a $43.5 million grant. Chagger told the Commons ethics committee she could not recall all details of the half-hour phone call to charity co-founder Craig Kielburger: "It is really a yes or no question."
Mary Dawson, retired ethics commissioner, yesterday described the Prime Minister as a man with a good heart who doesn't mean to breach the Conflict Of Interest Act. Testifying at the Commons ethics committee, Dawson said she opposed harsh penalties for any MP found to break the law: "There are different levels of badness."
Foreign Minister Françoise-Philippe Champagne has refinanced $1.2 million in Bank of China mortgages with the National Bank of Montréal. Champagne in a federal filing said his debts to the People’s Republic bank were paid in full by August 10: "I feel very transparent."
A federal judge has ruled Canadian National Railways is bound to confidential terms of a shipper’s agreement even if the contract technically expired. The decision came in the case of million-dollar mistake over the height of a railway bridge: "CN denies owing anything."
A former Québec Liberal MP’s company was awarded a federal contract for 10,000 pandemic ventilators though none of the machines were “approved in any jurisdiction to date”, according to a Department of Health memo. Ex-MP Frank Baylis did not comment: "I never planned on being a career politician."
The Office of the Procurement Ombudsman yesterday said it is investigating inaccurate federal claims in the awarding of a $382 million contract to a Québec pandemic mask supplier. The Public Health Agency falsely claimed the contract followed competitive bidding, and under-reported the true value of the deal by nearly $300 million: "The Ombudsman is always interested."
