The Commons health committee yesterday voted 6-5 to censor release of all records on the Public Health Agency’s management of the pandemic. Conservative and New Democrat MPs sought full disclosure of documents: "It's just a shame, what we're doing here."
The Competition Bureau accuses employees of Québec telecom giant Vidéotron Lteé of posing as customers in posting enthusiastic online reviews of company products. Bell Canada was earlier fined $1.25 million in a similar investigation: "I have reason to believe Vidéotron employees have engaged in deceptive marketing practices."
MPs today are expected to pass a billion-dollar pandemic relief bill for Canadians with disabilities. A similar bill to be introduced June 11 was withdrawn after legislators protested a jail clause for fraudulent claims under a separate program: "People with disabilities have been waiting way too long for this."
Cabinet says it has no "current" plans to tax home equity. Lawmakers distanced themselves from CMHC-funded research on taxing residences as capital gains, a proposal one MP predicted would see homeowners "gathering with torches and pitchforks".
Federal employees working from home are entitled to a $500 furniture grant or doorstep delivery of a free chair. The Department of Public Works did not explain why staff could not use their own chairs: "Overall costs of chairs delivered or purchased are not currently available."
We Charity should have registered as a lobbyist before seeking federal subsidies, says Employment Minister Carla Qualtrough. Opposition MPs have filed a formal complaint that the Prime Minister’s favourite charity failed to comply with the Lobbying Act: "Listen, I think we should always err on the side of caution."
Statistics Canada says it’s counting on enthusiastic participation in a 2021 Census, the first since Parliament repealed a law threatening jail for Canadians who boycott the federal questionnaire. Prosecutions were rare and unsuccessful: "I want to see the list of Canadians who support putting people in jail for not filling out forms."
Tax preparers owe a duty of care to clients, a British Columbia tribunal has ruled. One consultant who forgot to submit necessary paperwork was ordered to refund his client $4,626 in Canada Revenue Agency reassessments: "Buyer beware does not apply to this matter."
We Charity was given three days’ advance notice of a lucrative grant to run a federal students’ program, the Department of Employment disclosed yesterday. A manager who made the call admitted she knew Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s wife Sophie worked with the group. No others were asked to run the program. “The question is whether We got the inside track,” said an MP.
CMHC is spending $250,000 researching a first-ever federal home equity tax. Organizers of the research project earlier likened homeowners to lottery winners whose residences were tax shelters: "The objective is to identify solutions that could level the playing field between renters and owners."
The Parliamentary Budget Office yesterday expressed unease with losses by Crown banks. Taxpayers have no true picture of pandemic costs of bad loans, said analysts: "The government is on the hook to cover that."
The Privy Council Office paid “behavioural scientists” to review a $120 million pandemic advertising campaign that promotes measures like handwashing. Authorities in a report to the Commons government operations committee said input from unnamed scientists was vital: "People know about it because we’ve advertised."
Attorney General David Lametti yesterday acknowledged “serious institutional failings” in the Department of Justice. A federal judge cited government lawyers for concealing crucial information when applying for Court warrants in anti-terrorism cases: "Will anyone lose their job?"
Health Minister Patricia Hajdu took twice as many flights on Transport Canada aircraft than the transport minister, according to records. Hajdu repeatedly flew home to Thunder Bay on weekends even as she proposed fining Canadians who ignored Public Health Agency advice and "don't listen", and warned people considering non-essential travel to "think again and stay home."
The Bank of Canada yesterday predicted continued low interest rates and years of economic hardship as the nation crawls out of it worst postwar recession. The forecast came as a federal agency confirmed oil and gas activity has fallen to its lowest level in nearly sixty years: "This is the deepest decline."
