The Canada Revenue Agency yesterday named a longtime Liberal appointee as $145,000-a year Taxpayers’ Ombudsman. MPs have questioned the usefulness of the office: "The ombudsman is not on the taxpayer’s side."
Legislators yesterday for the first time rejected cabinet’s demand for quick passage of a pandemic relief bill into law. The protest followed complaints billions have been borrowed without full scrutiny: "The money has to be paid back."
The Treasury Board in an internal report lists environmental protestors as federal security threats. The Board yesterday did not comment on the document that listed peaceful demonstrations alongside a 2014 gun attack on Parliament as proof the country is “not immune to security threats”.
RCMP recruitment is so sloppy managers accepted cadets with criminal records, says an internal audit. A report said the Mounties appeared to stress “the quantity of applicants with less focus on the quality.”
Ethics Commissioner Mario Dion yesterday dismissed complaints a senior federal manager intervened to win a promotion for a friend. The Conflict Of Interest Act does not define friendship: "It’s sort of embarrassing."
The Privy Council Office and Department of Foreign Affairs last night would not comment on claims they undermined a bid for a Geneva appointment by the only Canadian applying for it. “Is it because I am a woman, a racialized woman at that?” asked Senator Salma Ataullahjan (Ont.).
The federal debt will reach an unprecedented $1.45 trillion this year and eclipse $1.6 trillion by 2023, the Parliamentary Budget Office said yesterday. Analysts cautioned the record debt does not include pension liabilities, Crown corporation borrowing or new spending proposed since September 1: "What will the pain for Canadians be after this?"
Canadian banks that benefited from federal aid are not pulling their weight, the Liberal chair of the Commons finance committee said yesterday. MP Wayne Easter (Malpeque, P.E.I.) called for tighter federal scrutiny of mortgage deferrals that saw banks compound interest on borrowers: "Taxpayers have basically backed the big banks."
The cost of home heating would rise an average sixty percent under new green fuel regulations, says research by an advocacy group. Cabinet has said it will detail its Clean Fuel Standard within weeks: "This is bad policy."
The Commons yesterday voted 168-148 to censure former Liberal MP Joe Peschisolido for breach of its ethics code. The code carries no formal penalty. Peschisolido was ordered to apologize in writing: "No one is perfect."
Cabinet yesterday introduced a Commons bill to designate a new federal legal holiday. An identical New Democrat bill lapsed in the last Parliament: "Statutory holidays are not free."
Cabinet last night narrowly averted a snap vote of the House affairs committee mandating more disclosure of We Charity documents. One Liberal MP accused opposition parties of conspiring to “dig up some dirt”: "You’re going after what you see as some scandal that’s going to make things incredibly bad for the government. I get it."
More than four in ten employers hiring migrant workers fail surprise inspections, says the labour department. The finding follows a 2017 audit that faulted the department for failing to conduct spot inspections under the Temporary Foreign Worker Program: "Most enforcement activities consisted of reviewing documents."
Hard times have hit MPs’ free lunches. The House affairs committee yesterday adopted a proposal from Bloc Québécois MP Alain Therrien (La Prairie, Que.) to suspend all expense-paid meal trays at hearings. Therrien called it unseemly when millions are unemployed: "We are lucky to have a job, very lucky."
Disabled veterans typically wait years for benefits the government claims to process in sixteen weeks, new data confirm. Figures follow an admission by Veterans Affairs Minister Lawrence MacAulay that “we’re behind the eight ball”.
