The Department of Finance billed taxpayers for yoga mats and medicine balls to equip an office “wellness room”, say Access To Information records. Managers rushed the spending with hours left in the fiscal year in a “March Madness” phenomenon that sees federal agencies burn through unused budgets before they expire: "Let's get this in place as soon as possible."
Cabinet yesterday recommended Canadians avoid international travel and step back two metres from each other when coughing to avoid the coronavirus. The advice came as the World Health Organization declared a global pandemic: "Currently everything is okay, but we have to prepare."
Chinese tax collectors have threatened Canadian trade offices overseas with hefty reassessments, say Access To Information records. One former Canadian ambassador to China has recommended all trade commissioners be pulled out of the People’s Republic amid worsening relations: "We have to brace ourselves for years of difficult relations."
Information Commissioner Caroline Maynard yesterday said less than a year after Parliament rewrote the Access To Information Act, the system has so many holes Canadians are “fed up”. Maynard told the Commons ethics committee complaints over concealed records have more than doubled: "There are holes across the entire system."
The Department of Infrastructure cannot account for billions budgeted for public works, the Commons finance committee was told yesterday. The Parliamentary Budget Office said it tried and failed since January to have the department disclose a list of new roads, bridges and utilities financed by taxpayers: "If they know they aren’t telling us."
The Department of Industry says Canadians “gain wealth” from corporate subsidies but can't explain inflated job claims. The Commons finance committee yesterday opened an unprecedented inquiry on the scope of aid to companies: "Is it true?"
The Department of Environment hired consultants to study a multi-million dollar green tax on farm fertilizer but dropped the idea on a warning of industry protests. “Don’t share outside of department,” read handwritten minutes of a staff meeting obtained under Access To Information: "Negative response likely."
Fewer than one percent of telemarketing complaints result in enforcement action by federal regulators, the CRTC yesterday confirmed. Executives told the Commons industry committee the point of the National Do Not Call List was not to punish unwanted callers: "I mean, cases do take time."
Federal agencies enforce about 35,000 regulations with new ones added at the rate of one a day, the Treasury Board yesterday told the Commons committee on government operations. MPs complained of modest savings from a 2015 law that promised to cut red tape: "Regulators regulate. That is what they do."
A former Canadian ambassador to China yesterday praised Mao Zedong for achieving “great things”, and claimed personal freedom in the People’s Republic has improved for decades. Howard Balloch, ex-Chretien appointee, made the remarks in testimony at the Commons Special Committee on Canada-China Relations: "Freedoms in China grew substantially."
The Commons ethics committee yesterday by a 6-4 vote rejected further hearings on SNC-Lavalin Group Inc. influence in the Prime Minister’s Office. However Lobbying Commissioner Nancy Bélanger confirmed she reviewed complaints the Prime Minister breached federal law with possible recourse to an RCMP probe: "I would not want to jeopardize the integrity of any police investigation."
The Department of Public Works yesterday disclosed it spent more than three-quarters of a million dollars digging up a Senate parking lot in a failed search for antiquities. An entire team of “highly qualified archaeologists” was hired for the dig, said staff: "The archaeology program has come to an end."
Health Minister Patricia Hajdu yesterday predicted most Canadians will not be directly affected by the coronavirus and urged calm. The Toronto Stock Exchange fell ten percent amid tumbling oil prices and a federal warning travelers must cancel cruise ship bookings: "Do you anticipate more deaths?"
Union complaints of federal ‘morality police’ prompted the Department of Fisheries to rewrite a workplace ban on marijuana users, according to Access To Information records. The department had sought to forbid any employee in a safety-sensitive position from using cannabis 28 days before reporting for work: 'It would regulate the private morality of employees.'
The Department of Public Works went over budget in a failed search for evidence of ancient settlements on Parliament Hill, say Access To Information records. The department would not say how much it spent digging up a Senate parking lot looking for antiquities: "How could this happen."
