The Privy Council Office last night defended the expense of a VIP cocktail party at the National Arts Centre to present engraved prizes to federal media managers. Guests faced a lone demonstrator, Porky the Waste Hater, pig mascot of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation: "We bring out the pig when we think money is being wasted."
The Commons trade committee yesterday voted to speed hearings on a continental free trade pact. Opposition MPs noted cabinet has yet to disclose data on the economic impact of the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement: "What are you hiding?"
Animal rights activists face jailing and hefty fines for trespassing at farms and slaughterhouses under a private Conservative bill yesterday introduced in the Commons. MPs have complained of surveillance by advocates with hidden cameras: "I fear the situation will get worse."
Private bills yesterday introduced in the Commons and Senate propose a further multi-million dollar carbon tax exemption for grain farmers. Growers said the tax that adds 8¢ to a litre of propane and 10¢ per cubic metre of natural gas is punitive: "We can't afford it."
Managers at the Canada Border Services Agency yesterday were faulted for casually dismissing complaints of workplace misconduct without serious investigations. “All Canadians deserve to feel safe at work,” said Public Safety Minister Bill Blair.
Buyers of insured mortgages would face tougher “stress tests” with rising interest rates under a regulation detailed yesterday by cabinet. New rules will see the Bank of Canada revise each week the minimum requirement for homebuyers who need mortgage insurance: "How is it better for the consumer?"
The deputy minister of industry in an internal email described use of a taxpayer-funded research project to publish a 2019 Muslim Voting Guide as "weird". The guide criticized opposition MPs for activities that “foment the kind of fear and moral panic that leads to violence and hate.”
Nine-tenths of businesses hit by hackers never call police, says Department of Public Safety research. Business owners said they doubted cybercriminals would ever be caught and convicted: "Could we do more? Yes."
The Federal Court has ordered a Toronto website operator to pay four times the commercial value of photos it republished without payment or permission. “The use in question was not a fair dealing and copyright infringement should be found,” ruled the Court.
The Department of Fisheries in Access To Information records documents the ongoing collapse of the Atlantic seal hunt. The harp seal harvest last year was halved from 2016 despite subsidies paid to processors to promote seal meat recipes: "We have an obligation to make things right."
All realtors must verify the identities of homebuyers under new regulations proposed by the Department of Finance. The rules target offshore speculators and money launderers using fronts and shell companies to buy Canadian property: 'Who are the owners of all the real estate in Toronto and Vancouver?'
School bus seatbelts would protect children but cost school boards nationwide more than a quarter-billion dollars, says a national task force on safety. “It will be important to explore the impact of these additional costs,” said the highway ministers’ report: "Would the expense result in fewer school buses on the road?"
A human rights tribunal has dismissed a complaint that playing God Save The Queen and the national anthem in public schools theoretically breaches the Charter Of Rights. A math teacher at a Blind River, Ont. high school filed the complaint, claiming she was threatened with her job for expressing her "humanist" views: "That's news to me."
The Federal Court of Appeal has ordered a review of complaints a Department of Environment workplace was so dysfunctional a manager wore a bulletproof vest to work for fear she would be shot by an employee. Accounts of the Nanaimo, B.C. office detailed allegations of vulgar language and a search for hidden cameras: 'It was akin to a form of water torture.'
The Department of Industry yesterday could not account for its claim a billion-dollar subsidy program would create 50,000 jobs. Internal Access To Information records count zero jobs created in two years: "Zero may designate information that is not available."
