The Department of Veterans Affairs says it cannot explain a near doubling in wait times to process disability benefit claims. The department’s report contradicted public remarks by Veterans Minister Lawrence MacAulay: "You can never be sure."
The Liberal Party forecasts an increase of nearly $7 billion in tax revenue next year with most gains anticipated through spending reviews and closure of undefined tax loopholes. “The whole point here is to be completely transparent,” said MP Ralph Goodale (Regina-Wascana), co-chair of the Party platform committee.
An Alberta judge in an unusual ruling has overturned a bankruptcy court decision and ordered an ex-student to repay thousands in loans. Court of Queen’s Bench Justice Douglas Mah called repayments a “moral obligation” to taxpayers: "Her sole purpose for the bankruptcy was to avoid her student loan debt."
A Crown bank approved high fees to consultants totaling nearly $9 million in six months. Twenty-two consultants were paid more than an MP, according to Access To Information records at Export Development Canada. The agency censored hourly rates it approved for contractors: "Parliament doesn't pay too much attention."
The Department of Finance in an Access To Information memo says no “simple set of words” can fulfill a promise to cut inefficient fossil fuel subsidies. Cabinet has vowed to overhaul aid for oil, gas and mining companies by 2025 but has yet to calculate what subsidies are worth: "Difficult things are difficult."
Tax Court has upheld a $74,000 penalty against an auto mechanic who falsified his tax return. The case is the latest in the Fiscal Arbitrators fraud that sent a tax consultant to prison: "The penalty seemed very high to me."
A federal arbitrator after five years of litigation has upheld the firing of a Canadian Pacific Railway engineer who derailed a locomotive while under the influence of cocaine. The railway cited the case as an argument for random workplace drug tests in Canada: "I am appalled."
A homeowner described as the last man in Ontario with a dial electrical meter has lost a final challenge of the province’s Smart Meter program. Scofflaws opposed the digital meters as a nuisance, health hazard and invasion of privacy: "What's the point?"
Federal executives billed taxpayers more than $135,000 this year for airline tickets that were never used. Tammy Clifford, vice-president at the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, charged $7,121 for a business class flight to Brussels that she later cancelled: "Transportation shall be based on cost."
Catholic charities plan an all-party election debate, the largest of its kind, on campaign platforms “from a Catholic perspective”. The event follows a 2018 Court ruling that upheld charities’ ability to engage in political activities under the Charter Of Rights: "Citizens should be mindful of the right and also the duty to use their free vote."
The Department of Fisheries in a redacted secret memo indicates a proposal to ease the “administrative burden” for fish farming corporations was a last-minute addition to federal plans. No reason was given: "The department doesn't know."
Any re-elected Liberal cabinet might introduce a national guaranteed income program, Environment Minister Catherine McKenna told a campaign meeting. The program would cost more than $43 billion a year, according to the Parliamentary Budget Office: "That might be one of the solutions."
The Green Party platform if enacted in any minority Parliament would raise taxes by nearly $60 billion a year, the Parliamentary Budget Office said yesterday. Green proposals include new taxes on soda pop, banks and their customers and employers and workers paying Canada Pension Plan premiums: "The platform is a blueprint."
Limits on jury selection passed by Parliament June 20 following the Colten Boushie case have survived their first challenge. “Gut feeling” is no reason to disqualify a person from serving on a Canadian jury, ruled Ontario Superior Court: 'It is not transparent.'
The New Democrat Party yesterday proposed a fifteen percent tax on foreign buyers of homes and condos nationwide. The tax similar to measures adopted by legislatures in British Columbia and Ontario would cost more than $300 million next year, said the Parliamentary Budget Office: "We'll take real action."
