One of the heaviest users of government-issue credit cards has introduced continuous audits after uncovering misuse, according to Access To Information records. More than 3,500 employees at the Department of Fisheries have been issued charge cards used for $140 million a year in transactions: 'What sort of internal audits or financial checks are in place?'
Environment Canada says most pulp and paper mills nationwide are dumping harmful chemicals in waterways in breach of the Fisheries Act. The department ordered a review of costs and benefits of tougher regulations on mill operators: "It has to be clear."
The Parliamentary Budget Office yesterday estimated a New Democrat wealth tax on multi-millionaires would raise $5.6 billion a year beginning in 2020. The Party requested the costing of its campaign proposal: "Our plan is simple."
The Canada Border Services Agency's mammoth internal IT system is so dysfunctional it should be replaced, says a report. No cost was detailed. The research follows a United Nations study that ranked Canada behind Estonia in promoting e-government: "They have given up."
The $92 million National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls paid millions in fees to lawyers and management consultants, according to Access To Information records. Data show advisers were hired at $300 an hour: "Can anything be done more efficiently?"
Farmers blame media, animal rights groups and one burger chain for promoting “misinformation” about their industry, say in-house surveys by the Department of Agriculture. The research follows a Commons committee proposal that Parliament use hate crimes provisions of the Criminal Code against farm critics: "You’re being attacked."
A billion-dollar federal climate change program cut greenhouse gas emissions less than one percent a year, says an Environment Canada report. Companies that received taxpayers’ subsidies have denied it was a failure: "There is no consensus."
Cabinet today will detail cash payments to Métis survivors of WWII and the Korean War though few veterans are alive to collect. The Department of Veterans Affairs in an Access To Information memo said it found no evidence Métis were denied their fair share of billion-dollar benefits, but noted the historical record was “unclear”.
Federal staff in Access To Information emails expressed astonishment at exorbitant fees paid to government-approved media. Operators of two websites received “huge, crazy” contracts totaling nearly a million dollars. “Yowzers,” wrote one Department of Public Works manager. “Yikes,” replied another: "I’m not sure what you guys are willing to pay or what the source is worth."
Federal employees working overseas billed the equivalent of nearly $18,000 a day in mobile roaming fees, according to monthly accounts. Disclosure of billing records follows a federal IT survey that employees typically email each other up to a hundred times a day: "It is quite a hefty sum of money."
Federal attempts to regulate the nation’s private drone fleet have fallen flat, says in-house research by Transport Canada. Only nine percent of flyers surveyed said they had a Drone Pilot Certificate as required under Canadian Aviation Regulations: 'It's a cash grab.'
A national radio ombudsman has been inundated with complaints over comments by a Vancouver host who criticized pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong. The pundit earlier told a Commons committee China is “an open-minded country” where “the press has ninety percent freedom”.
Poet Shai Ben-Shalom, an Israeli-born biologist, examines current events in the Blacklock’s tradition each and every Sunday: “The UN report on climate change warns of widespread floods and fires, food shortage and global famine…”
Environment Minister Catherine McKenna describes as a “must read” an apocalyptic novel by a former Green Party organizer. The book depicts climate change chaos that reduces Canadian society to an encampment on the Pacific coast: "They have blood on their hands."
Fewer than half of voters support the carbon tax in 64 federal ridings nationwide including seven Liberal seats, according to academic research detailed yesterday. Authors of the study noted most anti-tax ridings are already held by Conservative MPs: "Carbon taxation is more divisive."
