Lobbyists are pressuring Parliament to oppose a universal pharmacare program, a Liberal MP yesterday told the Commons health committee. Health Minister Ginette Petitpas Taylor did not comment. The committee endorsed a pharmacare plan in principle in an April 18 report: "There is a lot of pressure coming from insurance companies."
The Department of Public Works yesterday said it has not questioned ex-deputies who oversaw the Phoenix Pay System. Members of the Commons government operations committee expressed incredulity that no managers have been held to account for the costly failure: "Well, I wasn't there and I don't know."
Information Commissioner Caroline Maynard yesterday appealed for new funding to ease a heavy backlog of complaints over federal concealment of records. Maynard said her office has a backlog of 3,489 complaints and receives new requests for investigations at the rate of more than 2,000 a year: "It's a vicious circle."
A Senate ban on junk food advertising to children would cost industry $2 billion, a Conservative MP yesterday told the Commons health committee. Health Canada said it’s up to restaurateurs and food companies to comply with the bill if it becomes law: "This is going to be a massive cost."
Weak federal legislation has eviscerated middle-class copyright owners, the Commons heritage committee was told yesterday. Heritage Minister Mélanie Joly promised reforms to “ensure that our artists are paid fairly for their work”, but did not elaborate: "I find this testimony very upsetting."
Cabinet has no interest in compelling grant applicants to agree with government policy, Social Development Minister Jean-Yves Duclos yesterday told the Commons human resources committee. Records show 1,559 applicants for Canada Summer Jobs grants were rejected for failing to sign a federal oath: "It's very important."
The Department of Northern Affairs forecasts spending of $98.7 million this year on an Arctic grocers’ subsidy dubbed a failure by MPs. Reforms of the Nutrition North program have been promised since 2016: "This is a program that desperately needs to be fixed."
Federal departments and agencies since 2016 have spent $1.76 million on fake news content ghostwritten and edited by government employees, say newly-released accounts. Staff distributed unsigned stories free of charge to newsrooms: ‘They shed crocodile tears for print media and then do things like this.’
Health Canada paid $42,990 distributing climate change questionnaires to family doctors on the perils of extreme heat, according to records. Physicians said the research was irrelevant. Canada’s deadliest heat wave occurred in 1936: "It's a very rare problem."
The Senate has given Second Reading to a bill mandating greater disclosure by the Canada Revenue Agency. Senators described the Agency as ineffectual and untrustworthy: "There is something wrong at the Agency."
Finance Minister Bill Morneau yesterday said cabinet has fully costed its decision to nationalize the Trans Mountain pipeline, but would not disclose figures when asked 12 times by members of the Senate national finance committee. “I don’t have the exact number in my head,” said Morneau.
The chair of the Senate transport and communications committee yesterday accused the CBC of over-reaching its Broadcasting Act mandate as a de facto internet newspaper. The remarks came as cabinet launched a review of the 1991 Act: "I don't know how you guys handle that."
Environment Minister Catherine McKenna yesterday said cabinet is still calculating the cost of oil and gas company subsidies one year after the Auditor General cited officials for concealing records. “Difficult things are difficult,” McKenna told the Commons environment committee.
A former Bank of Nova Scotia employee in a Federal Court lawsuit alleges he was fired for legally growing cannabis at home. The Federal Court of Appeal earlier ordered the Canadian Human Rights Commission to review a similar complaint over Bank policy: "The government is rushing to get cannabis legalization in place without wanting to talk about the details."
Newspaper publishers yesterday blamed federal advertising policy in part for the loss of 16,500 journalism jobs in the last decade. Federal agencies tripled their spending on Facebook ads last year even as Heritage Minister Mélanie Joly lamented the state of local media: "We’ve lost over 20 percent of the newspapers in Saskatchewan over the past two years."
