The Canada Revenue Agency yesterday would not comment on warnings it will enforce a $17.4 billion increase in capital gains taxes though the measure never passed Parliament. An Agency manager publicly stated auditors will “continue to administer the proposed legislation” as if it was law: "This makes no sense at all."
Parks Canada admits it got its facts wrong in a historical commemoration. The agency called Saskatchewan high jumper Ethel Catherwood the first Canadian woman to win a gold medal in Olympic track and field. Catherwood was neither Canadian nor the first gold medalist: 'We ask those who covered the story to issue a correction.'
Four percent of cross-border travelers are using the federal ArriveCan app, new data show. Voluntary use of the costly application plummeted once cabinet stopped mandating its use in 2022: "How many?"
Almost half of young adults are marijuana users, says a Department of Health report. The rate is 40.5 percent for high schoolers: "Cannabis use among young adults has increased."
Alberta’s share of the Canada Pension Plan is only worth a third the amount claimed by the province, says a federal report. The analysis by Canada’s Chief Actuary was commissioned after Premier Danielle Smith released data stating Alberta was owed more than half the fund: 'It is of particular significance.'
Parliament must cut short its five-week Christmas recess to end “total mayhem” in the federal cabinet, says Opposition Leader Pierre Poilievre. The appeal followed the loss of more Commons votes that left the two-member Green Party as the only opposition caucus to support Prime Minister Justin Trudeau: "I have never seen anything like it. It is hallucinogenic."
Cabinet has a new housing minister, the fourth in three years, with updated figures showing construction starts are not close to federal targets. “I understand there’s a short runway,” Minister Nathaniel Erskine-Smith told reporters.
Spanking harms children and should be criminalized, says the Federal Ombudsman for Victims of Crime. Benjamin Roebuck in a letter to senators said Parliament must repeal an 1892 clause of the Criminal Code that allows parents to use reasonable force to correct misbehaving children: "I remain deeply concerned about violence experienced by children."
Homeowners in one province, Prince Edward Island, accounted for more than half of successful federal applications for the subsidized purchase of heat pumps, records show. Islanders’ claims numbered in the thousands while only a handful of Prairie homeowners qualified for grants: "How many?"
Poet W.N. Branson writes: “Ancient verdant seats, filled in absentia and used to breathtaking effect; bewildered subjects of His Majesty, flash with a piercing light…”
It was Canada’s longest military deployment. On Sunday March 15, 1964 peacekeepers landed in Cyprus and stayed 29 years. The mission cost some $700 million and saw deployment of the nation’s last aircraft carrier, HMCS Bonaventure.
There is no library of literature on the Cyprus mission. The island itself was a beach resort for English tourists. No Victoria Crosses were awarded, no wounded veterans came home to parades. For all that, Under the Blue Beret should be required reading for anyone who is thinking of joining the military.
In crisp prose author Terry Burke captures the minutiae of army life. It is neither heroic nor desperate. It is nothing like the military caricatured by non-combatants. It is what it is.
The Canadian Coast Guard in an internal report says its fleet is so old it now spends a third of a billion a year on maintenance as “30 percent of vessels have less than five years left.” Defence Minister Bill Blair counts Coast Guard spending in claiming Canada is on a path to meeting minimum NATO requirements for military preparedness: "The age, condition and obsolescence of Coast Guard vessels and their electronics and informatics infrastructure represent a key risk."
Parks Canada yesterday had no comment over a mistaken historical commemoration. The agency honoured a Saskatchewan athlete as the first Canadian woman Olympic gold medalist in track and field. She wasn’t: "Historic designations illustrate the defining moments in the story of Canada."
Immigration Minister Marc Miller is enforcing new regulations to limit in-and-out claims by foreigners gaming immigration rules. Miller's department called the practice “flagpoling.”
Parliament should mandate criminal background checks on all marine port employees, a practice already required at airports, says the Commons public safety committee. MPs blamed organized crime for vehicle thefts worth $1.5 billion last year: "We need to take a hard look at the security of our ports."
