Most Québec counties have lower potential for “economic development” and rank below the national average on productivity, a federal agency said yesterday. The figures follow a cabinet proposal to consider “economic status” for the French language: 'This is the reality on the ground.'
The Bank of Canada has quietly taken steps to control a “digital Canadian dollar” despite public claims it has no interest in the scheme, records show. The Bank in a Christmas filing under the Trademarks Act staked ownership of any “digital dollar” launched in Canada: "In terms of digital currency, it is not under the current legal framework."
Immigration Minister Marc Miller allowed 807,000 foreign students to work unlimited hours in Canada without any research on how it would impact Canadian jobseekers, records show. Miller said foreigners were not "taking jobs away from other people" but never asked his department for data: "Right now we have nil response."
Natural Resources Minister Jonathan Wilkinson’s wife Tara has stepped up trading in oil and gas stocks, records show. The family's fossil fuel investments continued even as Minister Wilkinson pledged to lead the “fight against climate change.”
Callers to the Canada Revenue Agency typically spent 15 minutes or more on hold last year despite record spending on call centres, figures show. Cabinet in 2018 approved millions in 1-800 upgrades on a promise of prompt service: "We’re still going to see these crappy results coming out of Canada Revenue Agency."
The Canada Infrastructure Bank lost almost $900,000 in consultants’ fees on a failed climate project, records show. The Commons transport committee has recommended the Bank close as a costly failure: "You haven’t got it done."
Poet Shai Ben-Shalom writes: “First came the roofer. ‘Your insulation is only 20 centimetres thick,’ he said. ‘Kyoto Protocol requires 40; I can fix it so your house will be cool in the summer, warm in the winter’…”
Chester Ronning was a renowned Canadian diplomat and Sinophile so admiring of Chinese culture he spoke fluent Mandarin and into his 80s still prepared his own meals of steaming vegetables and noodles in broth. He was also a Mao apologist.
The Communist leader was not a mass-murderer but a “teacher” and “liberator,” Ronning enthused. When visiting Peking in 1971, he was invited to view May Day celebrations alongside Party functionaries atop Tiananmen Gate. He was “wild with excitement,” Ronning said. Here he could “feel the presence of a new power.”
The decision was all his. If Ronning loved the Chinese people he must love its dictatorship, too. China like all police states demanded no less. “Westerners with no actual experience of what China was like before the People’s Republic cannot possibly understand what the early reforms meant,” he said. It was an outrageous claim.
The Senate proposes to increase its spending this year to a record $134.9 million, new budget documents show. Increases including 10 percent more for administration costs follow cabinet’s promise to cut discretionary spending in 2024: "You will see that all the ministries need to ensure they are doing their part to reduce wasteful spending."
Cabinet quietly polled Chinese Canadian electors on how to improve relations while rejecting demands for a public inquiry into foreign agents, records show. Federal focus group researchers asked, “Are there any challenges impacting Chinese Canadians that the federal government should be prioritizing?”
A federal bill to construct more rental housing is so poorly drafted it “could inadvertently discourage the supply of rental housing,” warns the Canadian Bar Association. Housing Minister Sean Fraser said he's counting on builders for “200,000 to 300,000 new homes” as a result of the bill that passed Parliament three weeks ago: 'It is all or nothing.'
Taxpayers should hire free lawyers for tenants facing eviction, says a report issued by Federal Housing Advocate Marie-Josée Houle. The report complained renters are at the mercy of landlords seen as “being more desirable citizens than those who do not own property.”
The Green Party is “going to surprise people” in the next election, MP Elizabeth May (Saanich-Gulf Islands, B.C.) yesterday told reporters. The Party has elected four MPs in the past 40 years: "We stand here alone. I don’t see anybody else."
Federal regulators may draft a pre-election “code of conduct” for newsrooms, cabinet yesterday wrote in a legal notice. The Department of Heritage said under Bill C-18 the Online News Act already in effect, newsrooms are subject to CRTC guidance on ethics: "We will have to get precise on that."
Canadians are indifferent to pharmacare and see more pressing health care problems, says in-house Privy Council research. The federal polling predated cabinet’s decision to renege on a vote pact with New Democrat leader Jagmeet Singh to pass a pharmacare bill by December 31: "Few felt this to be a significant issue."
