A Senate committee yesterday endorsed a 38 percent increase in living expenses for legislators who stay in Ottawa hotels while on business. “Senators actually are struggling,” said one $169,600-a year appointee: "It is a pretty serious situation."
A cabinet appointee under ethics investigation yesterday said her vote to award $217,661 in taxpayers' subsidies to a company she owned was not a personal benefit. Annette Verschuren, former chair of the Canada Foundation for Sustainable Development Technology, resigned November 20: "I am sure that I didn’t break any ethics laws, absolutely."
Commons Speaker Greg Fergus yesterday was ordered to apologize a 14th time and pay a fine of his choosing for breach of rules on impartiality. The House affairs committee rejected demands from 149 Conservative and Bloc Québécois MPs that Fergus resign: "For us in the Liberal Party he made a mistake."
Middle class Canadians were disappointed with cabinet’s Strong Middle Class budget, says in-house Privy Council research. Participants in federal focus groups said they were overtaxed and disillusioned with cabinet: "No participants felt the Government of Canada currently devoted enough attention to the middle class."
Jewish Liberal MPs yesterday expressed unease with a cabinet decision to vote with Iran and against Israel at the United Nations. Nine of the ten largest Jewish ridings in Parliament are held by Liberals: "If you can’t stand proud and strong with the Jewish community don’t light our damn Hanukkah candles."
The Department of Health has paid Twitter “influencers” more than $680,000 since 2021, records show. Tweeters collected talent fees to express support for federal programs without disclosing they were paid for posts: 'They are not required to reveal they are government-paid influencers because that, of course, would be very embarrassing.'
Cabinet budgeted $37.4 million and spent a quarter of it on a gun buyback program without buying any guns, records show. Newly disclosed figures follow an internal Department of Public Safety report that warned the program was prone to “wasted time, energy and funds.”
Cabinet should take steps to disqualify from public pension investments any unethical Chinese companies, a Commons committee recommended yesterday. The Canada Pension Plan, the nation’s largest, has held shares in Chinese coal mines, propaganda film studios and a solar power company linked to slave labour: 'There are no measures which prevent funds from investing in companies complicit in human rights violations.'
A cabinet appointee under ethics investigation over alleged inside dealing last evening abruptly fled a Commons industry committee hearing while under questioning. Whistleblowers accuse Liberal Party donor Annette Verschuren of having federal employees hunt up grants for her non-profit Verschuren Centre: "Look, we're entrepreneurs."
Whistleblowers are asking MPs to publicly release hundreds of pages of documents detailing insider dealing at a taxpayer-funded foundation. Some $150 million was paid to friends of Sustainable Development Technology Canada, one witness told the Commons industry committee: "How many board members and executives are in conflicts of interest and are funding companies they have a financial interest in?"
Foreign Minister Mélanie Joly yesterday had Canada's United Nations delegation vote with Iran and against Israel and the U.S. in supporting a Mideast ceasefire without condemning the killing of Jews. One Canadian Jewish group last night called the vote disgusting: "Canada voted in support of a resolution that fails to hold Hamas accountable for its war crimes."
CBC executives must forego Christmas bonuses, the Commons heritage committee said yesterday. Paying another $16 million in annual bonuses was inappropriate as CEO Catherine Tait complained of revenue shortfalls and threatened job cuts, said the committee: "Everybody at CBC right now needs to consider the financial situation."
Cabinet must give itself new powers to eliminate private sector strikes, the Canadian Chamber of Commerce yesterday told the Commons trade committee. The Chamber suggested compulsory arbitration or some other mechanism to “force a deal.”
Commons Speaker Greg Fergus yesterday apologized 13 times and pleaded with the House affairs committee to “move on” as MPs weighed his fitness for office. A total 149 MPs have demanded Fergus resign for breach of rules on impartiality: "Like anyone who starts a new job I am working and learning on the job."
Canada has not gained "a single thing of tangible value" for its US$159.2 million purchase of shares in the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, says a Canadian publicist who worked as a senior executive at the Beijing institution. “It is dominated by senior Communist Party members,” said Bob Pickard of Toronto: "I am an eyewitness."
