Cabinet’s frequent quashing of legal strikes has poisoned labour relations, union executives testified yesterday. Cabinet in 18 months issued eight strike bans under a previously little-used clause of the Canada Labour Code: "We have been alarmed."
Finance Minister François-Philippe Champagne today is repealing a luxury tax on boats and personal aircraft. A separate tax on foreign-owned vacant property is also ending but was never collected in the first place: "Congratulations!"
Cabinet yesterday confirmed it will end its failed Two Billion Trees Program after six years, $267.7 million and the work of 50 federal employees. Then-Environment Minister Catherine McKenna announced the plan in 2019 as a “huge asset.”
Finance Minister François-Philippe Champagne projects the 2025 deficit will be 192 percent higher than forecast but advised Canadians to sleep well tonight. The deficit, originally targeted at $26.8 billion, is now closer to $78.3 billion: "Tonight people will go to bed and say, ‘We’re going to be okay.’
The Department of Industry yesterday said it will not release terms of any job guarantees by heavily-subsidized Stellantis without permission of the automaker. Conservative MP Raquel Dancho (Kildonan-St. Paul, Man.) questioned whether the guarantees exist: "The problem is 3,000 people were laid off and your government committed millions and billions of taxpayers’ dollars and we’re trying to understand."
Border agents recovered contraband from a total five rail cars last year, new figures show. Nearly two million train cars entered the country. The data followed warnings from the Customs and Immigration Union that smugglers shipping guns or drugs by rail had “almost a zero percent chance” of getting caught: "We don’t really have rail examination."
Electric cars reduce medicare costs, says the Department of Environment. Authorities yesterday made the claim at the Commons environment committee but would not put a cash value on specific savings: "Electric vehicles bring health benefits and cost savings."
Health Canada does not require that drug injection sites be located a minimum distance from schools, daycares or playgrounds, according to a departmental report. It was not cabinet’s job, Health Minister Marjorie Michel told MPs: "You are aware they’re next to playgrounds, schools and daycares but you don’t know how many?"
Federal regulation of sports betting ads is unnecessary since “kids aren’t watching television,” says the gaming lobby. A bill mandating federal regulation passed the Senate unanimously and is currently before the Commons: 'It is unnecessary.'
The Commons finance committee today is expected to open hearings into corporate tax avoidance through offshore accounts. Liberal MPs have called the hearings a bid to “dig dirt” on Prime Minister Mark Carney who benefited from Bermuda tax shelters as chair of Brookfield Asset Management: "They dig dirt on day one."
Statistics Canada disciplined 72 employees for misconduct last year including 15 who were fired, according to first-ever disclosure of wrongdoing in the workplace. The agency counted another 21 complaints of harassment and 31 cases of lost or stolen taxpayers’ property, mainly cellphones and laptops: "Everyone is responsible for fostering an ethical workplace."
Unnamed contractors appear to be gaming the federal system by bidding low on tenders with ambiguous wording to take advantage of revisions at escalating costs, says Procurement Ombudsman Alexander Jeglic. He called it “bid low, let it grow.”
Small independent brewers face steep costs under a Senate bill mandating cancer labels, says a lobby group. The private bill would compel all packaging to carry warnings of health risks: "I have never met anybody who thought beer was health food."
Canadians face jail for “justifying the Indian Residential School system” under a Commons bill introduced by New Democrat MP Leah Gazan (Winnipeg Centre). The maximum penalty is needed to “end Residential School denialism,” said Gazan.
Poet Shai Ben-Shalom writes: "A guy bigger than me comes my way..."
