The Public Health Agency of Canada has been censured for awarding a contract to the highest bidder. A lower priced supplier spotted the breach of regulations after the winning bidder mistakenly “replied all” in an email disclosing its price schedule: "At times like these Canadians must be assured their government is exercising responsible stewardship over public funds."
Canada faces a persistent farm labour shortage despite hiring migrant workers, says a Department of Agriculture report. The findings follow a 2020 appeal by members of the Senate agriculture committee to have taxpayers pay bonuses to jobless Canadians to work in agriculture: "To put food on the table Canada needs to increase the hiring of its domestic workforce."
Debt collectors will track accounts for years and never close a file even after a borrower’s death, according to industry practices detailed in the British Columbia Supreme Court. Commissions and billing practices were disclosed in a six-figure commercial dispute: "Collection may have to await distribution of a deceased or bankrupt debtor’s estate."
Cabinet in confidential polling was told many Canadians supported the Freedom Convoy with a majority opposed to use of extraordinary police powers to end the protest, documents show. “Most felt this action represented significant over-reach,” pollsters told the Privy Council Office: "Participants were particularly unnerved by the reports of protesters and their supporters having their bank accounts frozen."
Politics in Canada is toxic and bitter, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said yesterday. His remarks followed 2019 committee testimony by Trudeau’s Clerk of the Privy Council that “somebody’s going to be shot in this country.”
Department of Transport lawyers coached airlines on how to reject Canadians’ requests for vaccine waivers on religious grounds, according to Access To Information memos. Even passengers with legitimate claims were to be challenged every time they switched flights, wrote staff: "These types of exemptions are anticipated to be granted very rarely."
The Privy Council Office spent $177,458 searching for Black and Indigenous appointees as deputy ministers, say Access To Information records. Corporate talent spotters found less than a handful of interested candidates: "The government expressed its priority to address systemic racism."
Charging immigrants to take a citizenship test is not discriminatory, a federal judge has ruled. Lawyers had sought to certify a class action lawsuit claiming fees were unfair since other Canadians gained free citizenship by birth: "Canada is a country of immigrants."
The Department of Immigration yesterday said it will book millions’ worth of hotel rooms to house Ukrainian refugees. Canada to date has approved 216,000 of 515,000 Ukrainian applications to come to Canada. Taxpayers will cover any room damage, it said: "The contractor must ensure additional room services or features typically available such as, but not limited to, in-room mini bars."
A Montréal anti-Semite was able to “slip through the cracks” in successfully applying for taxpayers’ grants, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said yesterday. Cabinet to date has not explained why federal managers failed to conduct routine checks on the contractor: "It has to stop."
Auditors at the Department of Veterans Affairs are questioning millions spent on an old navy cemetery. The department billed taxpayers $4 million for graveyard upgrades like plots that were never sold and trails that were never used: "There is no plan."
Homeowners on flood plains face a mandatory $900 a year premium for additional insurance under a proposal yesterday by a federal task force. A national insurance program is need to save taxpayers the cost of ad hoc disaster aid, it said: "It is the country’s most common and costly natural disaster."
Inflation is a “perfect storm” for wage earners, says an Ontario labour arbitrator. Private sector wage settlements across Canada this year are averaging as high as three percent or more in a bid to catch up with the cost of living: "What was once hoped to be ‘temporary’ is proving stubborn and persistent."
Inflation is the leading worry for Canadians with many questioning if the country’s best years are behind it, says internal Department of Finance research. Canadians told Minister Chrystia Freeland’s pollsters the cost of living was a bigger worry than crime, terrorism or climate change: "Wages have not kept up."
Crown-Indigenous Relations Minister Marc Miller yesterday said he had no idea his office approved a Canada Summer Student grant for a group whose anti-Semitic senior consultant campaigned against Jews as “human garbage.” Miller said the funding should be returned: "He’s held horribly anti-Semitic statements that we should have known about earlier."
