A Covid-era program funded by Parliament to aid cultural groups facing bankruptcy went unspent even as bankruptcies doubled, says a federal report. Auditors wrote they were puzzled: 'It's raising important questions.'
The Commons last night passed a Ways And Means Motion on the federal budget 170 to 168 on warnings MPs didn’t know what they were voting for. “The government is hiding information from us,” said Conservative MP Kelly McCauley (Edmonton West) following a Budget Office protest that cabinet was concealing figures on budget impacts: "Parliamentarians need this information and we need it now."
Cabinet yesterday defended unusual expense claims by the president of the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission, Pierre Tremblay. The Commission was part of “the best nuclear system in the world,” said one minister.
Cabinet yesterday would not discuss consequences for federal managers who failed to achieve goals on Indigenous issues despite billions in new spending. “Has anybody been fired?” asked Conservative MP Jamie Schmale (Haliburton-Kawartha Lakes, Ont.).
A subsidized newspaper publisher had numerous conflicts with the Department of Canadian Heritage over terms of its grant applications, internal records show. The department will not say why it continued to fund Discourse Community Publishing Ltd. of Sun Peaks, B.C. even after the company was fined for breaching migrant labour regulations: "It can be difficult to provide exact information on how the costs of our business are broken down."
Cabinet must ensure any digital identification program is strictly voluntary, Conservative MP Leslyn Lewis (Haldimand-Norfolk, Ont.) yesterday told the Commons. The Department of Employment is proceeding with legislative changes to have Canadians use digital ID when applying for Employment Insurance and Old Age Security: "We must be on guard."
Pierre Tremblay, the $343,000-a year president of the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission, billed taxpayers for limo rides, a stay at a French resort hotel and dozens of flights between Ottawa and Toronto rather than take the train, Access To Information records show. Tremblay hiked his travel and hospitality budget 85 percent this year despite cabinet directives to cut unnecessary spending: "These are tough times."
It is possible aliens have visited Earth though the technology required is beyond human comprehension, says a report by Dr. Mona Nemer, cabinet’s $393,000-a year chief science advisor. Nemer has recommended cabinet create a federal agency to take calls from Canadians who spot UFOs: "Canadian media does not cover the subject."
Another Jewish charity has been stripped of its tax status by the Canada Revenue Agency, the third in 15 months. It follows an internal report in which the Agency acknowledged “unconscious biases” in auditing charities.
House of Commons Administration is asking security consultants for help following a cyberattack on its internal computer server. It followed a breach of MPs' accounts by Chinese Communist Party agents four years ago: "We could have taken steps to protect ourselves."
Cabinet will cut the federal payroll by a tenth and find $60 billion in savings, Prime Minister Mark Carney said Friday. His remarks came hours after the Budget Office warned there was little chance cabinet will meet its latest deficit targets and remains too secretive over where it will find savings: "It is unclear."
Poet Shai Ben-Shalom writes: “Chess grandmasters lost to IBM’s Deep Blue. Elite Go players surrendered to Google’s AlphaGo. Can technology defeat the best of us?…”
Take the story of one battalion raised in one city, multiply it 100,000 times, and you have a haunting account of the catastrophe of the First World War. Historian David Campbell chronicles such a story with encyclopedic research and a filmmaker’s eye for poignant detail, like the Battle of Passchendaele reduced to a terrified pack mule drowning in mud.
“The more we pulled on him the worse it was, and the poor thing kept sinking down and down, inch by inch, and we were frantic. We couldn’t stop it and finally the transport officer of the 18th Battalion decided there was only one thing to do…When his head was just above the mud the officer had pulled his revolver out of his holster, and the mule turned his head, and I will never forget the look on that poor brute’s great big brown eyes when he looked at the officer, and the officer shot him, and then cried like a kid. Some of us, too.”
The Treasury Board is concealing the scope of federal job cuts from analysts at the Budget Office, records show. Refusal to disclose follows Treasury Board President Shafqat Ali’s promise to MPs to “strengthen openness.”
Liberal MP Arielle Kayabaga (London West, Ont.) yesterday would not say whether paid employees worked on her political campaign while on the public payroll, a breach of Treasury Board rules. The former Government House Leader’s six-figure billing for “personnel” over nine days mainly reflected vacation pay for staff, a spokesperson said.
