The Crown corporation attempting to build a $90 billion regional high speed railway yesterday would not comment on why it hired the chairman of the board’s law firm as legal counsel. Chair Robert Prichard is also chair of Torys LLP, a Toronto firm awarded an “open ended contract” by Alto Corporation: 'Work includes engagement with over 40 Indigenous communities.'
Air passenger advocates last night urged senators to kill a cabinet proposal to send legitimate complaints over poor service to private, binding arbitration. The clause inserted in an omnibus budget bill was prompted by a backlog of some 97,000 complaints at the Canadian Transportation Agency: "The bill does not resolve the backlog, it relocates it."
Finance Minister François-Philippe Champagne yesterday said a bill restricting the right to strike is needed for the sake of “stability” in the economy. Federal data show the number of private sector strikes fell by 33 percent last year: "We want to avoid this kind of conflict."
Managers have installed nearly a thousand prayer or “quiet” rooms in federal buildings, new documents show. It follows a campaign by former Toronto Star columnist and cabinet advisor Amira Elghawaby to promote Muslim prayer rooms in government offices though only two percent of employees self-identified as Muslim: 'Islamophobia can manifest when Muslim employees face challenges in accessing reasonable accommodations for religious practices such as prayer breaks.'
The transport department lowballed public estimates of construction costs of a regional high speed rail venture, documents show. The estimate “from $60 billion to $90 billion” is based on a third of the average per-kilometre cost of similar ventures abroad: "If you have got one hand in the fridge and the other in the oven, you don’t get zero degrees in the middle."
Newly-declassified records show then-Prime Minister Jean Chretien and influential members of his 1995 cabinet opposed any bailout of the Winnipeg Jets or any other NHL franchise facing relocation. It was hard to “support a hockey team while at the same time closing hospitals,” one told a confidential meeting.
One of the nation’s largest grocery chains yesterday agreed to surrender restrictive clauses in leases with mall owners, documents show. Empire Company Ltd., operator of the Sobeys chain, Farm Boy, Safeway, IGA, Foodland and FreshCo stores, was one of the last chains to use property controls: 'It does not admit any wrongdoing.'
Cabinet yesterday tabled a bill to impose sweeping curbs on strikes and circumvent Federal Court challenges on its repeated use of executive powers to quash legal walkouts. Labour Minister Patty Hajdu said she did not like “people fighting with people.”
The Commons science committee yesterday tabled a report on political conflicts at Canadian universities without any mention of anti-Semitism. It was a striking omission, said Opposition MPs: "It is an important topic within the study that should have received more attention."
Swearing-in ceremonies for Governor General Louise Arbour cost $388,733 and counting, cabinet disclosed yesterday. The expense exceeded those run up by Arbour’s predecessor, but compared to $330,000 in talent fees paid by a Crown bank to hire CBC comic Rick Mercer as pitchman: "These are tough times. We have to make tough choices."
The military tolerates too many off-colour jokes despite a decade-long campaign of culture change, says a Department of National Defence report. Investigators said while progress had been made, “sexualized jokes and microaggressions are often overlooked.”
Most renters have not given up on home ownership despite the housing crisis, CMHC said yesterday. Findings of a Canadian Housing Survey showed renters were counting on home equity to help their children and provide security in retirement: "Canadians continue to aspire to housing that better meets their needs yet many still face challenges in doing so."
Cabinet will press ahead with a bill to regulate the internet, says Prime Minister Mark Carney. Bill C-34 is a third attempt to regulate political speech in the name of social stability: "This fall we will press ahead with the Act to protect Canadians online."
Any decision on whether to mandate face and fingerprint scanning of air passengers on domestic flights is up to cabinet, says the federal agency responsible for airport security. The Canadian Air Transport Security Authority (CATSA) proposes to introduce biometric scanning on local flights by 2031: "CATSA will not be the authority to determine whether biometrics should be mandatory."
Then-Finance Minister Paul Martin in a secret 1995 cabinet session warned “compound interest is killing us” after decades of deficit spending, newly-declassified records show. Ministers were told to promptly cut billions in spending “come hell or high water.”
