The taxpayer-backed Canada Infrastructure Bank yesterday acknowledged it knowingly approved a $206 million loan to a Nova Scotia wind farm operated by friends of the Liberal Party. CEO Ehren Cory confirmed Liberals would not have to make payments until their venture proved profitable: "That’s why the Bank exists." READ MORE
It will take decades to begin searching for purported graves at an Indian Residential School site in Kamloops, B.C., the chief of the Tk’emlups te Secwepemc First Nation said last evening. “Holocaust investigations have continued for more than 75 years,” Chief Rosanne Casimir told senators. “Truth takes time.” READ MORE
Liberal MPs are blocking disclosure of a secret audit regarding millions in administrative cost overruns for the Canada Dental Care Plan. MP Hedy Fry (Vancouver Centre), chair of the Commons health committee, gaveled an adjournment after Opposition members pressed for the audit to be made public: "This committee is really, really disorderly." READ MORE
Health Minister Marjorie Michel yesterday said she is reviewing regulation of sports betting ads as a mental health risk. “We will come with more later,” she told the Senate: "Yes, we see the suicide rates." READ MORE
The Department of Transport yesterday assumed direct control of the Gordie Howe International Bridge from a Crown corporation at Windsor, Ont. It followed a threat by U.S. President Donald Trump to block the Bridge's opening this year unless billions were paid in compensation: "The regulations allow Transport Canada to intervene where required." READ MORE
Public Safety Minister Gary Anandasangaree estimates more than 166,000 “assault-style” firearms are subject to a $742 million national buyback program. Only 51,000 have been registered with six days remaining before expiry of a compensation deadline: "I’m cautiously optimistic." READ MORE
Cabinet spent billions on electric transit buses without any data on how they perform in winter months, records show. Managers said they had “not been made aware” of any problems since then-Environment Minister Catherine McKenna launched the subsidy program in 2021: "It is another step forward for smart public transit funding." READ MORE
We all have buttons you can push. In Canada the regional buttons are there to be pushed. But the problem is once you push the buttons what are you left with? Are you left with a configuration of people who can solve problems? Or are you left with simply a fragmentation of power and the people who’ve been angry and said, “We’re going to show you.” Our time in government had been very tumultuous. We were in a recession, the economy wasn’t growing. There were just a lot of things happening, and people were mad. And who do you take it out on? You take it out on the government.
