The Budget Office for the second time in three months has calculated figures showing cabinet inflated claims of military spending in aspiring to meet NATO targets. Defence Minister Bill Blair dismissed the criticism as a case of “different numbers.”
Bank of Canada Governor Tiff Macklem last night dismissed worries over the falling value of the Canadian dollar. Members of the Senate banking committee expressed concern as the dollar closed at 72 cents U.S.: “Are you not concerned that will lead to inflation, a weak Canadian dollar?”
Canadians in federal focus groups now consider annual vacations a privilege of the wealthy, says in-house Privy Council research. Canadians also identified “dining in restaurants” and buying private medical treatment as desirable luxuries: “Asked how much money they felt one had to earn annually to be considered wealthy, participant responses ranged from approximately $100,000.”
MPs on the Commons government operations committee yesterday agreed to pursue the destruction of federal emails with ArriveCan contractors. One Canada Border Services Agency executive destroyed records sought under Access To Information, a jailing offence if proven deliberate: “Something happened here.”
Bloc Québécois leader Yves-François Blanchet yesterday pledged his 33-member caucus will join 119 Conservatives in supporting the next Commons non-confidence motion. The Bloc is “absolutely ready to go into an election tomorrow morning” after cabinet failed to meet his ultimatum to pass two bills into law, he said: “I am ready.”
Regulatory oversight of the CBC is a “complete charade,” Liberal-appointed Senator Percy Downe (P.E.I.) said yesterday. Downe’s remarks followed an admission by the CRTC that it would never pull the CBC’s television license regardless of whether it follows the rules: “This is really a scam.”
Bank of Canada executives yesterday acknowledged many Canadians remain beaten down by the cost of living despite earlier celebrations that inflation had cooled. “People feel like things are more expensive and they are,” Senior Deputy Governor Carolyn Rogers testified at the Commons finance committee: “We would be giving people a false sense of hope if we said prices will come down.”
Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault “received zero dollars” from his interest in a subsidized Montréal firm, managing partner Andrée-Lise Méthot yesterday told MPs. However Guilbeault’s own ethics filings show he drew income from Cycle Capital Management while in cabinet: “I know Steven Guilbeault.”
Federal regulators yesterday said they are “working to establish digital credentials” for the public without parliamentary go-ahead. MPs have repeatedly rejected introduction of any electronic national ID system as expensive and risky: “The committee was warned many times about the prospect of the police being able to stop people on the street and demand proof of their identity.”
A “significant number” of Canadians would resist any attempt to introduce a federal version of bitcoin, the Bank of Canada said yesterday. Skeptics included citizens suspicious of government overreach: “A significant number would reject it.”
Manitoba’s representative in the federal cabinet yesterday said he stands by his criticism of Winnipeg radio commentator Charles Adler’s appointment to the Senate. “I stand by it today,” Northern Affairs Minister Dan Vandal told the Commons Indigenous affairs committee: “There are many eminently qualified Manitobans who are better suited to represent our province than Charles Adler.”
Any future Conservative cabinet will repeal the GST on new home construction under $1 million, Opposition Leader Pierre Poilievre said yesterday. Poilievre said inflation-driven “bracket creep” now sees virtually all homebuyers taxed at five percent: “This is insane.”
ArriveCan emails were destroyed by the Canada Border Services Agency only days after they were sought under the Access To Information Act, records show. The Act forbids deliberate destruction of records under a maximum penalty of two years in jail: “Please do a search.”
Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault’s department is targeting household cats as an ecological peril. The department in a report complained tens of thousands of pet cats were roaming Canadian cities hunting birds: “Did you know there could be up to 48,000 cats roaming in Gatineau, Que.?”
A federal agency proposes to write its own news stories for subsidized publishers at an undisclosed cost to taxpayers. Stories would be reviewed and fact-checked by federal employees before they’re published on “trusted media platforms.”
