Cabinet “delivered for millions of Canadians” under a 2017 National Housing Strategy, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said yesterday. Figures tabled in Parliament show in fact just over 100,000 homes were built under the program: "We are going to continue as we have done."
Richard Mosley, 74, the Liberal-appointed federal judge who ruled the Freedom Convoy crackdown was unconstitutional, yesterday said civil rights lawyers changed his mind about the case. Ottawa officialdom including the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court had condemned protesters as anarchists: "I was leaning to the view the decision to invoke the Emergencies Act was reasonable."
Ex-cabinet members who advocated a 2022 Freedom Convoy crackdown yesterday had no comment after the Federal Court ruled their actions were unlawful. Using the Emergencies Act against peaceful protesters was unconstitutional, ruled the Court: "It captured people who simply wanted to join in the protest by standing on Parliament Hill carrying a placard."
Cabinet will collect nearly a half billion in sales taxes on the carbon tax this year, the Budget Office said yesterday. Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland has repeatedly claimed the carbon tax is “revenue neutral.”
A federal incentive program dating from 2012 has drawn nearly 18,000 doctors and nurses to rural Canada, says a Department of Employment report. Auditors rated Canada Student Loan forgiveness a success though many medical and nursing students never heard of it: 'They found out about it from family or friends.'
More than $11 million has been paid to families of Canadians who suffered death or injury as a result of Covid vaccines, say managers of a federal compensation fund. The new figures follow Health Minister Mark Holland’s boast that Canada was a world leader in pandemic lifesaving: "Thanks to vaccines and to other measures we saved literally hundreds of thousands of lives."
Parliament must fund a full investigation into longstanding claims of unmarked Indian Residential School graves in Kamloops, B.C., Opposition Leader Pierre Poilievre said yesterday. Cabinet three years ago budgeted millions for a final search that was never undertaken: "Canadians deserve to know the truth."
Industry Minister François-Philippe Champagne yesterday ordered all federally registered companies to disclose names and addresses of major shareholders. A publicly accessible database of beneficial owners is still a year away, he added: "We had some bad actors who used Canadian corporations in the way that I think Canadians would find very disturbing."
Canadians are resigned to unhappy experiences with their internet service provider, says in-house CRTC research. Relatively few switched companies since they considered all services to be equally mediocre, wrote researchers: "Some simply said the alternatives all cost about the same."
Immigration Minister Marc Miller yesterday outlined cutbacks on the number of foreign students in Canada currently estimated at 807,000. Miller didn’t release the legal text of any regulation but said it “will be approximately a 50 percent reduction” in some provinces: "The net intake will show that decrease."
The Commons health committee by a 6 to 5 vote has rejected public disclosure of a contract to a failed Québec vaccine supplier. Conservative MP Rick Perkins (South Shore-St. Margarets, N.S.) said piecemeal records show cabinet lied about why it paid $150 million to a factory in the Minister of Public Work’s riding: "It is voting for a cover-up."
Anonymous “extremist actors” have attempted to infiltrate the RCMP, says a Department of Public Safety document. The briefing note did not identify how many extremists or criminals were caught within police ranks: "The RCMP is aware."
It is “too early to fully evaluate” the reliability of electric cars in Canadian winters, says a Department of Natural Resources report. Six years and $76.1 million worth of study were inconclusive though analysts warned of potential “negative unintended outcomes” from cabinet’s electric car mandate: 'Address specific Canadian requirements such as technologies for cold climates.'
The Budget Officer is completing a first-ever independent review of newsroom subsidies. The analysis follows the doubling of payroll rebates to $29,750 a year for employees of cabinet-approved newsrooms: "I am requesting specific data."
The Department of Public Works on Saturday opened a vacant Ottawa federal building for use as a “warming centre” by the homeless. Vacancy rates in federal buildings nationwide average as high as 40 percent, by official estimate: "We are seeking meaningful opportunities to use these properties."
