What's A Little Corruption Between Friends?

We are a banana republic without the bananas:

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said he will encourage the provinces to implement 10 days of paid sick leave per year as Canada deals with the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic. This according to CP24.

Establishing paid sick leave meets a key demand from New Democratic Party Leader Jagmeet Singh. This appears to be a trade off, sick days in exchange for the NDP's support for a motion to limit sittings and votes in the House of Commons through the summer.

**

The federal government’s emergency-response benefit was originally pitched as a buffer for employed people who lost their jobs because of the pandemic and lockdown.

But thousands of Canadians on welfare and disability benefits are also receiving the $2,000-a-month payments, prompting a patchwork response from the provinces — and widely varying incomes for recipients across the country.

For some provincial governments, the little-known social assistance version of the Canada Emergency Response Benefit (CERB) has even meant a sudden windfall, courtesy of Ottawa.

Welfare and disability benefits recipients are only eligible for CERB if they made $5,000 in work income over the previous 12 months, and have lost most or all of that due to the pandemic. Sill, those who receive it are often making more than they were before.

**

Government efficiency at its best:

Federal 1-800 centres have improved their rate of dropped calls by not answering the phone. The president of Shared Services Canada, the federal IT service, said an undisclosed number of jobless callers seeking benefits received endless busy signals: “The call would never get dropped, it would just never get answered.”

**

On Friday, it was revealed that the Liberal Party was taking wage subsidy cash from the taxpayer wallet, along with the New Democrats and the Progressive Conservatives.

 

While addressing why his wealthy political party was taking taxpayer dollars, Trudeau said: "We know families across the countries depend on the jobs they do to pay groceries, pay for the rent... This is going to be an important part of the economy bouncing back, and that's what we're focused on."

Even for Trudeau, this is an awful answer and a complete deflection.