Other than challenges to some obvious cases of fraud, still no real victor of the American election.
From the most corrupt and least transparent government in the country's history:
The federal government is facing strong criticism from Parliamentary Budget Officer Yves Giroux for a lack of transparency when it comes to the unprecedented levels of spending during the pandemic.
In a report released on Wednesday, Mr. Giroux and his team note that the Finance Department provided a thorough public accounting every other week until August, but that practice ended when Prime Minister Justin Trudeau prorogued Parliament.
The PBO report focuses on the government’s latest request to Parliament for funding approval through a process called the supplementary estimates, but it also discusses spending transparency more broadly. The most recent request covers $79.2-billion in spending. More than 90 per cent of that amount is related to COVID-19, such as income support for individuals, funding for vaccine research and money to buy protective gear and medical equipment.
“While the sum of these measures is significant, the amount of information that is publicly available to track this spending is lacking, thus making it more challenging for parliamentarians to perform their critical role in overseeing government spending and holding it to account,” the report states.
It points out that no public government document currently provides a complete list of all pandemic measures announced to date and their projected fiscal cost.
“This lack of data is not a result of it not being available,” the PBO states, adding that the Finance Department had published this information until August.
Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland has said a fiscal update on federal government spending will be released this fall, although a date has not been announced.
**
Because it's (whatever year it is):
Parliament’s Pay Equity Act will cost federally-regulated employers almost two-thirds of a billion, the Budget Office said yesterday. The labour department claimed it could not estimate the cost when legislators passed the Act two years ago: “It’s almost an impossible task.”
More:
A new report offers the first-ever cost estimate for a Liberal policy that aims to ensure men and women receive equal pay, after Ottawa declined to provide details on the legislation in 2018.
The Parliamentary Budget Officer estimates that the Liberal government’s equal pay policy will cost taxpayers $621 million per year, covering about 390,000 public servants in Canada. That estimate does not include the additional 900,000 workers who fall under federally-regulated industries like airlines, telecoms, banking, and broadcasting, among other things. ...
Yves Giroux, the PBO, said his office pulled together the estimates without the help of Treasury Board officials, who declined to provide any internal data for the program, citing Cabinet confidence.
Yes, that pesky Cabinet confidence.
There seems to be a lot of suspension of political things these days:
The Canada Revenue Agency yesterday confirmed auditors targeted small businesses that applied for pandemic wage subsidies. MPs on a 176-152 vote ordered the audits suspended until next June: “The last thing they need is a call from the Canada Revenue Agency.”
Environment Minister Jonathan Wilkinson yesterday said he will soon introduce legislation to meet greenhouse gas emission targets that “may” include taxes. Cabinet had promised before the 2019 election it would never raise the federal carbon tax: “It may be tax mechanisms, and it’s pricing pollution.”
Jagmeet Singh finished his career as a b!#ch to a snowboard instructor:
The federal New Democrats will use an upcoming chance to set the agenda in the House of Commons to push for a new tax on wealthy people and those who made massive profits during the COVID-19 pandemic, their leader Jagmeet Singh says.
No comments:
Post a Comment