It's Just Money

Not their money, though:

Canadians should expect a weak economy and high interest rates through much of 2024, Bank of Canada Governor Tiff Macklem said yesterday. “We are not forecasting a deep recession,” he said: “Growth has stalled. It stalled around the middle of last year. We expect growth to continue to be close to zero.”

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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.”

 

(Sidebar: oh! I know! Just call it a different name! That should fool everyone!)

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A recent report from Canada’s Department of Natural Resources says it is still “too early” to fully evaluate the reliability of electric vehicles (EVs) in Canadian winters despite comprehensive research spanning six years at an investment of $76.1 million.

“It is too early to fully evaluate the intermediate and ultimate outcomes,” said the report titled “Evaluation Of The Electric Vehicle Infrastructure Demonstration Program,” which was first covered by Blacklock’s Reporter.

The federal government allocated up to $76 million in funding under Budgets 2016 and 2017 for the Electric Vehicle Infrastructure Demonstration Program (EVID), which says it aimed to “accelerate the market entry of next generation clean energy infrastructure, by supporting demonstration projects of innovative EV charging and hydrogen refuelling technologies, in order to lead to an increased uptake of ZEVs.”

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Federal managers mistakenly paid 120,000 striking employees millions in regular wages during a 2023 dispute, says the Department of Public Works. Most overpayments have been recovered, it said: “Human error.”

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ArriveCan supplier GC Strategies Inc. of Woodlawn, Ont. landed millions in sole-sourced contracts with no record it even complied with procurement rules, a federal report said yesterday. Kristian Firth, a company partner, earlier denied any favouritism in federal contracting: “I wasn’t prepared for that question.”

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FinDev Canada yesterday had no reply when asked if its $43.4 million worth of shares it purchased in a Kenyan phone company are lost. The company M-Kopa has never turned a profit since FinDev bought shares at taxpayers’ expense: “Did any cabinet member approve the M-Kopa investment?”

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A commitment to anti-semitism and violence:

Canada is sending another $40 million in aid to organizations that are helping people in the Gaza Strip after pausing funding to the UN's relief agency for Palestinians — even as one MP warns the UN agency is the only one capable of delivering the aid Gaza needs.

The funding top-up, bringing the total commitment to $100 million, comes as Ottawa condemns what it calls "inflammatory rhetoric" from Israeli government officials about the forced displacement of those who live in the besieged territory.

"Throughout this conflict, we have centred our decisions on the lives of innocent civilians in this conflict," International Development Minister Ahmed Hussen said Tuesday.

"This is a demonstration of Canada's commitment."

 

Canada will be judged.

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Civil servants in Ontario have won a pay increase worth almost 10 per cent for the three years their wages were frozen by Bill 124.

The pay increase for non-political staffers who work in the provincial government comes after mediation and arbitration between the union and the Ford government.

It comes as the union continues to win backpay deals from the province over its wage restraint law, Bill 124.

The Ford government introduced Bill 124 in 2019 to cap public sector wages at one per cent per year over a three-year period. It was struck down as unconstitutional by an Ontario court at the end of 2022, a decision the province is appealing.