Bringing about a higher level of transparency and accountability in provincial and federal governments to help protect taxpayers from abuse
If I had Finance Minister Bill Morneau’s money, I’d buy a first-class ticket to Paris, then find the nearest Porsche dealership, acquire a loaded Carrera, drive straight to that villa in Provence he owns through a shell company, and send a note back to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and the Canadian public tendering my resignation and wishing everyone the very best in the years to come. Canadians would never hear from me again.
Read more at CBC News
The Canadian government will unveil a budget update widely expected to show shrinking short-term deficits, as Finance Minister Bill Morneau looks to turn the page on questions about his own finances.
Morneau will deliver his Fall Economic Statement at about 4 p.m. Tuesday in Ottawa. The midyear update to the March budget will reflect the improving picture for government finances, driven by surprisingly strong growth. Over the past four quarters, the economy expanded by an average 3.7 percent, the best performance in a decade.
That will have an impact on the government’s bottom line. The budget forecast a shortfall of $28.5 billion for 2017-18. CIBC World Markets Deputy Chief Economist Benjamin Tal expects it instead to come in between $15 billion and $16 billion, including the so-called budgeted risk adjustment.
Read more at Financial Post
The accusation opened a new front in the ongoing opposition waged war on government taxation policy, amid the backdrop of the conflict-of-interest controversy dogging Finance Minister Bill Morneau over whether he’s properly distanced himself from millions of dollars of private sector assets.
Diabetes Canada was among the groups that joined Conservative politicians to publicly denounce what they say is a clawback of a long-standing disability tax credit to help them manage a disease that can cost the average sufferer $15,000 annually.
Conservative finance critic Pierre Poilievre branded it as one more example of an out-of-touch Liberal government that he characterized as unfairly targeting the hardworking middle class people it claims to support.
Read more at CTV News
The federal government is promising to tighten qualifications and improve monitoring of companies managing the finances of struggling First Nations following allegations an Ontario company misappropriated millions of dollars in health-care funds.
Crupi Consulting is alleged to have diverted a total of $2.6 million in government transfers intended for the Kashechewan First Nation, an isolated reserve in Ontario’s far north. The company’s former treasurer, Joe Crupi, is facing eight fraud-related criminal charges concerning his handling of $1.2 million earmarked for an elementary school breakfast program, including an allegation he spent $700,000 for his own personal use.
Read more at National Post
Among the most insistent critics of the recent proposals by Finance Minister Bill Morneau to tighten up the use of private companies to avoid taxes have been Canada’s doctors.
Canadians generally do not begrudge doctors their above-average incomes. They spend many years training for their jobs, and then sometimes literally hold our lives in their hands. Still, valid questions remain about how much they make and how much tax they pay. Despite some claims, are doctors really in the middle class?
Read more at Maclean’s
One thing you learn on the climate change beat is that the best journalism is done overseas.
In Canada, too many in the media, not knowing the issues, are empty vessels waiting to be filled by Trudeau government propaganda, which they uncritically regurgitate to their audiences.
By contrast, in the UK, one of many examples of serious reporting is a new radio documentary by the BBC’s environment correspondent, Matt McGrath.
Called “Carbon Counting,” McGrath reveals how many nations that signed the Paris accord are inaccurately reporting and/or hiding their greenhouse gas emissions from the United Nations.
Reporting is done once every two years, but the accord doesn’t require independent verification of the numbers.
Read more at Toronto Sun
Will the Canadian government continue to support Barrick Gold’s exploitation of mineral resources in Tanzania no matter what abuses the company commits?
Would the Trudeau government stop backing the Toronto-based firm if it bilked the impoverished nation out of $10 billion? Or, what if one thousand people were raped and seriously injured by Barrick security? Would Ottawa withdraw its support if one hundred Tanzanians were killed at its mines?
Read more at Huffington Post
OTTAWA — The personal information of Canadians will be on the negotiating table when North American free trade talks begin this month.
The United States has served notice it wants an end to measures that restrict cross-border data flows, or require the use or installation of local computing facilities.
It is among the many American goals for the coming NAFTA renegotiation spelled out by the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative.
Privacy advocates say that means trouble for Canada’s ability to shield sensitive information such as health or financial data from the prying eyes of foreign agencies by storing it in computer servers on Canadian soil.
Read more at the National Post
Federal officials are working to eliminate any fraud or mistakes from the government’s largest seniors benefits program through a massive review of payments and testing a new way to catch problems before they get into the system.
Government officials are in the midst of a large-scale, national review of existing old age security recipients with investigators contacting seniors to go over details like marital status, unreported departures from Canada or unreported deaths.
Read more at cbc.ca
Websites for fraudulent telecommunications service providers based in the U.K. managed to squeeze $4.7 million out of federal coffers over five years before investigators with the Canada Revenue Agency caught on to the scheme.
The proceeds were put into Canadian banks, then transferred to offshore accounts or used in real estate transactions.
read more at canadianfraudnews.com