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An internal review of federal contracting has found nearly $5-million in fraudulent billing by three private subcontractors. As a result, Ottawa referred the cases to the RCMP, announced a new contracting-oversight office and tightened conflict-of-interest rules for public servants.
The government said the fraudulent billing was uncovered through a mix of tips and advanced data analytics. In its announcement, the procurement department, which conducted the review, said that serious questions have been raised regarding the integrity of the federal procurement system, including the practice of certain suppliers.
Federal officials also said Wednesday’s announcement is the first wave of what is expected to be a series of discoveries related to fraudulent billing cases in the coming months. They said another five to 10 cases are being examined, though they did not provide a price tag on how much money may be involved.
- Campbell Clark: More than a year into ArriveCan mess, the government runs to catch up to its procurement problem
A person holds a smartphone set to the opening screen of the ArriveCan app in a photo illustration.Giordano Ciampini/The Canadian Press
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Industrial carbon price more effective to reduce greenhouse gases than consumer policy, report says
A new report by the Canadian Climate Institute found Canada’s carbon-pricing system for heavy industrial emitters is by far the country’s most impactful policy for reducing greenhouse gas emissions. It is also roughly three times more effective than the more controversial carbon price paid by most consumers.
The carbon-pricing numbers from the report are likely to attract the most notice, because they come amid the most heated debate about the consumer-facing levy since it was introduced last decade.
While Prime Minister Justin Trudeau continues to treat that policy as a backbone of his climate strategy, a majority of premiers have called for an annual April 1 consumer-price increase to be put off because of affordability concerns. And Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre, whose party leads in opinion polls, has made scrapping the levy altogether one of his central pitches to voters.
Ukrainian beauty campaign heals more than the traces of war
Natalia Apalkova had just finished eating lunch at her sister’s home in Ukraine’s Luhansk region, in the country’s east, when a mine exploded. The home’s ceiling crashed down and shrapnel tore through Apalkova’s face and arms.
Although her wounds eventually healed, the attack left her face badly scarred. Breathing was difficult because of an injury to her nose, and she could barely open her mouth, which made eating complicated and smiling nearly impossible.
But earlier this month, sitting on a hospital bed in Lviv, Apalkova was smiling. She had received reconstructive facial surgery as part of a program for injured Ukrainians launched last year by Unbroken, the national rehabilitation centre in Lviv, in partnership with the Ukrainian office of the cosmetics company L’Oréal.
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Also on our radar
Motion on Israel will make it harder to get Gaza families to Canada, minister says: An NDP motion passed this week with Liberal support that calls for a freeze on arms exports to Israel could make it harder for Canadians with family members in the Gaza Strip to bring them to this country, Immigration Minister Marc Miller said. It would be “naive” to think the motion will have no consequences for the reunification program, Miller said, as Israel says it is watching the actions of the Canadian government.
- Israel-Hamas motion sows confusion among NDP, Liberal MPs on nature of official arms-exports policy
- Gaps are narrowing in Israel-Hamas ceasefire talks, Blinken says during Mideast visit
Irish prime minister resigns: Leo Varadkar, Ireland’s youngest prime minister, announced plans to step down yesterday, shocking Ireland’s political class just a couple of months before elections to local councils and the European Parliament.
Poilievre adviser’s staff established new lobbying firm: On the first business day after Pierre Poilievre’s election as Conservative Leader, the senior staff of a lobbying firm run by his top adviser established a second company housed out of the same office, with many of the same staff – but dropping the name Jenni Byrne.
Hospital staff allegedly tried to access Princess of Wales’ records: Staff members at London Hospital allegedly tried to access Princess Catherine’s medical records, adding to the drama surrounding the health of the Princess of Wales.
Morning markets
U.S. stock index futures rose on Thursday as chipmakers tracked sharp gains in Micron Technology and investors took comfort in the Federal Reserve sticking to its three-rate-cut view for this year.
Wall Street rallied on Wednesday, with the S&P 500 notching a record high, after U.S. central bankers kept borrowing costs unchanged and indicated they still expect to ease interest rates by three-quarters of a percentage point by the end of 2024. The Canadian dollar was trading marginally higher at 74.13 US cents.
What everyone’s talking about
Lawrence Martin: “But the dangers of the deregulated informationsphere is nowhere near what it is south of the border, where Mr. Trump and company have turned free speech into warped speech and could take the country off the rails. Small victories like we saw from the Supreme Court this week are too little too late – not enough to rein in the demons that have been set loose.”
Editorial: “Ask any Canadian politician about the housing crisis these days and, no matter their political stripe, they will recite party lines about what is being done, or ought to be done, to ensure that everyone has access to affordable and safe housing that is appropriate to their needs. Then, just for fun, say, no, you meant the housing crisis on First Nations reserves.”
Today’s editorial cartoon
Illustration by David Parkins
Living better
Whether you have few assets or a lot, pre-nups can help prevent messy divorces
The best-case scenario with a pre-nuptial agreement is that you never need to use it. But there are too many other scenarios to ignore – ones for which a pre-nup would’ve been helpful. Even for younger couples who might not have acquired significant assets yet, there are still reasons to get one.
Moment in time: March 21, 1960
People demonstrate, in April 1960 in Johannesburg, in protest against the Sharpeville massacre.AFP/Getty Images
South Africa’s Sharpeville Massacre
The demonstrators sang songs of freedom before the police fired guns into the crowd. Thousands of Black South Africans had gathered at a police station in Sharpeville to protest the decades-old racist laws that required them to show they had passes that permitted them to be in whites-only areas. The apartheid rulers required Black people to carry and turn over “reference books” that included employment information, fingerprints and other personal data. The segregation laws controlled the movement and settlement of those not in the white ruling class. On this day in 1960, police shot submachineguns into the throng protesting the laws, killing about 69 and wounding more than 180, including women and children. The Sharpeville Massacre, as it became known, drew international condemnation and shifted much of the world’s sentiment against the apartheid regime. The country’s political groups mounted armed resistance to the oppression. Nelson Mandela was among those who burned their passes. As president of South Africa in 1996, he signed a new constitution in Sharpeville, near the very spot on which so much blood had been spilled. Eric Atkins
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