While National Newswatch does not keep an archive of external articles for longer than 6 months, we do keep all articles written by contributors who post directly to our site. Here you will find all of the contributed and linked external articles from Bill Curry.
Federal departments are highlighting that planned job cuts will also affect senior managers as thousands of public servants receive letters informing them that their positions might be eliminated. Deputy ministers from several departments have sent e-mails to staff in recent days that break down targets for job reductions for both executive and non-executive members.
Transport Canada’s deputy minister informed staff Monday that the department is aiming to cut 600 jobs as part of its contribution to a government-wide effort to shrink the size of the federal public service. Deputy minister Arun Thangaraj and associate deputy minister Brigitte Diogo said about 1,500 employees, including executives, will be receiving letters informing them that their positions may...
Debt writeoffs by the federal government climbed above the $5-billion mark during the last fiscal year, according to figures reviewed by The Globe and Mail, adding to a debate over Ottawa’s practice of keeping the identities of those who benefit from such debt relief secret.
Prime Minister Mark Carney unveiled a long-awaited shuffle of deputy ministers Friday that aim to focus on his key priorities of revitalizing the economy and the country’s national defence. He moved 12 deputies to key departments including new faces at the departments of finance and national defence. Eight deputy ministers are departing the government, according to a list of changes...
Prime Minister Mark Carney will convene a virtual first ministers meeting on Thursday, his first since announcing an energy-focused memorandum of understanding with Alberta that has drawn sharp criticism from British Columbia. Audrey Champoux, a spokesperson for the Prime Minister, confirmed the virtual meeting will take place. She said Thursday’s agenda will include discussions on international trade, the domestic economy...
Canada’s first high-speed rail line, between Quebec City and Toronto, will start with a shorter segment linking Montreal and Ottawa, sources say. Two senior government officials told The Globe and Mail that the plan will be announced Friday by Transport Minister Steven MacKinnon and Martin Imbleau, the CEO of Alto, the Crown Corporation responsible for overseeing the project. The Globe...
The Liberal government’s budget bill is stuck in the opening round of debate with just one week to go before an increasingly acrimonious minority Parliament breaks for the holidays. As a result, it is highly unlikely that the bill will be studied in committee – let alone approved into law – this year. Liberal MP Karina Gould, the chair of...
The federal government plans to make 75 legislative changes through the budget process, adopting a practice that has been criticized as a way of curtailing debate by burying contentious measures in omnibus bills.
Tuesday’s federal budget will announce a $50-billion fund for local infrastructure, including housing, transportation and a specific stream for health infrastructure such as hospitals and emergency services, a senior government official told The Globe and Mail. The source said the budget will also lay out a plan to retire aging military fleets as a way to save money on maintenance...
The NDP is not ruling out the possibility that some or all of its seven MPs could abstain when the minority Liberal government’s budget is put to a vote in the House of Commons. The government has warned of the possibility of a snap election unless at least one other party steps forward to allow approval of the budget, which...
Members of Parliament unanimously approved a motion Thursday calling on former Transport minister Chrystia Freeland to appear before a committee again in light of new e-mails revealing her department had several weeks of advance notice that BC Ferries planned to buy four new vessels from a Chinese shipyard. The motion was approved just hours after The Globe and Mail reported...
Transport Canada had weeks of warning before BC Ferries made a controversial announcement in June that it was buying four new ships from China, according to an e-mail from the ferry organization’s head. The purchase was swiftly condemned at the time by Chrystia Freeland, who was transport minister until she stepped down from the position on Tuesday to become Ottawa’s...
The Liberal government was asked Monday to explain why political advisers were strategizing over how to defend a $1-billion federal loan to BC Ferries for four large Chinese-made ships rather than finding a way to cancel the purchase. Conservative MP Dan Albas raised the issue during the first Question Period after the summer recess in reference to an exclusive report...
As Transport Minister Chrystia Freeland was in the House of Commons distancing Ottawa from BC Ferries’ plan to buy four new ships from a Chinese state-owned shipyard, senior Liberal advisers were debating how to manage a looming announcement that there was in fact a connection. Canada Infrastructure Bank, a federal Crown corporation, had provided $1-billion in financing for the purchase.
Ontario Premier Doug Ford said a draft list reported by The Globe and Mail of 32 potential major projects to fast-track across the country is not good enough for his province and that he discussed the issue directly with Prime Minister Mark Carney on Friday. The list, which is a government document obtained by The Globe, describes potential projects based...
A draft list of 32 major projects that could be candidates for fast-track approvals under the new Building Canada Act includes a pipeline that would bring Alberta oil through northwest British Columbia to the Pacific Coast. Such a project is a priority for Alberta Premier Danielle Smith, but the B.C. government has questioned the practicality of a new oil pipeline...
Federal cabinet ministers are being asked to find “ambitious” internal savings this summer ahead of the 2025 budget as Prime Minister Mark Carney’s government must now sort out how it will pay for the billions of dollars in new spending that it recently announced. Specifically, ministers must find ways to reduce program spending by 7.5 per cent in the fiscal...
U.S. President Donald Trump appeared to broaden his list of demands on Canada to re-open trade talks, listing his past grievances about Canada’s supply management policies that control production and imports of eggs, dairy and poultry. Mr. Trump made the comments in a pre-recorded interview with Fox News Channel host Maria Bartiromo that aired Sunday morning. Prime Minister Mark Carney...
The Conservative Party is calling for an urgent hearing into a $1-billion federal loan for BC Ferries’ purchase of four new vessels from China. Conservative MP and transport critic Dan Albas has written a letter to his colleagues on the House of Commons transport committee, calling for a summer meeting that would hear from Transport Minister Chrystia Freeland and Ehren...
The federal government’s Canada Infrastructure Bank provided $1-billion in financing for BC Ferries’ plan to buy four new ships from a Chinese state-owned shipyard, a fact that Transport Minister Chrystia Freeland did not mention last week when she sharply criticized the purchase. Ms. Freeland sent a strongly worded letter last week to B.C. Transportation Minister Mike Farnworth expressing her “great...
Most of the minority Liberal government’s legislative agenda is unlikely to pass before the House of Commons breaks for summer on Friday, as bills on affordability and border security face strong criticism over privacy-related elements. Prime Minister Mark Carney clearly prioritized Bill C-5, which pledges to eliminate federal barriers to interprovincial trade and sets up a system to fast-track major...
Federal officials are working on a plan to direct more cloud computing contracts toward Canadian companies after receiving strong industry pushback over an existing competition to shortlist a small number of American multinationals for similar work. When asked about the internal criticism revealed in government documents, Shared Services Canada spokesperson Michael Gosselin said the department “is in the initial planning...
Calls are mounting for Liberal Leader Mark Carney to fire Toronto-area candidate Paul Chiang, who said people should bring a Conservative politician to the local Chinese consulate to collect a bounty on him for criticizing Beijing’s crackdown on Hong Kong. NDP candidate Jenny Kwan urged Mr. Carney to drop Mr. Chiang for his comments on Conservative candidate Joe Tay. “He...
Federal spending on outsourcing reached a record high of $17.8-billion last year, despite the Liberal government’s vow to cut back on the use of outside help. It’s an increase of 13.5 per cent over the previous fiscal year. Spending in the broad category of professional and special services – which includes contracted work in categories such as lawyers, architects, training...
Canadian politics could be heading for an extremely rare situation: a prime minister who doesn’t have a seat in the House of Commons. While the ultimate result is unclear, Mark Carney is currently leading the pack of Liberal Party leadership candidates in terms of high-profile endorsements. Should he emerge as the winner when the results are announced on March 9...
A former auditor for the federal government’s Indigenous procurement program says Ottawa hamstrung auditors and repeatedly ignored warnings that the program was being abused by non-Indigenous companies. Garry Hartle was one of the auditors who regularly reviewed whether companies complied with a federal policy designed to encourage the flow of government contracts to Indigenous-owned businesses. He served as an auditor...
Ottawa could potentially reap a $9-billion boost to its bottom line over the next few years, federal documents show, thanks to a growing surplus in the pension fund for public servants, prompting a standoff with unions over what should be done with the windfall. Treasury Board President Anita Anand upset the major public-sector unions earlier this week when she announced...
The federal government is expected to announce border-security investments in the weeks ahead, either through the fall economic statement or separately if parliamentary gridlock continues, a senior government official said. Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland and Public Safety Minister Dominic LeBlanc said Wednesday that Ottawa is prepared to pump more money into the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) and the...
A new poll shows a majority of Canadians say the Liberal Party should be led by someone other than Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in the next election, with only 24 per cent saying he should stay on. The Nanos Research survey conducted for The Globe and Mail asked whether Mr. Trudeau should lead the Liberals in the next election or...
The federal government is disputing an IT staffing firm’s claims in a lawsuit that says it has been unfairly suspended from government contracting because Ottawa is trying to distract from negative publicity over its handling of the ArriveCan app. Coradix Technology Consulting Ltd., which was among the main contractors on the federal app project, filed a lawsuit in May seeking...
The federal government has referred three new cases of alleged contracting fraud to the RCMP and said further referrals can be expected as part of a continuing review of potential fraudulent billing by private contractors. Officials described the situation to MPs as “time theft” involving cases where subcontractors are alleged to have billed multiple clients with direct government contracts for...
Canadians are divided over whether the Liberal government should target specific age groups for new spending in the fall economic update, with more than a quarter of respondents to a new poll saying there should be no new spending at all. Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland has said she and her team are working on a fall economic update but a...
Senior federal Procurement Department officials are rejecting accusations from an employee linked to the controversial ArriveCan project that they pressed her to lie to internal investigators. The Globe and Mail has reviewed a recording of a key conversation between the two managers and the employee and it does not contain any clear reference to not telling the truth.
Conservative MPs attacked the NDP Sunday over a Montreal by-election flyer that shows the NDP candidate in front of a Palestinian flag, criticism the NDP quickly dismissed as ludicrous. Several Conservative MPs and staffers posted the campaign image showing NDP candidate Craig Sauvé in front of a Palestinian flag, which the NDP confirmed was used on the cover of a...
The federal government is planning to sharply cut the low-wage stream of the temporary foreign worker program back to prepandemic levels, government sources say, amid criticism of its growing use by Canadian employers. Reliance on the low-wage stream has shot up since 2022, when Ottawa agreed to ease access to the program in response to calls from restaurant owners and...
Members of Parliament studying the ArriveCan controversy voted unanimously Thursday to order the government to hand over a recording of a three-and-a-half hour internal investigation interview that one public servant described this week as a hostile hearing where she felt pressured to provide false evidence.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s office declined to comment Sunday on a letter signed by several MPs calling for an immediate in-person national caucus meeting to discuss the party’s surprising by-election loss in Toronto-St. Paul’s. A small group of MPs sent the letter to Liberal caucus chair Brenda Shanahan on Friday requesting the immediate meeting to discuss what they call the...
Former B.C. premier Christy Clark says Prime Minister Justin Trudeau needs to be replaced and suggested MPs begin having private conversations with the Liberal Leader about the party’s electoral prospects if he stays on. In an interview with The Globe and Mail Thursday, Ms. Clark said Monday’s by-election loss in Toronto-St. Paul’s is a sign for the Prime Minister that...
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is facing calls from two Chrétien-era Liberal cabinet ministers to step down as party leader, with the former MPs pointing to this week’s midtown Toronto by-election defeat as further evidence of a strong desire for change among Canadian voters. Wayne Easter said in an interview Wednesday that Mr. Trudeau and his team of senior advisers in...
The RCMP is conducting more than half a dozen criminal investigations into federal contracting, the national police force revealed Tuesday. RCMP Commissioner Mike Duheme and Deputy Commissioner Mark Flynn provided the new details during an appearance before the House of Commons committee on public accounts, which is holding hearings into Auditor-General Karen Hogan’s February report on contracting issues related to...
Federal departments and Crown corporations showed a “frequent disregard” for contracting rules as they awarded global consulting firm McKinsey & Company more than $200-million in contracts since 2011, often without an open competition, Auditor-General Karen Hogan reported Tuesday.
A federal border agency director said he regrets being among a small number of agency officials who accepted an invitation to a virtual whiskey tasting organized by primary ArriveCan contractor Kristian Firth. The public accounts committee, which is holding hearings into the Auditor-General’s February report into the costs of the ArriveCan app for international travellers, heard for the first time...
Three government contractors involved in developing the ArriveCan app have received hundreds of federal contracts worth more than $1-billion over the past 13 years. Until now, the federal government has not been able to provide a clear breakdown of how much contract work the three companies have been awarded. The new numbers were provided to MPs on the public accounts...
An internal review of federal contracting has found nearly $5-million in fraudulent billing by three private subcontractors, prompting the government to refer the cases to the RCMP, announce a new Office of Supplier Integrity and Compliance and tighten conflict of interest rules for public servants.
Dalian Enterprises, one of the vendors hired by the federal government to work on its troubled ArriveCan app, was awarded a contract from the Defence Department the same day its founder started working at the department as a full-time public servant. Dalian founder David Yeo told a parliamentary committee on Tuesday that he started leading an IT project team as...
Public Sector Integrity Commissioner Harriet Solloway is launching an investigation into alleged wrongdoing related to the ArriveCan app, as well as accusations that two former border agency officials faced reprisals after criticizing their superiors. The commissioner’s investigation is the latest among nearly a dozen completed or active reviews related to the government app and broader issues involving how Ottawa awards...
ArriveCan contractor Dalian Enterprises says its president, David Yeo, became a Department of National Defence employee only last year after work on the app was complete and set up a conflict of interest screen so that he would not be involved in the company’s interactions with his new employer.
Canada’s mayors are expressing concern that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau won’t deliver a promised long-term infrastructure deal in the upcoming 2024 federal budget. Fifteen big city mayors – including Olivia Chow of Toronto, Jyoti Gondek of Calgary and Scott Gillingham of Winnipeg – were in Ottawa Monday as representatives of the Federation of Canadian Municipalities met with fed
Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre says MPs in other parties should have voted against ArriveCan’s growing costs when they had the chance, pointing to $25-million worth of specific spending items tied to the government app that Parliament approved during the pandemic. In an interview with The Globe and Mail, Mr. Poilievre also said a future Conservative government would bring in “a...
Internal investigators at the federal procurement department are reviewing contracting concerns related to ArriveCan and officials told MPs Wednesday they are prepared to seek repayment from private contractors if they’ve overbilled. Public Works and Government Services officials also said they are scaling back the use of sole-source contracting and vowed to increase scrutiny over what the government is actually buying...
Two senior public servants who were suspended amid an internal investigation into contracting misconduct allegations at the Canada Border Services Agency have asked a judge to shut down that probe – which they say is unfair and biased – and order an independent third-party review.
The RCMP says it is assessing this week’s Auditor-General’s report into spending on the federal government’s ArriveCan app, which found a troubling disregard for basic management practices and flagged concerns about interactions between private consultants and public servants. Auditor-General Karen Hogan also told MPs Wednesday that she met with the RCMP to discuss her report’s findings before it was released...
Liberal, Bloc Québécois and NDP MPs suddenly suspended parliamentary hearings related to ArriveCan and contracting misconduct allegations Wednesday after reading what one Liberal described as a “scary” secret preliminary report by a federal investigator. The three parties say any further hearings could put at risk investigations by the Canada Border Services Agency, which produced the report, and the RCMP...
An investigation of ArriveCan spending has found outsourcing companies repeatedly won contracts by listing subcontractors who ultimately did no work, one of many findings that led the federal procurement ombudsman to conclude contracting rules were not followed. The report specifically singles out contract work by two-person IT staffing company GCStrategies, saying the company frequently failed to prove that its proposed...
Procurement Minister Jean-Yves Duclos says his department is examining whether there is a widespread problem throughout government with inflated résumés as part of its review of three IT staffing firms facing allegations of wrongdoing related to their work on federal contracts.
