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In the CTF’s fight with Canada Post, the Office of the Information Commissioner (OICC) found the postal monopoly to be in clear violation of the Access to Information and Privacy Act. The CTF filed an Access to Information request in November requiring Canada Post to disclose how much it spent on purchasing and installing ‘anti-graffiti’ wraps.

In a letter to the CTF, Carmen Garrett of the OICC stated that, “[Canada Post] failed to respond .. by the statutory due date,” and was “in a position of deemed refusal.” The letter went on to say that Canada Post’s reasons for violating the information laws were not valid.

Like several other crown corporations, Canada Post was brought under the information laws when the Accountability Act was passed. Like some of those other crown corporations, Canada Post has failed to live up to it’s obligations to taxpayers and disclose how its spends the public’s money.

With the Canadian Union of Postal Workers (CUPW) on strike demanding raises that most in the private sector cannot look forward to, perhaps it is time that we remove Canada Post’s obligations to disclose how it spends taxpayers money, buy cutting it loose from government and letting it compete in the open market.

Watch the MP Pension Money Machine!

I’m pretty sure this is how the government reacted to rising gas prices.

Withstanding CTF calls to reduce the size of cabinet to send a message of downsized government, the new cabinet sworn in today is the largest in Canadian history. At 39 members that:

• Ties Brian Mulroney’s largest five years (1985-1989)
• Surpasses Trudeau’s record cabinet of 37 ministers
• Blows past Pearon’s largest cabinet of 28
• Is nearly twice the size of cabinets under prime ministers from Sir Robert Borden to John Diefenbaker; and
• Three times the size of Canada’s first cabinet under Sir John A. MacDonald in 1867, at 13 ministers.

This new (tied) record cabinet does not send the right message to the public service and the public at large: that belt tightening is on the way and that remaining government services will be streamlined.

With sub-ministries for everything, perhaps we should just go all out. Here are a few ideas:

• Divide Minister of Justice into ministers of state for:
  • Common Law
  • Code Law
  • Family Law
  • Corporate Law
• Split the Minister of Defense into Defense and Offense
• Add a Status of Men Minister to go along with Status of Women
• Divide all regional development agencies into local “riding-size” ministries so that MPs can hand out pork directly
• Divide Minister of Agriculture into:
  • Ranching
  • Dairy
  • Growing Things
• Divide Heritage into:
  • CBC
  • Can-Con
  • Arts galas
• Divide Fisheries into:
  • Atlantic
  • Pacific
  • Arctic
  • Bass
  • Ones that got away
• Split Natural Resources into:
  • Deciduous forestry
  • Coniferous forestry
  • Stuff that makes power and energy
  • Stuff to make stuff with
• Split Sport into
  • Hockey
  • Football
  • Soccer

Why stop there? Making up cabinet is more about satisfying every demographic, geographic and poligraphic (new word (C)) demand that the opposition or media would complain about if not satisfied. “Not enough young people?” New cabinet spot! “Not enough of religious/ethnic group X?” New spot! “Not enough representation from Y province?” Brand new ministry!

The usefulness of cabinet government in Canada seems to have largely died with the steady erosion of Parliament beginning in the Trudeau era. As Donald Savoie put it, cabinet has largely become a focus group for the prime minister. It seems a bygone era when we understood that cabinet is for governance and Parliament is for representation and holding that cabinet to account.

Cabinet Size Source

In the two weeks following the federal election, the CTF’s pension calculations made headlines in every major media outlet across Canada. In addition to the major, mainstream networks and papers, many local and ethno-cultural papers carried the story, but perhaps none-so with the outrage displayed by The Indo-Canadian Voice. “Fat cat bonanza for election losers!” ran the headline, as it clearly expected it’s readership to share what it feels to be an unfair fleecing of the taxpayer.

Anyone with depth in Canada’s Indo-Canadian community will know that these are a group of fiercely entrepreneurial, self-reliant and family-oriented people. It is people that forged a real living with their own hard work that should – and seemingly are – most offended by the outrage that is the gold-plated MP pension plan.

As the CTF continues to reach out beyond its traditional group of supporters, we need communities like this to see an aligning of values and a reason to support the work we do.

Cross-posted at taxpayer.com/blog