Monday, December 7, 2020

Trudeau government won't say who got billions of dollars in aid

While some payments have been revealed, the destination of billions of dollars in aid remains secret

Elizabeth Thompson · CBC News ·
An empty store up for rent is seen on Montreal's Sainte-Catherine Street, on Monday, June 8, 2020. Nine months into the COVID-19 pandemic, the government has yet to reveal where billions of dollars in pandemic aid has gone. (Paul Chiasson/The Canadian Press)
https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/covid-spending-government-transparency-1.5826917

This story is part of The Big Spend, a CBC News investigation examining the unprecedented $240 billion the federal government handed out during the first eight months of the pandemic. 

When Justin Trudeau ran for office in 2015, he promised Canadians a more open and transparent government.

An investigation by CBC News reveals, however, that the Trudeau government hasn't been entirely transparent about where COVID-19 aid worth billions of dollars has gone.

While the government has made available high-level aggregate spending statistics, or estimates of the net fiscal impact, for the more than 100 programs it has launched since the pandemic began, only a few departments have released details about which individuals, groups or companies have received government money.

Some departments have fought CBC's attempts to get that information tooth and nail — despite the fact that some publicly traded companies have voluntarily disclosed the same information through their TSX filings.

The work of House of Commons committees that normally would probe government spending programs — such as the Finance committee — has been disrupted, first by the government's move to prorogue Parliament in August and then by Liberal filibusters.