Lorne Gunter: UCP receipt policy a blow to government transparency
On August 18, 2021, Aderoju Alao paid $154.54 — including a tourism levy, the GST and a destination marketing fee — for one night's stay at the Four Points Hotel in Grande Prairie. At the time, Alao was a ministerial assistant to then-advanced education minister Demetrios Nicolaides and she was accompanying the minister on a tour of the region's post-secondary schools.
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On April 12 last year, Sarah Amiry, a ministerial chief of staff, paid WestJet $1,183.26 for return airfare so she could accompany her minister to a conference of provincial ministers in Gatineau, Quebec later that month.
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On May 24, Sam Blackett, who is currently Premier Danielle Smith's press secretary but was then Demetrios's media flack, spent $146.74 on a one-day rental of a Hyundai Elantra to ferry the minister around Red Deer.
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In 2023, then-deputy minister of finance Katherine White paid $926.23 for accommodation at a summit of finance ministers, but — oops — no receipt.
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The list goes on and on (and on) like this for nearly 108,000 entries.
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But no more. Earlier this month, the province removed the requirement that receipts be posted for expenses, even the big ones.
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I'm not sure exactly how many people took the time to wade through over 10,000 pages of itemized expense reports. I'm sure the vast majority of entries were never seen by human eyes (outside of government accounting departments).
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I know the odd reporter who would consult the list after a big trip by the premier or a minister to see whether there was anything juicy to report.
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And the Canadian Taxpayers Federation frequently checked the reports to make sure tax money wasn't being wasted.
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The Province
5 hours ago
- The Province
What could customers have done to protect themselves from the WestJet security breach?
Whitecaps' owners change course from 'sale' to looking for a 'new partner' What could customers have done to protect themselves from the WestJet security breach? Traditionally recommended cybersecurity habits would in no way protect consumers, expert says Gavin Young/Postmedia file Article content There was very little WestJet customers could have done to protect themselves from a recent cyberattack against the airline, according to Joel Reardon, an associate professor at the University of Calgary's computer science department, and author of Secure Data Deletion. Advertisement 2 Story continues below This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. THIS CONTENT IS RESERVED FOR SUBSCRIBERS ONLY Subscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada. Exclusive articles by top sports columnists Patrick Johnston, Ben Kuzma, J.J. Abrams and others. Plus, Canucks Report, Sports and Headline News newsletters and events. Unlimited online access to The Province and 15 news sites with one account. The Province ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition to view on any device, share and comment on. Daily puzzles and comics, including the New York Times Crossword. Support local journalism. SUBSCRIBE TO UNLOCK MORE ARTICLES Subscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada. Exclusive articles by top sports columnists Patrick Johnston, Ben Kuzma, J.J. Abrams and others. Plus, Canucks Report, Sports and Headline News newsletters and events. Unlimited online access to The Province and 15 news sites with one account. The Province ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition to view on any device, share and comment on. Daily puzzles and comics, including the New York Times Crossword. Support local journalism. REGISTER / SIGN IN TO UNLOCK MORE ARTICLES Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience. Access articles from across Canada with one account. Share your thoughts and join the conversation in the comments. Enjoy additional articles per month. Get email updates from your favourite authors. THIS ARTICLE IS FREE TO READ REGISTER TO UNLOCK. Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience. Access articles from across Canada with one account Share your thoughts and join the conversation in the comments Enjoy additional articles per month Get email updates from your favourite authors Sign In or Create an Account Email Address Continue or View more offers Article content Despite a career spent researching best practices in cybersecurity, Reardon was exposed to the June 13 WestJet cybersecurity breach, when the airline says 'a sophisticated criminal third party temporarily accessed some of our systems.' An unknown number of customers had information about their travel documentation — such as their passport — put at risk. Article content Recommended Videos tap here to see other videos from our team. Try refreshing your browser, or What could customers have done to protect themselves from the WestJet security breach? Back to video tap here to see other videos from our team. Try refreshing your browser, or Play Video Article content Reardon said the traditionally recommended cybersecurity habits, like strong passwords or two-factor authentication, would in no way protect consumers from the back-end WestJet data breach. If there was a password breach at fault, it was an employee's password. 'There is nothing that anyone can do about this, until the system changes,' Reardon said. Westcoast Homes Stay on top of the latest real estate news and home design trends. There was an error, please provide a valid email address. Sign Up By signing up you consent to receive the above newsletter from Postmedia Network Inc. Thanks for signing up! A welcome email is on its way. If you don't see it, please check your junk folder. The next issue of Westcoast Homes will soon be in your inbox. Please try again Article content Advertisement 3 Story continues below This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. Article content Some of the data involved in the breach made him concerned about WestJet's data storing decisions. Information like a passport number is something he said he'd expect to be disposed of by the airline the moment it was no longer in use. 'That fits our mental model — we have to enter it in each time,' Reardon said. In any other circumstance, he thinks many would question the need to provide information as sensitive as a passport number at all, but says that 'in the context of an airline, all of our guards are off.' 'Airports, aviation in general is definitely a laboratory for surveillance,' Reardon said. New information is constantly asked of travellers, both digital and physical. If an individual wants to fly, there is little they can do but acquiesce to the creep in scope of information divulged. Advertisement 4 Story continues below This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. Article content Even as a potential victim of the leak, he says there's nothing he's likely to change in the way he engages with airlines like WestJet. 'I feel that I've already given the least amount of information that I actively could have,' he said. Even if a flier deleted their accounts with an airline the moment a plane touched down, he says it is unlikely to be deleted right away. Systems often are designed to develop backups of data, and one that is built to completely clear all information stored would be a major investment of design and engineering. Brent Calver/Postmedia file WestJet offers credit and identity theft monitoring In an email to WestJet customers, the airline offered a service they said was to 'provide further peace of mind.' The company is offering customers the option of free credit and identity theft monitoring for two years, through a partnership with TransUnion Canada. The service includes dark web monitoring, access to agents specialized in identity theft to answer questions, and up to $1-million of expense reimbursement insurance should one be a victim of fraud. Advertisement 5 Story continues below This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. Article content Reardon says that protection might delay a potential attack more than it fully deters one. 'Two years from now, everyone is gonna forget about this ever even happening,' he said. If the attacker recognizes that anyone vulnerable to the breach will likely have guards up and credit monitoring in place, there's little reason they could not wait out the two-year service and attempt to use the information after the protection has expired. Reardon also had some difficulty with the way the credit monitoring was offered to consumers. Reardon said that regardless of whether or not the offer is legitimate, in many ways, it appeared incredibly suspicious to someone who has researched cybersecurity. 'There's clear signals that this is phishing,' he said. Advertisement 6 Story continues below This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. Article content The email address was not sent by WestJet themselves, but from a domain name under Cyberscout. The credit monitoring service linked and being offered through the email is provided by myTrueIdentity, an organization that on first glance, Reardon had never heard of. He could not find the phone number listed on that site through any WestJet official platform. He said he would need to go through explicit effort to verify these organizations were safe before offering up potentially sensitive information. 'They're probably gonna ask me my social insurance number.' Later, in the same email offering the credit monitoring, WestJet themselves recommend customers 'continue to be alert to the risk of phishing and fraudulent emails asking you to enter login credentials, provide financial information or give up any other personal data.' Advertisement 7 Story continues below This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. Article content Sontiq, the parent company of Cyberscout, explicitly states in their privacy policy that they may sell customer information. The privacy policy of myTrueIdentity states that they will only sell that information with the consent of the customer, which they will seek at the time that information is collected. 'The form of consent that we seek, including whether it is express or implied, will largely depend on the sensitivity of the personal information,' the privacy policy says. Ultimately, Reardon says that while customers should practise safe cybersecurity habits, consumers are not to blame for vulnerabilities at this scale. Even as a professional in the field, he himself can suffer by virtue of these breaches. 'I remember, I got an email from Revelstoke, saying hey we had a data breach, all your credit card information, blah blah blah. I was like, 'I went there once. Why do you have our credit card information?' ' WestJet did not immediately respond to request for comment at time of publication. Article content Share this article in your social network Latest National Stories
Vancouver Sun
11 hours ago
- Vancouver Sun
The Bookless Club: What happened in Vegas for you?
Vegas is in the news of late. Not because of yet another Cirque de Soleil show or a star-studded line-up at the Sphere. Nope. Vegas is in the news because, despite perennially topping the list of holiday destinations in North America, traffic is down. Way down. We did that. Canadians. We're angry, and our anger is being felt. Measurably so. In fact, there's even a name for the effect of alienated tourists on tourism. They're calling it the Trump Slump, and it's putting the squeeze on Nevada's economy. Las Vegas hotel occupancy was down 15 per cent in June this year compared to June of 2024. International visitors dropped by 13 per cent in the same period. Air Canada saw a drop of 33 per cent in passengers flying to Vegas this June compared to last June. WestJet saw about the same stats, and Edmonton-based Flair Airline experienced a 62 per cent plummet in the number of people traveling to Vegas in June this year versus a year ago. A daily roundup of Opinion pieces from the Sun and beyond. By signing up you consent to receive the above newsletter from Postmedia Network Inc. A welcome email is on its way. If you don't see it, please check your junk folder. The next issue of Informed Opinion will soon be in your inbox. Please try again Interested in more newsletters? Browse here. All this means that unemployment is spiralling upwards in the state. Las Vegas has the third-highest unemployment rate of major cities in the U.S., and Nevada has the highest state unemployment rate, nationally. Now, it's not just Canadians impacting the Nevada economy. California is Vegas' bread and butter. One out of every five people who visit Vegas come from Southern California. One quarter of all employees in Vegas are immigrants. Some industry insiders say that Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids are casting a long shadow on tourism, a shadow felt by both visitors and workers alike. We haven't even touched upon currency issues, but it wasn't so long ago that Vegas offered such good value that currency conversion was offset by cheap buffets and free drinks. All that's gone now. Vegas is anything but a bargain. In its heyday, Vegas was a swift, affordable little getaway. A couple of hours on a direct flight took you to reliable weather and great shows. What's not to like? I can say that as my losses at the tables probably never totalled more than $14.67, but it was sure fun watching the high rollers sweating behind a stack of chips. The trouble is, there are fewer and fewer high rollers. Realizing this, the Las Vegas Convention and Visitor Authority decided back in 2003 that they needed to rebrand Vegas as more than just a place to lose money. The idea became to capitalize on the sort of hijinks that adults can get into when they're a long way from home. That idea became the now infamous slogan, 'What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas'. The ad agency that came up with this line said the concept was all about 'adult freedom and empowerment.' They were using the word 'adult' here in its loosest, third margarita, sense. The big question in Nevada is, when the Trump Slump ends, will things go back to business as usual? If not, what sort of bait are they going to need to lure us back? Jane Macdougall is a freelance writer and former National Post columnist who lives in Vancouver. She writes The Bookless Club every Saturday online and in The Vancouver Sun. For more of what Jane's up to, check out her website, Question: What happened in Vegas for you? Any stories you can share? Send your answers by email text, not an attachment, in 100 words or less, along with your full name to Jane at thebooklessclub@ . We will print some next week in this space. Question: Do you compost? Any tips? • We have weekly pickup of our yard waste/compost bins. I insist on layering in my bin, starting with yard trimmings, then compost, then yard trimmings, etc. I reserve a bucket or so of spare yard trimmings for using in winter when there is less of it available. Layering helps control the mess and odours, especially when the weather is hot. This also helps deter the local raccoons from dumping and looting the bin. Pam Holley • I live on the Sunshine Coast where we have a local company called Salish Soils that runs the curb-side green bin program. They turn our kitchen scraps and green waste into wonderful garden compost products. I was shocked to hear from them that they have to 'divert' a lot of the green bin contents (which means place in the dump) due to those pesky little plastic stickers that retailers insist on attaching to fruit and vegetable skins. The labels do not biodegrade, and contaminate the process. So, wherever you live, please be sure to remove those annoying plastic labels from all products before placing them in your compost bin. Mother Nature thanks you. Michele Libling • Maybe a bit off the topic, but important to me. Composting is important, but can be messy at times. And what to do with the grease, oil, bones, and fruit stickers? My solution would be selective composting, all the rest, including garbage and non-recyclables, would be incinerated. It may produce some toxic waste, but so do all other forms of disposal. Added benefit would be energy to heat our homes. Henk Hengeveld • In 1973, we purchased our property in Surrey. That is when I began having a five-gallon bucket in our lunchroom at work. On Saturdays, we would travel out to our property and deposit the compost in our organic pile. After our house was built and our company expanded, I had two five-gallon buckets each week. Now, 52 years later, I still have two or three piles on the go. I mix finished compost, garden soil, leaf mould and wood ashes to create my potting soil. Do not add meat, bones or cooked food to your compost. We utilize a milk jug, sitting near the sink, with the top cut off, to collect all our organics. Feed the soil and the soil will feed you. Robert Dares • I sometimes make my own bone meal for the garden. I've been known to save up chicken bones and then dessicate them when running the oven for dinner. The dried bones then get smashed with a hammer — wear goggles — and added to the soil. Works a charm and doesn't cost a cent. D. Ng • I have a bowl on the counter for scraps when preparing a meal. Then it all goes into a recycled lunch paper bag in the freezer. When that is full, off to the bin from the city that we apartment dwellers have. I miss my old house with a big composter. But as someone who started composting in the 1960s (my dad grew up in small northern Ontario sawmill villages where nobody wasted food), I can't imagine not composting. Deni Loubert
Canada News.Net
20 hours ago
- Canada News.Net
Indian PM's Independence Day speech highlights self-reliance
NEW DELHI, India: On August 15, Prime Minister Narendra Modi used his Independence Day address to call for greater national self-reliance, urging India to manufacture everything from fertilisers to jet engines and electric vehicle batteries. He pledged to stand firmly behind farmers as the country faces a deepening trade dispute with Washington. The speech came against the backdrop of new U.S. tariffs that threaten to slow growth in what has been the world's fastest-growing major economy. U.S. President Donald Trump's latest measures—announced last week—slap an additional 25 percent duty on Indian exports, pushing some rates as high as 50 percent, among the steepest faced by any U.S. trading partner. Washington cited India's continued imports of Russian oil as the reason for the escalation, further straining relations between the two countries. Although Modi avoided mentioning the United States or tariffs directly, he framed his nearly two-hour address from the Red Fort in New Delhi around a promise to defend rural livelihoods. "Farmers, fishermen, cattle rearers are our top priorities," he declared. "Modi will stand like a wall against any policy that threatens their interests. India will never compromise when it comes to protecting the interests of our farmers." India and the United States recently saw their trade talks collapse after five rounds of negotiations, primarily over U.S. demands to open India's farm and dairy markets and to halt Russian oil purchases. In retaliation for the tariffs, some of Modi's supporters have called for boycotts of major American brands, including McDonald's, Coca-Cola, Amazon, and Apple. To counter the potential economic hit, Modi announced that lower goods and services tax (GST) rates will take effect from October, a move intended to boost domestic consumption. He also pressed for renewed commitment to "Swadeshi"—the promotion of Indian-made products—encouraging traders and shopkeepers to display signs marking local goods. Self-reliance has been a long-standing theme of Modi's economic policy, but the push has taken on new urgency amid global trade tensions and supply chain disruptions. He said India's first domestically produced semiconductor chips will reach the market by the end of this year, and that exploration for critical minerals is underway at more than 1,200 sites across the country. The stakes are high: in 2024, India exported nearly US$87 billion worth of goods to the U.S., with textiles, footwear, gems, and jewelry among the sectors most exposed to higher duties. While the trade rift is intensifying, New Delhi has sought to keep diplomatic channels open. On August 14, the foreign ministry expressed hope that ties with Washington would "move forward based on mutual respect and shared interests," aiming to calm fears of a deeper breakdown in relations.
