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Toronto Sun
30-05-2025
- Business
- Toronto Sun
LILLEY: With out-of-control spending, it's time for Canadian DOGE
Prime Minister Mark Carney arrives to Parliament Hill in Ottawa on Wednesday, May 28, 2025. Photo by Sean Kilpatrick / THE CANADIAN PRESS On Friday, Elon Musk held a news conference with Donald Trump in the Oval Office to mark his last day heading up DOGE. I wonder if we could convince Musk to come north to establish the Canadian Department of Government Efficiency. It's clear we need it. 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. Unlimited online access to articles from across Canada with one account. Get exclusive access to the Toronto Sun ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition that you can share, download and comment on. Enjoy insights and behind-the-scenes analysis from our award-winning journalists. Support local journalists and the next generation of journalists. Daily puzzles including the New York Times Crossword. SUBSCRIBE TO UNLOCK MORE ARTICLES Subscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada. Unlimited online access to articles from across Canada with one account. Get exclusive access to the Toronto Sun ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition that you can share, download and comment on. Enjoy insights and behind-the-scenes analysis from our award-winning journalists. Support local journalists and the next generation of journalists. Daily puzzles including the New York Times Crossword. 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 Don't have an account? Create Account A report from the Canadian Taxpayers Federation shows that last year, the federal government had 98,986 more employees than they did when the Trudeau Liberals took over in 2016. It represents a 38% increase in the number of bureaucrats employed by the feds at a time when the population increased by less than 15% over the same eight years. The departments and agencies with the biggest growth were Infrastructure Canada up by 375%, Women and Gender Equality Canada 334%, RCMP External Review Committee 229%, Elections Canada 173%, and Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada 158%. I really doubt that the level of service at a place like the Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada has increased by 158%, though there is no doubt that their workload is up given massive numbers of people coming into the country and declaring asylum including tens of thousands of foreign students. Your noon-hour look at what's happening in Toronto and beyond. By signing up you consent to receive the above newsletter from Postmedia Network Inc. Please try again This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. Franco Terrazzano, federal director of the CTF, said that it's not just the growth in the number of people but the cost. He cited a report from the Parliamentary Budget Officer showing that once pay, benefits and perks are tallied up, the average federal bureaucrat cost taxpayers $125,300 per year. Despite the massive increase since 2016, the number of people on the federal payroll fell by 9,807 people last year. Terrazzano said on Friday that while that while this 2.7% decrease is welcome, it doesn't go far enough given the massive increase under Trudeau. He points out that the Carney Liberals promised to keep the size of the bureaucracy as it is. 'Prime Minister Mark Carney's promise to cap the bureaucracy doesn't go nearly far enough and just entrenches the Trudeau government's costly bureaucrat hiring spree,' Terrazzano said. 'Taxpayers need politicians to cut the bloated bureaucracy and make pay and perks more affordable.' This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. It's not just the size of the bureaucracy, it's the out-of-control spending that began under the Trudeau Liberals and continues under the Carney Liberals. On Thursday, in the House of Commons, Carney promised to 'spend less on government operations.' 'Day-to-day government spending, the government's operating budget, has been growing by an unsustainable 9% every year. We will bring that rate down to 2%, less than half the average nominal rate of growth in the economy,' he said. The trouble is, as the Conservatives were quick to point out, the Main Estimates, the official government spending plan and what needs to be passed to authorize spending, show spending going up, not down. 'The first spending bill that he dropped in the House of Commons spends 8% more than Trudeau did in his last year in office. That is almost three times bigger than population and inflation combined,' said Conservative Deputy Leader Melissa Lantsman. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. Read More Carney is likely soon to find out that wrestling spending down, like wrestling down the size of the bureaucracy, is a tougher task than it looks. The Trudeau government increased the size of the bureaucracy by 38% and they increased spending between 2016 and 2024 by 75%. Inflation over that time was 25%, population growth was 15%, which shows that on both fronts the Trudeau Liberals had no control of the public purse which is why establishing a DOGE like organization in Ottawa. Canada's media establishment would likely laugh at the idea of a Canadian DOGE, but anyone who has been around government knows that it is always worthwhile examining spending. Just because a program was established 20 years ago doesn't mean it is needed now, or that because spending has always happened that it needs to continue. After nearly a decade of Trudeau's out-of-control spending, Carney should consider Musk's chainsaw like approach. RECOMMENDED VIDEO World Toronto & GTA Crime World Toronto Raptors
Hamilton Spectator
26-05-2025
- Hamilton Spectator
‘Guilt by association': Attempts to send Hells Angels gambling probe player back to Italy, halted
A man sentenced as part of a Hells Angels' gambling den investigation, which uncovered alleged ties to the Figliomeni crime family, has been granted a judicial review as the government attempts to send him back to Italy. The decision comes more than a year after the Minister of Public Safety decided Giorgio Campagna, 62, a permanent resident in Canada, should be referred for an admissibility hearing with the Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada. '(It was) found that the severity of the applicant's actions and their impact on public safety outweighed the concerns the applicant had raised about the adverse consequences of his removal from Canada,' read court documents, referring to the 2023 decision. Now though, federal court Justice John Norris ruled a judge needs to look into the matter after discovering some potential flaws. 'This application for judicial review will be allowed, (the former) decision will be set aside and the matter will be remitted for redetermination by a different decision-maker,' he wrote in his findings. Campagna pleaded guilty to keeping a common gaming house in March 2021 after he was arrested in December 2019. The arrest came as part of an OPP probe, dubbed Project Hobart, into the Hells Angels alleged online sports gambling ring and gambling den at 680 Silver Creek Blvd., in Mississauga. The investigation has been in the news lately after Craig 'Truck' McIIquham, a Hells Angel charged in the operation, was gunned down in a targeted shooting outside a Burlington Mandarin at the end of April. As part of Campagna's plea, three counts of bookmaking and the commission of a crime of an offence for a criminal organization charge were withdrawn. For his crimes he received a conditional discharge, which essentially equates to probation. Project Hobart resulted in 28 arrests and alleged the group made $131 million over five years in the illegal gambling space. The probe used intercepted private communications and surveillance to allege the Mississauga unit was owned and operated by Raffaele Simonelli, Serafino Barone, Ralph Elammar and Dimitris Kellsis. All charges against the four, including firearm, betting house and bookmaking allegations, were stayed. When police searched the café in December 2019, seven video gaming machines were seized. For months Campagna went to collect cash from the machines and discussed their maintenance, the investigation showed. One conversation indicated that one week the proceeds amounted to $7,440, of which he retained about 20 per cent, court documents allege. When search warrants were executed at Campagna's home and car, investigators found $79,020 of which Campagna agreed, of this amount all but $3,235 was obtained by crime. Court documents pointed to a 2023 report prepared by the CBSA suggesting there were reasonable grounds to believe that Campagna is inadmissible under the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act, which refers to 'organized criminality' and 'engaging in an illegal gaming enterprise.' The inland enforcement officer alleged Campagna was a member of an illegal gaming enterprise with ties to both the Hells Angels Motorcycle Club and the Figliomeni crime group. 'The officer found that the applicant was a 'midtier' and trusted member of the criminal organization …(and) had direct contact with senior members of the illegal gaming operation,' court documents read. 'The officer also found that (Campagna) had … jeopardized the safety and security of Canadian society.' However Norris ruled the CBSA went 'well beyond' anything mentioned in Campagna's guilty plea or agreed statement of facts. 'I agree with the applicant that the delegate's decision is unreasonable in two key respects: the assessment of the applicant's criminality and the assessment of the applicant's personal circumstances,' it reads. 'The reasoning process appears to be nothing but guilt by association.' The court heard how a delegate of the Minister of Public Safety used the weapons seized from a separate mafia probe into the Figliomeni crime group, called Project Sindicato, to conclude Campagna's actions warranted a referral for an admissibility hearing, despite him never being charged as a part of Sindicato, Norris also found Campagna's ability to communicate in Italy and receive treatment were not properly considered. For his part, Campagna said he's been in Canada since age five, but has never sought full citizenship. The court also heard his claims that he's remorseful and called his involvement in the crimes a 'relatively minor offence.' His family, including his mother, who is suffering from dementia, his common-law partner, siblings, children and grandchildren all live in Canada. The court also heard from Campagna that he has a litany of illnesses, no friends in Italy and does not speak the language.
