Another Covid ventilator scandal in Canada

An Access to Information request has turned up another Canadian government contract, of almost a quarter of a Billion dollars, for Covid-19 ventilators which ended up being scrapped – in this case because they failed safety tests.  

Taxpayers charged premium for Québec-made COVID ventilators now junked as scrap metal | Western Standard | Western Standard News Service:

August 11, 2024 - "Taxpayers were billed top dollar for Québec-made COVID-19 ventilators that were later discarded as scrap metal, according to Access to Information records. Blacklock's Reporter says a contract worth $231.7 million to purchase ventilators at $28,250 each was signed after then-Industry Minister Navdeep Bains had a private discussion with the company’s CEO....

"CAE Incorporated of Montréal, formerly Canadian Aviation Electronics, received $231,650,000 for 8,200 ventilators, equating to $28,250 per unit. This was the highest price the Public Health Agency paid for any Canadian ventilator during the pandemic. 'When it comes to CAE, it’s a great Canadian success story,' Bains testified during 2020 hearings of the Commons industry committee....

"Despite never having manufactured ventilators, CAE received its contract on April 9, just days before Bains’ testimony. The devices later failed Department of Health safety tests....

"CAE rehired approximately 1,500 employees who had been laid off at the start of the pandemic and received a cash advance to manufacture the ventilators. The terms of the advance payment were not disclosed, though other firms received advances between $20 million and $40 million.

"Records indicate the Department of Health paid CAE a premium of 25 to 49% more than it paid other suppliers. The $28,250 per CAE device compared to $23,730 per ventilator from Baylis Medical of Montréal, $22,600 per ventilator from StarFish Medical of Toronto, and $18,993 per ventilator from Thornhill Medical of North York, Ont. 'We went from a letter of intent to a purchase order, and now they will be delivering the ventilators in a matter of weeks,' Bains said at the time. 'This is really promising news for us because we are in a position to help not only Canadians but possibly other jurisdictions and other countries as well.'

"None of the CAE devices were known to be used in any medical setting. Documents reveal that of the 8,200 CAE ventilators delivered at taxpayers’ expense, 8,180 — or 99% — were “slated for sale as scrap metal.” Records did not disclose what the Public Health Agency did with the remaining 20 devices.

"Government caucus members defended the CAE contract at the time....  'Canadians needed to feel that ventilators would be accessible if ever the second wave were to come and they finally would need a hospital and extra help because of the virus,' said Liberal MP Emmanuella Lambropoulos (Saint-Laurent, Que.) during a 2020 hearing of the Commons ethics committee. CAE’s plant is located in Lambropoulos’ riding....

"Records show the Covid ventilators were immediately warehoused and then auctioned off as scrap metal as early as 2021.Lambropoulos did not respond to questions from Blacklock’s Reporter. Bains resigned from the cabinet on January 12, 2021, and left Parliament eight months later. He is currently an executive with Rogers Communications in Toronto."

Read more: https://www.westernstandard.news/news/taxpayers-charged-premium-for-qu%C3%A9bec-made-covid-ventilators-now-junked-as-scrap-metal/56665

Not just in Canada: NYC sells $12M of emergency ventilators as scrap metal | FOX 5 New York | February 21, 2023: 

Business bankruptcies in Canada highest in 37 yrs

Business bankruptcies in Canada, which were up last year by the largest increase in 36 years, soared to a new record in the first quarter of 2024.  

Bankruptcies are soaring, but especially in Canada | Financial Post | Pamela Heaven:

February 5, 2024 - "Business insolvencies in Canada jumped the most in 36 years of records in 2023, as debt costs rose and the economy weakened. The number of businesses that filed for insolvency was the highest in 13 years, according to figures out last week from the federal Office of the Superintendent of Bankruptcy.... The rise was mainly due to bankruptcies, rather than a renegotiation of terms, said Charles St-Arnaud, chief economist for Alberta Central.  Bankruptcies were up 75.6 per cent year over year, mostly in  accommodation and food services, retail and construction.

“'Businesses have been struggling to cope with a myriad of financial challenges over the past year, including higher input costs, wage costs, and debt servicing costs, exacerbating the rocky footing many have been on ever since the pandemic,' said André Bolduc, chair of the Canadian Association of Insolvency and Restructuring Professionals (CAIRP).... Business owners who were unable to pay back government pandemic loans known as CEBA by the Jan. 19 deadline now have to pay five per cent interest and make monthly payments on what was previously an interest-free loan with no monthly payments, CAIRP says."

Read more: https://financialpost.com/news/bankruptcies-soaring-especially-canada

Bankruptcies and insolvencies shot up in 2023 | CBC News: The National | February 2, 2024: 

Business insolvencies in Canada surge at fastest level in 37 years, consumer debt soars | True North | Isaac Lamoureux:

May 6, 2024 - "Data released by the Office of the Superintendent of Bankruptcy on Friday shows that business insolvencies in Canada increased 87.2% between the first quarter of 2023 and 2024. The number of insolvencies between the two years increased from 1,070 to 2,003. Between the fourth quarter of 2023 and the first quarter of 2024, insolvencies increased from 1,521 to 2,003, a 31.7% increase.

"Consumers weren’t immune ... with consumer insolvencies increasing for the eighth consecutive quarter when measuring year-over-year increases, reaching the highest level since the fourth quarter of 2019. Insolvencies among consumers in Canada increased by 14% between the first quarter of 2023 and 2024. Consumer insolvencies increased from 29,725 to 33,885 between the two years. Between the fourth quarter of 2023 and the first quarter of 2024, insolvencies increased from 31,813 to 33,885, a 6.5% increase. On average, 372 Canadians filed for consumer insolvency daily in the first quarter of 2024.

“'A perfect storm of economic challenges is brewing, with high mortgage renewal rates, soaring rental prices, and elevated costs of everyday necessities. The high cost of servicing debts is also compounding the financial strain for many Canadians and leaving them grappling with insurmountable debt burdens,' said André Bolduc, Chair of the Canadian Association of Insolvency and Restructuring Professionals.... 

"Business insolvencies surging 87.2% was the largest annual increase in 37 years of records from the Office of the Superintendent of Bankruptcy, according to the CAIRP. 'We are seeing signs of a significant rise in distress among Canadian businesses. Many are still shouldering the burden of the pandemic, on top of high input and labour costs, declining consumer spending, and higher debt-carrying costs,' said Bolduc. 

"The actual number of business closures is even higher, considering many business owners decide to cease operations without pursuing formal insolvency proceedings. Based on members surveyed by the Canadian Federation of Independent Business, only 10% of their members who considered closing their business would officially file for bankruptcy....

"The government’s decision not to extend the CEBA deadline was 'the straw that broke the camel’s back,' said Simon Gaudreault, chief economist and vice president of research at the CFIB. Gaudreault said that other factors contributing to businesses filing for bankruptcy included lost revenue from public health closures, supply chain challenges, inflation, increased costs, rising interest rates, and labour shortages.

"Statistics Canada’s most recent data shows that 43,121 businesses closed in January 2024."

Read more: https://tnc.news/2024/05/06/business-insolvencies-canada-surge-consumer-debt/

Canadian gov't selling unused ventilators as scrap

During the Covid pandemic, the Canadian government spent $700 million to buy more than 27,000 ventilators, though just 500 were ever used in Canadian hospitals. Now they are selling off the rest as scrap metal. 

Canada’s brand new $169.5M ‘emergency’ ventilators sold as scrap for $6 a carton | Western Standard | Jen Hodgson:

April 13, 2024 - "The Trudeau Liberal government spent $169.5 million on a sole-sourced contract for emergency ventilators during the COVID-19 pandemic, which are now being sold off as cheap scrap parts. Ventilator parts were sold for as little as $6 a carton out of a Concord, ON by GC Surplus — a government-owned ... Department of Public Works division [which] sells used government-issue goods from autos to filing cabinets, according to Blacklock’s Reporter. The 'Canadian Emergency Ventilators' were listed for auction as 'scrap metal.' 

"Luke Halstead, a paramedic from Petawawa, ON, bought 50 of the disassembled units at a bargain of $6 a piece. They were still in their original factory wrapping. 'I bought 50. About half of them were in their original shipping crates with the Canadian Emergency Ventilators stencil on the box. They were brand new. They even had the original factory plastic wrapping'.... 

"The Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC)  contracted the 'Canadian Emergency Ventilators' from a Toronto-based company called StarFish Medical.... 

"Public Works would not say how much it paid for the devices, though the House of Commons Ethics Committee in 2020 was told the $169.5 million contract was payment for 7,500 devices, the equivalent of $22,600 apiece....

"Halstead ... was told by warehouse workers they 'continued to receive these ventilators well into 2022.... The warehouse workers told me they were originally shipped as parts and that the Public Health Agency was supposed to assemble the units. It was obvious the crates had never been opened. These parts were heavy grade sheet metal still in the factory plastic wrap. They still had the original shipping labels'....

"In 2020, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau had initially praised the manufacturer as a Canadian success story. 'Canadian companies are answering the call,' Trudeau said, at the time. 'This is exactly the kind of innovative and collaborative thinking we need.'
Read more: https://www.westernstandard.news/news/canadas-brand-new-1695m-emergency-ventilators-sold-as-scrap-for-6-a-carton/53658

Canadian ventilators sold for scrap metal: Report | Toronto Sun | Postmedia News:

April 22, 2024 - "Records show that the Public Health Agency auctioned off new ventilators, valued at just over $22,000 each, for $6 scrap, violating its own rules, according to Blacklock’s Reporter.... PHA directives forbids licensed medical devices to be sold as scrap metal.

“'They were sold for parts as the possible divestment option for unlicensed medical devices,' the agency said in a statement to Blacklock’s. 'The medical devices were no longer authorized.' But documents show the ventilators were sold as such as late as Feb. 8, 2023 while still licensed by the Department of Health. The ... licenses were revoked weeks later on March 22 after dozens of units were scrapped.

"StarFish Medical of Toronto was awarded a $169.5 million sole-sourced contract in 2020 to deliver up to 7,500 devices at $22,600 apiece. The devices were among $700 million worth of rush orders for ventilators placed by the Department of Public Works as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. The company has declined comment...

"A total of 40,547 ventilators were ordered from various manufacturers but only 27,025 were delivered and only 500 ever used.... While most ventilators remained in federal warehouses, 839 were donated to hospitals in India, Pakistan and Nepal or sent to Ukraine as war surplus, according to a March 25 Inquiry Of Ministry, tabled in the Commons."
Read more: https://torontosun.com/news/national/canadian-ventilators-sold-for-scrap-metal-report

Full extent of US Covid fraud may never be known

The full extenf ot U.S. Covid fraud "will never be known with certainty," says the Government Accountability Office.

Full Extent of COVID Fraud Will 'Never Be Known With Certainty' | Reason | Eric Boehm: 

November 16, 2023 - "Only now, nearly four years after the federal government approved an unprecedented amount of emergency spending in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, are investigators getting a full picture of all the ways that schemers and thieves raided programs. Congress approved about $4.6 trillion in COVID-19 emergency spending, and so much of it was stolen that auditors now say we'll likely never have a full accounting of it all.

"'When the federal government provides emergency assistance, the risk of payment errors — including those attributable to fraud — may increase because the need to provide this assistance quickly can lead agencies to relax or forego effective safeguards,' the Government Accountability Office (GAO) explained in a new report summing up efforts to recoup stolen funds. 'Because not all fraud will be identified, investigated, and adjudicated through judicial or other systems, the full extent of fraud associated with the COVID-19 relief funds will never be known with certainty'....

"[A]uditors believe that about $200 billion was fraudulently disbursed from two programs run by the Small Business Administration (SBA) during the pandemic. That's about one-sixth of all spending run through the SBA's Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) and the Economic Injury Disaster Loan (EIDL) program. Additionally, the GAO believes that between $100 billion and $135 billion in federal unemployment funds — provided to states on a temporary basis during the pandemic — were lost to fraud. One former U.S. attorney has called it 'the biggest fraud in a generation.'

"It's far too late to put all those horses back in the barn, but state and federal officials are trying to do what they can. The latest GAO report details those ongoing efforts, including the nearly 1,400 individuals who have been found guilty of fraud connected to COVID-19 relief efforts. As of June, the GAO reported, there had been 1,051 sentences handed down in those cases, often requiring restitution of fraudulent payments. Hundreds of people have been given jail time, including 33 who have received sentences of 10 years or more. There are more than 500 other cases still pending in the court system, according to the GAO....

"But recovering all the lost funds is impossible. In some cases, officials aren't even trying: The SBA decided earlier this year not to pursue collections actions against individuals who haven't repaid EIDL loans of $100,000 or less. The SBA says trying to collect those loans would be more costly than whatever might be recouped—and since many of the loans were probably given out fraudulently, tracking down who got what will be extra difficult.

"The GAO does not have a running total of how much has been recovered in the form of restitution payments as a result of successful prosecutions, a spokeswoman for the office tells Reason. That's due in part to the fact that the amount of restitution ordered by the courts and what is actually repaid to the government are often different amounts. What has been reported, however, leaves a wide gap. For example, the GAO reported in May that states had identified about $55.8 billion in fraudulent and nonfraudulent unemployment overpayments that occurred between March 2020 and March 2023. Of that, about $6.8 billion had been recovered.

"[N]one of these calculations of COVID-19 aid lost to fraud include other types of pandemic-era spending that was clearly wasteful and unnecessary, even if it didn't meet the legal standard for fraud. Much of the aid delivered to cities and states was blown on frivolities like golf courses or was used to pad public employees' paychecks. Iowa spent $12.5 million of its $4.5 billion cut of the federal bailout on a new baseball stadium ... while Michigan spent $25.6 million on a travel marketing campaign. The federal and state officials who approved that spending won't be seeing the inside of a jail cell, even though the distinction between using COVID-19 aid to build a baseball stadium and using PPP funds to buy a luxury car is mostly an aesthetic one."

Read more: https://reason.com/2023/11/16/full-extent-of-covid-fraud-will-never-be-known-with-certainty/

How Fraudsters Stole Billions Of Dollars In Covid Relief Funds | NBC News | March 29, 2022: 

Less than 20% of Covid business loans repaid

The Trudeau government has extended the deadline to repay its small-business pandemic loans another year to the end of 2024, while the Canadian Federation of Independent Business says only 18% of its members who took loans have managed to repay them to date.

COVID-19 small business loans deadline pushed to 2024, only 18% repaid | Western Standard | Christopher Oldcorn 

16 September, 2023 - "For the second time, the Trudeau government has extended the deadline for repayment on $49.2 billion worth of interest-free pandemic loans for small businesses, announced on Thursday. The loans, which were initially expected to be repaid by December 31, 2022, now have an extended repayment deadline of December 31, 2024....

"According to Blacklock’s Reporter, the Canadian Federation of Independent Business [CFIB] estimated that only around 18% of its members who had taken loans had managed to repay them.

"Parliament in 2020 introduced the Canada Emergency Business Account program offering small businesses up to $40,000 interest-free loans with a quarter forgiven on repayment. Loan terms were later expanded by cabinet to $60,000 with a third forgiven on repayment due December 31, 2023.

"'The government has failed to address the most critical issue on outstanding loans, the loss of the $20,000 forgivable portion,' the Federation [CFIB] said in a statement.'The extension of the forgivable deadline by a few weeks will be of very little value to the thousands of small business owners who just don’t have money to repay now.' The Federation estimated 69% of its members who applied for loans were unable to repay what they borrowed.

"Businesses that applied for loans were typically small and indebted, according to a Department of Industry report. 'In general, loan recipients tended to be young businesses,' said the report SME Profile: Recipients of the Canada Emergency Business Account.

"Eighteen percent of the applicants reported they had resorted to borrowing from lines of credit, taking out second mortgages and increasing their credit card balances to keep their businesses going. The results were from a survey of 19,283 small business owners across the country.

"Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland previously stated the government was aware that borrowers faced risks and did not know the default rate on the loan program. 'Small business owners are resilient and our government will continue to be there to help them,' said Freeland."

Read more: https://www.westernstandard.news/business/covid-19-small-business-loans-deadline-pushed-to-2024-only-18-repaid/article_7f10c2a2-540d-11ee-a40d-ef861df72804.html

Small businesses are struggling with Canada Emergency Business Account (CEBA) repayment | Rachel Notley | August 4, 2023:

Quebec gov't spending >$1 Billion to set up permanent Covid-vax centres

The Quebec government is committing more than $1 Billion over five years to set up permanent Covid-19 vaccination centres, and hopes to have 100 of those ready by October.

Vexa805, Covid-19 vaccination centre, Drummondville, Quebec. CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons. 

Quebec to Make COVID-Era Vaccination Centres Permanent, Expand Testing Amid Rising COVID Cases | Epoch Times - Matthew Horwood:

September 9, 2023 - "As cases of COVID-19 continue to rise in Quebec, the province will spent $1.36 billion over five years to upgrade temporary vaccination centres set up during the pandemic and make them permanent, with some 100 centres with upgraded testing capabilities to be ready by October.

"Quebec Health Minister Christian Dubé announced Sept. 8 that the centres will be offering more services, including blood, urine, stool, and infection tests. They will be in addition to the 160 existing sample collection centres. The investment, amounting to $272 million per year, is being made with the hopes of relieving hospital overcrowding with the arrival of the new COVID-19 variant called EG.5 variant, also known as Eris. 

"The province's goal is to have around 100 facilities ready by October to coincide with the arrival of the variant. The number of workers at the sites will also be scaled up. While Mr. Dubé said the province has 10,000 people ... currently working at vaccination centres, he hopes to mobilize up to 20,000 employees. The sites will still offer vaccinations against COVID-19, influenza, and shingles.

"Weeks ago, Mr. Dubé had said the province would be deploying a new vaccination campaign against the variant in the fall.... 'We’re just trying to finalize with those experts, who should be vaccinated and when and what are the exceptions.' At [the] Sept. 8 press conference that coincided with the announcement around vaccination centres, Mr. Dubé warned that the number of people infected with COVID-19 and staying at Quebec hospitals has tripled in the past month, rising from around 300 three weeks earlier to 881 as of Sept. 6. People admitted to hospitals for other reasons but later tested positive for COVID-19 can be included in those statistics.

"The health minister said he would not predict a resurgence of COVID-19 this fall but wanted to make sure the provincial health-care network is ready. Mr. Dubé also said he did not want to 'worry the population'.... The minister added that many people would already have some built-in immunity to the strain if they had previously contracted COVID-19 or been vaccinated against it.

"Health Canada is currently considering authorizing three new vaccines against the new variant: two mRNA vaccines, from Pfizer and Moderna, and a third one which is a non-mRNA vaccine from Novavax, CBC News reported."

Read more: https://www.theepochtimes.com/world/quebec-to-make-permanent-covid-era-vaccination-centres-expand-testing-amid-rising-covid-cases-5488481

Liberals spent $170 million on Covid-vax factory that never delivered any vaccines

During the Covid pandemic, Canada's Liberal government spent hundreds of millions of dollars to build Covid-vaccine factories that failed to produce or deliver any vaccines. 

Feds lost up to $200 million on failed COVID-19 vaccine factory | Western Standard - Christopher Oldcorn:

March 30, 2023 - "A $200 million venture to build a COVID-19 vaccine factory failed in Health Minister Jean-Yves Duclos Quebec City riding. The cabinet is refusing to disclose the total loss of taxpayers money.... 'The financial details and information pertaining to the relationship between Canada and the supplier are considered confidential,' the cabinet wrote in an Inquiry of Ministry tabled in the Commons. There was no explanation.

"Cabinet in 2020 awarded millions in subsidies to Medicago Incorporated, a subsidiary of Mitsubishi Chemical Group, to produce vaccines in Duclos riding. It also awarded the company an Advance Purchase Agreement to buy up to 76 million doses of pandemic vaccine. None were delivered. 

"Mitsubishi Chemical announced on February 3 that it was winding up its Québec operations with the loss of 600 jobs, according to Blacklock’s Reporter.

“'Total authorized support for this project was $200 million against which $101 million was disbursed in 2021 and $59 million was disbursed in 2022,' said the Inquiry. 'The agreement with Medicago has legally binding provisions to protect the taxpayer in the event of a default, sale, or other event.' Cabinet in February put its total spending on Medicago at $173 million. Medicago said it had already spent the money.

"'We are working to wind up operations,' Medicago CEO Toshifumi Toda testified at a March 23 Commons Public Accounts committee hearing. 'Some of our tangible assets, including facilities and equipment, or importantly intangible assets such as our intellectual property rights, may be sold.' 

"'We appreciate all the support from the Government of Canada,' said Toda.... 'We spent all those monies,' said Toda. He made no mention of any repayment.

"'Who owns the intellectual property?' asked Conservative MP Stephen Ellis (Cumberland-Colchester, NS). 'Medicago owns it,' replied Toda.... 'No doses and $173 million and Medicago owns the intellectual property and still owns the physical building and manufacturing capability here in Canada?' asked Ellis. 'Yes,' replied Toda....

"Cabinet in its Inquiry tabling did not explain how much it expected to lose on the Medicago agreement."

Read more: https://www.westernstandard.news/business/feds-lost-up-to-200-million-on-failed-covid-19-vaccine-factory/article_91d4311e-cef5-11ed-8d84-ef4d8ede9e08.html

The Liberals also spent up to $200 millinn on at least one other Covid-vaccine factory (in Montreal) that failed to produce any vaccines: 

"Canada still without vaccine plant despite federal promises," CBC News, August 19, 2022:

CERB abuses cost Canadian taxpayers $5 billion

Mistaken CERB payments cost taxpayers $5.3 billion | Western STandard - Matthew Horwood:

Nov. 20, 2022 - "Mistaken payments of $2,000 monthly pandemic benefit cheques cost the federal government at least $5.3 billion, records show. It's the largest sum disclosed to date under the Canada Emergency Response Benefit program....

"According to Blacklock's Reporter, cabinet in an Inquiry Of Ministry tabled in the House said it knew of at least 2.5 million people who successfully applied for benefits they did not deserve. The figure represented 28% of the 8.9 million who received payments.

"Parliament passed the Canada Emergency Response Benefit Act on March 25, 2020 just two weeks after the World Health Organization declared a global pandemic. The Act paid $2,000 a month to jobless tax filers.

"Parliament budgeted the program at $24 billion. Costs instead totaled $81.6 billion, including the $5.3 billion know to be paid to undeserving applicants. The Inquiry said ineligible recipients included 1,890,059 people already receiving federal benefits like Employment Insurance. Another 611,080 were disqualified by the Canada Revenue Agency for reasons such as failing to previously file t"axes.

"Canadians in Privy Council Office polling said cheating was commonplace under the program. 'Several expressed frustration at what they felt to be lack of oversight related to the distribution of financial supports through the pandemic, believing ineligible individuals had been able to receive financial assistance,' said a May 16 report.

"The Revenue Agency said it was flooded with tips by informants naming suspected cheaters. 'This past year the National Leads Centre processed over 60,000 leads with the increase being attributable to COVID-19 benefits,' said a March 23 report Management Of Leads. It was double the normal volume.

"Suspected fraud was reported by banks within weeks of the program’s launch, the Commons finance committee was told last Dec. 8. 'We started to receive suspicious transaction reports,” testified Barry MacKillop, deputy director of the Financial Transactions and Reports Analysis Centre."

Read more: https://www.westernstandard.news/news/mistaken-cerb-payments-cost-taxpayers-5-3-billion/article_4ba49666-6686-11ed-9b16-ab2a33b871d5.html

Cracking Down on CERB Fraud Will Take Some Time | CBC News, May 14, 2020:

Canada's Liberals double national debt in 5 years

Mind-blowing Liberal spending spree a massive rip-off of future generations | National Post - John Ivison:

December 4, 2020 - "This week’s fiscal update has already passed from the news cycle. The sums we are talking about are so mind-blowing — $621 billion in government spending this year — that shaken citizens have ignored the barking fiscal watchdogs and the caravan has moved on. Maybe we should call it the banality of spending – a minister buying a $16 orange juice induces thrombosis but a government that doubles net federal debt in five years would be re-elected with a majority were an election held tomorrow.

"The Liberals could be excused their mistakes in the early fog of the pandemic. As one veteran policy-maker noted, Ottawa realized it could be fast or accurate, but not both. Benefits were so absurdly generous that household income rose 11 per cent, even as GDP tumbled. Yet given the chance to re-align benefits closer to lost income, the Liberals doubled-down, increasing the money available under the wage subsidy and disbursing an extra $1,200 in Canada Child Benefit to 1.6 million families. 

"Mistakes are presented as virtues – a 'pre-loading' of stimulus into bank accounts across the land. That pent-up demand has not removed the need to inject a further $100 billion in stimulus in 'smart, time-limited investments' over the next three fiscal years.

"Stimulus spending, by its very nature, is temporary. Yet elsewhere in the fiscal update, the government committed itself to 'historic investments' in a national daycare system and the implementation of universal pharmacare.... Permanent social programs are not stimulus.

"The undefined temporary spending package envisaged in the fiscal update would see deficits average $115 billion for three fiscal years and the debt to GDP ratio average 57 per cent, BEFORE any additional spending on childcare, pharmacare or health. There is no mention of how any of this spending would be paid for – it would simply be added to a national federal debt that has risen from $615 billion when the Trudeau government took power to $1.2 trillion this year....

"[T]axpayers befuddled by millions, billions and trillions should understand that what is taking place is a massive rip-off of future generations, who will be handed the bill for today’s consumption. The cost of servicing that debt is as low as it has ever been and the government touts a management strategy that locks into low rates by issuing more long-term debt. But that doesn’t mean taxpayers aren’t obliged to pay it off; it just means they will never stop paying it off.

"As Paul Boothe, a former senior public servant at Finance Canada, put it, we need to have a discussion about taxes.... 'Giving away money is the easiest thing to do in government. Collecting it is less easy. And the hardest thing is to deliver services efficiently,' said Boothe. 'With permanent programs, you need to talk about how you are going to fund them. We need to know the costs as well as the benefits.'

"The only tax increases in the fiscal update were applied on corporations – in this case, GST and HST on digital products and goods held in fulfillment warehouses. Inevitably, they will be passed on to consumers but that’s not the government’s concern.... 

"It will probably be no comfort to be reminded that in times like these, there have always been times like these. They come along when governments forget that budget constraints are a fundamental principle of economics. And they tend not to end well."

Read more: https://nationalpost.com/opinion/john-ivison-mind-blowing-liberal-spending-spree-a-massive-rip-off-of-future-generations

UK gov't spent £500M on unneeded ventilators

Covid: UK spent £569m on 20,900 ventilators but most remain unused | The Guardian - Denis Campbell:

September 30, 2020 - "The [United Kingdom] government spent £569m [$973 million CDN] buying 20,900 ventilators to keep people alive during the Covid-19 pandemic but lack of demand means NHS hospitals have used just a few of them. All but 2,150 [10.3%] of the machines it bought are still being held in a Ministry of Defence warehouse in case they are needed in the coming second wave of the disease.

"That is the conclusion of a National Audit Office (NAO) investigation into the costs of ministers’ scramble to buy tens of thousands of mechanical ventilators in March and what it achieved. Whitehall’s spending watchdog found that the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) and Cabinet Office paid a lot more than usual for the devices but were right to do so given the threat to life....

"The DHSC tried to source most of the extra devices it was seeking from China. However, intense global demand meant it had to pay suppliers upfront, but without any assurance the ventilators would be high quality. In one case it spent £2.2m on 750 transport ventilators, which ended up not being used when doctors said they were unsuitable for patients in intensive care.

"Despite both departments vigorously pursuing more of the machines from mid-March, they had only acquired 1,800 extra by the time the peak of the pandemic struck in mid-April. And they missed the government target to increase the NHS’s stock of ventilators from only 7,400 at the start of the crisis to 18,000 by the end of April and 30,000 by the end of August. 

"However, no patient with Covid who needed to undergo mechanical ventilation had been left without one. On 14 April, the day Covid admissions peaked in English hospitals, the NHS in England had 6,818 beds available with ventilators. However, just 2,849 were occupied by Covid patients, another 1,031 were taken by those with other ailments and the other 2,938 were empty....

"The DHSC spent £292m in total, including £244m (excluding VAT) buying 11,100 ventilators and £45m on other oxygen therapy devices.... The Cabinet Office spent £277m. However, £113m [$193 CDN] of that went on 'design costs, components and factory capacity for ventilators it did not buy'....

"Meg Hillier, the MP who chairs the Commons public accounts committee, said:...  'We were lucky the worst-case scenario didn’t come to pass before the extra ventilators had arrived. However, the NHS is now much better prepared for whatever happens next. DHSC and the Cabinet Office ... have set a benchmark for procurement during the pandemic.'" 

Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/sep/30/uk-spent-569m-on-20900-ventilators-for-covid-care-but-most-remain-unused 

How not to revive the economy

Be Serious, You Don't Solve Lockdowns With More Central Planning | Real Clear Markets - John Tamny:

September 18, 2020 - "To read the lofty coronavirus relief proposals from Democrats and Republicans is to detect confusion about what powers economic growth.... Why the call for Congress to spend with abandon? This question ... answers itself, but for those still half awake, politicians on the city, state and national levels imposed lockdowns on economic activity beginning in March.... Even though economic growth has long been the greatest enemy of virus, disease and ill health more broadly, politicians decided that the answer to the coronavirus was to force an economic contraction that destroyed tens of millions of jobs, millions of businesses, and that otherwise created economic desperation.... 

"Even though wealth creation has long expanded the resources necessary for scientists and doctors to cure disease and elongate life, politicians decided in 2020 to freeze wealth creation given their belief that Americans are too stupid to avoid sickness and death on their own. Translated for those still half awake, your political leaders think you’re intensely dumb; so much so that you’re incapable of protecting yourself without politicians forcing you to do just that. But to make sure you would stay at home, they imposed job and business destroying lockdowns that kind of gave you no choice....

"[T]he insults to common sense didn’t stop with the economic contraction politicians forced on what was previously the world’s most dynamic economy. Having wrecked millions of lives and businesses, they proceeded to extract trillions more from the economy, only to blindly throw money at their countless errors. Yes, you read that right: the instigators of misery somehow got it into their heads that they were the ones who should deliver you from it....

"Governments can’t stimulate economic activity, nor can they offer relief, simply because they only have wealth to redistribute insofar as it was created first in the private sector. Governments can only move previously created wealth from one set of pockets to another. Politicized allocation of precious wealth is a consequence of economic growth, not an instigator of it. The 'relief' proposals promoted by left and right will in no way generate new economic activity.

"In truth, the trillions Congress is set to spend will logically delay recovery. Simple as that. It’s sad that something so basic requires explanation, but we’re living in a time of remarkable confusion within the policy establishment. Since we are, it’s useful to remind readers that central planning failed in miserable, murderous fashion in the 20th century. In the 20th politicians around the world tried their hand at command-and-control economic planning that placed those same politicians in control of the economy’s resources. It didn’t work ... because with government spending, there is no failure. There’s instead relentless spending on what doesn’t work.... 

"Economic growth is a consequence of intrepid allocation of limited resources to higher and higher uses. Economic growth is about investment in wealth that doesn’t yet exist. By contrast, governments can only fund the known, or what’s already known as a bust. If what’s a bust employs people, politicians will fund it forever. Medicare began as a $3 billion program. It’s rushing toward $1 trillion annually even though it still can’t meet its mandate over fifty years after its creation....

"Politicized allocation of resources is the path not just to stasis, but to decline. Central planning that failed in total in the 20th century doesn’t succeed when tried on a limited basis in the 21st. What didn’t work then still doesn’t work now. Politicians can’t play investor. Period.

"Readers should remember this as they see left-of-center thinkers ... join hands with right-of-center thinkers ... in their call for more government to fix today’s sagging economy. The simple truth is that government actions caused the contraction.... Stated simply, the economy is weak because politicians imposed command-and-control lockdowns, and having done that, they poured gasoline on a fire of their own making with trillions more in spending. Let’s not vandalize common sense with more of what’s already failed. The only economic relief is an end to the lockdowns."

Read more: https://www.realclearmarkets.com/articles/2020/09/18/be_serious_you_dont_solve_lockdowns_with_more_central_planning_577838.html

Ayn Rand Institute took Payroll Protection money

In sign of the times, Ayn Rand Institute approved for PPP loan | Reuters - Helen Coster:

July 6, 2020 - "The institute promoting the 'laissez-faire capitalism' of writer Ayn Rand, who in the novels Atlas Shrugged and The Fountainhead introduced her philosophy of 'objectivism' to millions of readers, was approved for a Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loan of up to $1 million, according to data released Monday by the Trump administration. The Ayn Rand Institute: The Center for the Advancement of Objectivism in Santa Ana, California, sought to preserve 35 jobs with the PPP funding, according to the data.

"The institute advocates the Russian-American writer’s philosophy and 'applies its principles to many issues and events, including ones Rand herself never discussed,' according to its website....

The institute referred Reuters to a May 15 article, in which board member Harry Binswanger and senior fellow Onkar Ghate wrote that the organization would take any relief money offered from the CARES Act. 'We will take it unapologetically, because the principle here is: justice,' they wrote, adding that 'the government has no wealth of its own…. It can only redistribute the wealth of others.'

"In Rand’s novels and works of nonfiction — which included The Virtue of Selfishness and Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal — she expressed her belief in 'rational self-interest' and the goal of pursuing happiness as a person’s highest moral aim. 

"In a 1962 essay, Rand wrote of seventeenth century French businessmen: 'They knew that government "help" to business is just as disastrous as government persecution, and that the only way a government can be of service to national prosperity is by keeping its hands off.'"

Read more: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-ppp-ayn-rand/in-sign-of-the-times-ayn-rand-institute-approved-for-ppp-loan-idUSKBN248026

Government incompetence unmasked

Governments Have Screwed Up Mask Purchase and Distribution. Maybe Everyone Should Be a Libertarian in a Pandemic | Reason - Brian Doherty:

May 8, 2020 - "As of mid-April, The Wall Street Journal reports, the federal government had for whatever reason dedicated millions in contracts, involving at least 80 percent of the 20 million N95 masks it was trying to procure, from 'suppliers that either had never done business with the federal government or had only taken on small prior contracts that didn't include medical supplies.' Predictably, some of those vendors 'missed delivery deadlines or have backed out because of supply problems'.... At least one would-be contractor has now been nabbed for fraud on such a mask deal.

"ProPublica tagged along with what the Journal called the 'largest N95 mask contract given out by the VA [Veterans Administration], for an initial $35.4 million ... with potential for ... a total of $64.9 million, according to federal contracting data'.... The fiasco ended with no masks delivered — ... Despite months of scrambling, the Veterans Administration was not prepared to keep its hospitals equipped with masks. As of now over 2,000 V.A. employees have tested positive....

"The feds aren't the only ones making bad mask decisions. California is currently trying to get a refund on a $456.9 million wire transfer it sent as a down payment on a $600 million contract for 110 million N95 masks .... to a firm called Blue Flame Medical, which, The Wall Street Journal informs us, was 'founded days earlier by former Republican fundraiser Mike Gula'.... Meanwhile, the Los Angeles Times reports that Gov. Gavin Newsom of California is refusing 'to reveal the contents of a $990-million contract for purchasing protective masks from a Chinese electric car manufacturer'.... Even the state's legislators are being blocked from learning details of the deal....

"The Transportation Security Agency decided to hoard more than 1.3 million N95 respirator masks (which it received from Customs and Border Protection) rather than distribute them to hospitals or agencies or people who might lack them — even, as ProPublica reported, 'as the number of people coming through U.S. airports dropped by 95% and the TSA instructed many employees to stay home to avoid being infected.'

"Other wasteful, clumsy, or even macabre stories have arisen from government attempts to help with or procure medical equipment. In Seattle, the county Public Health Department sent a Native American community health board body bags instead of requested medical supplies....

"Before COVID-19 hit, certain pundits were promoting 'state capacity libertarianism'.... The idea was, at best, an attempt to turn libertarian energies toward making government better at what it does. But these not-at-all-shocking snafus show no obvious way the concept could help, other than hand-waving calls to have better people making better decisions.

"Mask procurement is not going awry because government lacks the capacity to do anything. They have plenty of money, essentially as much as they want to have, and they have plenty of staff. It's not because they don't have professional experts and bureaucrats trying to manage things, and it's not because Republicans hate government and want it to fail.

"Even in a relatively free market, fraud and incompetence exist. The government in its mask decisions ha[s] shown a keen ability to find market actors who are very bad (deliberately or not) at what they do and offer them ungodly amounts of money. But government's unique combination of endless money and impunity for messing things up mean that the state is going to get things more wrong, more often. And that's true even, or perhaps especially, when it's urgent that the state get things right. The evidence is in the news every day, even if ideological blinders prevent non-libertarians from acknowledging it."

Read more: https://reason.com/2020/05/08/governments-have-screwed-up-mask-purchase-and-distribution-maybe-everyone-should-be-a-libertarian-in-a-pandemic/

Hornberger rips Amash over stimulus stance

Rep. Amash Signals He May Single-Handedly Delay Coronavirus Relief Bill | National Review - Mairead McArdle:
March 25, 2020 - "Representative Justin Amash signaled Wednesday that he may delay the $2 trillion coronavirus stimulus package Senate leaders reached with the Trump administration hours earlier. 'This bipartisan deal is a raw deal for the people,' Amash wrote in a Wednesday morning tweet. 'It does far too little for those who need the most help, while providing hundreds of billions in corporate welfare, massively growing government, inhibiting economic adaptation, and widening the gap between the rich and the poor'....

"Rather than providing a large fund for corporations, Amash supports giving $1,250 to each American adult and $500 to each child every month for the next three months, unless the lockdowns end sooner."
Read more: https://www.nationalreview.com/news/rep-amash-signals-he-may-single-handedly-delay-coronavirus-relief-bill/

Justin Amash, LP Interloper, Part 7: Liberty and the Dole | Jacob Hornberger blog - Jacob Hornberger:
Apr 30, 2020 - "This is Amash’s conservative side coming out. The dole system is what conservatives favor. For that matter, it’s also what liberals or progressives favor.... But when it come[s] to libertarianism, Amash is wrong, dead wrong. Libertarianism stands in firm opposition to sending a welfare dole to anyone, crisis or no crisis. It is not the role of government to take care of people, to provide for people, or to give a dole to people. It is not the role of government to be people’s daddy....

"But we can see what Amash is up to. Given his long history with the Republican Party, it is easy to picture him in the upcoming campaign for the general election pandering to voters by telling them that he, as the Libertarian Party presidential nominee, would have the federal government send every voter a free monthly check for $1,200 for the indefinite future.

"Everyone had better be prepared. This is the type of thing that is going to be happening if Amash is made the LP presidential nominee....

"Where does Amash say the government should get the money for his free checks? He doesn’t say. Conservatives and liberals don’t ask that question.... Conservatives and liberals alike think that Uncle Sam is everyone’s rich, caring, and compassionate uncle who can give everyone lots of free moolah....

"Libertarians know better. The only way the federal government gets the money to pay for Amash’s dole program is by taxing the American people.... Any way they do it, it is the American people who would end up paying for Amash’s free monthly welfare program....

"Soon after I entered the LP presidential race last November 2, I wrote a two-part article about the reform wing of the libertarian movement and the Libertarian Party. As I argued in that article, this race for the 2020 LP presidential nomination is much more than just a political race. It is actually a battle for the soul of the libertarian movement and the Libertarian Party."

Read more: https://jacobforliberty.com/2020/04/30/justin-amash-lp-interloper-part-7-liberty-and-the-dole/

U.S. Congress triples 2020 federal deficit

$2 Trillion Coronavirus Relief Bill Presents A Reckoning For Libertarians | NPR - Ron Elving

May 22, 2018 - "Let us all have a moment of sympathy – and perhaps even understanding — for Thomas Massie, Republican of Kentucky. Massie was the guy who caught hell from all sides Friday when he tried to force a roll call vote on the coronavirus relief bill in the House of Representatives. He said he wanted every individual member to record his or her vote on the gargantuan $2 trillion package, which he called the biggest relief bill in the history of mankind. For Massie and many like him, the bill that aims to forestall economic disaster in the face of a pandemic is, in itself, a fiscal calamity and a radical turn in governing philosophy. Letting this go without a recorded vote was capitulation on a profound scale....

"'If this bill is so great for America, why not allow a vote on it?' he fumed on Twitter.... 'I’ve been told that they don’t even have 1 minute available for me to speak against this bill during the 4 hour debate. The fix is in. If this bill is so great for America, why not allow a vote on it?  Why not have a real debate? #SWAMP'....

"Massie had a point.... Explicitly, the CARES (Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security) Act spends money faster than any legislation in history, shoveling it out with an air of near-desperation....  Implicitly, the act says that when the chips are down, we as a nation turn to our national parent — the federal government....

"Speaking about federal outlays decades ago, Republican Senate leader Everett Dirksen once joked: 'A billion here, a billion there and pretty soon you're talking about real money.' Have we now translated that to the language of trillions?

"If one were writing a 30-second TV spot attacking a free-spending Congress ... one might have written something like this: 'This is an unprecedented gusher of taxpayer money — with no offsetting revenues or spending cuts — that not only balloons the federal budget but triples this year's anticipated deficit of a trillion dollars (already among the highest in history). With this single vote, Congress has added as much to the national debt as was accumulated in the first 200 years of the Constitution's existence'....

Yet the power of this current crisis and the force behind this bill in this hour was such that even the leading fiscal conservatives who would normally be front and center were conspicuous by their absence. President Trump wanted the bill on his desk now. The Senate had voted 96-0. So even members of the hard-line House Freedom Caucus stood back as a big bipartisan majority of the House played the matador and let the bull roar past.

"That's what Massie decided he could not brook without a protest.... But the derision arrived without delay.... President Trump demanded Massie be ousted from the Republican Party.... Back on Capitol Hill, the floor leaders of both parties scrambled to stymie Massie. Within a few hours, they had established the rule of debate on the bill so that the Senate's version of CARES could be approved without a roll call vote....

"[W]hile his lonely crusade was joined by none of the leaders of his own party, Massie was at least speaking for others across the country who could scarcely believe what they saw unfolding on C-SPAN — and the lack of any meaningful opposition in Washington.

"Matt Welch, an editor-at-large for Reason, a libertarian magazine, called the CARES Act 'a massive course of experimental economics' and compared the American public to 'laboratory rats.' Even the trillion-dollar stimulus package of President Barack Obama, opposed by Republicans in 2009, had not been so robust. 'There is no more politics of fiscal prudence in America,' Welch added."

Read more; https://www.npr.org/2020/03/28/822969308/-2-trillion-coronavirus-relief-bill-presents-a-reckoning-for-libertarians

Amash may delay new coronavirus stimulus bill

Rep. Amash Signals He May Single-Handedly Delay Coronavirus Relief Bill | National Review - Mairead McArdle:

March 25, 2020 - "Representative Justin Amash signaled Wednesday that he may delay the $2 trillion coronavirus stimulus package Senate leaders reached with the Trump administration hours earlier, calling the plan 'a raw deal for the people.'

"The Michigan independent, who left the Republican Party last year, suggested he may block unanimous consent should the House choose to use it for the coronavirus package, forcing a roll call vote on the emergency funding bill that would require lawmakers to return to Washington. Such a move would delay consideration in the lower chamber of the package, which was agreed to after five days of marathon negotiations between Senate leaders and the Trump administration.

"'This bipartisan deal is a raw deal for the people,' Amash wrote in a Wednesday morning tweet. 'It does far too little for those who need the most help, while providing hundreds of billions in corporate welfare, massively growing government, inhibiting economic adaptation, and widening the gap between the rich and the poor.'

"The bill, the third coronavirus stimulus package passed by Congress, provides $367 billion in loans to help small businesses hit hard by the outbreak to keep making payroll, $100 billion for hospitals, and $150 billion for state and local governments. The plan also provides for Americans who make up to $75,000 to receive a one-time payment of $1,200. A $500 billion fund earmarked for corporations that have been economically damaged by the pandemic will be overseen by an inspector general and a congressional panel in accordance with Democrats’ demands....

"Amash’s office did not respond immediately to request for comment."

Read more: https://www.nationalreview.com/news/rep-amash-signals-he-may-single-handedly-delay-coronavirus-relief-bill/