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PHOTOS: Launch of Girls for Goals program in Keta in the Volta RegionArticle content OTTAWA — Time is money in Canada’s public service, even when you’re off the clock. Recommended Videos Public servants took home nearly $150 million in standby pay last year, according to newly-released documents, with some taking home six-figure sums — on top of their regular salaries — just to be on-call. In response to an order paper question tabled by Conservative MP Michael Barrett, many government departments and agencies are paying out thousands — even millions — of dollars annually in standby pay. The Government of Canada defines workers on standby as “employees who are called in by their employer to work during a specific period. The employer expects these employees to report to work if called upon to do so.” So far this year, Canada Revenue Agency paid out more than $1.9 million in standby pay, with 145 employees earning in excess of $5,000 to be on-call. The highest standby payment to a single CRA employee this year was around $20,000 — that’s compared to 2016 when a single worker earned an extra $65,000. Export Development Canada paid out around $230,000 in standby pay so far this year, down from the agency’s 2021’s nine-year high of $434,000. Recommended video The agency’s biggest payout to a single employee was in 2023, when a lone worker took home $105,000 in standby pay. Some government agencies refused to offer data, citing security or privacy concerns — including the Communications Security Establishment (CSE,) Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS,) Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. The Canadian Museum of Human Rights reported nearly $30,000 in standby pay so far this year, but used the privacy excuse to withhold further details. CBC/Radio Canada paid $685,000 in standby pay so far in 2024, with $14,300 reported as the single biggest payout to one employee. The biggest user of standby pay was the RCMP, which, so far this year, paid out $72.2 million. Last year was the RCMP’s most expensive year for standby pay, at $86.6 million. The RCMP paid 9,500 uniformed personnel more than $5,000 each in on-call pay this year, with $110,000 going to a single person. In 2017 and 2022, a single RCMP member took home in excess of $193,000 just in on-call pay. An RCMP source told the Toronto Sun that standby pay is common for the force’s uniformed members, particularly in rural detachments, and that annual standby payments in the tens of thousands of dollars aren’t uncommon. Other agencies with large on-call payouts this year include the Canadian Border Services Agency ($3.9 million), Employment and Social Development Canada ($1.3 million), the Department of National Defence ($4.5 million) and Shared Services Canada ($11.4 million). Franco Terrazzano, federal director of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation, said this is yet another example of Canada’s out-of-control bureaucracy. “Taxpayers are right to question why individual bureaucrats are taking tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of dollars in wait-by-the-phone pay in a single year,” he said. “Are we paying CRA bureaucrats to stand by the phone and wait for taxpayers’ calls to go to voicemail?” Polling over the summer suggests Canadians are in favour of putting the public service on a crash diet , with Canada’s public service ballooning by 42%, or 110,000 positions, since 2015 — while Canada’s population only grew by 14% across the same time period. Earlier this fall, The Toronto Sun reported that government employees take home hundreds of millions in overtime annually , with RCMP members alone claiming over $444 million for working extra hours. bpassifiume@postmedia.com X: @bryanpassifiume
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What went wrong on the onside kick that almost cost the Vikings?Upset Watch: Gophers lead No. 4 Penn State at halftime, 19-16He is not yet in power but President-elect Donald Trump rattled much of the world with an off-hours warning of stiff tariffs on close allies and China — a loud hint that Trump-style government by social media post is coming back. With word of these levies against goods imported from Mexico, Canada and China, Trump sent auto industry stocks plummeting, raised fears for global supply chains and unnerved the world’s major economies. For Washington-watchers with memories of the Republican’s first term, the impromptu policy volley on Monday evening foreshadowed a second term of startling announcements of all manner, fired off at all hours of the day from his smartphone. “Donald Trump is never going to change much of anything,” said Larry Sabato, a leading US political scientist and director of the University of Virginia’s Center for Politics. “You can expect in the second term pretty much what he showed us about himself and his methods in the first term. Social media announcements of policy, hirings and firings will continue.” The first of Trump’s tariff announcements — a 25 percent levy on everything coming in from Mexico and Canada — came amid an angry rebuke of lax border security at 6:45 pm on Truth Social, Trump’s own platform. The United States is bound by agreements on the movement of goods and services brokered by Trump in a free trade treaty with both nations during his first term. But Trump warned that the new levy would “remain in effect until such time as Drugs, in particular Fentanyl, and all Illegal Aliens stop this Invasion of our Country” — sowing panic from Ottawa to Mexico City. Seconds later, another message from the incoming commander-in-chief turned the focus on Chinese imports, which he said would be hit with “an additional 10% Tariff, above any additional Tariffs.” The consequences were immediate. Almost every major US automaker operates plants in Mexico, and shares in General Motors and Stellantis — which produce pickup trucks in America’s southern neighbor — plummeted. Canada, China and Mexico protested, while Germany called on its European partners to prepare for Trump to impose hefty tariffs on their exports and stick together to combat such measures. – Framing the debate – The tumult recalls Trump’s first term, when journalists, business leaders and politicians at home and abroad would scan their phones for the latest pronouncements, often long after they had left the office or over breakfast. During his first four years in the Oval Office, the tweet — in those days his newsy posts were almost exclusively limited to Twitter, now known as X — became the quasi-official gazette for administration policy. The public learned of the president-elect’s 2020 Covid-19 diagnosis via an early-hours post, and when Iranian Revolutionary Guards commander Qasem Soleimani was assassinated on Trump’s order, the Republican confirmed the kill by tweeting a US flag. The public and media learned of numerous other decisions big and small by the same source, from the introduction of customs duties to the dismissal of cabinet secretaries. It is not a communication method that has been favored by any previous US administration and runs counter to the policies and practices of most governments around the world. Throughout his third White House campaign, and with every twist and turn in his various entanglements with the justice system, Trump has poured his heart out on Truth Social, an app he turned to during his 20-month ban from Twitter. In recent days, the mercurial Republican has even named his attorney general secretaries of justice and health via announcements on the network. “He sees social media as a tool to shape and direct the national conversation and will do so again,” said political scientist Julian Zelizer, a Princeton University professor. AFP
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Enbridge Vs. Brookfield Infrastructure: Only One Is A BuyRIYADH: Saudi senior tech diplomat Deemah AlYahya, the secretary-general of the multilateral Digital Cooperation Organization, held talks on Monday with Iraq’s prime minister, Mohammed Shia Al-Sudani, about support for Baghdad’s plans to develop its digital business and artificial intelligence sectors. They discussed Iraq’s strategy for digital transformation, and the need to create and develop a workforce with the tech skills required to help grow the Iraqi economy effectively, the Saudi Press Agency reported. Though Iraq is not a member of the DCO, an international body that focuses on the digital economy, Al-Sudani said his country is keen to work with the organization to meet the nation’s needs for a skilled workforce in the business sector. AlYahya commended Iraq for the progress it has already made in terms of investment in the human capital needed to develop the digital skills that are essential to drive growth in a digitized economy. Iraq has been working in recent years to develop a strategy for digital transformation to help support the private and public sectors and grow the economy. Authorities this month organized the first Digital Space Iraq Forum, which focused on the use of advanced technologies, including AI, to help build a comprehensive digital economy. The DCO says that since it was founded in November 2020, it has been at the forefront of efforts to curate policies and initiatives to support the digital economy in several countries. Currently, 16 nations are members, including Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Pakistan, Bahrain, Bangladesh and Oman. It also has 39 observer partner organizations. DCO member states have a collective gross domestic product of $3.5 trillion and serve a combined market of nearly 800 million people, more than 70 percent of whom are under the age of 35.Fossilized feces, vomit reveal how dinosaurs dominated Earth
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