Ontario Auditor General’s Report Shows Deep Government Mismanagement: Here’s What We’re Reading

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Here’s what we’re reading today:

1. Oil prices surge after OPEC agrees to cut production

“OPEC—the floundering oil cartel left for dead after two years of bluster and no action—today flummoxed markets by mustering the will to make a massive cut in oil production and shore up its fiscally strapped member countries. Oil traders sent up the price of the international benchmark Brent crude well over $50 a barrel, a rise of as much as 8.6%.”

– Quartz

+1: Alberta Premier Rachel Notley says she’ll travel to BC as early as next week to try to sell opponents of the Trans Mountain expansion on her province’s climate change plan. – Globe and Mail

2. Ontario’s Auditor General report reveals myriad of govt. failures

“Cracking highways, $8 billion spent on still-incomplete eHealth electronic medical records, a comedy of errors surrounding shoddy Metrolinx oversight of transit contractors, and a climate change plan that will do more in California than Ontario.

“Those are some of a litany of government snafus exposed by auditor general Bonnie Lysyk in her annual two-volume, 1,063-page report to the Legislature on Wednesday.”

Toronto Star

3. ‘Knees together’ judge should lose his job: Judicial committee

“Federal Court Justice Robin Camp — who asked a woman during a rape trial why she couldn’t just keep her knees together — should be removed from the bench, according to a unanimous recommendation from the Canadian Judicial Council’s committee of inquiry.

“Camp was a provincial court judge at the time of the sexual assault trial in Alberta in 2014, in which he acquitted the accused, and was later promoted to the Federal Court.”

CBC News

4.  The privatized city where everything is tolled

“Trump’s nascent administration has been comparatively clear on one thing: his infrastructure plan. In the best-articulated idea of his entire candidacy, Trump suggested that private industry will rebuild our infrastructure. These businesses will receive large tax breaks and revenue rights to rebuild our roads and bridges, to operate our public transportation, to fix water lines, and to improve city buildings.

“What does a city run by private corporations look like? It’s a city where nearly every aspect of life is tolled.”

– Fast Co Design

5. While we weren’t looking, Snapchat revolutionized social networks

“If you secretly harbour the idea that Snapchat is frivolous or somehow a fad, it’s time to re-examine your certainties. In fact, in various large and small ways, Snap has quietly become one of the world’s most innovative and influential consumer technology companies.”

New York Times