The sale of locally-grown food remains a marginal trade in most provinces despite government promotion, according to a Conference Board of Canada report. And research shows that buying local is a “priority” for only the most affluent consumers: “Market failures…have not been identified.”
Police commissioners are expressing wariness over hidden expenses of internet surveillance in Public Safety cybercrime legislation. Directors of the Canadian Association of Police Boards said authorities must account for the expense of email wiretaps, and whether cabinet is considering a proposed internet tax to pay the cost: “It is unfair”
Tens of thousands of petitioners have submitted comments on one of the most closely-watched regulations in the country: a draft Code of Practice on humane treatment of pigs. The National Farm Animal Care Council said it heard from so many Canadians it’s delayed the development of new standards.
Federal crash investigators are warning Transport Canada and flyers of an error now linked to three fatal mid-air collisions, including a Saskatchewan accident that killed five people. The Transportation Safety Board emphasized the limits of “visual flight rules” to avoid collisions: “We don’t have a magic solution.”
A Crown corporation is studying the feasibility of toll roads and bridges. PPP Canada, an agency mandated to promote private investment in public works, announced it will examine tolls in its bid to “help shape” the country. “The public always winds up holding the bag.”
Canada Revenue Agency has won a landmark court judgment that narrowly defines religious congregations under federal tax law. The $1.8 million ruling came in a case that exposed the finances of a polygamist group in B.C., where children as young as 12 were put to work and families held “famine calls” to pay taxes: “This is an unusual tax case.”
The Department of Aboriginal Affairs is struggling to determine what to do with employees who became redundant under a pact with the Northwest Territories. Notices are expected in October following a Devolution Agreement that made hundreds of staff “surplus”, according to confidential documents.
Conservative MPs quashed a bid for public hearings on wireless policy. The Commons industry committee yesterday took less than 20 minutes to reject an Opposition proposal for public consultations on an upcoming bandwidth auction for mobile service providers. MPs travelled to Ottawa for the short meeting, then promptly left the city.
A top Department of Defence analyst characterized Occupy Ottawa protestors as lawless, drug-addled Marxists, according to documents. Details of the confidential correspondence over a 2011 protest near Parliament Hill are divulged in more than 1,000 pages of newly-released emails, memos, reports and files kept by the National Capital Commission: “It is a disgrace to this city.”
The Department of Finance is at a loss to explain how a bill that mistakenly doubled taxes on credit unions passed into law without anyone noticing. Finance Minister Jim Flaherty and his officials refused interviews after confirming the bill was vetted by staff, the House, Senate and parliamentary committees without a single person detecting the blunder: “They goofed.”
A China investment pact signed by the Department of International Trade should have no chilling effect on local governments, says a federal judge. The court concluded no local authorities should “fear” Chinese claims for compensation: “I have not been persuaded…”
Documents reveal a federal agency, the National Capital Commission, spied on peaceful protesters in the Occupy movement. The parks commission amassed more than 1,000 pages of staff memos, emails, surveillance reports and photos after 25 demonstrators camped near Parliament in 2011. “We want to start pushing back,” managers remarked in one closed-door meeting, according to minutes released under the Access to Information Act.
MPs preparing for an urgent hearing on wireless policy are being pressed to leave telecom regulation to anti-trust investigators. Members of the Commons industry committee meet in special session this evening to consider an Opposition motion for a policy review: “There is no reason to treat the wireless sector differently from any other industry.”
An unhappy Air Canada customer who filed an all-or-nothing lawsuit despite a sympathetic hearing from the Canadian Transportation Agency “took the wrong route,” a legal analyst tells Blacklock’s. The agency is mandated to investigate complaints against federally-regulated firms: “Most of the time it works quite well.”
Unions are a “disadvantage” for investment according to a confidential report commissioned by the Federal Economic Development Agency for Southern Ontario. The report said unions are “most frequently identified by key informants” as a problem. Gary Goodyear, minister responsible for the agency, refused comment.
