Cabinet should create a new federal office to ensure Canadian multinationals conduct themselves ethically, say advocates. The United Steelworkers, Canadian Catholics and others pressed for appointment of a mining and energy ombudsman. The appeal came a month after MPs vetoed an anti-corruption bill affecting multinationals: “Corporations have a duty”.
Health Canada updates of regulations on drinking water aboard public transportation are already obsolete, say carriers. Industry contacted by Blacklock’s said common standards already exceed proposed revisions. Canada has not seen a typhoid outbreak aboard a plane, train or cruise ship since 1970: “We are a leader in this”.
The Commons by a 147 to 124 vote last evening rejected a motion to renew long-term funding for social housing. The Conservative majority dismissed the proposal as vague and bureaucratic: “In Winkler, Manitoba we do not want Ottawa telling us how to spend housing dollars”.
The nation’s overall economy rates OK to satisfactory, according to the Conference Board of Canada. The think-tank also ranked provinces by performance, and rated two as having economies that are near-failures: “Resources are ruling the day”.
The Canadian Coast Guard confronted by the coldest winter in 35 years cancelled employee call-ups and staff replacements aboard its icebreakers to meet budget targets, according to an internal memo. Records confirm the country’s two heavy icebreakers were out of service in the coldest weeks of winter, even as ferry service was disrupted and shippers cited mounting losses: “To me this doesn’t add up”.
Rising police expenses including salaries for $85,000-a year constables are unsustainable without reform, says the Commons public safety committee. MPs in a majority report said excessive wage settlements, inadequate care for the homeless and mentally ill, and “changing demographics” are driving police costs near the breaking point: “We have to take action to fix it”.
All provinces must adopt a mandatory Species At Risk Act similar to federal legislation if diminishing wildlife and habitat are to be saved, say British Columbia environmental groups. The public appeal follows a B.C. Supreme Court ruling the province had no mandatory duty to save centuries-old Douglas fir trees even after designating them as a species at risk: “It’s probably time”.
A landmark case on public employees’ right to strike goes to the Supreme Court Friday. Justices will hear a final appeal on the constitutionality of a Saskatchewan law, echoed in a federal bill, granting public employers wide powers to declare workers “essential” and therefore forbidden from striking: “There’s a lot riding on this”.
Federal departments and agencies have spent nearly half a million dollars in promoting messages on Twitter, including more than $78,000 spent by the CBC even as it contemplated job cuts. Agencies paid to have their Twitter thoughts featured at the top of search results: “The CBC as a corporation has some decisions to make”.
Cabinet is lifting a liability cap on compensation from oil tanker spills after noting current limits come nowhere near the cost of cleaning up a catastrophic accident. Transport Canada said limits on payouts fixed to a 1990 formula under a federal Ship-Source Oil Pollution Fund will be repealed. Clean-up costs associated with any environmental disaster will be met by the federal treasury, then recovered by fees on oil shippers: “We’ll see”.
The Northwest Territories has one of the highest incarceration rates in the industrialized world, new data confirm. Statistics Canada reported the territory’s rate declined 13 percent last year and still remained five to ten times higher than the provinces, and nearly as high as U.S. rates: “Our judges tend to be very conservative”.
Canada Revenue hired focus groups in three provinces to see how taxpayers liked advertisements for non-refundable credits. Canadians surveyed found some ads with children “adorable” but considered the actual tax credits paltry: ‘It’s the Pepsi-Cola approach to policy-making’.
The National Research Council is drafting a report on whether to require ventilation in all attached garages. The review of the national building code is complete and findings will be published by fall. More than half of all new single-family homes in Canada have attached garages: “There is a need to provide sound technical solutions”.
Salvation of VIA Rail’s Atlantic passenger run should mark a revival of the transcontinental service dating from 1889, supporters say. The Crown railway said despite record deficits it found $10.2 million to purchase a stretch of New Brunswick track abandoned by Canadian National Railway Co.: “It didn’t make any sense”.
An Alberta government authority says there is “absolutely” no doubt that select pesticides are “killing bees”. The testimony at the Senate agriculture committee marked the first time an official of any Canadian government unequivocally acknowledged damage caused by neonicotinoid farm chemicals: “They have been clearly implicated in the bee kills”.
