Parks Canada permitted an “uncontained biohazard risk” at a UNESCO World Heritage Site, according to Access To Information records. The department dumped millions of litres of untreated human waste into an overflowing sewage lagoon at Lake Louise: “It is very unsatisfactory and dangerous”.

Air Canada will not disclose cost savings over illegal outsourcing of maintenance jobs. Airline executives yesterday declined to divulge confidential contract terms under pointed questioning at the Senate transport committee: “You do what we want or we’re going to stick it to you”.

A Canada Border Services Agency supervisor fired for ‘shocking’ misconduct has been ordered reinstated. A federal labour board ruled management went too far in disciplining the employee accused of giving preferential treatment in exchange for gifts: ” I should recuse myself from dealing with friends in the entertainment business”.

Cabinet yesterday fell silent as the Senate passed an amended RCMP union bill. Officials earlier claimed that failure to pass the bill as written would cause confusion and delay. A Treasury Board spokesperson said authorities needed time to digest the impact of the Senate vote: “The dice are loaded”.

Senators are demanding Air Canada disclose how much it saved by illegally outsourcing jobs to Duluth, Minnesota. The call yesterday came as cabinet appealed for quick passage of a bill shielding the airline from liability for breaching its 1988 terms of privatization: “Are unions more costly here than in Duluth?”

The Senate last night expressed support to broaden bargaining powers for a first-ever RCMP union. A government representative cautioned the bill may lead to costly concessions to other federal employees: “The precedent would be set”.

Federal managers in a five-month period spent more than $400,000 on executive getaways and corporate retreats, records show. Expenses included thousands paid for luxury meeting rooms a short walk from managers’ own offices in downtown Ottawa: “Breakfast is too expensive so we went somewhere else”.

Canadian police spend millions a year not on crime fighting but bylaw enforcement and traffic checks, says a Department of Public Safety study. New research shows one of the largest police departments in the country devotes 48 percent of its budget to traffic matters: “Investigative costs of crime may not comprise as much of police expenditures as first believed”.

The nation’s underground economy has grown to a record $45.6 billion a year, estimates Statistics Canada. The new data follow a Canada Revenue Agency complaint that tax avoidance is socially acceptable: “Small dollars multiplied by a lot of people add up”.

Finance Minister Bill Morneau and staff have had thousands of dollars in expense claims returned by department bookkeepers for “arithmetic errors” and other mishaps, records show. Nearly $26,000 in claims were sent back to the Minister’s office: “There’s more than a little irony”.

A Health Canada proposal to legalize the sale of radiation-treated hamburger to kill bacteria and parasites should go to public hearings, says a cattle industry critic. The department served notice it’s prepared to approve irradiated beef by request of the Canadian Cattlemen’s Association: “Cattle live in their own excrement in feedlots”.

Senators and MPs complain even a parliamentary committee can’t get straight answers from the Canadian Food Inspection Agency over regulations. Lawmakers counted 9 unanswered letters and 38 unresolved issues dating over decades: “Do you ever pick up the phone?”

Transport Canada is delaying a contentious report on mandating recording equipment in all railway locomotives. Union executives have opposed the measure as a company tool for round-the-clock surveillance of train crews: “We’re dealing with companies that fire people for not having their boot laces correctly tied”.

The health department is beginning to draft regulations under a drug recall bill feared to put a “chill” on industry. Parliament in 2014 passed the bill dubbed Vanessa’s Law for the teenage daughter of an MP who died after taking Johnson & Johnson medication for a digestive disorder: “No Big Pharma executive has ever gone to jail”.