An appeal court has ruled companies may fire staff that take marijuana to work. Employers have sought amendments to cabinet’s cannabis legalization bill to permit enforcement of company drug bans: “A person must have their wits about them.”
A federal tribunal has cited South Korean mills for steel dumping in Canada. Liberal MPs this winter propose the Commons industry committee open hearings on unfair practices in the trade: ‘There have been massive layoffs; it’s had a huge impact.’
Federal regulators are giving telecom firms one year to adopt filters to block so-called “spoofing” calls using fake identification. Failure to voluntarily comply will result in regulation, said the CRTC: “There is no silver bullet here.”
A privacy commissioner recommends lawyers secure unattended briefcases with bicycle locks following an incident at a Saskatchewan courthouse. Personal files of a Legal Aid client vanished at court with five lawyers and a clerk in the room: ‘Electronic records would be much easier.’
The Office of the Commissioner of Lobbying says it will keep special funding approved by Parliament last year to defend an investigation it never finished. The agency yesterday offered no refund for hundreds of thousands of dollars it appropriated for work it failed to complete: “We really need this funding.”
Cabinet is proposing Canada Post cut daily mail delivery. Savings would average more than $70 million a year if service was reduced to every second day, according to federal consultants: “We really had high hopes.”
Nearly three quarters of senior federal managers, 70 percent, say they’ve thought of quitting, says new research by the Association of Professional Executives of the Public Service. A detailed survey of thousands of executives also found 13 percent are problem drinkers, and 19 percent complained they were “verbally harassed or tormented at work”.
Cabinet faces a legal test over refusal to make timely disclosure of documents under the Access To Information Act. A federal lawsuit by a leading law firm cites the Department of Employment for disregarding statutory deadlines in releasing public records.
“We’re going to the Federal Court because we’re at a loss of what to do next,” said Jeffrey Andrew, lawyer with Cavalluzzo LLP of Toronto. “We don’t seem to be getting any cooperation from the federal government. There’s been complete radio silence. You just scratch your head.”
A law firm employee on December 20, 2016 filed a routine Access To Information request for records on supplementary Employment Canada budget funding worth $19.9 million. The application sought “all documents related to this amount, including but not limited to any associated records, notes, communications, data, financial documents, calculations, spreadsheets, submissions, memoranda and commentary which could assist in providing a detailed breakdown of additional funding.”
The department failed to meet a 30-day deadline to release records, then negotiated to withhold cabinet confidences and pleaded for extra time, according to Court submissions. “Thirteen months after the original December 20, 2016 request the applicant has received none of the information requested, and has received no notification of a decision from the Department of Employment,” wrote Andrew.
“It’s just perplexing,” said Andrew. “Apparently there are records the government claims no exemption for, but they don’t follow up or respond.” Andrew said the law firm had filed a formal complaint with the Office of the Information Commissioner: “We don’t have any decision from them yet.”
The lawsuit asks that a federal judge cite Employment Canada in breach of the Act, and order staff to disclose all the budget-related documents. The ministers of labour and employment are named as defendants in the Court application.
The Act grants federal departments and agencies wide latitude to delay the disclosure of records. Blacklock’s has waited since September 23, 2013 for files on the proposed privatization of Ridley Terminals Inc., a taxpayer-owned coal facility in Prince Rupert, B.C. The Office of the Information Commissioner in a 2017 federal lawsuit cited a Newfoundland requester’s nine-year wait for records – the longest delay to date – at the St. John’s Port Authority.
The Commissioner has a current backlog of 3,400 complaints against federal departments, agencies and Crown corporations for failing to release public records as required by law. Layla Michaud, deputy commissioner, told the Commons access to information committee last November 29 that “about 50 people” are assigned to investigations.
“Bottom line, Canadians are still looking to get information from their government,” Michaud told the committee. “Hopefully at one point we will get no complaints. It would be super. But presently, that’s not the case.”
MPs approved a $1.8 million increase to the agency’s $10.4 million annual budget to hire consultants to clear the backlog.
By Jason Unrau 
More Canadians die from air pollution than traffic or industrial accidents combined, says new Department of Health research. The number of deaths attributed to smog and other pollution is more than double original estimates from 2004: “The underlying science is consistent.”
Incidents of drug-impaired driving increased 11 percent in 2016 as cabinet began its review of new marijuana legislation, say Statistics Canada figures. The Department of Justice in an Access To Information memo cautioned rates may rise further if cannabis is legalized: “It’s going to get worse, there is no question.”
Cabinet is targeting home fireplaces and wood-burning stoves in its climate change plan. The Department of the Environment said federal emission standards on crackling fires will help achieve climate goals: “Targeted efforts will now be undertaken.”
Rideau Hall sanctioned an award for the chairman emeritus of George Weston Ltd. eleven days after the company admitted to a bread price-fixing scheme. The Office of the Governor General declined comment on the honour: ‘This is a personal gift of the Sovereign.’
A schoolteacher has filed a federal lawsuit against the Canada Border Services Agency after officers impounded his car and revoked his Nexus card for failing to declare $120 in gifts. The Federal Court in a separate 2017 case ruled a travelers’ honest mistake is no excuse for breaching the Customs Act: “What they did was cowboy stuff.”
Treasury Board memos describe unlicensed Uber cars as “illegal” but stop short of refusing to reimburse expense claims by federal employees who use the discount service. Emails released through Access To Information show staff agonized over how to characterize Uber: “It occupies a grey area.”
The cost of government regulations has declined since Parliament passed a 2013 bill to cut red tape, says research by the Canadian Federation of Independent Business. The group said costs remain high, in the billions, and fall disproportionately on small operators: “I would not advise my children to start a business.”
