Health Canada will require that tanning salons display gruesome new cancer warnings effective June 1. The initiative came amid protests from the tanning industry: “Our opponents will be marketing this left, right and centre”.
Parliament broke its own rules in voting for a special day to commemorate the late Pope John Paul II, confidential records show. Heritage Canada in a secret memo warned the observance violated terms of its National Commemoration Policy, but never told MPs: “This is the first time I’ve heard of this”.
Ottawa appears internet-challenged after decades of review, says Auditor General Michael Ferguson. Public Works Canada has found some 100 different email systems across the bureaucracy, many of them incompatible with each other: “I still don’t know what’s being done”.
Married Canadians tend to be wealthier than singles, concludes research by the Institute of Marriage and Family Canada. The study appeared to confirm suspicions divorce is expensive: ‘That’s not terribly controversial’.
The Department of Justice is appealing a court finding of favoritism in the awarding of X-ray contracts at the agency responsible for airport safety. Attorneys seek to overturn a ruling the Canadian Air Transport Security Authority “concocted” a process to reward a single supplier: “Its decision was unfair”.
The nation’s largest railways have taken the economy “hostage”, says Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz. His remarks followed farm and industry protests of inexplicable shipping delays despite passage of the Fair Rail Freight Service Act: “We are considering all options”.
A federal agency is being sued for allegedly violating the Copyright Act on the internet. The Canada-Nova Scotia Offshore Petroleum Board is accused of publishing data without permission: “The Copyright Act doesn’t matter to these people”.
Meat inspectors will gain first-ever powers to impose fines for routine violations, from spitting in a slaughterhouse to falsifying records. The initiative follows a report by visiting U.S. inspectors that cited select Canadian processors for rusty pipes and unclean equipment: “They’ll have the fines but they don’t have the inspectors”.
A proposed Canada Revenue registry of commercial tax preparers should be expanded to include income trusts, says an MP. The program targeting individual and corporate-paid tax filers deliberately excluded income trusts: “That’s where a lot of the real money is hidden”.
The Department of Fisheries is drawing mixed reviews with a proposal to sanction the release of dangerous substances into waterways. The fisheries minister could approve the release of “deleterious substances” to combat invasive species, aid aquaculture or conduct research: “It would have been against the law”.
Federal prisons have been plagued with arson fires since the Correctional Service banned smoking by inmates, new data show. Authorities counted more than 600 arson fires in prisons since a smoking ban was first introduced in 2006: “There have been challenges and difficulties”.
The Department of Finance is quiet on a lapsed promise to reduce the federal excise tax on diesel. The Minister of State for Finance, MP Kevin Sorenson declined comment on a cabinet pledge to halve the tax from 4¢ a litre to 2. “It was supposed to be great news”.
A 50-year old navy ship sold as a scuba divers’ artificial reef poses an ecological risk and must not be sunk as is off the B.C. coast, warns Environment Canada. HMCS Annapolis is laced with toxic PCBs. Authorities sold it as an artificial reef in 2008 but only confirmed last week its PCB content exceeds federal law: “Environment Canada was not entirely candid”.
Cabinet is being pressed to release confidential Canada Post feasibility studies on retail banking that were mysteriously shelved by management, and now concealed from the public. Toronto City Council voted 39-2 to request that the post office divulge Banking: A Proven Diversification Strategy, a secret report that concluded postal banking “would be a win-win strategy”.
“If there are feasibility reports on diversifying Canada Post revenues, can the government not reopen that discussion?” said Councillor Kristyn Wong-Tam, sponsor of the proposal; “This issue of Canada Post services has become a lightning rod for communities.”
The existence of the report was only learned through the release of files under the Access to Information Act. The documents cited board meetings, polling results and focus group data indicating post executives spent four years researching the benefits of establishing the largest retail banking network in the country. Of 811 pages in the file 701 were censored due to commercial confidentiality, Canada Post said. The records are dated between 2009 and 2013.
Canada Post appeared to kill the program in late 2013 and opt instead for 35% rate increases this year, and the elimination of all home mail delivery to five million households nationwide. MPs and the Canadian Union of Postal Workers have speculated cabinet ordered management at the Crown corporation to abandon its banking proposal.
“There is a strong consensus that if we lose these services the effects will be detrimental,” said Councillor Wong-Tam. “What is the financial and social impact? This is a service people need. It really comes down to the impact on residents, and people are starting to become angry.”
The text of the Council amendment reads: “That City Council request the federal government and Canada Post to publicly release the report Banking: A Proven Diversification Strategy; that City Council direct the City Manager, in consultation with the appropriate City staff, to report back to Council through the Executive Committee on a) the potential cost of the reduced Canada Post service to the City including the requirement of municipal land and rights-of way, infrastructure such as paving and lighting and policing related to vandalism, graffiti and mail theft; b) which communities and neighbourhoods in the city will be affected; c) the demographics of such areas; d) what change to service will be implemented in these areas where postal boxes will be located; e) the impact of these changes on the public realm.”
Toronto joins a list of cities to protest the service cuts, from Sault Ste. Marie, Ont. to Medicine Hat, Alta., New Westminster, B.C. and Vancouver, where councillors voted unanimously to register their opposition with the Federation of Canadian Municipalities.
“The decision to eliminate door-to-door mail delivery in urban areas will affect many municipalities,” said Mayor Claude Dauphin of Lachine, Que., the federation’s president. “Canada Post must work with municipalities to make sure the concerns of cities and municipalities are addressed.”
The post office has publicly denied any interest in reviving the Postal Savings Banks it operated nationwide till 1968. “As for banking, it is not our core business,” Canada Post spokesperson Jon Hamilton told Blacklock’s January 2; “It would require a huge investment to serve a niche market.”
However confidential documents reveal that management drafted a “vision for Canada Post financial services”, noting that profit margins in domestic banking averaged 20.5 percent, and as much as 33% at online banks like ING Canada. The corporation has 6519 post offices, a wider branch network than the Royal Bank, the largest of the federally-chartered banks.
By Tom Korski 
A winter wireless auction may have raised $5.27 billion for the Government of Canada but results need to be weighted with many grains of salt, say analysts. Industry Canada saw auction proceeds rise 23% but only after doubling the length of licenses: “It may seem a lot higher than it is”.
