Archival scientific data from studies including taxpayer-funded research is being lost at an alarming rate, according to a University of British Columbia investigation. Some 80% of raw data is unrecoverable: ‘There is an obvious solution’.
Parliamentarians are proposing new limits on payday loans following a court judgment that saw a leading lender cited for illegal interest rates. A woman in Kitchener, Ont. was charged $722 to borrow $782: “There is no way that should be allowed in Canada.”
An MP says he is taken aback by protests against his proposal to allow random Breathalyzer tests by police. Tarik Brahmi said he is so astonished by negative reaction he may withdraw his bill: “So many people are so opposed to what seems obvious.”
A farm group say federal curbs on chemicals rated lethal for bees will be unfairly costly for growers. Grain Farmers of Ontario said it’s commissioning Conference Board of Canada research on the impact of restricting insecticides: “We need to address that.”
Alberta MPs should be “shamed” into relenting on civil service salary disclosures with the adoption of the policy in their home province, says an advocate. Alberta begins publishing salaries online January 31: “It’s incumbent on me to do the shaming.”
Exploding golf balls are outlawed, and War of 1812 re-enactors are forbidden from storing more than 10kg of black powder at home under new Natural Resources Canada regulations.
Unions challenging a Saskatchewan purge of the provincial Labour Relations Board have lost a bid to take their case to the Supreme Court. Justices declined to hear an appeal over the 2008 firings of board members replaced by Saskatchewan Party appointees: “The government tends to have a free hand.”
A federal agency is cautioning consumers over new mobile-payment systems with obscure terms and conditions. The Financial Consumer Agency said users of wireless devices who pay bills via palm-sized service agreements should beware of very fine print: “There are potential gaps.”
The Library of Parliament hired a patent attorney to trademark its image for key chains, coffee mugs and other paraphernalia. Filings with Industry Canada’s intellectual property office indicate library management hired an Ottawa law firm Fasken Martineau Dumoulin LLP to handle its application. Costs were not disclosed.
A Tax Court judge has upheld an audit of a part-time auto “dealer” amid a growing crackdown on the trade. A Toronto financial consultant lost his bid to claim large tax losses as a moonlighting car salesman: “We have dramatically strengthened regulations in car sales.”
The Department of Fisheries is attempting to monitor the catch in the hard-luck lobster sector. Fishermen in the Gulf of St. Lawrence must log their landings in 2014. Authorities did not disclose the cost: “Everything adds up.”
TV viewers will gain the option to subscribe to all or none of 5 all-news channels in a CRTC ruling. The order follows appeals from little-watched Sun News Network that it faced insolvency without some regulatory lifeline: “No news is going to be crammed on the consumer”.
Six years after cancelling its anti-tobacco ads, Health Canada is urging smokers to quit via Twitter and Facebook. The department is to pay consultants to find new Twitter followers and Facebook friends for a Cancer Society campaign credited with persuading only a few hundred smokers to quit: ‘That is not adequate’.
MPs are being urged to review Canada Post’s 146-year monopoly amid proposed 35% rate hikes and service cuts that would make Canada the only industrialized country without home mail delivery. A Commons committee hearing saw postal management scorned for its plans: “This is classic monopolistic behaviour.”
Cabinet will legislate a cap on wireless roaming rates paid by industry at the wholesale level, according to Industry Canada. No text of the amendments was divulged and no date was given for their introduction: “Hopefully this will level the playing field for independents.”
