Brewers are “watching closely” for repeal of prohibition-era regulations that forbid Canadians from carrying their own beer and liquor across provincial boundaries. Cabinet pledged to amend the 1928 Act: “It should be legal to carry beer from one province to another.”
Federal eco-policies are so weakly managed cabinet doesn’t meet its legal obligations, says a monitor. Environment Commissioner Neil Maxwell told Parliament that Environment Canada failed to meet its own mandates, and appears compromised by budget cuts.
Cabinet will invoke retaliatory tariffs “if we have to” in a cross-border dispute with the United States. Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz told reporters a trade war remains a viable option if Washington fails to repeal a 2008 policy blamed for billions in lost sales.
Warming sea temperatures are cited for the lowest sardine catch in decades. Pacific Coast harvests declined as sardines changed their migration routes, reports an industry association: “The fish did not arrive.”
Storekeepers, gas station owners and other merchants will pay to ensure accuracy of their weights and scales under a new privatization of inspections, says Industry Canada. Fees will be determined by the marketplace, authorities told Blacklock’s: “It’s like contracting out a private police force.”
A secret RMCP memo warns “anti-oil sands” critics must be kept under police watch as an economic threat. The memo was provided to the National Energy Board, which asked the Mounties and anti-terrorist CSIS agency to keep an eye on environmental groups: “I find this utterly disturbing.”
Trademark and copyright holders must pay part of the cost of keeping counterfeit goods off the market under new legislation, authorities confirm. But the Department of Industry would not detail how much industry must pay to track, seize, store and destroy black market goods: “Is it reasonable?”
Telecom regulators say rules are rules for wireless carriers that give away “free” cellphones to customers who sign new contracts. The CRTC called for full compliance with a new Wireless Code to take effect December 2, including contracts for customers who pay for phones on the installment plan.
Natural Resources Canada is hiring an on-call volcanologist to stand by for “urgent volcanic situations” this winter.
The department said help was needed for the nation’s only full-time government volcanologist, who works at the Geological Survey headquarters in Vancouver.
A second scientist is required to remain on call seven days a week “including non-business hours whenever there is volcanic activity”, the department explained.
Canada has some two dozen volcanoes but has not experienced an eruption in more than two hundred years.
“We have volcanologists both to improve understanding of volcanic hazard in Canada and to understand the relationship between ancient volcanoes and present-day deposits of metals and minerals,” a Natural Resources spokesperson said.
All the country’s volcanoes are located in British Columbia and Yukon Territory, including Mt. Garibaldi 66 km north of Vancouver, which last erupted 8000 years ago; and Yukon’s Alligator Lake volcano, located 30 km southwest of Whitehorse.
Emergency Management B.C. notes all Canadian volcanoes are “sleeping”, but advises residents to “practice a home evacuation” and keep an emergency kit on hand, according to a bulletin Prepare For Volcano Hazards In British Columbia.
“Fortunately a volcano will often give a period of advance warning before serious effects results,” the agency noted.
Canada’s last volcanic eruption occurred circa 1775 in B.C.’s Nass River valley. Oral histories of the Nisga’a people indicate two villages were decimated, killing 2000 people.
By Paul Delahanty 
Canada Revenue Agency has been unable to collect four-fifths of the money owed by tax evaders despite vows of a crackdown, new documents show. Officials identified more than $30 million owed by Canadians who filed misleading returns, but recovered only $6 million in fines.
National Energy Board regulators including Sheila Leggett, head of a panel studying the Northern Gateway pipeline, asked the RCMP and anti-terrorist CSIS agency to snoop on opponents of the project. Leggett and other staff sanctioned secret consultations with the Canadian Security Intelligence Service and Mounties for months, despite police assurances there was no evidence of any law-breaking: “This is outrageous.”
Claims that counterfeiting has ballooned to a multi-billion dollar black market is prompting Public Safety Canada to commission a first-ever study of the trade. It follows one estimate piracy is worth $30 billion a year nationwide: “This is what we face every day.”
The Supreme Court will hear an appeal by an unhappy civil servant who sued to prevent her union from contacting her home. The case involves a Canada Revenue employee who refused to join her union, then invoked privacy: “They are stuck.”
A cross-border bid to harmonize Canadian and U.S. regulations is making paltry progress, say manufacturers. Critics complain work is proceeding too slowly: ‘Some are not interested.’
Fishing groups are cautiously hopeful a Euro trade pact will boost business. Foreign vessels will gain most-favoured nation treatment in Canadian ports, and protection for export fish processors will expire within three years: “We won’t be able to assess it until the tariffs start coming off.”
