Canadian critics of “appalling” U.S. behaviour blamed for billions in lost trade are pinning their hopes on a World Trade Organization hearing. The WTO on Sept. 25 will be asked to strike an investigatory panel into U.S. meat labeling, in a dispute that has dragged on five years: “Canada needs to respond forcefully.”
Infrastructure Canada vows it will meet its own deadline in detailing new public works subsidies, though local authorities caution that time for planning is running short. Funding agreements have yet to be finalized six months after subsidies were promised: “Municipalities are anxious.”
The Prime Minister’s alma mater is criticizing Stephen Harper’s wireless policy as “inefficient” and likely “unsuccessful” in benefiting consumers. The University of Calgary’s School of Public Policy dismissed federal restrictions on big telecom firms as misguided: “We don’t have a competition problem.”
University of Alberta researchers in a 2012 project asked public library users in Edmonton, “Why are you here?” Responses varied. “Homework,” said one; “Homeless,” said another; “To read Hemingway”; “To nap”; “To browse, play chess, make friends”; “Because I’m a bookworm with no money.” Most of us discover libraries as children, and return to them as parents. All of us feel smaller when local libraries close.
Weak public response to a ballyhooed initiative on federal accountability has prompted the Treasury Board to try, try again. The “Open Government Strategy” drew 28 responses on a federal website: 24 critical, 3 positive and one from a Treasury Board employee.
The Department of Finance has incurred tens of thousands of dollars in penalties for failing to pay its bills on time. Accounts released through Access to Information show late-payment charges to federal contractors included $3 to Tim Hortons, and $1895 in penalties for skipping American Express bills.
Transport Canada is silent on renewed demands for upgrading of rail car safety standards in the aftermath of the Lac-Mégantic disaster. Investigators said the circumstance of the fiery Québec wreck again “calls into question” the use of obsolete tank cars that have been reviewed for years.
Health Canada is being sued over its seizure of thousands of bottles of liquid aphrodisiac sold as “leather cleaner”. A Delta, B.C. company that ranks itself one of the largest sex toy distributors in the country is contesting a department ruling that its liquid alkyl nitrite for fetishists violates the Food & Drugs Act: “The applicant is suffering economic loss.”
National tuition costs will rise an average 13% by 2016 with mandatory fees comprising a larger portion of university revenues in every province, says an advocacy group. Researchers calculated campus fees have more than quadrupled since 1992: “We are seeing a decline in universality.”
The Department of Finance will reap a multi-billion dollar surplus in unemployment insurance premiums, according to new data. The little-noticed windfall forecast was preceded by Finance Minister Jim Flaherty’s promise to freeze premiums: “They’re essentially locking in a substantial tax grab.”
An investment company unhappy with news of a real estate bubble has trademarked a slogan ridiculing reporters’ use of market averaging. The application by the Alberta-based firm, which says it can double investors’ money, follows a Department of Finance caution on the condo market: “Averaging is meaningless.”
Health Canada proposes the biggest deregulation in 15 years in the hemp trade, restricted for decades as drug trafficking. The department served notice of hearings into 1998 rules that tightly restrict industrial growers: “We’re not asking for full deregulation.”
Regulators warn the spread of a tree-killing Asian beetle appears inevitable despite a widening quarantine. The Canadian Food Inspection Agency confirmed the emerald ash borer, blamed for $809 million in damage to urban forests, has spread to 34 Ontario counties and up the St. Lawrence valley into Québec: “Borers pose a very serious threat.”
A federal agency has apologized for violating the Access to Information Act. The Canada-Nova Scotia Offshore Petroleum Board admitted to contravening the law when it told a complainant all Access requests must be vetted by legal counsel: “We got a little apology.”
The Department of Foreign Affairs is shopping for new luxury bulletproof SUVs for its worldwide fleet. The department is taking bids for armoured Toyota Land Cruisers that sell for $78,000 apiece. Authorities declined Blacklock’s interview request.
