A food company that sued federal inspectors for compensation over a mistaken million-dollar recall has failed to persuade the Supreme Court to hear its final appeal. The Canadian Food Inspection Agency was sued after accusing a Costco supplier of selling poisoned carrots: “They make mistakes.”
Cabinet came under intense lobbying from Canada’s largest telecom firm over a regulatory ruling it called “woeful”, “tainted” and “absurd”. Confidential records show BCE Inc. pressed hard for its $3.38 billion takeover of Astral Media of Montréal after it was rejected by the CRTC.
An Ontario dispute over freshwater bottling underscores a new era of regulation, analysts tell Blacklock’s. The Environmental Review Tribunal, a provincial agency, ordered a full inquiry of a bid by Nestlé Waters Canada to bottle more than a million litres of groundwater daily regardless of drought: “The tip of the iceberg.”
The Canadian International Development Agency says it will not resurrect a cash-for-news scheme that paid journalists to report on the agency’s work. CIDA said the last funds have been distributed through the program that saw journalists apply for more than $4.7 millions in funding.
The lapse of anti-counterfeiting legislation with the expected prorogation of Parliament has MPs facing demands to try, try again. Bill C-56 was one of eight relevant government measures now in limbo: “Counterfeiting is a huge problem; the bill would have helped.”
Air Canada is subject to provincial consumer legislation just like other corporations following a Supreme Court action in a five-year ticketing dispute. The carrier claimed it was constitutionally exempt from a law passed by the B.C. legislature: “They dreamed up this argument.”
Canada has among the “lightest regulations” on contract workers of any industrialized country, according to an OECD study. Of 34 nations, Canada ranked 32nd just ahead of New Zealand and the U.S., with the fewest rules on hiring, firing and treatment of workers on contract: “The numbers are substantial.”
The Department of Northern Development proposes a major deregulation of northern petroleum and mining ventures, analysts tell Blacklock’s. Amendments are expected to reduce the number and scope of federally-mandated regulators in the Northwest Territories.
MPs are being pressed to “lend their voice” to public housing policy affecting constituents in their own ridings. Advocates say expiry of subsidies for co-op renters may lead to evictions for thousands of people: “We would like the government to take a serious look at this.”
Cabinet yesterday took another step to imposing punitive tariffs on U.S. goods in a dispute over meat labeling. The Department of Agriculture served notice it formally asked the World Trade Organization to convene a compliance panel. Ottawa has threatened to impose 100% retaliatory tariffs on products from Vermont syrup to Washington apples.
The secretive Communications Security Establishment has become the fastest-growing federal agency in Canada, though few Parliamentarians can find out exactly what it does. Staffing at the surveillance group has increased 32% in six years: “This whole issue is becoming more and more frightening.”
A Nova Scotia accountant has lost a bid for a Supreme Court pleading he was “scared to death” by the Canada Revenue Agency. Judges declined to hear further testimony in the case of the businessman who “felt lost” when confronted with a $261,000 tax bill: “I’m not surprised.”
The Department of Fisheries is allowing reallocation of unclaimed cod quotas in southern Newfoundland in a test project welcomed by local fishing communities. More than half the quota is unclaimed due to low prices, 50¢ a pound: “There is no value in cod fish at the moment.”
A Canada Revenue audit of a fund used to support Canada’s top-ranked women’s tennis player gave Tax Court a glimpse into money and sport.
Michel Bouchard, father of tennis pro Eugénie Bouchard, has been ordered to pay $81,143 in disallowed tax claims generated through an “in and out scheme”, according to a federal judge.
Blacklock’s could not contact Bouchard through Eugénie’s agent. The former Wimbledon junior single’s champion turned pro last year and is now ranked 62nd worldwide. “All of this is very expensive,” Tax Court Judge Rommel Masse wrote in upholding a federal audit against Bouchard.
Court heard testimony that in 2003 Bouchard, a former Wood Gundy employee, created Tennis Mania Ltd. Partnership. Investors in Tennis Mania were to subsidize Eugénie expenses for training, tournaments and equipment as an amateur on the promise of 10% annual return once she turned pro.
Bouchard’s daughter, then 9, was not a party to the agreement, and Tennis Mania did not have any other clients. “I’m not going to find investors for everyone else’s kids,” Bouchard testified.
Under the Income Tax Act section 18.1, no business deductions are permitted for “personal or living expenses of the taxpayer.” However, documents showed Bouchard in one instance deposited a $25,000 cheque into the partnership bank account, then immediately took $25,000 from the fund as reimbursement for Eugénie’s expenses and claimed the transaction as a business loss.
Reported losses by Tennis Mania totaled $25,047 in the 2005 tax year, then $20,085 in 2006 and $36,011 the year after that – all disallowed after auditors examined the partnership’s books in 2009. “It was only operated in such a way as to create tax deductions,” wrote Judge Masse; “This resulted in significant tax savings for the appellant and thus made it easier for him to finance Eugénie’s burgeoning career.”
Masse continued, “He was not looking at the partnership as a source of profit but was instead looking for a means to finance Eugénie’s development as a tennis player, while at the same time creating a tax advantage in the form of a tax loss for himself.”
Court documents showed Eugénie earned enough to meet her expenses by 2009, but to date had not paid any profits to Tennis Mania investors. Commercial sponsorships of the tennis pro, including a $75,000 contract with Adidas Group, were paid to Eugénie personally, court heard.
By Tom Korski 
New research is disputing a long-held claim that speedier drug approvals inevitably lead to increased health and safety warnings by regulators. A study concludes there is no proof haste makes waste in drug regulation: “Safety warnings are safety warnings.”
