Legislation before the Senate will “bury” unions and cost Canadians their privacy, says the Leader of the Opposition in the Upper House. Bill C-377 requires that 14,557 union locals publish confidential data under threat of $1,000-a day fines. The labour minister would not comment.
Parliamentarians have opened new hearings on income inequality amid references on tax tables, Scripture and life choices. “The rich are always making it, it seems, and the poor are getting poorer,” said Conservative Senator Don Meredith, a Pentecostal minister: “I’m worried about the marginalized people.”
The Canada Revenue Agency has imposed 8 percent staff cuts in federal offices assigned to tracking overseas tax dodgers, new records show. The reductions affect scores of staff in two divisions responsible for complex audits: “It’s a mystery.”
In a little-noticed sign of a weakening economy, the federal agency that navigates cargo ships through East Coast ports forecasts a year-long slowdown. The Atlantic Pilotage Authority notified shippers it will raise fees this year by up to 9 percent to cover operating deficits amid declining traffic.
Health Canada says it still plans to expand a nationwide string of food safety surveillance offices. The project has been eight years in the works, and completion of the network is unclear: “Everyone needs to get information communicated more quickly.”
Two lobby groups that successfully pressed the Department of Fisheries for a favourable policy change say they never met directly with Fisheries Minister Keith Ashfield. The two groups, named in a federal lawsuit, told Blacklock’s they used legitimate means to seek a “political” decision on fishing quotas: “That’s the way the system works.”
Canada is “punching below our weight” in energy efficiency in buildings, with Public Works Canada and other federal agencies trailing the private sector, says an industry group. The Canada Green Building Council calculates average efficiency of existing commercial buildings is three times below European Union standards. Public Works Minister Rona Ambrose didn’t comment.
Chemicals used to prevent the spread of fires in the home are under safety review, including a substance linked to kidney damage in pets and humans: “This is a catch-up exercise from the last sixty years of our chemical lifestyle.”
Confidential memos cite widespread influence of “political lobbying” in the Department of Fisheries. The secret reports, cited in Court documents, show senior staff and a Conservative MP warned of lobbyists’ pull to the point that “political pressure can achieve desired outcomes” at the cabinet level.
Transport Canada mistakenly repealed a safety regulation affecting millions of vehicles sold in Canada. Officials admit they “inadvertently” dropped a requirement that all new light vehicles be equipped with what one auto executive called “the single most effective safety technology since the seatbelt.”
Parliament will kill a proposal to offer Canadians $2,000 tax credits for touring the country on the 150th anniversary of Confederation. Conservative and New Democrat MPs signaled they will vote against the private bill offering tax credits for vacation expenses.
A federal panel must cull hundreds of applicants and candidates in shortlisting names for coveted ceremonial vice-regal appointments, says the head of a new advisory panel: “They’d better have a sense of what the job is.”
A Manitoba man has lost a tax court appeal after a federal judge dismissed his “improbable” claim his tax returns were lost in the mail. “Some evidence, any evidence,” was the court’s lament. Yet testimony showed 10 percent of mail at one tax office is “typically misplaced” from time to time.
Regulators have served notice on six telecom companies to comply with a federal complaints process or face disconnection by next Wednesday: “It’s not really something that’s common.”
An acclaimed RCMP officer is suing the force for unfair treatment over a secret investigation of his private life. The case comes amid parliamentary debate on a bill to grant the Mounties more power to suspend, demote and fire members without right of appeal.
