Six towns and a Prairie First Nations reserve are front-runners for a multi-billion dollar bedrock storage vault for spent nuclear fuel rods from the country’s power reactors, industry sources tell Blacklock’s. The dump will require 150 years of monitoring for radiation leaks.
Canadian companies victimized by counterfeiters must pay the cost of enforcement under a new bill. Copyright owners will even be charged the cost of destroying bootleg products seized by border officers. Industry Minister Christian Paradis would not take Blacklock’s questions.
A parliamentary committee has opted not to question regulators over warnings Canada is unprepared for an Atlantic oil spill. Investigators have warned regulators “need to do more to prepare for a major oil spill.”
Canada’s ethanol and biodiesel producers are lobbying for new requirements mandating renewable ingredients in home heating oil and Maritime diesel fuel. Regulations that exempt the two expire at month’s end. Sources confirmed lobbyists pressed MPs for new mandates favouring the industry. “That is not going to happen,” said one senior Conservative.
The partial privatization of Atomic Energy of Canada Ltd. is unlikely to change the Crown agency’s corporate direction anytime soon, says a senior executive. Cabinet has said it will “shortly” privatize operations at AECL’s labs in Chalk River, Ont.
The feds forecast a golden age of Canadian agriculture following historic high farm incomes and exports in 2012. “Not bad while the global recession is still on,” Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz told a Commons committee.
Canada’s Mental Health Commission and partners are drafting a national standard to promote mental health in the workplace, much like existing accident prevention programs. Mental health issues account for some 30 percent of short-term disability claims, analysts estimate: “Companies have really resisted dealing with this.”
Federal regulators propose more increases in user fees, this time on pharmaceutical companies and medical device makers. That follows proposed hikes in fees on park visits, grain inspection, and piloting of freighters through the Great Lakes.
A new report is fueling fresh debate over Alberta’s oilsands, suggesting development must be re-evaluated to maximize benefits: “This is an industry that is headed into major turbulence.” An oil price plunge to $27 per barrel in 1986 froze oilsands development, and drove Alberta into its worst budget crisis since the 1930s.
Regulators are cautioning Canadian insurers to plan for “catastrophic losses from exposure to earthquakes,” but could not explain the timing of their report. The nation has had five fatal earthquakes in the past 400 years, according to the Geological Survey of Canada, with a majority of deaths due to drowning and heart attacks.
Canada’s outgoing Commissioner of the Environment, in his final testimony before a Senate committee, said regulators are outnumbered in monitoring the long-term safety of resource development: “We cannot cover everything.”
A ceasefire in neighbourhood wars over cellphone towers is being touted by wireless providers and the Federation of Canadian Municipalities. Cities complain of taking flak over 15-metre towers that are actually regulated by the federal Department of Industry.
Regulators have told Canada’s largest airline to immediately comply with federal law that forbids discrimination against blind passengers. The ruling came in favour of an Ottawa woman who missed a flight after being issued unreadable documents.
MPs last night rejected a motion for long-term public works funding as critics invoked a range of complications from the federal deficit to elections in Italy. “This motion is completely useless,” said Transport Minister Denis Lebel; “Our record speaks for itself.”
New federal legislation on financial literacy is no remedy for weak regulation, says a national advocacy group. The Senate passed a bill to appoint a “Financial Literacy Leader,” though Ottawa already has a Financial Consumer Agency commissioner.
