The Senate will not disclose the cost of out-of-court settlements of harassment claims by ex-staff. At least one case went to Federal Court, involving an employee who said she was driven to tears by an abusive boss: “How much?”
The labour department says it cannot estimate the cost of its Pay Equity Act. A single arbitrator’s ruling to compensate underpaid women mail carriers cost Canada Post $550 million, by official estimate: “Pay equity can’t be achieved through reducing salaries.”
The Department of Public Works is spending more than a million dollars a year monitoring Canadians’ Twitter comments and Facebook posts. Surveillance is intended to “track current and emerging public issues and trends”, said the department.
Hockey moms and players last night appealed to a Commons subcommittee on sports-related brain injuries for mandatory concussion training in hockey. Witnesses told of longstanding health effects: “My job as a mother is to protect my children and I didn’t know enough about goalie masks.”
The Canada Revenue Agency last year wrote off nearly $110,000 in tax debts after misplacing its own paperwork. Complaints of lost records are not uncommon, said one MP: “Service standards are getting worse, not better.”
The Senate yesterday passed a private Liberal bill to publish a yearly blacklist of convicted tax cheats, including those with offshore accounts. No dissenting vote was cast: “All parliamentarians regardless of their political affiliation should come together on the issue.”
The Department of Finance claims 7 in 10 Canadians receiving carbon tax rebates next year will make money on the deal. Members of the Senate national finance committee yesterday questioned how the program would reduce emissions: “I don’t see it.”
A journalists’ group yesterday told MPs it’s “comfortable” with federal subsidies for newsrooms. Blacklock’s neither solicits nor accepts government grants: “Government funding of our free press is controversial, even among journalists.”
Transport Minister Marc Garneau yesterday said he has yet to hear any complaints from industry that the carbon tax is uncompetitive. Plane, train and trucking executives have repeatedly testified at parliamentary hearings that the tax will cost business: “How can you sit here and say you haven’t heard from anybody?”
The Parliamentary Budget Office yesterday estimated that matching Trump tax cuts would cost the federal treasury about $1.6 billion. The calculation follows an October 16 Senate banking committee appeal for lower corporate taxes: “The world will not wait for Canada.”
The Senate last night voted 53 to 25 to force an end to rotating mail strikes. Labour Minister Patricia Hajdu said she expected Canada Post operations to resume nationwide by tomorrow: “The arbitrator will start to make decisions for them.”
MPs on the Commons public accounts committee yesterday lamented the state of federal heritage buildings. Auditors in a November 20 report said agencies including Parks Canada have allowed national historic sites to crumble into disrepair: “You’re just looking for trouble.”
The Federal Court of Appeal has faulted a whistleblowers’ tribunal for needless time and expense in investigating a workplace complaint. The ruling is the first of its kind since MPs urged immediate reforms to a whistleblower law intended to protect federal employees and contractors: “People’s lives are still being destroyed.”
The Prince Edward Island Supreme Court has imposed an unusual 33 conditions on a petty thief convicted of cheating her small business employer. “She behaved in a way that clearly does not show respect for the law,” wrote the Court.
Provincial utilities propose that Canada install small nuclear reactors to meet climate change targets, especially in Arctic towns reliant on diesel-powered generators. The Department of Natural Resources must first “address any misunderstanding” about Fukushima-style disasters, said a report: “The likelihood of this type of accident is low.”
