The Commons transport committee has opened hearings on airport noise with a public appeal to curb night flights over sleeping neighbourhoods. Federal regulators take noise complaints from residents near train yards, but not airport runways: “I invite you to my home when we have night flights.”
The Senate languages committee recommends French-language federal ads be mandated in English newspapers, and unilingual Anglophone judges be disqualified from serving on the Supreme Court. The proposals follow the Commons tabling of cabinet regulations mandating French service and signage at airports in every provincial capital: “We have heard the cries of Francophone communities.”
“We need to help immigrants,”
says Sylvain,
sinking his teeth
into a Double Angus Burger
he gets at Harvey’s.
“Agree,”
says Stephanie,
sipping Iced Mocha Latte
from Tim Hortons.
Anne joins them,
unwrapping the chicken donair,
tabouli, and baba ganoush
she gets at the Lebanese bakery.
(Editor’s note: poet Shai Ben-Shalom, an Israeli-born biologist, examines current events in the Blacklock’s tradition each and every Sunday)
Cabinet is mandating French signs and service at airports from St. John’s to Victoria. Airport managers have protested compliance will be difficult in cities with few Francophones: ‘It is a challenge to find bilingual people to work at Tim Hortons.’
Municipalities may enforce zoning bylaws against marijuana, a judge has ruled. The Ontario Superior Court decision is the first in Canada since cabinet legalized home cultivation of cannabis October 17: “Times have changed.”
Environment Canada yesterday defended its preoccupation with inspecting small businesses like dry cleaners for breaches of the Environmental Protection Act. “We know where they are,” an enforcement director told the Senate environment committee.
The Senate yesterday hurried final approval of a Pacific trade treaty after a week’s review and debate. The bill was signed into law within minutes of the final vote as senators vowed Canada must be among the first to ratify it: “It’s a treaty we can’t change anyway.”
The Department of Finance yesterday said it will conduct a 2019 review of risks to insurers and banks from a catastrophic earthquake. The famed 1906 San Francisco quake bankrupted twelve insurance companies: “So, piles of rubble, houses with mortgages and no insurance, and I gather the plan of financial institutions is to hope the government will bail it all out.”
SNC-Lavalin Group Inc. is suing federal prosecutors to save the company from a costly corruption trial. Conviction on charges unproven to date could see the nation’s largest engineering firm blacklisted from public works for 10 years. “They’re going to have to figure it out for themselves,” said Public Works Minister Carla Qualtrough.
Pay errors for federal employees as a result of the failed Phoenix Pay System total nearly two-thirds of a billion dollars, says the chair of the Commons public accounts committee. Nearly 6 in 10 federal employees, 58 percent, have seen paycheques garbled this year: “It’s getting worse.”
The Senate yesterday passed into law a cabinet bill to curb harassment in federally-regulated workplaces. The government itself has spent more than $3 million on private investigations of harassment claims in the past two years: “If two people are engaging in social media, it could be considered workplace harassment.”
Federal employees typically email each other up to 100 times a day, says in-house research by Shared Services Canada, the government’s IT department. Staff complained of slow internet connections and an overwhelming volume of often pointless messages: ‘Most agreed it is too many.’
Cabinet yesterday confirmed it will spend a record $91 million on Parliament Hill security this year. Costs have nearly doubled since a 2014 shooting: “We have to be vigilant at all times, and the nature of the work does increase the stress levels.”
The Senate has passed a private Conservative bill to ban shark fin imports. Canada is the largest foreign market for fins outside Asia, witnesses earlier told the Senate fisheries committee: “Let’s be on the right side of history.”
The Department of Finance underestimated carbon tax revenues by millions in drafting its Greenhouse Gas Pollution Pricing Act, new data show. Actual revenues are from 19 to 58 percent higher than originally calculated: “We did not change the plan.”
