Documents in Tax Court indicate a company was given more than $520,000 in green-tech funding though it repeatedly failed to file its taxes on time, and had not met all requirements of its contract with a federal agency. Sustainable Development Technology Canada yesterday did not comment: ‘They issued a cheque.’
Broadcasters yesterday appealed to the Commons industry committee to leave in place a 1997 provision of the Copyright Act that sees most radio stations pay $100 a year for playing Canadian music. MPs expressed incredulity: “$100 whether then or now is not a lot of money.”
Cabinet has again delayed reforms to its $98.7 million-a year subsidy for Arctic grocers. Changes to the Nutrition North program had been promised by year’s end: “There’s an abysmal lack of action around the issue of Nutrition North.”
Staff inertia and lobbyists’ meddling compromised a two-year federal campaign to identify a distinctive, world-class, all-Canadian meal, according to Access To Information records. The Department of Industry has yet to show any results of its search for the one national cuisine: “Unfortunately, this process is taking a little longer than expected.”
Federal agencies have hired fewer than 600 people to date under a 2015 program to promote jobs for medically-released veterans, by official estimate. One official said government recruiters offered ready-made jobs to athletes at the 2017 Invictus Games but had no takers: “I’m not satisfied.”
Canadian manufacturers have been left to “work things out” in the tariff dispute with the U.S., says one auto parts maker. The Department of Finance on July 1 imposed duties on U.S. steel, aluminum and consumer goods in retaliation for American tariffs: “It’s not ideal but it’s the situation we’re in.”
A tree-killing Asian beetle first detected in Canada 16 years ago has now spread through half the provinces, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency confirms. The emerald ash borer is blamed for billions in damage from Manitoba to Nova Scotia: “The new finding is a first.”
A human rights tribunal has awarded nearly $18,000 in damages to an employee fired after just three months on the job. The employer went too far in dismissing the woman without cause after she suffered a medical emergency, an adjudicator said: “I became very discouraged.”
The Commons trade committee yesterday rejected a New Democrat proposal to account for job gains and losses in a new Pacific trade pact. The Senate trade committee in 2017 made a similar proposal in the name of transparency: “Don’t be sorry to me, be sorry to Canadians.”
Members of the Commons heritage committee yesterday praised “sensible recommendations” to rewrite the Copyright Act to reward creators. Performers complained they earn pennies from internet downloads and radio play.
“If we stopped to explain this in the street to every Canadian who listens to music they would be outraged,” said musician David Bussieres, founder of Montréal-based Regroupement des Artisans de la Musique. Copyright law leaves “crumbs for the artists”, he said.
Bussieres said his 2014 hit Lumière brought him $10.80 in royalties on Spotify though the song was played thousands of times. “It was 0.03¢ per hit,” he said. The same song generated 60,000 views on YouTube with net revenue of $153.
The typical Canadians pays $594 a year for internet service, according to the CRTC’s latest Communications Monitoring Report. “Out of all this money, only a tiny fraction of the subscription cost goes to creators after going through all the middlemen,” said Bussieres. “That’s where the 0.03¢ per listen comes into play.”
Liberal MP Randy Boissonnault (Edmonton Centre) calculated that “to earn the minimum wage of $15 an hour in Alberta”, Bussieres would need 9.5 million views a month on YouTube and 16,800,000 downloads on Spotify. “It’s not logical,” said Boissonnault. “It’s not fair.”
“You have to keep pushing,” said Boissonnault. “You have to use your voices. There is a natural tension in Parliament between the rights of the consumer, and the rights of the artist to earn a living. Those are fundamental rights, so keep pushing, because it’s our job to be in your corner and to be pushed.”
Performers yesterday urged that MPs rewrite the Copyright Act to compel internet service providers to ensure collection of royalties on works accessible through their networks; extend copyright protection from 50 to 70 years after a creator’s death; and repeal a provision that exempts performers from receiving payments for rebroadcasted works used in TV and film soundtracks.
“These are all sensible recommendations in my opinion,” said Liberal MP Pierre Breton (Shefford, Que.). “They could be implemented rather quickly.”
“We Are Subsidizing Billionaires”
MP Pierre Nantel (Longueuil-St. Hubert, Que.), New Democrat heritage critic, said the committee had an obligation to ensure the Act does not punish performers. “It’s very important that you keep reminding us of your realities,” said Nantel: “Here in this committee, our job is to protect and value the work of our artists and our culture.” The MP described artists’ proposed reforms as “a roadmap with regard to what we should do”.
Testifying at the committee, violinist Miranda Mulholland recommended Parliament also repeal a Copyright Act provision limiting royalty payments by radio stations. “We are subsidizing billionaires and the subsidies have to stop,” said Mulholland, who questioned “just who the government and the copyright laws are protecting”.
“It was a 1997 subsidy given to every commercial radio station in Canada allowing them to only pay $100 in royalties on the first $1.25 million in advertising revenue – and it was meant to be temporary, 20 years ago,” said Mulholland, a member of the Board of Governors of Toronto’s Massey Hall. “The landscape has changed significantly, and now most of these stations have been acquired by the big media companies. But the subsidies still apply. That means all your favourite Canadian artists are subsidizing Bell and Corus.”
Added Mulholland: “Apply skepticism when those currently taking advantage of artists come here and tell you the system is fine, and that artists are better off, or that we just aren’t working hard enough. They might do what they did in Europe and swamp your inboxes with technologically-created auto-spam to give you the false sense that there are thousands of faceless voters determined to vote to protect the status quo.”
Mulholland did not identify any spammers by name. Open Media, a Google Corp.-funded advocacy group, earlier acknowledged it blitzed federal legislators with more than 22,200 emails in a week protesting changes to the Copyright Act. Open Media when contacted by Blacklock’s September 5 said it had modified a website form that allowed indiscriminate emailing by any computer user in any location.
By Staff 
It takes the Government of Canada nearly 7 months to hire fresh outside applicants for job postings, says the Public Service Commission. Members of the Commons government operations committee yesterday questioned whether hiring is skewed to favour insiders: “I do want to talk about nepotism.”
A majority of municipal and business leaders say climate change is not a “significant challenge”, according to in-house research by the Department of Natural Resources. Only 8 percent of executives and 11 percent of city managers rated changing climate as “one of the most significant challenges my organization faces”.
Only 3 percent of federal buildings nationwide are named from women, according to the Department of Public Works. The figures were disclosed at the request of a Liberal Senator who noted little has changed in the past decade: “What if any progress has been made?”
The Department of Public Safety yesterday ordered fresh research on the use and sale of cannabis just weeks ahead of cabinet’s October 17 deadline to legalize the drug. Critics have accused the department of rushing to repeal a 95-year ban on recreational marijuana without adequate study: “We’re really just rolling the dice.”
The Commons yesterday opened debate on a cabinet bill to compel federally-regulated employers to accommodate the disabled under threat of federal fines. Details will be left to regulation once Parliament passes the bill into law, said Public Works Minister Carla Qualtrough: “The bill provides real teeth.”
