Cabinet yesterday served notice the Senate must pass nine major bills in 30 work days before Parliament adjourns for pre-election campaigning. The unprecedented motion would cut short debate. Far-reaching bills range from jury selection at criminal trials to oil tankers on the Pacific coast: “The government has decided to play hardball.”
The latest North American free trade pact will cost Canadians an extra $23.8 million a year in higher drug prices, the Parliamentary Budget Office said yesterday. An earlier 2017 trade pact with the European Union also raised drug costs a third of a billion dollars with extensions to patent rules: “This will make it so much worse.”
Transport Canada has been too slow to adopt new bus safety reforms, says the chair of the Transportation Safety Board. The Commons transport committee yesterday opened safety hearings prompted by the Humboldt Broncos disaster: “I’m thinking of all these families.”
The Public Service Commission says the time required to hire fresh talent by federal departments and agencies should take about three months. The current average is nearly 7 months: “Can we go beyond that Absolutely.”
Environment Commissioner Julie Gelfand yesterday faulted regulators for haphazard protection of fish habitat from mining effluent. Investigators counted 42 lakes, streams, creeks and rivers nationwide where mining companies are licensed to dump tailings: ‘When there were environmental effects, there was no requirement to do anything.’
Commons business yesterday slowed to a crawl with eight work weeks left in the parliamentary calendar. Opposition MPs pressed cabinet for a full investigation of the SNC-Lavalin Group Inc. political scandal: “I will speak for hours and hours on end.”
Police should conduct social media checks on gun owners to spot buyers with “hate in their hearts”, an advocacy group yesterday told the Senate national security committee. Senators questioned if the measure would be constitutional: “We’re really dealing with subjective matters.”
The Department of National Defence yesterday issued 176 pages of specifications on how to buy a sleeping bag. MPs have lamented red tape in federal contracting: “Does it never worry you guys what we would do if we went into a major war?”
A federal farmers’ bank predicts credit losses will increase by a third this year. Farm Credit Canada said it uses “sound business practices” to limit shortfalls: “The government is on the hook to cover that.”
A First Nations cigarette maker has won Court approval to press a $27 million libel suit over allegations it’s involved in tobacco smuggling. The makers of Putter’s-brand cigarettes sued over 2016 articles in Frontline Safety & Security Magazine: “Those articles were not fact-checked in any manner that has been shown in the record.”
Attorney General David Lametti sought to quash a criminal prosecution of SNC-Lavalin Group Inc., MP Jody Wilson-Raybould hints in a March 26 letter released by the Commons justice committee. Lametti has refused comment on the claim he was prepared to issue an unprecedented order to save the company from trial on fraud and bribery charges: “I simply won’t go there.”
The $50 per tonne federal carbon tax would have to double to meet emissions targets without new regulatory curbs on polluters, says an environmental group. The current tax to take effect today nationwide will add an extra 12¢ to the cost of a litre of gasoline by 2022, as well 14¢ more for diesel, 13¢ for aviation fuel, 10¢ per cubic metre of natural gas and 8¢ a litre for propane: “The federal government may change the pricing system.”
More than $40 million in federal fee increases on industry took effect at midnight under a 2017 Act mandating perpetual hikes. The cost of charges for everything from patents to marijuana licenses went up 2.2 percent: “There will be no incentive to try to keep the costs down.”
A federal review of controversial views by historic figures will exempt Tommy Douglas, founding leader of the New Democratic Party. Douglas was an early supporter of eugenics, and in the 1930s advocated the sterilization of women he deemed subnormal: “He later changed his views on this topic.”
Federal investigators are drilling down into WestJet Airlines Inc. practices in a probe of alleged predatory pricing, according to Court documents. The Competition Bureau seeks to question a second WestJet executive: ‘The Commissioner seeks information on the intent behind ticket pricing.’
