The national carbon tax is unconstitutional and must be overturned in court, Alberta United Conservative Party leader Jason Kenney yesterday told the Commons finance committee. Kenney said that, if elected in a provincial vote in 2019, he would have the province join a Saskatchewan challenge of the Greenhouse Gas Pollution Pricing Act: “It’s all economic pain and no environmental gain.”
Legal cannabis will have a far-reaching impact on Canadian youth and policing, the Senate social affairs committee was told yesterday. Canada would become only the second nation to legalize recreational marijuana, after Uruguay in 2012: “This is poor public policy.”
Police and federal agencies have compiled a blacklist of Facebook pages and other social media by environmental groups, according to Access To Information records. The monitoring is outlined in RCMP and staff notes compiled by an “intelligence service” in the Department of Fisheries: ‘These are known professional protesters.’
Canada Post has drafted a 55-page plan to manage marijuana by mail, but censored details under Access To Information. Police predict a boon in mailed drugs if Parliament legalizes recreational marijuana: “It is a growing problem.”
The Canada Broadcast Standards Council has cited TSN for broadcasting profanity in football. The sportscaster explained it was powerless to stop players from cussing within range of live microphones: “There appears to have been no attempt to discourage such language.”
The oil and gas sector, second largest polluter in the nation, is unlikely to cut emissions under a carbon tax, says the Senate energy committee. There are “few easy solutions” for the industry, senators wrote: “We could wipe out the oil and gas sector.”
MPs have passed a Pacific oil tanker ban. The cabinet bill restricts tankers from anchoring or unloading on the northern British Columbia coast: “What is the logic for doing this? Is there a problem with tankers? Are tankers unsafe?”
The national carbon tax will cost motorists more than a billion dollars in higher pump prices next year, gas retailers yesterday told the Senate energy committee. There is no evidence Canadians will drive less, one executive said: “A lot of the driving in today’s life is mandatory.”
Finance Minister Bill Morneau yesterday said pay equity legislation for more than a million federally-regulated workers will be introduced after Labour Day. Morneau said a Pay Equity Act will be written into an autumn budget bill. No date was fixed for its implementation: “It’ll be there.”
Incidents of impaired driving in commercial aviation, rail and marine shipping are rare but not unprecedented, says the chair of the Transportation Safety Board. Members of the Senate legal and constitutional affairs committee have hinted at amendments to a cannabis bill to mandate random workplace drug tests: “It’s really up to them.”
Canada Post yesterday reported a 35 percent increase in pre-tax profits from $55 million to $74 million last year. The post office credited a large gain in parcel revenues for its fourth consecutive annual profit: “There is no crisis at Canada Post, and never was.”
The Commons by a 161 to 121 vote yesterday rejected key Senate amendments to a rail transport bill. MPs dismissed proposals to grant rail shippers new rights, and reinstated a provision granting rail companies random access to workplace surveillance recordings: “This is a serious issue.”
Conservative members of the Senate legal and constitutional affairs committee yesterday called for legislated mandatory random workplace drug testing. Any amendment would counter a 2013 Supreme Court ruling that workers may only be tested with cause and consent: “You hit the nail on the head.”
Senators yesterday piled more proposed amendments onto a cabinet bill to legalize marijuana. “This is not tinkering,” said one legislator, as Senate committees urged numerous changes five weeks before a cabinet deadline for a final vote: “We’re supposed to have this done.”
The Royal Canadian Legion has filed a federal lawsuit against an Alberta retailer over unauthorized use of its famous poppy. The Legion said it must defend itself from improper use of lookalike emblems: “You’re stealing from those who supported this country by laying down their lives.”
