Cabinet faces a third bill, the latest sponsored by a Liberal senator, proposing pension-friendly amendments to bankruptcy law. Legislators have proposed numerous reforms in the aftermath of Sears Canada’s bankruptcy: “There’s an openness to figure out what we can do.”
MPs yesterday passed a bill to ban food advertising to children. The legislation would give restaurants and food manufacturers two years to comply: “The definition of ‘healthy food’ was not nailed down.”
Criminal defence lawyers yesterday appealed to the Commons justice committee to rewrite a cabinet bill restricting jury selection practices. The bill to ban peremptory challenges follows the Attorney General’s complaint over the February 9 verdict in a Saskatchewan murder trial: “We would be doing a very big disservice in our justice system.”
Fundraisers yesterday appealed to a Senate charities committee for appointment of a stand-alone federal agency to regulate the sector. Charities complained their main point of contact is Canada Revenue Agency tax auditors: “We have an enforcer.”
A $1.69 per tonne levy on oil shipments by rail is insufficient to protect taxpayers from another Lac-Mégantic disaster, an MP said yesterday. Access To Information records show the compensation fund totaled $13.3 million in its first two years, and is now some $20 million – a fraction the cost of the $409 million Lac-Mégantic clean-up: “The railway fund pales in comparison.”
Saskatchewan’s information commissioner has faulted a municipality for a 600 percent overcharge in releasing public records under the Freedom Of Information Act. The federal cabinet abolished the user fees in 2016: “This is a gross overestimate.”
Access To Information records show a costly Canada 150 project funded by taxpayers drew a fraction of its promised target audience. Project Tessera was intended to have 1,000,000 Canadians fill out electronic questionnaires. Fewer than 25,000 participated online: “This number changes daily albeit incrementally.”
Federal research sees a “soft” market for electric cars even as cabinet promotes a $182.5 million plan to boost sales. Transport Canada is to detail its Zero Emission Vehicle Strategy by year’s end: ‘It’s too new to risk buying one.’
Transport Canada in a climate change directive says airlines from 2019 should begin tracking fuel use on international flights. Cabinet did not detail the impact on domestic flights of its national carbon tax, now challenged in the courts by two provinces: “This is totally unreasonable.”
A federal labour board has ruled employers should be careful but considerate in granting workers a snow day with pay. The decision came on a complaint from a Canada Revenue Agency employee who said he was snowed in from work: “The employer may not want to take every employee’s word for it.”
Management says
random acts of kindness
go a long way.
I check the list.
“Ask a colleague about their family”
Should I ask Frank,
whose son got expelled
for bullying?
Perhaps Margaret,
who’s going through a nasty divorce?
Or maybe Jason,
who hasn’t found love
and at 43 still lives with his parents?
“Buy a plant for a common area at work”
That one seems easy.
May wait for October 17
until it’s legal.
(Editor’s note: poet Shai Ben-Shalom, an Israeli-born biologist, examines current events in the Blacklock’s tradition each and every Sunday)
A federal watchdog in an Access To Information memo proposes to publicly name and shame banks suspected of breaching the Proceeds Of Crime And Terrorist Financing Act. Staff warned of “significant pushback” from banks after the name of one scofflaw was inadvertently disclosed in 2017: “There may be reputational impact.”
Heating oil distributors have until year’s end to draft plans to manage spills by federal order. Cabinet in 2017 listed a common home heating oil as toxic: “There will be some challenges.”
Most retailers and wholesalers surveyed, 63 percent, say they’ve never heard of a new federal food safety law though it passed Parliament six years ago. The Department of Health has delayed until 2021 full enforcement of the Act prompted by tainted meat scandals: “All these new changes cause a lot of confusion.”
Authorities used a boastful Facebook post to track a boat owner wanted for repayment of the six-figure clean-up cost for an abandoned vessel, according to Federal Court filings. A bill pending in the Senate aims to save taxpayers the cost of clearing harbours of derelict boats: “I use social media.”
