The Senate will undertake a first-ever study of electric cars amid industry requests for subsidies. Lobbyists sought $3,000 federal rebates for buyers of plug-in electrics. One senator dismissed the proposal as taxpayer aid for the wealthy: “You can count on being grilled”.
A federal program to centralize government computer services including 493,000 employee email accounts is doomed to failure, says a cyber security expert. Analysts speaking at a Liberal Senate caucus forum yesterday criticized attempts to streamline the governments’ $5 billion-a year computer systems: “The question is whether it fails catastrophically”.
Two travelers who mistakenly boarded a flight for London, Ontario instead of London, England have no right to complain, the Canadian Transportation Agency has ruled. Regulators said the unfortunate mix-up was not the responsibility of the airline: ‘Wrong gate, wrong flight, wrong carrier, wrong destination’.
Cabinet’s planned $50 carbon tax may cost auto jobs, says an industry group. Automakers said the proposal to tax carbon emissions beginning in 2018 could further drive new plants to the U.S. and Mexico: “This is otherwise known as carbon leakage”.
Cabinet will finalize planned reforms for Canada Post within six months but cannot commit to restoring doorstep mail delivery, says the public works minister. A Commons committee examining the post office is to report by December 31: “Which is it, yes or no?”
Canadians have no interest in eating engineered fish, says an aquaculture trade association. An industry lobbyist yesterday told first-ever public hearings on licensing of lab-made animals the initiative meets no apparent market demand: “That’s really critical”.
Advertisers to children face another bid at curbs on marketing under a private New Democrat bill introduced in the Commons. The proposal follows a Conservative bill in the Senate to ban food ads to children under 13: ‘Parents should not be deceived, manipulated or misled into buying certain goods’.
Cabinet will review a private Conservative bill in the Senate that mandates prompt payment for contractors and trades on public works, says Public Services Minister Judy Foote. “No one should do work and not get paid,” Foote yesterday told senators.
Canada’s next astronaut is getting a pay raise. Cabinet approved an executive order for an $800 bonus for David Saint-Jacques, who is scheduled for 2018 take-off to the International Space Station. He will still earn a fraction of the country’s highest-paid public officials: “They really do put them through the mill”.
A Conservative bill to grant school boards nearly $200 million in new annual tax rebates faces defeat in the Commons. MPs yesterday rejected the bill on a voice vote, and deferred a formal recorded vote till October 19: “Do the right thing”.
Cabinet contemplates a “clean-up” of the way it awards billions in contracts, according to Access To Information documents. The Treasury Board in a 2015 memo complained current practices are slow, costly and pointlessly complex: “Policy is outdated and has not been renewed since the late 1990s”.
The public works department faces trial on allegations it broke the law in awarding a multi-million dollar Canadian contract to a foreign company. The Seafarers International Union described the case as disturbing: “The government is charged with ensuring the law is enforced”.
Two abandoned Nova Scotia vessels have cost more than $1.2 million in salvage and cleanup costs, according to Federal Court documents. MPs have proposed tighter regulation forcing ship owners to pay: “Wow, are these boats going to be here forever?”
Taxpayers are stuck with 75 percent of the cost of a 2017 hockey tribute after private fundraisers failed to find enough sponsors, records show. Organizers propose to install a hockey-themed monument near the Prime Minister’s Office: “The impact of the project is not diminished”.
Federal agencies have spent the equivalent of nearly $60,000 a week on polling and focus group interviews, new accounts show. MPs had criticized the practice in the last Parliament: “We need a really big basket”.
