The Department of Agriculture is spending $61,000 to research food labels as MPs consider tightening regulations. Authorities should know which consumers read labels and why, the department said: ‘Many question why government should resist providing consumers with more information’.
Alberta RCMP are issuing a $100,000 contract to control rodents at a national police dog kennel best known for its annual Name The Puppy contest. Exterminators are to be on the lookout for rats – Alberta claims to be mainly rat-free since 1951 – though mice are a greater menace, the Mounties said: “It’s a never-ending battle”.
Property rights are not absolute, the Supreme Court of Prince Edward Island has ruled. Municipalities are entitled to restrict “tasteless or even ghastly” property fixtures that affect land values, the Court said: ‘Pretending is generally not a good way to deal with a municipality’.
Canada must adopt aggressive control measures to stem the spread of the mountain pine beetle, says a Department of Natural Resources scientist. The beetle is blamed for destroying thousands of acres of forest in its eastward migration from British Columbia: “It’s a numbers game”.
If your name happens to be
Justin Trudeau, Justin Bieber, or
Justin Timberlake,
everyday Canadians
would be thrilled to take your picture
and
have a selfie with you.
For those less popular,
like the Environment Minister on an official trip to
Europe,
there is always a photographer for hire
– $6,600 for two weeks –
to be paid in full
by the same everyday Canadians.
(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 counts hundreds of financial institutions that have failed to comply with regulations on reporting large cash transactions, say Access To Information records. Courts earlier cited the Financial Transactions & Reports Analysis Centre for imposing arbitrary five-figure fines on small business for technical breaches of the law: “We are left in the dark”.
The Senate is launching an investigation of foreign ownership of farmland. Hearings of the agriculture committee follow 2013 Access To Information memos in which regulators complained Canada has no central registry to track offshore ownership: “It could shape Canada”.
Federal statisticians have identified the warmest community in Canada. More than two-thirds of respondents, 68 percent, told researchers they have a strong sense of neighbourliness: “It’s a good feeling to live like this”.
Fish farming regulations are not stringent enough to protect wild species, says a study commissioned by the Atlantic Salmon Federation. The research rated aquaculture rules in Atlantic Canada the lightest of any region in the country: “No jurisdiction is meeting the bar”.
More than 4 in 10 Canadians cannot calculate straight interest, according to newly-released OECD data. Jane Rooney, federal financial literacy leader, noted Canadians scored better on other questions posed in a consumer survey of 30 countries: ‘You lend a friend $25. He repays you $25 the next day. How much interest was earned?’
Cabinet proposes that pipeline operators create a $250 million compensation fund for oil spills, but on a voluntary basis. Oil shippers using rail and marine tankers are required to finance a clean-up fund under federal law: “No amount of money can fully restore the damage”.
Federal inspectors cited food processors for 36 incidents of “unsatisfactory” tests for toxins in a six-month period, newly-released data show. Only 9 resulted in food recalls since consumers were never at risk, said the Canadian Food Inspection Agency: “How confident are you?”
The Canada Border Services Agency has fined a jobless Alberta man $1,300 for carrying infants’ milk powder in his airport luggage. The Agency cited the traveler for a “very serious violation” of the Health Of Animals Act: “I wish I had tried to make them understand”.
The Department of Canadian Heritage in a secret memo is contemplating the bankruptcy of the nation’s largest newspaper chain, warning that calls for federal intervention “could become significant”. The memo was obtained through Access To Information: “28 cities would be left without a daily newspaper”.
A federal overhaul of food safety regulations is entering its fifth year amid industry complaints. Parliament’s 2012 passage of the Safe Food For Canadians Act coincided with the biggest beef recall in Canadian history: “Regulations are still pending”.
