Canada Revenue Agency is seeking a Court order compelling a credit card processor to surrender client records. Tax attorneys wrote in a Federal Court application they want to ensure Canadian customers are paying tax on sales and income: “Obviously they were looking for my information”.
A traveling couple fined $2,500 for failing to declare a large bankroll in their luggage has lost a bid to challenge the penalty at the Supreme Court. Justices declined to hear the case: “People do that all the time”.
Lawmakers will try for a fourth time in two years to regulate merchant fees charged by Visa and MasterCard Canada. The latest Senate bill follows protests from Walmart Canada over high fees charged by credit issuers: ‘Regulation is desperately required’.
A $64 million Arctic grocers’ subsidy has cost up to $2,400 per capita to fly food to remote hamlets, new data show. The Department of Indigenous Affairs detailed partial costs of the Nutrition North subsidy in accounts tabled in Parliament: “This report is limited”.
A convicted fraudster has lost an appeal challenging federal penalties on millions in unpaid taxes. The delinquent taxpayer claimed he never received Canada Revenue Agency notices while in jail: “His memory was inexplicably vague”.
Weekend boaters who cross the Canada-U.S. border would be exempt from reporting at customs, under a Conservative bill introduced in the Senate. It follows one fisherman’s arrest in the Thousand Islands: “The border here is essentially invisible”.
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The Liberal cabinet will not repeal all Conservative amendments to environmental protection laws, says Transport Minister Marc Garneau. “The purpose here is not to turn back the clock,” Garneau told the Commons transport committee.
The Senate has opened debate on a bipartisan bill to ban food ads targeting children under 13. The sponsor, Senator Nancy Greene Raine, noted legislators have tried and failed to introduce similar bills since 1974: “Take action now or taxpayers will need to pay increased health care costs in the future”.
Cabinet has cited selective statistics in justifying a 20 percent increase in Canada Pension Plan premiums, data show. Federal research indicates retirees profiting from higher contributions own more property, and have less debt, than Canadians under 35: “Those of us born in the 1950s won the lottery”.
A Manitoba businessman is suing the federal Information Commissioner citing “excessive delay” in processing complaints over concealment of public records. The lawsuit is the latest in what one federal judge described as a “judicial saga” over the Access To Information Act: “There are 70 clauses on why you shouldn’t release information”.
The defence department is holding a first-ever ethics symposium for 22,000 employees. The program, called Time To Talk, follows recent arrests of six staffers and contractors: “An act that violates the law is always wrong”.
Cabinet has rejected a 2017 deadline to introduce a pay equity bill. Any legislation will be postponed till late 2018 at the earliest, officials said: “It is a complicated issue”.
MPs last night voted 207 to 81 in favour of a non-binding motion ratifying cabinet’s greenhouse gas emission targets. The Commons did not agree on terms of a federal carbon tax proposed to reach $50 per tonne of emissions by 2022: “Canadians are excited about this”.
MPs have defeated a private Liberal bill calling for Criminal Code sanctions against animal cruelty. The Commons last evening rejected the bill by a 198 to 84 vote after cabinet signaled its disapproval: “We’re not supportive”.
