Blacklock's Reporter

Cabinet is seeking candidates with experience in labour relations as new directors of Canada Post. The current 10-member board is comprised of Conservative appointees faulted in Parliament for cutting home delivery, raising stamp prices 35 percent, and advocating 2011 back-to-work legislation later found unconstitutional: “It’s like they’re running a candle factory after lightbulbs were invented.”

The Canada Revenue Agency says it’s losing nearly $9 billion a year in unpaid income tax, not including unreported billions squirreled in offshore accounts. Long-sought data on the “tax gap” still fails to capture all losses, said a Liberal senator: “That’s a guesstimate.”

The Canadian Transportation Agency says it is now averaging 20 to 40 complaints a week from airline passengers. The regulator fields more complaints in a month than it did in entire years due to introduction of a passenger rights’ bill: “It’s lunacy.”

Railways may randomly listen to recordings of employees at work under a federal safety bill, says the chair of the Transportation Safety Board. Unions oppose the mandate to install video and voice recorders in locomotives nationwide: “Railways have often demonstrated a very rules-based punitive culture.”

The Department of Health says Canadians may see a patchwork of provincial marijuana laws under repeal of a 1923 ban on recreational cannabis. There is nothing to stop legislatures from tightening legal limits on possession, said a senior department lawyer: “Provinces have the flexibility.”

Transport Canada in what it calls a “sensitive” project is reviewing costs and benefits of an expanded St. Lawrence Seaway. Any expansion should alarm environmental groups, said a former Conservative senator: “Hopefully there will be public consultation on this.”

Veterans Affairs Canada spent more than $10 million on ceremonies marking the 100th anniversary of the Battle of Vimy Ridge. The budget included a quarter-million dollars to send 39 RCMP officers to France, according to Access To Information files: “I recall you mentioned $12 million.”

Mortgage lenders and insurers will punish any building owner that permits marijuana plants on the property, says the Canadian Federation of Apartment Associations. The Commons health committee today opens hearings on a bill that would allow users to grow up to four marijuana plants at home: “There is a variety of negatives to this.”

Health Canada proposes to mandate prescriptions for low-dose codeine painkillers. The department counted thousands of addiction treatments due to misuse of tablets: “These are pain relievers available behind the counter.”

A labour arbitration board has awarded junior firefighters in one Canadian city a retroactive pay increase to nearly $100,000 a year, one of the highest rates in the country. Municipal salaries for firefighters and police are unsustainable, said a business group: “Excessive and unreasonable costs have been imposed upon the taxpayers.”

An Immigration Canada program to charge visitors from abroad for a $7 electronic visa breached regulations, say Access To Information documents. The scheme was proposed in 2012 but saw numerous problems: ‘A Canadian dual citizen will face serious delays at airports and could be denied boarding.’

The Canadian Air Transport Security Authority is ordering security screeners to act nicer. The Access To Information directive follows complaints of long lineups at X-ray scanners for travelers nationwide: “Behave in a friendly, pleasant manner.”

Engineers Canada in a submission to the Commons transport committee says investment in railways is crucial to meeting climate change targets. Railways anticipate nearly $400 million a year in new fuel fees under a national carbon tax: “Those tracks are a lifeline.”

The national carbon tax will cost farmers up to $3,705 more per year on average, affecting food prices yet accomplishing little to lower emissions, say Access To Information memos. The Department of Agriculture is the first to disclose the cash impact of the tax on Canadian households: “This result is for a typical or average farm.”