Environment Canada is being pressed to calculate the per capita cost of any carbon tax. Cabinet in its 2016 budget said carbon pricing “will be a key element” in reducing greenhouse gas emissions: “We need to let the people of Canada know”.
Federal agents are proceeding with a plan to track all international air passenger arrivals including Canadians returning home from vacations abroad. The monitoring will be in place by September 30 at a cost of $10.7 million a year to airlines and the Canada Border Services Agency: “We will be requiring that airlines provide us with passenger manifests”.
A court-ordered plan to unionize the RCMP will see millions in new costs for local authorities, say Conservative MPs. Eight provinces – all but Ontario and Québec – contract the Mounties for policing: “Has the government considered the financial ramifications?”
The Royal Bank breached federal law in withholding personal information from its own depositors, a judge has ruled. The Federal Court also faulted the Office of the Privacy Commissioner for dismissing complaints the Bank improperly concealed data as “confidential commercial information”, including a newspaper clipping: “There must be articulate reasons for denying access”.
Millions in new federal funding to curb air pollution are a fraction of spending needed, say advocates. The 2016 budget targeted $345 million in five-year spending to cut air pollution.
“It is good to see the pollution fight, but we are way below what we have to do if we consider greenhouse gas reduction,” said André Belisle, president of l’Association Québécoise De Lutte Contre La Pollution Atmosphérique. “It’s welcome, but if you look at global warming and greenhouse gas emissions we are going to have to do a lot more.”
Finance department documents detailed no regulatory measures to meet emissions targets, but proposed funding “organizations to conduct research on and monitor air pollution sources as well as health and environmental impacts; report to Canadians on air pollution sources; and on local, regional and national air quality.”
Regulators will “develop new policy approaches and regulatory instruments to improve air quality,” the budget said.
The Canadian Medical Association estimates some 21,000 people die prematurely each year due to air pollution. Alberta has the worst air in the country in terms of dust and coarse particulate matter, according to Health Canada research.
The health department in a 2015 notice acknowledged air pollution is a known killer among city-dwellers, but concluded more research is needed: “Air pollution could make people sick, which leads to hospitalization, and thus mortality and morbidity attributable to air pollutants can be investigated together.” Results of the research may not be released till 2018.
The Commission for Environmental Cooperation in 2014 also warned Canada’s airborne dioxins were higher in some regions in Canada than in Mexico. Measurement was based on data from North American ambient air monitoring networks, including Canadian sites examined between 2008 and 2011.
“The four-year period of overlapping measurement data in Canada and the U.S. show comparable levels at rural sites,” the report concluded. “Concentrations at Mexican rural sites were lower by a factor of about 10 than the corresponding Canadian measurements.”
In total the federal budget proposes to spend $3.4 million over five years on climate change and air pollution initiatives, including money towards protecting environmental areas, and environmental assessments.
By Kaven Baker-Voakes 
The federal labour department in 2013 commissioned secret research on legislative methods to weaken private sector unions, documents show. Labour Minister MaryAnn Mihychuk, who released the research, described it as a “political agenda” to harm organized labour: ‘They don’t need heavy-handed government to bring in tricks’.
New Syrian refugees are costing taxpayers the equivalent of some $10,000 each under a resettlement plan that’s gone 137 percent over its promised budget, documents show. The immigration department acknowledged the figures are “forecasted expenditures” and may rise: “How far do we go?”
Cabinet is only partially reviving a federal tax credit for labour-sponsored venture capital corporations once dubbed a national “boondoggle”. The 2016 budget will see limited credits offered on a restricted basis after a previous Conservative cabinet took steps to halt the program in 2013: “We never supported these outfits”.
The 2016 budget codifies a cabinet pledge to roll back Conservative changes to the National Energy Board Act that limited the scope of hearings on pipeline projects. New funding for environmental assessments – worth $30.7 million over four years – is tied to “restoring trust” in risk reviews, the budget said: “What else can we do?”
Introduction of any national pharmacare program will involve “significant” complexities, says a health department official. Canadians currently pay from 10 to 30 percent more for comparable drugs than consumers in the European Union, according to federal data: ‘There are Canadians who do not fill prescriptions because they simply cannot afford to do so”.
Transport Canada will spend three years scrutinizing a VIA Rail plan to upgrade to 110 mph commuter service on its busiest routes, say budget documents. Cabinet remains silent on a recommendation that passenger subsidies be cut on a promise of better service: “Much is left to be done”.
Creation of a new federal Youth Advisory Council is a “good first step” to tackling stubbornly high youth unemployment, says the Canadian Labour Congress. The initiative follows dismissal of a Commons committee report that urged tax credits for employers who hire job-seekers under 30: “Timing is critical”.
Cabinet proposes new wholesale spending on infrastructure and the environment en route to a $700 billion federal debt by 2018, the largest in Canadian history. “Our priority is to make investments for Canadians,” said Finance Minister Bill Morneau. “Our objective of growing the economy is critical.”
Cabinet will spend nearly half a billion dollars under a five-year crackdown on tax evasion. The 2016 budget also promises to improve customer service for lawful tax-filers frustrated by dealings with the Canada Revenue Agency: “It’ll be money well spent”.
A private Conservative bill would see big donors to Canadian charities get the same federal tax credits as political contributors. The bill’s sponsor said that “feeding a politician should be no more important than feeding the hungry.”
