The labour department has partially repealed restrictions on migrant hiring by longtime employers. The initiative came six weeks after an industry group appealed for “stopgap measures” to ease worker shortages: “This is a prudent step”.
Air Canada has apologized after airport check-in staff badgered a Pakistani-born senator over her right to take a paid seat in business class. Senator Salma Ataullahjan (Conservative-Ont.) said she knew of similar incidents involving legislators: “I’ve spoken to other minority senators and they all feel the same. We have experienced this”.
A cabinet pitch to raise billions in Canada Pension Plan premiums and benefits faces scrutiny by the Senate banking committee. The committee chair yesterday said senators will consider drafting a Senate motion to investigate the proposal: “This came out of nowhere”.
Senators amid protests of Air Canada “bullying” yesterday passed a cabinet bill shielding the airline from liability over illegal 2012 job cuts. The Senate dismissed Liberal amendments that would have bound Air Canada to promised terms of privatization: “They should be ashamed of themselves”.
A Senate committee in defiance of cabinet has unanimously endorsed a bill for independent oversight of the Canada Border Services Agency. The bill’s sponsor cited a profiling incident in appealing for appointment of an inspector general: “I get letters and emails from people who have had tough times at the hands of CBSA agents”.
Canada Post is attempting to strip pension benefits in a bid to escape billions in liabilities, says the Canadian Union of Postal Workers. The union yesterday said post office management in confidential contract talks proposed to rewrite benefits terms: “Workers would have no guarantee there pension would actually be there”.
Alberta wildfires that forced evacuation of Fort McMurray left an environmental legacy that may threaten water quality for years, says a University of Waterloo researcher. Scientists are examining the impact of the 6,000-sq. km. fire on the Athabasca River: “This will create an ongoing challenge”.
Parks Canada permitted an “uncontained biohazard risk” at a UNESCO World Heritage Site, according to Access To Information records. The department dumped millions of litres of untreated human waste into an overflowing sewage lagoon at Lake Louise: “It is very unsatisfactory and dangerous”.
Air Canada will not disclose cost savings over illegal outsourcing of maintenance jobs. Airline executives yesterday declined to divulge confidential contract terms under pointed questioning at the Senate transport committee: “You do what we want or we’re going to stick it to you”.
A Canada Border Services Agency supervisor fired for ‘shocking’ misconduct has been ordered reinstated. A federal labour board ruled management went too far in disciplining the employee accused of giving preferential treatment in exchange for gifts: ” I should recuse myself from dealing with friends in the entertainment business”.
Cabinet yesterday fell silent as the Senate passed an amended RCMP union bill. Officials earlier claimed that failure to pass the bill as written would cause confusion and delay. A Treasury Board spokesperson said authorities needed time to digest the impact of the Senate vote: “The dice are loaded”.
Senators are demanding Air Canada disclose how much it saved by illegally outsourcing jobs to Duluth, Minnesota. The call yesterday came as cabinet appealed for quick passage of a bill shielding the airline from liability for breaching its 1988 terms of privatization: “Are unions more costly here than in Duluth?”
The Senate last night expressed support to broaden bargaining powers for a first-ever RCMP union. A government representative cautioned the bill may lead to costly concessions to other federal employees: “The precedent would be set”.
Federal managers in a five-month period spent more than $400,000 on executive getaways and corporate retreats, records show. Expenses included thousands paid for luxury meeting rooms a short walk from managers’ own offices in downtown Ottawa: “Breakfast is too expensive so we went somewhere else”.
Canadian police spend millions a year not on crime fighting but bylaw enforcement and traffic checks, says a Department of Public Safety study. New research shows one of the largest police departments in the country devotes 48 percent of its budget to traffic matters: “Investigative costs of crime may not comprise as much of police expenditures as first believed”.
