A parliamentary committee in a rare motion has declined a Pacific junket. Austerity-minded lawmakers vetoed a six-figure budget to travel to Australia for wine tasting and scrutiny of regulations: “I didn’t realize we were going to rent the Space Shuttle to go down there”.
The prison population has declined and recidivism rates remain unchanged even as Canada spends nearly $5 billion a year on jailing offenders, records show. The Department of Public Safety reported the number of prison inmates fell nine percent in one year despite a decade of evolving crime legislation: “These laws were more about ideology”.
A bill allowing RCMP to unionize is a “bad law” that will result in yet more litigation, the Commons public safety committee has been told. MPs declined amendments sought by all police union advocates to broaden collective bargaining rights: ‘It’s kind of a Pyrrhic victory’.
Environment Canada after a year’s review proposes to regulate home heating oil as toxic – by 2018. The lengthy delay comes despite a federal designation on Fuel Oil No. 2 as a high priority for risk assessment: “It’s still a long process”.
The Commons Liberal majority will oppose a 49 percent tax cut on small distillers. MPs called the opposition proposal a corporate giveaway that would cost the treasury $55 million a year: “It’s a huge impediment”.
New suspicions of racial profiling target the Canada Border Services Agency. A decorated peace officer cited Agency staff for “malicious” misconduct. The latest allegation comes as the Senate debates a bill to appoint an independent inspector general to field complaints against customs staff: “Were they profiling minorities?”
The finance department is repealing a 6 percent tax on whale byproducts. Canada ended its commercial whale hunt 44 years ago. No company is known to import whale extract: “This was included among many other things”.
The National Energy Board rejected two-thirds of applicants who sought intervenor status at licensing hearings on a pipeline project, new records show. The refusals followed 2012 amendments to federal law that limited public input: ‘This is the reason the Board does not enjoy the confidence of the public’.
Cabinet must ban asbestos more than forty years after Health Canada identified the processed mineral as toxic, says the Canadian Labour Congress. The appeal follows a 2015 petition from 140 researchers and advocates to abolish the import and export of the product: “There is no reason for delay”.
Cabinet will extend a disputed regulation on competitive rail service for shippers, but only for a year. Canadian Pacific Railway Co. earlier lost a Supreme Court appeal against interswitching rules it blamed for losses of more than $13 million a year: “We’re on the case”.
Any carbon tax to meet federal emissions targets would cost individual Canadians between $600 and $1,900 a year, says the Parliamentary Budget Office. Cabinet has proposed some form of carbon pricing to lower greenhouse gas output by 2030: “I don’t think the government has really thought through the devastation something like this would cause”.
Railways must notify municipalities of faulty signals at level crossings under threat of $250,000 fines. The penalties effective April 20 were inadvertently omitted from 2014 amendments under the Railway Safety Act: “I find this reprehensible”.
The fisheries department will detail by June 21 a timeline for restoration of “lost” habitat protection, says Minister Hunter Tootoo. Cabinet has promised to repeal 2012 amendments to the Fisheries Act that limited the scope of regulations: “Before too long we’ll come out with a plan”.
Business groups are appealing to MPs to salvage some portion of two Conservative labour bills slated for repeal. The previous cabinet enacted the twin bills in 2015: “A gap exists in Canada with respect to the fairness of our union rules”.
An unhappy Air Canada passenger has lost a bid to petition cabinet against airline surcharges. Ministers dismissed an appeal of a Canadian Transportation Agency decision that upheld the company’s right to bill passengers for fuel in the name of “air transportation charges”.
