In an “unprecedented” initiative a federal fisheries panel has concluded marine conservation should be tailor-made to local areas. Cabinet pledges to expand the nation’s marine conservation areas: “We haven’t done very much”.
Transport Canada is contracting drones to monitor oil spills off the nation’s 243,000 kilometre coastline. The program follows warnings that regulators have little oversight over Arctic shipping: “It has limitations”.
Cabinet will curtail budget advertising that cost some $750 million over the past nine years, says Treasury Board President Scott Brison. Authorities stopped short of proposing independent oversight of government-paid ads: “Canadians are angry”.
A new National Building Code in its first revision in five years promises more energy efficiency in new homes. The rewrite follows complaints from the Department of Natural Resources that Canadians earned a reputation as “energy pigs”.
RCMP will see a first-ever union certification drive this spring regardless of whether Parliament removes an unconstitutional ban on collective bargaining, say organizers. Lawmakers face a May 16 deadline to lift the 1920 ban: “It makes for a relatively seamless transition”.
The Senate will holding hearings, the first by a parliamentary committee, on the household cost of a carbon tax. The investigation by the energy committee follows government research that identified widespread public scepticism over carbon pricing.
“We want to look at the issues that surround the government’s intention to reduce greenhouse gases in Canada,” said Senator Richard Neufeld (Conservative-B.C.), committee chair. “We want to know how that’s going to affect Fred and Martha, the people on the street, the ordinary citizen. I don’t think any of that has been done.”
The environment department in a Strategy For Canada 2016-2019 proposed a 17 percent reduction in 2005 greenhouse gas emissions by 2020, a target set by cabinet six years ago in the Copenhagen Accord. Strategy called for a total 30 percent reduction by 2030. The department has not yet detailed any regulations to meet its targets.
The Senate approved a motion that its energy committee “identify and report on the impact transitioning to a low carbon economy will have on energy and users, including Canadian households and businesses; identify and report on the most viable way electricity, oil and gas, transportation, buildings and trade-exposed energy intensive industries can contribute to a low carbon economy in meeting Canada’s emission targets; and identify areas of concern and make any necessary recommendations to the federal government that will help achieve greenhouse gas emission targets in a manner that is sustainable, affordable, efficient, equitable and achievable.” A final report is due by September 30, 2017.
“This is not to say that we shouldn’t be changing,” said Neufeld, a former B.C. energy minister. “That’s not what we’re saying. This is not to say that climate changing isn’t happening. This is to ask what the effects are.”
“Fred and Martha should have the right to know that this is what could happen,” Neufeld told the Senate. “That is what we’re trying to do.”
Natural Resources Canada in private focus group research concluded Canadians are unwilling to pay out of pocket for climate change programs, and fear any carbon tax will merely punish homeowners and motorists: “Since people rely on their vehicles as their primary mode of transportation, a small increase in operating costs would not affect their driving habits but would only increase personal expenditures,” said a 2015 report Public Opinion Research On Energy Issues by researchers at Leger.
Average temperatures nationwide have risen more than 1.3° since 1948, about twice the global rate, according to Department of Natural Resources data Overview Of Climate Change In Canada. However focus groups told researchers they had “objections or doubts about various government actions that could be imposed to curtail greenhouse gas emissions.”
Carbon taxes were considered “simply another way for governments to tax residents and would not have its intended effect on consumer behaviour,” Public Opinion said. Cap and trade systems were deemed complex and “unrealistic”. Use of green technology including hybrid vehicles was more popular, though “many participants believe it would be useful for the Canadian government to provide tax incentives” to promote their use.”
The research was based on focus groups in Vancouver, Whitehorse, Calgary, Mississauga, Ont., Montréal and Truro, N.S.
By Tom Korski 
A provincial workers’ compensation board used airport surveillance cameras to spy on a claimant suspected of faking injuries, records show. The Office of the Privacy Commissioner upheld the passenger’s complaint the taping breached federal law: “We have a lot of work to do”.
Cabinet says it will restore a Depression-era policy mandating federal wage scales on public works — eventually. A 1935 law introduced by R.B. Bennett was repealed three years ago on cabinet complaints over costs of union pay: “We will look at it”.
The Supreme Court will rule on whether multinational internet content providers are subject to provincial privacy laws. The case involves a British Columbia videographer who accused Facebook Inc. of breaching the province’s Privacy Act: “What am I going to get in damages? Ten dollars, maybe?”
The RCMP face complaints of
sexual harassment in the
workplace.
Nothing new, some say;
this behaviour has been the norm for
years.
Top brass have difficulty handling the
situation.
They can’t figure out
why women officers are so
unreceptive,
why they don’t take off their shirts more
quickly
when approached by the
guys.
(Editor’s note: poet Shai Ben-Shalom, an Israeli-born biologist, examines current events in the Blacklock’s tradition each and every Sunday)
Employment Canada has rejected one third of labour permits for low-wage migrant workers since a 2014 crackdown, new data show. One official told Senators the number of applicants from employers has fallen sharply: “The program has gone down drastically”.
The Senate hired a private law firm to seek retractions in a TV network story depicting routine budget deliberations as “another backroom meeting” to divvy up public funds. Global News rewrote its story after being contacted by the Senate’s attorney: “We will continue to push back”.
A Senate committee has approved a DNA privacy bill, the first of its kind in Canada, to outlaw discrimination on the basis of genetic testing. Senators heard testimony that Canada remains the only G7 country without legal protection against misuse of DNA tests by employers or insurers: “Great moment in history”.
Transport Canada has hired only 32 more national rail inspectors since the disastrous 2013 Lac-Mégantic wreck, officials say. Cabinet vowed to ensure safe transport of hazardous goods: ‘It’s time we actually start regulating’.
Parliament is giving itself five sitting weeks to rush a bill allowing RCMP to unionize. It follows a Supreme Court order to correct an unconstitutional ban on collective bargaining in the police force by May 16: ‘No government wanted this legislation’.
