The Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission is too close to industry and should be replaced, say community critics. The Canadian Coalition for Nuclear Responsibility yesterday proposed tighter federal regulation of nuclear power producers: ‘If industry wants something, it’s fine’.
Cabinet must reverse a 2014 policy and regulate chemicals and additives used by shale gas drillers, says the Council of Canadians. The Department of the Environment last year exempted fracking toxins from its national inventory of industrial chemicals: “What is the long-term impact?”
The Supreme Court will hear arguments this autumn in a challenge of federal rail reforms by Canadian Pacific Rail Co. Judges agreed to consider a CPR appeal of regulations allowing greater competition in Western transportation: “I think they’re in for the fight of their life with these railroads”.
Cabinet hints it will appeal a court ruling that it allowed the private transfer of diseased fish into ocean pens in breach of federal regulations. “We are currently reviewing the decision,” said Fisheries Minister Gail Shea.
Cabinet has no true estimate of the country’s so-called infrastructure deficit but suspects it’s on a “positive trend”, says Infrastructure Canada. Municipalities nationwide have calculated the deficit at $120 billion worth of unfunded repairs to roads, bridges, utilities and other public works: “This is not an unimportant question”.
Canadians fear the “good times” are over, telling government researchers the economy appears stalled with fewer high-paying jobs available. The findings follow in-house polling and focus group interviews by the Privy Council Office: “The word most often chosen to describe the Canadian economy was ‘uneven'”.
The hard-luck cod fishery shows improvement but remains in a “critical zone”, say federal scientists. The research follows a small expansion of the 2015 fishery off Newfoundland & Labrador: “We don’t want to make the same mistake”.
A bill mandating disclosure of confidential labour data will cost Canada’s largest private sector union more than $3 million a year, says Unifor. Bill C-377 requires that all union locals submit annual reports on spending, including activities of contractors, union accountants and attorneys: “Unions are being singled out”.
The nation’s top amateur athletes earn just above the minimum wage and carry thousands in personal debt, says a federal Sport Canada study. The research was commissioned by the Department of Canadian Heritage that pays out grants to skilled amateurs: “Loans from family, and credit cards, are at the top of the list”.
A federal employee has won the right to overtime pay while sleeping on the job with management’s permission. The ruling by a federal labour board came in an unusual complaint from a Halifax dockyard worker: “Can a sleeping employee ever be considered to be at work?”
MPs warn a bill targeting very drunk drivers that’s already been approved in principle by the Commons contains an inadvertent loophole that defeats its purpose. Members of the House justice committee exposed the flaw in hearings on Bill C-590: “They know all the tricks in the book”.
A plan to speed Canada-U.S. border crossings may be snarled by a dispute over reporting of some truck cargoes, says an industry group. The Canada Border Services Agency proposes to adopt paperless electronic logs of truck shipments beginning July 10: “You’re going to be there for up to 2 hours”.
A new type of malicious software
spreads in the world’s computers.
The ransomware.
It encrypts photos, documents,
rendering them inaccessible.
One must pay to unlock them.
I imagine the warning message
on Senator Wallin’s computer:
“Access to your travel records
is denied.
Please pay to keep it this way.”
(Editor’s note: poet Shai Ben-Shalom, an Israeli-born biologist, examines current events in the Blacklock’s tradition each and every Sunday)
Every payday loan company in the country is currently in breach of usury laws, the Senate banking committee has been told. Interest charged payday borrowers would be a fraction of existing rates if Parliament enforced the Criminal Code, an economist says: “Rates violate the current federal criminal rate set at 60%”.
Cabinet has introduced a balanced budget bill, apparently unaware a similar 23-year old law is still on the books. The Mulroney-era Spending Control Act also purported to curb overspending. Finance Minister Joe Oliver’s office did not comment: “It’s like the Loch Ness Monster: it reappears from time to time”.
