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”.
Cabinet is introducing limited Canada Labour Code protection for interns, with numerous exemptions. The bill comes three weeks after Parliament defeated a private bill offering broader safeguards for unpaid workers: “We have to be careful if we start to tinker with some of these things”.
Federal regulators must answer for lax reporting of a multi-million dollar food subsidy program suspected of benefiting grocers, say MPs. The Commons public accounts committee said managers will be held to account for operations of the Nutrition North program: ‘You have to pay $45 for chicken’.
Legislation introduced in the Commons will extend natural gas export licenses by fifteen years in a measure one MP described as a “gift to industry”. The change yesterday was inserted in a 157-page omnibus budget bill: “25 years is okay but 40 years is better”.
A bill calculated to save more than $47 million a year in paperwork on reporting taxpayers’ deaths to federal agencies has passed Parliament. More than 242,000 Canadians die every year, by official estimate: “It’s compassionate legislation”.
MPs have passed a pipeline liability bill critics charged will leave municipalities and landowners with costly cleanups in case of a catastrophic oil spill. The Conservative bill caps liability for companies at $1 billion except in cases of obvious negligence: “What does ‘negligence’ mean?”
Canada’s largest liquor board has no business collecting the names and addresses of its customers, says a privacy ruling in Ontario Superior Court. A judge upheld a 2012 complaint from a wine club told it must divulge members’ identities to buy at the Liquor Control Board of Ontario: “This is overreach”.
A judge has thrown out a constitutional challenge of the “faint hope” bill, a Conservative law that curbed early parole for prisoners convicted of first-degree murder. An Ottawa-area woman serving a life sentence for killing her husband argued the retroactive bill breached her Charter rights: “We’re not talking about controversial legislation”.
Truckers face maximum $25,000 fines for failing to submit electronic cargo records under a long-promised Canada Border Services Agency program. The Agency said its eManifest system, introduced on a trial basis in 2012, will be mandatory: “This is long overdue”.
Business and consumers’ advocates are praising a $3.5 million fine on U.S. craft retailer Michaels for misrepresentations on pricing. The federal Competition Tribunal cited Michaels’ Canadian subsidiary for claiming “sale” prices that appeared to be regular charges: “Thousands of independent businesses play by the rules”.
A court ruling that narrowly interprets protection for federal whistleblowers sends a “disturbing” message to government employees who fear reprisal in reporting wrongdoing, says an MP. A federal judge dismissed complaints from a Natural Resources Canada scientist after noting he failed to report reprisals within 60 days as required by law: “The message is, keep your mouth shut”.
The Senate is being urged to reject the work of one of its own committees and outlaw use of DNA testing by insurance companies. The Senate human rights committee’s Conservative majority rejected the bill last February 19: “We need to do something”.
A Conservative MP citing two recent police shootings is urging that the Commons adopt a motion promoting use of body-warn cameras by law enforcement nationwide. Video surveillance would curb “instances of police and public violence”, the MP said: “Why do police not want this?”
Canada is spending a fortune on its search for terror financing with little justification for budgeting, and no accounting for privacy concerns, a Senate committee has been told. The current dragnet for black market cash is reduced to tracking house payments and wire transfers to family, said a University of Toronto law professor: “We do not have evidence of the benefits”.
A landmark quarter-billion dollar settlement in a Nunavut dispute should spur cabinet to fairer resolution of land claims nationwide, says a lead attorney in the case. The Government of Canada will pay $255.5 million to Nunavut Tunngavik Inc. on complaints it breached terms of an Inuit claim that led to creation of the territory in 1999: “Hopefully this won’t be necessary in the future”.
