Grocers say they aren’t to blame for spiraling price hikes like a 19 percent rise in the cost of lettuce. Statistics Canada estimated food prices last year increased an average 4 percent, the sharpest spike in four years: “Margins are razor-thin as it is”.
Write-offs of federal student loans will cost taxpayers $335 million this year, says new research. The country’s chief actuary blamed defaults in part on a poor economy: “It has been difficult for a great number of youths to find work”.
The Coast Guard says it’s not obliged to notify municipalities of oil spills even in city harbours. Officials in emails obtained through Access To Information suggested reporting to mayors was too onerous: “There are hundreds!”
Health Canada is conducting new research on tobacco-related deaths for the first time since 2002. The initiative follows suspension of federal anti-tobacco ad campaigns nine years ago: “We have to do more”.
British Columbia notaries are liable for millions claimed by victims of a Ponzi scheme orchestrated by one of their own. The Supreme Court yesterday declined to hear an appeal of lower court judgments favouring investors in a fictitious Chilean winery scheme: ‘Lots of people were taken for lots of money’.
Canada Revenue Agency spent more on audits of charities’ political activities than it did tracking terrorist fundraisers, data show. The Agency yesterday confirmed in three years of auditing groups like the Sierra Club and Canadian Council of Churches, it did not find grounds to revoke a single registration for breach of rules on prohibited partisan activities: “It’s crazy”.
The Department of Employment is not considering amendments to employment insurance rules to curb identity fraud and paperwork errors, officials say. The Canadian Payroll Association asked that cabinet permit employers to demand proof of Social Insurance Numbers when hiring new staff: ‘This compromises the integrity of the entire program’.
The Department of Canadian Heritage after 47 years of bilingualism says it requires data on the “economic benefits” of learning French. The research follows stagnating rates of bilingualism and school immersion enrollment that runs as low as 6%: “You don’t use French, you lose it”.
Canada must improve methods of estimating the amount of particles and soot from diesel engines and other sources of black carbon, says an agency. The Commission for Environmental Cooperation warned better monitoring is needed: “Soot is what causes winter smog”.
Cabinet after years of protest will halt conditional licensing of pesticides. Critics including a Senate committee alleged misuse of “temporary” licenses that for decades permitted the sale of chemicals without full study of health and environmental risks: “10 to 20 years — that’s not temporary”.
The National Energy Board is hiring a U.S. consultant for oil price forecasting on a $163,000 sole-sourced contract. It follows inaccurate price predictions by the Department of Finance and Privy Council Office economists: “There are always people who come up with theories that oil will keep moving up and up”.
Transport Canada says it has not decided whether to renew regulations upheld by the Supreme Court aimed at limiting “near-monopoly” powers of the country’s largest railways. Rules expanding competition for Prairie shippers are to expire August 30: ‘We have long seen the challenges of monopolistic control’.
The nation’s debt bubble, already the largest in the G7, will see Canadian households pay an average of nearly $18,000 a year to service mortgages by 2020, the Parliamentary Budget Office warns. In a cautionary report federal analysts said a generation of homeowners is carrying debt “beyond historical experience”.
The National Energy Board in a mea culpa to cabinet says “controversial changes” by the last government compromised its work, and that it must regain public trust. “Status quo in Board operations will no longer suffice,” CEO Peter Watson wrote the Minister of Natural Resources: “The fault lies with us”.
Parliament has only six working weeks to pass a landmark bill permitting the RCMP to unionize. Authorities had asked for a six months’ extension of a Supreme Court deadline: “We’re hoping to have input”.
