Cash-strapped VIA Rail has won the right to appeal a multi-million dollar tax assessment it claimed should be fixed at just ten dollars. VIA lawyers appealed for the tax break by arguing the Crown railway is economically obsolete: “This is a case that involves an important question of law”.
Natural Resources Canada is expanding research that challenges a Chinese monopoly on strategic metals. The department commissioned a series of investigations on so-called “rare earth” metals used to manufacture electronics: “We don’t know enough about it”.
Offshore money accounts for 25 to 49 percent of residential property sales in Canada’s largest cities, says a newly-released federal report. Cash buyers from China, Russia and the Middle East are among top investors, according to a study commissioned by the Financial Transactions & Reports Analysis Centre. The research was obtained through Access To Information: ‘Cash is very common’.
A federal bill mandating disclosure of confidential labour records will not see a constitutional test in court. An Alberta union that was the first to challenge Bill C-377 is adjourning its lawsuit on a cabinet promise to repeal the measure: “It’s still possible to revive that application if things take an unexpected turn”.
Cabinet is postponing a decision on whether to approve a permanent nuclear waste disposal site on the Great Lakes. Opponents cheered the delay, the first environmental regulatory decision by the new Liberal cabinet: ‘The fact it’s right on the shore makes it very contentious’.
Cabinet faces a tough sell with any federal climate change program, says Natural Resources Canada research. A $152,235 department study concluded most Canadians oppose a carbon tax; do not understand cap and trade; and rate local pollution issues a higher priority than global warming.
“Most participants had little grasp of the challenges of climate change,” Ipsos Reid concluded in 2015 Public Opinion Research On Energy Issues. The study was commissioned by the department just weeks before the October 19 election campaign.
“Few mentioned climate change or global warming as a top concern,” Research said; “When participants were asked to identify what they consider to be key environmental issues, responses focused on local issues such as air and water quality, land use and conservation.”
The research involved focus group sessions in Vancouver and Prince Rupert, B.C.; Calgary; Mississauga and St. Catharines, Ont.; Québec City and Saint John, and telephone interviews with 3,000 Canadians nationwide. Only 37 percent of people surveyed said they would support a federal carbon tax to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
“The idea of charging either companies or individuals money for their greenhouse gas emissions was not favourably viewed by many participants,” Research said; “Few recognized how charging businesses or consumers a tax would result in effective change. A few did recognize the cost implications of global warming and did think that taxing greenhouse gas emissions could be a way to spur behavioural change and the development of cleaner technology, but these participants were outnumbered by those who expressed cynicism about how the money from a greenhouse gas emissions tax would be spent by the government collecting it.”
Cap ‘N Trade Too Complex
Data show 51 percent of respondents said they’d support a cap and trade system allowing polluters to buy and sell emission credits, but “tended to describe it as overly complicated,” Research said: “It seemed to them that companies could continue to pollute as long as they could pay to do so.”
“Most participants found it overly complex and were skeptical of its ability to protect the environment,” Ipsos Reid wrote; “Given that many did not agree with or fully understand the premise of a cap and trade system, the notion that Canadian provinces or Canada as a whole should embrace a system, and potentially join with other jurisdictions in the U.S. in a collaborative cap and trade regime, did not receive much support.”
A majority, 63 percent, said they were unaware of any federal program to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and did not mention climate change as a top environmental priority: “When asked why climate change did not figure into the list of top challenges, some said it was because it was the overarching issue, or that it was understood to be an important challenge. While most participants said they considered climate change to be real, their examples were limited to discussions about unusual weather patterns – either very cold or very hot, or both – or melting ice in the Arctic, putting species there at risk. Few participants connected climate change or responses to climate change by governments as having major implications.”
The polling and focus group research was conducted in June and tabulated in September. “For many participants, substantive action by governments such as investing in and developing alternative energy sources were seen as more effective ways for governments to take action on climate change,” said Research.
By Mark Bourrie 
Newly-released accounts show the Library of Parliament spent $32,300 for out-the-door interviews with retiring MPs to ask what they thought of – the Library of Parliament. Management earlier spent thousands on public “outreach” Facebook ads, though it’s inaccessible to the public, and hired a patent lawyer to trademark its image for key chains and coffee mugs: “That’s $566 an hour”.
Taxpayers face billions in rising clean-up costs for federal toxic sites, says a secret Department of Finance memo. The document conceals current actual costs, but noted expenses invariably go over-budget: “Costs are revised, generally upwards”.
Cash-strapped Parks Canada spent hundreds of thousands on theatre ads most people never saw, and fewer than 1 in 100 said prompted them to actually visit a park. The agency yesterday declined to reveal total costs of advertisements that ran in cinemas nationwide: “Some respondents recalled forests, lakes or mountains”.
Cabinet is expected to continue issuing mom ‘n pop Canada Savings Bonds despite a consultants’ report that cast them as obsolete. The Government of Canada has sold small denomination bonds to individual investors since 1917: “There is currently no valid economic rationale for the program”.
The Department of Health says it is still pondering regulation of electronic cigarettes eight months after a Commons committee urged ad bans and curbs on sales. Twenty percent of youth have used e-cigarettes, according to Statistics Canada: “There are still a lot of questions”.
Regulators in recognition of one of the country’s fastest-growing religious groups are proposing to codify Islamic processing rules. The Standards Council said it seeks public input into a halal code: ‘Standards promoted by the government will make it easier for the consumer’.
A federal judge has struck down a charitable tax scheme that saw donors claim a 2,600% markup on hockey sticks given to a church. Tax Court testimony showed the retail value of Spanish-made wooden sticks was declining when the transaction occurred: ‘They were not making a gift’.
Elimination of a Depression-era drought agency was short-sighted in the face of climate change, an Ottawa conference has been told. Cabinet in 2014 folded the Prairie Farm Rehabilitation Administration into the agriculture department and ordered the release of millions of acres of federally-controlled grasslands: “We need a coordinating agency”.
Rideau Hall is hiring a publicist to boost nominations for an award so obscure few Canadians have bothered to apply for it. The office of the Governor General said it needs help to “stimulate more nominations” for civilian Meritorious Service Decorations: “The Tories made us thirsty for pride”.
