Forty percent of recent university graduates are under-employed with jobs that don’t require their degrees, says the Parliamentary Budget Office. Analysts said the rate was worse than in the 1991 recession: “If you’re an engineer working as a bartender, that’s a clear mismatch”.
The Bank of Montreal is being cited for an “insidious practice” in arbitrarily hiking a debtor’s credit card limit, then suing for unpaid MasterCard balances. “It seems like giving people more of the proverbial rope to hang themselves,” wrote a judge: “Large financial institutions must know the consequences of their practice, but they do it anyway”.
Federal licensing of an Enbridge Inc. pipeline is headed for the Supreme Court on whether regulators followed a “duty to consult” Indigenous people. Lawyers representing the Chippewa of the Thames First Nation say they will ask the high court to review the Line 9 project: “It has to be meaningful consultation with accommodation; it’s not just a phone message”.
The economy remains a worry following new data on a continued slowdown, says Finance Minister Bill Morneau. The Parliamentary Budget Office forecast weak growth averaging 2.3 to 1.8 percent through 2020: “We are expecting a relatively slow recovery over the next five years”.
The Supreme Court is being asked for guidance on federal environmental assessments. Advocates will seek leave to appeal a lower court ruling that risk studies were unnecessary in the licensing of nuclear reactors: “It’s not like we are pioneering; we are playing catch-up”.
Blacklock’s Reporter today pauses for the federal Remembrance observance with gratitude to all who honoured our country — and a thought for Tom Hyland Blacklock, 2nd Lieutenant, 20th Halton Battalion, 1893. Thank you for your service, Tommy.
Delays in new Health Canada guidelines on sugar consumption followed lobbying by the nation’s largest supermarket chain, documents show. Loblaw Companies Ltd. protested a federal proposal to cut Canadians’ sugar consumption 30 percent. The grocers’ input was “vital”, says a 2014 memo obtained through Access To Information: “Loblaws should be encouraged to continue working with the department”.
Federal contracting is too complex and fails to reward small Canadian-owned suppliers, says a Department of Public Works report. The findings follow consultations mailed to 130,000 government suppliers: “The current process is long and confusing”.
Changes to a federal lobbyists’ Code Of Conduct, the first in 18 years, would prevent lobbyists from concealing client identities or accepting confidential government documents. The new Code makes no mention of promised fines on advocates who breach the Lobbying Act: “There’s nothing substantive”.
A majority of Canadians, 78 percent, support more vigorous federal leadership on greenhouse gas emissions, according to University of Ottawa research. Fifty-seven percent rated environmental protection a higher priority than job creation or economic growth: “Some work needs to be done”.
Citing “significant” domino effects of any real estate crash, the Canada Mortgage & Housing Corp. is commissioning yet more research into market collapse scenarios. CMHC earlier sought data on spot indicators that may foretell a crash: “Don’t you think there is something dangerous and reckless that is happening?”
A contentious Enbridge Pipelines Inc. project appears headed for the Supreme Court after a lower federal court issued a rare 2-1 split decision on whether the licensing breached First Nations rights. The lawsuit targeted Enbridge’s Trailbreaker project to pipe Alberta oil from Sarnia, Ont. to Montréal: “Duty, like the honour of the Crown, does not evaporate”.
Canada Post is being put under new cabinet management. The reassignment comes two weeks after the post office abruptly halted a five-year plan to eliminate home mail delivery: “It says a lot”.
Regulators are spending $233,000 on new tests for mad cow disease more than a decade after an outbreak of bovine spongiform encephalopathy devastated the Canadian cattle industry. Inspectors also propose to double the number of animals tested: “Things have evolved a lot”.
We remember your role
on the front lines;
will make sure
everybody does.
Your big day is here.
Get ready for the gun salutes;
a flypast by the Air Force;
dignitaries lip-synching O Canada.
And wreaths more elaborate than ever before.
Funny that you mention
our closed regional offices,
lack of resources to treat PTSD,
etc.
We had the money, you know;
just didn’t spend it.
Now we can’t remember why.
Perhaps it’s normal to forget
when you’re a 71 year-old department.
But enough about us;
today, it’s about you!
What’s your name again?
(Editor’s note: poet Shai Ben-Shalom, an Israeli-born biologist, examines current events in the Blacklock’s tradition each and every Sunday)
