Industry Canada has written off more than $303 million in bad loans to corporations since 2006, according to accounts released through Access To Information. The department refused to name companies in default: “If Canadians knew more we could see for once how inefficiently these programs are run”.
Canada’s provinces must cut a total $28 billion a year, every year, for decades to come if debt levels are to be sustainable, says the Parliamentary Budget Office. Only three provinces – British Columbia, Saskatchewan and Québec – now have balanced budgets: “Measures have to be taken”.
Companies face increases of up to 34% on fees used to finance the National Do Not Call List. Telecom regulators yesterday said the fees it charges telemarketers and corporate clients will increase August 1, and again in 2016 and 2017: “Are we as Canadians any better off with the Do Not Call List?”
CBC’s broadcasting mandate must be specialized with new funding drawn from creative methods like a website news paywall under a sink-or-swim scenario for the Crown broadcaster, says a Senate panel. “It is now possible to imagine service without the CBC,” concluded the Senate communications committee.
A federal watchdog intended to monitor banks and insurers is winning praise for “excellent” service – from banks and insurers. The Financial Consumer Agency of Canada spent $136,347 on a performance survey that excluded the general public: “Bankers are more likely to rate the effectiveness as excellent”.
Tax Court has invoked the wit of Oscar Wilde in approving 50 percent penalties against a former PepsiCo executive for under-reporting his income. “I am left reminded of what Oscar Wilde wrote in The Decay Of Lying: ‘If a man is sufficiently unimaginative to produce evidence in support of a lie, he might just as well speak the truth at once,’” said Justice Patrick Boyle.
The Department of Agriculture forecasts “tension” with the drought-stricken U.S. over access to cross-boundary water supplies. In a report released through Access To Information, the department said water shortages may see American ecosystems stressed beyond repair: ‘The U.S. may seek to divert water from the Great Lakes and other systems…’
Canadians are seeing greater exposure to an anti-bacterial soap additive banned in Europe, according to new Health Canada data. Environmental groups have appealed for restrictions on triclosan amid worries over its long-term impact: “What we really need is swift action”.
Only four months after promising preferential hiring for veterans, cabinet has issued a new job posting for Sergeant At Arms without any mention of military service as a requirement. The House of Commons post for years was filled by veterans, including two Victoria Cross winners: “We want to show we’re hiring the best candidate”.
Municipal councillors can be sued for defamation if they misspeak in their official duties, courts have confirmed. The Supreme Court declined to hear further appeals in the case of one county councillor publicly insulted by colleagues who then claimed immunity from libel: ‘It’s two centuries of precedent’.
Royal commissions were once fodder for stand-up comics though the memory is bitter-sweet. The notion seems quaint now. Governments confronted difficult issues by convening public hearings and reaching for consensus. Now they announce policy change on the drive in from the airport at Davos, Switzerland and shoehorn it into a 452-page omnibus budget bill. At least, that’s what the Prime Minister did when he raised eligibility under Old Age Security to 67 years in 2012.
So it’s with genuine nostalgia that readers will enjoy Commissions of Inquiry and Policy Change, an affectionate tribute to the consensus politics of yesteryear. It mattered. Editors note that when the Literary Review of Canada compiled a list of the country’s 100 Most Important Books, six were reports of commissions.
It was an 1889 commission that urged the introduction of Labour Day as the first secular holiday “in view of the good already accomplished” by trade unions. It was a 1929 Royal Commission on Radio Broadcasting that led to creation of the CBC, and a 1938 commission that cleared the prisons of patronage and “inhumane discipline”.
The bungled Air India investigation; secret payments by a German arms dealer; a fraud ring in the Department of Public Works – all were uncovered by commissions of inquiry. The phenomenon is celebrated by editors Gregory Inwood and Carolyn Johns, both of Ryerson University’s Department of Politics and Public Administration.
Commissions of Inquiry analyzes ten modern inquiries held from 1957 to 2008. They dealt in matters of life and death, money and equality, scandal and discrimination. A favourite remains the 1982 Macdonald Commission that gave us free trade though most Canadians never asked for it. “Ironically, it de-legitimized commissions of inquiry to some extent as sites of public consultation and democratic tools by ignoring much of what civil society told the commission,” authors note.
Donald Macdonald was a former Liberal finance minister. The commission was “widely seen as a consolation prize for his frustrated leadership ambitions”. They paid him $800 a day, an extraordinary fee in the midst of a grinding recession. “His ungracious response was to point out that he could earn twice that in his Bay Street law practice,” Commissions recalls.
Macdonald ran up a $22 million budget conducting hearings in 32 towns and cities nationwide. It was the most expensive, most grandiose inquiry in Canadian history that concluded the country should take “a leap of faith” into free trade with the U.S. Virtually every non-business witness opposed free trade at Macdonald’s hearings, but the game was set: “The Canadian government embarked upon a policy choice that lacked widespread popular support.”
In the free trade election of 1988 more than 7.6 million voters – 57 percent of the electors – opposed a treaty with the U.S. that was ratified anyway. Yet the work of the Macdonald Commission was far-reaching: even those who opposed free trade had to acknowledge their voice had been raised and the question had been fairly settled.
At least it was better than hearing about it on the way from the airport in Davos.
By Holly Doan
Commissions of Inquiry and Policy Change: A Comparative Analysis, edited by Gregory Inwood and Carolyn Johns; University of Toronto Press; 352 pages; ISBN 9781-4426-15724; $24.47
The Canadian Tourism Commission is resuming promotions in the U.S. three years after budget cuts eliminated all general advertising to American travelers. The commission’s president earlier described the cuts as short-sighted: “Canada is the only G8 country that has reduced investment”.
Shippers and airlines are seeking details of a proposed 15¢ per kilogram federal fee to screen air freight. Transport Canada has proposed shippers conduct their own security screening or face cargo charges: “You can’t create a security program and not charge for it”.
An FM radio station has again been cited for vulgarity by a national standards panel, this time over an expletive-laced rant against urban bicyclists. It’s the third citation in five years against the Québec City station. Broadcasters cussed bicyclists in colourful shorts who slow morning traffic: “You big idiot – stay at home. You deserve to be run over by a car”.
Bell Mobility Inc. has lost a bid for a Supreme Court hearing over 75¢ fees it charged for non-existent 911 emergency service. Justices declined to hear the company’s appeal of a Yellowknife court ruling that the class action lawsuit proceed: “The costs in this case must be worth millions already”.
