Federal agencies have stretched a 30-day deadline into a half-decade wait for public records under the Access To Information Act, records show. Newly-released accounts indicate some government departments have taken four, even five years to release records: “It’s 2015”.
Liberal senators have begun to queue up amendments to Bill C-377 that strip away provisions of the measure compelling disclosure of confidential union data. Senators proposed to narrow the scope of the bill estimated to impact up to 12 million Canadians: “Is this ridiculous enough for anyone yet?”
A promised cabinet bill to probe suspected cross-border price gouging is dead. The legislation announced with fanfare in 2014 was never once brought forward for debate: “Shame on them”.
A former voice of the Montréal Expos has lost a federal lawsuit after being cashiered by the CBC. The aging sportscaster testified his treatment by management at the CBC left him depressed and humiliated: ‘The CBC made him ill’.
The Senate has passed into law a bill that puts the Atlantic seal hunt under media quarantine. The vote followed disclosures a pro-hunt group received nearly a million dollars in cash grants to boost flagging markets for seal products: “This is a somewhat timid bill I would say”.
Canada Post will become a taxpayers’ burden despite a large 2014 profit and record financial turnaround in the first quarter of 2015, claims a senior executive. A post office vice president said deep service cuts remain necessary: “We have more outlets than McDonald’s and Tim Hortons”.
The government aims to collect more than $20 million a year off foreign air travelers under a new visa scheme, records show. The electronic program will impact 7 in 10 airport visitors to Canada, though authorities admit they don’t know how it will affect tourism: “This is something that was done in haste”.
Two Conservative senators have proposed a fatal amendment to Bill C-377 that would exempt provincial and municipal unions from having to divulge confidential data. The surprise tabling was introduced last night as the Senate opened final debate on the bill: ‘This will go in front of the Supreme Court, you can be sure of that’.
Climate change poses a heat risk to sub-Arctic Canada, says the Department of Health. Regulators awarded a six-figure contract to train physicians, nurses and health inspectors on coping with extreme heat: “This is the future”.
Censorship of 19th century documents by a provincial government agency is drawing protest from researchers and historians. A British Columbia rule, the first of its kind, compels Canadians to get a court order to see public records dating from the 1880s: “This is very, very, very odd”.
A federal search of the Arctic for 19th century English shipwrecks has led to another mystery — the actual cost of the expedition. Cabinet will not disclose how many millions were spent by the army, navy and Coast Guard, according to accounts tabled in Parliament: “It’s pretty disappointing”.
Cabinet has quietly passed a new order making it easier to fire or re-hire its Veterans’ Ombudsman. Amendments to 2010 rules repeal a condition granting the ombudsman a minimum five-year term on appointment: “I’m concerned”.
MPs have agreed to tweak the Commons code on conflict of interest but concede more work is needed on legislators’ ethics. The 41st Parliament saw two Commons resignations over irregularities: “There’s still a lot more to do”.
The RCMP is compiling an electronic database of “problem” employees. The program comes just five months after the Supreme Court ordered the Mounties to repeal a 1920 ban on unions: “To be sure there has usually been grumbling”.
Health Canada aims to cut Canadians’ sugar consumption 30 percent with a quarter-billion dollar revision to food labeling. The department proposes long-promised reforms – but only to take effect in 2022 or so: “Sugar is in most of the foods we eat everyday”.
