Cabinet’s appointment of another federal Arctic agency, the second in 20 years, does not further dubious Canadian claims to ownership of the North Pole or fill gaps in commercial shipping, say critics: ‘There is no vision’.
Most Canadians are unprepared for retirement and will become increasingly reliant on federal pensions, according to Conference Board of Canada research. The study coincided with a report from the nation’s chief actuary that young Canadians have a 40 percent chance of living to age 90: ‘Retirement is expensive’.
Opposition parties will press the Commons to mandate installation of safety equipment on all new heavy trucks. Liberal MPs expressed support for a New Democrat bill to require installation of truck side guards credited with saving lives of pedestrians and cyclists: “We have to show leadership”.
Broadcast regulators have again dismissed industry requests to alter terms of license on investment in Canadian programming. The operator of Super Channel sought exemptions after citing “financial pressure” from unregulated competitors like Netflix: ‘How important is programming to you?’
The Senate has passed a drug recall bill amid criticism of pharmaceutical companies as second only to “big oil” as a powerful Parliament Hill lobby. The legislation followed Health Canada complaints of obstructionism by drug firms in restricting medicine deemed a health risk: ‘Next to big oil, nobody’s bigger’.
Finance Canada has quietly dropped plans for retail price controls. Promised legislation to abolish “discrimination” in cross-border pricing is omitted from a 459-page omnibus budget bill, the last of the year. Authorities had said the bill would detail the measure: “They made such a big deal about it”.
Federal plans for a mandatory $7 background check on offshore visitors are rated “unfriendly” and “jarring” by foreign travellers. Citizenship & Immigration Canada interviews with passengers at three airports drew bad reviews on the plan to take effect in 2015: “Too dark”; “impolite”.
Health Canada is commissioning a winter-long evaluation of its pesticides program. The department is hiring consultants to evaluate its “effectiveness, efficiency and economy” with a final report due by next July: “It suggests to me we are under-resourced”.
Big spending on mines, pipelines, railways, dams and other utilities has driven Canadian investment rates past the U.S., says federal research. Statistics Canada estimated business investment was 15 percent higher here than in America over the past twenty years: “It is possible to compete”.
CBC
says farewell
to a dragon.
His letter of resignation
may have started with
“Dear Sir,”
ended with
“For that reason, I’m out.”
(Editor’s note: poet Shai Ben-Shalom, an Israeli-born biologist, examines current events in the Blacklock’s tradition each and every Sunday)
Cabinet is introducing a long-promised anti-corruption bill for Canadian energy companies amid suspicion the legislation was crafted by lobbyists. The measure waters down earlier opposition proposals to scrutinize the conduct of firms operating abroad: “You could drive a truck through those exemptions”.
A federal ban to end paper billing fees has been introduced in the Commons. Legislation would outlaw service charges for customers’ paper invoices under threat of $500,000 fines. MPs had been proposing the measure for six years: “It shouldn’t have taken this long”.
The Supreme Court has sidestepped a case of alleged unfair tax collections by Air Canada. A group of passengers had sought unsuccessfully to press class action claims the airline levied taxes that travellers did not have to pay: ‘The issue can be visited later’.
The Department of Agriculture is accused of skewing a multi-million dollar subsidy program to benefit large corporate farms over family-run operations. One Liberal Senator proposed that legislators investigate terms of grant programs under the Farm Income Protection Act: “Something is totally out of whack”.
The Department of Canadian Heritage is studying the viability of magazine publishers that received more than $55 million in federal grants last year. “Can the print magazine survive the digital age?” authorities asked in a federal notice. One periodical, Maclean’s, received $1.5 million in grants: “This is egregious”.
