Canada’s 450,000 woodlot owners are appealing for preferential tax treatment due to devastation from pine beetles and the emerald ash borer. Owners seek the same regulations given dryland farmers for tax deferral in bad years: “Suddenly you have to sell all your assets”.
Cabinet has signalled it will defeat a private bill to curb “urban heat islands” blamed for micro-temperature gains in large cities. MP Eve Adams, parliamentary secretary for health, described the bill as unnecessary: ‘There are companies in Canada that have figured this out’.
Canadians will observe a first-ever national exercise day next June 6 under a private Conservative bill drawing all-party support in the Commons. MPs praised the initiative by Senator Nancy Green Raine, 1968 gold medal-winning Olympic skier: ‘Inactivity is killing us’.
Federal civil servants live longer than other Canadians – up to a full year longer, says a federal report: ‘It’s white-collar versus blue-collar’.
Yukon critics are cautioning the Senate over another federal initiative that grants local authorities new management of environmental risk assessments. A government bill reassigns responsibility for reviews of oil, gas and mining projects from the federal cabinet to Whitehorse: “We often get it wrong”.
A federal board has charged the equivalent of $38 a page to release public records. The Canada-Newfoundland & Labrador Offshore Petroleum Board billed $4,452 to release 118 pages of public documents to a Calgary businessman: “It’s a mug’s game”.
A parliamentary committee is questioning whether the RCMP improperly shared non-criminal fingerprint records with police agencies across Canada. The Mounties collected the data from foreign students, immigrants and overseas applicants for work permits: “Making the regulations was unlawful”.
The Supreme Court has declined to hear a case of workplace compensation for unusual injuries. The litigation involved a tradesman who complained of tendonitis and carpal tunnel syndrome after decades on the job: ‘Claims are accepted, claims are refused’.
RCMP targeted the NDP as a “political vehicle” for communist subversion from its founding in 1961, according to newly-released Cold War files. It follows a 2013 Federal Court of Appeal ruling that sanctioned the concealment of secret police files on Tommy Douglas, founding leader of the NDP who died in 1986: “All these documents must be released”.
Government agencies would be forced to seek a judge’s permission to withhold public documents from Canadians under a bill introduced in the Commons. Liberal leader Justin Trudeau, sponsor of the private bill, said the measure would reverse the onus that now compels Canadians to sue for access to public records: ‘It’s real teeth’.
Insurers are proposing a new code on genetic testing ahead of hearings on a Senate bill to outlaw DNA “discrimination” on policyholders. The Canadian Life & Health Insurance Association noted companies cannot force existing clients to undergo genetic tests, but said data should be available on new policyholders, with safeguards: “DNA is a very private, personal thing”.
Lawmakers are being warned of “political unrest” if Parliament passes a bill to jail tobacco traffickers. Aboriginal groups told a Senate committee the legislation violates traditional rights: “Now we’re being criminalized”.
Health Canada paid $92.7 million to compensate aquaculture firms for diseased fish, the highest figure cited to date. The department’s Canadian Food Inspection Agency disclosed that payments dated over three years to salmon farmers: ‘It’s a case-by-case basis’.
A Conservative Senator is questioning the Canada Border Services Agency after he was detained 20 minutes by border guards. Senator Victor Oh said the incident occurred the first time he tried to use his Nexus card at a border stop near Niagara Falls, Ont.: “I didn’t say, ‘Do you know who I am?'”
Most small business owners, fully 60 percent, did not seek loans last year despite historic low interest rates, according to new Industry Canada data. An advocacy group attributed the trend to owners’ antipathy to banks: “Never again”.
