Employment Canada is on track for projected millions in savings with elimination of Social Insurance Number cards this year, record show. The department reported the end of production of the iconic white cards will save $1.5 million annually: ‘It was never intended to be an identity card’.
Canadians will suffer chronic provincial deficits over the next 20 years without painful service cuts or tax increases, says a Conference Board of Canada forecast. Analysts predicted rising health care costs alone will keep most legislatures in the red amid cascading interest charges: “If anything we are quite optimistic”.
The RCMP are reviewing polygraph tests required of candidates who apply to join the force, saying standard methods are needed to ensure the “program is defensible”. All recruits are questioned on driving history, drug use and computer habits: “It’s major”.
Most armed forces members would sooner buy their own home if they could afford it, complaining government-rented townhouses are drafty, pest-infested and poorly maintained, according to a Department of National Defence report: “Staff have a poor attitude”.
Introduction of Canada’s first mandatory emergency broadcast system comes ten years after it was recommended by a Senate committee, and decades after its adoption in Alberta following a tornado that killed 27 people: ‘When lives are threatened a message needs to be sent’.
An Industry Canada proposal to abolish consumer fees for paper invoices comes six years after a similar Liberal proposal. The department earlier cribbed a 2012 New Democrat bill restricting installation of wireless towers: “I’m happy they’ve listened”.
The Canadian Food Inspection Agency won’t comment to Blacklock’s after launching a lawsuit for total damages of $500. The corporation is taking a Saskatchewan man to Federal Court over the unpaid fine, representing a fraction of legal costs: “It stinks”.
Tonnes of methane-producing municipal waste are being inventoried nationwide by Environment Canada. Authorities called it the first audit of its kind in nearly a decade: “It doesn’t go away”.
Finance Canada is drawing ridicule with its long-awaited proposal to abolish “discrimination” in cross-border retail pricing. Cabinet has yet to detail the legislation announced by the late Finance Minister Jim Flaherty last February 11: “I’m completely baffled”.
Legislation to sell Canada’s only government-owned coal export terminal will be enacted within a month. Cabinet served notice that on September 30 it will put into effect legislation to privatize Ridley Terminals Inc. of Prince Rupert, B.C. more than two years after announcing it was for sale: “Keep it Canadian-owned”.
Computer error and lack of oversight were to blame for an error in Statistics Canada’s reporting of summer jobless figures, officials say. The federal agency miscounted tens of thousands of jobs in its last monthly employment report: “Such an error stays a very long time in the corporate memory”.
A federal judge has upheld the constitutionality of Canada’s ethanol and biodiesel regulations, rejecting a challenge by one of the country’s largest oil companies. Syncrude Canada Ltd. tried and failed to seek a federal review of rules that it must add 2% renewable fuel to millions of litres of diesel burned by its corporate truck and equipment fleet in Alberta’s oil sands: “Syncrude takes a myopic view”.
Record-high stamp prices have driven Canada Post to unexpected profits, prompting suspicions the Crown corporation concocted deficit forecasts to justify deep service cuts. The post office yesterday reported a $68 million profit in the first half of the year due mainly to a 35% increase in stamp rates: ‘They panicked’.
A federal trademarks board armed with the Oxford Dictionary has dismissed farmers’ objections to use of the word “milk” to describe a product unrelated to cows. The Dairy Farmers of Canada filed the protest after U.S. manufacturer Cytosport Inc. trademarked its Monster Milk nutrition supplements for athletes: “Consumers are accustomed to encountering the word”.
The Senate has become too “politicized” and abandoned effective committee work, says a longtime senior lobbyist. Carole Presseault, for 13 years the vice-president of regulatory affairs for the Certified General Accountants Association of Canada, questioned Senators’ contributions to bills and regulations: “That’s unfortunate”.
