Ongoing conflicts over random workplace drug testing are headed back to court with a Suncor Energy Inc. appeal of an Alberta ruling. Suncor was ordered to stop random testing at its oilsands facilities: “This is a labour law issue with clear precedents”.
Cabinet is quiet on a private contractor’s bid to charge homeowners $20 a month for mail delivery in the wake of Canada Post cutbacks. The service, believed to be the first of its kind, promises doorstep delivery from community mailboxes for a fee: “Anything to make a buck on seniors and the disabled, right?”
Canada Border Services Agency says it’s so short of funding that guards are to ignore suspected narcotics shipments unless notified by police. The order is contained in an agency memo disclosed at a Senate committee. The revelation came as MPs debate a bill to have guards intercept counterfeit goods: “We cannot even examine export containers suspected of holding drugs”.
The Senate has voted to investigate Bitcoin as the chair of the banking committee likened the pseudo-currency to an Aesop’s fable. Senator Irving Gerstein noted that money has been regulated by Canada’s central bank since 1934: “Aesop wrote of a miser who buried a stash of gold in a field…”
Health Canada is being pressed to explain a six-month delay in replying to a petition for review of a pesticide linked to bee deaths. Farmers use some 200,000 litres a year of the neonicotinoid chemicals currently banned in Europe: “Why are these products on the market?”
A Liberal bill to regulate merchants’ credit card fees has passed Second Reading in the Senate amid Conservative warnings it will not go much further. Bill S-202 would cut merchants’ fees to a fraction of the $5 billion now collected annually: ‘This does not strike a fair balance’.
Canada’s privacy commissioner is being urged to protect citizens’ rights under a cross-border tax treaty. MP Charlie Angus questioned whether the innocuous-appearing agreement exposes Canadians to intrusive checks by U.S. agents: ‘Do procedures protect privacy rights?’
CNR accuses cabinet of trying to “punish” railways with another bill intended to speed deliveries on the nation’s crucial freight network. The new bill, the second in less than a year, would mandate shipping quotas and subject railways to arbitration under threat of fines or license suspensions: “They ought to listen this time”.
Cabinet will divert nearly $30 million from its military budget for commemoration of obscure historical milestones and military disasters, new records show. Events include remembrance of the first German chlorine gas attack of WWI, and the drowning of four Nova Scotians off the coast of Chile: ‘What will they cut to pay for these things?’
The Department of Agriculture is hiring dogs to counter an airborne threat to its field research. Authorities are contracting canines to chase whole flocks of Canada geese blamed for causing havoc at an experimental facility: “We have lost hundreds of thousands of dollar in research”.
Environment Canada says fracking companies may use up to 10 tonnes of restricted chemicals without reporting the release to federal regulators. And the department said it will not monitor the amount of wastewater produced by 200,000 hydraulic fracturing wills nationwide: “There is no desire to know”.
Transport Canada says VIA Rail must meet commuters’ needs within its budget amid service cuts and record deficit forecasts. The budget reminder came as MPs contemplated the loss of continuous Atlantic to Pacific passenger rail service for the first time since 1889: “We need this to continue”.
Canada Revenue is unravelling another charity kickback scheme, this one involving millions in undeserved credits claimed by nearly 4000 tax-filers. Details were divulged in Tax Court where a federal judge waive a three-year limitation period in reassessing tax returns: “I find it implausible”.
Canadian airline pilots are appealing for better safety management systems following new details of a Nunavut charter flight crash that killed twelve people: ‘What is needed are better defences’.
Natural Resources Canada awarded eco-grants to Sears, McDonald’s Restaurants, oil companies and pulp mills, newly-released records show. Documents indicate a program promoted as assistance for homeowners paid its largest grants to some of Canada’s biggest corporations: “These companies are flush”.
