The nation is still tossing mercury-laden fluorescent lights into landfills despite repeated warnings of toxic vapours from the bulbs, according to federal research. Environment Canada cautioned the products are so toxic homeowners must clear the room before cleaning up broken bulbs: “Remove people and pets”.
In another sign of the twilight of telephone landlines, StatsCanada says it will end its use of random digit dialing in household surveys. A million landlines have gone out of service nationwide: “We have to adapt”.
Canada Post is proceeding with $200 million rate hikes that will see customers run, not walk from the post office, says a business group. Rates on domestic stamps will rise from 63¢ to as much as a dollar by month’s end, doubling rates since 1994: “I’m not sure Canada Post will come out the winner”.
Appointment of Joe Oliver as finance minister at 73 makes him the oldest federal treasurer since 76-year old William Fielding in 1925. The appointment comes two years after cabinet abolished mandatory retirement: “Now we’re told, ‘He looks pretty good for his age'”.
Environment Canada is quietly dismissing petitions to force disclosure of chemicals used by the fracking industry. Nearly three years after acknowledging “the need to move quickly”, authorities say they see no reason to require that companies disclose toxins used in hydraulic fracturing: “We have stopped asking them for answers”.
Vietnam Airlines has won federal approval to operate a scheduled service with Canada for the first time since the end of the Vietnam War. Trade boosters said they hoped for increased sales with Vietnam, currently a smaller Canadian export market than North Dakota: “It is very crucial”.
The government’s Financial Consumer Agency mandated to monitor consumer protection codes says it deliberately did not fine banks or other violators under an enforcement “philosophy”. In one year the agency counted more than 2000 complaints without punishment: “We do not wag our fingers very much”.
Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s alma mater claims energy exports are worth almost $9000 for every Canadian household. However one analyst said the figure appeared misleading and abstract: “It’s not like $9000 of free cash flow”.
Telecom regulators have selected Metro Vancouver as the first municipality in the country to offer a texting 911 service for the hearing and speech impaired. It comes 55 years after Canada’s first three-digit emergency code was introduced in Winnipeg: “We have a strategy”.
Winter is delaying the opening of the St. Lawrence Seaway shipping season with ice cover on the Great Lakes passing 91 percent, the biggest freeze-up since 1979. A quarter-million jobs depend on the seaway and Great Lakes trade: “The ice won’t go away fast enough.”
A federal order to boost Prairie grain shipments under threat of six-figure fines will be put to the test amid confirmation that penalties aren’t automatic. Transport Canada confirmed any fines for non-compliance are up to judges: “A court of law will ultimately decide”.
Environment Canada is conducting research on bird collisions with windows amid estimates that deaths run into millions a year. Authorities proposed a scientific estimate of the problem, especially for migratory birds travelling through urban landscapes in spring and autumn: “This is a very serious problem”.
An industry group has privately lobbied cabinet to reform Canada’s milk quota system as a “luxury” that threatens jobs. The Dairy Processors Association petitioned the Prime Minister and cabinet to revise the decades-old supply management system: “The pressure will come”.
Parks Canada cuts are marking a close to research and recovery of artifacts dating from among the earliest Western Canadian settlements. Authorities served notice they will catalogue and store the last of 9500-year old tools, fossils and other treasures recovered from archaeological digs: “It’s come to an end”.
The federal mortgage insurer CMHC is researching new condo sales in selected markets in an initiative consumers’ advocates say is overdue. The agency will track construction, sales, footage, and units left unsold or rented by developers: “Government-backed insurance wasn’t intended for market speculation”.
