The Department of Agriculture’s removal from meat inspection for the first time in 146 years should eliminate “confusion and finger-pointing” over food safety, legislators and analysts tell Blacklock’s: “There was plenty of blame to go around.”
Opposition MPs propose that parliamentary watchdogs gain new powers to subpoena documents and enforce regulations. It follows complaints by federal commissioners that legislation is weak and obsolete: “That’s the way to get the type of democracy we want.”
A Department of Finance error that meant a $30 million sugar tax is being remedied following appeals from industry. A trade group said a mistaken tariff hike on Brazilian imports would have forced the closure of at least one Canadian sugar refinery: “We would have been a casualty.”
Canada Post should revive its 19th century banking business as a means to bolster revenues, says an Ottawa think-tank.
The Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives proposed the post office provide consumer financial services at its 6,500 retail outlets nationwide.
“The only two major countries that do not have postal banking services are Canada and the United States,” said researcher John Anderson, author of the study Why Canada Needs Postal Banking.
Canada Post declined Blacklock’s interview request.
The Canadian Union of Postal Workers earlier proposed the corporation diversify its operations to include retail banking, similar to services provided by Swiss Post, Deutsche Postbank, Poste Italiane, Japan Post Bank, the Postal Savings Bank of China, and New Zealand’s Kiwibank.
Anderson noted Postal Savings Banks were a Confederation-era fixture of rural Canada from 1868 to 1968, when the post office disbanded the system.
“We had postal financial services for a hundred years,” said Anderson; “It’s something just about every other country has.”
The Centre for Policy Alternatives proposed that postal outlets issue low-cost credit and debit services and basic chequing accounts and savings deposits, particularly in rural areas with limited access to retail banking.
The study calculated 334 chartered bank branches have closed nationwide in the past decade, with only four provinces – Newfoundland & Labrador, Ontario, Québec and Alberta – seeing a net gain in branch networks since 2010.
“There is this idea that Canada Post has to concentrate on its core business – that we are only here to collect and deliver mail,” said Denis Lemelin, president of CUPW. “This is the idea that killed the postal banks in the 1960s.”
Canada Post has eliminated 4,750 jobs since 2006 through attrition amid declines in letter volumes.
By Kaven Baker-Voakes 
Government investment is “not the right approach” to resolving internet failings, says a Crown executive. A federal study warns direct federal competition to provide inexpensive, accessible broadband service would provoke an outcry from industry: “The private sector is the owner.”
The last decade has seen little real growth in federal public sector wages despite contrary claims, says the Parliamentary Budget Office. Inflation and new hiring, not fat bonuses, were responsible for salary costs: ‘You hire a bunch and fire a bunch.’
Industry Canada lacks a “clear strategy” on internet policy but cannot serve millions of Canadians priced out of the market without offending industry, says a Crown study: “If left on its own, the fragmented environment in Canada will not align itself in a consistent fashion.”
Enbridge Pipelines Inc. has won intervener status in a gag lawsuit against the National Energy Board. Critics fear the decision will make the Federal Court case slower and more costly. Enbridge did not comment: “It will drive up the cost of this proceeding.”
Housing starts nationwide have dropped sharply with construction of single family homes down in 4 of 5 cities, reports the federal insurer CMHC. Only three provinces saw a general increase in starts so far this year: “The economy is having an impact.”
Industry Canada has “confused international markets” with its veto of the sale of a Manitoba telecom asset, a former CRTC regulator tells Blacklock’s. The department blocked the $520 million sale of Manitoba’s largest fibre-optic network to an Egyptian buyer: “Terrible.”
Canada Revenue auditors are prowling Auto Trader magazine, Craigslist and municipal building permits in a multi-million dollar crackdown on tax cheats, documents show.
The federal strategies to curb the underground economy are detailed in tax office reports released through Access to Information.
In an operation run through its Surrey, B.C. office, Canada Revenue monitored private listings of vehicles for sale at Auto Trader, Craigslist and newspaper classified ads to identify “curbers” – unlicensed car salespeople passing as private owners.
“It is clear from this research that a significant portion of the used car sales industry is controlled and operated by unlicensed dealers,” noted one tax report. “Many purchasers of used cars have a negative perception of licensed dealers, preferring to purchase a car through a private sale. Often purchasers are unaware they are buying from a reseller, believing instead they are participating in a private sale.”
Auditors recovered more than $1 million in tax in the British Columbia operation. Of 435 suspicious car sellers, 90 were identified as “curbers” – a 21 percent delinquency rate. Nationally the tax department estimates an average seven to 15 percent of Canadians do not pay taxes as required.
“From a collections perspective, this project helped to corroborate that there is a large underground curbing industry,” auditors reported. “It is likely similar throughout the country.”
In a separate special audit in Ontario, tax agents scoured lists of municipal building permits to check on worksites for unregistered small-town subcontractors. The review of 8,396 permits identified 2,751 unregistered companies with a resulting tax collection of $4.5 million.
Auditors wrote they were “aware anecdotally…that there are many subcontractors in the construction industries who have not filed for income tax purposes or have not registered for GST,” according to a department report Construction Sectors In Small Communities.
“Building permits proved to be an excellent source of information and attending building sites helped identify contractors who operated off the grid,” wrote auditors; “The reception from municipal officials…has been excellent.”
The Ontario campaign targeted building permits issued in Sudbury, North Bay, Parry Sound, Muskoka, Sault Ste. Marie, Orillia and Barrie, and authorities proposed it go nationwide: “The underground economy in the construction industry is a national issue, and this approach could be successful on a national level.”
Auditors at the Canada Revenue’s Kelowna, B.C. office also targeted installers who work for hardware and home improvement stores. Revenue agents targeted 93 hardware stores in 19 communities, finding 7 percent of installers were tax delinquents. Canada Revenue collected $4.5 million in taxes, $559,000 in interest payments and $843,000 in penalties: “This sector, given the lack of reporting of this type of income in these circumstances, may form part of a future high-risk profile,” auditors reported.
By Tom Korski
Air Canada has been ordered to halt liver enzyme testing of employees to ensure they don’t drink at home. CUPE won the arbitrator’s order pending a full hearing on the case of a woman flight attendant tested to see if she was sober off-duty: “It is a violation of privacy.”
Natural Resources Canada is spending on research for “clean coal” technology that is commercially unviable without a price on carbon emissions, says an expert: ‘Who’d build a plant 10% less efficient when you’re not forced to do that?’
Cabinet has taken another step to slapping $1 billion worth of tariffs on U.S. goods from Wisconsin cheese to Washington apples. The World Trade Organization complied with Canada’s request for a panel hearing in a five-year dispute over meat labeling.
Some of the country’s largest farm groups vow to oppose curbs on chemicals cited by Health Canada for “affecting the environment”. The action comes as critics campaign against the pesticides currently used on everything from grapes to potatoes.
