Cabinet will review airlines’ use of vouchers in lieu of cash refunds for cancelled flights, Transport Minister Marc Garneau said yesterday. Garneau said he expected all airlines to compensate travelers “as generously as possible”.
Workplace safety violations in the building trades may trigger a tax audit, the Canada Revenue Agency said last night. Assistant Revenue Commissioner Ted Gallivan said auditors have used data on jobsite accidents and injuries to delve into contractors’ books: “A construction company that plays fast and loose with the safety of its employees may not be all compliant with their tax obligations either.”
Legislators yesterday proposed the Senate conduct a year-long committee investigation of systemic racism in Canada. The panel would have twelve members. No budget was proposed: “What is wrong with us?”
A Commons committee yesterday voted to conduct a riding by riding review of lucrative grants under the Canada Summer Jobs program. MPs gained new powers to award 100 percent wage subsidies to local employers regardless of whether they’d applied: “We want to get on this right away.”
The labour department in an Access To Information report says breaches of the Canada Labour Code are more common than thought. Cabinet has proposed five-figure fines on scofflaws: “The labour program does not appear to be achieving its intended purpose.”
The Commons health committee yesterday ordered public release of records regarding ongoing restrictions on Canada-U.S. border traffic. Closure to all but “essential” travelers has seen traffic cut by ninety percent or more at the busiest land crossings: “There has been no issue which comes up more frequently than border issues.”
The $60 billion Canada Emergency Response Benefit will be extended, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said yesterday. Cabinet did not estimate additional expenses for the program, the costliest pandemic relief plan to date: “We’re working on a solution to extend the benefit.”
Few Canadian businesses see privacy breaches, only four percent, says a national survey by the Office of the Privacy Commissioner. A third of operators polled said they were “not at all concerned about a data breach”.
Senators are being cautioned to be careful opening mail after envelopes claimed to be infected with the coronavirus were sent to their Ottawa offices. The Parliament Hill alert is the first since a 2001 anthrax scare: “The risk of contracting Covid-19 from a mailed letter is considered as very low.”
Cabinet will not launch a promised “ambitious” tree-planting blitz this year though it was proposed to create thousands of summer jobs. The Liberal Party in its 2019 election platform said planting hundreds of millions of trees a year would put 3,500 unemployed to work: “We will move forward.”
Pandemic relief for commercial tenants is so under-subscribed it will cost sixteen percent of what was budgeted, federal data show. MPs and tenants alike complained the program was badly designed: “It’s absurd.”
The Senate will vote on a proposal to appoint a secretive super-committee of three members to oversee its $116 million yearly budget and control all audits. Suggested changes to Rules Of The Senate follow complaints of concealed spending and breach of contracting rules: “I am struck at how secret an institution the Senate is.”
Amazon Canada executives will not take questions on confidential terms of a multi-million dollar contract to distribute pandemic supplies, the Commons government operations committee was told. Cabinet awarded Amazon the $5 million contract on a claim the company was working without profit: “We’re trying to figure out what is the scope and scale of this arrangement.”
A Vancouver cannabis shop must pay $30,000 and stop calling itself Herbs R Us, the Federal Court has ruled. The judgment is the third marijuana-related case under the Trademarks Act: “Adult-themed content said to include nudity and swear words is utterly inconsistent with the reputation of the Toys R Us brand.”
Mom prepares her teenaged son
for the tournament.
She packs his bags
and puts spending money
in his wallet.
40 dollars.
She then takes another 20-dollar bill,
seals it in an envelope,
and writes “For Emergency Only”
in red ink.
She places this one at the bottom of his backpack.
The tournament went well,
and
there is still one dollar left in the wallet.
Mom is happy;
her son showed fiscal responsibility.
Until she learns that he bought pizza for the whole team,
and paid for it
by selling his hockey equipment
and dipping into his contingency fund.
“Why are you mad at me, Mom?
I balanced the budget, didn’t I?”
(Editor’s note: poet Shai Ben-Shalom, an Israeli-born biologist, examines current events in the Blacklock’s tradition each and every Sunday)
