Privatization of Canada’s airport screening service looks like a “toll booth operation”, a Liberal senator yesterday told the Senate transport committee. “What about the consumers?” asked Senator Dennis Dawson (Liberal-Que.). “Consumers are being left out.”
The chair of the Commons industry committee yesterday said he’s positive there were no leaks of a confidential report on the Copyright Act. The substance of a key committee recommendation was cited by an Ottawa blogger four days before the report was published: “I was very clear as chair that nothing could be leaked.”
The Commons public accounts committee is due to vote tomorrow on a New Democrat proposal to increase funding for the Office of the Auditor General. Staff complained they are so short of money they must cut audits: “Even Stephen Harper, for all he gets demonized around here, didn’t do this,” said a New Democrat MP.
Voters should beware of a newspaper bailout regardless of which party wins the October 21 general election, a Conservative MP yesterday told the Commons. “Somebody who votes NDP or Green should have a huge concern,” said MP Michelle Rempel (Calgary Nose Hill): “They would have a very hard time standing up here arguing for, let us say, Stephen Harper having control over the Canadian media.”
The Department of National Defence has threatened to sue Canadians that make patriotic use of the Support Our Troops slogan, according to Access To Information records. The department trademarked the yellow ribbon emblem under an obscure provision of the Trademarks Act: “This ‘official marks’ category is weird.”
Canadian regulators are considering a national insurance pool for a million homeowners who live on flood plains, the Commons environment committee was told yesterday. The scheme would be cheaper than the current “ad hoc system of bailing out those in harm’s way with taxpayer dollars”, said an Insurance Bureau of Canada executive.
A Conservative MP who sponsored regulations to limit select accounting fees yesterday praised the Canada Revenue Agency for a $100 cap on consultants’ charges. MP Cheryl Gallant (Renfrew-Nipissing, Ont.) said tax consultants built a “cottage industry” by over-charging the disabled: “I think a hundred dollars is generous.”
The Commons industry committee yesterday recommended Parliament raise statutory damages for copyright theft, but cautioned against overly-restrictive limits on copying. MPs acknowledged their report would not satisfy creators or publishers: “No single stakeholder may find it entirely satisfactory.”
The Commons yesterday effectively killed an animal cruelty bill passed by the Senate last June 19. MPs adjourned debate without a Second Reading vote in the final days of the current Parliament: “I am really disappointed.”
The Canada Revenue Agency in an unprecedented regulation proposes to cap selective fees charged by private accountants and tax advisors at a hundred dollars. Consultants said the rule affecting more than 60,000 firms will drive many out of business: “What $100 will do is eliminate the industry.”
The Bank of Montreal has been fined $200,000 for breach of federal consumer protection regulations. It is the first scofflaw to be publicly identified under a 2018 Act of Parliament to name and shame violators: “That introduces an element of accountability that did not exist before.”
Access To Information records indicate public agencies awarded nearly $800,000 in subsidies to a private radio station to serve Edmonton’s French-speaking community, population 27,000. The city already has a French-language CBC Radio service: ‘Prairie residents are less enthusiastic about Canadian linguistic duality.’
Cabinet is amending its own budget bill to stipulate Canadians’ “right to adequate housing”. Advocates said it removes any ambiguity in the National Housing Strategy Act: “It is an historic moment.”
Human rights advocates have asked the Commons justice committee to revive a federal law repealed by Parliament six years ago as an infringement on free speech. Section 13 of the Canadian Human Rights Act prohibited internet speech deemed likely to expose a person to “hatred or contempt”.
The CBC is a “beacon for truth” that does not require big viewership, its CEO yesterday told the Commons heritage committee. The network audience for local suppertime TV newscasts has declined 27 percent in two years: “Competitiveness: We don’t think of ourselves in those terms.”
