The Bank of Canada estimates one third of small and medium-sized businesses boycott credit cards due to high transaction fees. Merchants’ fees, typically 1 to 3 percent, are not federally regulated: “It adds up fast.”
Labour Minister Patricia Hajdu says a new federal workplace harassment bill should curb teasing, yelling, touching, off-colour jokes and inappropriate Twitter comments. “It is, more broadly speaking, laying the foundation for cultural change,” Hajdu yesterday told the Commons human resources committee: “It can be people who use a certain style of joking that makes others very uncomfortable.”
The Commons public accounts committee yesterday described dysfunction at the Canada Revenue Agency as shocking, disappointing and alarming. MPs ordered tax managers to report within 120 days on improvements to Agency call centres: ‘It did a poor job.’
MPs tomorrow will give Second Reading to a Senate bill banning junk food advertising to children. Cabinet is proposing amendments to narrow any restrictions on marketing: “It is difficult to know exactly what we are agreeing to.”
A tobacco manufacturer yesterday protested a proposed plain packaging law would prohibit marketing of smoke-free nicotine products. A bill passed by the Senate in 2017 would enact an Australian-style law requiring that cigarettes be sold in a plain brown package with graphic health warnings: “It’s not going to have the impact you think it will.”
A federal judge has ruled the Canada Border Services Agency unfairly revoked a traveler’s Nexus card for a trivial breach of the Customs Act. The plaintiff accused Customs officers of racial profiling: “We are treated like some kind of culprits.”
The military is launching a cannabis prevention campaign in anticipation of legalized marijuana. One-fifth of soldiers, sailors and air crew are cannabis users, a rate the Department of National Defence fears will increase if Parliament passes a marijuana bill: “It’s not a good sign.”
Flooding is a greater threat to home values than rising interest rates, the Senate energy committee has been told. The chair of a federal Expert Panel on Climate Change Adaptation said homeowners face high costs from lack of preparedness: “Every day we don’t adapt is a day we don’t have.”
The Department of Finance says reforms will be made at a federal agency responsible for tracking money laundering. Courts have repeatedly cited the Financial Transactions & Reports Analysis Centre for hectoring small businesses over minor breaches of the law: “It made no sense.”
Health Canada proposes to cut consumers’ sugar and salt consumption by a third. The targeted reductions still exceed World Health Organization guidelines to combat obesity, hypertension and chronic diseases: “It’s a start.”
Cabinet did not spend a penny on mass media health warnings for tobacco smokers in 2016, according to newly-released accounts. Health Canada has not commissioned any anti-tobacco campaign on TV or radio since 2007: “It’s unacceptable.”
The Senate fisheries committee has approved a bill to ban shark fin imports. Regulators said the measure may have trade implications, drawing a sharp response from the bill’s sponsor: “If we are to wait for the Department of Fisheries assessment, we won’t have any sharks left.”
New data show it takes Canadian courts twice as long to clear drug-impaired driving cases as offences involving alcohol. Members of the Senate legal affairs committee yesterday predicted courts will be flooded with costly trials and appeals if Parliament legalizes marijuana: ‘It will cripple our court system.’
An Indigenous lawmaker says racial profiling is so commonplace he’s been pulled over by police three times since being appointed to the Senate in 2016. “Profiling is an issue of concern,” said Senator Murray Sinclair (Independent-Man.).
A Senate panel yesterday voted to rewrite a federal usury law for the first time in 40 years. The banking committee agreed to lower the criminal interest rate from 60 percent to 45 percent plus prime: “This should compel the Department of Finance to take note.”
