Cabinet claims a proposed billion-dollar liability limit on oil spills reflects “historical data”, though an Enbridge pipeline break in Michigan has cost the company 50% more to date. The Department of Natural Resources miscalculated actual costs of the 2010 Kalamazoo River spill in justifying its liability cap: “A billion dollars is actually just a rounding error”.
Canada has lost 4% of its farmland, some seven million acres, since 2006 due to urban sprawl, says a report by the National Farmers Union. The group cautioned remaining land has become a prize for foreign investors, echoing an Agriculture Canada memo that officials have little insight on offshore ownership: ‘Who is buying farmland?’
Federal regulators in a decision one MP called “nonsensical” have ruled scooter batteries run afoul of Dangerous Goods Regulations. The judgment came in the case of a disabled Winnipeg woman ordered to ship her back-up battery as cargo: “They have taken a very narrow view”.
Most gun robberies occur in British Columbia while Saskatchewan leads the nation in suicide by firearms, according to Department of Justice records. Canadians own more than 7.8 million rifles, shotguns, handguns and other firearms: ‘There’s security’.
MPs are demanding the RCMP justify a $19 million program that’s seen officers assigned to foreign posts from Bangkok to Panama City. The Commons public accounts committee has given the Mounties a 2016 deadline to submit a performance management report on its Liaison Officer Program: ‘There are deficiencies’.
A federal spy agency has scrutinized Canadians’ bank accounts without a warrant, according to evidence disclosed in an Ontario court case. Attorneys questioned the practice that saw the Royal Bank surrender customers’ records to the Canadian Security Intelligence Service: ‘This does raise flags’.
Fresh-cut flowers for the Prime Minister’s home and other official residences are costing $63,000 a year, according to the National Capital Commission. Financial records tabled in Parliament documented the previously-undisclosed spending, typically doled out in $5,000 contracts unreported in Public Accounts: “We’d appreciate the Prime Minister spending more on flowers”.
Cabinet’s income splitting tax program does little for 85 percent of Canadian families and will cost billions this year, says the Parliamentary Budget Office. The analysis follows confidential Department of Finance memos that concluded the scheme puts Canada out of line with most OECD countries: “This will only make things worse”.
A federal code upholding current wireless exposure limits as biologically safe will be studied by the Commons health committee. The new radiofrequency guidelines come amid claims that exposure to cellphones, Wi-Fi’s, baby monitors and other wireless products may cause illness: “Canadians might be ahead of the regulator”.
Cabinet is accused of allowing its Taxpayer Bill Of Rights to languish as it searches for a new ombudsman to fill a 2014 vacancy. The post has been empty since former ombudsman J. Paul Dubé resigned last June: “We still have more work to do”.
A motivational speaker who advises clients not to listen to news media has received tens of thousands of dollars in contracts from Employment Canada, according to newly-released records. Payments included $13,703 for services delivered on the same day, last March 31. Employment Minister Pierre Poilievre did not comment.
Darci Lang, a Regina businesswoman who co-produces a yearly bridal fair with her husband Darren, was awarded $33,037 in untendered contracts as a motivational speaker last year. Blacklock’s was unable to reach Lang despite repeated attempts.
The employment department did not explain the purpose of Lang’s speeches. In blogs and videos posted on YouTube, Lang urges audiences to manage “negative” people and ignore media. “If you have a company where your employees are required to drive a lot, I recommend that you buy those drivers stacks of motivational CDs to listen to while they drive,” Lang wrote in one commentary. “So often people say they listen to the news while they drive. How can we create a motivated group of employees when all we listen to is how terrible the world is?”
Lang wrote in another blog entry, “I think every Canadian newscaster should end every newscast like this: ‘You have just heard how the other half of the world lives in fear, war and famine. Now, I want you to turn off your radio, turn off your TV and go into your life in Canada and be so grateful for what you have.’ Some of the happiest people I have met lived somewhere that was not as great as Canada.”
Financial records tabled in the Commons indicate Employment Canada also paid $4,200 to Independence Inc., a Winnipeg consultant, for “coaching for a senior advisor to the assistant deputy minister”. And $13,263 was paid to another motivator, Michael T. Chase, for services including a speech entitled Putting Clients First.
Know Any Complainers?
Payments to Lang’s Regina company XL Enterprises Inc. were the largest of their kind for motivational speeches last March 31; again on May 7; October 16 and last December 5. “Have you ever met anyone who complains?” Lang asks in one YouTube video posted on her website.
“I’m sure you agree with me, a negative person can bring down the whole community,” says Lang, who urges listeners to accentuate the positive: “I don’t think the customer is always right. I think ten percent of the time they are cranky and unreasonable. But where do we give our power? Who do we talk about?”
“Imagine for me that you held a magnifying lens out in front of you in your life, and imagine that you had a choice what you focused that magnifying glass on – what I like to call the 90 percents, the positive aspects of your life, or the not-so-positive 10 percent,” Lang says; “What do you do with people that are unhappy? Here’s what I’ve learned. I’ve learned I can’t change them; I can only change me.”
Employment Canada offered no explanation on why Lang was hired, or who she was expected to motivate. Lang is a former tuxedo rental store owner and 1997 Saskatchewan Woman Entrepreneur Of The Year. Her company organizes a yearly Most Incredible Bridle Show in Regina, “a day full of the latest in wedding trends, fashions and supplies,” described by the Regina Leader Post as “the biggest wedding show in Saskatchewan”.
By Tom Korski 
A Winnipegger fined $800 by Canada Border Services Agency for carrying a home-cooked meal through airport customs has had her penalty dismissed by a federal tribunal. The latest ruling comes amid allegations of racial profiling in a separate case before the Federal Court of Appeal: ‘I had no idea it was forbidden to bring food into the country’.
Canada’s telecom complaints commissioner is hailing a federal settlement in a dispute that saw telecom customers unwittingly charged up to $40 a month for “free” trivia text features. Rogers Communications Inc. agreed to issue refunds it estimated may total $5.42 million: ‘It impacted thousands of customers’.
Rogers Communications is breaking no federal rule by offering subscribers exclusive NHL broadcasts unavailable to other telecom providers, say broadcast regulators. The CRTC dismissed complaints of preferential treatment from rivals Bell and Telus: “We won’t stop”.
Senior government officials say irreplaceable cabinet papers are at risk and should be electronically digitized for safekeeping. The Privy Council Office noted numerous records were damaged when a water pipe burst in its Ottawa building: ‘Older documents may contain information with sensitivity’.
