Canadians face growing income inequality that won’t be easily corrected by federal policies, a Liberal Senate forum has been told. Researchers yesterday said a widening gap between income groups reflected a long-term trend: “The richest 10% earns 30% of the income”.
Anti-trust investigators are seeking a $10 million fine and customer refunds from two best-known car rental agencies for alleged deceptive marketing. Avis and Budget Rent A Car face a Competition Tribunal investigation over company fees misidentified as taxes. Blacklock’s first revealed the probe in 2013: “They wanted to ask us some questions”.
Canadians fear interest rate hikes but are resigned to rising credit costs as inevitable, says in-house cabinet research. The newly-released government surveys also found deep unease with the loss of Canadian jobs abroad: ‘There’s a sense the economy is delicate, perhaps tenuous, with a wide variety of threats’.
A crime bill endorsed by the Commons would affect five people, officials say. The disclosure came as the bill’s Conservative sponsor said he would simply withdraw the measure after it passed the House on Second Reading by a vote of 183 to 90: “The theme is to be very, very afraid”.
Federal regulators lack considerable knowledge on the impact of oil spills, cautions a fisheries department panel. The Canadian Science Advisory Secretariat said the effect of an Alberta bitumen spill in fish habitat is not fully known: “Clean-up doesn’t get more than 20 percent”.
Only one percent of small and medium-sized business in Canada are exporters and stand to benefit from a European trade deal, a Commons committee has been told. Trade officials said the overwhelming majority of small operators do not have the means to trade: “They don’t know what they’re getting into”.
A Senate panel is appealing to Health Canada to adopt “essential” reforms to safeguard use of prescription drugs and antibiotics. The science committee yesterday concluded nearly three years of research with a call for more proactive regulation of medicines: “The committee was discouraged by frequent testimony regarding Health Canada”.
Most Chinese-Canadians have no religion while Jamaicans are more likely to be poor or unemployed, according to Ethnic Backgrounders written by the Department of Citizenship. Authorities gave no reason for compiling the data, released through Access To Information: ‘It’s the changing nature of Canada’.
Cabinet supports expanding federally-regulated security screening to regional airports nationwide, but won’t detail who will pay or how much. Transport Canada endorsed a Commons motion permitting small airfields to join a national airport security system following petitions from local authorities from Sherbrooke, Que. to Fort Nelson, B.C.: “It’s about time”.
A cabinet bill limiting corporate liability for oil leaks will leave taxpayers with millions in costs from any spill the size of a 2010 Enbridge Inc. pipeline breach in Michigan, MPs say. Bill C-46 caps no-fault liability at $1 billion; comparable U.S. law carries no such limit on clean-up costs: “One billion dollars is a drop in the bucket”.
A cabinet bill touted as a remedy for prison drug abuse merely codifies existing practice and appears pointless, the Commons has been told. The Department of Public Safety said there is “still room for improvement” in curbing inmates’ addictions: “Does this bill actually bring forward new policy?”
A 65-year old Hamilton, Ont. firefighter has lost a long legal battle to overturn a mandatory retirement law. The Supreme Court declined to hear the case: “We are an aging society; there is a shifting landscape”.
Nearly 6 in 10 Canadians would strip citizenship from children born here based on the immigration status of their parents, according to in-house government polling. Citizenship Canada posed the question in a confidential survey, obtained through Access to Information.
“This would be a very fundamental change,” said attorney Peter Edelmann of Edelmann & Co. in Vancouver, an executive member of the Canadian Bar Association’s national immigration law section. “The question they have asked is suggestive,” Edelmann said. “It pushes people to a certain answer that is out of the broader context.”
The citizenship department’s 2014-2015 Tracking Study asked Canadians, “Currently anyone born in Canada is automatically granted Canadian citizenship”; “Some say that Canadian citizenship should only be granted on an automatic basis to those born in Canada if their parents are Canadian citizens or permanent residents. Others say that Canadian citizenship should continue to be granted on an automatic basis to anyone born in Canada even if their parents are only here temporarily or are here illegally. Which is closer to your view?”
Fifty-seven percent supported revoking citizenship from children born to temporary residents or illegal migrants; only 39 percent supported the law as it stands. The findings were based on interviews with 3,028 Canadians nationwide. Costs of the survey were not disclosed.
“The problem is that if these people born here don’t get citizenship here, they won’t be able to get citizenship anywhere,” said Edelmann. “You would wind up with stateless individuals.”
Edelmann said the fact the Department of Immigration polled the question suggested that “immigration has become very politicized, especially with this government”; “I know the department has spent a significant amount of time on media management and this doesn’t surprise me. I think there are better ways for this department to spend its money.”
Contrary To 1947 Law
Christopher Veeman, an attorney with the Bar Association’s immigration law section executive, noted that revoking automatic citizenship for all babies born here depending on their parents’ status is contrary to Canada’s original Citizenship Act.
“Our system has operated this way since 1947,” said Veeman, of Veeman Law in Saskatoon. “It has not been an issue.”
The Tracking Study also noted 37 percent of Canadians surveyed believe there are too many immigrants in Canada; 35 percent said refugee claimants should be denied the same health care benefits as citizens; and only 20 percent said Canada should let in more immigrants over the next five years.
Asked whether Canada “should focus on helping unemployed Canadians rather than looking for skilled immigrants for our workforce,” 74 percent agreed in the Tracking Study.
“I can understand why politicians react to negative news stories, but ideally they should base these decisions on the best interests of the economy and the country,” Veeman said; “When you talk to Canadians about immigration in the abstract you’ll have people say, ‘Oh, yes, there are too many.’ When you ask Canadians about immigrants they actually know – the guy at the Tim Hortons or the highly-skilled engineer at work – they react much more favourably.”
Canada accepts 259,000 immigrants a year. The rate peaked in 1913 when 401,000 immigrants arrived in Canada.
By Tom Korski 
A $64,000 dispute over safety improvements to a Nova Scotia rail crossing makes the case for tighter federal regulations, says an MP. The City of Halifax had to appeal to the Canadian Transportation Agency to determine who’d pay to upgrade a crossing used by Canadian National Rail Co.: “There are issues”.
Heavy ice throughout the Great Lakes has forced a week’s delay in the opening of the St. Lawrence Seaway. It follows the coldest winter in the region since 1889. Some $34 billion a year in economic activity depends on the Seaway system: “We want to make sure”.
