Cabinet has assumed direct supervision of eleven federal tribunals amid warnings the move is wide open to legal challenge at the World Trade Organization. The government yesterday confirmed effective November 1 the panels will answer directly to the Minister of Justice: “There is a lot here that nobody read and didn’t understand, and they passed it anyway”.
Canada’s cheese industry may be ‘crippled’ by low-cost imports under a European trade pact, say dairy processors. Executives told the Senate agriculture committee that Canadian industry cannot cut costs deep enough to stem an “influx of cheese” from France, Denmark and other producers: “Other countries have reduced subsidies”.
The Supreme Court has decided even BB guns are weapons under the Criminal Code. Justices dismissed an appeal by an Ottawa man arrested for carrying a “concealed weapon”, an unloaded air gun shaped like a pistol: “It’s an important case”.
A lobbyist promoting a contentious federal labour bill was invited by the Prime Minister to join cabinet members on an expense-paid trade mission to Germany. Documents released through Access to Information show the president of Merit Canada, a coalition of non-union contractors, was personally asked to join the Prime Minister on a trip to Berlin last March 25: ‘They can’t miss a chance to poke labour’.
A federal labour panel has upheld the use of surveillance cameras to discipline employees. The decision came in the case of a British Columbia prison guard caught on videotape propping open a control room door in breach of rules: “There is no reasonable expectation of privacy”.
Federal departments have failed to comply with nearly half of requests for details on how they spend public funds, according to the Parliamentary Budget Officer. Jean-Denis Fréchette expressed frustration with officialdom’s resistance to disclosure: “Going back to court is not off the table”.
The “jury is still out” on public-private partnerships years after cabinet created a new Crown agency to attract investment in public works, says a former finance minister. Cabinet documents indicate few departments have used P3 funding models, and those who have could not account for time or money spent on the process: ‘It’s pretty thin’.
Consumer grievances to a federal telecom ombudsman declined last year but still run into the thousands, according to new data. The Commissioner for Complaints for Telecom Services said wireless subscribers remain the most unhappy customers: “We are optimistic”.
Canada’s two largest credit card issuers have agreed to cut merchants’ fees one step ahead of a Senate bill to regulate charges. Visa and MasterCard Canada, accounting for 90% of credit card transactions, yesterday submitted a proposal to Finance Canada to limit fees to an “average effective rate” of 1.5%: “The devil is in the details”.
A Health Canada agency that regulates farm chemicals proposed to “restrict” use of bee-killing pesticides, but subsequently opted for a five-year study. The Pest Management Regulatory Agency draws 17% of its budget from chemical manufacturers’ license fees: “Who’s paying the piper here?”
A Senate bill would proclaim a national sealing day alongside Mother’s Day and Victoria Day as a May observance. Senator Céline Hervieux-Payette suggested 70,000 seals be culled: “I suggest we approach some meat processors”.
A Senate bill marking the fall of Saigon has been renamed amid complaints, including protest from the Government of Vietnam. The legislation would observe the collapse of South Vietnam to communist forces in 1975: “They faced constant, unimaginable peril”.
New regulations for air cargo screening are raising concerns proposed rules would mean less federal oversight of shipments. The regulations are intended to saves shippers $20 million a year: “Industry would be policing itself”.
Shippers are gearing for a final push in the last weeks of the Great Lakes freighting season following a contract settlement with workers on the St. Lawrence Seaway. Seaway management and Unifor representing 460 employees agreed to a new contract that eliminates the risk of a strike: “We have been meeting day and night”.
The National Capital Commission, a Crown agency that manages the Prime Minister’s home, Rideau Hall and other Ottawa landmarks, should be held to account by taxpayers say MPs. New Democrats propose a series of citizen consultations on the work of the commission that saw 16% of its staff reassigned last year: “It is fair to ask questions”.
