Advocacy groups are pressing cabinet to approve more lower-cost generic products – not drugs, but pesticides. Farmers say regulators should speed approval for generic chemicals: “Like with prescription drugs, generics should be able to enter the market.”
Official figures on auto sales are distorting underlying issues still plaguing the industry, analysts tell Blacklock’s. Canadian auto sales jumped 19% to $82.6 billion last year, according to new federal data. But investment in the industry lagged far below a pre-recession peak: “We have to remain competitive.”
A Canadian manufacturer is suing the government for allegedly using substandard flags on the Peace Tower, federal courthouses, even soldiers’ caskets — all in violation of a 1985 law. Regulations forbid any Crown agency from using flags that fail to meet exacting standards: “This is what we are supposed to be proud of.”
Insurer Great-West Life has been handed a victory by the Supreme Court in the case of a policyholder denied a claim for incorrectly filling out a questionnaire. The Court decided not to hear further testimony in the case of the Manitoba woman who told Great-West she had never been to counseling, though she’d seen a psychiatrist 23 times.
Canada Geese face a bigger bird hunt after being tagged as a nuisance by federal regulators. Environment Canada, mandated to protect the geese by law, says it will ease hunting limits on the iconic birds it blames for causing “a variety of conflicts with humans” — like killing lawns.
Municipalities say they are having difficulty calculating critical figures following changes to the way Statistics Canada collects information. Local authorities said new methods leave officials with little data on Small Town Canada: “More than 1,000 communities do not have results.”
A computer glitch that saw Statistics Canada publish garbled data sent staff scrambling to correct the typo, according to Access to Information records. The federal agency mistakenly published the wrong numbers for 20 minutes on its website as the nation’s stock markets prepared to open.
Six months after Ontario Superior Court ordered the government to turn over all relevant records on the Residential School System, the process is still hobbled by disagreements over definitions of ‘and,’ ‘all’ and ‘relevant,’ officials say: “It’s in our interest to know who knew what, when,”
Malls have eclipsed manufacturing as the nation’s leading job creator with more than 1 in 10 working Canadians now employed in retail sales. New figures show the country also has more carpenters than accountants; and welders outnumber security guards.
Canada’s top telecom regulatory has approved the takeover of Astral Media Inc. by Bell Canada Enterprises, giving the corporation control of more than a third of English broadcasting in Canada: “It is going to hit Canadians in the pocketbook.”
The Canadian Labour Congress is crediting the Senate with blocking quick passage of a contentious labour bill now deferred for months. Sixteen Conservative dissenters – most of them appointed by Prime Minister Stephen Harper – voted with Liberals to prevent passage of Bill C-377. Another six Conservatives abstained from supporting their own Senate leadership: “This was a bad bill.”
A federal judge has faulted the Department of Aboriginal Affairs for misunderstanding its own policies and broadcasting “incorrect” information in a centuries-old land dispute. The rebuke came over inflammatory remarks regarding a claim affecting prime property deeded to Mohawks and “their heirs forever” in 1793.
Trade Minister Ed Fast is declining comment after releasing a report that praised cocaine-producing Colombia for its impressive “agriculture”. The lapse came in a 27-page report in which Fast’s department was to account for human rights conditions in the republic under a 2011 commercial treaty.
Canada faces a “chronic” shortage of young tradespeople nationwide, according to new research. Shortfalls in qualified trades include a looming shortage of 37,000 mechanics and technicians: “It’s a chronic situation; it’s simple math,” said Michael Atkinson, president of the Canadian Construction Association.
A revolt by Conservative senators has blocked passage of a contentious labour bill, handing the government its heaviest legislative defeat of the year. Twenty-two Conservatives today bolted from their own leadership on Bill C-377, effectively stripping provisions that would compel unions to publish confidential data on a government website: “The bill is gutted.”
