Saskatoon is rated in a national audit as the most tax competitive city in Canada. “It was hard work,” said a local official, noting the city achieved its rating in part by eliminating a 14.5 business tax and rolling it into non-residential property assessments. The City of Ottawa did not make the winners’ list.
The government says it anticipates little grumbling over a $234,000,000 hike in passport fees starting in the new year.
A Toronto-area firm that chauffeured drunk drivers home is now out of business and saddled with a $50,000 Federal Court judgment because its name was too similar to a company headquartered in Calgary: “It might have helped if they had shown up in court.”
Christmas tree sales are dropping sharply amid cheap imports of fake trees and aggressive sales by U.S. growers. Federal figures show that sales of real, grown-in-Canada Christmas trees have declined by almost a quarter since 2006.
Commercial greenhouse growers say they are intrigued, and troubled, by a federal proposal to privatize marijuana production for medical use. Health Canada projects 40 percent-a year growth in the sale of medical marijuana, and a 70 percent rise in wholesale prices, under a scheme to privatize production in 2014.
A federal effort to tax, license and regulate one of the nation’s largest fish farming systems remains unfinished into its third year after the Department of Fisheries announced by “error” it was finally consulting with industry on new fees.
A senator campaigning to regulate storekeepers’ credit fees urged lawmakers to lead the nation by example in avoiding card purchases this Christmas. “Do not use credit cards during our break,” said Senator Pierrette Ringuette, who introduced a bill to reduce Visa and MasterCard contractors’ fees by at least half.
Detecting deadly pathogens in food within minutes could be the next breakthrough in Canadian food science, researchers say. Scientists aim for a test that would detect bacterium in an hour or less. It follows food scares that prompted the closure of two separate Alberta meatpackers in the past two months.
Federal regulators warn of a shortage of telephone numbers in two regions of the country. “We were very surprised,” said an official directed to ensure numbers meet demand in southern Ontario and Alberta, where shortages are predicted as early as 2017.
A business group is trademarking a day of the week in a campaign to attract trade. The Canadian Federation of Independent Business filed the application with Industry Canada to trademark the date, along with descriptive noun and adjective, in a bid to lure consumers from big box retailers.
Phone calls can be expensive — especially for one Montreal retailer, charged $12,000 apiece for unwanted calls made by its telemarketers in violation of the National Do Not Call List. Regulators noted the fines could have been steeper under federal law.
A Northwest Territories miner has patented a new amphibious vehicle to maneuver risky winter roads and manage the “life-threatening danger” of thin ice due to global warming: “There is an immediate market for this.”
Officials anticipate a court fight over a federal bill requiring that union organizers detail their pay, activities, health benefits and other personal data for publication on a government website. The bill’s co-sponsor, asked if the measure was constitutional, replied: “Courts will determine that.” But one senior Conservative is already describing the bill’s passage in the House as “a great day for Canada.”
The post office says it received “zero representations — zero,” over its latest proposal to increase mail rates. Cabinet just approved the increase, which raises the cost of a domestic letter to a record-high 63¢.
Federal tax collectors are seeking a court order to seize records of some of the nation’s largest cheque-cashing companies in a probe of mysterious third-party invoicing by clients. One federal auditor said the investigation focused on “accommodation invoicing,” a scheme in which shell companies manufactured invoices to claim tax refunds.
