Transport Minister Marc Garneau yesterday predicted a quick end to a three-day national strike at Canadian National Railways. “We think there is a possible solution,” said Garneau: “I’m not going to predict whether it’s hours, days.”
A federal review of the Broadcasting Act must address industry complaints over the CBC and Canadian content rules, says an Access To Information memo from the Department of Heritage. “The Canadian broadcasting system continues to experience significant disruption,” wrote staff.
The Competition Bureau yesterday would not disclose total cost of its failed anti-trust investigation of the Vancouver Airport Authority. Expenses included $1.32 million in legal costs paid to airport managers falsely targeted with anti-trust allegations: “Who did what?”
Environment Canada has pressed a $100,00 fine against a First Nation for breach of federal green laws. Saskatchewan’s Big River First Nation pleaded financial hardship, though Court records showed it had a surplus of $1.2 million: ‘$100,000 would not cause hardship.’
New Democrats yesterday vowed to oppose any measure to speed back-to-work legislation to end a national rail strike. The walkout by 3,200 Teamsters is the first to confront a minority Parliament in forty-six years: “These workers have serious concerns.”
A spiritual healer with a federal charity has been fined $29,000 for practicing medicine without a license. The Québec church remains listed by the Canada Revenue Agency as a registered charitable organization: “I feel it. There is really something happening.”
Auditors have uncovered common breaches of federal contracting rules by the National Research Council. Favoured contractors received work without having to bid for it, including six-figure deals divvied up in small, piecemeal invoices in an improper practice called contract splitting: “One of the central principles of federal contracting is openness.”
A homebuyer who blamed new federal mortgage rules for knocking eighteen percent off the value of his house has lost a claim for damages in Ontario Superior Court. Cabinet from 2016 introduced credit curbs on mortgage buyers: ‘It was the height of the local real estate boom.’
Canadian drug dealers have become a top source of global marijuana shipments since Parliament legalized cannabis in 2018, says Department of Public Safety research. Black market dealers now ship tons of marijuana annually: “Canadian vendors are willing to ship anywhere in the world.”
A dramatic increase in RCMP disability claims is due in part to tinnitus, says federal research. Mounties’ disability benefits will cost nearly a half-billion dollars a year by 2023: “Hearing loss is the most prominent medical condition among released members.”
Federal regulators yesterday rejected a request from airlines for a blanket exemption from a decades-old rule that they calculate basic fares on all routes. “The fare, in Canadian dollars, must be identified,” wrote the Canadian Transportation Agency.
Liberals yesterday were stripped of party status in the Senate for the first time in 152 years. The loss of committee assignments and $410,000 in research funding came as another Liberal appointee crossed the floor: “We are embracing the future.”
Federally-sponsored Syrian families had higher unemployment and were more likely to rely on welfare than refugees sponsored by private charities, churches and community groups, says a Department of Immigration report. Current funding of Parliament’s $859 million Syrian resettlement program expires next fiscal year: “Some challenges remain.”
A federal judge has dismissed the latest “natural persons” challenge of the Income Tax Act. Auditors estimate thousands of Canadians have filed false tax returns as “natural persons” and claimed more than a half-billion dollars in refunds: “It’s in the dictionary.”
Federal consultants are being hired to monitor a $4.5 million-a year program to invite French-speaking immigrants to settle in cities where only one percent of residents speak French. Researchers are to interview neighbours with questions like: “Do community members and newcomers trust and understand each other?”
