The Department of Industry yesterday could not account for its claim a billion-dollar subsidy program would create 50,000 jobs. Internal Access To Information records count zero jobs created in two years: “Zero may designate information that is not available.”
Amnesty International has joined a lawsuit claiming Parliament’s failure to meet climate change targets violates Charter rights. The Québec Court of Appeal said it would permit the group to act as an intervenor in the case: “The litigation is in the public interest.”
Cabinet yesterday said it will not pull $372.5 million in subsidies awarded to Bombardier Inc. to save aerospace jobs. The money-losing corporation said it’s getting out of commercial aviation after thirty-four years: “Will taxpayers be left holding the bag?”
The Canadian Transportation Agency yesterday said it will open its first-ever inquiry into allegations airlines are skirting a passenger rights’ code. Parliament in 2018 passed a bill mandating compensation for travelers who suffer flight delays and cancellations: ‘It must be offered in cash or equivalent.’
The Canada Revenue Agency will not disclose how many taxpayers have been fined for failing to tell the government if they sold their home. The Agency in an obscure 2016 tax change ordered all homeowners to report sales of a primary residence though proceeds are not taxable: “They do not have data.”
A green energy firm that received millions in taxpayers’ aid has been cited by the federal labour department for breach of regulations. Atlantec Bioenergy Corporation of Cornwall, PEI could not be reached for comment: ‘Atlantec is an excellent example of how we drive innovation.’
The Competition Bureau yesterday said it obtained Federal Court-ordered records from the nation’s largest chemical manufacturers in an anti-trust probe. Investigators accuse the companies of targeting a start-up discounter that promised farmers low-cost seed and pesticides: “There is no conclusion of wrongdoing at this time.”
A Jehovah’s Witness reprimanded for leaving her desk at Statistics Canada to avoid a February workplace celebration has lost a federal labour board appeal. Witnesses do not observe Valentine’s Day: ‘The situation did not meet the definition of harassment.’
The CBC is out more than two billion dollars after losing twelve-year rights to Hockey Night In Canada, says an internal federal memo. The Access To Information document contradicts public claims by network executives that the hockey contract was worth only a “few dollars”. The CBC in a confidential report said it remains “the cornerstone of culture and democracy” despite plunging ad revenues.
The Department of Canadian Heritage paid French teachers $1,000 to take Anglo schoolchildren on field trips in what it called a social experiment. Subsidies were paid under a new “micro-funding” program, staff wrote in an Access To Information memo: “This is a test of a policy concept.”
Cabinet’s climate change plan could pose “a significant new risk” to the economy if it costs jobs in the energy sector, transport and utilities, says the Superintendent of Financial Institutions. Jeremy Rudin in remarks to lawyers in Vancouver said Canadians have “very little reliable information” on the impact of any sharp reduction in greenhouse gas emissions: “The prudent thing to do is to prepare for the possibility that the overall economic impact of the transition will be sharply negative, at least for some time.”
The Parliamentary Budget Office yesterday said it could find no evidence of $1.5 billion in yearly savings promised by cabinet. The cuts are “still unclear at this point”, wrote analysts: “Nobody said it was going to be easy.”
The Department of Canadian Heritage is paying newsrooms to write climate change stories. Subsidies paid to publishers under a $50 million Local Journalism Initiative were intended for strictly local coverage of courts, councils and school boards “where there is nothing at the moment”, the department had claimed.
Most highway departments still have no plans to limit ecological damage from road salt, says the Department of Environment. Regulators for decades have called salt a risk to plants, water and wildlife, but stopped short of restricting it as toxic: “What’s the big deal?”
Municipalities may zone against marijuana stores, the Alberta Court of Appeal ruled yesterday. The decision follows a similar British Columbia decision that allowed cities to restrict cannabis sales or effectively ban the trade altogether: “All regulations in this bylaw shall apply.”
