The Commons health committee yesterday amended a Senate bill to ban food advertising to children. MPs lowered the age of the targeted audience from children under 17, to those under 13, on fears of a legal challenge: ‘It’s a lobbyists’ dream.’
The Department of Finance yesterday would not disclose the impact of a legal cannabis tax on 270,000 licensed medical marijuana users. Medicinal cannabis is taxable for the first time under a legalization bill now before the Senate: “That’s a fairly significant issue.”
A restaurateur has been fined $10,000 and ordered to post a sign for breaching Ontario’s Human Rights Code. A tribunal ruled the eatery broke the law when its employees asked four Black patrons to pay in advance for their meals: “There was never any intent to discriminate.”
Federal agencies last year paid bonuses to 284 executives including a deputy minister at Shared Services Canada, the department faulted by MPs for bungling changes to employees’ email accounts. The program is now in its sixth year: “It’s bound to fail.”
The Standards Council of Canada yesterday cited a public outcry over unsafe barbecue brushes. Authorities said they will draft new guidelines for brush manufacturers, though data show injuries are extraordinarily rare: ‘There is an outcry for action to protect the consumer.’
A tax increase on small businesses with large earnings on investment income would impact only the wealthiest, a Liberal MP yesterday told the Commons finance committee. Businesses have protested the change proposed in the February 27 budget: “Conservatives are worrying about the richest of the richest.”
The fisheries department is not shockingly incompetent, its Minister yesterday told the Commons fisheries committee. Conservative MPs complained of long delays by department staff in answering routine requests from municipalities: “How could you let that happen under your watch?”
A federal audit that cites the Department of Fisheries for failing to monitor the environmental impact of coastal salmon farms is disturbing, says an assistant deputy fisheries minister. The audit by the Commissioner of the Environment concluded regulators are not taking steps to protect wild fish stocks from aquaculture pesticides and diseases: ‘Pesticides can harm wild fish.’
A federal rewrite of oil and gas regulations is merely a Band-Aid over industry-friendly amendments introduced six years ago, the Commons environment committee was told yesterday. “If you want backroom deal-making, go with this Act,” said Richard Lindgren, counsel for the Canadian Environmental Law Association.
First Nations say the Department of Environment has yet to comply with a UN request to protect a World Heritage Site. A UNESCO panel in 2017 faulted regulators for failing to monitor the impact of mining and hydroelectric projects at Canada’s largest national park: “Governments have dropped the ball.”
The national carbon tax will slow the economy, the Parliamentary Budget Office yesterday predicted. Analysts forecast the tax at its peak rate of $50 per tonne will cut $10 billion from economic growth by 2022: ‘It will generate a headwind for the Canadian economy.’
Advertisers yesterday told the Commons health committee a bill to curb food and beverage advertising to children may end in a court challenge. Health Canada in Access To Information records obtained in 2017 said it feared a lengthy legal fight over a ban on junk food marketing: “It would easily be challenged.”
The Department of Justice in newly-released data says the number of marijuana charges dropped sharply in Canada in the five years before it introduced its bill to legalize cannabis. Opponents questioned the point of the legislation: “Why are we going through all of this?”
The Department of Employment responsible for benefits says hundreds of thousands of the nation’s poorest seniors are still not receiving cheques they’re owed under the Guaranteed Income Supplement. MPs for the past 17 years have recommended automatic enrollment of all qualified citizens who turn 65: “Seniors do not apply because they often cannot understand.”
A tax dispute has Montréal in Federal Court against one of the city’s leading historical attractions. The municipality claims millions in unpaid taxes from the Old Port of Montréal under an Act of Parliament: “The exemptions they are asking for are ridiculous.”
