The Commons access committee yesterday rejected substantive changes to a bill restricting Access To Information disclosures. Opposition MPs described the bill as so flawed it is beyond improvement: “This bill takes us backward.”
Statistics Canada says it will undertake a national survey on a common household carcinogen, but not until 2020. The last cross-Canada study on radon gas in 2012 found about 7 percent of households are exposed to unsafe levels: “Attention to radon has lagged in this country.”
Cabinet yesterday rejected any revisions to bankruptcy law prompted by the collapse of Sears Canada. A second private bill was introduced in the Commons that would protect employees’ pensions in case of corporate insolvency: “Sears Canada is only the tip of the iceberg.”
MPs yesterday made short work of a bill to bury a historical controversy by proclaiming Charlottetown the birthplace of Confederation. The Commons approved the bill in principle at Second Reading without a dissenting vote after one hour’s debate: “We work together.”
Cabinet promises to consult homeowners on a draft code that would mandate energy refits of existing houses, apartments and commercial buildings. Refits would cost householders an average $35,000, according to the National Research Council: “We want to hear from people.”
The death of PPP Canada marks the first closure of a federal Crown corporation in three years. The agency, intended to attract private investment in public works, will close its doors December 31: “I don’t think Crown corporations should be entitled to a life in perpetuity.”
MPs are debating evidence a plain packaging law will curb smoking. Cabinet proposes Australian-style regulations that would see all tobacco sold in plain, logo-free boxes with gruesome health warnings: “There is a lot to consider.”
Climate change could spur Arctic agriculture including ranching, the Senate agriculture committee has been told. The forecast comes nearly a century after a Royal Commission recommended experimental reindeer and muskox ranches in the North: “Climate change may create opportunities.”
The Supreme Court in a 7-2 decision ruled government lawyers do not have a constitutional right to pay when on call the occasional weekend. The judgment ends a seven-year battle by attorneys who claimed a Charter right: “Everyone has the right to life, liberty and security of the person.”
The following program
contains details
about the personal fortune
of the Finance Minister,
including graphic images
of his villa in France,
which may be disturbing
to some viewers.
Discretion is advised.
(Editor’s note: poet Shai Ben-Shalom, an Israeli-born biologist, examines current events in the Blacklock’s tradition each and every Sunday)
A Conservative MP yesterday said he was hospitalized for handshaking after suffering a virulent infection. MP Len Webber (Calgary Confederation) told his story at a Commons health committee hearing on antimicrobial resistance: “I went to hell and back.”
Canadian insurers seek a ban on new home construction and redevelopment on flood plains. Executives yesterday told the Senate energy committee that reckless building practices have left taxpayers to compensate flood victims: “Right now it’s a mess.”
A Commons committee yesterday proposed a federal law to sanction fines for refusal to provide services in French. The chair of the official languages committee dismissed any comparison to Québec’s language police: “Who pays for all this stuff?”
Senators yesterday struggled with a Conservative bill to prohibit foreign lobbyists from financing campaign-related activities. One legislator warned time is short if Parliament is to pass the bill before a 2019 election: “We need to do something.”
Heritage Minister Mélanie Joly yesterday said cabinet is committed to strengthening local news as “critical to our democracy”. Joly made no comment on a publishers’ request that federal agencies redirect advertising from Google and Facebook to Canadian newspapers and periodicals: “Many publications are going to die.”
