The Canada Border Services Agency faces another federal lawsuit over the seizure of unreported cash from travelers. The Supreme Court to date has declined to hear appeals of the Agency policy that’s brought revenues averaging more than $5.3 million a year: “I received the Queen’s Jubilee medal and am a law-abiding citizen.”
Canada Post in a confidential 2012 report claimed it could not continue operations without disrupting its delivery network and unionized workforce. The inaccurate forecast failed to anticipate profits on mail delivery in three of the last four years: “We have no time to waste.”
U.S. authorities claim Canadian mills dumped a “massive surge” of cheap softwood lumber into the American market last year. The Department of Commerce yesterday would not disclose data they said would prove the case: “That’s proprietary.”
A Commons motion mandating that cabinet develop plans for a national environmental clean-up of derelict vessels has lapsed. Cabinet promised six months ago it would table the harbour plan “very soon”.
Most Canadians have no understanding of what federal agencies do with their private data and fear misuse of information, says in-house research by the Office of the Privacy Commissioner. A majority, 78 percent, support legislation to extend privacy protection: ‘74% think they have less protection now than they did ten years ago.’
Federal agencies paid a 20 percent subsidy to an Ottawa think tank to examine new ways to plan and pay for infrastructure, say Access To Information records. The Public Policy Forum advocated more toll roads: ‘Wouldn’t it make sense to discourage car usage?’
Cabinet says it will fight punishing U.S. tariffs on lumber exports, but would not disclose research it prepared in anticipation of a long trade dispute. “It is going to result in tough times,” said Natural Resources Minister Jim Carr.
Health Canada met privately with pharmaceutical executives to weigh a “cost-benefit analysis” of a new drug safety law, says the department. The closed meetings last October prompted regulators to waive a multi-million dollar requirement that drug companies automatically submit all clinical data when licensing new products: ‘We would not require case reports when a person has died.’
An Elections Canada proposal to digitize the country’s 18-million name voters’ list appears hasty and rife with security worries, say analysts. The agency in a notice said paper records have become too cumbersome: “Security is not even on the menu.”
Health Canada proposes to limit its own powers under a 2014 consumer drug safety bill. The department held private meetings with pharmaceutical lobbyists before concluding the law passed by Parliament poses a “burden” to industry: “That law could have sent pharmaceutical executives to jail; instead, Health Canada cut a deal.”
The Toronto Dominion Bank lost a $2,839,421 tax refund after missing a filing deadline by a single day, according to Court documents. This year’s federal tax deadline is May 1: “What a difference a day makes.”
A Tax Court decision has been struck after the judge asked witnesses to testify in English. An Anglophone plaintiff called the complaint a ploy to overturn a decision lost by a major Québec insurer: “Pragmatism does not trump duty.”
Prosecutors have made little use of a 2003 Act of Parliament on corporate liability for workplace deaths, say union executives. The legislation was passed following a Nova Scotia coal mine disaster that killed 26 people: “Crown prosecutors have been quite reluctant.”
Cabinet is quietly shelving a promised law to ban partisan federal advertising. The Treasury Board in 2016 had said it would introduce legislation this term: “We just don’t know.”
An Alberta court has struck down a 4% road tax levied on transport truck operators by a small county facing millions in repairs. The dispute should prompt a “national conversation” on the true cost of infrastructure, said the president of the Federation of Canadian Municipalities: “It’s getting tough.”
