Information on driver’s licenses is confidential and must not be disclosed even to a government agency trying to settle an inheritance, says a privacy commission. The ruling came in the case of a Saskatchewan trustee attempting to make a cash award to a mother’s lost son in Ontario: “It’s nuts.”
Federal food inspectors propose more deregulation of supermarket products under a policy that prompted an outcry in 2013. The Canadian Food Inspection Agency said it’s considering additional deregulation of standard container sizes: “The Agency doesn’t know what it is doing.”
Owners of a luxury Arctic cruise ship that ran aground on an uncharted shoal have lost a multi-million dollar lawsuit against federal agencies. The judgment follows a 2014 audit that complained of inadequate charts for Arctic mariners: “It would be impracticable to issue a new chart every time an existing chart had to be updated.”
Cabinet should defer any further credit curbs on homebuyers for at least a year, brokers yesterday told the Commons finance committee. Executives complained 2016 restrictions had a damaging effect on first-time purchasers: “We’ve never had this kind of pushback.”
Contractors denied prompt payment on public works face bankruptcy and costly court proceedings, the Senate banking committee has been told. Trades executives yesterday urged passage of a bill mandating payment within 30 days: “Many are 120 days late.”
Senators are seeking quick passage of a private bill to correct officious enforcement of the Customs Act by the Canada Border Services Agency. The bill follows an incident in which a U.S. angler was handcuffed after his small boat drifted into Canadian waters: “What were our CBSA officers doing?”
MPs have launched a study on the health impacts of pornography amid complaints the mandate appeared unwieldy, overly broad and unfocused. The review by the Commons health committee is the first of its kind in 32 years: “There’s a potential of boiling the ocean here.”
The cash-strapped Canadian Coast Guard should be managed as an independent agency, the Senate fisheries committee has been told. The appeal follows Access To Information disclosures the agency had to ration fuel due due to funding pressures: “We saw cuts.”
Canada must track foreign purchases of farmland nationwide or see independent producers reduced to serfdom, says a British Columbia trade group. Witnesses at the Senate agriculture committee cited speculation in farmland by corporations and offshore investors: “It truly is the Wild West.”
The Speaker of the Commons will rule on whether cabinet improperly concealed documents detailing the cost of a national carbon tax. A secret Finance Canada memo published by Blacklock’s last November 18 warned a tax would “cascade” through the economy: “Key findings are blanked out.”
Fish farms will be targeted with a first-ever federal audit by the Commissioner of the Environment. The Commons fisheries committee yesterday learned the aquaculture probe will be completed in 2018: “It is a big deal.”
A $64 million-a year Arctic grocers’ subsidy is broken and must be fixed, says Northern Affairs Minister Dr. Carolyn Bennett. The Minister in Senate Question Period yesterday said reforms will be detailed shortly. Northerners pay $14 for a bag of potatoes and $7 a litre for milk despite subsidies, critics noted: ‘They don’t seem to have worked.’
Cabinet should account for benefits and losses attributed to free trade pacts, says the Senate trade committee. Lawmakers noted Canada has seen trade deficits with several partners under agreements signed since 1989: “It’s usually take it or leave it.”
Employees are entitled to an investigation of workplace danger even if the peril is an unpleasant boss, a federal judge has ruled. The Canada Labour Code complaint involved staffers at the foreign ministry: “Exposure to her supervisor constituted a dangerous situation.”
Airline regulators have awarded another four-figure compensation claim to a passenger inconvenienced by poor service. It’s the second large claim approved by the Canadian Transportation Agency since cabinet proposed to introduce a passenger bill of rights: “Canadians will know what their rights are.”
