Cabinet can expect challenges under free trade rules and the Trademarks Act if it mandates plain packaging of tobacco, says a Health Canada report. The department proposes to enact an Australian-style law mandating that cigarettes be sold in uniformly drab packaging: ‘It would set a precedent for other consumer goods.’
Cabinet is bracing for punishing duties of up to 55 percent on Canadian softwood lumber exports to the U.S. The Department of Natural Resources said it requires immediate market data on the impact of cross-border taxes with the expiry of a lumber agreement: “We’re talking about complete communities being wiped out.”
Canadians spend more attending funerals and buying lottery tickets than they do on newspapers, says new federal data. Household spending on print news fell 44 percent in three years: “What went wrong?”
Four of five Great Lakes will be infested with destructive Asian carp without quick and costly countermeasures, says a federal risk assessment. Native fish species and birds are threatened, officials said: “There is no upside to this.”
The Department of Public Safety has awarded a $100,000 sole-sourced contract for research on climate change impacts on infrastructure. Authorities last year began a rewrite of the National Building Code to account for risks due to heavier snowfall, melting permafrost and flash flooding: “The future is at stake.”
Cabinet will complete plans to reform Canada Post as early as June, according to a Department of Finance memo. The document obtained through Access To Information cautioned that action is needed to address the post office’s $5.9 billion pension solvency deficit, the largest of any Crown corporation: ‘Payments can be greater than its ability to pay.’
The number of bee colonies claiming pesticide-related deaths increased 11 percent last year, says a new Health Canada report. The reports were linked to corn and soybean seeds treated with neonicotinoid chemicals: “The delay in regulations is really frustrating.”
Diplomats placed a rush order for a Made In The U.S.A. six-foot cardboard cut-out of the Prime Minister for display at the Canadian embassy in Washington, say Access To Information records. At least one official questioned the purchase as undignified.
“Can we PLEASE order this for July 1? We’re talk’n some serious selfie action,” wrote Anna Gibbs, senior events production manager at the Washington embassy; “I WANT ONE FOR OUR CANADA DAY EVENT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! That will be as popular as a Mountie selfie!!!”
Neither Gibbs nor other embassy staff would agree to an interview. In email records released by the foreign ministry, one employee enthused: “I 100 percent support this idea. I think people will get a kick out of it and it’ll work really well with our snapchat filter!”
The display was used to decorate 2016 Canada Day observances in Washington. Diplomats ordered a similar cut-out at the Canadian Consulate in Atlanta, where Consul General Louis Blais advised Washington staff to check before stocking up on Justin Trudeau displays.
“Did you check with Ottawa to get permission to use the cut-out?” wrote Blais? Replied Events Manager Gibbs: “We did ask weeks ago. Never got an answer, which I took as no objections. But as added cover, the U.S. Embassy in Ottawa has one of the Obamas.”
The displays were purchased from Historical Cutouts Ltd., a Pennsylvania vendor that also sells life-sized cut-outs of Nelson Mandela, Josef Stalin, Napoleon, Che Guevara and North Korean dictator King Jong Un. “All products are made in America,” wrote the company.
The Trudeau cut-out retails for US$59.99. The Canadian Embassy paid $147.79 for its version, including a $72.80 charge for rush delivery by UPS air cargo on June 28, 2016.
Diplomats spent a week discussing the purchase in emails with the subject heading, “URGENT – Please order Trudeau cut-out NOW!” “We don’t need to decide today,” wrote one Embassy counsellor.
Another diplomat, Katherine Baird, congressional liaison at the Washington Embassy, questioned the purchase. “I’m of two minds, to be honest,” wrote Baird. “I get the PR value but it just doesn’t seem very Prime Ministerial.”
The Embassy’s events manager disagreed. “Hi all!” she wrote on June 28, 2016. “We need to order this today to get it here in time for Canada Day. I think this will be a hoot and extremely popular, and will go well with our snapchat filter.”
The Embassy referred all questions to foreign affairs headquarters in Ottawa. Staff in Ottawa did not comment.
By Staff 
Government employees cannot name and shame contractors in public messages, a privacy commissioner has ruled. The decision came in a gossipy notice by the City of Corner Brook, Nfld. & Labrador: ‘People are coming to grips with the breadth of the Privacy Act.’
Canada’s reputation for high costs is hurting auto production, says a confidential industry department memo. The 2016 memo said Canada is “not capturing its share of production” compared to Mexico.
Canada’s Muslim population will total 2.8 million within twenty years, says Statistics Canada. And the number of francophones outside Québec will decline by as much as 10 percent: ‘Canada can be described as a nation of great diversity.’
Railways have no duty to make promised deliveries to shippers without a signed contract, the Federal Court of Appeal has ruled. Judges dismissed a complaint Canadian National Railway Co. shortchanged shippers under a “flexible” policy on car rationing: “A railway company is not obliged.”
Southern Ontario continues to have the worst air in the country despite closure of the province’s last coal-fired power plant, says an Environment Canada report. The region has higher levels of sulphur dioxide than any other part of Canada: “We need to do a better job.”
Border guards should beware of stereotyping minorities, say training guides and manuals for new Canada Border Services Agency staff. The Access To Information documents follow complaints of racial profiling at the Agency: “The OK sign has the same meaning in some countries as the middle finger.”
Many Canadians are unaware of cabinet’s plans to introduce a national carbon tax, according to in-house government polling. Even fewer are interested in two key 2017 cabinet initiatives, said the $122,859 research: ‘Thinking of the issues presently facing Canada, which one do you feel should receive the greatest attention?’
