Lobbyists oppose mandatory labeling of Canada’s first engineered fish licensed for human consumption. Executives yesterday told the Commons agriculture committee that labeling of genetically-modified salmon is unnecessary, though Health Canada research found consumers have “strong feelings” about knowing what they eat.
Environmental petitioners have a 1 in 10 chance of failing to get a timely reply from federal agencies. The Commissioner of the Environment yesterday reported departments routinely miss a 120-day statutory deadline to answer petitioners: ‘We ask questions’.
A proposal to mandate safety side guards on heavy trucks has been reintroduced in the Commons for the second time in two years. Parliament in 2014 defeated a similar bill after suppliers estimated mandatory guards would cost truckers up to $2,600 per vehicle: “They save lives”.
A federally-mandated carbon tax will cost a typical family the equivalent of almost $1,000 a year by 2018, according to government data. Cabinet yesterday said all provinces must adopt their own carbon price or comply with the federal target: “Who are the losers?”
Cabinet has enacted new restrictions on foreign real estate investors, and will track property flippers through tax filings. Amendments to the Income Tax Act now curb exemptions for offshore property owners who resell property for quick gains: “There are limits”.
The export value of Canada’s once-lucrative seal hunt has collapsed to $366,000 a year, the fisheries department yesterday disclosed. MPs cited the figure in debate on a bill proclaiming a National Seal Products Day: “There has been a decline in a major way”.
Canadians have little understanding of federal regulation of consumer health products, says in-house Health Canada research. The findings follow an advisory that regulators failed to adequately monitor potential health risks from unsafe cosmetics: “Canadians do not consider themselves well-informed”.
Pilots are protesting a regulatory change allowing federal inspectors to renew their licenses without boarding a plane. Transport Minister Marc Garneau said computerized simulations were satisfactory: “Technology can help us”.
Canada will not meet its climate change targets without “very radical” changes, the Senate energy committee has been told. The feasibility of targeted cuts in greenhouse gas emissions, including a pending report on carbon pricing, is to be debated in the Commons this week: “I don’t think the average Canadian understands how difficult this will be”.
A $2.1 million task force hired to examine Canada Post reforms did not meet with a single consumers’ group, records show. Private meetings included confidential sessions with three unnamed researchers and an anonymous financial expert, according to records: “They wouldn’t like what we’d have to say”.
Legislation proclaiming Remembrance Day a national legal holiday is back in the House of Commons. A similar bill lapsed in 2015 under protest from small business, the Royal Canadian Legion and one of the country’s largest Catholic school boards: “It’s just another long weekend”.
Home builders are appealing to the Commons finance committee for changes to GST on new construction. Taxes and development fees account for more than a fifth of home prices in some markets, contractors said: “That’s an exorbitant level”.
A bill mandating a national call-before-you-dig system has been reintroduced in the Senate. The U.S. adopted a similar program 11 years ago: “It’s very effective”.
Plans are drafted
to shape Ottawa for the next 50 years.
The National Capital Commission
wants federal sites to become
“better integrated with their context”,
and
“more closely linked to the urban fabric of the community”.
I wonder which neighbourhoods
they consider ideal
for such organizations as
Canada’s spy agencies,
Correctional Service Canada,
or the Office of the Superintendent of Bankruptcy.
(Editor’s note: poet Shai Ben-Shalom, an Israeli-born biologist, examines current events in the Blacklock’s tradition each and every Sunday)
Health Canada was warned of strong consumer “pushback” before approving first-ever retail sales of genetically-modified fish, new records show. The department’s own research indicated consumers did not want the product, and questioned whether Health Canada was a credible regulator: “The negative reaction was so strong…”
