Health Canada promises to “improve the openness of transparency of regulatory decisions” after being sued over allegations of illegal licensing of pesticides. The department’s Pest Management Regulatory Agency said in a Strategic Plan it has to regain public confidence: ‘We must be accountable’.
Cabinet faces millions in costs under a proposal to have Canadians use digital ID to access federal services. Records estimate the expense of “cyber authentication” at more than $1,300 per enrollment: ‘Why can’t we apply for a passport online?’
The Senate this fall will see reintroduction of a bill to update Canada’s decades-old usury law after the Supreme Court declined to hear a challenge of exorbitant interest rates. Justices dismissed an application involving a gambling debt: “We are not a Third World country”.
Internet commerce and growing self-employment threaten national labour standards, says federal research. A Privy Council Office study warned of an age of unregulated “digital piecework” beyond the reach of minimum wage laws and health and safety standards: ‘The potential for exploitation is stark’.
A Tax Court judge has revealed audits and inner workings of one of the nation’s largest Ponzi schemes. The Court heard 19,469 Canadians participated in the scheme that saw investors buy spaces on a pirate-themed game board and trade in alleged semi-precious gemstones: ‘Thousands were enticed into being distributors’.
Parliament should enact first-ever national standards in the multi-million dollar armoured car trade, says an MP. A bill before the Commons would compel the labour department to fix standards for all operators in all provinces: “The government needs to step up”.
Blacklock’s newsroom pauses next week for our annual August holiday. We bid all our friends and subscribers a happy summer break and safe journey on your travels. Blacklock’s returns August 8 — The Editor.
Federal officials went to unusual lengths to keep the country’s largest engineering firm off a government ethics blacklist, according to Access To Information records. Treatment of SNC-Lavalin Group Inc. included a “Dear Bob” letter to the company’s CEO, and assurances the company had “learned its lessons” after facing RCMP corruption charges: ‘It’s cleaning up the way it does business’.
Cabinet faces two federal lawsuits over a plan to collect fingerprints and mandatory credit checks on hundreds of thousands of government employees. Memos obtained through Access To Information indicate senior management hoped to avoid “political and media attention” over the mammoth security sweep that includes scrutiny of individuals’ Facebook postings: ‘Nurses, doctors, lawyers, the person who answers the phone — it applies to everybody’.
A new Act of Parliament holding pipeline operators liable for up to $1 billion in damages from oil spills will provide no relief in an ongoing Saskatchewan disaster, say regulators. The breached line was exempt from the federal law: “Emergency officers are on-site”.
A federal lawsuit over due process at the RCMP underscores the need to unionize the force, says a labour organizer. A police employee alleges in Federal Court documents that management breached the RCMP Act in reopening an old discipline case: ‘It brings the whole process into disrepute’.
Immigrant families held at a federal detention centre were put in lockdown so managers could parade schoolchildren through the facility on Take Your Kids To Work Day. Staff protested the incident was “demeaning”, according to minutes of a board meeting obtained through Access To Information. The disclosure comes as the Senate prepares to pass a bill for first-ever independent oversight of the Canada Border Services Agency: “People are watching”.
Delay in passage of a Liberal labour bill has prompted unions to put new membership drives on hold, says the Canadian Labour Congress. A Conservative law on certification remains on the books though cabinet vowed to repeal it last January: “It would be best to hold off”.
Cabinet should phase out farm marketing boards to boost national productivity, says an industry department report. The research obtained through Access To Information hailed Australia’s 2000 deregulation of its dairy industry as an example for Parliament: “Regulation appears to be less friendly in Canada”.
The Canada Revenue Agency for the second time three months is suing a bank to retrieve unpaid taxes from a delinquent borrower. Tax collectors complain they’ve been repeatedly stung by foreclosures in which banks auction debtors’ assets without settling tax liabilities: “It’s a nice way to get off scot-free”.
