Travelers, airlines and transport companies could save millions with expanded pre-clearance of vehicles bound for the U.S., says Department of Public Safety research. The report put savings in the air sector, alone at more than $47 million a year: ‘Potential benefits are significant’.
The Coast Guard has been sailing on rationed fuel and ad hoc funding for decades due to chronic budget shortfalls, say Access To Information memos. Documents disclosed the emergency marine service missed revenue targets every year since 1998: “The Coast Guard was never able to achieve the fee amounts that would have allowed them to achieve their target”.
Transport Canada is under-reporting thousands of serious traffic injuries due to inadequate data, says a safety analyst. The department reported a 9 percent decline in serious injuries, according to the most recent annual figures: “We are not good at compiling this data”.
Natural Resources Canada is testing laboratories nationwide for potentially lethal Legionella bacteria, the cause of Legionnaires’ disease. Testing of water samples follows discovery of the bacteria in a Québec federal building last year: “The department has not advised us”.
Farm Credit Canada is unable to collect an $8.2 million loan on a cranberry farm it now says is worth as little as $6.7 million, according to court documents. The Crown agency did not comment on the case, but observed property values change from time to time: “It makes for a messy day with a lot of work for lawyers”.
Remember your first chess set?
Plastic, hollow pieces, same as those
all your friends had?
Or the luxury set you gave to grandpa for his birthday:
maple and walnut board, rosewood pieces?
Or the one in your living room –
clear and frosted glass, where you still debate
which is black and which is white?
Forget all those.
Your next set will be crafted on this 3-D printer,
customised to your exact style, colour, and size.
Each piece
a marvel of precision engineering,
with accuracy in the range of 20 microns, or
less than half the width of a human hair.
The Game of Kings
will never be the same again.
(Editor’s note: poet Shai Ben-Shalom, an Israeli-born biologist, examines current events in the Blacklock’s tradition each and every Sunday)
The Department of Canadian Heritage in an elaborate secret ceremony repatriated to Bulgaria an antique sword dating from the era of Czar Ferdinand I, circa 1910. One collectibles dealer described the incident as bizarre, saying the “antique” is ordinary military surplus worth a few dollars on eBay: “Seriously, this is ludicrous”.
Local authorities are poorly funded to face climate change-related flooding that is rated a national peril, says new University of Waterloo research. The study follows a 2015 report that most major Canadian cities are unprepared: “Municipalities are at the front line, doing the most work, and facing the most risk”.
One in four Canadians, 24 percent, still complain of “bill shock” over telecom charges three years after regulators enacted a Wireless Code on the promise of better service. The findings are contained in a $48,500 survey of cellphone clients by the CRTC: “People want more choice”.
A British Columbia ban on pharmacy rewards for customers will not be heard by the Supreme Court. Justices declined to hear a challenge of the ban on what the B.C. College of Pharmacists called an “inappropriate” practice that preys on vulnerable customers: “It’s double-points day”.
Parliament faces appeals to quickly end any Canada Post shutdown after management served notice it will lock out workers on Monday. Legislators earlier passed back-to-work legislation on the post office in 1997 and 2011: “How do you stop that?”
Regulators are accused of breaking federal law in licensing the sale of pesticides without full study of environmental risks. A coalition of four eco-groups yesterday sued the Pest Management Regulatory Agency in Federal Court: “This needs to be settled”.
Canadian National Railways is taking court action to block the release of federal records on track inspections. One legal analyst described the Federal Court application as puzzling: ‘Disclosure could reasonably be expected to result in material financial loss’.
Any national referendum on electoral reform would be inherently undemocratic and “not the best way” to decide how Canadians elect the next Parliament, says Minister of Democratic Institutions Maryam Monsef. A Commons committee yesterday opened witness hearings on reform promised in the Liberals’ 2015 election platform: “That is not good enough for me”.
Parliament faces the prospect of a mid-summer recall after Canada Post served notice it will lock out workers effective July 8. The last lockout at the post office in 2011 cost $100 million, by management estimate, and saw Parliament introduce a back-to-work bill in five days: “If it’s not essential, then why do we have a monopoly?”
