New rail insurance rules prompted by the fiery Lac-Mégantic wreck are to take effect June 18. Short line railways have protested the increase in coverage will cost jobs: “Where do we find the money to pay for this?”
A federal conference on administrative tribunals is so boring it’s like watching paint dry, writes the chair of the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal. Organizers paid expenses for a Toronto magazine editor to participate on the chance it “could be good publicity” for the event.
Union drives are underway in the RCMP though Parliament yesterday missed a second deadline to legislate terms of collective bargaining. The Supreme Court set the May 17 deadline to pass the bill after cabinet earlier skipped a January date to enact legislation: “It is bad from a public safety perspective”.
Objectors protesting the Canada Elections Act have been hit with a costly Court order. A federal judge ordered three British Columbia dissenters to pay $25,000 but acknowledged they likely don’t have the money: “What do we do now, go to jail?”
Audio and video recorders are essential in all railway locomotives and should be mandated by regulators, says the Transportation Safety Board. Cabinet has yet to release a long-awaited final report on recorders due last month: ‘It can go a long way to identify hazards’.
A federal agency is hiring contractors to assess thousands of contaminated sites in Ontario. The province is second only to British Columbia with the largest number of registered pollution sites in the country: “The extent of the issues are unknown”.
The Canada Border Services Agency last year jailed more than 6,500 people, new data show. The disclosure came as the Agency proposed to privatize supervision of detainees “on a case-by-case basis” using electronic anklets and GPS tracking: ‘Clients may have mental health disorders and propensity to abscond’.
A cabinet bill to shield Air Canada from liability for illegal job cuts yesterday narrowly survived a Commons test. MPs voted 139 to 139 to defeat the bill at report stage, prompting Speaker Geoff Regan to break the tie and save the legislation: “They are getting rid of this hot potato as quickly as they can”.
A Senate bill would allow first-ever investigation of racial profiling allegations at border crossings, says the Canadian Human Rights Commission. The Commission has heard 77 complaints against the Border Services Agency since 2011: ‘Everyone is entitled to basic human rights protection’.
Transport Canada has lost a six-year campaign to conceal basic details of its no-fly list. A federal judge ordered the department to reconsider a media request for the number of Canadian citizens on the security blacklist: “It’s a heartening decision”.
The “detax” movement has lost again in Court. A taxpayer who claimed the Income Tax Act is unconstitutional was fined $99,053 for failing to fully report earnings from 2004 to 2010: “I don’t want to talk to you”.
Only a third of Canadian companies train staff on privacy issues and 23% are unaware of federal law governing safeguards, says federal research. The study by the Privacy Commissioner noted a quarter of companies also store customer data on USB sticks and other portable devices: “They are still rolling the dice”.
A Conservative MP vows to launch a national campaign for school board tax relief. The Commons’ Liberal majority signaled it will not support the Saskatoon sponsor’s bill for 100 percent GST rebates on purchases by school boards: “We need this money back in the classrooms”.
MPs complain they can’t get straight answers from Canada Post over a costly program to abolish doorstep mail delivery. The post office spent more than $76 million on the plan before it was suspended by cabinet last year: “No, no, no, no”.
Fracking is inherently risky but poses only a “mild” peril in triggering earthquakes, a fracker has told the Senate transport committee. Cabinet has exempted industry from disclosing toxic chemicals used in shale gas drilling: “At the end of the day there is still risk”.
