A Crown corporation is being cited for illegally collecting six figures in fees from maritime shippers. The Great Lakes Pilotage Authority described the incident as a technical lapse and said it’s willing to repay the money: “It was what it was”.
The nation’s patchwork of drug insurance plans sees Canadians pay needlessly high costs for prescriptions, the Commons health committee has been told. MPs are studying the feasibility of a universal pharmacare plan though Health Canada has already vetoed the scheme this term: “At the end of the day it’s not free”.
An advocacy group funded in part by cigarette manufacturers is urging that cabinet take more steps to curb tobacco smuggling by First Nations. The National Coalition Against Contraband Tobacco would not disclose what financing it accepts from corporate sponsors: “You’ll have to contact my members”.
The anti-trust Competition Bureau will not disclose how much it spent on a four-year investigation of Google Canada Corp. The Bureau yesterday dropped the case after conducting 130 interviews and reviewing thousands of pages of documents: “Are they big?”
Major League Baseball has not signed off on a private Commons bill to legalize Vegas-style sports betting in Canada. Protests from Toronto Blue Jays management effectively killed the bill in Senate hearings three years ago: “We have a choice”.
High prescription drug costs will rise under pending free trade agreements, says Health Canada. A senior official confirmed that Pacific and European trade pacts will see Canadians pay more for medicines: “That’s correct”.
A parliamentary committee is questioning regulators over ad hoc enforcement of the Fisheries Act. The panel heard virtually every municipal wastewater plant may be in technical breach of the law: ‘They take the view all human activity contravenes the Act and then it falls to them to decide which are worth prosecuting’.
Canada must develop a national housing policy that includes subsidies for social housing, says the Minister responsible for CMHC. New funding of $2.3 billion over two years is probably insufficient to meet demand, MPs were told: “It’s always going to be below the needs”.
As many as 1 in 10 teenage minors frequently gamble online despite legal restrictions, says new University of Waterloo research. The findings followed questionnaires completed by 10,035 high school students: ‘We do need to be concerned about normalizing gambling behaviour’.
The cost of Air Canada fares may rise if cabinet doesn’t legislate new concessions for the airline, warns the Liberal parliamentary secretary for transport. A cabinet bill would sanction airline job cuts at maintenance shops in three provinces: ‘Air travel could be more expensive for Canadians’.
Cabinet has little chance of meeting greenhouse gas emission targets, say Liberal and Conservative members of the Senate energy committee. The warning followed admissions from the Department of Natural Resources it has not studied the level of carbon pricing needed to meet emission goals: “Personally I do not think they can be met”.
Heritage Minister Mélanie Joly could not name Fathers of Confederation in an impromptu quiz at a Commons committee hearing. The lapse came as Joly described plans for observance of the nation’s 150th birthday in 2017: “Of course I can”.
A Health Canada agency last year issued 14 fines on more than 1,600 violations of federal pesticide control regulations, says a new government report. Incidents included the repackaging of farm-grade chemicals for home use, and a case of gasified rat poison used to control bedbugs in an apartment building: “Certainly it’s concerning”.
A judge has upheld the release of public records by a federal agency after four years of delay. The case involved a Calgary contractor involved in the largest copyright infringement case in the country: “This makes a mockery of Access To Information”.
An RCMP union bill has so many management-friendly exemptions it breaches the spirit of a Supreme Court ruling, say police members. Parliament is under a Court order to lift a ban on collective bargaining for Mounties by May 17: “Are they large and serious issues? You bet”.
