Cabinet proposes an 18 percent cut in funding for meat and poultry inspection, according to the Canadian Food Inspection Agency. A fifteen percent reduction in staff is due by 2017. The cuts follow release of a leaked Agency memo that food inspectors are to be deployed “based on emergencies” as a cost-savings measure: “Focus on back-office efficiency”.
Nearly every employee at a federal pension board last year received a five-figure bonus for “superior” performance, according to accounts. The cash payments averaged $69,963 apiece. The Public Sector Pension Investment Board declined an interview: “We are very proud”.
A Transport Canada proposal to order installation of new emergency locator transmitters in every aircraft in the country is drawing protests over costs. The department said the regulation would apply to all craft including private planes: “Mandatory is not really the answer”.
A cabinet pledge to set a 20 percent target on reduction of obsolete regulations appears random, says the Public Service Alliance of Canada. The Prime Minister proposed that a re-elected Conservative cabinet would set a fixed quota of red tape cuts: ‘Setting arbitrary targets is dangerous’.
A federal transport regulator lacks “fairness”, impartiality and an efficient way of handling consumer complaints against airlines, according to its own in-house research. The study by the Canadian Transportation Agency found consumers faced “high-priced” corporate attorneys and a sluggish bureaucracy in pressing claims against carriers: “It doesn’t seem like a fair fight”.
Merchants and restaurateurs get no sympathy from consumers in appeals for regulated credit card transaction fees, says Consumers Council of Canada research. Focus groups found Canadians are indifferent to vendors’ fees and suspicious of any program that would cost them free rewards: “There is a lot of cynicism”.
The popularity of Netflix poses a “significant” challenge to federal attempts to promote Canadian TV programming, says a Department of Canadian Heritage report. The document obtained through Access To Information cited “remarkable” growth in unregulated web broadcasting: “Consumer habits are changing”.
Courts should consider using the Copyright Act to limit the publication of names and facts from open trials and tribunal hearings, says a legal scholar. The federal Office of the Privacy Commissioner earlier cited an offshore website for broadcasting details of Canadian legal proceedings, though all information was public: “You put these things online and it’s there for everyone”.
In the 1980s,
Amsterdam installed new devices
outside public buildings.
The pee deflectors.
Strategically located,
they cause the jet
to bounce back
at the perpetrator.
These days in Hamburg,
a high-tech water-repellent paint
achieves the same effect.
I can’t help a touch of envy.
Through the window
I see my neighbour walk his dog.
They approach the canine’s favourite spot
in my front yard.
(Editor’s note: poet Shai Ben-Shalom, an Israeli-born biologist, examines current events in the Blacklock’s tradition each and every Sunday).
Canadians are more concerned about water conservation than new oil pipelines, according to the government’s own in-house research. Focus groups and polling by the Department of Natural Resources also found Canadians sharply oppose any bulk water exports to the drought-stricken U.S.: “Water is the natural resource most valued by Canadians”.
Data mining of motorists’ driving habits, music choices and web browsing raises “privacy implications for consumers”, cautions a secret Industry Canada memo. The department stopped short of proposing any new regulations to restrict commercial use of personal information by automakers, insurers and marketers: “The automobile is turning into a Smartphone on wheels”.
Canadian National Railways Co. is considering a Supreme Court appeal over its claimed right to refuse to switch freight cars by a rival railway. The CNR has twice lost judgments in the dispute with agri-business giant James Richardson & Sons Ltd. of Winnipeg: “CN has not shown any error”.
Federal lawyers have filed a $1.5 million lawsuit over a St. Lawrence River oil spill. Some 22 tonnes of fuel are believed to have leaked into the river with the sinking of a tug boat at Trois-Rivières, Que. last December 26: “It happens”.
An Alberta union is the first to sue cabinet over a contentious bill mandating disclosure of confidential labour records. The lawsuit asks that an Edmonton court strike down Bill C-377 as unconstitutional and an infringement on provincial rights: “It will have a chilling effect”.
The Humane Society of Canada lost its charity registration after federal auditors discovered the group spent funds on comic books, liquor and a trip to Disneyland by its executive director, according to court documents. The Society unsuccessfully sued for reinstatement of its charitable status: ‘This would constitute a failure to meet the definition of a charity’.
