An iconic Canadian landscape made famous by Group of Seven artist Lawren Harris has been voted a national marine conservation area. MPs endorsed the designation affecting millions of acres on Lake Superior’s North Shore. The Commons passed the bill in two minutes without debate or objections: “This bill took way too long”.
The Senate has passed into law a bill expanding railways’ oil spill insurance liability over industry complaints of high costs. New requirements prompted by the Lac-Mégantic derailment will see liability rise as much as five-fold for short line railways: “Lac-Mégantic was an important turning point”.
A law requiring that federal whistleblowers report management reprisals within 60 days should be reviewed, says Canada’s Public Sector Integrity Commissioner Joe Friday. It follows a Federal Court judgment that narrowly interpreted the rule in rejecting claims of reprisals by a Natural Resources Canada scientist: “The toughest reprisal cases are those that are subtle”.
The Supreme Court has declined to hear an appeal from an Alberta client who complained of being charged too much by their attorneys. The Sweetgrass First Nation paid more than a quarter-million dollars for legal work: “Customers should not have to pay anyone who charges by the hour, whether lawyers or plumbers”.
Canada would adopt a national call-before-you-dig system under a bill introduced in the Senate. A similar U.S. program to protect buried utilities was introduced a decade ago: “It is unbelievable that we wouldn’t have this”.
Ethanol producers are “next on the list” of rail shippers to face a federal levy for spill insurance, says Transport Minister Lisa Raitt. Crude oil shippers are the first to pay a $1.65 per tonne fee under a cabinet bill now before the Senate: “We have taken the first step”.
The Senate has passed into law a narcotics bill one legislator dismissed as gratuitous and pointless. The measure earlier passed the Commons on a voice vote: “This bill does nothing”.
New documents contradict claims that closure of a Coast Guard station made no difference in the response to a marine oil spill in Vancouver. A federal report tabled in Parliament confirmed the shuttered Kitsilano Station did in fact have equipment and trained staff to tackle marine spills: “What we were told was simply not true”.
Imports of Norwegian salmon by aquaculture firms could threaten wild stock in Atlantic Canada, warns a Department of Fisheries panel. The risk assessment was prompted by aqua companies’ request to buy Scandinavian fish for commercial production: “It does not get any scarier than that”.
Federal agencies have stretched a 30-day deadline into a half-decade wait for public records under the Access To Information Act, records show. Newly-released accounts indicate some government departments have taken four, even five years to release records: “It’s 2015”.
Liberal senators have begun to queue up amendments to Bill C-377 that strip away provisions of the measure compelling disclosure of confidential union data. Senators proposed to narrow the scope of the bill estimated to impact up to 12 million Canadians: “Is this ridiculous enough for anyone yet?”
A promised cabinet bill to probe suspected cross-border price gouging is dead. The legislation announced with fanfare in 2014 was never once brought forward for debate: “Shame on them”.
A former voice of the Montréal Expos has lost a federal lawsuit after being cashiered by the CBC. The aging sportscaster testified his treatment by management at the CBC left him depressed and humiliated: ‘The CBC made him ill’.
The Senate has passed into law a bill that puts the Atlantic seal hunt under media quarantine. The vote followed disclosures a pro-hunt group received nearly a million dollars in cash grants to boost flagging markets for seal products: “This is a somewhat timid bill I would say”.
Canada Post will become a taxpayers’ burden despite a large 2014 profit and record financial turnaround in the first quarter of 2015, claims a senior executive. A post office vice president said deep service cuts remain necessary: “We have more outlets than McDonald’s and Tim Hortons”.
