Accountants and tax preparers fear Canada Revenue Agency is about to offload responsibility for individual tax audits. The worries are cited in a cabinet memo obtained through Access To Information: “This supports the concern heard from others that CRA is shifting audit responsibility”.
Most Canadians surveyed in a federal tracking poll are concerned insurers will use genetic testing to deny coverage. A private Liberal bill to outlaw the practice was rejected by a Senate committee three months ago: “I have little expectation of privacy today”.
Citizenship Canada has given fingerprint records to the RCMP without clear legal authority, according to documents. A parliamentary committee cited the department for handing police the biometric data collected from foreign students, immigrants and overseas applicants for work permits: “They know we’re watching”.
Most Canadian cities are unprepared for major flooding, says a national study by the University of Waterloo. The research follows a warning from a former federal environment commissioner that Canada lacks a comprehensive program on impacts of climate change: “I am hoping this study is a wakeup call for mayors”.
The Supreme Court will weigh a Saskatchewan test of federal bankruptcy law. Attorneys are challenging a Tommy Douglas-era statute intended to protect farmers from creditors: ‘There are major implications’.
Canada Revenue Agency faces a court challenge after revoking charity status for a non-profit credit counselling service. Similar groups have been granted registration as charities since 1968. The dispute follows confirmation the Agency is spending $13.5 million on special audits of charities: ‘It’s unfair and unjust’.
Canada will not force Canadian shipowners on the Great Lakes to equip vessels with costly ballast treatment systems until effective technology exists, says Transport Minister Lisa Raitt. The cabinet pledge comes amid a multi-million-dollar dispute with U.S. authorities who aimed to restrict Canadian access to American ports: “We’ve not been getting any cooperation”.
Canada ranks 16th out of 18 industrialized countries with national health systems in accessing new medicines through publicly-funded drug plans, says a pharmaceutical industry report. The research prompted renewed calls in Parliament for an all-Canadian pharmacare program: “The whole idea is to come together”.
Parks Canada has won a five-year court battle against illegal fishing by Métis in a national park. The case saw a curator from the Canadian Museum of History recount the Aboriginal Creator Story in a bid to support the Métis claim: “The Métis didn’t arrive in boats”.
A Vancouver attorney has won the right to press a Federal Court claim to fill Senate vacancies. A judge rejected a Government of Canada motion that the entire case be struck as frivolous.
“I’m pleased,” said attorney Aniz Alani, who filed the claim. “The test for a motion to strike is a very high threshold that the government needs to meet, and I’m pleased to see the Federal Court agree that it’s not obviously a loser.”
Prime Minister Stephen Harper told reporters last August 23 he had “no immediate plans” to name any new appointees after three Conservative senators were criminally charged or suspended in an expense scandal. The 105-seat chamber currently has only 82 senators due to resignations and mandatory retirements; another five senators are due to retire over the next year as they reach age 75.
The Senate cannot meet without a quorum of at least fifteen members. “Certainly at some stage senators have to be appointed,” Justice Sean Harrington wrote in allowing the lawsuit to proceed. “If there were to be no quorum, Parliament could not function as it is composed of both the House of Commons and Senate.”
If no more senators were ever appointed the Senate would dwindle to fifteen members by 2027. In his lawsuit, Attorney Alani argued that long-term vacancies breach the 1867 Constitution Act. The law states in section 32, “When a vacancy happens in the Senate by resignation, death or otherwise, the Governor General shall by summons to a fit and qualified person fill the vacancy.”
Twenty vacancies have occurred in the Senate since the Prime Minister named his last appointee, Scott Tannas of Alberta, in 2013. “The government’s argument is that this is a political matter,” Alani said. “If they’re correct, that the court is not an appropriate forum to decide when Senate vacancies must be filled; then it’s up to voters.”
Vacancies have left Ontario without six Senate appointees followed by Québec (5); Manitoba (3); Nova Scotia and New Brunswick (2 vacancies each); British Columbia and Prince Edward Island (one each). “The judge reached an appropriate decision, at least on the government’s attempt to shut the case down before it actually got a hearing,” said Prof. Emmett Macfarlane of the University of Waterloo.
“There’s a difference between a court finding, and making a declaration that there’s an affirmative duty on the Prime Minister to make appointments to the Senate,” said Macfarlane. The lawsuit seeks a court declaration that “the Prime Minister of Canada must advise the Governor General to summon a qualified person to the Senate within a reasonable time after a vacancy happens in the Senate.”
Harper is the only prime minister in Canadian history to announce a Senate appointment on his first day in office, and the only prime minister to name 11 senators on a single day: January 2, 2009.
By Dale Smith 
A Conservative bill to force union disclosure of confidential data is “very harsh”, a research paper quotes Transport Minister Lisa Raitt. Researchers also quote the late finance minister Jim Flaherty as dismissing Bill C-377 as “garbage”. The remarks are cited in an article published in the Journal of Canadian Labour Studies: “It had the support of the PMO, that’s what counted”.
Canada will see more train derailments involving dangerous goods as petroleum producers ship more by rail, says Transport Canada. The department also predicts oil spills “will likely increase” as traffic grows: “Derailments involving a train carrying crude oil will likely increase”.
Thousands of weekend boaters nationwide will see repeal of federal licensing fees that Transport Canada dismissed as largely pointless. The department said a $50 license will no longer be required for most small boats: ‘It’s freedom of choice’.
The fisheries department is enacting new licensing fees on British Columbia aquaculture firms that critics described as a subsidy for industry. The fees yesterday took effect following brief review by the Senate fisheries committee in 2014: “It’s business as usual”.
A multi-million dollar federal ad blitz promoting the nation’s 150th birthday sank with barely a trace of recognition among Canadians. Most people surveyed by Heritage Canada said they never saw the ads, while a few vaguely recalled images of men sitting around a table: ‘They shook hands’.
