The Government of Alberta has lost a bid for a Supreme Court challenge of its own employees’ freedom of expression. Justices declined to hear the case in which the Alberta Union of Provincial Employees was told to post a court order on its website: “It makes sense”.
Canadian real estate agents are prime targets for money laundering and “international organized crime groups”, says a confidential federal study. Research for the Financial Transactions & Reports Analysis Centre described realty as an unscrutinised cash channel for criminals with “no questions asked”: “Oversight is minimal”.
A rewrite of federal job statistics reveals the Canadian economy created 35% fewer jobs last year than originally reported. Statistics Canada rewrote its data citing “re-evaluation of geographical boundaries” as the reason for the revision: “We try to provide our users with the best quality that we can”.
MPs have unanimously approved Second Reading on a bill granting federal inspectors new powers to order repairs or force closures of unsafe rail crossings. The bill followed a 2007 near-fatality in Winnipeg: “Everything should be fine; we know it is not fine”.
The CBC is straying from its mandate by “chasing advertisers” with pop programming, says one of the nation’s largest film producers. Executives with Entertainment One described the CBC as almost unique among public broadcasters in failing to make domestic films a staple of TV fare: ‘They showed Toy Story 3; really?’
A federal regulator has dismissed complaints from White Rock, B.C., in one of the longest running disputes between communities and railways: noise. The Canadian Transportation Agency ruled Burlington Northern Sante Fe Rail Co. breached no laws in shuttling coal trains through town, often in early-morning hours: “A situation like White Rock is exactly what we don’t want in the future”.
Federal agencies have spent more than a quarter-million dollars on NHL season tickets and other sporting perks, including two Crown corporations – Canada Post and VIA Rail – that cut core services due to large deficits, records show: “This is disconcerting”.
Climate change poses a serious risk to schools, hospitals and other public buildings in Canada’s North, says the Standards Council of Canada. The organization in two reports proposes new standards for the National Building Code to avert collapsing roofs and cracking foundations: “The future of the North is at stake”.
Cabinet should establish a national tracking system to monitor unreported commercial cybercrime, says a confidential Department of Public Safety report. The research warned internet fraud will “remain a pervasive and increasingly sophisticated threat” without a national program: ‘We need data’.
Falling oil prices may cost the federal treasury $4.8 billion in lost tax revenue this year, says the Parliamentary Budget Office. Authorities said the price collapse in itself should not scuttle cabinet’s plan to balance the budget for the first time since 2007: “Their choices are limited”.
The Department of Fisheries face renewed protest over a cabinet proposal to open up British Columbia’s roe herring fishery over the objection of First Nations and the department’s own regulators: “That’s the conflict”.
The Supreme Court will issue a key ruling Friday on public employees’ right to strike. The case involves a Saskatchewan law, echoed in federal legislation, granting cabinet virtually unchecked powers to restrict employees’ ability to withdraw services: “We will be closely examining that decision”.
Cabinet is a world leader in red tape reduction though savings to date account for less than one-tenth of one percent of the federal budget, according to the Treasury Board president. Tony Clement appealed for passage of a bill to curb growth in regulations: “What is the message we are sending?”
Cabinet remains quiet over a “developing conflict” within the RCMP over a Supreme Court order allowing police to unionize. Authorities yesterday made no mention of regulatory compliance with the Court judgment as the House opened its 2015 sitting: ‘They have such a hate-on for unions’.
Canada’s two largest railways have fallen behind delivery of freight cars to Prairie terminals despite federal quotas on grain shipments, say farm groups. The Agricultural Transport Coalition estimated CN and Canadian Pacific delivered only 89% of hopper cars ordered since September: ‘There’s a tremendous lack of transparency’.
