Emissions from hundreds of thousands of gas lawn mowers, leaf and snow blowers, golf carts and other small engines are being researched by Environment Canada. The department said it requires data on whether equipment sold here meets U.S. emission standards introduced five years ago: “We don’t take the initiative on any of these things”.
A revised cabinet pledge to expand Canada-wide broadband service is “unambitious”, says an advocacy group. Prime Minister Stephen Harper yesterday said a re-elected cabinet would spend $200 million in subsidies over seven years to promote rural hook-ups: “It’s really just a drop in the bucket”.
The cash-strapped Canada Border Services Agency has resorted to once or twice-a-week checks for stolen autos under a federal law intended to curb black market exports. Memos obtained through Access To Information disclosed only a fraction of export containers have been checked for stolen vehicles: “We need funding”.
The Canadian inventor of the Hockey Tower equipment bag is suing Costco and others alleging infringement of its patent. The company earlier settled similar patent cases against Walmart and Sport Maska Inc.: ‘We take intellectual property rights pretty seriously’.
Enforcement of new disclosure rules on mining companies is being questioned by advocates. Natural Resources Canada is requiring that corporations disclose all six-figure payments to foreign governments: ‘It should be available from the get-go’.
The federal Tax Court has dismissed an unusual claim from a bibliophile. The booklover claimed Excise Tax credits for a collection of thousands of first editions, including one title that appeared to irritate the judge: “Everyone likes it”.
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).
