Federally-funded research is questioning the effectiveness of Canadian hatcheries in raising Coho salmon. Decades of data compiled by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council cited subsidized hatcheries for ‘inferior’ outcomes in preserving fish stock: “There is less clarity that it really improves the number of returning fish”.
Canada’s second-busiest airport is under a federal anti-trust probe. The Competition Bureau disclosed it is investigating contracting at the Vancouver Airport Authority: ‘We are cooperating’.
Certain tax benefits can be claimed back to the womb, says a federal judge. The ruling came in the unusual case of a Québec family trust that claimed a capital gains exemption on behalf of an unborn boy: “An unborn child is taken care of just as much as if it were in existence”.
Federal regulators are investigating complaints a Canadian airline allegedly withheld millions in compensation owed passengers for lost and late luggage. The Canadian Transportation Agency has given Porter Airlines Inc. till September 3 to answer allegations it misled passengers on payments they could rightfully claim for misplaced bags.
Porter Inc. denied the claims in a statement to Blacklock’s. The complaints were filed by Dr. Gábor Lukács, a Halifax-based passenger rights advocate who presented the Agency with transcriptions of tape recordings with Porter agents.
In his submission, Lukács noted Porter was obliged to reimburse passengers for expenses up to $1,800 over lost or delayed luggage following a 2013 order by the Transportation Agency. Porter advised travellers they were entitled only to $25 coupons on future flights, according to Lukács’ records including voice recordings of conversations with Porter staff:
“Porter Airlines shortchanged passengers,” Lukács wrote regulators, noting the $25 a day redemptions were offered to domestic and international travellers aboard Porter flights: “Porter Airlines has been unjustly enriched at the expense of the traveling public by a substantial amount,” Lukács wrote.
Porter said in a statement it has always offered clients compensation they are owed. “Our baggage claims department has consistently applied our policy since it was updated in 2013,” the airline said. “We continue to reimburse reasonable expenses for passengers if they have issues related to baggage delays. At this point in time this is all the information we are able to provide.”
In phone calls and emails submitted as evidence to regulators, Porter agents repeatedly denied clients were entitled to compensation for expenses from lost luggage. “Beyond the delayed voucher of $25 per twenty-four hour period they don’t issue any kind of compensation,” one agent is quoted. “Our general policy is that we don’t actually issue any kind of compensation for those kinds of costs incurred, unfortunately,” said another, who advised Lukács to fill out a complaint form.
Lukács cited industry documents calculating North American airlines on average misplace luggage at the rate of 3 per 1,000 bags, and noted Porter claims to carry 2.5 million passengers a year – the equivalent of up to $9 million in maximum reimbursements, Lukács calculated. He asked regulators to cite Porter for misleading information, and compel the airline to reimburse all passengers since 2013 who were entitled to compensation for misplaced bags.
Lukács earlier won a Federal Court order that the Transportation Agency disclose all documents it cites in regulatory decisions similar to the CRTC and other agencies. The Agency had routinely withheld records it deemed confidential after publishing decisions on its website.
By Staff 
Police cannot use mere suspicion to compel telecom companies to disclose tracking data on cellphone subscribers, an Alberta court has ruled. The judgment is the first of its kind since Parliament passed a new Act broadening the scope of warrantless searches: “Don’t use vague language that implicates everybody in a dragnet”.
Earth moves
– 30 km per second –
around the Sun,
and the Solar System spirals
at 250 km per second
around the centre of the galaxy,
meaning
Ottawa is millions of kilometres away
from where it was
back in 2006
when the Prime Minister first declared
he would reform the Senate,
and if that’s not progress,
what is?
(Editor’s note: poet Shai Ben-Shalom, an Israeli-born biologist, examines current events in the Blacklock’s tradition each and every Sunday)
Cabinet staff have privately grumbled about one of the country’s largest public lenders, according to documents filed in the Duffy Trial. Confidential emails complained Farm Credit Canada was undercutting private banks by approving billions in mortgages: ‘It’s an unfair advantage’.
A former federal employee has lost a Supreme Court bid to press a defamation suit against the National Research Council. The ex-staffer sought one dollar in damages and a letter of apology after the Council distributed a report criticizing his performance: “Your boss is entitled to give their opinion”.
Health Canada is dramatically lowering indoor exposure limits to emissions from gas appliances. Regulators said most homes “rarely” exceed limits, but cautioned long-term exposure could pose risks to asthmatic children: “There is so little public education about this”.
Housing markets in three Canadian cities are rated at “high risk” by the federal mortgage insurer. The warning follows assurances from Finance Minister Joe Oliver there is no real estate bubble: ‘The rise in prices has not been matched by incomes’.
A landmark Senate committee probe that heard appeals for a sugar tax and ban on fast food marketing to children should resume after the October 19 election, says the committee chair. The year-long investigation of national obesity was suspended with the dissolution of Parliament: “There are actions that can be taken”.
Cabinet is writing more loopholes into a much-vaunted law intended to reduce government red tape. New regulations allow cabinet to bypass the law in undefined “unique or exceptional” circumstances, and give departments years to comply in ordinary cases: “We see the Act as nothing more than a public relations exercise”.
New rules granting interns the right to refuse dangerous work in federally-regulated industries will take effect September 14, says cabinet. Amendments under the Canada Labour Code apply to unpaid workers at railways, oil and gas companies, marine shipping and air transport: “Why do federally-regulated employers need access to unpaid interns?”
Natural gas firms have won 40-year terms on federal export licenses. Cabinet yesterday enacted amendments to the National Energy Board Act that previously required gas companies to reapply for permits every 25 years: “The market is quickly disappearing”.
The Canadian Press, self-described “trusted news leader”, solicited a $75,000 grant from Natural Resources Canada at the same time its reporters covered the department, records disclose. Documents obtained by Blacklock’s indicate the news agency received funding for a failed venture to compete with Google Maps, and invoiced taxpayers for time spent on the project by CP staff: “I don’t know what I could contribute on that”.
