Introduction of Canada’s first mandatory emergency broadcast system comes ten years after it was recommended by a Senate committee, and decades after its adoption in Alberta following a tornado that killed 27 people: ‘When lives are threatened a message needs to be sent’.
An Industry Canada proposal to abolish consumer fees for paper invoices comes six years after a similar Liberal proposal. The department earlier cribbed a 2012 New Democrat bill restricting installation of wireless towers: “I’m happy they’ve listened”.
The Canadian Food Inspection Agency won’t comment to Blacklock’s after launching a lawsuit for total damages of $500. The corporation is taking a Saskatchewan man to Federal Court over the unpaid fine, representing a fraction of legal costs: “It stinks”.
Tonnes of methane-producing municipal waste are being inventoried nationwide by Environment Canada. Authorities called it the first audit of its kind in nearly a decade: “It doesn’t go away”.
Finance Canada is drawing ridicule with its long-awaited proposal to abolish “discrimination” in cross-border retail pricing. Cabinet has yet to detail the legislation announced by the late Finance Minister Jim Flaherty last February 11: “I’m completely baffled”.
Legislation to sell Canada’s only government-owned coal export terminal will be enacted within a month. Cabinet served notice that on September 30 it will put into effect legislation to privatize Ridley Terminals Inc. of Prince Rupert, B.C. more than two years after announcing it was for sale: “Keep it Canadian-owned”.
Computer error and lack of oversight were to blame for an error in Statistics Canada’s reporting of summer jobless figures, officials say. The federal agency miscounted tens of thousands of jobs in its last monthly employment report: “Such an error stays a very long time in the corporate memory”.
A federal judge has upheld the constitutionality of Canada’s ethanol and biodiesel regulations, rejecting a challenge by one of the country’s largest oil companies. Syncrude Canada Ltd. tried and failed to seek a federal review of rules that it must add 2% renewable fuel to millions of litres of diesel burned by its corporate truck and equipment fleet in Alberta’s oil sands: “Syncrude takes a myopic view”.
Record-high stamp prices have driven Canada Post to unexpected profits, prompting suspicions the Crown corporation concocted deficit forecasts to justify deep service cuts. The post office yesterday reported a $68 million profit in the first half of the year due mainly to a 35% increase in stamp rates: ‘They panicked’.
A federal trademarks board armed with the Oxford Dictionary has dismissed farmers’ objections to use of the word “milk” to describe a product unrelated to cows. The Dairy Farmers of Canada filed the protest after U.S. manufacturer Cytosport Inc. trademarked its Monster Milk nutrition supplements for athletes: “Consumers are accustomed to encountering the word”.
The Senate has become too “politicized” and abandoned effective committee work, says a longtime senior lobbyist. Carole Presseault, for 13 years the vice-president of regulatory affairs for the Certified General Accountants Association of Canada, questioned Senators’ contributions to bills and regulations: “That’s unfortunate”.
Environment Canada has quietly compiled a list of nearly a thousand chemicals, toxins and additives used by shale gas drillers nationwide. The department would not disclose the list, but states in a confidential memo it was compiled through “North American sources”. The memo was released through Access to Information: “Canadians have expressed concern”.
Atlantic Canada has eclipsed Québec as a “hotbed” of the most aggrieved people in the nation, according to a confidential report for the Privy Council Office. The research concluded two-thirds of Atlantic residents are disaffected, the highest rate in the country: “We got shafted”.
A year after documenting shortfalls in safe shipping of petroleum, members of the Senate energy committee say Transport Canada has yet to adopt a “safety culture” in regulating railways: “You only get punished if something happens”.
Research shows a continued decline in the rate of new business start-ups in Canada, a trend dating from the 1980s. Statistics Canada concluded the trend mirrors similar declines in the U.S. and other countries: ‘It’s a maturing of the economy’.
