The Supreme Court in a 7-0 decision has rejected an attempt by two Québec unions to challenge cabinet’s use of funds earmarked for Employment Insurance. The lawsuit followed a 2010 budget provision that saw cabinet transfer a $57 billion balance from an EI account into general government revenues: “It should be pretty damn well sure”.
The Canadian Coast Guard plans tests this year on shippers’ internet alerts on marine hazards. The initiative comes as regulators forecast a four-fold increase in West Coast oil tanker traffic. The Pacific coast has not seen a major marine oil spill since 1988: “The data will be all that industry needs”.
Student aid programs nationwide are now so complicated borrowers are unlikely to understand their terms and obligations, says new research. A study by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives concludes aid programs are “inherently complex” with “appalling inequities” depending on where students live: ‘Is this the best we can come up with?’
Federal inspectors are gaining new powers to levy fines on meat processors amid industry complaints of ad hoc policy and “pretty shallow” consultations. The regulations follow a pledge by Health Minister Rona Ambrose to penalize processors that withhold information from the Canadian Food Inspection Agency: “We have nothing to hide”.
Decades after it was banned in household paint and gasoline, lead continues to pose a “modest” risk to Canadians prone to hypertension, new Statistics Canada research shows. Authorities said sampling of thousands of Canadians found all individuals tested, 100 percent, had blood lead levels: “It’s still there”.
The Government of Canada sees only “marginal” costs in backfilling absentee employees, according to the Parliamentary Budget Office. The latest study follows 2013 research that public servants did not take significantly more sick days than private sector employees – a finding that contradicted cabinet claims of widespread absenteeism: “I hope they’re going to change their tune now”.
Minimum wage rates remain a burden for small business despite new data indicating the average entry-level pay is unchanged since 1975 after inflation, says an advocacy group. Statistics Canada calculated rates mirror those paid in 1975: “There is a trend”.
The Commons trade committee is faulting negotiators for failing to press Canadian trademark claims in confidential negotiations on a European pact. MPs in a majority report said the treaty must not be ratified without “geographical indicators” to protect Canadian products like Atlantic salmon, Saskatoon berries and Winnipeg goldeye: “Europe’s got a whole bunch and Canada didn’t have one”.
Employment Canada will spend $425,000 to interview jobless people. Authorities said the intensive study will provide “detailed micro-level data” on why Canadians are out of work: “Would you be willing to move to seek employment?”
Environment Canada is excluding shale gas drillers from a new national inventory of industrial chemicals. The regulatory exemption follows repeated appeals to cabinet to find out what toxins are used in some 200,000 hydraulic fracturing wells nationwide: “They do not know; it was that simple”.
Canada Revenue has lost a Tax Court judgment – the second in eight months – after being unable to prove it mailed a letter. A federal judge waived a deadline on a taxpayer hit with a five-figure reassessment after he claimed to have never received the tax notice: “What is the point?”
Atlantic fisheries are appealing for the same preferential treatment given Canadian farmers under the federal Temporary Foreign Worker Program. Processors and harvesters in P.E.I. said labour shortages have disrupted the industry, yet employers cannot draw the same benefits given to agriculture: “It’s lost economic opportunity”.
Privatization of Canada Post is “very likely” if the corporation doesn’t see returns on its crash program of service cuts and rate increases, warns a Conservative MP. The disclosure contradicts cabinet assurances the sale of the Crown corporation is not under consideration. It comes as postal management yesterday expanded the planned suspension of door-to-door mail delivery to two more provinces, British Columbia and Saskatchewan: “What have they got to hide?”
Health Canada is proposing new disclosure of food additives, according to Access to Information documents. The initiative follows an incident that saw a consumer hospitalized after eating a Kraft product KD Smart Vegetables Original and KD Smart Vegetables 3 Cheese with undisclosed traces of the dye tartrazine: “Health Canada recognizes that ‘colour’ does not provide the information that many Canadians would like to have”.
A scholarship fund created by Canada’s longest-serving foundation for blinded war veterans is surrendering its charter as a federal charity. The Sir Arthur Pearson Association of War Blinded said its surviving foundation members are unable to carry on: “It bothers me a great deal”.
