The Supreme Court will hear an appeal on whether steep fines under the Income Tax Act constitute criminal sanctions. The case involves a six-figure penalty imposed by Canada Revenue over charitable tax receipts in a phantom vacation property: “It’ll be important to closely watch the case”.
Federal regulators must enact standard Canada-wide rules to protect consumers who use websites offering group discounts, says an advocacy group. The Public Interest Advocacy Centre said current consumer protection legislation is inadequate: “There are always issues”.
CMHC is hiring its own music producer in an initiative one taxpayers’ advocate described as “goofy”. The federal mortgage insurer said it will spend up to $210,000 over the next three years on a live event producer in Vancouver: ‘The guy who picks the music is going to answer to Canada Mortgage & Housing?’
The Treasury Board is being ordered to comply with a Supreme Court ruling on the right of union agents to call workplace employees. The board had initially balked at providing contact information to an Ottawa local of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers: “Even the simplest things have now become difficult”.
Canada Revenue Agency is being urged to crack down on a tax swindle that has seen individuals claim credits on phantom charitable donations. Taxpayers’ Ombudsman J. Paul Dubé reported only 47 fake charities have been stripped of their status for issuing inflated receipts under “gifting” schemes: ‘Lots of people are embroiled in these things’.
The nation is still tossing mercury-laden fluorescent lights into landfills despite repeated warnings of toxic vapours from the bulbs, according to federal research. Environment Canada cautioned the products are so toxic homeowners must clear the room before cleaning up broken bulbs: “Remove people and pets”.
In another sign of the twilight of telephone landlines, StatsCanada says it will end its use of random digit dialing in household surveys. A million landlines have gone out of service nationwide: “We have to adapt”.
Canada Post is proceeding with $200 million rate hikes that will see customers run, not walk from the post office, says a business group. Rates on domestic stamps will rise from 63¢ to as much as a dollar by month’s end, doubling rates since 1994: “I’m not sure Canada Post will come out the winner”.
Appointment of Joe Oliver as finance minister at 73 makes him the oldest federal treasurer since 76-year old William Fielding in 1925. The appointment comes two years after cabinet abolished mandatory retirement: “Now we’re told, ‘He looks pretty good for his age'”.
Environment Canada is quietly dismissing petitions to force disclosure of chemicals used by the fracking industry. Nearly three years after acknowledging “the need to move quickly”, authorities say they see no reason to require that companies disclose toxins used in hydraulic fracturing: “We have stopped asking them for answers”.
Vietnam Airlines has won federal approval to operate a scheduled service with Canada for the first time since the end of the Vietnam War. Trade boosters said they hoped for increased sales with Vietnam, currently a smaller Canadian export market than North Dakota: “It is very crucial”.
The government’s Financial Consumer Agency mandated to monitor consumer protection codes says it deliberately did not fine banks or other violators under an enforcement “philosophy”. In one year the agency counted more than 2000 complaints without punishment: “We do not wag our fingers very much”.
Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s alma mater claims energy exports are worth almost $9000 for every Canadian household. However one analyst said the figure appeared misleading and abstract: “It’s not like $9000 of free cash flow”.
Telecom regulators have selected Metro Vancouver as the first municipality in the country to offer a texting 911 service for the hearing and speech impaired. It comes 55 years after Canada’s first three-digit emergency code was introduced in Winnipeg: “We have a strategy”.
Winter is delaying the opening of the St. Lawrence Seaway shipping season with ice cover on the Great Lakes passing 91 percent, the biggest freeze-up since 1979. A quarter-million jobs depend on the seaway and Great Lakes trade: “The ice won’t go away fast enough.”
