A celebrated scheme to have businesses file electronic tax returns is rated a failure by Canada Revenue Agency consultants. The agency’s own research shows most Canadians have not heard of the program – it was launched eight years ago – and many are wary of paperless transactions with the tax department: ‘Many were surprised to learn this has existed since 2006’.
The government watchdog Financial Consumer Agency of Canada issued fewer than 10 penalties on banks last year for violating federal regulations and codes, the equivalent of less than 1 percent of consumer complaints it investigated. The agency draws 85 percent of its budget from banks and insurers: “It doesn’t work”.
A government bill to jail contraband tobacco traffickers has hit amendments in the Senate amid concerns it will incite First Nations “unrest”. Liberals proposed to effectively hoist the bill pending talks with Aboriginal groups: “Why do they continue to do this?”
The Department of Fisheries is accused of failing to enforce its own laws in guarding habitat from aquaculture operators. A Great Lakes association told the Senate fisheries committee that trout farms are permitted to dump tonnes of waste in apparent violation of the Fisheries Act: ‘It’s like 16,000 hogs defecating into the bay’.
Bitcoin has made no new friends in the Senate, where the chair of the banking committee lamented losing 23 percent in six months after buying bitcoin as a test of the pseudo-currency: ‘It cost $100 and is worth $76.89 – if you can find a buyer’.
The Federal Court of Appeals will hear a gag lawsuit by environmentalists who accuse regulators of skewing public hearings to favour oil and gas companies. Forest Ethics Advocacy Association launched its case in 2013 over amendments to the National Energy Board Act: ‘We see a chilling effect’.
Two years after cabinet’s launch of an “ambitious” campaign to cut red tape, the chief of an advisory panel says Canadians should not expect “unrealistic results” in streamlining regulations: “It is in the very early stages”.
Canadian regulators should restrict use of waste incinerators as toxin-producing perils, the Commons environment committee has been told. One of the nation’s leading geneticists cautioned MPs that burning waste emits “minute bits of poison” that “ends up on our dinner tables”. Five provinces run waste incinerators.
The Department of Foreign Affairs’ far-flung luxury real estate portfolio will further shrink with the “immediate sale” of a $900,000 mansion occupied by the High Commissioner to New Zealand. Authorities ordered the sale as an austerity measure: ‘It’s a beautifully crafted two-storey mansion with lush gardens’.
Cabinet has shown little initiative in providing for safe Arctic shipping and has few means of tracking oil spills, says the federal Commissioner of the Environment. The number of vessel movements through the remote North is already triple from 2002 and projected to grow with climate change: “Marine traffic is increasing while Coast Guard ice-breaking is decreasing”.
Revival of postal banks would restore retail financial services to more than a thousand Canadian communities without any bank or credit union, says new research. A study by the Canadian Postmasters & Assistants Association noted reintroduction of the postal bank network disbanded in 1968 would see Canada Post with the largest bank branch system in the nation: ‘Modernization is the answer’.
Agriculture Canada will amend its own omnibus farm bill amid complaints that new patent rules would limit farmers’ traditional ability to save and replant seeds. Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz told a Commons committee that “farmer-friendly” amendments will be introduced: “Who’s making our seed policy?”
Cabinet is reviewing Australia-style restrictions on foreign investment in the Canadian condo market. Confidential documents indicate the federal mortgage insurer CMHC researched limits on foreign speculators in a bid to avert a condo crash: “Condos are effectively becoming rental buildings”.
Industry Canada has okayed paperless labels on electronic consumer goods. The department ruled effective immediately, retailers of products from cellphones to tablets are exempt from traditional labels in favour of digital consumer data in an e-label format. The change follows debate over the health impact of microwave radiation: “This looks like they’re trying to put out even less information”.
Agri-business giant Louis Dreyfus Commodities Canada Ltd. has won a key federal ruling on rail regulation that is likely to be appealed to Federal Court. The Canadian Transportation Agency concluded the company failed to receive thousands of CN rail cars it ordered for deliveries at Prairie grain terminals last season: ‘It’s a monopoly situation’.
