Cabinet will amend the Fisheries Act to permit pesticide use by aquaculture operators, authorities say. Dumping chemicals into fish habitat is currently forbidden under federal law: “There is a great deal of concern on the part of a number of Canadians about the impact of aquaculture”.
Canada Post will have to ‘figure out’ its scheme to abolish home mail delivery, says Transport Minister Lisa Raitt. Her remarks followed new protests from city mayors that the scheduled cut to 5 million homeowners is secretive and impractical. “This is their plan, right?”
Canadian railways will enforce new safety procedures on tank cars hauling crude oil in step with U.S. shippers, authorities say. The rules follow the fiery derailment of petroleum cars in Lac-Mégantic last July 6 that killed forty-seven townspeople.
Canada Border Services Agency has won a court appeal upholding the ability of guards to intercept travellers’ luggage. Judges threw out a lower ruling that agents had no right to question a visitor over the contents of his bag without first cautioning him of his right to silence: ‘Can you spell m-e-a-t?’
Cabinet proposes to require electronic tracking of the nation’s 30 million pigs. However the policy will not immediately combat a pig-killing virus that threatens the multi-billion dollar industry, critics say: “It’s here. They did nothing”.
Employment and Social Development Canada has been cited for flagrant waste in advertising a phantom jobs program. The Canadian Taxpayers Federation awarded its top Government Waste Award for the department’s $2.5 million TV ads touting the Canada Jobs Grant: ‘It still does not exist’.
Health Canada will require that tanning salons display gruesome new cancer warnings effective June 1. The initiative came amid protests from the tanning industry: “Our opponents will be marketing this left, right and centre”.
Parliament broke its own rules in voting for a special day to commemorate the late Pope John Paul II, confidential records show. Heritage Canada in a secret memo warned the observance violated terms of its National Commemoration Policy, but never told MPs: “This is the first time I’ve heard of this”.
Ottawa appears internet-challenged after decades of review, says Auditor General Michael Ferguson. Public Works Canada has found some 100 different email systems across the bureaucracy, many of them incompatible with each other: “I still don’t know what’s being done”.
Married Canadians tend to be wealthier than singles, concludes research by the Institute of Marriage and Family Canada. The study appeared to confirm suspicions divorce is expensive: ‘That’s not terribly controversial’.
The Department of Justice is appealing a court finding of favoritism in the awarding of X-ray contracts at the agency responsible for airport safety. Attorneys seek to overturn a ruling the Canadian Air Transport Security Authority “concocted” a process to reward a single supplier: “Its decision was unfair”.
The nation’s largest railways have taken the economy “hostage”, says Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz. His remarks followed farm and industry protests of inexplicable shipping delays despite passage of the Fair Rail Freight Service Act: “We are considering all options”.
A federal agency is being sued for allegedly violating the Copyright Act on the internet. The Canada-Nova Scotia Offshore Petroleum Board is accused of publishing data without permission: “The Copyright Act doesn’t matter to these people”.
Meat inspectors will gain first-ever powers to impose fines for routine violations, from spitting in a slaughterhouse to falsifying records. The initiative follows a report by visiting U.S. inspectors that cited select Canadian processors for rusty pipes and unclean equipment: “They’ll have the fines but they don’t have the inspectors”.
A proposed Canada Revenue registry of commercial tax preparers should be expanded to include income trusts, says an MP. The program targeting individual and corporate-paid tax filers deliberately excluded income trusts: “That’s where a lot of the real money is hidden”.
