A federal panel yesterday recommended Parliament enact a minimum wage of up to sixteen dollars an hour, the highest in the country. The increase, the first in twenty-three years, would “provide decency” for low-wage workers in the federally-regulated private sector, wrote advisers: "There would be some upward pressure for provincially-regulated private sector employees."
A Department of Infrastructure audit says the state of roads and utilities in the territories is among the worst in the nation despite federal subsidies equivalent to nearly $10,000 for every resident. Auditors blamed the high cost of Arctic construction: 'It is generally worse than anywhere else.'
The Department of Employment in an Access To Information memo said it is watching public reaction to a proposal that Parliament increase the minimum age for Old Age Security benefits. Parliament in 2016 repealed legislation by the previous Conservative cabinet that raised the age of eligibility from 65 to 67: "The department will monitor public and stakeholder reaction."
A fake travel agent has been sentenced to ten weeks in jail for peddling holiday cruises as a purported fundraiser for combat veterans. An Ontario Provincial Court judge depicted the woman as a habitual liar: "She sold these trips to anyone who would pay money."
The Department of Environment in a confidential 2017 briefing note planned future increases in the carbon tax, but withheld the fact from voters. Then-Environment Minister Catherine McKenna publicly denied any tax hike was considered: "This is not some sort of election trickery."
SNC-Lavalin Group Inc. must be blacklisted as a federal contractor after pleading guilty to fraud, says an MP. The engineering firm received more than $19 million in federal contracts in the past year as it awaited trial: "We look like a banana republic."
Canadian Pacific Railway Co. goes to trial in Federal Court in January to press a claim it doesn’t have to pay income tax. The long-running dispute turns on a 138-year old contract signed by the company and a Minister of Railways who died in 1915: "The underlying litigation dates back to the formation of Canada."
Newcomers to Canada cannot claim citizenship if they don’t take the oath, the Federal Court has ruled. The judgment came on appeal by a Saudi businessman who passed his citizenship test, received his papers and was only two days from swearing the oath when the Department of Immigration uncovered a problem: "Becoming a Canadian citizen is a privilege."
There are few environmental benefits to show for a quarter billion dollars spent on green technology subsidies, say federal auditors. More taxpayer aid is needed, concluded a Department of Natural Resources report: "Demand for clean energy is not sufficient."
A federal agency has spent more than $100 million in the Chinese coal industry even as cabinet’s climate change plan proposes to eliminate Canadian coal-fired power plants. The Canada Pension Plan Investment Board yesterday did not comment: "The whole world needs to phase out coal."
Workplace bans on kilts are not discriminatory, says a human rights tribunal. The judgment came on appeal by a Scottish-Canadian transit bus driver censured for wearing a kilt on casual Friday: "Wearing a kilt is not intimately connected to his Scottish ancestry."
Finance Minister Bill Morneau yesterday would not commit to rewriting terms of a 1967 program intended to compensate provinces for catastrophic revenue shocks. “We are not at the stage where we have a conclusion,” Morneau told reporters.
Canadians could “learn” from China, say three senators and an ex-New Democrat MP. The parliamentary friendship group met overseas with Communist Party officials even as police used tear gas against pro-democracy protestors in Hong Kong: "Both countries have a long relationship that has been productive in many respects."
A majority of teenage marijuana users, 51 percent, tell the Department of Health they “have cannabis in or around the home” since Parliament legalized marijuana. Federal research showed the typical Canadian now considers marijuana more socially acceptable than tobacco: "Can cannabis smoke be harmful?"
A federal agency has been found guilty of breaching air pollution regulations even as MPs prepared to declare a climate emergency. British Columbia’s Prince Rupert Port Authority started a slow-burning garbage fire so toxic, nearby residents complained of sore throats, burning eyes and asthma attacks: "Climate change is increasingly a climate emergency."
