The Commons transport committee yesterday rejected any federal regulation mandating seatbelts on school buses. Transport Canada calculated a seatbelt requirement would cost school boards $20,000 per vehicle refit, the equivalent of $400 million nationwide: "The issue of retrofitting school buses is very complex."
A federal loan program for small business costs taxpayers about $4,000 per job created, says Department of Industry research. Staff noted claims of job creation are estimates only and could be lower than stated: "It reflects expectations."
Public transit ridership increased 1.5 percent last year despite Parliament’s repeal of a $210 million transit tax credit, says the Canadian Urban Transit Association. The advocacy group said it still considered the credit useful: "It was unfortunate the Department of Finance took an opposite view."
The Commons health committee yesterday recommended Parliament work with provinces and cities to decriminalize simple possession of heroin, cocaine and all other narcotics. Cabinet repeatedly vowed it had no plans to remove criminal sanctions on street drugs when it legalized marijuana in 2018: "God knows what else."
Opposition Leader Andrew Scheer yesterday would not commit any future Conservative cabinet to repealing a $595 million media bailout under the Income Tax Act. His remarks followed disclosure of an untendered $5.5 million federal contract for “communications research services” to Postmedia that endorsed Conservatives in the 2015 campaign: "We’re going to have our own plan."
A federal judge has faulted the Canadian Human Rights Commission for a slipshod review of a discrimination complaint. Investigators “only heard one side of the story” and quickly closed the case, wrote Federal Court Justice Susan Elliott: "That failure is inexplicable."
MPs yesterday passed into law a bill to ban the capture of live whales for profit. No federal license has been issued for whale capture in Canadian waters since 1992: "This bill does not help one single marine mammal that is currently living in captivity."
Promised federal monitoring of fake election news appears weak and slow, New Democrat leader Jagmeet Singh yesterday told reporters. Singh is the subject of a first-ever Elections Canada probe of fake news targeting a candidate: "We've got to do better."
The Department of Agriculture will consider expanding taxpayer-guaranteed farm loans in 2020, says a report. Researchers noted farm debt in Canada has grown 56 percent since 2009 to more than $98 billion: "I remember the 1980s."
The Department of Public Works quietly awarded millions in untendered contract fees to the nation’s largest newspaper chain twelve days after announcing a media bailout, records show. The sole-sourced contract to Postmedia Network Inc. was the largest of its kind approved for “communications research services”.
A bill to ban junk food advertising to children will cost industry at least $956 million, according to lobbyists’ submissions to Health Canada obtained through Access To Information. The bill is one Senate vote away from becoming law: "A blunt instrument is being applied here."
Banks, radio stations and other federally-regulated employers cannot work unpaid student interns more than 40 hours a week under proposed Canada Labour Code regulations. The rules mirror a 2015 New Democrat bill prompted by student deaths: "It’s something they have been asking for, for a very long time."
Senate amendments to an oil and gas bill appear ghostwritten by lobbyists, say Liberal MPs. The Commons will reject revisions that fail to restore “trust in the process”, officials said: "Some of those amendments in the package come directly from oil lobbyists."
Transport Canada proposes the strictest regulations yet on oceangoing vessels to curb the spread of invasive water species. Zebra mussels, sea lampreys and other pests have cost millions, said the department: "They were the ones who created the loopholes in the first place."
Poet Shai Ben-Shalom, an Israeli-born biologist, examines current events in the Blacklock’s tradition each and every Sunday: “Premier Ford may be immortalized with a monument built of flexible, six-feet long tube, bearing a tiny camera…”
