Federal agencies have spent nearly $4 million on electric cars and charging stations just in the Ottawa area, according to records. Transport Canada last month skipped a deadline to detail its Zero Emission Vehicle Strategy to promote electric car use nationwide: "I can't presume it's never going to happen."
Parliament should avoid regulation of amateur athletics, witnesses yesterday told a Commons subcommittee on sports-related brain injuries. Rugby Canada said the national association has already changed rules to prevent concussions: "Zero tolerance means zero tolerance."
The Department of Industry in a secret Access To Information memo cautions against federal meddling in media under the guise of combating fake news. The 2018 memo predates a plan to have subsidized media monitors “expose” election-year coverage deemed unreliable: ‘Reasons for government intervention must be clear.’
Financial data scoops by Statistics Canada have eroded public trust in the federal government, a former Ontario privacy commissioner yesterday told the Commons ethics committee. StatsCan suspended collection of records on more than a million people following protests: "Are you kidding me?"
Ontario has quietly erased the offensive name of a remote lake from the provincial map. Authorities said they had no information on who named Jigaboo Lake, or why: "It is a derogatory term."
A New Democrat bill to proclaim an Indigenous statutory holiday is stalled in the Commons. MPs on the heritage committee have summoned witness after witness amid disagreement over which date to select for one holiday, or two: "We’ve been talking about this for a long time."
Statistics Canada yesterday confirmed Chinese investors typically buy expensive real estate in Vancouver, but found no evidence foreigners drive up prices overall. Analysts said more data are needed to determine the impact, if any, of foreign ownership on Canada’s housing market: "You would need several years’ worth of data."
The 12¢ a litre federal carbon tax on gasoline must rise if cabinet is to meet its emissions target, economists yesterday told the Commons environment committee. The Department of the Environment has acknowledged it is 36 percent short of target: "Higher carbon prices or more stringent policies will be required."
A federal panel in Access To Information records says Canadian manufacturing is “under attack”. The warning follows the loss of nearly a half-million factory jobs nationwide: "It was noted that Canada does not have a manufacturing strategy."
Tax auditors have monitored small businesses’ HST collections by ordering take-out pizza, according to Québec Provincial Court records. A Québec Revenue Agency inspector ordered a small cheese pizza for $12.99 to ensure compliance with the Sales Tax Act: "The transaction was not registered without delay."
The Federal Court of Appeal has upheld a ban on Old Age Pension payments to convicts. Parliament passed the law following a public outcry over benefits paid to a serial killer: "This is offensive and outrageous."
Canadians now recycle about 255 kilograms of garbage per capita each year, says a Department of Environment report. Yet only about a quarter of solid waste, 27 percent, is diverted from landfills: "The cost of disposal is so cheap."
The Commons this week will pass into law a bill to safeguard sunken WWII warships and military aircraft from memorabilia hunters. The Senate earlier attached the ocean war graves amendment to a marine liability bill at the request of a 91-year old veteran: "For our sailors there are no pristine, manicured cemeteries."
The CEO of a Crown agency says he made a simple mistake in failing to disclose for months his cannabis investments held in breach of the Conflict Of Interest Act. Ian McKay, $231,000-a year chief executive of Invest in Canada Hub, would not speak to reporters despite multiple requests: "He realized his error."
Environment Canada faces a federal lawsuit, the second in eight years, over its repeated failure to protect habitat of woodland caribou. The population of the iconic species once hailed as Canada’s monarch of the wild numbers fewer than 35,000: 'All Canadians share an interest in the survival and recovery of boreal caribou.'
