Six federal agencies continue to bill taxpayers for sports tickets, though at a fraction of costs seen in 2015 when the previous Conservative cabinet banned the practice. One Crown corporation, the Royal Canadian Mint, said it never saw the directive: "Please feel free to clarify."
The Canada Revenue Agency yesterday acknowledged it breached the Taxpayer Bill Of Rights. Members of the Commons public accounts committee expressed anger after the Agency failed its third consecutive audit on minimum service standards: "It's really bad."
Cabinet has drafted rules to “reconsider” old designations of the federal Historic Sites & Monuments Board, according to Access To Information records. The office of Catherine McKenna, Minister responsible for the Board, yesterday declined to release the guidelines: 'They are principles on whether existing designations should or might be changed.'
Innocent people are wrongfully convicted of crimes on a daily basis, according to prosecutors, Legal Aid lawyers and court staff interviewed by the Department of Justice. Researchers said false guilty pleas are common though the number is unknown: "People plead guilty to things they didn’t do."
The Canadian Credit Union Association yesterday endorsed a federal bill to name and shame scofflaws, including its own members, that breach consumer protection rules. Parliament is to pass the bill this week: "That introduces an element of accountability that did not exist before."
The Ontario Court of Appeal has raised by 400 percent a fine on a corporate polluter. Judges faulted lower courts for imposing a fine of as little as $600 on a winery blamed for runoff that contaminated a neighbouring landowner’s pond: "Minimum fines will often seem high; that is the point."
The Senate national finance committee took just 19 minutes to pass the last of cabinet’s 2018 omnibus budget bills without amendment. The two bills combined, spring and autumn, ran to a record 1,411 pages, about half the size of the federal tax code: "I am not fond of omnibus bills."
The Department of Public Works says it sees from 1,000 to 80,000 new complaints from unpaid employees every month. Auditors determined a costly, malfunctioning payroll system has now garbled cheques for 62 percent of federal workers: "I feel like we’re two ships passing in the night."
Cabinet says it has no regrets over granting more than $600,000 in federal aid to a bankrupt Cape Breton call centre. Terms of loans let to ServiCom LLC of Sydney, N.S. remain confidential. Promoters had claimed Cape Breton would become the "call centre capital of the world".
A federal judge has faulted the RCMP as a “bureaucratic maze”. The remarks came in the case of a British Columbia policeman who spent seven years applying for an apprenticeship program: 'It would make it difficult for any candidate to succeed.'
One of the world’s largest pharmaceutical companies has been hit with a two-year federal ban under the Temporary Foreign Worker Program. Labour inspectors cited a breach of regulations at a Charlottetown plant of Elanco Canada Ltd., a subsidiary of Eli Lilly & Co: "The employer was found non-compliant for an incident."
WestJet Airlines Ltd. is under federal investigation for alleged predatory pricing. A probe by the Competition Bureau was prompted by complaints from a rival airline that WestJet sold tickets below cost, as little as $39 for a one-way ticket. WestJet said it is "keen to assist the Bureau".
Heritage Minister Pablo Rodriguez yesterday defended taxpayers’ aid for a “bankrupt press”. Cabinet in 2019 is to detail a proposed $595 million, five-year subsidy program for chosen news media deemed to meet unspecified criteria for reliability: “A bankrupt press is not a free press.”
The Senate committee on internal economy yesterday approved a $114 million budget for the new year, 23 percent more than it cost in 2016. New Senate spending includes the hiring of three interior designers: 'I'm amazed at how sophisticated we are.'
Lobbyists yesterday clashed with members of the Senate agriculture committee over a proposed federal ban on junk food advertising to children. Bakers, millers and farmers complained the ad ban could target white bread with added sugar and salt: "Gingerbread houses and Santa cookies, is that going to be allowed?"
