Parliament must preserve bullet holes from a lone gunman’s 2014 attack on the Centre Block, says a Conservative MP. Multi-billion dollar renovations to the building should not conceal evidence of the incident, the Commons committee on House affairs was told: "These are records of something important that happened here."
Health Canada yesterday proposed to restrict alcohol in flavoured canned drinks following the death of a Québec schoolgirl. The Commons health committee urged reforms in a June 19 report: 'It represents a significant health problem.'
Rising oil prices tend to hike the cost of housing in cities nationwide, says a Bank of Canada report. Economists did not speculate on whether falling oil prices had the opposite effect: 'We find this even in cities such as Québec City or Winnipeg where oil production is virtually non-existent."
Corporate claims for a contentious federal tax credit fell 11 percent after the previous Conservative cabinet cut benefits, records show. The Canada Revenue Agency had described the program as so generous it was akin to an open bar for lobbyists: "It is one of the most generous systems in the world for supporting business."
A federal report says low pay for guards may contribute to graft in the prison system. The Correctional Service acknowledged it has little data on the extent of contraband smuggling by its own employees: 'Remarkably little research has been conducted.'
Federal cannabis ads were pulled by Google and YouTube for breaching corporate rules on narcotics, says Health Canada. One website operator, TripAdvisor, rejected all marijuana public service announcements: "The advertisements were not approved."
Transport Canada yesterday acknowledged it won't meet its own deadline to enforce an air passenger rights code by year’s end. Enforcement is delayed at least six months though Parliament last May 23 passed a bill mandating automatic compensation for poor service: "We're almost there."
The Department of Immigration suspects hundreds of cases of abuse of migrant workers occur annually. It proposed first-ever regulations allowing Temporary Foreign Workers to quit their job without facing expulsion from Canada: 'The power imbalance favours the employer.'
The Senate's $114 million-a year administration should be subject to federal disclosure laws, says cabinet’s leader in the chamber. The remark follows one Manitoba senator’s unsuccessful year-long attempt to find out how much Senate managers spent on legal fees and out-of-court settlements in staff harassment claims: "I certainly believe sunlight kills germs."
The Privy Council Office in an Access To Information memo defends millions spent advertising with Facebook and Google. Newspaper publishers have called the policy a Canadian job killer: "Those ad dollars are being sent offshore."
The national carbon tax will cost the army, navy and air force millions, according to cabinet. Staff would not detail actual increases for the military, one of the largest fuel buyers in the country: "It's hard paying a carbon tax."
Poet Shai Ben-Shalom, an Israeli-born biologist, examines current events in the Blacklock’s tradition each and every Sunday: “He will ask us, ‘Why did you not save the planet I gave you?’ And we will reply, ‘We did not know…'”
A group of senators propose to spend $30,000 on a kitchen museum inaccessible to taxpayers. The Senate committee on internal economy yesterday postponed a vote indefinitely after members questioned the project as pointless and irritating: "This is a place that won't be visited."
Cabinet’s representative in the Senate yesterday said he’d determine whether the Toronto Star lobbied the Prime Minister’s Office for a lucrative contract. The $355,950 deal was cancelled December 5 by the Procurement Ombudsman following a formal complaint from Blacklock’s: ‘Can you tell me whether any Torstar executive approached the Prime Minister to solicit this contract?’
A Senator yesterday issued a Christmas appeal to cabinet to redouble efforts to find destitute seniors entitled to federal benefits they never received. Cabinet says it knows of nearly 90,000 deserving pensioners who did not apply for the Guaranteed Income Supplement: “This money rightly belongs to those forgotten Canadians.”
