Natural Resources Minister Jim Carr vows Canada will recover every penny of U.S. duties imposed on softwood lumber shipments. “We will recover the duties that have been collected,” Carr yesterday told the Senate agriculture and forestry committee: "Don't leave a nickel on the table."
Library & Archives Canada has permanently sealed records donated by a Canadian lawyer allegedly linked by conspiracy theorists to the JFK assassination. The order appeared to breach a Federal Court ruling that archivists could not hide the files in perpetuity: "What is there to hide?"
Legislators yesterday expressed alarm over threats of high U.S. tariffs on Canadian steel and aluminum exports. Cabinet promised “appropriate measures”, but did not elaborate: "Let’s work together to fight foreign-dumped steel from places like China."
Canada lacks enough trained enforcers to combat cybercrime, the Senate banking, trade and commerce committee was told yesterday. Hearings followed a 2017 Statistics Canada report that digital fraud and other offences have grown 58 percent since 2014: "Follow the money."
Cabinet faces new controls on borrowing under a Liberal bill yesterday introduced in the Senate. It follows February 27 budget data that current federal debts are worth $1.066 trillion including borrowing by Crown corporations: "Hold the government to account for its management of the public purse."
Canada Post has lost a bid to fire a manager who sent personal mail at the corporation’s expense. A federal judge upheld an adjudicator’s ruling that dismissal was too harsh.: "Not all dishonest conduct justifies the dismissal of an employee."
Crown prosecutors say they are not prepared for the impact of legal marijuana. “We’re doing the best we can,” one prosecutor yesterday told the Senate legal and constitutional affairs committee: "Do we have enough on the ground for the coming into force of legalization? I don’t think we do."
A Commons committee yesterday proposed granting a privacy ombudsman unprecedented new powers to pick and choose investigations, audit private companies, and impose five-figure fines for breaches of federal privacy law: "It’s important that I have these powers."
Consumer advocates last night urged the Senate transport committee to quickly pass a federal passenger bill of rights. Canada is the only G7 country without statutory compensation owed travelers inconvenienced by flight delays, denial of boarding and lost luggage; "It is time we do better."
The Commons health committee yesterday rewrote a tobacco bill to restrict advertising of vaping products. Amendments will send the bill back to the Senate for approval 17 months after it was introduced: 'Clearly we don’t want to be promoting nicotine.'
A federal labour board has cited two female managers for concocting a workplace harassment complaint against a male employee. The unusual investigation comes as MPs study a cabinet bill mandating anti-harassment policies in all federally-regulated workplaces: "Have it your way."
The Department of Finance cut its budget art spending more than 99 percent following criticism of six-figure imagery that included hiring models to pose as middle class Canadians. Staff bought a single $575 stock photo of a family running through a field to illustrate its 2018 budget: “They are Canadian, and they are an actual family.”
The labour department will spend $39 million a year on surprise inspections of employers who hire migrant workers, say budget documents. The program follows a 2017 audit that found weak enforcement of the Temporary Foreign Worker Program: "We have to end this."
Airlines yesterday appealed for amendments to a first-ever passenger rights bill. Executives told the Senate transport committee that service standards for carriers should also apply to airport authorities, ground crew, security staff and air traffic controllers: "All these organizations should have the same requirements."
Cabinet yesterday promised more employment insurance benefits and unspecified help for workers owed wages and benefits from bankrupt employers. The proposal follows the 2017 collapse of Sears Canada that left retirees and employees with a $266.8 million pension shortfall: "Sears employees were told to go to the back of the line."
