Environmental groups have won a Federal Court ruling against Health Canada and four chemical companies over pesticide safety. The Court rejected the department’s bid to dismiss without trial a claim that regulators unlawfully licensed pesticides: "It's a big victory."
Cabinet is expanding post-secondary grants to students by $138.6 million a year after citing rising defaults under its repayable Canada Student Loan program. Write-offs of unpaid loans cost $354.4 million in the past two years: "I hope we’re not going to see the write-offs increase as we expand the grant system."
Transport Canada in a climate change forecast predicts severe damage to northern roads and airfields, fewer snow days in Québec and more wildfires and drought on the Prairies. Average temperatures have increased 1.5° since 1950: 'Disruptions could become more frequent in the future.'
Health Canada is quietly shelving a 2015 promise of strict regulation of food ads targeting children. The department in Access To Information memos said it was wary of a court challenge: “Get industry buy-in.”
A federal judge has ruled a grieving widow who forgot to claim survivor’s Canada Pension Plan benefits will not get retroactive payments. The claim was worth about $13,000: "She had been unable to manage the paperwork."
An angry, five-minute phone call has cost one small business $8,500 following a human rights complaint. A tribunal ruled discrimination is unacceptable even if it “did not involve the use of derogatory language or significant profanity.”
CMHC is accused of pressing housing co-operatives to cut aid for low income tenants in exchange for refinancing. The Canada Mortgage & Housing Corporation did not comment: "The fly in the ointment is the CMHC conditions."
CRTC research says mainstream broadcasters continue to give poor treatment to one minority group. Federal focus groups said treatment of Indigenous Canadians is despairing, bleak and stereotypical: 'For example, poor, alcoholic, and sniffing glue or gas.'
A federal adjudicator is accused of bias after laughing and joking with a complainant’s lawyer, and accepting a novelty gift she called “almost pornographic”. The Canadian Human Rights Tribunal member declined to withdraw from the case: "Colourlessness or absolute neutrality is not required in order to be impartial."
Health Canada has again delayed full enactment of a consumer safety bill on prescription drugs. The department said it requires more time to write regulations, though Parliament passed the legislation in 2014: "It's sickening."
Transport Canada is enforcing new safety regulations on the nation’s commercial fishing fleet. Data show fishermen see a higher workplace-related death rate than firefighters or police officers: "We felt the department was more interested in paper safety than real safety."
RCMP will spend $1 million on bulletproof doors at 24 Sussex Drive and other official residences. Police said the unusual precaution is part of immediate security upgrades: "We're dealing in an era of global terrorism."
The federal labour department yesterday tightened workplace safety regulations on asbestos 42 years after Health Canada identified the substance as toxic. Advocates said amendments to the Canada Labour Code were overdue: "The previous federal levels were 10 times too high."
Canadian researchers say municipalities can save millions in climate change-related flood damage by doing nothing – to wetlands. A University of Waterloo study said loss of wetlands to agriculture and urban sprawl has exposed property owners to more severe flooding: "We still have pressure from developers."
Cabinet yesterday said it will refund payments from residents of Fort McMurray, Alta. to replace thousands of federal documents burned in a spectacular 2016 wildfire. Charging evacuees was unfair, said the Treasury Board: "People often had to flee quickly."
