The environmental impact of a national carbon tax is uncertain, say Access To Information memos from the finance department. Staff also warned all consumers will pay more under the tax to take effect in 2018: "Carbon taxes have disadvantages."
Rail safety reforms enacted after the Lac-Mégantic disaster failed to avert the fiery derailment of tank cars in a 2015 wreck, warns the Transportation Safety Board. Investigators yesterday cautioned regulations appeared inadequate: "They did not perform any better."
VIA Rail has again been cited by regulators for failing to accommodate disabled passengers. The ruling by the Canadian Transportation Agency followed a successful 2007 Supreme Court lawsuit against VIA by the Council of Canadians with Disabilities: "They still got it wrong."
RCMP in 1983 secretly assigned undercover officers to shadow a teachers’ union president, newly-released records show. Access To Information files detail elaborate surveillance in British Columbia in 1983 and ’84 over fears of a general strike: “Feelings are running high.”
Unpaid contractors on public works have faced blacklisting in attempting to collect money they’re owed, a Senate panel yesterday was told. Senators are considering a bill mandating 30-day payment to trades and subcontractors: "I can assure you it exists."
The first parliamentary report on the impact of a national carbon tax is due in three weeks. The Senate energy committee yesterday served notice it will report by March 9 on the effect of cabinet’s greenhouse gas emission targets: "When will the government face the music?"
A medical marijuana grower received a $50,000 grant in the name of industrial research, say Access To Information records. An MP who co-authored a 2014 Commons health committee report on cannabis described the subsidy as inappropriate: "I wouldn’t invest any government money in the production of marijuana."
Accidental damage to buried utility lines costs up to $5 billion a year, the Senate energy committee has been told. Senators expressed support for a bill to create a national call-before-you-dig system: "There is really nothing but upside."
MPs last night protested an 11th hour bid by cabinet to amend a DNA privacy bill already endorsed by the Commons justice committee. Members of all leading parties accused cabinet of gutting the legislation: "This action makes me more than a little bit angry."
Canada’s Public Sector Integrity Commissioner says a Court ruling that he breached a whistleblower’s right to procedural fairness will not be appealed. One MP called the case outrageous: "It raises very serious questions."
The Canada Border Services Agency faces a federal lawsuit over alleged racial profiling. The Canadian Human Rights Commission has identified 77 profiling complaints against the Agency in the period from 2011 to 2016: "It was rude and humiliating."
Most Canadians remain uninformed on major credit charges by lenders, says the Financial Consumer Agency of Canada. The Agency paid a pollster $76,112 to survey the public on “knowledge of their rights and responsibilities.”
The RCMP in a case of disguised discipline unfairly revoked a file clerk’s security status as a means to fire the employee, says the Federal Court of Appeal. “This is huge,” said the British Columbia complainant in the case: "It got really ugly."
Regulators had to “remove the punch bowl” with new credit curbs on indebted homeowners, says the CEO of Canada Mortgage & Housing Corporation. However no additional restrictions are immediately planned, the Commons finance committee was told: "It is possible to have too much of a good thing."
Red tape is so pervasive even public servants find it irritating, says a Treasury Board report. One employee complained it took eight supervisors to sign off on a $200 travel claim: "Filling out a solemn declaration for a $3 bus ticket is not a good use of resources."
