Employees at an obscure federal agency average more than 18 sick days a year, the highest rate in the public service, say Access To Information records. The average government-wide was 11 days annually: "There's always some bad apples in every crate."
Environment Canada relies on public complaints to enforce the Fisheries Act, says a senior official. Members of a parliamentary committee protested discretionary enforcement of the law protecting fish habitat: "Why not regulate?"
A federal tribunal has cited the Canada Border Services Agency for improperly levying a $1,300 fine on a Québec woman. The traveler was penalized for carrying a half-kilogram of beef in her luggage, though she admitted to the purchase on her Customs Declaration form: "I have never been to school and therefore cannot read or write."
The prison vote likely cost a tough-on-crime Conservative MP his seat in the last election, according to newly-released data. A lawyer who won a Supreme Court decision granting inmates the vote said the outcome does not distract from fairness of the ruling: "There are a lot of bad people who aren’t in prison, and they still get the vote."
Foreign ownership of farmland is not a threat and should not be federally-regulated, say Canada’s largest farm investment managers. The Senate agriculture committee is to report by June 30 on whether to monitor or restrict foreign investments in prime land: "Does it really matter who owns farmland in this country?"
The National Energy Board faces a lawsuit for denying compensation to an expert witness to appear at a regulatory hearing. The dispute is not uncommon, said West Coast Environmental Law: "You cannot engage in a meaningful way without going out of pocket."
The Department of Veterans Affairs spent more than $150,000 to announce the reopening of regional offices, officials say. The offices were closed three years ago as an austerity measure: "That was part of our commitment."
Vulgar emails are grounds for losing security clearance at Transport Canada, a judge has ruled. In a case the Federal Court called unfortunate, a 35-year pilot lost his livelihood for writing obscene emails to public agencies: "His language was graphic and unambiguous."
Poet Shai Ben-Shalom, an Israeli-born biologist, examines current events in the Blacklock’s tradition each and every Sunday: “The Department of National Defence has produced some impressive work, like the 107-page document specifying the military’s new mittens…”
Cabinet opposes a Senate bill mandating prompt payment to trades and contractors on public works. An official said the bill exceeds federal powers, though Parliament in 1935 passed legislation mandating payment of fair wages to contractors’ employees: "The feds can and should lead."
MPs are pressing for details of a promised federal infrastructure bank. Members of the Commons transport committee yesterday complained the bank’s mandate and management remain unexplained despite a pledge of $35 billion in funding: "Who's going to make decisions?"
Information on driver’s licenses is confidential and must not be disclosed even to a government agency trying to settle an inheritance, says a privacy commission. The ruling came in the case of a Saskatchewan trustee attempting to make a cash award to a mother’s lost son in Ontario: "It's nuts."
Federal food inspectors propose more deregulation of supermarket products under a policy that prompted an outcry in 2013. The Canadian Food Inspection Agency said it’s considering additional deregulation of standard container sizes: "The Agency doesn't know what it is doing."
Owners of a luxury Arctic cruise ship that ran aground on an uncharted shoal have lost a multi-million dollar lawsuit against federal agencies. The judgment follows a 2014 audit that complained of inadequate charts for Arctic mariners: "It would be impracticable to issue a new chart every time an existing chart had to be updated."
Cabinet should defer any further credit curbs on homebuyers for at least a year, brokers yesterday told the Commons finance committee. Executives complained 2016 restrictions had a damaging effect on first-time purchasers: "We've never had this kind of pushback."
