Contractors denied prompt payment on public works face bankruptcy and costly court proceedings, the Senate banking committee has been told. Trades executives yesterday urged passage of a bill mandating payment within 30 days: "Many are 120 days late."
Senators are seeking quick passage of a private bill to correct officious enforcement of the Customs Act by the Canada Border Services Agency. The bill follows an incident in which a U.S. angler was handcuffed after his small boat drifted into Canadian waters: "What were our CBSA officers doing?"
MPs have launched a study on the health impacts of pornography amid complaints the mandate appeared unwieldy, overly broad and unfocused. The review by the Commons health committee is the first of its kind in 32 years: "There's a potential of boiling the ocean here."
The cash-strapped Canadian Coast Guard should be managed as an independent agency, the Senate fisheries committee has been told. The appeal follows Access To Information disclosures the agency had to ration fuel due due to funding pressures: "We saw cuts."
Canada must track foreign purchases of farmland nationwide or see independent producers reduced to serfdom, says a British Columbia trade group. Witnesses at the Senate agriculture committee cited speculation in farmland by corporations and offshore investors: "It truly is the Wild West."
The Speaker of the Commons will rule on whether cabinet improperly concealed documents detailing the cost of a national carbon tax. A secret Finance Canada memo published by Blacklock’s last November 18 warned a tax would “cascade" through the economy: "Key findings are blanked out."
Fish farms will be targeted with a first-ever federal audit by the Commissioner of the Environment. The Commons fisheries committee yesterday learned the aquaculture probe will be completed in 2018: "It is a big deal."
A $64 million-a year Arctic grocers’ subsidy is broken and must be fixed, says Northern Affairs Minister Dr. Carolyn Bennett. The Minister in Senate Question Period yesterday said reforms will be detailed shortly. Northerners pay $14 for a bag of potatoes and $7 a litre for milk despite subsidies, critics noted: 'They don't seem to have worked.'
Cabinet should account for benefits and losses attributed to free trade pacts, says the Senate trade committee. Lawmakers noted Canada has seen trade deficits with several partners under agreements signed since 1989: "It's usually take it or leave it."
Employees are entitled to an investigation of workplace danger even if the peril is an unpleasant boss, a federal judge has ruled. The Canada Labour Code complaint involved staffers at the foreign ministry: "Exposure to her supervisor constituted a dangerous situation."
Airline regulators have awarded another four-figure compensation claim to a passenger inconvenienced by poor service. It’s the second large claim approved by the Canadian Transportation Agency since cabinet proposed to introduce a passenger bill of rights: "Canadians will know what their rights are."
RCMP management is asking cabinet to approve a members’ pay hike, the first in three years. Any increase will result in higher costs to cities and provinces that contract the Mounties for policing, said Commissioner Bob Paulson: "I'm asking for more money."
Elections Canada proposes to take its first step in going electronic with a complicated scheme for downloading ballots. Critics yesterday described the plan as garbled and problematic: "This doesn't make sense at all, really."
MPs critical of a European trade pact fear the agreement will result in higher pharmaceutical prices. A Health Canada official in 2016 testimony at a Commons committee acknowledged drug prices will rise under the treaty: "There is no question about this."
The Canada Border Services Agency was tough but fair in revoking a cross-border traveler’s Nexus pass for six years over a pair of pants, says a federal judge. Strict enforcement of Nexus rules saw a Conservative senator questioned over an unrelated minor breach of regulations in 2014: "There is zero tolerance."
