The federal government spent nearly $200,000 on overseas focus groups to pick marketing photos most likely to attract foreign students. Pictures of Toronto’s skyline with the CN Tower were rated “boring”, “soulless” and “unexciting”.
The industry department is contemplating regulation of the “sharing economy” especially in the tourism sector, say Access To Information memos. Companies like Uber taxi and Airbnb accommodation rentals pose unfair competition to firms that are taxed and licensed, officials wrote: "Governments have a stake in the sharing economy as regulators".
The foreign affairs department paid an ex-lobbyist nearly $10,000 to fly to a Vienna builders’ conference, say Access To Information records. Officials did not explain why diplomats at the Canadian embassy in Austria could not take the assignment: "I charge a fixed price".
A federal maritime agency is being cited by auditors for ongoing deficits and lack of management controls. The Atlantic Pilotage Authority has been audited twice in nine years: "We are all facing a lot of the same issues".
Taxing the nation’s wealthiest 1% will not raise the billions forecast by cabinet, the Senate finance committee has been told. Analysts including the Canadian Taxpayers Federation said creation of a new 33 percent top federal income tax bracket will have far-reaching negative effects: "It may look simple on paper".
Poet Shai Ben-Shalom, an Israeli-born biologist, examines current events in the Blacklock’s tradition each and every Sunday: “At the sport medicine clinic, posters on the walls show foot and knee injuries, dislocated shoulders, close-ups of ruptured tendons, ligaments…”
They say Cape Buffalo ward off predators by instinctive mobbing behaviour. Many buffalo will join to protect the herd. Among nations, this is called “multilateralism”. It sounds co-operative and altruistic, but in practice can be narrow and cynical.
Seeking Order In Anarchy examines the phenomenon with first-rate essays by political scientists. The book is timely, in an age of rising nationalism and a receding tide of free trade. “If, as realists claim, states are more interested in themselves than anything else, why has there been a proliferation of multilateral arrangements?” asks editor Robert W. Murray, senior business advisor with Dentons Canada LLP.
“Why would self-interested actors willingly choose to sacrifice their independence with others?” writes Murray: “The answer becomes clear. States use multilateralism to help in securing themselves and hope to get something out of it”.
Federal judges have upheld a 2013 license for a U.S.-based biotech firm to produce the nation’s first genetically modified fish for human consumption. The Court of Appeal dismissed claims by the Ecology Action Centre and Living Oceans Society: "The legislation confers significant discretion".
A common expletive does not constitute offensive language if used sparingly and in French, a national TV regulator has ruled. The Canada Broadcast Standards Council had earlier cited English-language expletives as a breach of a Code Of Ethics: "The word in French does not have the vulgar connotation it can have in English".
MPs last night endorsed in principle a Liberal bill to celebrate the Atlantic seal hunt. One legislator said the hunt should not be stigmatized by “vegan activists” who are “happy to eat a hamburger”.
Parliament should restrict foreign ownership in farmland, Prairie agriculture groups have told a Senate panel. Canada will be reduced to a “serf system” without curbs on institutional investment, the agriculture committee was told: "Isn't free enterprise a bummer?"
Cabinet faces its first federal lawsuit under a national electronic cargo system intended to speed cross-border transport. A small trucking company is suing the Canada Border Services Agency alleging it was arbitrarily fined over garbled data: "It could happen to anybody".
The national Truth and Reconciliation Commission spent millions of dollars over budget, say Access To Information records. Files cite federal complaints of “speculative” invoicing, overpaid staff and five-figure discrepancies in hospitality expenses. Costs included flying Tim Hortons treats to a Commission event in Inuvik: "Finance is getting nervous".
Cabinet faces a court order on equity appointments at universities nationwide. The Canadian Human Rights Commission applied to Federal Court to enforce a 2006 mediation agreement to appoint more women and minorities to senior research positions: "They have not done anything".
VIA Rail will face ongoing deficits for at least six years even if cabinet approves a multi-billion dollar refit of the Crown railway, says its CEO. Management said a final report on a $5.2 billion upgrade will go to Transport Canada by November 30: "Infrastructure investment the size of a railway does not produce a return within 12 months".
