The nation’s garbage output remains steady at 25 million tonnes a year despite recycling schemes, according to Statistics Canada. Waste managers say the data confirm worries that landfilling remains cost-effective and commonplace: "You have a fundamental problem".
Parliament will enact what one MP dubbed a “sleeper” law allowing cabinet to enact new regulations without public scrutiny. The bill ends a tradition dating from 1841 that requires all new federal regulations be plainly disclosed: "It deserves to receive a lot more attention in the media than it has".
The federal treasury is pocketing more than a billion dollars a year in unclaimed benefits owed to retirees, newly-disclosed records show. At least 254,000 Canadians entitled to monthly cheques have failed to apply for them, said the Department of Employment: "This is breathtaking".
Cabinet has introduced a DNA privacy bill that exempts insurance companies rated the “biggest abusers” of genetic information. The bill introduced in the last days of the 41st Parliament would make DNA a prohibited grounds of discrimination under the Canadian Human Rights Act: "This is lip service".
The immediate fate of C-377 rests with the Speaker of the Senate as legislators last night concluded debate on whether the contentious labour bill is in order. Conservative and Liberal critics challenged the legality of the measure under parliamentary rules: "The question now is what to do".
Cabinet must work harder to alert consumers to health risks of new drug products, says the Council of Canadian Academies. The warnings over ineffectual disclosure of risks comes ahead of new drug labelling regulations to take effect this week: 'This is not insurmountable'.
Federal privacy complaints increased 55 percent last year, says Privacy Commissioner Daniel Therrien. Issues included subscriber protests over data mining by Bell Canada: "The inbox is inundated".
The Canadian Transportation Agency is silent on whether it will appeal a court order that it stop concealing documents cited in regulatory decisions. The disclosure ruling followed a legal challenge by an airline passenger rights’ advocate who accuses the Agency of “collusion” with industry: “This is a very important ruling”.
The federal agency that regulates payment card operators like Visa and MasterCard has taken hundreds of thousands of dollars in funding from the industry, newly-released records show. The Financial Consumer Agency of Canada did not comment on the corporate subsidies: "The agency really hasn't done anything for merchants and consumers".
Cabinet is appealing a judge’s ruling that the fisheries department breached regulations when it sanctioned the transfer of diseased fish by one of Canada’s largest aquaculture salmon producers. Government attorneys filed Federal Court of Appeal documents claiming the judgment followed “erroneous” facts and “inadmissible” evidence: "We need to set the record straight".
Canadian regulators have done little to ease the “red tape nightmares” of interprovincial trade, says an employers’ advocate. A members’ survey found a large proportion of companies rate it easier to do business in the U.S. than neighbouring provinces, according to the CFIB: "Do these barriers make sense?"
Parliament is bracing for more citizens’ participation after quietly shelving its 148-year tradition of accepting only paper petitions. The Commons this October will accept internet petitions with the election of a new Parliament: "We anticipate a lot of interest".
The Commons has rejected a motion to limit cabinet’s use of funds earmarked for employment insurance. It follows a 2014 Supreme Court ruling that the government was entitled to spend billions in workers’ premiums on federal programs: "This is wrong and it needs to be protected".
Canada Post “bought and paid for” research that mistakenly projected mammoth deficits as justification for service cuts, says the Canadian Union of Postal Workers. The union in a research paper questioned the “impartiality” of Conference Board figures cited by the Crown corporation: 'Cabinet endorsed the plan from beginning to end'.
A federal probe targeting Apple Canada Inc. is expanding as investigators search through telecom documents dating from 2008. The anti-trust Competition Bureau is asking a federal judge to compel Canada’s largest telecom firms to surrender iPhone sales agreements: 'It's millions of transactions'.
