A Tax Court judge has upheld an audit of a part-time auto "dealer" amid a growing crackdown on the trade. A Toronto financial consultant lost his bid to claim large tax losses as a moonlighting car salesman: "We have dramatically strengthened regulations in car sales."
The Department of Fisheries is attempting to monitor the catch in the hard-luck lobster sector. Fishermen in the Gulf of St. Lawrence must log their landings in 2014. Authorities did not disclose the cost: "Everything adds up."
TV viewers will gain the option to subscribe to all or none of 5 all-news channels in a CRTC ruling. The order follows appeals from little-watched Sun News Network that it faced insolvency without some regulatory lifeline: "No news is going to be crammed on the consumer".
Six years after cancelling its anti-tobacco ads, Health Canada is urging smokers to quit via Twitter and Facebook. The department is to pay consultants to find new Twitter followers and Facebook friends for a Cancer Society campaign credited with persuading only a few hundred smokers to quit: 'That is not adequate'.
MPs are being urged to review Canada Post’s 146-year monopoly amid proposed 35% rate hikes and service cuts that would make Canada the only industrialized country without home mail delivery. A Commons committee hearing saw postal management scorned for its plans: "This is classic monopolistic behaviour."
Cabinet will legislate a cap on wireless roaming rates paid by industry at the wholesale level, according to Industry Canada. No text of the amendments was divulged and no date was given for their introduction: "Hopefully this will level the playing field for independents."
Environment Canada is researching the impact of toxic chemicals in aircraft manufacturing. The department is commissioning a first-ever study on the effect of plastic, rubber, electronics, paint and other parts used to produce airplanes: "We don't have a problem with that."
Canadian charities are questioning whether newly-detailed spam curbs will affect community programs. Industry Canada released final regulations on spammers following more than two years of drafting and revisions: "We're still looking at the language."
Cabinet is tightening sanctions on North Korea with a bizarre new list of embargoed items including lobster, yachts and fur coats. The Department of Foreign Affairs said forbidding trade in luxury goods will "reinforce the message" the Stalinist regime's actions are unacceptable.
Regulators should enact zoning rules on offshore aquaculture and keep an eye on the Department of Fisheries for possible conflict of interest, says a Conservative senator assigned to a fish farm probe: "You have a large section geared to promotion of aquaculture, and down the hall they have an enforcement office on aquaculture. What does that suggest to you?”
The cash-hungry Department of Foreign Affairs is selling more foreign real estate – this time luxury homes in Washington, D.C. Properties to be sold include a multi-million dollar residence near Capitol Hill, and homes in an affluent suburb: "The neighbours will be happy."
Industry Canada proposes maximum fines of $2000 for gas stations, storekeepers and other merchants who use dishonest weights and measures. One consumers’ advocate said the fines appeared pointless: "This is really more smoke and mirrors."
The CRTC is ordering telecom companies to halt the removal of payphones until a federal study is complete. The action follows regulators' refusal to let firms double charges to $1: "Payphones are a dying industry."
Federal departments spend more than a million dollars a year on single-use bottled water, records show. However the budget is declining amid campaigns to curb the practice: “Why are we using plastic when we have perfectly good drinking water available?"
The Treasury Board is being ordered to pay unprecedented damages for “openly flouting” its own labour laws. A federal panel ordered the Board to compensate a group of Nova Scotia navy yard employees for recklessly violating legislation: "What do you expect -- it's the government."
