A federal museum is attempting to restore artifacts including ancient coins that were kept in place using Velcro tape, Blacklock’s has learned. Sources said the Bank of Canada’s Currency Museum is meticulously examining dozens of valuable specimens that were stored in pull-out drawers using Velcro that caused heavy staining.
The feared collapse of one of the last large independent, Canadian-owned book publishers is prompting renewed appeals for federal regulations to aid the nation’s writers as secured creditors in cases of bankruptcy: "If you are a writer waiting on a $3,000 royalty payment, it is serious.”
A government lottery monopoly is patenting new “hybrid” tickets for licensing to other gaming corporations in Canada and the United States. The Ontario Lottery & Gaming Corp. sold $155 million worth of the 2-in-1 Poker Lotto tickets last year, according to revenue data provided to Blacklock’s.
Canadians now spend more than $1,000 a week on average for food, shelter and other expenses, a historic high. Typical expenses for goods and services nationwide are $55,151 a year, according to federal data. Albertans spent the most, Prince Edward Islanders the least.
The Department of Fisheries has cut so many jobs it's unsure what to do with the empty offices. In a report signed by Fisheries Minister Keith Ashfield, the department said it will take time to "know what office spaces will be left vacant" amid cuts affecting scientists, program managers and enforcement staff nationwide.
Canadians must remain “firmly focused” as Cabinet seeks terms on a free trade treaty with Europe next week, say expert analysts: “This deal is a big deal." Despite debt crises, the European Union represents a $17 trillion economy. Terms of a free trade pact have been discussed for nearly a decade.
Industry Canada has issued a patent to an Ontario manufacturer for a zipper-less picnic cooler designed to prevent sandwich mashing. “It’s a better mousetrap,” said the Toronto inventor; “In our world this is ground-breaking. It was a big collaborative effort.”
Cabinet has big plans for private resource development when it assumes chairmanship of the Arctic Council for the first time in fifteen years: “The overarching theme of our tenure as chair of the Council will be development for the people of the north."
A federal labour board has thwarted a bid to unionize staff at one of Canada’s largest private mail contractors, ruling that workers are “similar although not identical” to Crown employees. "It is very important for us to organize people who deliver the mail," said the president of the Canadian Union of Postal Workers: "It is now more difficult." Canada Post declined comment on the judgment.
A ground-breaking charity named for a Newfoundland comedian has quietly deregistered with Canada Revenue Agency. It "completed its goal," a director said of the family foundation created nearly twenty years ago to promote AIDS awareness and support programs.
Federal regulators permitted infected Atlantic salmon to remain in aquaculture pens for months – a decision researchers say increased the likelihood of further virus mutations: "Worldwide the response is to kill all of the fish in the farm." The Canadian Food Inspection Agency refused comment.
A new federal program to lure family doctors to rural Canada remains of "limited" value despite its projected cost of $3,400,000 this year, says a physicians' group. The first payments will be made in the new fiscal year beginning April 1.
Federal seizures of counterfeit goods have increased more than 20 times since 2005, with police now intercepting fake imports at the rate of a quarter-million dollars a week, new figures show: "We are at the tip of the iceberg."
A policeman fired by the RCMP Commissioner over uncorroborated complaints from an ex-wife has won a Federal Court appeal for reconsideration of his case: "I don't know of any precedent for this."
The nation's largest union organization, the Canadian Labour Congress, proclaimed a "Corporate Tax Freedom Day" in condemnation of federal policies that cut corporate income tax rates to the lowest levels since the Second World War.
