A federal judge has cautioned Canadians to mind their tax affairs after dismissing a claim from an Edmonton woman charged a $67,059 reassessment for filing a return she did not read: "There is a difference between innocent and careless."
Storekeepers and fuel retailers are appealing for federal relief from Visa and MasterCard contractors' fees now the subject of a Senate bill and Competition Tribunal inquiry. Independent gas stations say credit card acceptance fees eat away at profit margins reduced to as little as 4 to 7¢ a litre.
Tough-on-crime legislation is also tough on municipal budgets, say Canada's civic leaders who warn rising police costs are "not sustainable" without federal aid. Nationwide the cost of law enforcement nearly doubled in a ten-year period, according to the Federation of Canadian Municipalities.
More Canadian gun owners were stripped of their licenses under ruling Conservatives than under a previous Liberal government, new figures show. Records indicate 10,463 firearms licenses were revoked by police nationwide in the seven years prior to the Conservatives’ repeal of a national long-gun registry.The minister of public safety declined Blacklock's request for an interview.
An American regulation on pork and beef exports struck down as unfair by the World Trade Organization cost Canadian producers $5,000,000,000, new research shows. An industry group commissioned the latest impact study to justify retaliatory tariffs if the United States does not halt the practice by a May 23 deadline.
An overwhelming majority of Canadian enterprises fail to track their greenhouse gas inventories, a trend one industry association called unsurprising due to lack of incentives. Environment Canada, now campaigning to curb total emissions by 2020, would not take Blacklock's questions on the low monitoring rate.
Canadian labour anticipates a “set-up” over federal attempts to promote non-union contracting, says the nation’s largest workers' group. “You can hear the train whistle coming down the tracks,” the president of the Canadian Labour Congress told Blacklock's. “This is a set-up.”
A Crown agency is publicly trademarking a sales slogan, though it sells nothing and has no dealings with the public. "This is a little strange," said one MP.
Canada’s first official participation in contentious Trans-Pacific Partnership trade negotiations won’t be remembered for any accomplishments, say two experienced analysts. Canada expressed no interest in the talks until last year. As late as 2008 an advisor in the Prime Minister’s Office told reporters that “Ottawa doesn’t think this so-called Trans-Pacific Partnership is worth the trouble.”
The author, an Israeli-born biologist, examines current events in the Blacklock's tradition.
Canadian industry is sifting through volumes of new American safety regulations for impact on the nation's $120 billion-a year farm and food exports to the United States: "This is packed with explanations, nuances and justifications."
Industry Canada has awarded a patent to a Quebec manufacturer for a winter invention, a locking buckle that can be adjusted by hand without first removing your mittens. The inventor reports sales of more than 30,000 units a season.
Lobbyists have watered down anti-spam legislation with exemptions to federal regulations, says an internet legal analyst: "Those are big loopholes." Industry Canada is still attempting to write rules governing electronic commercial messages nine years after the federal government first struck an anti-spam task force.
The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation has sold millions of dollars in real estate and cut more than eight percent of its payroll in the weeks leading to the next federal budget. The moves come amid speculation within the Conservative caucus that the public broadcaster faces additional cuts.
Shipping lines are pressing for "red tape" cuts to a federal regulation that forces companies to shuttle 70,000 empty containers back and forth between Atlantic ports each year in the name of protecting Canadian industry: "Here's an easy one to fix."
