The nation’s accountants are pressing MPs to create an Office of Tax Simplification to ease the “incomprehensible” jumble of tax statutes, bulletins, regulations and technical amendments. "It's too big," said one tax analyst; "It's larger than the Bible."
An industry group warns of possible pork shortages and sector job losses unless the government corrects "inadequate" support programs to aid farmers in crisis. "We need short term actions now," said Canada's largest pork industry advocate.
Canadians would receive tax credits for charitable-style contributions to cutting greenhouse gas emissions, under a private bill now before a Senate committee: “A family could sit down and talk about what they can do together to solve this problem of greenhouse gas emissions." Environment Minister Peter Kent told Blacklock's he opposes the bill.
Canada faces a severe trades shortage despite billions of dollars in federal spending and long waiting lists of applicants eager for training, MPs are warned: "Unless aggressive measures are adopted soon, within 10 years, employers will not find qualified candidates for about 1,500,000 positions."
Transport regulators spent hundreds of thousands of dollars researching an accident-prevention device for truckers in an effort one safety advocate called a waste of money. Documents show Transport Canada halted its own investigation of truck side guards after spending more than $300,000 investigating the devices mandated in other G8 countries.
The United Church, a friend of the Occupy movement, is speaking out over an Industry Canada application by a British Columbian to trademark an Occupy slogan for use on handbags and t-shirts. Officials said the Trademarks Act is intended to "minimize possible speculation" in catch-phrases, slogans and popular outcries.
Canadian employers should articulate clear policies on monitoring workplace computers following a Supreme Court judgment in the case of a teacher arrested after technicians uncovered disturbing images in a school board-issue laptop.
A Florida-based "banker's bank" is applying for a federal license to operate in Toronto, with possible expansion to Vancouver, says its CEO. The bank, CXI, currently runs branches from Orlando to Seattle.
The Prime Minister’s Office privately consulted with industry lobbyists on a bill that would require unions to disclose their finances under threat of $1,000-a day penalties, Blacklock's has learned. Eleven senior Conservative staffers and MPs, including the Prime Minister's chief of staff, met with the same construction group that earlier successfully lobbied for repeal of the 1930 Fair Wages and Hours Act. “Those are big hitters,” said Labour Congress president Ken Georgetti.
Lobbying records disclose tourism promoters requested 39 top-level meetings with cabinet members, MPs and federal staff after the government cut funding for travel promotion. “If we don’t reach out we’re not heard,” said David Goldstein, CEO of the Tourism Industry Association. One government official told Blacklock's the budget reductions were "radical."
Three years after the collapse of Nortel, the resulting loss of scientific investment is raising doubts Canada’s research and development spending will keep pace with other nations, say analysts. Nortel at its peak hired 1 in 4 engineering graduates, outstripping General Motors as the largest corporation in the country.
Federal inspectors should have been "more hard-nosed" in tracking the biggest beef recall in Canadian history, the minister of agriculture told a House of Commons committee. The recall came amid 16 known cases of illness due to E.coli-tainted beef from an Alberta slaughterhouse.
A Senate bill to sanction Vegas-style sports betting is now a long shot following protests by the Toronto Blue Jays. "It could be a close vote," said the bill's sponsor, after a baseball executive invoked the Black Sox scandal in casting the Canadian bill as a threat to the "pristine" game.
Inventive Canadians should qualify for direct federal subsidies under sweeping reforms to the nation’s “antiquated” patent system, a think tank has told the Commons’ Standing Committee on Industry. The Canadian International Council pressed MPs to counter the loss of intellectual property to foreign investors: "We have an IP leakage problem, people."
Financial illiteracy is contributing to “worrying” over-spending by consumers, an advocacy group told MPs. The warning follows a federal study that found less than half Canadians surveyed could identify a credit report. Said one banker: "Some Canadians don't understand what interest is."
