Two years spent by Health Canada to study a new sweetener is prompting industry complaints of “unnecessary” delays. The additive stevia, rated 300 times sweeter than sugar, was sold in health food stores but not approved as a table-top sweetener in Canada till years after the E.U. and United States deemed it safe.
A Conservative senator says it “makes sense” to review all tariffs amid industry complaints of contradictory regulations in the 2013 budget. The treasury repealed tariffs on infant wear and golf clubs, but said it will raise tariffs on fruit and hand tools.
Canada’s workplace data compares poorly to the U.S. and leaves Parliament with inadequate information on policy, says a think-tank: "How do you value job security for workers? That is an important question."
Lobbyists for non-union contractors are pressing senators for quick passage of a bill to force labour organizers to publish their salaries, health benefits and other private data under threat of fines. Lobbyists met with 8 Conservative senators, three staffers and a cabinet minister over a three-day period, document show.
The CBC is suing a Montréal cable station over an adverb. In Federal Court filings, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation seeks to strip a federally-licensed station of its trademarked name, claiming it is “likely to cause confusion” with the national broadcaster.
Canadian wine makers are pressing MPs for a range of regulatory incentives to make the nation drink up. Vintners have a 30 percent home market share, less than wineries in the U.S., Australia or Chile: "The industry operates on very thin margins."
Canada’s largest industry and trade association is pressing for changes to a bill that would charge victims of counterfeiting a cost of enforcement. Industry Canada has yet to clarify its proposal to collect fees to store, handle and destroy bootleg goods: “We were surprised to see that in the bill.”
Parliament acted “excessively” in handling a 2011 dispute at Canada Post, says the Geneva-based International Labour Organization. The ILO upheld a union complaint that Ottawa acted rashly in pushing a back-to-work bill through the House and Senate in six days, and reducing a wage offer already negotiated with management.
A half-million dollar rule change affecting one of the “best conservation methods” in the Atlantic fishery is now being enforced. Groups contacted by Blacklock’s expressed frustration with the Department of Fisheries.
A federal department spent almost $200 per download on an ad campaign promoting citizenship, records show. The ad blitz was intended to encourage newcomers to brush up on Canadiana in anticipation of taking a citizenship test: "They weren't even smart about it."
The Department of Industry says cellphone customers benefit from a “subsidy” on the use of their devices. One official told a Commons committee that cell fees and charges -- some of the highest in the world -- reflect the manufacturing cost of phones: "Instead of paying the full price for the handset, you essentially pay for it over time."
Canada Post is refusing comment on a secret corporate development plan for – a stick. Neither the Crown agency nor its union would take Blacklock’s questions on a new invention identified as a “reaching device,” or discuss patent drawings: "It's in the pilot stage at the moment."
Closure of local airports is “a private matter” and not Parliament’s business, says the minister of transportation. Denis Lebel says regulators have “no authority to intervene” in the shutting of small airports, even those considered essential to serving large cities.
More than a third of Canadians favour a national flat tax system that would collapse all non-refundable deductions, according to one Conservative MP’s internet survey. The Department of Finance currently has four tax brackets; some provinces have six: "It's getting a little complicated."
Groups contacted by Blacklock’s are breathing a sigh of relief no further cuts appear imminent in longstanding tax credits for scientific research and experimental development. But analysts warn Canada has “a long way to go” in keeping pace with incentives for innovation.
