Health Canada effective tomorrow will ban the sale of pre-mixed, high-alcohol canned drinks. The amendments to Food & Drug Regulations follow the death of a 14-year old schoolgirl: "Certain drinks skewed to a very young crowd really don’t need to be sold."
The publisher of a parody website lampooning what claims to be one of Canada’s best-read newspapers has been ordered to pay $23,532 in damages. Satirists explained readers would have to be “dyslexic or illiterate” to confuse Le Journal de Montréal with its comic counterpart Journal de Mourréal (Mourreal’s Diary): "Its not up to us to take readers by the hand."
A reporters’ association invited to join a federal press bailout panel yesterday said the work is so secretive it may quit the process before it begins. Heritage Minister Pablo Rodriguez asked eight groups to suggest criteria on which Canadian publishers will receive $595 million in subsidies: “If there is some privacy issue – and I can’t imagine what it would be – they can explain that in public.”
The labour department yesterday commissioned new research to determine once and for all whether migrants lower Canadian wages. A 2016 federal study concluded foreign workers did lower pay in some trades, by as much as two percent: "We can’t have this as part of a business plan to keep wages low."
Health Canada scientific advisory panels are rife with appointees who’ve taken money from pharmaceutical companies, says a Canadian Medical Association Journal author. Conflict rules are so weak the department does not publicly record members’ votes on matters affecting drug sales: "This lack of information is troubling."
Most smokers tell Health Canada they consider themselves hardworking, friendly and responsible citizens. The department spent $145,412 on focus group interviews with smokers as part of a campaign to get millions to quit by 2036: "I enjoy it and don’t want to."
Migrants working illegally in Canada may claim Employment Insurance benefits, a Tax Court judge has ruled. The order came in the case of 14 Guatemalans at Victoriaville, Que. who were denied a claim since they had no valid contract with their employer: "They were easy targets."
The bungled federal Phoenix Payroll System failed in part because it couldn’t read decimal points, say Access To Information records. The program has cost taxpayers $2.6 billion to date, by official estimate: "This is causing an issue."
Canadians continue to run up home equity lines of credit despite rising interest rates, says the Bank of Canada. The bank said the trend may be “concealing emerging financial distress” by consumers: 'Households were continuing to borrow even as borrowing conditions tightened.'
Cabinet yesterday proposed “increased discretion” in fining companies that conceal breaches of Canadians’ privacy. Regulations last November 1 set maximum penalties at $100,000. No penalty has yet been imposed: "Organizations may want to comply but have difficulty understanding what they need to do."
The National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls paid contractors $300 an hour, records show. The $92 million Commission yesterday would not say who it hired, or why: "We will find the truth."
A first-ever federal law guaranteeing prompt payment to subcontractors on public works should be amended to guard against bankruptcy of general contractors, says a bond association. Losses due to insolvency in construction totalled more than $500 million last year, the Commons finance committee was told: "It’s real. It’s not hypothetical."
Bureaucratic delays are now so commonplace it’s like a “Monty Python movie”, a parliamentary committee has been told. MPs and senators learned even urgent matters like protection of endangered species are pointlessly delayed for months: "Just do it. This is nonsense. Get it done."
Cabinet has issued a rare directive ordering regulations on minimum care for air passengers affected by tarmac delays up to three hours. A broader passengers’ bill of rights is to take effect July 1: It's regardless of whether the delays are outside an air carrier’s control.'
Lawmakers have proposed numerous revisions to the Fisheries Act three years after cabinet pledged to restore habitat protection “pretty much to the T”. Amendments passed by the Senate fisheries committee followed appeals from industry: "It lightens the administrative and financial burdens."
