Paper cheques are back by the truckload after the public works department abandoned a proposal to mandate electronic payment of benefits. The Receiver General yesterday placed an order for 150 million envelopes on a three-year contract: 'People are simply opposed to giving the government any form of access to their bank account'.
Cabinet should reconsider a policy that forces the largest telecom firms to grant network access to smaller competitors, says an Ottawa think tank. Research cited in a report by the Macdonald-Laurier Institute was faulted by a consumers’ advocacy group: "Incentives matter".
Federal anti-trust investigators are seeking a court order compelling disclosure of confidential records in a takeover of Manitoba Telecom Services Inc. The Competition Bureau in affidavits questioned whether the $3.9 billion buyout by Bell Canada Enterprises will give BCE too much “market power”.
Parliament must have a national referendum on any meaningful changes to the Elections Act, MPs have been told. A University of Waterloo professor yesterday testified at Commons committee hearings that lawmakers should not have the last say on electoral reforms: "Parties have too much self-interest to be trusted".
A federal judge has cited Transport Canada for sloppy work in enforcing its airport security program. The Court ordered regulators to reconsider the revocation of security clearance for a woman never convicted of any crime: "These errors are the result of a cursory and sloppy review".
Unifor is challenging cabinet to enact a pharmacare plan. The 300,000-member union voted in convention in Ottawa for a “renewal” of medicare including universal coverage of essential drugs: 'You can't send them home and make them pay out of pocket'.
The finance department investigated a first-ever federal sugar tax before its 2016 budget, say Access To Information records. Finance Minister Bill Morneau asked staff for a briefing note weeks before a Senate panel recommended a tax on sugary drinks to curb obesity rates: 'Other governments have tried'.
Parliament must reject a Pacific trade pact as a job killer that threatens Canadian industry, says the president of the nation’s largest private sector union. Cabinet has promised a parliamentary vote on the Trans-Pacific Partnership that would lower tariffs on imports from 13 countries: "You're wrong".
“No dogs allowed” signs are not discriminatory, a tribunal has ruled. An Ontario lawyer challenged the signs as a breach of human rights law akin to notices prohibiting Jews from entering commercial buildings: 'There is no announced intention to discriminate'.
A class action lawsuit against Canada Mortgage & Housing Corporation is headed into its 17th year on appeal. The federal insurer is accused of spending a pension surplus as if the money was its own: "We say no".
Defaults on small business loans have cost taxpayers nearly $180 million in the past four years, say Access To Information records. Cabinet in 2015 raised loan limits to allow businesses to borrow more under a government-guaranteed program: "Writing off of debts does not constitute forgiveness".
Senators fear Health Canada is quietly shelving a landmark report on obesity that included sweeping proposals for regulatory changes. Cabinet in its first formal response to the landmark study thanked senators for “valuable” input, but committed to no immediate legislation: 'We learn on Parliament Hill you can't count on promises'.
A Canadian mine is rated one of the worst polluters in the industry with catastrophic arsenic levels, says new University of Ottawa research. Samples drawn from a lake bed near the abandoned Giant Mine in Yellowknife showed some of the highest arsenic levels recorded: "We are working to learn more".
The fisheries department is expanding its drone fleet to survey marine mammals. Authorities would not say if the program is intended to offset more costly monitoring of the Atlantic seal hunt by the Canadian Coast Guard: "The machine is to be used during coastal surveys".
Poet Shai Ben-Shalom, an Israeli-born biologist, examines current events in the Blacklock’s tradition each and every Sunday: “I see you getting off your bike, chaining it to a street sign…”
