Skeptical MPs are challenging the Canada Revenue Agency to sharpen its practices following a critical audit. The Commons public accounts committee yesterday examined findings the Agency spends months, even years processing tax disputes: "Taxpayers have no way of knowing how long they have to wait."
Environment Canada is again researching methods to stop contamination from road salt. The department stopped short of reviving a 1995 proposal to list the substance as toxic: “Environment Canada is such a wimpy organization.”
A Conservative bill introduced in the Commons would deny cabinet billions in federal revenue from any carbon tax mandated on the provinces. The private bill strips 5 percent GST collections from carbon taxes on fuel: "This is not fair."
Federal regulators should sponsor a bigger “sustainable and responsible” seal hunt to restore Atlantic cod stocks, says the Commons fisheries committee. MPs acknowledged there is no Canadian scientific data confirming seals are to blame for declines in groundfish populations: "They don't eat vegetables."
The RCMP Security Service in a declassified 1976 memo complained “liberal thinkers” were forcing police to accept gays and minorities as recruits. Mounties had used height requirements as cover for disqualifying unwanted applicants, wrote police. The memo was obtained through Access To Information: "Some police departments have already hired homosexuals because, no doubt, of political pressure."
Employers must make a genuine effort to hire Canadians before applying for migrant labour, a federal judge has ruled. The decision came in the case of a small trucking company that complained it could not find Canadian drivers with as little as a year’s experience: "This decision is so unfair."
Liberal and Conservative Senators are demanding cabinet explain the hiring of Red Cross investigators to monitor human rights in Canada Border Services Agency detention centres. The Agency is paying the Canadian Red Cross Society $1.8 million to check on thousands held in detention, including children: "There must be transparency."
Statistics Canada is underestimating the number of non-resident foreigners in the country by more than 40 percent, says a federal agency. Canada Mortgage & Housing Corporation commissioned its own research to counter StatsCan figures: 'It is skewing the results.'
Transport Canada proposes to mandate seatbelts on highway motor coaches but not school buses. Refitting the nation’s 20,000 school buses with belts would be costly and unnecessary, regulators said: "Children are more likely to be killed walking to school when compared to taking a school bus."
Poet Shai Ben-Shalom, an Israeli-born biologist, examines current events in the Blacklock’s tradition each and every Sunday: “The Google search didn’t take long. ‘That’s the building I want…'”
The Canada Revenue Agency mistakenly paid out at least $22.4 million in refunds to fraudsters in an internet-fueled tax protest movement, say newly-released Access To Information memos. A total 44 taxpayers were jailed under the scheme dating from 2007: "This campaign attracts true believers."
Cabinet faces a federal lawsuit over one of the last nationally-subsidized transport companies. Crown-owned Marine Atlantic Inc. is accused of using millions in taxpayer funding to undercut private shippers. Transport Minister Marc Garneau declined an interview. “It’s before the courts so I’m not going to comment,” he said.
It’s faster to visit an employment insurance claims office in person than call the government's 1-800 number, says a federal survey. The research follows longstanding complaints of lost calls and lengthy wait times: "They would disconnect you, and you’d call back later."
Cabinet has no choice but to write off a 42-year loan to Cuba, says the Treasury Board. The 1975 loan in its day was mired in controversy after an agency was accused of lying to MPs over its terms: "Who would decide to write that off?"
The middle class is now a minority of Canadian families, says a secret Department of Finance memo. The report defined middle-income families as those earning between $32,400 and $43,800 a year but noted, “There is no consensus definition of middle class, nor is there an official definition.”
