A private Conservative bill would see big donors to Canadian charities get the same federal tax credits as political contributors. The bill’s sponsor said that “feeding a politician should be no more important than feeding the hungry.”
The Supreme Court tomorrow hears an appeal watched by city tax assessors nationwide. A mall owner accused Edmonton assessors of bullying it into accepting a 78 percent increase: "Supreme Court cases have national implications".
Environment Canada for the first time is proposing methods to track upstream greenhouse gas emissions. It follows release of a confidential memo that Canada has fallen far behind the U.S. in meeting targets: "Opponents argue that emissions are large, and proponents argue they are small".
Canadians are too fiscally conservative to buy reverse mortgages, says a finance department memo. Staff in a secret memorandum calculated less than one percent of mortgage-free homeowners over 55 have borrowed against their equity: "Why is the reverse mortgage market so small?"
Airline regulators are being taken to court in a challenge of proposed licensing changes to benefit start-up discount carriers. The Canadian Transportation Agency is accused of breaching its own Act: "They are going out of their way to bend the rules".
Federal anti-trust investigators are targeting contracts in the billion-dollar commercial waste trade from British Columbia to Québec, court records disclose. The probe follows a letter from an executive of Waste Management of Canada Corp. who told regulators “we have no fear” of competition.
A federal Code of Conduct on credit card companies will be expanded on a promise of new protections for merchants, says the Financial Consumer Agency. Legislators have tried twice in two years to replace the voluntary code with regulations: "This gives more clarity".
An airline bankrupted when Transport Canada hurriedly pulled its license after a fatal crash has lost a bid for a Supreme Court appeal. Justices declined to hear arguments that regulators breached a duty of care: "It's clear there was an error".
A Québec man who complained of rude treatment in Toronto has lost a Human Rights Code complaint of discrimination due to “place of origin”. A tribunal concluded Torontonians were rude, but not illegally so: 'It was poor customer service'.
Draft regulations that once pit pipeline operators against farmers have been finalized by the National Energy Board. New rules require that landowners seek written permission before digging within 30 metres of any federally-regulated pipeline.
Poet Shai Ben-Shalom, an Israeli-born biologist, examines current events in the Blacklock’s tradition each and every Sunday: “A new pedestrian bridge stretches across the highway…”
Security staff armed with sledgehammers caused nearly $100,000 in damage to Parliament Hill heritage fixtures in the panicky aftermath to a 2014 shooting, records show. Newly-released memos disclose police and security guards misplaced keys, then went “smashing through locked doors” — including one to the cabinet room — after advising terrified Hill staff to barricade their offices: “There certainly will be lots of doors to repair”.
An English sailing ship is costing Canadian taxpayers millions though it sank 170 years ago. Parks Canada reallocated funds to promote its recovery of the Arctic wreck even as it cut other programs, according to Access To Information documents: "Significant resources will need to be reallocated".
Canada’s tariff policy has become a paperwork burden that does little to protect manufacturers, says a Toronto think tank. Cabinet in 2013 introduced $1.1 billion in tariff hikes over five years: "These tariffs are on items that Canada produces very little of".
Regulators have broadened the mandate for a little-known federal commissioner assigned to take consumer complaints against telecom companies. The government’s own research shows few Canadians ever contact the Commissioner for Complaints for Telecommunications Services: "99% of the time they have never heard of the CCTS".
