Cash-strapped Parks Canada is paying more than two million dollars a year in taxes on 19th century canals reserved for pleasure boaters, according to accounts tabled in Parliament. All the historic canals are out of commercial service: 'Over 40% of cultural assets are in poor condition'.
A federal ban on employees attending to union business on their lunch break is prompting protest from an association representing 15,000 scientists. Staff at Environment Canada are forbidden from meeting union representatives at work during mealtimes, said the Professional Institute of the Public Service of Canada: "This is a very disturbing trend".
Health Canada is being sued by environmental groups after it suspended a safety review of a fungicide used by fruit and vegetable growers. Équiterre and the David Suzuki Foundation claimed regulators “acted in bad faith” in halting a review of difenoconazole, a chemical banned in Norway since 1998: "It remains prohibited".
Small breweries aided by 2006 federal tax cuts should receive additional credits, says the sponsor of a beer bill in the Commons. Microbreweries have complained of unequal treatment that sees them taxed more heavily than winemakers: "It is vital".
A Commons bill aims to settle an ancient rivalry by proclaiming Charlottetown, not Québec City, the “birthplace of Confederation”. Advocates said only an Act of Parliament will officially recognize Prince Edward Island’s role as the cradle of Canada’s founding, even if P.E.I. twice declined to join the country: "History is full of glitches".
Canada’s western forests are shrinking amid a “widespread, significant increase” in tree loss, warns a new study. Researchers suggested global warming is a factor: "The climate continues to change".
The Supreme Court is refusing to hear further appeals from a Winnipeg man who claimed he couldn’t find an “undefiled Bible” to swear an affidavit in a Manitoba courthouse. Justices declined to hear the case and ordered the man to pay costs: "This entire case is based on an unfortunate misunderstanding".
Poet Shai Ben-Shalom, an Israeli-born biologist, examines current events in the Blacklock’s tradition each and every Sunday: “Those supporting assisted suicide believe that free choice outweighs the sacredness of life…”
The fisheries department says it has no idea of the extent of illegal harvesting in Canada. “We can't know about those that we did not observe,” an official told the Commons fisheries committee, prompting protests from MPs: "We need to know what is going on".
Canada has lost so many bread-and-butter factory jobs it’s flattened incomes for the entire middle class, says the country’s former chief statistician. The research follows a bleak Employment Canada report that concluded “the ‘Canadian dream’ is a myth” for millions of households: "This was the heyday".
Cabinet is ‘shooting itself in the foot’ with curbs on migrant workers that have cost production and left food processors with chronic labour shortages, say executives. Processors said they are unable to find enough Canadians willing to work in trade: "They don't want to get their hands dirty".
Crown corporations are racking up billions in taxpayers’ debt with virtually no public oversight, says the Parliamentary Budget Office. Researchers calculated government-guaranteed loans to Crown agencies have grown five-fold in the past decade: "The government is on the hook".
Regulators should more closely track the growth of genetically-modified crops in the nation, says an advocacy group opposed to the practice. A majority of soybeans and corn in Canada are engineered, while the Department of Agriculture has contemplated “plausible scenarios” for first-ever licensing of engineered wheat: "That is a problem".
Cabinet claims a proposed billion-dollar liability limit on oil spills reflects “historical data”, though an Enbridge pipeline break in Michigan has cost the company 50% more to date. The Department of Natural Resources miscalculated actual costs of the 2010 Kalamazoo River spill in justifying its liability cap: "A billion dollars is actually just a rounding error".
Canada has lost 4% of its farmland, some seven million acres, since 2006 due to urban sprawl, says a report by the National Farmers Union. The group cautioned remaining land has become a prize for foreign investors, echoing an Agriculture Canada memo that officials have little insight on offshore ownership: 'Who is buying farmland?'
