A federal ban to end paper billing fees has been introduced in the Commons. Legislation would outlaw service charges for customers’ paper invoices under threat of $500,000 fines. MPs had been proposing the measure for six years: "It shouldn't have taken this long".
The Supreme Court has sidestepped a case of alleged unfair tax collections by Air Canada. A group of passengers had sought unsuccessfully to press class action claims the airline levied taxes that travellers did not have to pay: 'The issue can be visited later'.
The Department of Agriculture is accused of skewing a multi-million dollar subsidy program to benefit large corporate farms over family-run operations. One Liberal Senator proposed that legislators investigate terms of grant programs under the Farm Income Protection Act: "Something is totally out of whack".
The Department of Canadian Heritage is studying the viability of magazine publishers that received more than $55 million in federal grants last year. “Can the print magazine survive the digital age?” authorities asked in a federal notice. One periodical, Maclean's, received $1.5 million in grants: "This is egregious".
A fatal gun attack on Parliament Hill comes only days after lawmakers were assured of “successful” security precautions at the Commons and Senate. The Centre Block assault was the worst security breach in Parliament in 48 years: ‘We assess threats each and every day’.
Canadians will be paying the second-highest drug prices outside the U.S. without changes to federal rules on costs, warns a federal regulator. Data show Canadians already pay from 10 to 30 percent more for comparable drugs than other countries: "We have been creeping up".
Pesticides blamed for risking Canada’s $2 billion pollination industry are virtually harmless to bee colonies under normal conditions, a Senate committee has been told. The study was paid for by the chemical manufacturer Bayer: "It's amazing".
Conservative bills to create two more commemoration days on the calendar have moved closer to becoming law. The Commons heritage committee unanimously approved a bill to create Lincoln Alexander Day after just 30 minutes of hearings: 'How many days are left in the year?'
Transport Canada will introduce new fines on unsafe railways nearly eight years after the penalties were proposed by a federal panel. The proposal mirrors fines already levied on civil aviation and federally-regulated marine shippers: 'Prosecution is very cumbersome'.
Health Canada must curb non-medical prescriptions of pain killers and work to ban the unnecessary use of antibiotics in food production, says a Senate committee report. The study by the Senate science and technology committee warned of excessive use of pharmaceutical chemicals as a public health risk: "We have got to deal with this".
Cash transactions of as little as $200 or less are being monitored by a federal agency mandated to monitor terror financing, a Senate committee has been told. The Financial Transactions and Reports Analysis Centre of Canada confirmed it monitors even trivial cash transactions deemed “suspicious” by banks: "It's way overboard".
Canada Post will proceed with plans to abolish home mail delivery despite a Federal Court challenge and protest petitions with 202,00 signatures to date, the corporation says. The first service cuts to some 100,000 homeowners were introduced this week in five cities: 'We're confident'.
A bill before the Commons would see Parliament enact a U.S.-style “stand by your ad” law on political advertising. MP Kevin Lamoureux, Deputy Liberal House Leader, said his bill is inspired by American practices upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court in 2003: "I'm --- and I endorsed this message".
The navy is struggling for ways to decontaminate aging, toxic warships following a failed attempt to turn one PCB-laced destroyer escort into an artificial reef. Four vessels are to be scrapped over the next five years: "The value proposition here doesn't make sense".
Raising the minimum wage has no impact on long-term hiring by Canadian employers, says a Unifor study. Research tracked wage data and employment rates over a thirty-year period in concluding that fears of rate hikes as a job-killer are misplaced: "There is no statistical relationship".
