Bringing about a higher level of transparency and accountability in provincial and federal governments to help protect taxpayers from abuse
The federal government recently announced that it is implementing a federal carbon tax starting at $10 per metric tonne in 2018, which will increase by $10 per metric tonne of GHG emissions every year until hitting the $50 per metric tonne mark in 2022.
The carbon tax will come into effect in any provinces that do not have a carbon tax in place by 2018. This currently includes Saskatchewan, Manitoba, New Brunswick, P.E.I., Newfoundland and Labrador and Nova Scotia.
Read more at woodbusiness.ca
TORONTO — An Ontario government grant of about $120,000 that is going toward a giant rubber duck for Canada 150 celebrations is ruffling some feathers.
The six-storey-tall, 13,600-kilogram yellow duck is being brought to Toronto by the Redpath Waterfront Festival, at a total cost of $200,000, combining other funding such as corporate sponsorship.
It’s being billed as a tourist attraction — with particular Instagram and selfie appeal — and will also be taken to other communities in Ontario.
Read more at ctvnews.ca
President Donald Trump has been pushing hard, along with Republicans in Congress, to eliminate former President Barack Obama’s Affordable Care Act. But as he and leaders of the Senate and House struggle to come up with some alternative health care law, they might ask themselves why large companies like General Motors, Ford and Chrysler (now Fiat Chrysler) over recent decades have shifted roughly half their car and truck production — and the jobs that go with them — across the Detroit River into Canada.
Here’s one big reason they did it: Canada’s government-run single-payer health system, known as Medicare — to be clear, not the same Medicare as the American health care system for senior citizens — lowers those auto companies’ health care costs from more than $15,000 per worker in the United States to just a few thousand dollars in Canada, with all Canadian taxpayers, not just employees and their employers, picking up the tab.
Read more at salon.com
Despite policy changes last April to Canada’s refugee health care program, many people continue to be left without adequate access to health care.
That’s the finding that comes out of a series of interviews we conducted recently with refugee service providers in Ottawa.
Health care for refugees in Canada falls under the responsibility of the Interim Federal Health Program (IFHP), and it has had some tumultuous years.
In June 2012, the federal government made significant cuts to the program, leaving many refugees and refugee claimants without access to publicly-funded health care while causing serious confusion among health care providers.
Health care advocates challenged the cuts in the Federal Court and in 2014, the Court found the cuts violated the Charter as they were “cruel and unusual.”
Read more at huffingtonpost.ca
A case of alleged immigration fraud is now headed to the Yukon Territory Supreme Court in Whitehorse.
The plaintiffs are Chinese companies, Ningbo Zhelun Overseas Immigration Service Co. Ltd., and Mega International Labour and Immigration Services Inc. (Mega)
Eleven defendants are named including USA-Canada International Investment Inc. (UCII), Tzuchun (Joyce) Chang, Yukon Resources Investment Inc., and the Elite Hotel and Travel Ltd.
Read more at rcinet.ca
A Texas psychiatrist was convicted on Tuesday for his role in a $158 million Medicare fraud scheme that involved paying kickbacks to nursing home employees in exchange for patient referrals.
Riaz Mazcuri, M.D., along with other healthcare providers, engaged in a scheme between 2006 and 2012 to admit patients into an intensive psychiatric program known as a partial hospitalization program, or PHP, through Riverside General Hospital in Houston.
Read more at mcknights.com
Cheyenne, Wyo. – A federal grand jury returned an indictment on May 19th charging Powell psychologist Gibson Condie with 234 counts of health care fraud involving approximately $6.8 million in fraudulent bills submitted to Wyoming Medicaid.
That’s according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Wyoming and the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
This indictment was the result of an investigation by the FBI, the United States Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of Inspector General, and the Wyoming Medicaid Fraud Control Unit.
Read more at kgwn.tv
Eight hundred million dollars: that’s the potential price tag of the rising ocean in Vancouver. The city needs a new storm surge barrier to stop flooding if, according to municipal planners, sea levels climb by one metre this century due to climate change.
When discussing this scenario last fall, Vancouver Mayor Gregor Robertson said something that made Andrew Gage perk up and listen from his law office in Victoria. “There are direct costs to our taxpayers, but this is not an act of God,” Robertson reportedly said. “This is tied directly to human activity.”
Translation for Gage: Maybe it’s not just Tracy and Tom Taxpayer who should be on the hook for the new storm barrier. Maybe whoever is to blame for the rising ocean should fork over some cash.
Read more at thestar.com
Canada took a gigantic leap last week toward realizing its self-identified role as a global human rights leader when Chrystia Freeland announced the government would back global Magnitsky legislation. When it passes, the legislation will empower the government to apply sanctions, including visa bans and asset freezes, against the torturers, jailers and murderers of activists around the world.
The five-year battle to adopt this straightforward, yet powerful, legislation has faced serious pushback from Russian, Chinese and Iranian regime supporters and their economic allies in Canada. Sadly, for Canadians, lurking over the brave human rights crusader that they see in the national mirror, is the dark shadow of foreign economic interests.
Read more at thestar.com
America’s largest chain of psychiatric hospitals is the target of a multi-agency federal investigation into whether it systematically holds patients longer than necessary to maximize revenues — an allegation two nurses at one of its facilities raised following a protest a
t its headquarters in Pennsylvania last week.
According to three sources with direct knowledge of the investigation, officials are examining whether Universal Health Services directs its hospitals to hold patients for as many days as their insurer agrees to pay for, regardless of actual medical need. The probe has been ongoing since at least 2013, when the Department of Health and Human Services issued subpoenas to 10 UHS psychiatric hospitals.
But BuzzFeed News has exclusively learned that the investigation has since broadened to include the FBI and the Department of Defense, which is scrutinizing UHS’s billings to Tricare, the insurance plan for active military and their families. UHS, a $12 billion company, made nearly one-third of its revenues last year from government insurance providers such as Medicare and Medicaid.
Read more at buzzfeed.com