A doll’s severed arm. Christmas lights. Even a kitchen sink. None of them recyclable, yet all chucked into Ottawa’s blue bins.
Cascades Recovery, the company that processes the city’s recycling, believes we can do better.
Read more at cbc.ca
Canada Invests in Next-Generation Smart Grid Technology
Transforming how we make and use energy presents tremendous economic opportunities for Canada and will result in investments, good middle-class jobs for Canadians and a cleaner planet for future generations.
Today, Canada’s Minister of Natural Resources, the Honourable Amarjeet Sohi, announced an investment of $1.4 million for a next-generation smart grid project. Funded by Natural Resources Canada through the Green Infrastructure Program and developed by ENMAX Power, this project will safely send extra renewable electricity generated by customers back into Calgary’s electricity grid for others to use.
Read more at newswire.ca
Edmonton could set four-bag garbage limit by 2020
An overhaul of the city’s waste-management system could, if approved by council, represent the biggest shift Edmontonians have seen in the past 20 years.
Though more than a year away, the changes would require residents to separate organics from other trash, and would restrict the amount of garbage that could be set out on the curb.
The shift would move Edmonton from a two-stream to a three-stream waste system by 2020.
Read more at cbc.ca
Stop producing nuclear waste until we can dispose of it, critics urge Canada
Environmental groups say Canada should stop producing nuclear energy until the federal government replaces its “pathetic” waste disposal policy with something more meaningful and scientific.
The groups, including the Canadian Coalition for Nuclear Responsibility and the Canadian Environmental Law Association, intend to protest outside a meeting Wednesday where officials will discuss plans to decommission nuclear labs and reactors in Chalk River, Ont., and Pinawa, Man.
Read more at cbc.ca
Waste Is Picking Up! M&A Developments In The Waste Management And Recycling Industry
Historically a highly fragmented industry, the waste management and recycling sector has undergone a process of consolidation and increased M&A activity over the past several years. Analysts have offered various explanations for this trend, ranging from a desire for larger companies to expand their geographic coverage to a rise in clean-tech and recycling businesses.
Read more at mondaq.com
Canadian firm tied to Facebook data scandal got $100K from feds in 2017
The Canadian company at the heart of the international scandal over the unauthorized use of Facebook information received $100,000 in federal funding last year to develop data-driven tools for political campaigns, The Canadian Press has learned.
AggregateIQ Data Services Ltd. received the one-time contribution from the National Research Council for a nine-month project aimed at developing digital tools to predict who would turn out to vote and the likelihood of supporting a specific candidate, and to predict the outcome of a campaign’s communications strategy.
Read more at CBC News
Beware the many health-care scams
Dealing with health care can be such a headache. Scammers know that, and they hope to get away with your personal information before you realize what’s going on.
Often the fraudster will pose as a government authority to persuade you to provide personal information related to your Medicare or Medicaid account.
Investigators track millions of dollars from Russian tax fraud coming to Canada
Investigators have tracked millions of dollars associated with an elaborate tax fraud in Russia to bank accounts in Canada, bolstering their call for Ottawa to adopt legislation to freeze the assets of corrupt foreign officials.
Anglo-American financier Bill Browder and a team of investigators and lawyers compiled the data on the transfers of the funds, which indicate a clear Canadian connection to a $230-million (U.S.) swindle in 2007 by Russian officials who used his Russian-based hedge fund, Hermitage Capital Management.
Sergei Magnitsky, a legal adviser for Hermitage, was allegedly tortured and died in a Russian prison in 2009 after exposing the fraud to Russian authorities. Since then, Mr. Browder has helped international authorities track and freeze $43-million (U.S.) in assets related to the fraud, and persuaded governments to take action against Russian officials he says are engaged in the fraud and the cover-up of Mr. Magnitsky’s death.
In 2012, the United States adopted the Magnitsky Act, which freezes assets and bans visas for Russians who violate human rights.
While Canadian political parties are in favour of a Canad
CRA nets $240M from probe of real estate tax cheats in B.C., Ont.
The Canada Revenue Agency says it has recovered more than $240 million from audits related to probes of tax cheating on real estate in British Columbia and Ontario.
According to figures published on the CRA’s website, the bulk of the money comes from probes in Ontario, where the federal department has recovered $210.4 million through more the 13,400 audits conducted between April 2015 and September 2016
More than 10,900 of those Ontario audits are related to the GST/HST New Housing and New Residential Rental Property rebates, and resulted in $143.9 million in recoveries.
Meanwhile, the CRA says it has recovered $30.3 million from 2,366 audits in British Columbia, with more than half of that money related to GST/HST fraud probes.
CRA has also imposed $12.5 million in penalties. In the event a taxpayer knowingly makes a false statement when filing a return, the CRA can apply a penalty equal to 50 per cent of the additional tax payable. Between April 2015 to September 2016, the CRA applied 663 penalties, with the biggest one hitting almost $2.5 million.
Source: http://www.cbc.ca/news/business/cra-audits-real-estate-1.3813584
Canadian Gov’t Keeping Options Open On Digital Taxation
Canadian Heritage Minister Melanie Joly has said that she will discuss with the Finance Minister the potential application of a sales tax to foreign online services operating in the country.
During an interview with CTV News, Joly was asked whether the Government would force companies such as Netflix to pay into the Canada Media Fund that contributes to the production of Canadian content. She responded: “There will be no Netflix tax. This is a broader question: it’s about the participation of digital platforms to the system.”
In September, Joly launched a consultation on “Canadian Content in a Digital World.” Commenting on the consultation, Joly told CTV that the Government was “looking at all scenarios – certainly we want to engage with different digital platforms in the conversation and how they can support Canadian content.”
Pressed as to whether the Government could apply a sales tax for foreign online services operating in Canada, Joly replied that “this is a conversation of course that I will be having with the Minister of Finance Bill Morneau regarding sales tax.” She did however emphasize that this issue was “not necessarily under the purview of Canadian heritage – it’s much more under the purview of my colleague.”
Source: http://www.tax-news.com/news/Canadian_Govt_Keeping_Options_Open_On_Digital_Taxation____72512.html