JOBS FOR DOGS AND OTHER CURIOSITIES IN BUDGET.
THE HEADLINES OUT OF THE FEDERAL BUDGET MIGHT BE FOCUSED ON HOUSING, SKILLS TRAINING AND DEFICITS. BUT WHAT ABOUT FUNDING TO HIRE CANINE HELP, THE MEANING OF A SAFE SPACE SANDBOX OR PROTECTING PEOPLE FROM “UNSCRUPULOUS” FOLKS? MARIE-DANIELLE SMITH SNIFFS OUT A FEW CURIOUS MEASURES HIDING IN THE DOCUMENT’S 460 PAGES. JOBS FOR DOGS
Although budget promises tend to focus on jobs for humans, the Liberals’ 2019 offering boosts the canada Border Services Agency’s budget by $31 million over five years to “increase the number of detector dogs deployed across the country.” The pups are tasked with ensuring that contaminated food, plant and animal products don’t enter the country at international airports.
TAX RELIEF FOR EMBRYOS
An oddly phrased measure announces the Liberals are “relieving human ova and in vitro embryos of the GST/hST.” They’re applying the same relief to “certain foot care devices.” The policy is partly reflective of the reality that many same-sex couples and single individuals are becoming parents. Sperm donations have been tax-free for years.
SAFE SPACES AND SANDBOXES
In a section that makes liberal use of metaphor, the budget says “regulatory sandboxes” are “controlled ‘safe spaces’” to test new products, services, etc., a definition coined by the european Banking Authority. Sandboxes, so to speak, are being set up for products including 3d-printed tissue, gene therapies, artificial intelligence and an online system for dangerous goods shipments, among other things. For this, Justice canada will get $67.8 million over five years and the Treasury Board Secretariat $3.1 million annually starting next year.
PROTECTION FROM THE ‘UNSCRUPULOUS’
The government will spend $51.9 million over five years to help newcomers and residency applicants from getting swindled by “unscrupulous” immigration consultants. The funding “will improve oversight of immigration consultants and strengthen compliance and enforcement measures,” the document says.
#METOO IN SPORT
The budget mentions the “#metoo movement” on one occasion, in the context of “ensuring a safe and healthy sport system,” ergo, addressing abuse, discrimination and harassment in the sporting community. In the same section the budget mentions how Parliament has been studying sport-related concussions. The government is providing $30 million over five years to “canadian sports organizations” so they can “promote accessible, ethical, equitable and safe sports.”
DONATIONS OF CULTURAL PROPERTY
Liberals promise to introduce legislation that clarifies tax incentives are still going to be available when people donate “cultural property of ‘outstanding significance’ and ‘national importance’” to museums or galleries. A court decision last year had found those labels too unnecessarily broad, and recommended — despite a government recommendation otherwise! — that a French painting held in a private collection could be exported from canada.