In the news today: Canada spat leads India newspapers, inflation report due

The Public Health Agency of Canada says a Listeria outbreak linked to several plant-based milks appears to be over with no additional cases reported since August.

The federal agency says its investigation is now complete and Listeria was found within the production environment of Silk and Great Value plant-based refrigerated beverages.

However, PHAC says it was not able to identify the “primary site” of the contamination within that environment and that production will remain paused until the Canadian Food Inspection Agency is satisfied with renovations to the facility.

The CFIA previously stated that the source of the illness was traced to a specific production line at Joriki, a third-party facility in Pickering, Ont., used by plant milk manufacturer Danone Canada.

The last tally of cases reported on Aug. 12 remains unchanged, with 20 confirmed infections in Ontario, Quebec, Nova Scotia and Alberta, and three deaths.

The illnesses prompted a national recall of several Silk and Great Value plant-based milk products on July 8 with Oct. 4 as the latest best before date.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 15, 2024.

Canadian Press health coverage receives support through a partnership with the Canadian Medical Association. CP is solely responsible for this content.

The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.

HALIFAX – A ferry company that operates the route between Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island says one of its ships will be out of commission until the end of the season.

Northumberland Ferries says it discovered additional mechanical issues early Friday morning with an engine on the MV Saaremaa 1.

The company says the vessel, which was pulled from service in September, will not return to the route between Caribou, N.S., and Wood Islands, P.E.I., this season.

Earlier this month the company had estimated the ferry could return to service by Oct. 19, pending further inspections and certifications.

Meanwhile, the company says repairs to the MV Confederation are progressing well and the ship could be back ferrying people between Nova Scotia and P.E.I. earlier than its Dec. 9 return date.

There is currently no ferry service between the two provinces due to the absence of the MV Saaremaa 1 and the MV Confederation.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 15, 2024.

The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.

TORONTO – Ontario taxpayers have forked over $4.3 million in legal fees after the province lost two court cases defending a wage-cap law that was struck down as unconstitutional, The Canadian Press has learned.

Premier Doug Ford’s government passed a law — known as Bill 124 — in 2019 to limit salary increases for broader public sector workers at one per cent per year for three years. At the time, the province said it was done to help eliminate the budget deficit.

The law sparked outrage among the 800,000 workers affected by the bill. Scores of nurses, teachers and public servants brought their grievances to the province’s front door, with vociferous protests at Queen’s Park.

Medical officials said the law contributed to the nursing shortage during the pandemic, a time when hospitals were overrun. The law also contributed to the teacher shortage, education officials have said.

The unions that represent workers affected by the bill took the province to court, labelling the law unconstitutional. The province argued the law did not infringe constitutional rights, saying the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms only protects the process of bargaining, not the outcome.

In 2022, the Ontario Superior Court agreed with the workers and struck down the law. The province appealed the ruling.

While Ontario used in-house lawyers for its initial case, it hired an outside firm, Lenczner Slaght, to handle the appeal.

In a 2-1 decision earlier this year, the Appeal Court struck down the law, saying it infringed on workers’ Charter rights. The province accepted defeat and, soon after, repealed the law in its entirety. The court left it up to the parties to settle legal costs.

In June, The Canadian Press asked the Ministry of the Attorney General for a breakdown of the costs. Several months later, it has shared the information.

The province settled with the 10 unions that took them to court and agreed to pay them $3.45 million in legal costs, said Keesha Seaton, a ministry spokesperson. The province also paid Lenczner Slaght $856,482 for legal services related to the appeal.

The office of the President of the Treasury Board Caroline Mulroney defended the law and the subsequent legal battle.

“Bill 124 was designed to employ a fair, consistent and time-limited approach that would enable the government to protect front-line jobs and workers for years to come,” said Liz Tuomi, Mulroney’s spokeswoman.

“The government continues to be open, transparent and accountable to the people of Ontario for every tax dollar spent, which can be seen through our seventh consecutive clean audit opinion from the auditor general in this year’s public accounts.”

Last month, Finance Minister Peter Bethlenfalvy, who brought the bill forward when he was president of the Treasury Board, said the law was “absolutely not” a bad idea.

“We ran again in 2022 and got a bigger majority, so I feel very good that the people of Ontario gave us a vote of confidence in the way we’re managing the economy and managing the fiscal path to balance,” he said.

The province has so far paid out $6.7 billion for retroactive pay increases to broader public sector workers after the law was struck down.

Taxpayers would have been on the hook for those salary bumps either way, but the additional legal costs were a waste of money, leaders of the opposition parties said.

“This is outrageous, and it’s also wasteful, and I would say that people deserve a government that they can trust to spend their money on what matters to them,” said Marit Stiles, leader of the Official Opposition New Democrats.

“Doug Ford and his politicians treat government money like it’s their money — it’s not, it belongs to the people.”

The government had fair warning the bill would be found unconstitutional, said Green Party of Ontario Leader Mike Schreiner.

“I think it’s just a slap in the face to the people of this province that we have to foot the legal bills of the government’s failure to recognize that wage restraint is unconstitutional,” he said.

“I think it just shows how out of touch this government is with the needs of everyday people that they would waste money on legal fees in support of unconstitutional legislation.”

Ontario Liberal Party Leader Bonnie Crombie agreed.

“It is unacceptable for Doug Ford to have spent millions of your tax dollars to prevent teachers and nurses from earning a fair wage,” she said.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 15, 2024.