New Brunswick election: Liberals offer plan to make life better for seniors

OTTAWA – The Conservatives have asked Canada’s lobbying commissioner to investigate whether it violates ethics rules for the prime minister to make Mark Carney his own personal adviser.

The Liberals announced at their recent caucus retreat in Nanaimo, B.C., that Carney, the former Bank of Canada governor, had been appointed chair of a task force on economic growth and adviser to the Liberal leader.

They said Carney will help shape the party’s policies for the next election, and will report to Justin Trudeau and the Liberal platform committee.

Tory ethics critic Michael Barrett says in a letter to the commissioner of lobbying that Carney is not registered to lobby federally, but his corporate positions put him in several potential conflicts of interest.

Carney is the chair of Brookfield Asset Management, which is in talks with the government to launch a $50-billion investment fund with support from Ottawa and Canadian pensions.

When asked about Carney’s potential conflict of interest in the House, the finance minister has repeatedly accused the Conservatives of mudslinging and says the Liberals are fortunate to have the advice of world renowned experts.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 3, 2024.

The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.

The Competition Bureau says it’s obtained a court order as part of an investigation into potential anti-competitive conduct by the Canadian Real Estate Association.

The bureau says its investigation is looking into whether CREA’s commission rules discourage buyers’ realtors fromoffering lower commission rates or whether they affect competition in other ways.

It’s also looking into whether CREA’s realtor co-operation policy makes it harder for alternative listing services to compete with the major listing services, or gives larger brokerages an unfair advantage over smaller ones.

The court order requires CREA to produce records and information relevant to the investigation, the bureau said, adding the investigation is ongoing and there is no conclusion of wrongdoing at this time.

CREA’s membership includes more than 160,000 real estate brokers, agents and salespeople.

The association said it’s co-operating with the bureau’s investigation.

In a statement, CREA chair James Mabey said the organization believes its rules and policies are “pro-competitive and pro-consumer” and help increase transparency.

Court documents show the bureau’s inquiry began in June, as the competition commissioner said he had reason to believe CREA engaged in conduct impeding the ability of real estate agents to compete.

The documents note CREA owns the MLS and Multiple Listing Service trademarks and owns and operates realtor.ca, which real estate groups use to list homes for sale.

Websites like realtor.ca are where the public can view home listings, while MLS systems contain data that’s only accessible to agents such as additional information on listings, sales activity in the area and neighbourhood descriptions. Some of this data is not publicly available for privacy reasons.

Access to the MLS system is a perk offered to members by real estate boards and associations.

The Competition Bureau in recent years has been reviewing whether the limited public access to these systems stunts competition or innovation in the real estate sector.

Property listings on an MLS system must include a commission offer to the buyers’ agent, and when a listing is sold, often the agent for the buyer is paid by theseller’s agent, according to the court documents.

They allege these rules reduce incentives for buyers’ agents to offer lower commissions because if buyers aren’t directly paying their agent, they may be less likely to select an agent based on their commission rate.

The bureau alleges the rules also incentivize buyers’ agents to steer their clients away from listings with lower-than-average commissions.

The documents also say CREA’s co-operation policy, which came into force at the beginning of 2024, favours larger brokerages because of their ability to advertise to bigger networks of agents.

The policy requires residential real estate listings to be added to an MLS system within three days of them being publicly marketed, such as through flyers, yard signs or online promotions.

The documents also allege the co-operation policy disadvantages alternative listing services as it’s harder for them to compete on things like privacy or inventory.

Last year, the Competition Bureau said it was investigating whether the Quebec Professional Association for Real Estate Brokers’ data-sharing restrictions were stifling competition in the housing market.

It obtained a court order in February 2023 related to the ongoing investigation, looking into whether QPAREB and its subsidiary, Société Centris, engaged in practices that harm competition or prevent the development of innovative online brokerage services in the province.

Much of the data-sharing activity in question was linked to an MLS for Quebec real estate.

— With files from Tara Deschamps

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 3, 2024.

The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.

HALIFAX – Federal fisheries officers in Nova Scotia say they’re refusing some enforcement duties because of threats to their safety, as they await Ottawa’s response to their complaints.

The union representing the officers says its members have been shot at, that people have tried to steal their firearms, and that officers — and their families — have been threatened for trying to stop illegal fishing.

“They’ve been exposed to firearms such as automatic weapons (against) which their current body armour does not protect them,” Shimen Fayad, president of the Union of Health and Environment Workers, said in an email Wednesday.

She said a federal labour investigator is reviewing documents from the Fisheries Department and from officers who have refused some enforcement duties on the water and on wharfs in the province.

We expect to hear something next week,” Fayad said regarding the process authorized under the Canada Labour Code to refuse dangerous work.

Commercial fishers, meanwhile, are calling for increased enforcement, saying that illegal and unregulated fishing is becoming more frequent across the province.

“We want real, tangible enforcement activity placed upon the illegal, black market lobster activity that’s ongoing throughout the Maritimes,” said Dan Fleck, executive director of the Brazil Rock 33/34 Lobster Association, in a recent telephone interview.

Under provisions of the Canada Labour Code, the fisheries minister is empowered to decide after an investigation whether “danger exists,” and issue mandatory directions for safety changes.

But if Steven MacKinnon’s office finds that there isn’t any danger on the water, then department employees aren’t entitled to refuse work, according to the law. That decision can be appealed, however.

Fayad said that when her members first brought their concerns to the government, the Fisheries Department found there was “no danger” to the workers, which led to the labour minister’s review.

Doug Wentzell, the federal Fisheries Department’s regional manager for the Maritimes, said in a recent interview, “we do have a number of officers that have refused field work …. and we’re working through that process with the (federal) ministry of labour.”

The civil service manager said that despite the refusals “the majority of our officers are in the field in the region and we’re also supplementing those resources with officers from other DFO regions.” He estimated there are about 100 field officers in the Maritimes.

A government source with knowledge of the refusal to work applications said that about half of field officers in southwestern Nova Scotia — home to the region’s most lucrative lobster fishery — are not carrying out enforcement duties in the field due to the safety concerns.

The source, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the risk of employment reprisals, said the work has become more violent as fishers are increasingly unwilling to accept officers’ authority. He also said tensions with some Indigenous fishers are rising.

“We’ve raised our problems with management. Management has chosen to ignore the issues,” he said.

“As we go through this problem, officers have found themselves in dangerous situations. There have been three officers hit by vehicles. We’ve had a struggle where a person tried to take an officer’s firearm. There’s been very serious altercations,” he said.

Efforts to enforce fisheries regulations in the lucrative fishing of baby eels, known as elvers, in East Coast rivers over the spring were also a source of tension with First Nations, he said.

However, the chief of a First Nation whose members fish lobster off southwestern Nova Scotia said Indigenous fishers are not aggressors, but rather are continuing to fish to support and feed their families.

“Our Mi’kmaq fishers have been through enough. DFO Officers are not the victims, and we will not accept this narrative,” wrote Chief Michelle Glasgow, the leader of Sipekne’katik First Nation, in an email.

She said the lobster fishers from her community are exercising their treaty rights and will continue to do so. “All they (federal fisheries officers) need to do is respect this. They cannot continue to harass our people and tell us how much we can eat and how much we can feed our people. If they are afraid, it is not by our actions.”

Chief Wilbert Marshall, co-lead of fisheries for the Assembly of Nova Scotia Mi’kmaw Chiefs, said in an emailed statement that “violence on the water is unacceptable. No one should have to be concerned about their safety when going to work — whether they work for (DFO) conservation and protection, or if they are fishing.”

“We have seen these types of conflicts for over 20 years and things need to change. We have been working to build bridges with DFO and conservation and protection officers on the treaty rights protected fishery to help create a more coherent environment for everyone. We want a future where these types of safety issues can be avoided, but we need true collaboration to get there,” said the statement.

In 2020, the tensions flared in southwestern Nova Scotia to the point where Indigenous traps were cut, one boat was destroyed and a lobster pound that handled Mi’kmaq catch was burned to the ground.

RCMP Supt. Jason Popik, the recently appointed senior officer for Southwest Nova district, said in an interview that DFO officers continue to be “out on the water” off Meteghan, N.S., and that there were two significant enforcement efforts in recent weeks in southern Nova Scotia.

“It’s showing the community that they’re working, they’re trying … I’m not seeing a big (work) stoppage down there.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 3, 2024.