CBA Influence - Public Policy and Advocacy

Leveraging artificial intelligence for efficiency is smart business practice – automating the mundane lets people concentrate on the complex.

The CBA launched its 2019 federal election campaign in June with a letter to the leaders of the major political parties challenging them to stand up for access to justice through stable, sustainable legal aid funding.

The question about what judges should be able to do after they’ve left the bench for good evokes many responses, depending on who’s answering, and should be addressed in the Canadian Judicial Council’s Ethical Principles for Judges.

A board of directors is only as good or as effective as the people sitting on it. When it comes to a board overseeing the creation of a new entity, it’s even more crucial that the members have the skills and competencies necessary to the task.

Many of us were introduced to the idea by the 90s TV show Northern Exposure: a just-graduated New York doctor is transplanted to the small town in Alaska that had paid for his education, in order to repay the loan by establishing a practice there.

Given the number and range of people and organizations affected by the purchase of annuity contracts under section 147.4 of the Income Tax Act, from pension administrators to plan members to annuities providers, it’s important that the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) gets the interpretation of this section right.

Creating a shorter hearing process for the Immigration and Refugee Board is a good way to reduce the backlog of claims at the Refugee Protection Division, says the CBA’s Immigration Law Section, but care must be taken not to throw out procedural fairness along with the longer procedure.

The Canadian Association of Pension Supervisory Authorities (CAPSA) has put together a draft strategic plan outlining its priorities for 2019-2022.

Technology is changing the way we all conduct business. What is sometimes forgotten is that the rules governing that business need to change as well in order to keep up with technology.

When it comes to the way Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada processes applications, the medium must serve the message – and the message is that administratively fair and judicious decision-making must take priority.