CBA Influence - Public Policy and Advocacy

The Refugee Protection Division’s decision to return to in-person hearings as the default option raises a number of health and safety concerns, says the CBA’s Immigration Law Section.

The federal government has promised more transparency in judicial appointments and has declared its commitment to diversity in leadership. While it has made some good progress on transparency, there has been little appreciable difference in the diversity of those sitting on federal benches.

More than 80 per cent of the COVID-19 deaths in Canada up to late May happened in retirement homes and long-term care facilities, public and private. Reports before the pandemic talked about long-standing critical labour shortages, leading to workers leaving the field because they were overworked, underpaid, and burning out. These issues were only exacerbated by the restrictions put in place when COVID-19 hit.

Much has been written over the past few months about the effect court closures and the move to virtual hearings has had on judges, lawyers and those seeking justice in the courts’ hallowed halls.

The CBA’s Pensions and Benefits Section has a number of issues with the Draft Actuarial Bulletin No. 4 – Reasonable Methods to Apportion Assets and Actuarial Liabilities published in March by the Canada Revenue Agency.

The Finance Department should amend the Income Tax Act clarifying the situation for Canadian issuers of debt securities (and issue a comfort letter of that intent in the interim) following the Federal Court of Appeal’s decision in Pangaea One Acquisition Holdings XII S.À.R.L. this past January, says the Joint Committee on Taxation of the Canadian Bar Association and Chartered Professional Accountants of Canada.

The municipal level of government is the level with the closest connection to the people it serves. That close connection is one reason why it makes sense for municipalities to have a greater stake in the immigration process, able to do their own outreach and with proper funding for programs to serve this constituency.

Triage. Framework. Technology. Those three words came up repeatedly in University of Ottawa law professor Karin Eltis’s presentation in July to the CBA’s COVID-19 task force.

The Canada Revenue Agency’s CHAMP portal is a fast and efficient option for filing certain kinds of applications. But it falls short when it comes to the online application for charitable status.

The Canadian Border Services Agency is proposing changes to the framework it applies to recover costs from the foreign nationals removed from Canada that would create an “unreasonable burden” for many of those it would touch.