The Pension and Benefits Law Section called once again for a harmonized pension regulatory system in its October comment on the Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institution’s revised draft derivatives guideline for federally regulated pension plans.

It’s probably never a bad thing when a government decides to modernize its laws and regulations. The Canadian Transportation Agency announced last year its intent to do just that – bring regulations that haven’t changed in 25 years or more in line with the current reality.

Canada’s new Global Skills Strategy has been receiving a lot of positive feedback from CBA immigration experts, but in the four months since its launch a number of issues have emerged that require action by the government.

When the Finance Department released draft legislation in September to limit the use of billed-basis accounting, the CBA was happy to see that the government had acted to address one of the Association’s major concerns with the changes.

On July 18 the federal government quietly dropped a bombshell whose concussive effects included debate, discussion and much division – more of each than the government might have anticipated with a consultation paper aimed at “tax fairness” issued in the middle of a rainy Canadian summer.

The post-9/11 emphasis on the need for security has exacerbated the difficulty of balancing the individual right of privacy with the state’s right to know, especially at border crossings. And more and more the fulcrum those two balance upon is the personal electronic device, be it a laptop, a tablet or a smartphone.

The CBA has been a vocal supporter of changing the way the law treats cannabis for nearly 40 years – in our first resolution on the subject, in 1978, the Association urged the government to stop criminalizing simple possession, and also advocated moving marijuana from the Narcotic Control Act to the Food and Drug Act.

A bill that would modernize parts of the Canada Transportation Act and relevant portions of other Acts is making its way through the House of Commons. While Bill C-49, Transportation Modernization Act, deals with planes (including passengers’ rights), trains and maritime transportation, the submission from the CBA Competition Law Section focuses on the parts dealing with airline competition.

If there’s something the law doesn’t like, it’s uncertainty. The legal system spends years building precedents, forging predictability. Creating an “if-A-then-B” system that’s not quite mathematical, but is logical and on which we can all rely.

There are few things in life more likely to make most of the population close their eyes, plug their ears and sing “la-la-la” than a discussion about pension funding. Many of us have pensions and look for some sort of financial stability in retirement, so it’s amazing how many people are ready to leap with faith on the idea that there will be enough in the pot cometh the hour.