Last month, the Canadian Chamber sent a template letter to its entire membership to encourage further communication with local Liberal MPs and the Liberal leadership office leading up to second reading. Despite the bill being traded down, the Canadian Chamber of Commerce urges its membership to continue its communication efforts with local Liberal MPs. It is imperative to ensure that Liberal MPs are aware that Bill C-415, like its predecessor, Bill C-257, will negatively affect Canadian society and its economy.

For more information on this issue, contact Ryan Stein, Policy Analyst, (613) 238-4000 x250, rstein@chamber.ca.

Canadian Government Tables Amendments to the Pilotage Act
Transport Canada recently tabled Bill C-4 An Act to amend the Pilotage Act. This reintroduced a piece of legislation that had died on the order paper following prorogation.

In a September 20, 2007 submission, the Canadian Chamber and a number of other business associations urged the Canadian government to re-introduce amendments to the Pilotage Act once Parliament resumed. The Canadian business community is concerned with the exorbitant fees charged by pilotage authorities and that the services and operations offered are run at less than optimal efficiency. Bill C-4 is a small, yet positive step forward, in addressing these concerns. For instance, Bill C-4 calls for the ability of pilotage authorities to hire contract and employee pilots simultaneously, and provides the minister of transport with the discretion to appoint a commercial arbitrator with a mandate to look at the business implications of increases to pilot remuneration. Bill C-4 provide the government and stakeholders with the opportunity of re-visiting these positive provisions and further addressing other service and cost concerns the business community has with the Pilotage Act.

For more information on this issue, contact Ryan Stein, Policy Analyst, (613) 238-4000 x250, rstein@chamber.ca

Public Safety Canada announces expansion of NEXUS program and decreases participation price in NEXUS and FAST:
The Minister of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness Canada Stockwell Day recently announced that dedicated NEXUS lanes and enrolment centres have opened at the following land border crossings: Emerson, Manitoba/Pembina, North Dakota; Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario/Sault Ste. Marie; and the Woodstock, New Brunswick/ Houlton, Maine. In addition to these centres opening, the minister also announced that the application fees of $80 for the NEXUS and FAST programs will be reduced to $50 on December 1, 2007. NEXUS is a joint Canada-U.S. program designed to expedite the movement of preapproved low-risk travellers and is currently available at eight major Canadian airports and 11 land border crossings. FAST is another joint program that provides preapproved and security cleared carriers, importers, and drivers with a more efficient clearance process at 22 Canada-U.S. land border crossings.

For more information on this issue, contact Ryan Stein, Policy Analyst, (613) 238-4000 x250, rstein@chamber.ca

Industry Canada Solicits Views on PIPEDA
On October 17th the government tabled its Response to the Fourth Report of the Standing Committee on Access to Information, Privacy and Ethics (ETHI) on the statutory review of the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA). In support of the industry minister’s responsibility for PIPEDA, Industry Canada is seeking the views of Canadians on a number of issues related to the response. The government is proposing that the Privacy Commissioner be notified of any major breach of personal information, and that affected individuals and organizations be notified when there is a high risk of significant harm resulting from the breach. The Canadian Chamber of Commerce, in conjunction with the expert member committee that deals with privacy matters, will be providing comment to the government on this consultation. The deadline for the submission of views is January 15, 2008.

For more information on this issue, contact Chris Gray, Policy Analyst, (613) 238-4000, x251, cgray@chamber.ca

Pandemic Influenza – Establishing a Business Continuity Plan is Key
Developing an emergency plan is integral to helping businesses of all sizes protect their employees and overall business integrity, in the event of pandemic influenza. In addition to the valuable information below, the following 10 step checklist may be used to identify general activities to be considered as part of your business continuity plan in the event of a pandemic.
1) Check that existing contingency plans are applicable to a pandemic and that core business activities can be sustained over several weeks in the event of high employee absenteeism;
2) Plan accordingly for interruptions of essential government services like sanitation, water, power and disruptions to the food supply;
3) Identify your organization’s essential functions and the individuals who perform them. Build in the training redundancy necessary to ensure that work can be done in the event of an absentee rate of 25-30 percent;
4) Maintain a healthy work environment by ensuring adequate air circulation and posting tips on how to stop the germs at work;
5) Promote handwashing and coughing and sneezing etiquette. Ensure wide and easy availability of alcohol-based hand sanitizer products;
6) Determine which outside activities, such as transportation systems are critical to maintaining operations and develop alternatives in case they cannot function normally;
7) Establish or expand policies and tools that enable employees to work from home with appropriate security and network access to applications;
8) Expand online and self-service options for customers and business partners;
9) Tell employees about pandemic influenza and the steps that the organization is taking to prepare for it;
10) Encourage employees to stay home if they are sick to stop the spread of illness and update sick leave and family and medical leave policies. Concern about lost wages is the largest deterrent to self-quarantine.
Source: www.health.gov.bc.ca/pandemic/tools.html.