Feb. 3 (Bloomberg) — Canada’s unemployment rate rose to a nine-month high in January as the trend of sluggish job creation that began in the second half of last year continued.

The jobless rate rose to 7.6 percent from 7.5 percent as employment increased 2,300 last month, Statistics Canada said today in Ottawa. Economists surveyed by Bloomberg News had forecast unemployment to stay at 7.5 percent and 22,000 jobs to be added.

Consumers will account for more than half of Canada’s 2 percent economic growth this year, according to the Bank of Canada, as weak global demand and a high dollar curb exports. Most of the past year’s job growth came in the first six months of that period, Statistics Canada said, which suggests consumer spending growth may be restrained.

“It will weigh against a Bank of Canada rate increase anytime soon, and suggests the Canadian consumer could continue to pull back, not just in the face of elevated debts but also because of weaker job growth,” said Sal Guatieri, a senior economist at BMO Capital Markets in Toronto.

The Canadian report contrasted with U.S. figures, which showed payrolls increased by 243,000 in January, bringing the U.S. jobless rate down to 8.3 percent, its lowest in three years. Canada’s jobless rate has been below that of the U.S. since October 2008, and the gap between the two rates is the narrowest since April 2009.

Dollar Strengthens

The Canadian dollar reached a three-month high today, and strengthened 0.6 percent to 99.34 cents per U.S. dollar at 2:21 p.m. Toronto time. One Canadian dollar buys $1.0066. It touched 99.28 cents, the strongest since Oct. 31. The yield on the 2- year government bond rose 5 basis points to 1.04 percent.

The challenge facing Canadian manufacturers was highlighted by Caterpillar’s announcement today that it was closing the Electro-Motive railway factory in London, Ontario. “The cost structure of the operation was not sustainable and efforts to negotiate a new, competitive collective agreement were not successful,” the Peoria, Illinois-based company said in a statement.

The Canadian Auto Workers Union said in a statement its 465 members at the plant were left vulnerable by federal foreign investment legislation that doesn’t penalize companies for job cuts.

“We sympathize with the workers in London,” Richard Walker, spokesman for Industry Minister Christian Paradis, wrote in an e-mailed comment on the closing. “Our government has taken strong measures to protect Canada’s manufacturing sector” including tax cuts and the tariff elimination, he said.

Factory Job Losses

Manufacturing employment has fallen by 2.5 percent in the 12 months through January and by 21 percent over the last decade. Canada’s relatively strong dollar makes the country’s goods less competitive.

Part-time employment rose by 5,900 in January while full- time jobs decreased by 3,600. Workers classified as employees rose by 39,200 and self-employed workers decreased by 37,000, Statistics Canada said. Private-sector employment increased by 19,700 and public-sector jobs rose by 19,600.

Canada’s job gain was led by a 22,800 increase in education and another 18,800 in information, culture and recreation.

The biggest job decline was 44,800 in professional, scientific and technical services. Employment in finance, insurance real estate and leasing declined for a fifth month, by 23,200, bringing the 12-month drop to 49,700.

‘Head Above Water’

“These figures are consistent with an economy fighting to keep its head above water,” said Toronto-Dominion Bank deputy chief economist Derek Burleton.

Average hourly earnings of permanent employees rose 2.2 percent in January from a year earlier. The Bank of Canada says that figure is a key indicator of inflation.

Central-bank Governor Mark Carney kept his benchmark lending rate at 1 percent Jan. 17, prolonging the longest pause since the bank began using it as a policy measure in 1994.

“We’re simply not growing fast enough to really be bringing the unemployment rate down,” said Avery Shenfeld, chief economist at CIBC World Markets in Toronto. “It might take a couple of years until we get through the fiscal tightening around the world that is in part responsible for the sluggishness.”

–With assistance from Andrew Mayeda and Ilan Kolet in Ottawa . Editor: Paul Badertscher, Gail DeGeorge

To contact the reporter on this story: Greg Quinn in Ottawa at gquinn1@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Chris Wellisz at cwellisz@bloomberg.net; David Scanlan at dscanlan@bloomberg.net

Article source: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/g/a/2012/02/03/bloomberg_articlesLYTG003T6SR801-LYU2F.DTL

Canada’s unemployment rate rose to 7.6 per cent in January according to Statistics Canada, a 0.1 per cent increase, as 23,700 more people searched for work.

The Canadian economy added only 2,300 jobs last month, according to figures released Friday. That fell far below the 24,500 jobs that economists had predicted would be created.

Last month’s numbers were disappointing for anyone looking for work across the country, with the unemployment rate rising in Atlantic Canada and Ontario in January and little changed in the other provinces.

The weak job numbers come as federal and provincial governments are planning to table budgets with deep spending cuts and austerity measures.

“Laying off public sector workers and cutting public spending that supports private sector jobs threatens Canada’s soft labour market,” said United Steelworkers economist Erin Weir, “Four months of rising unemployment mean the priority should be on job creation rather than cutbacks.”

Other analysts echoed this sentiment, with David Madani, Canada economist at Capital Economics, writing in a note to clients that continuing with aggressive cuts “potentially risks injuring the economy.”

There were some bright spots, with an increase in private and public sector employment offsetting a drop of 37,000 in self-employment. Self-employment jobs are generally considered lower quality than employment by the private or public sector.

January was the third month in the last four in which the unemployment rate increased since last September’s 7.2 per cent post-recession low.

The construction industry experienced a loss of 13,700 jobs, the second straight month of declines for the sector. The drop highlights Canada’s “vulnerability to a slowdown in housing,” according to Weir.

The professional, scientific and technical services industry lost a record number of jobs, with 44,800 fewer jobs in January. “This substantial loss of jobs in a well-paid area is troubling,” said Weir.

After a strong start in 2011, employment in Canada has largely stalled since last summer, with fewer than 15,000 jobs being added in the last six months.

Over the last 12 months, the economy has produced 129,000 new jobs, or a 0.7 per cent gain in employment, one of the weakest records in a non-recessionary period in many years.

Compared with the same period one year ago, the number of full-time workers rose 1.2 per cent, or by 170,000. Meanwhile, the number of part-time workers slipped by 1.2 per cent, or by 41,000.

The drop in job creation has coincided with generally weaker economic conditions and declining business confidence due to uncertainty in the global outlook.

“These figures are consistent with an economy fighting to keep its head above water,” said Derek Burleton, deputy chief economist at TD Bank.

Most economists believe conditions in Canada, as well as job creation, will remain weak throughout 2012.

“We continue to expect average monthly job gains of about 10,000 per month,” said Burleton, adding that job creation will be “more heavily weighted to the second half of the year.”

Meanwhile, the U.S. added 243,000 jobs in January, dropping the unemployment rate there to the lowest level since 2009.

Article source: http://ca.finance.yahoo.com/news/canadas-jobless-rate-hits-9-215035464.html

The federal and the Alberta provincial governments said on Friday the new plan that will boost water sampling and increase information available to the public.

They said they will take three years to implement a joint program that will continuously study the effects of developing the resource on water sources such as the Athabasca River. The program will be subject to independent scientific scrutiny.

The much-anticipated step comes as the two governments and industry push to build multibillion-dollar pipelines that would ship oil sands-derived crude to Texas and to the Pacific Coast. Both pipeline projects, TransCanada Corp’s Keystone XL proposal and Enbridge Inc’s Northern Gateway pipeline, face bitter opposition from environmentalists who decry the effects of the rapid development of the resource.

Canada is also battling against a proposal by the European Union to label the oil sands, the world’s third-largest crude source, as inherently polluting.

“The more robust our facts and science with regards to responsible oil sands development (the more it) will allow us to counter some of the more outrageous expressions of criticism, myths and financially damaging mischaracterizations of our development of the oil sands,” Peter Kent, the federal environment minister, told reporters in Edmonton, Alberta.

Kent said he is confident the energy industry will provide the increased funding for the expanded program, which is aimed at adding scientific credibility to claims that everything possible is being done to minimize environmental impact. He pegged the total cost at C$50 million ($50 million) a year.

Separate scientific panels commissioned by the two governments last year found the current monitoring system, which is backed by oil sands producers, is not capable of assessing the effects of oil sands production on the environment, especially on water.

The work was sparked by a damning 2010 study coauthored by University of Alberta ecologist David Schindler that concluded that oil sands plants were contaminating the Athabasca watershed with such toxins as mercury, arsenic and lead.

The reports of the current monitoring system had said that any pollution was naturally occurring.

The governments discussed the new plan with Schindler, Kent said.

It will include increased water sampling, frequency and parameters, and the governments will prepare annual progress reports for the first three years of implementation.

After the third year, it will undergo an external scientific peer review, and all the work will be made public, officials said.

For its part, the oil industry, which aims to nearly double oil sands output to 3 million barrels a day by 2020, said it welcomed the measures.

“A world-class environmental monitoring system will contribute to improved performance reporting, regional planning and industry performance improvement as the oil sands industry continues to grow,” Dave Collyer, president of the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers, said in a statement.

One environmental group, Greenpeace, said the plan is marred by not halting approvals of new oil sands projects until big questions about their impact get answered.

Mike Hudema, the group’s tar sands campaigner, also said he was disappointed that it appears it will take three years to spawn any new regulations, and that the program will not be administered by officials independent from the governments involved, which are strong supporters of oil sands development.

“Getting more data on the tremendous impacts the tar sands are having is good, but not if it has to go through the (Prime Minister Stephen) Harper- and provincial-government spin machines first,” Hudema said.

($1=$1.00 Canadian)

(Editing by Peter Galloway)

Article source: http://news.yahoo.com/canada-alberta-set-oil-sands-monitoring-203106733.html

In an interview with Reuters, Stephen Harper declined to speculate on how the government might react if a foreign firm put in a bid for hard-pressed RIM. But he singled out hostile takeovers and bids for what he described as “critical technology” companies as ones that the government might block.

“I can’t make comments to you that would prejudice any kind of a bid, especially one that is completely hypothetical and may not happen,” he told Reuters in response to a question about a possible foreign bid for RIM.

“But RIM, as you know, is a strong Canadian company. It’s been an important part of the Canadian business landscape, and obviously we want to see that company succeed and continue to grow as a Canadian company.”

RIM shares have slumped in recent years as the company’s signature BlackBerry smartphone has lost ground to popular new rivals from the likes of Apple and Google. There has been considerable speculation that RIM could be sold, or broken up into valuable parts.

Speaking in an interview in his wood-paneled office in the heart of snow-covered Ottawa, Harper insisted that his Conservative government is still open to foreign investment, and noted that it had vetoed only two would-be takeovers. But not every foreign bid is good for Canada, he said.

“Takeovers of critical technology that the government’s invested in, or … hostile takeovers of key Canadian businesses, are obviously something that I think is widely understood is not in this country’s interest,” Harper said.

Under Canadian law, the government has the right to determine whether foreign takeovers over a certain size may go ahead. Its decision is based on whether the bid is of net benefit to Canada.

The vast majority of takeovers are approved, but Harper’s government stunned investors in 2010 when it rejected a $39 billion offer for fertilizer producer Potash Corp from Anglo-Australian mining giant BHP Billiton.

After that rejection, the government said it would quickly draw up guidelines to clarify what was meant by being “of net benefit”. There is still no date for when such guidelines might be published.

The federal government was an early investor in RIM, now the country’s best-known technology company, with a C$34 million ($34 million) investment from its Technology Partnerships Canada in 2000. That was at a time when the still-new technology firm had annual revenue of $85 million.

Todd Coupland, an analyst at CIBC World Markets, noted that a hostile bid for RIM would be difficult enough, even without reservations about whether Ottawa would let it through.

“People are the lifeblood of that company, it isn’t just hard assets. Making a hostile bid in technology and intellectual capital like that is going to be very, very tricky,” he said.

RIM’s volatile stock ended the day 1.9 percent lower at $16.88 on Nasdaq and down 2.3 percent at C$16.78 in Toronto.

Separately, the Conservative government is considering whether to ease restrictions on foreign ownership of telecommunications companies, but Harper declined to be drawn about what it might decide.

Decisions would come in “the very near future,” he said.

(Additional reporting by Alastair Sharp in Toronto; editing by Peter Galloway and Rob Wilson)

Article source: http://news.yahoo.com/pm-wary-foreign-bids-key-firms-200218761.html

Toronto-Dominion Bank, Canada’s second-largest lender by assets, gained 1 percent. Barrick Gold Corp., the world’s largest gold producer, lost 2 percent as the metal retreated. Canadian Pacific Railway Ltd., the country’s second-biggest railroad, advanced 2.3 percent after an analyst at JPMorgan Chase Co. raised his rating on the shares.

The SP/TSX Composite Index increased 37.51 points, or 0.3 percent, to 12,590.99 at 2:10 p.m. Toronto time, extending its weekly rally to 1 percent. The streak of gains matched the seven-week advance ended April 2009, the longest since January 2006, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

“The number was a huge improvement over expectations,” Pat McHugh, senior managing director and Canadian equity strategist at Manulife Financial Corp.’s asset-management unit, said in a telephone interview. The unit oversees about $217 billion. “Almost twice as many jobs were created last month than economists had been predicting. The biggest beneficiary of an improvement in U.S. consumers is the banking system.”

The SP/TSX has climbed to the highest since September, led by raw-materials producers, as U.S. gains in employment and manufacturing outweighed concern that Europe’s debt crisis will slow world growth. The U.S. accounted for 75 percent of Canada’s exports in 2010, according to Statistics Canada.

Banks, Gold Stocks

U.S. nonfarm payrolls increased by 243,000 jobs in January, the Labor Department said today in Washington. None of the 89 economists in a Bloomberg survey had forecast a gain that big. The U.S. unemployment rate fell to 8.3 percent from 8.5 percent.

The SP/TSX Financials Index rose for the third time in four days. TD climbed 1 percent to C$78.50. Royal Bank of Canada, its bigger domestic rival, gained 0.5 percent to C$53.21. Manulife Financial Corp., North America’s fourth- largest insurance company, rallied 3.7 percent to C$12.37.

Gold stocks dropped as the metal declined on the Comex in New York after settling at a two-month high yesterday. Barrick lost 2 percent to C$48.75.

Goldcorp Inc., the world’s second-largest producer by market value, decreased 2.2 percent to C$47.60. Silver Wheaton Corp., Canada’s fifth-biggest precious-metals company by market value, fell for the first time in eight days, slipping 2.3 percent to C$35.77.

‘On the Chin’

“The strength in the economy implies that the probability of more Fed easing or another quantitative package is being diminished, and gold’s going to take it on the chin,” McHugh said. “The flight-to-safety movement doesn’t appear to be as important as a result of the stats we’ve seen today.”

Energy stocks in the SP/TSX advanced for a fourth day as crude oil futures climbed on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

Suncor Energy Inc., Canada’s largest oil and gas producer, increased 1.3 percent to C$34.70. Cenovus Energy Inc., the country’s fifth-biggest energy company, rose 1.4 percent to C$38.25. Athabasca Oil Sands Corp., PetroChina Co.’s partner in oil-sands development, climbed for a fifth day, adding 1.3 percent to C$12.21. Petrobank Energy and Resources Ltd. jumped 6.1 percent to C$15.02.

Base-metals companies gained as copper futures advanced the most in two weeks. Teck Resources Ltd., Canada’s largest company in the industry, increased 2.3 percent to C$43.50. First Quantum Resources Ltd., the country’s second-biggest publicly traded copper producer, climbed 3 percent to C$23.43.

Rating Raised

Canadian Pacific surged 2.3 percent to C$73.51 after touching C$74.32, the highest intraday price since May 2008. Thomas R. Wadewitz, an analyst at JPMorgan, boosted his rating on the stock to “overweight” from “neutral,” saying the company is in the early stages of a turnaround.

Shares of the Calgary-based company soared 55 percent from Sept. 22 to yesterday as William Ackman’s Pershing Square Capital Management LP bought a stake in the company and began pushing it to replace its chief executive officer.

Canadian National Railway Co., the country’s largest railroad, rose today for a fourth session, gaining 1.3 percent to C$78.20.

Copper Fox Metals Inc., owner of a mining project in British Columbia, jumped 10 percent to C$1.51 after reporting test results from four exploratory drill holes at its Schaft Creek property.

Smart Technologies Inc., which makes electronic whiteboards, plunged 14 percent, the most since May, to C$3.56 after cutting its 2012 earnings forecast. At least five analysts reduced their price estimates on the shares.

Birchcliff Energy Ltd. dropped 3.9 percent to C$13.42. The oil and natural-gas company was cut to “sector perform” from “outperform” at RBC Capital Markets.

–With assistance from Lu Wang in New York. Editors: Stephen Kleege, Jeff Sutherland

Article source: http://news.businessweek.com/article.asp?documentKey=1376-LYTNBN0YHQ0X01-4N309QQV2MTG036OQ0V2088FAO

Canada finished the round robin with a 2-1 record in Curitiba, Brazil, second in Pool A. Only pool winner Argentina advanced.

On Friday, Marie-Eve Pelletier of Repentigny, Que., got Canada started against the Bahamas with a 6-1, 6-0 win over Gabrielle Moxey. Stephanie Dubois of Laval, Que., followed up with a 6-1, 6-1 win over Simone Pratt. Sharon Fichman of Toronto and Pelletier teamed up to win the doubles match – and complete the sweep for Canada – with a 6-1, 6-0 win over Moxey and Nikkita Fountain.

Canada will play either Brazil or Colombia on Saturday with a berth in the Americas zonal event on the line.

Meanwhile, Aleksandra Wozniak of Blainville, Que., was injured earlier this week and returned to Montreal on Friday to have her right foot examined.

Article source: http://www.canada.com/Canada+sweeps+Bahamas/6098252/story.html

By Greg Quinn

(Updates with bond trading in sixth paragraph, economist comment in seventh.)

Feb. 3 (Bloomberg) — Canada’s unemployment rate rose to a nine-month high in January as the trend of sluggish job creation that began in the second half of last year continued.

The jobless rate rose to 7.6 percent from 7.5 percent as employment increased 2,300 last month, Statistics Canada said today in Ottawa. Economists surveyed by Bloomberg News had forecast unemployment to stay at 7.5 percent and 22,000 jobs to be added.

Consumers will account for more than half of Canada’s 2 percent economic growth this year, according to the Bank of Canada, as weak global demand and a high dollar curb exports. Most of the past year’s job growth came in the first six months of that period, Statistics Canada said, which suggests consumer spending growth may be restrained.

“It will weigh against a Bank of Canada rate increase anytime soon, and suggests the Canadian consumer could continue to pull back, not just in the face of elevated debts but also because of weaker job growth,” said Sal Guatieri, a senior economist at BMO Capital Markets in Toronto.

The Canadian report contrasted with U.S. figures, which showed payrolls increased by 243,000 in January, bringing the U.S. jobless rate down to 8.3 percent, its lowest in three years. Canada’s jobless rate has been below that of the U.S. since October 2008, and the gap between the two rates is the narrowest since April 2009.

Bond Yields Rise

The Canadian dollar was little changed at 99.97 cents per U.S. dollar at 8:34 a.m. Toronto time. One Canadian dollar buys $1.003 U.S. The yield on the 2-year government bond rose 3 basis points to 1.02 percent.

“We’re simply not growing fast enough to really be bringing the unemployment rate down,” said Avery Shenfeld, chief economist at CIBC World Markets in Toronto. “It might take a couple of years until we get through the fiscal tightening around the world that is in part responsible for the sluggishness.”

In January, part-time employment rose by 5,900 while full- time jobs decreased by 3,600. Workers classified as employees rose by 39,200 and self-employed workers decreased by 37,000, Statistics Canada said. Private-sector employment increased by 19,700 and public-sector jobs rose by 19,600.

Canada’s job gain was led by a 22,800 increase in education and another 18,800 in information, culture and recreation.

The biggest job decline was 44,800 in professional, scientific and technical services. Employment in finance, insurance real estate and leasing declined for a fifth month, by 23,200, bringing the 12-month drop to 49,700.

Average hourly earnings of permanent employees rose 2.2 percent in January from a year earlier. The Bank of Canada says that figure is a key indicator of inflation.

Central-bank Governor Mark Carney kept his benchmark lending rate at 1 percent Jan. 17, prolonging the longest pause since the bank began using it as a policy measure in 1994.

–with assistance from Andrew Mayeda in Ottawa

–With assistance from Ilan Kolet and Andrew Mayeda in Ottawa . Editors: Paul Badertscher, Gail DeGeorge

To contact the reporter on this story: Greg Quinn in Ottawa at gquinn1@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Chris Wellisz at cwellisz@bloomberg.net; David Scanlan at dscanlan@bloomberg.net

Article source: http://www.businessweek.com/news/2012-02-03/canada-s-jobless-rate-rises-to-nine-month-high-7-6-in-january.html

This year, Canadians will be treated to a commercial titled “Interview”.
The ad presents a humorous account of three 20-something buddies
secretly working together to land one of them a job. By sending in a
decoy to wreak havoc with the prospective employer in the most
outrageous way, the group ensures that the job is secured for their
buddy. Like PEPSI MAX, a zero calorie cola with maximum taste, the
“Interview” spot is fun, young and edgy. “Interview” was created and
produced by CLM BBDO and first aired in Canada during the 2012 World
Junior Ice Hockey Championships in December and January on TSN.

In Quebec, PEPSI MAX will also air a commercial called “MAX City”
produced in Canada by NolinBBDO in Montreal. The commercial features a
young man out on a walk around Montreal, when he notices people around
him reacting with amazement that a cola with so much Pepsi taste could
have zero calories. The spot is uniquely Quebecois and ends with a bang
that is sure to delight Super Bowl viewers across Quebec.

“Having created some of the most memorable spots of the last two
decades, Pepsi has a rich history of Super Bowl advertising,” said Greg
Lyons, VP of Marketing, PepsiCo Beverages Canada. “It’s a joyful
occasion that brings family and friends together, and our family of
brands is part of the experience — on the screen, in the home where
our brands are enjoyed and in the retail store environment.”

In the U.S., PepsiCo is leveraging its sponsorship of the hit television
sensation, The X Factor, with an epic comedic spot featuring Grammy Award-winning music legend
Sir Elton John and The X Factor winner, Melanie Amaro. The 60-second commercial, titled “Kings Court”,
captures Amaro performing a contemporized version of RESPECT for John who is cast as the “King of Rock”. Set in a rock-fantasy
version of medieval times, the song, originally by Otis Redding and
later made popular by the “Queen of Soul”, Aretha Franklin, was
recorded exclusively for the ad. With epic Pepsi scale, the commercial
ends with a twist and the tagline, “Where there’s Pepsi, there’s
music”. The spot will be available for viewing in its entirety to
Canadian consumers on February 3 at http://www.youtube.com/pepsi.

PepsiCo is also planning on running a second ad during this year’s U.S.
Super Bowl broadcast. PEPSI MAX, the official soft drink of the NFL in
the U.S., will also debut a commercial featuring legendary television
personality, Regis Philbin. Canadian consumers can view the ad now on Pepsi’s YouTube page

About PepsiCo Beverages Canada
PepsiCo’s businesses in Canada are organized into two business units.
PepsiCo Foods Canada includes Frito Lay Canada and the Quaker Foods
Snacks business. PepsiCo Beverages Canada includes the Pepsi, Gatorade
and Tropicana businesses.

Follow PepsiCo Beverages Canada:
Twitter (@PepsiCA)
Facebook

About PepsiCo
PepsiCo offers the world’s largest portfolio of billion-dollar food and
beverage brands, including 22 different product lines that generate
more than $1 billion in annual retail sales each. Our main businesses
— Quaker, Tropicana, Gatorade, Frito-Lay, and Pepsi Cola — also make
hundreds of other enjoyable foods and beverages that are respected
household names throughout the world. With net revenues of
approximately $60 billion, PepsiCo’s people are united by our unique
commitment to sustainable growth by investing in a healthier future for
people and our planet, which we believe also means a more successful
future for PepsiCo. We call this commitment Performance with Purpose:
PepsiCo’s promise to provide a wide range of foods and beverages for
local tastes; to find innovative ways to minimize our impact on the
environment, including by conserving energy and water usage, and
reducing packaging volume; to provide a great workplace for our
associates; and to respect, support, and invest in the local
communities where we operate. For more information, please visit www.pepsico.com.

Follow PepsiCo:

• Twitter (@PepsiCo)
• Facebook
• PepsiCo Blogs
• PepsiCo Press Releases
• PepsiCo Multimedia
• PepsiCo Videos

Footage is available via CNW’s video on demand page:
http://cnw.pathfireondemand.com/viewpackage.action?packageid=509 

SOURCE PEPSICO CANADA

Video with caption: “Video: This Pepsi MAX ad will be featured on the Canadian broadcast of Super Bowl XLVI. Three 20-something buddies secretly work together to land one of them a job. By sending in a decoy to wreak havoc with the prospective employer in the most outrageous way, the group ensures that the job is secured for their buddy. Like PEPSI MAX, a zero calorie cola with maximum taste, the “Interview” spot is fun, young and edgy. “Interview” was
created and produced by CLM BBDO.”. Video available at: http://stream1.newswire.ca/cgi-bin/playback.cgi?file=20120202_C8885_VIDEO_EN_9558.mp4posterurl=http://photos.newswire.ca/images/20120202_C8885_PHOTO_EN_9558.jpgclientName=PEPSICO%20CANADAcaption=Video%3A%20This%20Pepsi%20MAX%20ad%20will%20be%20featured%20on%20the%20Canadian%20broadcast%20of%20Super%20Bowl%20XLVI%2E%20Three%2020%2Dsomething%20buddies%20secretly%20work%20together%20to%20land%20one%20of%20them%20a%20job%2E%20By%20sending%20in%20a%20decoy%20to%20wreak%20havoc%20with%20the%20prospective%20employer%20in%20the%20most%20outrageous%20way%2C%20the%20group%20ensures%20that%20the%20job%20is%20secured%20for%20their%20buddy%2E%20Like%20PEPSI%20MAX%2C%20a%20zero%20calorie%20cola%20with%20maximum%20taste%2C%20the%20%22Interview%22%20spot%20is%20fun%2C%20young%20and%20edgy%2E%20%22Interview%22%20was%0D%0Acreated%20and%20produced%20by%20CLM%20BBDO%2Etitle=headline=Pepsi%20MAXimizes%20Canada%27s%20Super%20Bowl%20XLVI%20Television%20Experience

Video with caption: “Video: Behind the scenes broll of Pepsi’s Super Bowl commercial with The X Factor winner Melanie Amaro and Sir Elton John. The full commercial will be available online to Canadians across the country on February 2 at www.youtube.com/pepsi“. Video available at: http://stream1.newswire.ca/cgi-bin/playback.cgi?file=20120202_C8885_VIDEO_EN_9572.mp4posterurl=http://photos.newswire.ca/images/20120202_C8885_PHOTO_EN_9572.jpgclientName=PEPSICO%20CANADAcaption=Video%3A%20Behind%20the%20scenes%20broll%20of%20Pepsi%27s%20Super%20Bowl%20commercial%20with%20The%20X%20Factor%20winner%20Melanie%20Amaro%20and%20Sir%20Elton%20John%2E%20The%20full%20commercial%20will%20be%20available%20online%20to%20Canadians%20across%20the%20country%20on%20February%202%20at%20www%2Eyoutube%2Ecom%2Fpepsititle=headline=Pepsi%20MAXimizes%20Canada%27s%20Super%20Bowl%20XLVI%20Television%20Experience

Image with caption: “In this PEPSI MAX Super Bowl commercial entitled “Interview”, a young 20-something behaves outrageously during a job interview so that his buddy is a shoo-in for the job. (CNW Group/PEPSICO CANADA)”. Image available at: http://photos.newswire.ca/images/download/20120202_C8885_PHOTO_EN_9561.jpg

Article source: http://www.sacbee.com/2012/02/02/4235017/pepsi-maximizes-canadas-super.html

It’s the first time the festivities leading up the day will be made available throughout the province.

Hockey Night in Canada’s Ron MacLean will host the 13½-hour event from a specially built rink in Summerside, P.E.I. He’ll be joined by HNIC commentator Don Cherry, who will be doing a live segment of Coach’s Corner there.

Scotiabank Hockey Tonight and the Hotstove will also be part of the program.

“You have such threads of family [in Canada] and I think that’s what makes this Hockey Day special,” MacLean, who was part of the inaugural event in 2000, said in a conference call. “We just point a camera at some rink rat in any part of the country and it’s just a joy to watch.”

Cherry, known to break out some of the most colourful suits on his famed Coach’s Corner show for more than three decades, promised to sport a new blazer for the occasion.

“You won’t believe it,” said Cherry. “I have four of them and I haven’t quite made up my mind [which one to wear] but it will be a beauty, you can believe it.”

All seven Canadian NHL teams will be in action, beginning with Edmonton at Ottawa (2 p.m. ET), Winnipeg at Pittsburgh (2 p.m. ET), Montreal at Toronto (7 p.m. ET), and ending with Vancouver visiting Calgary (10 p.m. ET).

The four games will be broadcast on CBC and live streamed on CBCSports.ca

A Stanley Cup relay begins on Tuesday night, during which thousands will have a chance to visit with the Cup. During the course of the four-day relay, the Stanley Cup will be travelling to 12 different communities, from Tignish to Summerside to Charlottetown and Souris.

“The exposure that the province is going to get over the 13 hours of live television coverage is going to be immeasurable,” said Doug Currie, P.E.I.’s minister of Health and Wellness.

“You know, we’re well known for our hospitality and our culture, so as a province we feel fortunate and very blessed to have the opportunity to show what we are to the rest of the country.”

The day also features live remotes from across Canada, including Windsor, N.S., Verdun, Que., Thunder Bay, Winnipeg, Prince Albert, Sask., and Richmond, B.C.

Article source: http://www.cbc.ca/sports/hockey/nhl/story/2012/02/02/sp-hockey-day-canada.html

By Greg Quinn

(Updates with economist comment in fourth paragraph, currency trading in fifth paragraph; updates U.S. survey number in seventh paragraph.)

Feb. 3 (Bloomberg) — Canada’s unemployment rate rose to a nine-month high in January as the trend of sluggish job creation that began in the second half of last year continued.

The jobless rate rose to 7.6 percent from 7.5 percent as employment increased 2,300 last month, Statistics Canada said today in Ottawa. Economists surveyed by Bloomberg News had forecast unemployment to stay at 7.5 percent and 22,000 jobs to be added.

Consumers will account for more than half of Canada’s 2 percent economic growth this year, according to the Bank of Canada, as weak global demand and a high dollar curb exports. Most of the past year’s job growth came in the first six months of that period, Statistics Canada said, which suggests consumer spending growth may be restrained.

“It will weigh against a Bank of Canada rate increase anytime soon, and suggests the Canadian consumer could continue to pull back, not just in the face of elevated debts but also because of weaker job growth,” said Sal Guatieri, a senior economist at BMO Capital Markets in Toronto.

The Canadian dollar weakened 0.3 percent to C$1.0022 per U.S. dollar at 7:14 a.m. Toronto time. One Canadian dollar buys 99.79 U.S. cents.

In January, part-time employment rose by 5,900 while full- time jobs decreased by 3,600. Workers classified as employees rose by 39,200 and self-employed workers decreased by 37,000, Statistics Canada said. Private-sector employment increased by 19,700 and public-sector jobs rose by 19,600.

U.S. Report

The U.S. will report January non-farm payrolls at 8:30 a.m., and economists forecast a 140,000 gain with the unemployment rate staying at 8.5 percent. Canada’s jobless rate has been below that of the U.S. since October 2008.

Canada’s job gain was led by a 22,800 increase in education and another 18,800 in information, culture and recreation.

The biggest job decline was 44,800 in professional, scientific and technical services. Employment in finance, insurance real estate and leasing declined for a fifth month, by 23,200, bringing the 12-month drop to 49,700.

Average hourly earnings of permanent employees rose 2.2 percent in January from a year earlier. The Bank of Canada says that figure is a key indicator of inflation.

Central-bank Governor Mark Carney kept his benchmark lending rate at 1 percent Jan. 17, prolonging the longest pause since the bank began using it as a policy measure in 1994.

–With assistance from Ilan Kolet in Ottawa. Editors: Paul Badertscher, Kevin Costelloe

%CAD

To contact the reporter on this story: Greg Quinn in Ottawa at gquinn1@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Christopher Wellisz at cwellisz@bloomberg.net; David Scanlan at dscanlan@bloomberg.net.

Article source: http://www.businessweek.com/news/2012-02-03/canada-jobless-rate-rose-to-nine-month-high-7-6-in-january.html

“Canada has made little substantive progress in fulfilling national and international commitments to sustain marine biodiversity,” the panel report found.

The report noted that the Fisheries Act is beset with regulatory conflicts in terms of protecting and exploiting fish stocks, and the minister of fisheries and oceans wields too much discretionary power.

The report also says the Species at Risk Act has proven ineffective at protecting and recovering marine species at risk, and a promised national marine protected areas network “remains unfilled.”

The application of a “precautionary” management approach with harvest-control rules and recovery plans remains “absent for most fisheries,” the report added.

Panel chairman Jeff Hutchings, a biology professor at Dalhousie University in Halifax, said the federal government’s lack of action at protecting marine biodiversity is “extremely disappointing and dismaying,” a concern that also applies to management of high profile Atlantic cod stocks.

“Anybody can see, and anybody can assuredly be bloody angry, that 20 years after the collapse of the northern cod fishery we don’t have a target for recovery,” he told a Vancouver news conference. “How is that possibly consistent with responsible management of our oceans?”

Canada has the world’s longest coastline and a total of 7.1 million square kilometres of ocean – in the Pacific, Arctic, and Atlantic – amounting to a global stewardship responsibility, the report found.

Well under one per cent of Canada’s oceans is protected.

The Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society is calling on the federal government to protect 12 marine sites by the end of 2012, including four in B.C. – the southern Strait of Georgia; the Big Eddy, also known as the Juan de Fuca eddy – an ecosystem off the west coast of Vancouver Island and Washington state’s Olympic Peninsula; the Scott Islands, off northern Vancouver Island; and Hecate Strait near Haida Gwaii.

More than 16,000 marine species have been recorded in Canada, although there may be at least two to three times as many species still to be found.

Hutchings urged Canadians to show greater concern about the impact of climate change, fishing, and aquaculture on marine biodiversity.

The best strategy against such “key stressors” is to protect existing diversity and to rebuild depleted populations and species to restore natural diversity.

Nations such as Australia, New Zealand, Norway, South Africa, European Union, and the U.S. are well ahead of Canada in this regard.

In Parliament on Thursday, NDP fisheries and oceans critic Fin Donnelly (New Westminster-Coquitlam) raised the panel’s report during question period.

Fisheries minister Keith Ashfield said in response that Canada has a “sustainable fishery” and that “we manage it very carefully with the best science advice that is provided to us.”

Panel member Brian Riddell, chief executive officer of the Vancouver-based Pacific Salmon Foundation, said in an interview that the issue is a lack of execution, not a lack of policy and planning.

“We’re not actually seeing it to fruition and implementation,” he said.

Canada might look at the U.S. Magnuson-Stevens Act and its regional fishery councils that develop management plans, including for restoration of depleted stocks, he said.

“It’s a powerful act, with tight time frames,” he said. “A lot of people would say they’re ahead of us on this.”

The report noted the Pacific is particularly rich in seaweed species, the Arctic in small crustaceans, and the Atlantic in fishes.

Canadian waters host 40 per cent of the world’s marine mammal species.

It also said indicators of climate change include increased surface water temperatures, and high-latitude waters becoming less salty, reducing the transport of nutrients from deep waters to surface waters.

A nearly ice-free Arctic summer could occur as early as the late 2030s, the reports says, and increasing sea levels are forecast to lead to increased flooding, coastal erosion, and saltwater intrusion into wetlands and groundwater. Canada’s oceans are also becoming increasingly acidic, and oxygen levels have been declining in some areas.

Riddell, who served 30 years with the federal fisheries department, including time as division head of salmon assessment, said it is important to realize there have also been improvements in the past decade.

“A lot has changed,” he said. “It’s easy to talk about overfishing, but it has largely been put in the past now.”

The threat of climate change requires Canada to be “more responsive” at protecting marine species, including those that comprise important commercial fisheries, he said.

The Royal Society of Canada is a national body of Canadian scholars, artists and scientists, promoting learning and research in the arts and sciences.

lpynn@vancouversun.com

Article source: http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/news/westcoastnews/story.html?id=5262a079-484f-4ec8-ab07-a73274ceda3b&k=24594

By Greg Quinn

(Updates with economist comment in fourth paragraph, currency trading in fifth paragraph; updates U.S. survey number in seventh paragraph.)

Feb. 3 (Bloomberg) — Canada’s unemployment rate rose to a nine-month high in January as the trend of sluggish job creation that began in the second half of last year continued.

The jobless rate rose to 7.6 percent from 7.5 percent as employment increased 2,300 last month, Statistics Canada said today in Ottawa. Economists surveyed by Bloomberg News had forecast unemployment to stay at 7.5 percent and 22,000 jobs to be added.

Consumers will account for more than half of Canada’s 2 percent economic growth this year, according to the Bank of Canada, as weak global demand and a high dollar curb exports. Most of the past year’s job growth came in the first six months of that period, Statistics Canada said, which suggests consumer spending growth may be restrained.

“It will weigh against a Bank of Canada rate increase anytime soon, and suggests the Canadian consumer could continue to pull back, not just in the face of elevated debts but also because of weaker job growth,” said Sal Guatieri, a senior economist at BMO Capital Markets in Toronto.

The Canadian dollar weakened 0.3 percent to C$1.0022 per U.S. dollar at 7:14 a.m. Toronto time. One Canadian dollar buys 99.79 U.S. cents.

In January, part-time employment rose by 5,900 while full- time jobs decreased by 3,600. Workers classified as employees rose by 39,200 and self-employed workers decreased by 37,000, Statistics Canada said. Private-sector employment increased by 19,700 and public-sector jobs rose by 19,600.

U.S. Report

The U.S. will report January non-farm payrolls at 8:30 a.m., and economists forecast a 140,000 gain with the unemployment rate staying at 8.5 percent. Canada’s jobless rate has been below that of the U.S. since October 2008.

Canada’s job gain was led by a 22,800 increase in education and another 18,800 in information, culture and recreation.

The biggest job decline was 44,800 in professional, scientific and technical services. Employment in finance, insurance real estate and leasing declined for a fifth month, by 23,200, bringing the 12-month drop to 49,700.

Average hourly earnings of permanent employees rose 2.2 percent in January from a year earlier. The Bank of Canada says that figure is a key indicator of inflation.

Central-bank Governor Mark Carney kept his benchmark lending rate at 1 percent Jan. 17, prolonging the longest pause since the bank began using it as a policy measure in 1994.

–With assistance from Ilan Kolet in Ottawa. Editors: Paul Badertscher, Kevin Costelloe

%CAD

To contact the reporter on this story: Greg Quinn in Ottawa at gquinn1@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Christopher Wellisz at cwellisz@bloomberg.net; David Scanlan at dscanlan@bloomberg.net.

Article source: http://www.businessweek.com/news/2012-02-03/canada-s-jobless-rate-rises-to-nine-month-high-7-6-in-january.html

By Greg Quinn

(Updates with economist comment in fourth paragraph, currency trading in fifth paragraph; updates U.S. survey number in seventh paragraph.)

Feb. 3 (Bloomberg) — Canada’s unemployment rate rose to a nine-month high in January as the trend of sluggish job creation that began in the second half of last year continued.

The jobless rate rose to 7.6 percent from 7.5 percent as employment increased 2,300 last month, Statistics Canada said today in Ottawa. Economists surveyed by Bloomberg News had forecast unemployment to stay at 7.5 percent and 22,000 jobs to be added.

Consumers will account for more than half of Canada’s 2 percent economic growth this year, according to the Bank of Canada, as weak global demand and a high dollar curb exports. Most of the past year’s job growth came in the first six months of that period, Statistics Canada said, which suggests consumer spending growth may be restrained.

“It will weigh against a Bank of Canada rate increase anytime soon, and suggests the Canadian consumer could continue to pull back, not just in the face of elevated debts but also because of weaker job growth,” said Sal Guatieri, a senior economist at BMO Capital Markets in Toronto.

The Canadian dollar weakened 0.3 percent to C$1.0022 per U.S. dollar at 7:14 a.m. Toronto time. One Canadian dollar buys 99.79 U.S. cents.

In January, part-time employment rose by 5,900 while full- time jobs decreased by 3,600. Workers classified as employees rose by 39,200 and self-employed workers decreased by 37,000, Statistics Canada said. Private-sector employment increased by 19,700 and public-sector jobs rose by 19,600.

U.S. Report

The U.S. will report January non-farm payrolls at 8:30 a.m., and economists forecast a 140,000 gain with the unemployment rate staying at 8.5 percent. Canada’s jobless rate has been below that of the U.S. since October 2008.

Canada’s job gain was led by a 22,800 increase in education and another 18,800 in information, culture and recreation.

The biggest job decline was 44,800 in professional, scientific and technical services. Employment in finance, insurance real estate and leasing declined for a fifth month, by 23,200, bringing the 12-month drop to 49,700.

Average hourly earnings of permanent employees rose 2.2 percent in January from a year earlier. The Bank of Canada says that figure is a key indicator of inflation.

Central-bank Governor Mark Carney kept his benchmark lending rate at 1 percent Jan. 17, prolonging the longest pause since the bank began using it as a policy measure in 1994.

–With assistance from Ilan Kolet in Ottawa. Editors: Paul Badertscher, Kevin Costelloe

%CAD

To contact the reporter on this story: Greg Quinn in Ottawa at gquinn1@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Christopher Wellisz at cwellisz@bloomberg.net; David Scanlan at dscanlan@bloomberg.net.

Article source: http://www.businessweek.com/news/2012-02-03/canada-jobless-rate-rose-to-nine-month-high-7-6-in-january.html

OTTAWA, Jan. 31 (UPI) — Environment Canada’s forecast for a colder-than-normal winter in western Canada has turned out to be way off-base so far, the agency’s top meteorologist admits.

The Canadian Broadcasting Corp. noted Tuesday the 2011-2012 winter has thus far been one of the mildest on record — so warm, in fact, the only people it has been tough on are those trying to maintain ice rinks and businesses, such as ski areas, that rely on a cold and snowy winter.

“Boy, never have we been more wrong in the West as this year,” Dave Phillips, chief climatologist for Environment Canada, told the news network. “I mean, you know, to have just been normal would have been a real error.

“But my gosh, when you come out of December and January to be the second-warmest on record, I mean, it really is embarrassing almost. I mean it truly, when you look at it, it’s been sort of the non-winter.”

The weather service says the average daily high ran more than 6 degrees Celsius higher than average in Winnipeg, while snowfall for the month was nearly 6 inches below normal.

Phillips said the pre-winter forecast had been based on the expectation that the La Nina weather pattern over the Pacific Ocean would hold down temperatures in western Canada, but it didn’t turn out that way. Instead, Arctic air that usually moves south has been kept north by a strong jet stream.

Article source: http://www.upi.com/Top_News/World-News/2012/01/31/Environment-Canada-winter-forecast-way-off/UPI-79251328054958/

Other showcase ceremonies next week will be the dedication of stained-glass artwork at the Parliament Buildings and Gov. Gen. David Johnston’s presentation of the first 60 jubilee medals at Rideau Hall to outstanding citizens from all parts of Canada.

The official Diamond Jubilee flag will also be flown from the Peace Tower for a week beginning Monday, 60 years to the day since the Queen began her remarkably long, occasionally turbulent, but mostly charmed reign on, Feb. 6, 1952.

The former Princess Elizabeth was vacationing in Kenya with Prince Philip when she learned that her father, King George VI, had died and that she had become the symbolic head of Britain and other Commonwealth countries, including Queen of Canada.

Next week’s events will kick start a year of celebrations in Canada and around the world, with a planned Thames River pageant in June – involving up to 1,000 elaborately decorated ships and boats in a regal flotilla.

Canada’s anniversary tributes are more modest, and a clearer picture of the further ways the country plans to mark the occasion is expected to emerge next week when Heritage Minister James Moore announces funding for community-based jubilee projects.

The federal government revealed in December that it had set a $7.5-million budget to celebrate the royal anniversary. Most of that amount is earmarked for the jubilee medal presentations, which are to be held in Ottawa and at provincial capitals throughout 2012, with several ceremonies scheduled for next week.

Moore will also attend Monday’s ceremony at Rideau Hall, where Johnston will launch the medal initiative by presenting one medal to a worthy Canadian for each year since Elizabeth became Queen.

Not all of Canada’s gifts to the Queen have awaited the official Feb. 6 start of the jubilee anniversary. In December, a delegation of representatives from the Manitoba-based Royal Regiment of Canadian Artillery presented Her Majesty with a gold and platinum brooch at Buckingham Palace. The ornate pin features a maple leaf encrusted with 60 individual diamonds, a gold cannon and a stylized crown set with a sapphire, emeralds and rubies.

Canada Post recently unveiled a set of stamps marking each decade of the Queen’s reign, including one design that recalls the Diamond Jubilee of Elizabeth’s great-great grandmother, Queen Victoria.

Article source: http://www.windsorstar.com/news/Canada+readies+Queen+jubilee/6082582/story.html

The report, based on the results of 52 million speed tests of broadband users across the G7 countries and Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) membership, was produced by Montreal-based consulting firm Lemay Yates Associates Inc. on behalf of Rogers Communications Inc., the country’s largest broadband service provider.

It disputes the OECD’s own report, published in July, that ranked Canada’s high-speed Internet offerings significantly below those of other countries.

At 74%, Canada has the highest broadband penetration rate in the G7, the report said, significantly ahead of the United Kingdom (69.2%) and France (69%). Canadians also have the second-least expensive average monthly broadband subscription rates in the G7, with a typical monthly fee of US$30.79 in Canada being only slightly more than the US$29.80 per month Internet service providers (ISPs) charge in Italy.

Among all 32 OECD countries, Canada has the seventh-lowest average broad-band subscription fees, with Greece, at US$24.23 per month, the lowest.

That conclusion differs vastly from the OECD report, which ranks Canada as 26th, or seventh most-expensive among its membership. The disparity comes from different methodologies employed by the two reports.

Canadians also experienced an average decline in broadband speeds during peak usage hours of only 5.8%, the Lemay Yates report said, well below the 6.6% average of all OECD members.

The OECD takes an average of advertised speeds and rates, the Lemay Yates report said; Lemay Yates said it uses real data from real users and takes other factors such as ISP market share into account.

“Canada’s performance, based on LYA’s analyses, is always better – along every dimension analyzed – than what is reported by the most recent OECD Communications Outlook report,” the Lemay Yates report says.

The report comes days after the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) revealed a sharp jump in the number of complaints it has received regarding Internet traffic-management practices or “throttling” in recent months.

Rogers in particular has been facing criticism over the controversial practice, with the CRTC ruling last month the Toronto-based company was deliberately slowing certain online traffic.

jberkow@nationalpost.com

Article source: http://www.canada.com/technology/internet/Canada+Internet+among+best+world/6090546/story.html?id=6090546

Royal Bank of Canada (RY), the country’s largest lender by
assets, increased 1.7 percent as banks climbed for the first
time in seven days. Cenovus Energy Inc. (CVE), Canada’s fifth-biggest
energy company, rallied 1.9 percent as oil and gas stocks
advanced. Valeant Pharmaceuticals International Inc. (VRX), Canada’s
largest drugmaker, gained 3.9 percent after saying it will buy a
Brazilian food supplements company.

The SP/TSX Composite Index (SPTSX) rose 65.51 points, or 0.5
percent, to 12,517.66.

“Canada is very much tied to global growth,” Jennifer Radman, a money manager at Caldwell Investment Management Ltd.
in Toronto, said in a telephone interview. The firm oversees
about C$1 billion ($1 billion). “Over the last several months,
there’s been a pick-up in economic numbers. In China, there’s
more and more confidence they’re not going to have this hard
landing some people were talking about.”

The SP/TSX gained 4.2 percent in January, its second
monthly advance in 11 months, as raw-materials producers surged
10 percent on higher metals prices. Gold had its biggest January
rally since 1983 and copper increased after the U.S. Federal
Reserve extended its low-interest-rate pledge to late 2014. The
industry accounts for 22 percent of Canadian stocks by market
value, according to Bloomberg data.

Indexes Top Forecasts

Purchasing managers’ indexes from China and the U.K. showed
manufacturing expanded faster in January than most economists in
Bloomberg surveys had forecast. In the euro region,
manufacturing contracted less than the median economist
forecast.

Greece may offer to promise a reduction in bondholders’
losses in a debt swap that would take effect if the country’s
economy rebounds, people with knowledge of the confidential
talks said. Owners of Greek debt have been negotiating an
exchange of their bonds for newer ones that would pay a lower
interest rate.

Bank shares in the SP/TSX ended their longest streak of
losses since July. Royal Bank climbed 1.7 percent to C$53.28.
Bank of Montreal, Canada’s second-largest lender by assets, rose
0.9 percent to C$58.80. Manulife Financial Corp. (MFC), North
America’s fourth-biggest insurer, gained 2 percent to C$11.94.

Cenovus, Canadian Natural

The SP/TSX Energy Index (STENRS) advanced for a second day. Cenovus
increased 1.9 percent to C$37.29. Canadian Natural Resources
Ltd. (CNQ), the country’s second-largest energy company by market
value, climbed 1.1 percent to C$40.16.

TransGlobe Energy Corp. (TGL), which produces oil and gas in
Egypt and Yemen, rose 6.5 percent to C$10.40 to extend its
three-day surge to 10 percent. The company’s daily average oil
production increased 41 percent in January from the fourth
quarter of 2011, Calgary-based TransGlobe said Jan. 30.

Flint Energy Services Ltd. (FES), an oilfield-services company,
rallied 6.4 percent to C$15.73 after gaining 5.6 percent
yesterday. Frederic Bastien, an analyst at Raymond James
Financial Inc., began coverage of the company with a “strong
buy” rating yesterday, citing its diverse activities and growth
in the shale gas and natural gas liquids industries.

Lowered Forecast

Golden Star Resources Ltd. (GSC), which mines gold in Ghana, sank
7.3 percent to C$2.03 after Paolo Lostritto, an analyst at
National Bank of Canada, cut his rating on the shares to
“underperform” from “sector perform.” Lostritto cited the
company’s lowered production forecast for 2012.

Valeant gained 3.9 percent to C$50.47 after agreeing to buy
Probiotica Laboratorios Ltda., based in Embu das Artes, Sao
Paulo, for 150 million reais ($86 million). Probiotica had about
80 million reais in revenue last year, Valeant said in a
statement.

Westport Innovations Inc. (WPT), which develops natural-gas
engine technologies, dropped 7.5 percent to C$38.50 after
Navistar International Corp. said it will sell heavy-duty trucks
with engines it is developing with Clean Air Power Ltd. Westport
closed at a 10-year high yesterday.

Dundee Precious Metals Inc. (DPM), which operates in Bulgaria,
Armenia and Namibia, surged 7.4 percent to C$10.11, the highest
since December 2010. A company memo says the Namibian government
has found no health or environmental reason to immediately close
the Tsumeb smelter, the government newspaper New Era reported
today.

To contact the reporter on this story:
Matt Walcoff in Toronto at
mwalcoff1@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Nick Baker at
nbaker7@bloomberg.net

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Article source: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-02-01/canadian-stocks-rise-as-manufacturing-indexes-gain-in-eu-china.html

Read through to see our early results.

If you haven’t done the quiz yet, click on the following link (without peeking at the answer key below) and see how you do.

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Answers

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Q1. True. Anyone earning less than $3,500 is automatically exempt from CPP contributions.

66 per cent of you got Q1 right.

Q2. False. At age 70, a person stops contributing to CPP even if they continue working.

75 per cent of you got Q2 right!

Q3. True. Anyone who has made at least one payment into the CPP is eligible for
benefits once they reach the age of 65; the size of the benefits
depends on how much, and for how long, a person contributed into the plan
and at what age they start receiving benefits.

59 per cent of you got Q3 right.

Q4. All of the above. The amount a person receives under the system depends on how much and
for how long a person contributed, as well as the age at which a person
starts receiving CPP payments.

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Q5. Public Service benefits are NOT a type of CPP benefits. The three types of CPP benefits are disability benefits, retirement pension and survivor benefits.

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Q6. The cost of living according to the Consumer Price Index. The government adjusts the Old Age Security (OAS) payment every three months to account for
increases in the cost of living according to the Consumer Price Index.

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Q7. $788/month. If you have lived and worked in Canada most years between age 18 and 65
and earned about the average Canadian wage ($39,100 in 2002), at age 65
you would receive a CPP retirement pension of about $788 a month

45 per cent of you got Q7 right.

Q8. Age 60. A person can begin receiving CPP anytime after age 60, but will incur a financial penalty by doing so. In 2012, a person receiving CPP
early will be subject to a 0.52 per cent reduction for each month before
the age of 65 that they received payments. That number is slated to
rise to 0.6 per cent per month in 2016.

74 per cent of you got Q8 right!

Q9. Six months. The government recommends applying for CPP six months before a person wants their pension to begin.

54 per cent of you got Q9 right.

Q10. 71st birthday: Similar to OAS, a person can receive retroactive payments covering up to
12 months if they delay applying for CPP until after they have turned 71.

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Related articles:

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• 6 big Canada Pension Plan changes coming in 2012
• Special report on retirement investing

Article source: http://www.cbc.ca/news/yourcommunity/2012/02/canada-pension-plan-quiz-results.html

Harper heads across the Pacific next week in a bid to convince China to satisfy its growing energy appetite with Canada’s vast oil reserves.

Though it appears a classic supply-demand match on the surface, the plan faces hurdles that range from how long it will take to build the pipeline to environmental dangers and questions about China’s human rights record.

China imports no oil from Canada at present, and the infrastructure is not in place in Canada to get the crude from the massive tar sands of Alberta to the Pacific coast, forcing a long-term view of a partnership.

“China as an energy market directly for the delivery of (Canadian) oil is medium to long term. Five years is too short, 10 years is perhaps doable,” said Gordon Houlden, a former Canadian diplomat with extensive Chinese experience who heads the University of Alberta’s China Institute.

A myriad of legal and regulatory issues play a big role in the delay.

The most obvious supply route for crude headed to China is pipeline operator Enbridge Inc’s proposed 1,177-km (731-mile) Northern Gateway pipeline from the northern Alberta oil sands to Kitimat on the British Columbia coast, which is strongly opposed by greens and some aboriginal bands.

Regulatory hearings into the pipeline opened last month and could drag on for years, after which the project looks set meander through Canada’s slow-paced court system.

“The challenge of exporting energy from Canada to China is a domestic challenge … so I would not place any false hopes on the China visit with respect to a breakthrough on the energy file,” said Yuen Pau Woo, president of the Asia Pacific Foundation of Canada.

Harper nevertheless says he is serious about diversifying the market for oil exports after U.S. President Barack Obama last month vetoed TransCanada’s Corp’s Keystone XL pipeline that would have carried crude from Alberta to Texas refineries.

The Keystone pipeline is a hot political issue in the United States, where the Republicans are choosing a presidential candidate to run against Obama in the November 2012 election.

“My message to the people of Canada is don’t cut a deal with the Chinese, help is on the way. By January (2013), you’re going to build the right pipeline to the right place,” Republican contender Newt Gingrich told supporters on Tuesday night.

Canada, now the single largest supplier of energy to the United States, says it is unwise to keep on relying on one customer. Beijing welcomes the idea of Canadian diversification.

“China is undergoing rapid industrialization and urbanization, and its demand for energy and resources is simply huge,” said Zhang Junsai, China’s ambassador to Canada.

“The two countries have every reason to forge a stable and win-win partnership in the long run in the field of resources,” he said in a statement on the embassy’s website this week.

Chinese firms are interested in the oil sands and since July 2011 have quietly snapped up around C$5.5 billion ($5.5 billion) worth of Canadian assets. On Thursday, PetroChina Co Ltd announced the latest deal, an agreement to buy a 20 percent stake in a shale gas project in Canada from Royal Dutch Shell Plc for an estimated $1 billion.

More Chinese purchases are set to follow.

“Before the negative sides of the investment(s) surface, such as poor profitability and the massive challenges in managing an acquired foreign target, Chinese energy firms will maintain strong appetite for mergers and acquisitions,” said a Beijing-based Chinese oil executive.

At some stage this could cause domestic friction, since a major poll last year showed 76 percent of Canadians opposed the idea of a state-owned Chinese firm trying to buy a controlling stake in a Canadian company. It also said more Canadians saw China’s growing strength as a threat than as an opportunity.

Houlden said the Canadian government’s position on foreign purchases had yet to be tested and the real challenge would be if a Chinese company decided to buy a Canadian oil giant such as Nexen Inc or Suncor Energy Inc.

“I personally think the Chinese would like to have that scale of participation – it’s well within their means. But I think they’re … becoming more politically sophisticated as they recognize there probably is a tolerance limit,” he said.

Harper kept China at a distance after his Conservative Party took power in early 2006. But under pressure from companies keen to take advantage of the enormous Chinese market, the government has since warmed up to the idea of much more trade with China.

“That’s consistent with the message that the business community has been sending to them. China is just too important,” said John Manley, CEO of the Canadian Council of Chief Executives.

Ottawa’s stance is complicated by the complaints of some Conservatives about human rights in China. Activists say Harper must raise the issue in Beijing.

“With obvious Chinese interest in Canada’s natural resource sector … it is time to be confident and recognize that human rights can be put on the table without damaging trade,” Amnesty Canada Secretary-General Alex Neve told reporters on Thursday.

Although Foreign Minister John Baird last week slammed China for what he called “abhorrent acts” against religious believers, both Houlden and Woo said the attack would not cause China inordinate grief.

“These comments … allow the venting of frustrations and well-held concerns about human rights challenges in China and may in fact take the pressure off the prime minister,” Woo said.

Article source: http://news.yahoo.com/analysis-canada-plan-sell-oil-china-faces-big-204840692.html

Mark Cooper, a spokesman for Alberta Environment Minister Diana McQueen, said on Thursday that the two governments would make an announcement in Edmonton, Alberta, on the new monitoring plan. He did not offer details.

Separate panels commissioned by the two governments last year found that the current monitoring regime, which is backed by oil sands producers, is not capable of assessing the effect of oil sands production on the environment.

The tar sands of northern Alberta are the third-largest oil reserve in the world, behind Saudi Arabia and Venezuela and output from the region is set to double to three million barrels a day by 2020.

But environmental groups have long campaigned against developing the resource, arguing that northern Alberta’s massive oil sands mining projects spew pollution and greenhouse gases and harm local communities and wildlife.

Opposition from green groups was seen as a key reason that U.S. President Barack Obama last month refused to allow TransCanada Corp to build its Keystone XL pipeline project, which was set to ship crude from the oil sands to Texas refineries.

A knowledgeable source said that McQueen and federal Environment Minister Peter Kent would unveil details of how the new joint federal-Alberta monitoring system will be implemented.

One expert said that combining the best recommendations of the federal and provincial panels would be the best solution for the new monitoring scheme.

“I hope they will use something close to the science plan that Environment Canada has (called for) and for governance use something very close to the … expert panel (Alberta’s study had recommended),” said University of Alberta biologist David Schindler.

Schindler was the co-author of a 2010 study that found that oil sands plants were sending toxins including mercury, arsenic and lead into the watershed.

Schindler criticized work by the government-supported and industry-funded Regional Aquatics Monitoring Program, which has said pollution in the region’s Athabasca River system occurs naturally.

The subsequent reviews by provincial and federal panels concluded the existing monitoring system must be improved.

(Reporting by Scott Haggett; editing by Rob Wilson and Peter Galloway)

Article source: http://news.yahoo.com/canada-alberta-announce-oil-sands-monitoring-222407577.html

Article source: http://news.yahoo.com/canadas-fm-concerned-mortgages-230345400.html

Article source: http://news.yahoo.com/canada-looks-israel-r-d-reform-ideas-191718188.html

Fishing continues in areas where cod stocks are below “critical limits,” says Jeffrey Hutchings of Dalhousie University and head of a national science panel that called Thursday for sweeping changes in the management of Canada’s oceans.

The change needs to start at the top, by reducing the “czar-like” powers of the federal minister of fisheries and oceans, the panel says.

The Fisheries Act, which dates back to 1868, also needs to get with the modern age, says the expert panel on marine biodiversity, which was established by the Royal Society of Canada.

The Department of Fisheries and Oceans is responsible for both exploiting and conserving fisheries — a “conflict of interest” that the panel says needs to be resolved.

The 10-member panel spent two years assessing ocean biodiversity and the challenges posed by climate change, fishing and aquaculture.

It has delivered a 316-page report that says Canada’s oceans are becoming warmer and more acidic, which could make some waters inhospitable to marine life. And sea ice disappearing from the Arctic and the East Coast will profoundly affect marine life and their ecosystems.

It says overfishing has seriously depleted many species and disrupted marine food webs.

In the Gulf of St. Lawrence predatory-prey interactions have changed and “Now we find cod and some other species in a position where they are headed for extirpation,” Hutchings told a media briefing.

The report estimates that fish in Canada’s oceans declined in abundance by an average of 52 per cent from 1970 to the mid-1990s and “most commercially fished stocks remain well below conservation target levels. “

Catches are about half those of the late 1980s with the landed value of all fisheries in 2009 almost the lowest since 1977, it says.

The panel says oceans stewardship and biodiversity conservation need to be made a “top government priority.”

It notes that government officials like to say Canada is a world leader in oceans and marine management, but the panel says the rhetoric does not square with reality.

“We made promises, and we haven’t kept them, ” says Hutchings.

The government has committed to creating a network of marine protected areas to cover 10 per cent of Canada’s ocean “real estate” by 2020.

So far, marine protected areas encompass less than one per cent of Canada’s ocean area, the panel says. And in 160 of the 161 protected areas off the B.C. coast, fishing is still allowed.

It says the government is still not using a “precautionary approach” to manage marine resources — a commitment that dates back to 1996.

Far from being a world leader, the panel says Canada is a laggard.

“It’s just simply not up to speed with the rest world,” says panel member David VanderZwaag, a law professor at Dalhousie University who specializes in marine and environmental law.

The United States, Norway, New Zealand and Australia have much more progressive programs to protect and rebuild fish stocks, the panel says.

Twenty years after the collapse of northern cod, which devastated East Coast communities and threw more than 30,000 Maritimers out of work, cod stocks are about a tenth of their former size, says Hutchings. And vulnerable cod stocks are still being overfished, he says.

The fishery was shut down in bid to let the stocks recover, but Hutchings says in several instances over the past 20 years the federal fisheries minister allowed nets back in the water.

“The reopenings took place at the discretion of the minister,” says Hutchings. “They were not based on science, they were not based on an overall recovery plan.”

It is these discretionary, or “czar-like,” powers the panel wants reduced, saying the minister needs to be more transparent and accountable for fisheries management decisions.

Hutchings says the problem is not so much political as institutional.

Since the 1992 cod collapse, there have been 12 ministers of fisheries and oceans, seven of them liberals, five conservatives.

“And we still don’t have recovery target for a single cod stock,” Hutchings said. “That tells me it’s an institution issue.”

The panel says Canada also needs strategic research initiatives to help sustain marine biodiversity.

“One of the first things that seems to fall off when money gets tight is long-term data sets,” says panel member Brian Riddell, head of the Pacific Salmon Foundation. He stressed the need for long-term monitoring of marine resources and fish stocks.

“We really cannot talk about the status of our populations or about changes under climate change without having critical long-term information.”

mmunro@postmedia.com

Article source: http://www.canada.com/hook+Canada+jeopardizing+fish+stocks+with+poor+management+report+says/6091501/story.html

Aleksandra Wozniak of Blainville, Que., opened the tie with a 7-5, 6-4 loss to 19-year-old Paula Ormaechea, ranked a No. 139 on the WTA rankings.

Laval, Que.’s Stephanie Dubois then fell 6-2, 6-2 to Florencia Molinero, ranked No. 184 in the world.

To round out the sweep, Mailen Auroux and Maria Irigoyen defeated Toronto’s Sharon Fichman and Marie-Eve Pelletier of Repentigny, Que., 6-0, 6-3 in doubles.

Canada faces the Bahamas on Friday in the final round-robin tie.

In order for the Canadians to have a chance to finish first in their group and play for a spot in the World Group II playoffs in April, they must beat the Bahamas and have Peru defeat Argentina.

A tiebreaker formula would then be used to determine which team would finish first in the group.

Article source: http://www.vancouversun.com/Tennis+Canada+drops+Argentina/6091821/story.html

By Chris Fournier

Feb. 1 (Bloomberg) — The Canadian dollar advanced to a three-month high versus its U.S. counterpart as stronger global manufacturing data boosted speculation the worldwide economy is growing, stoking investor appetite for riskier assets.

Canada’s currency rose beyond parity with the greenback as purchasing-manager indexes from China to the U.S. increased and European Union President Herman Van Rompuy said the bloc has reached a “turning point” in its two-year-old debt crisis. Canadian employers added jobs in January for a second month, economists predicted a report will show Feb 3. Stocks climbed.

“The loonie’s doing a bit better on the general positive outlook,” Michael O’Neill, vice president of foreign-exchange trading at RJOFX Canada, a unit of RJ O’Brien Associates Inc., said by phone from Toronto. “That’s partly from the China data last night and also in part because Europe hasn’t cratered. There’s also a bit more optimism surrounding the U.S. economy. What good for the U.S. is good for global growth; Canada is along for the ride.”

The currency, nicknamed the loonie for the image of the waterfowl on the C$1 coin, appreciated 0.4 percent to 99.86 Canadian cents per U.S. dollar at 5 p.m. Toronto time. It touched 99.64 cents, the strongest level since Oct. 31. One Canadian dollar buys $1.0014.

The U.S. dollar fell against all except two of its 16 most- traded peers as investors sought higher-yielding assets.

Biggest Trade Partner

The loonie gained beyond a one-for-one basis with the greenback for a second day as data from the Institute for Supply Management showed manufacturing in the U.S., Canada’s biggest trade partner, expanded at the fastest pace in seven months. The ISM index rose to 54.1, less than projected, from 53.1 in December, the Tempe, Arizona-based group’s report said. Figures greater than 50 signal expansion.

Chinese factory indexes increased as the world’s second- biggest economy withstood weaker exports driven by the European debt crisis and a government-induced property slowdown. In Germany, Europe’s largest economy, output grew for the first time since September.

“The Canadian dollar is being driven by the better-than- expected PMI data,” Mark McCormick, a New York-based currency strategist at Brown Brothers Harriman Co., said in an e-mail message. “This has resulted in broad U.S. dollar weakness, a strong rally in equities and has boosted growth-sensitive currencies such as the Canadian dollar.”

Bonds Drop

Canadian government bonds fell. Benchmark 10-year notes slid for the first time in six days, lifting their yields higher by two basis points, or 0.02 percentage point, to 1.90 percent. The securities yielded eight basis points more than comparable U.S. Treasuries, versus six basis points at the end of 2011.

Canada sold C$2.5 billion ($2.5 billion) of 10-year debt today, drawing an average yield of 2.015 percent, according to a statement on the Bank of Canada’s website. The 2.75 percent notes are due in June 2022.

The auction attracted C$5.8 billion in bids for a coverage ratio — the amount bid relative to the amount sold — of 2.31. The last offering of 10-year bonds, on Oct. 5, drew an average yield of 2.254 percent and a coverage ratio of 2.52.

Employers in Canada added a net 22,000 jobs last month after a revised increase of 21,700 in December, according to the median of 23 forecasts compiled by Bloomberg News before Statistics Canada reports the data on Feb. 3. U.S. payrolls swelled by 145,000 jobs in January, data due the same day in Washington is forecast to show.

Depreciation Forecast

The loonie will depreciate to C$1.03 by the end of the first quarter after weakening 2.3 percent last year, economists in a Bloomberg survey predicted.

“The price action in the Canadian dollar is more a function of external risks, namely the outlook for the euro zone,” Brown Brothers’ McCormick said. “We also expect momentum in the U.S. economy is likely to wane. As a result, we’re a bit more bearish on the Canadian dollar and expect it to finish the quarter at C$1.06.”

RJOFX’s O’Neill predicted the loonie will stay in a range between 99.60 cents and C$1.0050 at least until the payrolls data this week. He recommended buying the greenback against the loonie at 99.60 cents and 99.70 cents, exiting the trade if the U.S. currency weakens to 99.45 cents.

Fibonacci Analysis

O’Neill, citing Fibonacci retracement levels on the range between the July 26 high in the Canadian dollar at 94.07 cents versus the greenback, and its low at C$1.0658 on Oct. 4, said if the currency breaks through the 61.8 percent retracement level at about 98.80, “we should get 100 percent retracement” back to 94.07 cents. That is unlikely to happen unless the euro can appreciate beyond about $1.3250, O’Neill said. It rose 0.6 percent today to $1.3158.

Fibonacci analysis is based on the theory that securities tend to rise or fall by specific percentages after reaching a new high or low.

Canada’s dollar gained 2.8 percent over the past three months against nine developed-nation counterparts monitored by Bloomberg Correlation-Weighted Currency Indexes. The U.S. dollar appreciated 0.4 percent, while the euro weakened 4 percent.

The EU’s Van Rompuy told European lawmakers “substantially” lower yields on Italian and Spanish bonds signal efforts to overcome the debt crisis and preserve the euro are paying off. Greece and private creditors are near an accord on a debt swap that in principle would include a sweetener tied to a revival in economic growth to ease the plan’s impact on bondholders, people with knowledge of the talks said.

The Standard Poor’s 500 Index rose 0.9 percent in its first advance in five days. Crude oil for March delivery climbed as much as 1.2 percent to $99.49 a barrel in New York before sliding to $97.31. Crude, Canada’s biggest export, reversed gains after a report showed U.S. inventories climbed.

–Editors: Greg Storey, Kenneth Pringle

To contact the reporter on this story: Chris Fournier in Halifax, Nova Scotia, at cfournier3@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Dave Liedtka at dliedtka@bloomberg.net

Article source: http://www.businessweek.com/news/2012-02-02/canada-s-dollar-gains-to-three-month-high-as-risk-appetite-grows.html

Keystone XL

Demonstrators march with a replica of a pipeline during a protest against the Keystone XL Pipeline outside the White House on Sunday, Nov. 6, 2011, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci) (ASSOCIATED PRESS)

Demonstrators against the proposed Keystone XL pipeline, protest outside the law offices of Nebraska Speaker of the Legislature Mike Flood, in Norfolk, Neb., Tuesday, Oct. 11, 2011, while Alex Pourbaix, president of TransCanada Corp.’s energy and oil pipelines, holds a meeting inside with state senators to discuss the proposed route of the Keystone XL pipeline through the state. (AP Photo/Nati Harnik) (ASSOCIATED PRESS)

In this Oct. 13, 2010, the sandhills near Mills in north central Nebraska, through which the Keystone XL pipeline is planned to be built, is shown. TransCanada’s second pipeline, the $7 billion Keystone XL, is planned to carry crude oil from tar sands near Hardisty, Alberta to the Gulf Coast is now delayed indefinitely, with little official explanation. The company had hoped to begin laying pipe by the end of the year, but those prospects have dimmed. (AP Photo/Nati Harnik) (ASSOCIATED PRESS)

Demonstrators march with a replica of a pipeline during a protest to demand a stop to the Keystone XL tar sands oil pipeline outside the White House on Sunday, Nov. 6, 2011, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci) (ASSOCIATED PRESS)

Demonstrators for the Keystone XL pipeline, right, and a demonstrator against the pipeline meet outside Pershing Auditorium near the state Capitol in Lincoln, Neb., Tuesday, Sept. 27, 2011, before a hearing on the pipeline. Opponents of the pipeline that would carry tar sands oil from Canada to Texas through the sandhills of Nebraska expressed concern about the pipeline’s effect on the Ogallala Aquifer, a vast subterranean reservoir that spans a large swath of the Great Plains and provides water to eight states, while supporters of the pipeline, which include labor unions and business groups, spoke of jobs and development and energy security. (AP Photo/Nati Harnik) (AP)

Protesters opposing the Keystone XL pipeline carry a mock pipeline in front of Pershing Auditorium in Lincoln, Neb., Tuesday, Sept. 27, 2011, before a public hearing began inside. Environmentalists and landowners, who held a rally against the Keystone XL pipeline that would carry tar sands oil from Canada to Texas through the sandhills of Nebraska, expressed concern about the pipeline’s effect on the Ogallala Aquifer, a vast subterranean reservoir that spans a large swath of the Great Plains and provides water to eight states, while supporters of the pipeline, which include labor unions and business groups, held an opposing rally and spoke of jobs and development and energy security. (AP Photo/Nati Harnik) (AP)

Demonstrators for and against the Keystone XL pipeline gather outside Pershing Auditorium near the state Capitol in Lincoln, Neb., Tuesday, Sept. 27, 2011. Federal officials head to Nebraska’s capital Tuesday as public hearings about a proposed oil pipeline that would span the country from Canada to the Gulf of Mexico move to the state where opposition to the $7 billion plan has been strongest. Opponents of the pipeline that would carry tar sands oil from Canada to Texas through the sandhills of Nebraska expressed concern about the pipeline’s effect on the Ogallala Aquifer, a vast subterranean reservoir that spans a large swath of the Great Plains and provides water to eight states, while supporters of the pipeline, which include labor unions and business groups, spoke of jobs and development and energy security. (AP Photo/Nati Harnik) (AP)

Nebraska Governor Dave Heineman speaks during a news conference in Lincoln, Neb., Thursday, Aug. 4, 2011, with Lt. Gov. Rick Sheehy, right. Heineman said he will not convene a special session of the legislature despite a call by Sen. Ken Haar of Malcolm, who wants the state to enact legislation to protect Nebraska’s Sand Hills and Ogallala Aquifer from the Keystone XL pipeline project, that some say is an environmental threat. (AP Photo/Nati Harnik) (AP)

Actress Daryl Hannah is arrested by U.S. Park Police in front of the White House in Washington, Tuesday, Aug. 30, 2011, during a protest against the Keystone oil pipeline. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci) (AP)

By David Hendricks
San Antonio Express-News staff writer

The U.S. government must decide whether it wants more oil from Canada or wants to continue relying on high levels of supplies from the Middle East and Venezuela, the Canadian ambassador to the United States said Wednesday while in San Antonio.

If San Antonio-based Valero Energy Corp. could decide, the refining company would select the Canada option, using the proposed Keystone XL pipeline, Valero Vice President Jim Greenwood said.

As proposed, the Keystone pipeline would stretch from northeastern Alberta, Canada, to the Houston-Port Arthur refinery region.

Canadian ambassador Gary Doer spoke at a Wednesday luncheon sponsored by Greater San Antonio Chamber of Commerce, chaired by Greenwood. Doer told the audience of about 160 people that Canada believes the Obama administration should more forward on the pipeline project “on its merits.”

Doer told the audience that Canada believes the Obama administration should more forward on the pipeline project “on its merits.”

On Jan. 18, President Barack Obama said the U.S. government was rejecting the TransCanada Corp. pipeline application because environmental studies could not be completed by a deadline imposed by a December law extending the U.S. payroll tax reduction.

TransCanada is widely expected to re-apply for approval. Greenwood said the Jan. 18 announcement was “a decision not to make a decision” for now.

Despite the rejection, Doer remains confident. “We’re going to get it done,” Doer said.

The $7 billion pipeline would deliver between 435,000 and 590,000 barrels of oil per day from Alberta’s oil sands to refineries in Illinois and on the Texas coast. The pipeline also could deliver to refineries the oil being extracted from shale formations in North Dakota and Montana.

Doer told San Antonio Express-News editors before the luncheon that Canada Prime Minister Stephen Harper will visit China next week. “Oil will be on the agenda,” Doer said.

China and India are possible customers for Canadian oil if the project is canceled and U.S. companies cannot take delivery, the ambassador said.

“We have a resource the world wants. We are going to develop our options. We’re not going to stand still while others stand still,” Doer said.

U.S. critics of the pipeline project say it would come with a high environmental toll, leaving behind toxic sludge ponds and destroyed forests while producing large amounts of gases linked to climate change.

But opposition from environmentalists is countered by support from labor organizations seeking the thousands of jobs that would result from pipeline construction and at refineries and companies making pipeline construction equipment, motors and pumps, Doer said.

In addition, “we want to assure that national security is part of the debate, too,” Doer said. “We believe the Keystone pipeline fits into energy independence for the United States.”

Valero has planned since 2008 to purchase and refine Canadian oil and is expanding its Port Arthur refinery.

“The pipeline would bring the heavier crude that we are finding less of in the world, from Mexico and Venezuela, which is of volatile reliability,” Greenwood said. “We want to assure we have a supply from a partner in North America and not be subjected to the . The project is now in limbo. We feel…whims of geopolitical chaos . eventually it will get built.”

Greenwood added that Valero “actively is visiting with legislators on the importance of a reliable source of crude oil for transportation fuels.”

dhendricks@express-news.net

Article source: http://fuelfix.com/blog/2012/02/02/canada-ambassador-pipeline-should-be-built-%E2%80%9Con-merits%E2%80%9D/

/NOT FOR DISTRIBUTION TO U.S. NEWS WIRE SERVICES OR DISSEMINATION IN THE
UNITED STATES ./

MONTREAL , Feb. 2, 2012 /CNW Telbec/ – Laurentian Bank of Canada (TSX:
LB.TO – News) (the “Bank”) announces today the closing of its previously
announced equity financing having issued 1,325,100 common shares (the
“Common Shares”) at $47.55 per Common Share for gross proceeds of
$63,008,505 , including the exercise in full of the underwriters’
over-allotment option. The syndicate of underwriters was co-led by
CIBC, BMO Capital Markets and Laurentian Bank Securities Inc. and
included National Bank Financial Inc., TD Securities Inc., Desjardins
Securities Inc., Macquarie Capital Markets Canada Ltd., RBC Capital
Markets and Scotia Capital Inc.

The net proceeds from this financing will be used for the Bank’s general
corporate purposes.

The securities offered have not been registered under the U.S.
Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and may not be offered or sold in
the United States absent registration or an applicable exemption from
the registration requirements.  This press release shall not constitute
an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy nor shall there
be any sale of the securities in any State in which such offer,
solicitation or sale would be unlawful.

About Laurentian Bank

Laurentian Bank of Canada is a banking institution operating across
Canada and offering its clients diversified financial services.
Distinguishing itself through excellence in service, as well as through
its simplicity and proximity, the Bank serves individual consumers and
small and medium-sized businesses. The Bank also offers its products to
a wide network of independent financial intermediaries through B2B
Trust, as well as full-service brokerage solutions through Laurentian
Bank Securities.

Laurentian Bank is well established in the Province of Québec, operating
the third-largest retail branch network. Elsewhere throughout Canada ,
it operates in specific market segments where it holds an enviable
position. Laurentian Bank of Canada has more than $24 billion in
balance sheet assets and more than $35 billion in assets under
administration. Founded in 1846, it has been selected as the Québec and
Atlantic Canada regional winner of the Canada’s 10 Most Admired
Corporate Cultures^TM program presented by Waterstone Human Capital. The Bank employs close
to 3,700 people.

CAUTION REGARDING FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS

In this document and in other documents filed with Canadian regulatory
authorities or in other communications, Laurentian Bank of Canada may
from time to time make written or oral forward-looking statements
within the meaning of applicable securities legislation.
Forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, statements
regarding the Bank’s business plan and financial objectives. The
forward-looking statements contained in this document are used to
assist the Bank’s security holders and financial analysts in obtaining
a better understanding of the Bank’s financial position and the results
of operations as at and for the periods ended on the dates presented
and may not be appropriate for other purposes. Forward-looking
statements typically use the conditional, as well as words such as
prospects, believe, estimate, forecast, project, expect, anticipate,
plan, may, should, could and would, or the negative of these terms,
variations thereof or similar terminology.

By their very nature, forward-looking statements are based on
assumptions and involve inherent risks and uncertainties, both general
and specific in nature. It is therefore possible that the forecasts,
projections and other forward-looking statements will not be achieved
or will prove to be inaccurate. Although the Bank believes that the
expectations reflected in these forward-looking statements are
reasonable, it can give no assurance that these expectations will prove
to have been correct.

The Bank cautions readers against placing undue reliance on
forward-looking statements when making decisions, as the actual results
could differ considerably from the opinions, plans, objectives,
expectations, forecasts, estimates and intentions expressed in such
forward-looking statements due to various material factors. Among other
things, these factors include capital market activity, changes in
government monetary, fiscal and economic policies, changes in interest
rates, inflation levels and general economic conditions, legislative
and regulatory developments, competition, credit ratings, scarcity of
human resources and technological environment. The Bank further
cautions that the foregoing list of factors is not exhaustive. For more
information on the risks, uncertainties and assumptions that would
cause the Bank’s actual results to differ from current expectations,
please also refer to the Bank’s Annual Report under the title
“Integrated Risk Management Framework” and other public filings
available at www.sedar.com.

The Bank does not undertake to update any forward-looking statements,
whether oral or written, made by itself or on its behalf, except to the
extent required by securities regulations. 

Article source: http://finance.yahoo.com/news/laurentian-bank-canada-completes-common-140100182.html

The winners from West, Central, and Eastern Canada recognized for their outstanding video entries emerged as Canada’s leading, tech savvy educators who embrace 21st century learning on a daily basis are the following:

Western Canada – Shelley Wright, Cornerstone School, Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan

Video Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lBgAmeTNMtY

“Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! My students and I are incredibly excited to have our work recognized in this way. It’s shown them that being globally connected really does matter!” says Shelley Wright, Western Canada Winner.

Central Canada – Heidi Siwak, Dundas Central Public School, Dundas, Ontario

Video Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hVf3o3Z3kjs

“I’m so so excited…thank you very much, it is a great honour ….when I looked at the other video submissions, I didn’t think we were going to win with such a competitive field,” says Heidi Siwak, Central Canada Winner.

Eastern Canada – Seth Richardson, Sir James Dunn Academy, St. Stephen, New Brunswick

Video link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5FR5w_JgLnQ

“At SJDA technology education is at the forefront of our 21st century learning initiative. We are committed to inspiring our future leaders to question, innovate and collaborate, using the skills necessary to succeed. On behalf of our school and community, I would like to extend my sincere thanks to MindShare Learning for recognizing our efforts and helping to further support our students,” says Seth Richardson, Eastern Canada contest winner.

The annual contest challenges teachers and their students from across Canada to share their successful classroom practices using digital technology. Teachers from publicly funded schools put their creative videography skills to use to qualify and win a total of over $50,000 in technology prizes.

“This year’s slate of winners have raised the bar once again for all educators across Canada to embrace the notion of 21st century learning. To ignore it is no longer an option if we are to effectively prepare our future leaders to succeed in the global knowledge-based economy,” says Robert Martellacci, president and publisher of the MindShare Learning Report.

The three contest winners will each be awarded over $15,000 in classroom technology prize packages totalling over $50,000:

Prize Package

 

----------------------------------------------------------------------------Sponsor                Prize----------------------------------------------------------------------------Advanced Education     Two half day complimentary Smart Professional                       Development workshops (Ontario only)                       Ten complimentary Online SMARTboard Training Courses                       (All regions)----------------------------------------------------------------------------Discovery Education    Discovery Education Science OR Discovery Education                       Streaming Plus for one-year----------------------------------------------------------------------------EPSON                  Grand prize: EPSON BrightLink 450wi Interactive                       Projector with RM Easiteach Software

                       Runner up prize: EPSON BrightLink Solo with RM                       Easiteach Software----------------------------------------------------------------------------Dell                   Each winner will receive Dell Latitude 2120 Netbook                       computer----------------------------------------------------------------------------FrontRow               The Lasso amplification system (professionally                       installed with teacher training included)----------------------------------------------------------------------------ISTE Conference 2012   Conference Registration including up to 5 nights (San Diego, CA)       accommodation----------------------------------------------------------------------------Pearson                Pearson Professional print and digital resource                       package----------------------------------------------------------------------------MindShare Learning     Flip Mino HD Camcorder----------------------------------------------------------------------------TakingITGlobal         TIGed individual membership and free e-course----------------------------------------------------------------------------SMART Technologies     880i5 Interactive Whiteboard Systems                       OR SMART Response interactive response systems                       (Winners choose)----------------------------------------------------------------------------GlobalScholar          Performance Series Subscription----------------------------------------------------------------------------iEARN                  Annual membership for winner and each teacher in                       their school----------------------------------------------------------------------------

About The MindShare Learning Report

Our mission is to transform education by sharing knowledge of 21st Century innovative best practices and success stories in the Canadian education market space and beyond. We harness the power of Web 2.0 technologies to feature engaging vodcasts, podcasts, polling, Canadian educational technology news headlines upcoming strategic industry events in the K-12, Higher Ed and corporate eLearning market segments. http://www.mindsharelearning.com

Article source: http://finance.yahoo.com/news/mindshare-learning-announces-canadas-4th-232100165.html

TORONTO , Feb. 2, 2012 /CNW/ – As Canadian Interactive ad revenues inch
closer to those for TV, and as Mobile marketing continues to gain
momentum as well — IAB Canada heads into 2012 with an explosion in
Member-Companies (over 50 new Member-companies were added in 2011); a
newly-elected Chair (Dominique-Sebastien Forest of TC Media (a division
of Transcontinental Inc.); Board additions of L’Oreal Canada and Tim
Hortons; three new staff; and an industry agenda within its 2011 Year-End Report, that includes launch of the Canadian Self-Regulatory Program For
Online Behavioural Advertising (OBA).

“It’s such an honor to have been elected Chair of the Board of IAB
Canada ,” says Dominique-Sébastien Forest, Vice President, National
Digital Solutions, TC Media. “It’s a thrilling and thriving time for
the Interactive and Mobile industry, as Digital solutions — more than
ever before — are becoming core to the marketing mix. In my career,
I’ve had the pleasure to work with a variety of companies and help them
leverage Digital change and innovation in order to create new growth
opportunities, and that’s exactly what IAB Canada is all about. I’m
looking forward to working with the IAB Canada Board, as well thought
leaders from across Canada as we strive to help the greater Canadian
marketing community do the same. And with so many new companies on
board for 2012, we have a huge pool of business professionals that the
industry can look to for deep individual expertise as well.”

Marie-Josée Lamothe, Vice-President, Chief Marketing Communication
Officer, L’Oréal Canada , who is one of the two new Advertiser additions
to the IAB Canada Board agrees and adds: “As a global leader in Digital
innovation, L’Oréal understands the strategic importance of integrating
Interactive into our media mix. Working with IAB Canada Publisher,
Agency and Advertiser Members, my goal is to help shine more light on
the myriad of best practices and policies that are already available to
assist the industry in achieving Digital success — and as the
acknowledged leader in Interactive advertising research, education,
standards and policy — IAB Canada is the perfect partner for L’Oréal
Canada as we seek to do that work.”

Michael Lorenzi , Director, Brand Development, Tim Hortons, also recently
elected to IAB Canada’s Board echoes Lamothe’s sentiments: “I very much
look forward to working and networking with the Interactive leaders
that the IAB Canada Board and Membership represents. I  have a passion
for Digital Marketing, and that coupled with a Client perspective,
will  allow me to better communicate the persistent pain points of
Advertisers to Publishers, Agencies and Service Providers in both the
Online and Mobile environments; and conversely, will allow me to better
understand these matters from their perspectives.”

IAB Canada’s 2012 Board of Directors includes:

In addition to finalizing the national Board, the Québec Regional
Council includes:

IAB Canada also added three new staff in 2011: bringing Kelly Tulett in
as Director of Marketing; Julie Ford in as its Director of Councils;
and moving long-serving Québec Council Regional Director, Samuel Parent
into the position of Vice President. Tulett comes with 15 years in
brand strategy and development experience for Clients including The
Tomm Group, Danier Leather, HBC and The Northern Group, as well as
Digital marketing experience with Rogers. Ford has over 10 years of
experience in Digital, is a Certified Webmaster with business
development skills from her work with Ad Network Rydium, and has deep
Agency expertise from her Client-facing role as Media Strategy Director
at henderson bas kohn. Parent has 15 years of experience across both
traditional and Digital channels, and has Publisher-side experience
from his previous roles as GM, Internet at Corus Québec, and most
recently, as Director of Sales at Mediative. His Agency-side expertise
is drawn from his past Media Planning + Research Specialist roles at
Cossette and MBS in Montréal.

“We’re extremely happy to have added these seasoned professionals to our
organization,” says Paula Gignac , President, IAB Canada . “What they
have in common, is direct and deep expertise in Interactive; the
ability to see and operate from both buyer and seller perspectives
based on previous Publisher-, Agency- and Client-side experience; and,
an acknowledged commitment to delivering the highest level of customer
service to the stakeholders they work with, and for. You simply
couldn’t ask for a better walking-talking reflection of IAB Canada’s
tri-partite organization as well as the mission statement of the
association, in the resumés of these three people, and indeed from all
of IAB Canada’s staff.”

So what challenges and opportunities will 2012 hold for the Canadian
marketing and advertising industry with respect to Interactive? Gignac
sees the one of the most important agenda items for a variety of
players within the industry, as registration in the Canadian
Self-Regulatory Program For Online Behavioural Advertising (OBA). While
details re: program are still being finalized with the Digital
Advertising Alliance in the U.S. (DAA), Webinars detailing the
step-by-step process for initiating compliance under the Transparency,
Education, Choice and Accountability tenets of the program, and in
conjunction with the guidance given in December 2011 by Canada’s Office
of the Privacy Commissioner (OPC), will begin in late February or early
March 2012 .

“Real-Time Bidding, unified Social Media ROI measurement and CMO
dashboards are all technologies and topics that will also gain
substantial momentum in Canada in 2012,” says Gignac, “So we’re
focusing on them under the umbrella of Real-Time/Human — Innovations In Efficiencies, Ideas and Consumer
Experiences, at IAB Canada’s MIXX Canada Conference, in Toronto on March 27, 2012 .
Lastly, the ongoing rise in the importance of Mobile within the
marketer’s toolbox will find IAB Canada and the industry working
together to develop unique research promotion and development
partnerships, in order to assist the Canadian marketing industry in
optimizing Mobile to drive both brand and direct results.”

To dive deeper into the key projects executed by IAB Canada’s Councils
and Committees in 2011, and what’s next in 2012, Download IAB Canada’s 2011 Year-End Report NOW!

IAB Canada (www.iabcanada.com), is the national voice and de facto thought leader of the Canadian
Digital marketing and advertising industry, and is a not-for-profit
association representing Canada’s most well-known and respected
Advertisers, Agencies, Media Companies, Mobile and VideoGame Marketers
+ Developers, Measurement Companies, Service Providers, Educational
Institutions and Government Associations operating within the space.

Article source: http://finance.yahoo.com/news/iab-canada-adds-50-members-120000989.html

By Louise Egan and Alastair Sharp

OTTAWA (Reuters) – The Canadian government could clarify the rules for foreign investment in the telecommunications sector within the next few weeks, and outline plans for an upcoming auction of wireless spectrum, a source familiar with the matter said on Wednesday.

Industry Minister Christian Paradis is likely to lay out the new foreign investment rules either in late February or early March, according to the source, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

The move is expected to offer some eagerly awaited clarity for telecom investors impatient with the government’s foot-dragging over new foreign ownership regulations.

The Conservative government has long promised to loosen restrictions on the C$40 billion ($40 billion) telecom industry as one way of easing the dominance of the three big domestic players, who control the lion’s share of the market and are blamed for keeping prices for wireless services among the highest in the developed world.

Rogers Communications , Telus and BCE control 95 percent of the wireless market in Canada.

Paradis will clarify the investment rules at the same time as he releases plans for an upcoming auction of prized 700 MHz wireless spectrum. The frequency is especially useful for covering long distances – ideal for expanding into rural areas – and makes a strong signal in urban areas as it can penetrate buildings and underground parking lots.

To challenge the dominant players, the auction rules may set aside part of the spectrum for new entrants, or smaller players with less access to cash, in a bid to broaden competition in the telecom market.

But industry players and experts are wary of the government’s intentions after several false starts over the last few years. Paradis said in November the file was extremely complicated and he hoped for a “balanced” approach.

  Continued…

Article source: http://ca.reuters.com/article/domesticNews/idCATRE8102GW20120201

That means upwards of 4,700 Canadians believed to be still in the Middle East country now will have a harder time escaping as the situation on the ground continues to spin out of control.

“Due to the growing instability in Syria, Canada has reduced its diplomatic staff in Syria to core personnel only,” Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird said in a statement, adding that Syrian authorities had been imposing travel restrictions on Canadian diplomats.

The Canadian Embassy will remain open and provide limited service, the department said, while an honorary consulate is still operating in Aleppo. However, visas to Canada will now be issued from offices in Lebanon and Turkey.

The government had issued a call for all Canadians to voluntarily evacuate Syria in mid-December and expedited visa applications for spouses and dependent children of Canadian citizens until Jan. 14.

The precaution was a significant departure from events in Lebanon and Libya in recent years, when the government was forced to scramble, spending millions and deploying military aircraft and ships to evacuate thousands of Canadians trapped by war.

But while there were an estimated 5,000 Canadians still in Syria in mid-December, many of them dual citizens who have homes and families in Syria, the foreign affairs department says only 300 have since reported leaving.

“We hope that more will follow their example,” Baird said in the statement. “We continue to urge Canadians still in Syria to leave now.”

An official in Baird’s office said 1,550 Canadians registered with the embassy are still in the country, but that the belief is there are thousands more who aren’t registered.

The window for getting out appears to be slowly closing. Recent sanctions drastically reduced the number of commercial flights to and from Syria, while the ongoing violence has made movement difficult.

The frigate HMCS Charlottetown is patrolling in the Mediterranean and likely would be made available in the event of an emergency, but Damascus is not accessible by sea.

The decision to scale back Canada’s diplomatic presence in Syria on Tuesday came amid debate at the UN Security Council over how to respond to the crisis, which has claimed an estimated 5,400 lives since last March.

The draft resolution seeks to halt the flow of arms to the country and would call for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to step down from power.

“As the slaughter of innocent Syrians continues, Canada calls on the members of the United Nations Security Council to come together in support of these efforts and adopt a resolution that addresses the deteriorating situation in Syria,” Baird said in the statement.

Russia, however, is widely expected to veto any resolution.

The Arab League on Saturday suspended a monitoring mission to Syria because of increasing violence.

Canada and other Western nations are looking to the Arab League to lead the way on a resolution, which began during the wave of pro-democracy movements that characterized the Arab Spring last year. NATO has essentially ruled out any Libya-like military intervention.

lberthiaume@postmedia.com

Twitter:/leeberthiaume

Article source: http://www.canada.com/news/Canada+withdraws+staff+from+embassy+Syria/6079874/story.html

This as the government sought to downplay a leaked NATO report that has cast doubt on Canadian and international assertions the Taliban is on its last legs and that average Afghans feel confident about the future.

Taliban officials announced in January they were planning to open the Qatar office so they could sidestep Afghan President Hamid Karzai’s government and speak directly to the U.S. and other NATO members about a way to end the 11-year conflict in Afghanistan.

The move has been welcomed in some corners, including Washington, as a positive development that offers a track for reaching a negotiated peace. But others, Canada included, aren’t so confident.

A spokesman for Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird said the government “remains deeply skeptical” of the Taliban’s motives in establishing the office and has “grave concerns with the sincerity of the Taliban.”

“The Taliban did not indicate that they are ready to renounce violence, respect the Afghan constitution, including women’s rights, and sever ties with al-Qaida or other terrorist organizations,” spokesman Rick Roth said in an email.

“These conditions are essential for Canada to support reconciliation efforts.”

While the government may have doubts about the Taliban’s motives in Qatar, the international community’s own efforts in Afghanistan were thrown into the spotlight Wednesday following the emergence of a leaked NATO report.

The report was leaked to the BBC and a British newspaper and based on 27,000 interrogations with 4,000 suspected Taliban and al-Qaida detainees.

It paints a picture of a Taliban that is strong, well-funded and confident of victory once the international community withdraws its troops in 2014.

It also purports to show a web of connections between the Afghan military and police and the insurgency, and says an increasing number of Afghan government officials are seeking to establish links with the Taliban in advance of the planned international pullout in 2014.

“Afghan civilians frequently prefer Taliban governance over the Afghan government, usually as a result of government corruption,” the BBC quoted the report as saying.

Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence agency also figures prominently in the report, saying the Taliban has been receiving direct funding and support from the ISI in exchange for a promise to keep Afghanistan within Pakistan’s sphere of influence once the insurgents are in power.

Defence Minister Peter MacKay said Pakistan’s meddling in Afghanistan is a concern for Canada, but he dismissed the significance of the rest of the report. He said the fact it is based on interviews with captured insurgents immediately undermines the legitimacy of the assessments it contains.

“We are continuing to see fighters being taken off the battlefield,” MacKay told reporters. “Their followers, similarly, are diminishing. Their leadership is in disarray. And the support for the Taliban in Afghanistan continues to fall.”

But even if the report is based on interviews with Taliban detainees, said Mark Sedra, an Afghanistan expert at the University of Waterloo, the conclusions are in line with what many observers have seen over the years.

“In some ways it gels with what we’ve seen in observing the situation on the ground,” he said. “We really don’t have many indications, despite what some major NATO leaders have said, that the Taliban is deteriorating or in decline as a movement.”

Afghanistan has been hit with a rash of high-profile assassinations in recent months, while a number of NATO troops have been killed by Afghan soldiers and Taliban infiltrators. Afghans have also reported anger, frustration and a lack of confidence in the country’s government as well as its security forces.

The Canadian government’s most recent quarterly report on Afghanistan noted that in June 2008, the population in four districts in Kandahar province gave the Afghan army an approval rating of 85 per cent or more. As of June 30, 2011, it couldn’t boast such a high approval rating in any of the six districts.

But former Afghan ambassador to Canada Omar Samad noted U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta had announced Wednesday his country’s military would be halting combat operations in 2013 — a year earlier than anticipated.

The decision “sends a signal to allies, Afghanistan, Pakistan and the insurgents that U.S. plans are moving ahead according to a schedule,” Samad said. “It also creates a perception that the U.S. and its allies are confident about their objectives in accordance to end-of-mission fixed for 2014.”

lberthiaume@postmedia.com

Twitter:/leeberthiaume

Article source: http://www.canada.com/Canada+suspicious+Taliban+diplomatic+outreach/6087089/story.html

Pierre-Hugues Boisvenu said he was still against the death penalty

A Canadian senator has said imprisoned murderers should have the “right to a rope in their cell”.

Pierre-Hugues Boisvenu, a Conservative senator, later backtracked from the statement, which came a month after two Canadians charged but not convicted of murder were found dead in jail.

Canada abolished the use of capital punishment in 1976.

Mr Boisvenu founded a victims’ rights group after his 27-year-old daughter was raped and murdered in 2002.

‘Heat of the moment’

Mr Boisvenu made his comments to reporters ahead of a meeting of the Conservative caucus.

“Each assassin should have the right to a rope in his cell to make a decision about his or her life,” he said. He serves on the committee currently reviewing Canada’s omnibus crime bill.

Mr Boisvenu said he does not expect Canada to reopen the debate on the death penalty, but said “in horrible cases such as [serial killer Clifford] Olson, can we have a reflection on that issue?”

The senator, who was appointed to the chamber in 2010 by Prime Minister Stephen Harper, also argued that the costs of incarcerating murderers could be used elsewhere in the government.

Mr Harper’s office confirmed that it will not reopen the death penalty debate, but made no other comment.

According to the Globe and Mail newspaper, Mr Boisvenu later told Canadian French-language broadcaster LCN that he regretted his statement.

His remark came weeks after Paul Laplante, a former Quebec mayor charged in the death of his wife, was found dead in his cell on 9 January.

Kathrine Dufresne, on trial for the death of her adopted daughter, committed suicide later in the same week.

‘Tragic loss’

Mr Boisvenu’s statements were roundly criticised by fellow Canadian politicians.

Bob Rae, an MP for Toronto and interim Liberal Party leader, told CBC the comments “were obviously completely unacceptable”.

“He’s also suggesting that the prison system break the Criminal Code, which is equally ludicrous,” Mr Rae said.

Fellow Conservative Senator Bob Runciman told the National Post said he did not agree with Mr Boisvenu’s statement but said his comments were made in the “heat of the moment”.

“You have to understand the experiences of Senator Boisvenu and his family,” he said. “You have to understand where he’s coming from: the loss, the tragic loss of his daughter.”

Article source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-16845954

This as the government sought to downplay a leaked NATO report that has cast doubt on Canadian and international assertions the Taliban is on its last legs and that average Afghans feel confident about the future.

Taliban officials announced in January they were planning to open the Qatar office so they could sidestep Afghan President Hamid Karzai’s government and speak directly to the U.S. and other NATO members about a way to end the 11-year conflict in Afghanistan.

The move has been welcomed in some corners, including Washington, as a positive development that offers a track for reaching a negotiated peace. But others, Canada included, aren’t so confident.

A spokesman for Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird said the government “remains deeply skeptical” of the Taliban’s motives in establishing the office and has “grave concerns with the sincerity of the Taliban.”

“The Taliban did not indicate that they are ready to renounce violence, respect the Afghan constitution, including women’s rights, and sever ties with al-Qaida or other terrorist organizations,” spokesman Rick Roth said in an email.

“These conditions are essential for Canada to support reconciliation efforts.”

While the government may have doubts about the Taliban’s motives in Qatar, the international community’s own efforts in Afghanistan were thrown into the spotlight Wednesday following the emergence of a leaked NATO report.

The report was leaked to the BBC and a British newspaper and based on 27,000 interrogations with 4,000 suspected Taliban and al-Qaida detainees.

It paints a picture of a Taliban that is strong, well-funded and confident of victory once the international community withdraws its troops in 2014.

It also purports to show a web of connections between the Afghan military and police and the insurgency, and says an increasing number of Afghan government officials are seeking to establish links with the Taliban in advance of the planned international pullout in 2014.

“Afghan civilians frequently prefer Taliban governance over the Afghan government, usually as a result of government corruption,” the BBC quoted the report as saying.

Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence agency also figures prominently in the report, saying the Taliban has been receiving direct funding and support from the ISI in exchange for a promise to keep Afghanistan within Pakistan’s sphere of influence once the insurgents are in power.

Defence Minister Peter MacKay said Pakistan’s meddling in Afghanistan is a concern for Canada, but he dismissed the significance of the rest of the report. He said the fact it is based on interviews with captured insurgents immediately undermines the legitimacy of the assessments it contains.

“We are continuing to see fighters being taken off the battlefield,” MacKay told reporters. “Their followers, similarly, are diminishing. Their leadership is in disarray. And the support for the Taliban in Afghanistan continues to fall.”

But even if the report is based on interviews with Taliban detainees, said Mark Sedra, an Afghanistan expert at the University of Waterloo, the conclusions are in line with what many observers have seen over the years.

“In some ways it gels with what we’ve seen in observing the situation on the ground,” he said. “We really don’t have many indications, despite what some major NATO leaders have said, that the Taliban is deteriorating or in decline as a movement.”

Afghanistan has been hit with a rash of high-profile assassinations in recent months, while a number of NATO troops have been killed by Afghan soldiers and Taliban infiltrators. Afghans have also reported anger, frustration and a lack of confidence in the country’s government as well as its security forces.

The Canadian government’s most recent quarterly report on Afghanistan noted that in June 2008, the population in four districts in Kandahar province gave the Afghan army an approval rating of 85 per cent or more. As of June 30, 2011, it couldn’t boast such a high approval rating in any of the six districts.

But former Afghan ambassador to Canada Omar Samad noted U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta had announced Wednesday his country’s military would be halting combat operations in 2013 — a year earlier than anticipated.

The decision “sends a signal to allies, Afghanistan, Pakistan and the insurgents that U.S. plans are moving ahead according to a schedule,” Samad said. “It also creates a perception that the U.S. and its allies are confident about their objectives in accordance to end-of-mission fixed for 2014.”

lberthiaume@postmedia.com

Twitter:/leeberthiaume

Article source: http://www.vancouversun.com/news/national/Canada+suspicious+Taliban+diplomatic+outreach/6087089/story.html

By Frederic Tomesco

Feb. 1 (Bloomberg) — Sales of cars and light trucks in Canada jumped 15 percent in January as Chrysler Group LLC overtook Ford Motor Co. to capture the top spot amid growing demand for its Dodge Charger and Chrysler 300 models.

Sales increased to 97,497 units during the month, from 84,509 in January 2011, DesRosiers Automotive Consultants Inc. said in an e-mailed report today. Chrysler sold 16,478 cars and light trucks in January, followed by Ford’s 14,973 and General Motors Co.’s 12,959, according to Richmond Hill, Ontario-based DesRosiers.

Statistics Canada data published last month cited greater economic momentum late last year, including manufacturing, trade and retail sales numbers for November that exceeded analysts’ forecasts.

January was Chrysler’s 26th straight month of year-over- year sales growth in Canada, the Fiat SpA unit said today in a news release. Passenger car sales more than doubled, with deliveries of the Chrysler 300 passenger car more than tripling while sales of the Dodge Charger climbed to 670 from 161 a year ago. Total Chrysler’s vehicle sales jumped 22 percent.

Chrysler had about 17 percent of the Canadian car market as of Jan. 31, up from 16 percent a year earlier, DesRosiers data showed. The Fiat unit today disclosed a 44 percent surge in U.S. sales for January.

Ford’s share of the Canadian market dropped to about 15 percent from 17 percent at the end of last year, DesRosiers data showed. Ford sales advanced 4.6 percent in January.

GM’s share dropped to about 13 percent from 15 percent a month earlier as the company delivered fewer vehicles. GM sold 12,959 units last month, a decline of about 11 percent from the same month a year ago, DesRosiers said.

Toyota Motor Corp. delivered 9,850 units in Canada last month, an increase of 18 percent, DesRosiers said. Sales at Honda Motor Co. more than doubled to 8,451.

–Editors: Niamh Ring, Romaine Bostick

To contact the reporter for this story: Frederic Tomesco in Montreal at tomesco@bloomberg.net.

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Jamie Butters at jbutters@bloomberg.net

Article source: http://www.businessweek.com/news/2012-02-01/canada-january-light-vehicle-sales-rise-15-as-chrysler-leads.html

Article source: http://news.yahoo.com/canada-weighs-residency-appeal-ben-ali-relative-200345519.html

“Our government’s top priority is job creation and economic growth, and Canada Summer Jobs 2012 will provide up to 36 000 important job opportunities and experiences for students across the country,” said Mr. Poilievre. “This program benefits students and employers alike and strengthens the economies of communities throughout Canada.”

In 2011, the Government of Canada permanently increased the annual budget for Canada Summer Jobs by $10 million. The increased funding is helping even more students gain the skills and experience they need to be successful, both now and in the future.

Funding will be available for not-for-profit organizations, public-sector employers and small businesses to create high-quality summer job opportunities for young people aged 15 to 30 years who are full-time students intending to return to their studies in the next school year.

“Today’s students are tomorrow’s workforce, so by investing in them we are helping contribute to Canada’s long-term growth, competitiveness and overall prosperity,” added Mr. Poilievre.

Employers can apply online at www.servicecanada.gc.ca/csj2012, or print an application from the website. They can also get an application by visiting any Service Canada Centre. Applications must be submitted between February 1 and February 29, 2012.

To help employers complete their application, the Canada Summer Jobs Applicant Guide is available online, by calling 1-800-935-5555, or by visiting any Service Canada Centre.

This news release is available in alternative formats upon request.

Follow us on Twitter

BACKGROUNDER

Canada Summer Jobs provides funding to not-for-profit organizations, public-sector employers and small businesses with 50 or fewer employees. Not-for-profit employers are eligible for up to 100 percent of the provincial/territorial minimum hourly wage and mandatory employment-related costs. Public-sector employers and small businesses with 50 or fewer employees are eligible for up to 50 percent of the provincial/territorial minimum hourly wage.

Interested employers can apply online at www.servicecanada.gc.ca/csj2012.

Completed applications may be submitted using one of the following methods:

 

--  Online: Applications must be submitted by February 29, 2012, 23:59    Pacific Time. Applying online is quick and easy.--  In person: Applications must be received before the closing time of the    local Service Canada Centre on February 29, 2012.--  By mail: Applications must be postmarked on or before February 29, 2012.--  By fax: Applications must be faxed to a Service Canada Centre by    February 29, 2012, 23:59 local time.

Canada Summer Jobs is part of the Government of Canada’s Youth Employment Strategy (YES). Led by HRSDC in partnership with 10 other federal departments, YES helps youth, particularly those facing barriers to employment, obtain career information, develop skills, gain work experience, find good jobs and stay employed.

Youth employment programs are part of the Government of Canada’s broader strategy to create an educated, skilled and flexible workforce. The Government highlighted its commitment to this strategy in Canada’s Economic Action Plan. A key element of the Plan includes increasing and improving opportunities for Canadian workers through skills development. To learn more about Canada’s Economic Action Plan, visit www.actionplan.gc.ca.

Alyson Queen
Director of Communications
Office of Minister Finley
819-994-2482
Media Relations Office
Human Resources and Skills Development Canada
819-994-5559

Article source: http://finance.yahoo.com/news/government-canada-launches-canada-summer-171200978.html

“There’ll certainly be nothing in this budget that will affect anyone receiving any benefits – OAS or any other kinds of individual benefits from the government of Canada – at the present time. There’ll be nothing like that, and any suggestion to the contrary is just flat wrong,” he told CBC television.

“But we are looking at long-term sustainability. So we could take some steps – we could – in the budget to say, ‘All right, here are some of the things that could be done in the future in order to make sure that these programs are sustainable in the long term.’”

The political opposition has had a field day attacking the government’s plans to limit the growth of spending on the Old Age Security program, a pillar of the pension system funded out of general government revenues.

Bob Rae, interim leader of the opposition Liberal Party, told the House of Commons on Wednesday: “The government’s position seems to be, ‘We want to protect Old Age Security and that is why we are cutting it.’ That is the logic of what the Conservatives are saying. It is preposterous.”

Conservative Prime Minister Stephen Harper responded that any changes would not affect anybody close to retirement or anyone already receiving benefits.

“What we are dealing with is people far off in the future who are very worried about their income security because they understand the pressures we are under,” Harper said.

Old Age Security payments go to all Canadian seniors, whether they were employees or not, to provide the basic necessities of life. The tax system claws some of the money back from higher-income seniors.

The government says the program is unsustainable, while the separate Canada Pension Plan, funded by employers and workers, is actuarially sound.

One idea that has been floated has been to increase the age when future retirees will be able to draw OAS benefits to 67 from 65, but the government has not confirmed if it was thinking of that.

Flaherty would not say when his budget would come down, but it is expected some time in March. He said he was not concerned about growth figures for individual months – November growth was negative – and said he saw modest growth of around 2 percent.

(Editing by Jeffrey Hodgson)

Article source: http://news.yahoo.com/canada-budget-figures-wont-reflect-pension-change-225313398.html

RIA Novosti

13:14 01/02/2012 MOSCOW, February 1 (RIA Novosti) – Two more Russian diplomats have quit Canada following the arrest of a Canadian sailor charged in January with handing over secrets to a foreign power, the Globe and Mail newspaper reported.

Dmitry Gerasimov, a consular officer with the Russian government’s office in Toronto, left in a routine posting change, the Russian embassy in Toronto said on Monday. The Russia’s defense attache in Ottawa, Colonel Sergey Zhukov, moved back to Moscow in a “normal rotation,” a Russian embassy official said.

But the Globe and Mail reported yesterday that Canada had removed Gerasimov and Zhukov from the list of envoys recognized by the government.

Canadian naval intelligence officer Sub-Lieutenant Jeffrey Paul Delisle was charged with giving classified information to a “foreign entity” between July 2007 and January this year. Local media reported that the entity was Russia.

Delisle may face life in prison if convicted.

Four other Russian embassy staff have left Canada in recent months but Russia’s Foreign Ministry denied their departures were linked with the spy controversy.

Article source: http://www.globalsecurity.org/intell/library/news/2012/intell-120201-rianovosti02.htm

An Air Canada Jazz airplane.
(Brent Lewin – BLOOMBERG)
An airport security screening regulation put into place in Canada in July is drawing attention from some critics who fear it could prevent transgender people from being able to fly.

The regulation, noticed by blogger Christin Scarlett Milloy, reads:

5.2 (1) An air carrier shall not transport a passenger if …
(c) the passenger does not appear to be of the gender indicated on the identification he or she presents.

The regulation is part of a wider set of rules, equivalent to the U.S.’s “no-fly” list, that was put into place by Canada’s Conservative Minister of Transportation, Denis Lebel.

While the regulation is likely intended to prevent people from using fake or stolen IDs, Millroy contends the regulation could also be problematic for some fliers:

For non-operative transgender persons, for gender nonconforming (genderqueer) persons, and for the vast majority of pre-operative transsexual persons, it is literally impossible to obtain proper travel documentation marked with the sex designation which “matches” the gender identity in which they live.

There are no instances of a transgender person being affected by the regulation so far, according to Jezebel.

It is also likely that transgender people would have no problems boarding if they carry medical exemptions with them, though gaining the exemption costs a fee, LGBT blog Dented Blue Mercedes points out.

Transport Canada says that airlines in Canada must have procedures to identify passengers, and that the approach applies  “to all passengers, regardless of their culture, religion or sexual orientation.”

It also said it is not aware of any transgendered or transsexual individual carrying a medical document who has not been permitted to fly since the regulations were published.

LGBT activists, however, say the regulation should be more clearly worded so as not to affect transgender fliers.

While a human rights legislation that includes transexual and transgender Canadians was passed by the country’s parliament last year, it died before reaching the Senate.

This story has been updated.

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— Read more headlines from around the world

Article source: http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/blogpost/post/canada-transportation-rules-could-they-prevent-transgender-people-from-flying/2012/01/31/gIQAyo7VfQ_blog.html

Derek Burleton, deputy chief economist with TD Economics, said Canada’s reliance on the U.S. to import its goods has been on a serious decline in the past 10 years, and is likely to continue to drop in the years ahead.

“Strikingly, exports to the U.S. directly contributed an annual average of 0.5 percentage points to Canadian nominal GDP growth over the last decade, compared with an average annual contribution of 2.3 percentage points over the prior two decades,� Mr. Burleton said.

And while the recent rebound in U.S. economy activity will provide a brief upswing for Canadian exporters, by 2020 the United States will only account for about 66% of direct Canadian exports, down from 85% in 2002.

Meanwhile, direct U.S. exports to Canadian GDP will stabilize at 20%, almost half its share of 10 years ago.

“Over the long term, Canada’s economic prosperity will increasingly be driven by trade with other non-U.S. economies,� Mr. Burleton said in a report.

There are several factors driving a wedge in the relationship, including the surge to parity between the loonie and greenback, greater imports from China into the U.S., new free trade agreements with other countries booming at the expense of the now 20-year-old NAFTA agreement, as well as a significant downturn in automotive, machinery and equipment demand following the financial crisis.

“At the same time, Canadian exporters began to set their sights on the European Union and rapidly-growing emerging markets, which presented new opportunities especially for the nation’s resource exporters,� he said. “We anticipate that the U.S. share of Canadian exports will continue its recent decent. This is because many of the factors cited above are structural in nature.�

Certainly, the multiple trade missions made by Prime Minister Stephen Harper to woo China in the past few years suggests a change in priorities with exports to the U.S. down 14% from a peak in 2002 while exports to China have more than doubled.

And the trend looks to continue with the controversial Keystone XL deal with the U.S. falling through and the federal government now pushing for an alternate pipeline to Asian markets.

Canada is also in the midst of negotiating 14 international free trade agreements, including a major one with the European Union due this year, and officials have already signed or brought into force six more since 2009.

And while Canada’s economic well-being remains closely tied with its southern neighbour, the shift towards emerging markets will impact the way businesses work and even the types of businesses that will be successful in the years to come.

“Canada’s competitive advantage lies in the resource sector,� he said. “As such, commodities are on track to become even more important drivers of Canadian economic growth, likely at the expense of manufactured goods.�

Article source: http://www.canada.com/business/fp/Canada+trade+relationship+drifting+apart/6085370/story.html

New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady answers questions during media day for the NFL Super Bowl XLVI in Indianapolis January 31, 2012. Canadians are three times as likely to search Google for Tom Brady than Eli Manning.

JIM YOUNG/REUTERS

If you’re in Ontario, you’re interested in the New York Giants. If you’re in Eastern Canada, it’s the New England Patriots — according to Google that is.

Google trend data says that those in Ontario are more interested in the New York team. Those out east are not.

Windsor, London and Brampton are searching for the Giants the most.

East of Ontario it’s a different story.

Quebecers are more inclined to search for the Patriots, albeit by a small margin.

Meanwhile, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia and Saskatchewan are the top three provinces searching for Patriot news. St. John’s, Halifax and London are the top three cities.

West of Ontario the data becomes unreliable. The Western provinces heavily skew in the Giants favour but that’s probably because of the Vancouver Giants, a major junior ice hockey team.

The Patriots-east, Giants-west trend doesn’t translate to quarterbacks.

Canadians are three times as likely to search for Tom Brady than Eli Manning.

London, Winnipeg and Toronto are the cities most enamoured with Brady, the Patriots’ QB with the striking good looks.

Article source: http://www.thestar.com/article/1124587--google-ontario-loves-new-york-giants-eastern-canada-prefers-new-england-patriots

Canada’s Economy Contracts 0.1 %

01 February 2012 – Which Way to Pay

Canada’s Economy Contracts 0.1 %

Canada’s gross domestic product showed an unexpected decline in November last year shrinking for the first time in 6 months suggesting a sluggish start to 2012.  GDP contracted 0.1 % to C$ 1.27 trillion, dragged mainly down by the energy sector. Statistics Canada said yesterday that oil and gas production declined which had little affect on the gains made in the manufacturing and other industry services. The results suggest that the last quarter of 2011 is expected to be well under the 2 % annual growth forecast by the Bank of Canada.  Analysts said economic output would have to have grown 0.6 % – 0.7 % in December to meet the bank’s forecasts. These results bring economic growth over the last three recorded months to a slow 0.7 % and may also keep the Central Bank from raising interest rates through the year. It seems today that economists and analysts will be cutting their projections. Doug Porter, Chief economist of the Bank of Montreal has said that the report “shows how the economy is vulnerable to even minor hits.”

There were some rays of light in the report which included manufacturing growing 0.6 %, the third consecutive gain, as foreign demand increased production. The retail trade also increased 0.6 %, the fourth consecutive gain thanks to increased sales in vehicles and clothing. However, when speaking of the results,  Porter added, “While we can brush it off as due to weakness in one sector, the fact is nothing else stepped up to the plate to offset that weakness, and that just shows how sluggish the underlying economy is.” Overall, Mr Porter said, “It does show underlying softened in both growth and inflation. It will give the Bank of Canada plenty of comfort staying on hold.”

Ottawa is preparing for an austerity budget today. The news of this sudden contraction in the Canadian economy may have people worrying that severe cuts could only make the situation worse.

Article source: http://www.whichwaytopay.ca/admin/ADMINNews/anmviewer.asp?a=3231&z=4

On Monday, Harper revisited the issue and said the government would not cut the OAS, but would examine challenges facing the country’s retirement income system.

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“We will ensure our vital programs are sustainable in the long-term and for future generations,” Harper said.

“The reality is that we aren’t cutting programs for seniors.”

Apart from private money squirreled away in an RRSP or other savings vehicles, the OAS and complementary Canada Pension Plan are key components in the retirement planning of many Canadians. But many people confuse the two programs, how much they pay, and who’s eligible for them.

Here is a look at OAS and the CPP and how they differ.

Old Age Security

What is OAS?

The Old Age Security pension is a monthly payment available to Canadians aged 65 and older who apply and meet certain requirements. Unlike CPP, it is not dependent on a person’s employment history and a person does not need to be retired from a job to qualify.

The government adjusts the OAS payment every three months to account for increases in the cost of living according to the Consumer Price Index. The average monthly amount was $508.35 in the last quarter of 2011. The maximum payout for the first quarter of 2012 is $540.12.

There are also supplementary programs, including the Guaranteed Income Supplement, which provide additional income to low-income seniors.

The government claws back OAS payments from high-income Canadians. In 2011, for example, if you were retired but had an income of more than $67,668 (from things like pensions and personal investments), the government would reclaim part of your OAS payment – 15 cents for every dollar of income that you had above the $67,668 threshold. That means that if you were retired with an annual income of around $110,000 or more in 2011, your OAS payout would be reduced to zero.

Who is eligible?

OAS is available to Canadian citizens and legal residents living in the country who have spent at least 10 years in Canada after they turned 18.

It is also open to people outside of the country who were Canadian citizens or legal residents on the day they left the country, as long as they spent at least 20 years of their adult life in Canada.

When should you apply?

A person should apply for OAS six months before they turn 65. If you have not lived in Canada continuously or were not born in Canada, the government requires a statement containing all the dates when you entered and left the country. It may also ask for supporting documentation.

If a person applies after age 65, they can receive up to 11 months in retroactive payments along with a payout for the month in which a person applies to receive OAS. So if a person applied after their 66th birthday, they would receive 12 months of OAS payments.

How is the rate calculated?

In order to qualify for a full pension, a person must have lived in Canada for at least 40 years after turning 18. People also qualify if they reached the age of 25 on or before July 1, 1977, and either lived in Canada, had some residency in the country after age 18, or held a valid Canadian immigration visa and spent the 10 years immediately before appying in Canada.

For those who do not qualify for a full pension, a partial amount is paid out based on the number of years spent living in Canada. For instance, if a person has spent 36 years of their adult life in the country, they will earn 36/40th of the full OAS amount.

Based on the eligibilty requirements, the minimum payout is one-quarter of the total, to account for a total of 10 years spent in Canada.

Once a partial pension has been approved, the percentage of the total OAS pension received will never increase even if a person spends more years in Canada.

Canada Pension Plan

What is CPP?

The Canada Pension Plan is a form of retirement income that is open to all Canadians who have worked and paid into the system through deductions from their paycheques. The amount a person receives under the system depends on how much and for how long a person contributed, along with the age at which a person started receiving CPP payments.

There are three types of CPP benefits: disability benefits, retirement pension and survivor benefits. For the purposes of clarity, this article focuses on retirement pension form of CPP.

The average monthly CPP benefit in 2011 was $512.64. The maximum payment in 2012 is $987.67. The government adjusts the CPP rate every January to account for changes in cost of living as measured by the Consumer Price Index.

According to Service Canada, “If you have lived and worked in Canada most years between age 18 and 65 and earned about the average Canadian wage ($39,100 in 2002), at age 65 you would receive a CPP retirement pension of about $788 a month.”

Who is eligible?

Anyone who has made at least one payment into CPP is eligible for benefits once they reach the age of 65, but the size of the benefits depends on how much and for how long a person contributed into the plan and at what age they start receiving benefits.

A person can begin receiving CPP anytime after age 60 if they stop working or reduce their income, although they incur a financial penalty by doing so. In 2012, a person receiving CPP early will be subject to a 0.52 per cent reduction for each month before the age of 65 that they received payments. That number is slated to rise to 0.6 per cent each month in 2016.

On the other hand, if a person chooses to delay CPP payments they receive a similar increase for each month they wait between the age of 65 and 70. In 2012, that increase works out to 0.64 per cent per month and will rise to 0.7 per cent next year.

When should you apply?

This is really up to the individual and whether they want to receive a smaller or larger CPP benefit. However, the government recommends applying six months before a person wants their pension to begin.

Canadians can apply online or print out an application and deliver it to a Service Canada location.

Similar to OAS, a person can receive retroactive payments covering up to 12 months if they delay applying for CPP until after their 71st birthday.

How much do I contribute to CPP?

An employed person’s annual contribution to the CPP is the equivalent of 9.9 per cent of their total pensionable income, half of which is paid by the employee and half by the employer. Annual pensionable earnings are capped at a maximum that is adjusted each January (for 2012, it is $50,100), and there is a basic exemption amount of $3,500. For 2012, that brings the maximum employer and employee contribution to $2,306.70 each.

Self-employed people must contribute 9.9 per cent of their net business income, with the same $50,100 cap and $3,500 basic exemption, bring their maximum CPP contribution for 2012 to $4,613.40.

Anyone earning less than $3,500 is automatically exempt from CPP contributions.

At age 70, a person stops contributing to CPP even if they continue working.

Article source: http://www.cbc.ca/news/business/story/2012/01/30/cpp-oas-faq.html

Facebook is going public, and comparisons to Google’s 2004 IPO are inevitable. However, market conditions are drastically …

Article source: http://finance.yahoo.com/news/research-markets-canada-oil-gas-134600012.html

Other showcase ceremonies next week will be the dedication of a stained-glass artwork at the Parliament Buildings and Gov. Gen. David Johnston’s presentation of the first 60 Jubilee medals at Rideau Hall to outstanding citizens from all parts of Canada.

The official Jubilee flag will also be flown from the Peace Tower for a week beginning Monday, 60 years to the day since the Queen began her remarkably long, occasionally turbulent, but mostly charmed reign on Feb. 6, 1952.

The former Princess Elizabeth was vacationing in Kenya with Prince Philip when she learned that her father, King George VI, had died and that she had become the symbolic head of Britain and other Commonwealth countries, including Queen of Canada.

Next week’s events will kick-start a year of celebrations in Canada and around the world to honour the Queen’s six decades on the throne, with a planned Thames River pageant in June — involving up to 1,000 elaborately decorated ships and boats in a regal flotilla — expected to be the main Jubilee show-stopper.

Canada’s anniversary tributes to the Queen are more modest in scale, but a clearer picture of the further ways the country plans to mark the occasion is also expected to emerge next week when Heritage Minister James Moore announces a round of funding for community-based Jubilee projects.

The federal government revealed in December that it had set a $7.5-million budget to celebrate the royal anniversary. Most of that amount is earmarked for the Jubilee medal presentations, which are to be held in Ottawa and at provincial capitals throughout 2012, with several ceremonies scheduled for next week.

Moore will also attend Monday’s ceremony at Rideau Hall, where Johnston will launch the medal initiative by presenting one medal to a worthy Canadian for each year since Elizabeth became Queen.

Eventually, more than 60,000 of the country’s most dedicated volunteers and outstanding achievers are to be awarded the Jubilee medal, the striking of which began in December at the Royal Canadian Mint.

Not all of Canada’s gifts to the Queen have awaited the official Feb. 6 start of the Jubilee anniversary. In December, a delegation of representatives from the Manitoba-based Royal Regiment of Canadian Artillery personally presented Her Majesty with a gold and platinum brooch at Buckingham Palace. The ornate pin, designed by the Montreal jewelry firm Birks, features a maple leaf encrusted with 60 individual diamonds, a gold cannon and a stylized crown set with a sapphire, emeralds and rubies.

Canada Post also recently unveiled a set of commemorative stamps marking each decade of the Queen’s reign, including one design that recalls the Diamond Jubilee of Elizabeth’s own great-great grandmother, Queen Victoria, in 1897.

The same historical link is made in the stained-glass homage to the jubilees of Queen Elizabeth and Queen Victoria, already erected in the foyer of Canada’s Senate but scheduled for dedication on Tuesday at a ceremony presided over by the Red Chamber’s speaker, Noel Kinsella.

The translucent panels — designed by B.C. artists Christopher Goodman and Angela Zissoff — feature profile portraits of the two queens and then-and-now images of the Parliament Buildings. The Queen was shown the design for the stained-glass artistry during her 2010 visit to Canada.

The Ottawa ice tribute to Queen Elizabeth is scheduled for completion on Friday at the downtown park that serves as a focal point for Winterlude activities, including skating on the adjacent Rideau Canal.

The icy representation of the Diamond Jubilee emblem, said a spokeswoman for the National Capital Commission, is to be accompanied by an outdoor exhibition of historical photographs showing the Queen at various sites in Canada during her many visits to the country.

She first came here as a princess in 1951, then as Elizabeth II for the opening of Parliament in 1957.

Though the Queen is not scheduled to come to Canada during her Jubilee year, heir-to-the-throne Prince Charles and his wife Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall, are to visit New Brunswick, Ontario and Saskatchewan in May.

rboswell@postmedia.com

Article source: http://www.canada.com/Canada+mark+Queen+Diamond+Jubilee+with+medal+ceremonies/6079970/story.html

The government, which says it is determined to cut spending to eliminate its budget deficit, could face angry protests, however, as it tries to change the Old Age Security pension system, which it describes as unsustainable.

ECONOMY AND RECOVERY

Politicians say they are very concerned about the economic problems facing Europe and the United States and fear they could become even more severe in future. Canada’s economy is heavily reliant on exports to the United States.

After a surprisingly robust performance through much of 2011, the economy is showing signs of a slowdown as international problems continue and recent data suggests fourth-quarter growth will be sluggish.

The growth of household debt is hitting levels approaching those seen in the United States before the 2008-09 crash, fueled in part by record low interest rates.

Finance Minister Jim Flaherty says Ottawa is watching the housing market closely and is ready to intervene if needed.

The right-of-center Conservative government says its next budget, expected in March, will accelerate plans to cut spending and bring the budget back into surplus by the 2015-16 fiscal year.

One target is the Old Age Security program, a public pension scheme that kicks in at age 65, which the government says is unsustainable and needs to be changed. The announcement triggered opposition accusations that the Conservatives were breaking a campaign promise not to cut seniors’ benefits.

Things to watch for:

* What effect would a European debt meltdown have?

* How strong is the U.S. recovery? The United States traditionally takes almost three-quarters of Canadian exports. How badly would a new U.S. recession hit Canada?

* How likely is a crash in the housing market? How much damage would that cause?

* Will the Conservatives suffer politically from public unhappiness over their attempts to change the pension system?

CONFLICT OVER THE OIL SANDS

Canada, the largest single exporter of energy to the United States, was profoundly disappointed when the U.S. administration blocked the proposed Keystone XL pipeline from Alberta’s oil sands to the Gulf Coast of Texas.

Government ministers say they will now focus on selling oil to Asian markets, in particular China. Prime Minister Stephen Harper will travel to China in early February in a bid to boost energy exports.

The crude would come from the vast Alberta oil sands, which environmental activists say require excessively large amounts of energy and water to exploit.

Oil exports to China are unlikely to start until Enbridge Inc builds its planned Northern Gateway pipeline from Alberta to the Pacific Coast. Several aboriginal communities along the route have vowed to block the pipeline, and it could be a decade before it is built.

Despite the disagreements over Keystone XL, Canada and the United States underlined their close ties by extending a bilateral softwood lumber deal by two years to 2015.

The oil sands are also at the center of an argument between Canada and the European Union, where officials want to classify tar sands-derived crude as particularly dirty. Ottawa says this would be discriminatory and might launch a complaint against the EU at the World Trade Organization.

What to watch for:

* How successful will Harper be in his campaign to sell oil to China?

* How soon will regulators approve the Northern Gateway and will it ever in fact be built?

* Will the European Union vote to classify oil sands crude as dirty? Will this trigger a WTO challenge by Ottawa and how could that affect talks on a free trade deal with the EU?

WEAK POLITICAL OPPOSITION

Canada’s two main opposition parties are operating under interim leaders, raising questions both about their future and about their ability to challenge the Conservatives.

The left-leaning New Democrats, the main opposition party, will choose a new leader in March to replace the late Jack Layton, who was easily the most charismatic federal politician in Canada. He died in August 2011.

Layton’s death raises questions about whether the NDP might merge with the centrist Liberals, who have governed Canada for longer than any other party but fell to a distant third place in the May election.

Relations between the two parties soured when a New Democrat legislator unexpectedly defected to the Liberals.

The Conservatives are using their position of strength to press ahead with policies designed to crack down on crime and cut red tape, as well as boosting competition for services.

What to watch for:

* How well will a distracted opposition be able to fight the government’s agenda?

* Will the New Democrats manage to find a leader with anywhere near the same level of public appeal and political skill as Layton?

* Will the Liberals and New Democrats hold serious talks about merging? If there were a deal, could the new party beat the Conservatives in the next election, scheduled for 2015?

* Will there be increasing public unhappiness about the Conservatives’ moves to quickly implement their agenda?

PROVINCIAL OUTLOOK

Ontario, the most populous of Canada’s 10 provinces and the country’s economic hub, says it will eliminate its budget deficit by 2017-18. To do so, the provincial government says it will target the public sector, rather that impose cuts across all areas.

($1=$1.00 Canadian)

(Reporting by David Ljunggren; editing by Rob Wilson)

Article source: http://news.yahoo.com/factbox-key-political-risks-watch-canada-130321418.html

Other showcase ceremonies next week will be the dedication of a stained-glass artwork at the Parliament Buildings and Gov. Gen. David Johnston’s presentation of the first 60 Jubilee medals at Rideau Hall to outstanding citizens from all parts of Canada.

The official Jubilee flag will also be flown from the Peace Tower for a week beginning Monday, 60 years to the day since the Queen began her remarkably long, occasionally turbulent, but mostly charmed reign on Feb. 6, 1952.

The former Princess Elizabeth was vacationing in Kenya with Prince Philip when she learned that her father, King George VI, had died and that she had become the symbolic head of Britain and other Commonwealth countries, including Queen of Canada.

Next week’s events will kick-start a year of celebrations in Canada and around the world to honour the Queen’s six decades on the throne, with a planned Thames River pageant in June — involving up to 1,000 elaborately decorated ships and boats in a regal flotilla — expected to be the main Jubilee show-stopper.

Canada’s anniversary tributes to the Queen are more modest in scale, but a clearer picture of the further ways the country plans to mark the occasion is also expected to emerge next week when Heritage Minister James Moore announces a round of funding for community-based Jubilee projects.

The federal government revealed in December that it had set a $7.5-million budget to celebrate the royal anniversary. Most of that amount is earmarked for the Jubilee medal presentations, which are to be held in Ottawa and at provincial capitals throughout 2012, with several ceremonies scheduled for next week.

Moore will also attend Monday’s ceremony at Rideau Hall, where Johnston will launch the medal initiative by presenting one medal to a worthy Canadian for each year since Elizabeth became Queen.

Eventually, more than 60,000 of the country’s most dedicated volunteers and outstanding achievers are to be awarded the Jubilee medal, the striking of which began in December at the Royal Canadian Mint.

Not all of Canada’s gifts to the Queen have awaited the official Feb. 6 start of the Jubilee anniversary. In December, a delegation of representatives from the Manitoba-based Royal Regiment of Canadian Artillery personally presented Her Majesty with a gold and platinum brooch at Buckingham Palace. The ornate pin, designed by the Montreal jewelry firm Birks, features a maple leaf encrusted with 60 individual diamonds, a gold cannon and a stylized crown set with a sapphire, emeralds and rubies.

Canada Post also recently unveiled a set of commemorative stamps marking each decade of the Queen’s reign, including one design that recalls the Diamond Jubilee of Elizabeth’s own great-great grandmother, Queen Victoria, in 1897.

The same historical link is made in the stained-glass homage to the jubilees of Queen Elizabeth and Queen Victoria, already erected in the foyer of Canada’s Senate but scheduled for dedication on Tuesday at a ceremony presided over by the Red Chamber’s speaker, Noel Kinsella.

The translucent panels — designed by B.C. artists Christopher Goodman and Angela Zissoff — feature profile portraits of the two queens and then-and-now images of the Parliament Buildings. The Queen was shown the design for the stained-glass artistry during her 2010 visit to Canada.

The Ottawa ice tribute to Queen Elizabeth is scheduled for completion on Friday at the downtown park that serves as a focal point for Winterlude activities, including skating on the adjacent Rideau Canal.

The icy representation of the Diamond Jubilee emblem, said a spokeswoman for the National Capital Commission, is to be accompanied by an outdoor exhibition of historical photographs showing the Queen at various sites in Canada during her many visits to the country.

She first came here as a princess in 1951, then as Elizabeth II for the opening of Parliament in 1957.

Though the Queen is not scheduled to come to Canada during her Jubilee year, heir-to-the-throne Prince Charles and his wife Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall, are to visit New Brunswick, Ontario and Saskatchewan in May.

rboswell@postmedia.com

Article source: http://www.leaderpost.com/Canada+mark+Queen+Diamond+Jubilee+with+medal+ceremonies/6079970/story.html

Despite the rumors, this does not mean all transgender people are banned from flight.

The regulations reads:

5.2 (1) An air carrier shall not transport a passenger if …

(c) the passenger does not appear to be of the gender indicated on the identification he or she presents;

According to Canadian writer Christin Scarlett Milloy, the regulation came into effect July 27, 2011 but had not yet come to the attention of concerned citizens in and outside Canada. Also, to be clear, these regulations are not legislation. Right now, they are a set of rules implemented unilaterally by Canada’s Ministry of Transportation as part of the fairly ambiguous “Passenger Protect,” which is Canada’s version of a “no-fly” list.

“I’m Canadian, and I’ve definitely gotten searched more thoroughly,” said Will, a transgender writer from Cape Breton. “But I’ve not been refused. At least, not inside Canada.”

So, what does this particular rule mean for gender-variant folks from the U.S. traveling in and out of Canada?

Well, in order to change the gender designation on a U.S. passport, a person must present a physician’s note to prove that they are currently undergoing or have already undergone gender reassignment. So, for any gender-variant people who would prefer not have their gender reassigned, people who are not pursuing treatment for “gender identity disorder,” and those androgynous-presenting folks who like it that way, there is no method to obtain proper travel documentation — particularly for those of us living outside the binary.

I will actually be traveling through Canada at the end of the month, and in the light of these regulations, I’ve opted to drive.

To support the Canadian group against the ban, visit their Facebook group.

This piece was originally posted on Wild Gender.

Follow Emerson Whitney on Twitter:

www.twitter.com/emwhitney

Article source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/emerson-whitney/canada-air-travel-transgender_b_1243156.html?ref=world

OTTAWA—Canada’s economy shrank unexpectedly in November, suggesting fourth-quarter growth is likely to undershoot the central bank’s forecast and may keep it from raising interest rates at least through this year.

Gross domestic product contracted 0.1% to C$1.27 trillion (US$1.26 trillion) in November, dragged down largely by the energy sector. Crude output declined because of maintenance shutdowns, and natural gas extraction fell, Statistics Canada said Tuesday.

The consensus call was for a 0.2% GDP gain in the month, according to Royal Bank of Canada.

The Canadian dollar weakened after the data were published, with the U.S. …

Article source: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970203920204577194973246152972.html

That means upwards of 4,700 Canadians believed to be still in the Middle East country now will have a harder time escaping as the situation on the ground continues to spin out of control.

“Due to the growing instability in Syria, Canada has reduced its diplomatic staff in Syria to core personnel only,” Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird said in a statement, adding that Syrian authorities had been imposing travel restrictions on Canadian diplomats.

The Canadian Embassy will remain open and provide limited service, the department said, while an honorary consulate is still operating in Aleppo. However, visas to Canada will now be issued from offices in Lebanon and Turkey.

The government had issued a call for all Canadians to voluntarily evacuate Syria in mid-December and expedited visa applications for spouses and dependent children of Canadian citizens until Jan. 14.

The precaution was a significant departure from events in Lebanon and Libya in recent years, when the government was forced to scramble, spending millions and deploying military aircraft and ships to evacuate thousands of Canadians trapped by war.

But while there were an estimated 5,000 Canadians still in Syria in mid-December, many of them dual citizens who have homes and families in Syria, the foreign affairs department says only 300 have since reported leaving.

“We hope that more will follow their example,” Baird said in the statement. “We continue to urge Canadians still in Syria to leave now.”

An official in Baird’s office said 1,550 Canadians registered with the embassy are still in the country, but that the belief is there are thousands more who aren’t registered.

The window for getting out appears to be slowly closing. Recent sanctions drastically reduced the number of commercial flights to and from Syria, while the ongoing violence has made movement difficult.

The frigate HMCS Charlottetown is patrolling in the Mediterranean and likely would be made available in the event of an emergency, but Damascus is not accessible by sea.

The decision to scale back Canada’s diplomatic presence in Syria on Tuesday came amid debate at the UN Security Council over how to respond to the crisis, which has claimed an estimated 5,400 lives since last March.

The draft resolution seeks to halt the flow of arms to the country and would call for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to step down from power.

“As the slaughter of innocent Syrians continues, Canada calls on the members of the United Nations Security Council to come together in support of these efforts and adopt a resolution that addresses the deteriorating situation in Syria,” Baird said in the statement.

Russia, however, is widely expected to veto any resolution.

The Arab League on Saturday suspended a monitoring mission to Syria because of increasing violence.

Canada and other Western nations are looking to the Arab League to lead the way on a resolution, which began during the wave of pro-democracy movements that characterized the Arab Spring last year. NATO has essentially ruled out any Libya-like military intervention.

lberthiaume@postmedia.com

Twitter:/leeberthiaume

Article source: http://www.canada.com/Canada+withdraws+staff+from+embassy+Syria/6081034/story.html

By Cecile Gutscher and Chris Fournier

Jan. 31 (Bloomberg) — Canada’s dollar fell from a three- month high versus its American counterpart after consumer confidence unexpectedly dropped in the U.S., the nation’s biggest trade partner.

The Canadian currency gained earlier as optimism Greece was close to a debt-swap deal with creditors improved the outlook for riskier assets. It weakened below parity after the confidence report and an unexpected decrease in the Institute for Supply-Management Chicago Inc.’s purchasing-manager index. The currency gained last week beyond a one-for-one basis with the U.S. dollar for the first time since Nov. 1.

“We’ve just got hit by two surprises — U.S. consumer confidence and Chicago PMI,” said Sebastien Galy, a strategist at Societe Generale SA in London. “That’s putting a bit of a damper on the recovery in the Canadian dollar. The fact that we broke through parity so soon means we’re seeing a natural retracement.”

The currency, nicknamed the loonie for the image of the aquatic bird on the C$1 coin, depreciated 0.1 percent to C$1.0026 per U.S. dollar at 5 p.m. Toronto time. Earlier it strengthened 0.5 percent and touched 99.65 Canadian cents, its strongest level since Oct. 31. The loonie gained 1.9 percent against the greenback in January, its first monthly advance since October. One Canadian dollar buys 99.74 U.S. cents.

Euro Weakens

Canada’s dollar gained 0.4 percent to C$1.3118 per euro and climbed 0.7 percent to 5.8496 Norwegian kroner. It fell against New Zealand’s dollar, the top performer today among its 16 most- traded peers, losing 1 percent to 82.86 Canadian cents.

Commodities and stocks reversed gains after the two U.S. reports. The Thomson Reuters/Jefferies CRB Index of raw materials decreased 0.5 percent after rising as much as 0.8 percent, and crude oil for March delivery fell 0.7 percent to $98.31 a barrel in New York. Raw materials generate about half of Canada’s export revenue, and crude is the nation’s biggest export. The Standard Poor’s 500 Index fell as much as 0.5 percent after gaining 0.6 percent earlier.

The euro dropped against 13 of its 16 most-traded counterparts tracked by Bloomberg.

“We’ll continue to trade off equities and the direction of the euro,” said Shane Enright, executive director at Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce’s CIBC World Markets unit in Toronto. “As long as we hold above C$1.30 per euro, there’s a risk shorts get squeezed and the Canadian dollar should rally. We backed up a bit today on month-end rebalancing flows rather than anything fundamental.” Shorts are bets a currency will weaken.

Bonds Gain

Canadian government bonds rose, pushing yields on the benchmark 10-year note to a five-week low. The yields fell five basis points, or 0.05 percentage point, to 1.89 percent, the least since Dec. 21. The price of the 3.25 percent securities due in June 2021 increased 43 cents to C$111.60.

The loonie erased gains after the New York-based Conference Board’s index of U.S. consumer confidence dropped in January to 61.1, lower than the most pessimistic forecast in a Bloomberg News survey of economists, from a revised 64.8 reading the prior month. The ISM-Chicago’s business barometer declined to 60.2 from 62.2 in December. Readings above 50 signal growth.

The Canadian currency slipped earlier from its high of the day after a report showed the nation’s economy unexpectedly shrank in November for the first time in six months on maintenance shutdowns by crude-oil producers and lower natural- gas extraction.

Drop in Output

Output declined 0.1 percent to an annualized C$1.27 trillion ($1.27 trillion) after being little changed in October, Statistics Canada said in Ottawa. Economists in a Bloomberg survey forecast the economy would grow 0.2 percent.

The data dimmed the outlook for interest-rate increases. The Bank of Canada has held its key interest rate at 1 percent since September 2010. The Federal Reserve’s benchmark has stayed at zero to 0.25 percent since December 2008.

Morgan Stanley said it bet the U.K. pound will fall against the loonie to an initial target of C$1.4900, saying sterling may underperform amid speculation the Bank of England will increase government-bond purchases next month to spur economic growth.

“Relative U.S. economic outperformance in the first quarter and the possibility of further Fed easing will place a bid under the Canadian dollar,” strategists for the New York- based firm wrote in a client note. “Moreover, near-term strength in risk appetite and commodities should support this trade.”

Canada’s dollar weakened 0.4 percent today to C$1.5801 to the pound.

Three-Month Gain

The loonie gained 2.5 percent over the past three months against nine developed-market counterparts monitored by Bloomberg Correlation-Weighted Currency Indexes. The U.S. dollar strengthened 2.4 percent, while the euro slid 3.9 percent.

The Canadian currency rose earlier after Greece pledged a last-ditch effort to prevent the collapse of a second rescue package from creditors, aiming to complete talks this week.

Greek Premier Lucas Papademos told reporters he would try to meet German-led demands for a bigger debt writedown by investors and deeper budget cuts by his government. European Union and International Monetary Fund officials are in Athens thrashing out budget measures that would unlock the aid needed to keep the government functioning.

Talks with EU and IMF officials on a new financing package for Greece must be completed by Feb. 5, Greek Finance Minister Evangelos Venizelos said today at a Parliament hearing. A private-sector debt swap, for which a public offer must be made by Feb. 13, can only proceed after a deal on the loan package is sealed, he said.

–Editors: Greg Storey, Kenneth Pringle

To contact the reporters on this story: Cecile Gutscher in Toronto at cgutscher@bloomberg.net; Chris Fournier in Halifax, Nova Scotia, at cfournier3@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Dave Liedtka at dliedtka@bloomberg.net

Article source: http://www.businessweek.com/news/2012-01-31/canada-s-dollar-falls-from-3-month-high-as-u-s-confidence-sags.html

OTTAWA (Reuters) – Canada’s economy unexpectedly shrank in November for the first time since May, setting the stage for lackluster fourth-quarter growth and a sluggish start to 2012.

Oil and gas production slid in the month, outweighing gains in manufacturing and most services industries to trigger a 0.1 percent contraction of gross domestic product, Statistics Canada said on Tuesday. The economy grew 2 percent compared with a year earlier.

Together with stalled GDP in October, the data suggests fourth quarter performance is set to fall well below the Bank of Canada’s forecast of 2 percent annualized growth, down from 3.5 percent in the prior quarter.

Economists are now tweaking their forecasts to show quarterly growth of closer to 1 percent, as temporary factors that buoyed growth in the third quarter disappear.

“We will need to see a pretty sizable rebound in December to save the quarter,” said David Tulk, chief macro strategist at TD Securities.

“We expect the theme of subdued growth to carry forward into 2012, as a combination of external weakness and fatigued domestic demand will conspire to hold real GDP to an annual average growth rate of just 1.7 percent,” he said.

Even with stronger activity, the central bank had signaled interest rates would likely remain on hold for at least the rest of this year. The European debt turmoil and choppy U.S. recovery have forced the bank to keep its overnight target at 1 percent for a record 16 months now.

The median forecast in a Reuters poll was for the next rate hike to come in the first quarter of 2013, but traders are pricing in a small chance of a rate cut.

The evidence of a slowdown comes as the Conservative government prepares a cost-cutting budget aimed at eliminating a relatively small deficit within five years.

But with the economy is set to underperform the United States for the first time in years, Finance Minister Jim Flaherty has ruled out what he called a U.K.-style austerity budget and will focus on job creation even while shrinking the size of the public service.

PRODUCER PRICES SLIDE

More signs of weakness appeared in Statscan’s report on producer and raw materials prices, which both fell more than expected in December due to softer demand for oil.

The industrial product price index fell 0.7 percent in the month, the sharpest decline in 18 months. Raw materials prices fell 2.4 percent in the month.

The Canadian dollar weakened against the U.S. currency on Tuesday after the data, sliding to C$0.9992 to the U.S. dollar. Earlier it had firmed to C$0.9966 compared with Monday’s finish of C$1.0028, or 99.72 U.S. cents.

Oil and gas production fell 2.5 percent in November, partly due to maintenance shutdowns, and exports of both commodities slid.

The weakness in the energy sector as well as in wholesale trade, finance and construction overshadowed growth in manufacturing, up 0.6 percent, and in other industries such as food and accommodation, real estate and professional services.

Service-producing industries expanded by 0.1 percent for the fourth straight month while goods-producing industries shrank by 0.6 percent, Statscan said.

(Editing by Jeffrey Hodgson)

Article source: http://finance.yahoo.com/news/data-shows-canada-set-subpar-154155538.html

Article source: http://news.yahoo.com/canada-banks-stable-eps-growth-slow-fitch-211714884.html

Article source: http://news.yahoo.com/more-russia-diplomats-depart-canada-report-194909387.html

Output fell 0.1 percent to an annualized C$1.27 trillion
($1.27 trillion) after being little changed in October,
Statistics Canada said today in Ottawa. Economists in a
Bloomberg survey forecast the economy would grow 0.2 percent,
based on the median of 23 responses.

The report suggests fourth-quarter growth will fall short
of the 2 percent annualized pace the Bank of Canada estimated
last month, with BMO Capital Markets today cutting its
projection to 1.5 percent. Bank of Canada Governor Mark Carney
and Finance Minister Jim Flaherty have said growth will be
modest this year as weak global demand curbs exports.

The report “shows how the economy is vulnerable to even
minor hits,” said Doug Porter, deputy chief economist with Bank
of Montreal’s capital markets unit in Toronto.

Output from oil and gas extraction and mining fell 2.2
percent in November to C$57.7 billion, which Statistics Canada
said accounted for most of the decline in gross domestic
product.

Wholesale trade fell 0.6 percent in November, offset by a
similar increase in retailing. Construction fell 0.3 percent
while manufacturing rose 0.6 percent, the third straight gain.

Home sales drove a 2.2 percent increase in the output of
real estate agents and brokers, and reduced stock trading cut
output in finance and insurance by 0.4 percent.

Dollar Trims Gains

Canada’s dollar trimmed gains following the report, after
appreciating to the strongest level since October against its
U.S. counterpart as optimism Greece is close to a debt-swap deal
with creditors improved the outlook for riskier assets. The
currency traded at 99.92 Canadian cents per U.S. dollar at 9:57
a.m. Toronto time, 0.2 percent stronger than yesterday. One
Canadian dollar buys $1.008.

The world’s 10th-largest economy grew 2 percent in November
from a year earlier, the slowest pace since February 2010,
Statistics Canada said today. Growth will weaken to an average
of 1.8 percent in the first three months of this year, according
to a monthly Bloomberg economist forecast published yesterday.

Output would have to grow by 0.6 percent to 0.7 percent in
December to generate a fourth-quarter growth rate of 2 percent,
said Scotia Capital economist Karen Cordes Woods in a note to
clients. The economy hasn’t grown that fast since December 2010.

Energy May Rebound

Porter also said that the economy is unlikely to shrink in
the fourth quarter, in part because the energy industry may
rebound in December.

In a separate report, the agency said the industrial
product price index fell 0.7 percent in December from November,
the most since June 2010, on a drop in petroleum and coal.
Economists forecast a 0.1 percent decline in a survey with 11
responses.

The raw-materials price index fell 2.4 percent in December
on a 3 percent drop in mineral fuels. A Bloomberg survey of nine
economists had a median forecast for no change in the index.

Over 2011, industrial prices rose 2.8 percent while raw-
materials costs rose 4.7 percent, suggesting factory profit
margins have been shrinking.

To contact the reporter on this story:
Greg Quinn in Ottawa at
gquinn1@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story:
Christopher Wellisz at
cwellisz@bloomberg.net;
David Scanlan at dscanlan@bloomberg.net.

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Article source: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-01-31/canada-s-economy-records-surprise-0-1-drop-in-november-on-energy-declines.html

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Canada’s foreign minister stresses strong support for Israel

January 31, 2012

JERUSALEM (JTA) – The foreign minister of Canada emphasized his country’s staunch support of Israel.

“Israel has no greater friend in the world than Canada,” John Baird said Monday at the Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial museum.

Baird, on his third visit to Israel, also said that “Canada does not stand behind Israel; Canada stands shoulder to shoulder with Israel.” He repeated the sentiments later in the day at a meeting with Israeli President Shimon Peres.

Baird and Finance Minister Jim Flaherty are scheduled to spend several days meeting with their counterparts in Israel and with leaders of the Palestinian Authority.

At the 12th annual Herzliya Conference Monday night, Baird called the delegitimization and demonization of Israel the “new anti-Semitism.” He also voiced Canada’s support for a two-state solution for peace between Israel and the Palestinians,

The Canadian delegation was accompanied by Rabbi Chaim Mendelsohn, director of public affairs for the Canadian Federation of Chabad Lubavitch. With the rabbi, the group was scheduled to visit Chabad-Lubavitch institutions and meet Chabad officials in Israel.
 

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Article source: http://www.jta.org/news/article/2012/01/31/3091429/baird-canada-stands-with-israel

Credit Canada counsellor Randolph Taylor poses with jars of cut-up client credit cards at his office in Toronto. “I’ve seen people whose mortgage and property tax payments, together, eat up more than 70 per cent of their net pay. It should never be more than 35 per cent,” he said.

MIKE CASSESE/REUTERS

TORONTO — The two giant jars on Randolph Taylor’s windowsill are filled with shards of credit cards, chopped up by the clients whose staggering indebtedness drove them to the front line of Canada’s household debt crisis.

“I used to cut them up myself, but then I saw that having them do it themselves was a huge symbolic act,” Taylor said, pulling out a pair of scissors from his desk drawer in the Toronto headquarters of debt counselling agency Credit Canada.

“I tell them this card is the reason they are here. This card is the reason they haven’t been able to sleep.”

The growth of household debt in Canada to levels approaching those seen in the United States before the 2008-2009 crash seems to be keeping a lot of people awake — from central bankers to economists, lenders, real estate agents and the indebted consumers.

Bank of Canada Governor Mark Carney has warned that the ratio of debt to income will rise from the already alarming 153 per cent record reached last year, and many think it will approach the landmark 160 per cent hit by the United States before the U.S. tipped into crisis more than three years ago.

While Canada has spent the last few years boasting of its escape from the global credit crisis and its quick recovery from recession, both Carney and Finance Minister Jim Flaherty are sounding the alarm on household debt, warning it has become the biggest homegrown risk to the financial system.

“Obviously the biggest concern is taking extreme levels of debt for those who are most vulnerable,” Carney said in mid-January, pointing to a “potentially overvalued” housing market that has roared higher for years, barely pausing when the U.S. market collapsed.

Carney, like central bankers the world over, has dropped official interest rates to historic lows to bolster growth, and suggested borrowing costs will remain low. The fact that his own policy made borrowing so attractive has not lessened his warning that sharp pain may come when rates do rise.

NO U.S.-STYLE MELTDOWN

The constant cry about household debt from Carney and Flaherty has sparked a debate about just how bad the problem is, with most concluding that it is quite worrisome and will end badly — but not as badly as in the United States.

“I am concerned about household debt. I do think ultimately this is going to end in tears, because inevitably rates are going to rise. And when they do rise, I think it is going to be a real shock to people,” said Craig Alexander, chief economist at Toronto-Dominion Bank, Canada’s second-largest lender.

In December, TD estimated the average Canadian home was overvalued by about 10 per cent, while others have predicted a 25 per cent drop in house prices. That would leave many homeowners underwater, unable to service their debts and risking default.

Still, Alexander said Canada’s more conservative lending culture may spare it from a U.S.-magnitude crisis.

“I don’t think we’ll have a U.S.-style problem … (because) financial institutions have been very prudent lenders, so we don’t have the same systemic risk the United States had.”

The Canadian Bankers Association, which lobbies on behalf of lenders, points out that 68 per cent of household debt is residential mortgages — loans that are backed by an asset and increase an individual’s net worth. Twenty per cent comes from lines of credit and only 5 per cent is credit card debt.

Mortgages are more conservative as well, with next to nothing of a subprime market.

The news on mortgages would be downright rosy except nearly everyone thinks home prices are unsustainably high, particularly in the two largest markets, Toronto and Vancouver.

Eerily reminiscent of the U.S. housing market five years ago, houses are listed mid-week, packed with buyers over a weekend open house, and sold, often with multiple unconditional offers well above the asking price, two days later.

“If a house goes on the market in a good area, it is insane. Anything under C$1 million, the activity at the public open house is nutty,” said Toronto real estate agent Valerie Cowie.

Cowie, who has been in the business for 10 years, estimates that more than 80 per cent of homes in the “active market” — priced under about C$1.2 million — get multiple offers these days.

And while it sounds like a good time to be a real estate agent, Cowie said it is hard on both buyers — who must bid wildly higher to win a house — and on sellers, who risk a deal falling through when the bid fails to be appraised at the higher price.

“The day will come when the seller can’t just ask for more, when the buyer won’t pay it. I look forward to that day. I look forward to the day the buyers just say no. No more,” Cowie said.

HOUSING MARKET MAINSTAY

The strength of the housing market is at the crux of the debt story in Canada, where home ownership is above 67 per cent.

Prices in major markets have marched higher for a decade, at an often double-digit pace. Housing prices rose 7.2 per cent last year while home sales increased 9.5 per cent to C$166 billion, according to the Canadian Real Estate Association.

While price increases appear to be cooling, competition to get into the market has spurred new homebuyers to stretch hard before they are priced out altogether.

Debt counsellor Taylor — the one with the scissors — has heard horror stories about unmanageable mortgage debt.

“I’ve seen people whose mortgage and property tax payments, together, eat up more than 70 per cent of their net pay. It should never be more than 35 per cent,” he said.

With housing eating up income, borrowers turn to credit cards or home-equity line of credit — the Canadian version of the U.S. refinance game — to pay for food and living expenses.

“They are borrowing from Peter to pay Paul,” Taylor said.

Credit cards are not hard to get. Just ask Michael Dynes, a seasonal concrete worker who found himself with C$140,000 in debt spread across 15 credit cards, plus a mortgage on his home in the resort town of Collingwood, 160 km (100 miles) north of Toronto.

“I always had a decent job, and credit was always easy, a little too easy, to get. And it compounds and compounds until you find you are paying more interest than you’re actually earning,” Dynes, 63, recalls of his debt crisis, which came to a head about seven years ago after he bought a boat, upgraded his house and added furniture.

“I think greed takes over, the want to be like everyone else, to have toys and bells and whistles,” he said. “I’m not a drinking man either, nothing like that. I’m just an average person who got way over their head.”

DOMINO EFFECT

Laurie Campbell, executive director at Credit Canada, a non-profit credit counselling agency that is funded by banks, retailers and other lenders, blames consumers, not lenders, for the credit mess she sees on a daily basis.

“What’s changed in the last 20 years is a ‘buy now, pay later’ mentality — savings have all but disappeared,” said Campbell, a 21-year veteran of the credit counselling business.

“A correction will hurt. There is no doubt in my mind, a correction will end up a landslide. It’s a domino effect,” said Campbell, whose north Toronto counselling office offers advice pamphlets in Spanish, Farsi, Russian, Tagalog and Chinese, as well as a crate of stuffed toys for children to play with while their parents are counselled about the family’s future.

Article source: http://www.thestar.com/business/article/1124059--canada-s-soaring-household-debt-is-going-to-end-in-tears

SPECIAL REPORT
RRSP season: How to make the most of your investments
What you need to know to start, build and protect your retirement nest egg

The rules governing the Canada Pension Plan are updated regularly, but most years the changes are limited to simple increases to benefit payments and premiums. Not this year.

Ottawa is bringing in a raft of new or tweaked policies to reflect that retirement these days is more of a gradual transition for many people rather than a single event. Many of these changes either begin in 2012 or are entering the next phase-in period, and they’ll have a direct impact on the retirement plans of Canadians.

In some cases, the changes are big enough that people nearing retirement may want to have a chat with a financial adviser before deciding exactly when to apply for a CPP retirement pension.

Early CPP, lower benefits

The first change involves payment rates.

People can choose to take a CPP retirement pension as early as age 60. But there’s a catch – a 0.5 per cent reduction in the pension payout for each month before age 65 that someone begins receiving it. That translates into a retirement benefit that’s 30 per cent less at age 60 than it would be if you waited until 65.

Starting in 2012, Ottawa is beginning to phase in a bigger reduction to get that early access.

For 2012, the penalty rises to 0.52 per cent per month – or a 31.2 per cent reduction for someone who starts receiving the retirement pension at age 60.

The early-bird reduction will continue to rise until 2016, when it hits 0.6 per cent per month, or a maximum 36 per cent reduction for those who start receiving CPP payments at age 60 rather than waiting until they reach 65.

Later CPP, bigger benefits

Similarly, those who wait until after the age of 65 to start collecting CPP will get a bigger increase in their retirement benefit.

Before 2011, the rules stated that the CPP retirement benefit was boosted by 0.5 per cent for each month after age 65 that an individual put off receiving it. So someone who waited until age 70 would enjoy a 30 per cent boost in their payments.

But starting in 2011, the government began to phase in a gradual increase to that delay bonus.

For 2012, the increase for each month after 65 that a person delays applying for CPP goes to 0.64 per cent – or a maximum increase of 38.4 per cent for those who start receiving a pension at age 70. By 2013, the maximum bonus moves to 42 per cent.

These changes won’t affect people who are already receiving CPP benefits. They are being made, according to Service Canada, to restore these adjustments to “actuarially fair levels,” so there are “no unfair advantages or disadvantages to early or late take-up of CPP retirement benefits.”

Drop-out years increase

Canadians currently don’t need to contribute to the CPP every year from age 18 to age 65 to get a full CPP retirement pension. When someone’s average earnings over their contributory period are calculated, 15 per cent of their lowest earning years are automatically ignored when the calculation is made. For someone who takes their CPP retirement pension at age 65, that means seven years of low or zero earnings are dropped from the equation.

But starting in 2012, that “general drop-out provision,” as it’s called, goes up to 16 per cent.

For someone eligible for CPP benefits in 2012, that will allow up to 7.5 years of the lowest earnings to be excluded from the calculations, boosting the retirement benefit paid.

In 2014, the percentage will rise again to 17 per cent, which will allow up to eight years of low earnings to be dropped.

These changes can really benefit people who entered the workforce late, who were unemployed for a long time, or took time off to go back to school.

One point to note is that there are separate drop-out provisions specifically for time spent out of the workforce because of disability or to have children.

‘Work cessation test’ dropped

CPP rules used to require that someone stop or drastically reduce the amount they earned during the two consecutive months before they began to receive a CPP retirement pension.

This was, for many Canadians, an annoying and costly requirement — especially since so many people now ease into retirement instead of stopping work completely.

Now, that rule is history. Beginning in 2012, the “work cessation test” has been eliminated.

Post-retirement benefits

There’s another rule change that’s important for semi-retirees to be aware of. Before 2012, if someone started receiving a CPP retirement pension early — say, at age 62 — they didn’t have to make any CPP contributions if they decided to collect payments but also keep working after age 62.

Starting this year, if you are under age 65 and continue to work while also drawing a retirement pension, you and your employer must make CPP contributions.

The good news for employees is that these extra contributions will be credited to what’s called a Post-Retirement Benefit (PRB), which will result in a higher CPP retirement pension in the year after you make contributions to your PRB. This measure is a nod to the reality that many “retired” Canadians are still working.

Canadians who continue working after age 65 and are receiving a retirement benefit will have the choice of whether or not they want to make CPP contributions. If they choose to make them, their employer must kick in their share too. Those additional contributions will go toward higher benefits beginning the year after the PRB contributions.

Premiums and benefits rise

CPP benefits are always adjusted to reflect the rising cost of living. For 2012, the increase in benefits is 2.8 per cent. That will bring the maximum monthly CPP retirement pension to $986.67.

Contribution rates are unchanged. But since the yearly earnings maximum that the rate applies to is going up, the maximum annual contribution will rise by about $89 in 2012 to $2,306.70 for both employees and employers.

Article source: http://www.cbc.ca/news/business/taxseason/story/2012/01/30/f-cpp-changes.html

“It’s become a big political issue. Huge. You’ll see a lot more of it as the campaign for president unfolds,� David Wilkins said Monday, adding the Keystone XL pipeline “plays to two issues of paramount importance:� job creation and U.S. energy independence.

Wilkins was George W. Bush’s ambassador to Canada from 2005 through Obama’s inauguration in 2009. His U.S.-based law firm represents the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers in Washington.

In Edmonton Monday for meetings, Wilkins discussed pipeline politics and the U.S.-Canada energy relationship. A supporter of Mitt Romney’s bid for the Republican presidential candidacy, he also took aim at what he described as Obama’s “political pandering� to “strong, vocal, loud environmentalist group(s).�

Earlier in January, Obama put off approval of the $7-billion TransCanada pipeline extension, which would carry Alberta bitumen to upgraders in the Gulf of Mexico. The rejection of the project requires a new route be found and likely delays any final decision on the pipeline until after the 2012 presidential election.

“If President Obama gets re-elected, he may approve the pipeline. If President Obama is not re-elected, the pipeline will absolutely get approved because all of the Republican candidates have indicated they are very much in favour of it,� Wilkins said.

He said he would not “armchair quarterback� or “second-guess� Canada’s approach to lobbying on behalf of the pipeline project.

“I think Canada’s done a good job of advocating. I think the province of Alberta’s done a good job. … I don’t think there’s anything Canada could have done differently that would have made a difference. I think, bottom line, the president was pressured by his environmental base to succumb to the pressure. It was politics over policy.â€�

The U.S. decision to delay approval of the has resulted in more pressure to find alternative markets for Alberta oil. Politicians in Ottawa and in the Alberta legislature have turned their attention to the proposed Enbridge Northern Gateway pipeline, which would carry bitumen to tankers off the B.C. coast and on to Asia.

“If the U.S. is not going to be a willing market, I understand them looking for other markets,� Wilkins said, noting the Northern Gateway decision is a matter of Canadian politics alone. “I would prefer Canada (send) its energy to the United States, and I would prefer the U.S. to openly receive it and help facilitate Canadian production of oil and send it to us, (but) I don’t think anyone in the U.S. can blame Canada for looking at alternatives at this time.�

His description of Canada as a “friendly, pro-environment country� preferable as an oil source to Venezuela or Nigeria echoes arguments made in recent months by the oil advocacy website “ethicaloil.org.� Wilkins said he has read parts of Ezra Levant’s book, Ethical Oil: The Case for Canada’s Oil Sands (which forms the basis for the ethicaloil.org argument), but he has not read it “cover to cover.�

“I think he makes a valid point. As I understand it, the thesis is Canada and the United States share common values and have the same rule of law,� Wilkins said. “We’re dependent on companies that don’t respect rights of women the way we do, and just have a different culture and a different system of justice. Of all the countries we receive energy from, we’re the most like Canada and they’re the most like us.�

Levant has recommended “country of origin� labelling for oil and gas products, but Wilkins called such a project difficult to execute.

“Obviously, there’s so much meshing together you can’t say that’s the green part, that’s the red part, that’s the blue part … when you go to the pump, it’s all combined in refineries,â€� Wilkins said.

“Quite frankly, I’ve never looked into that, but common sense tells me that (it) would be very difficult to do that.�

taudette@edmontonjournal.com

Article source: http://www.montrealgazette.com/news/world/Former+ambassador+Canada+predicts+Keystone+pipeline+major+American/6073613/story.html

Real gross domestic product edged down 0.1% in
November, following no growth in October and monthly
increases from June to September. Most of the November
decline was accounted for by lower output in the energy
sector. Decreases were also recorded in wholesale trade,
finance and insurance, and construction. Gains were posted
in manufacturing, retail trade, accommodation and food
services, professional services and real estate agents and
brokers.

Real gross domestic product decreases in November

Oil and gas extraction falls

Oil and gas extraction declined 2.5% in November. The
decrease in output of crude petroleum, partially a result
of maintenance shutdowns, led the decline. Lower
extraction of natural gas was also recorded. Exports of
crude petroleum and natural gas were down. Support
activities for oil and gas extraction fell 3.8%,
particularly because of decreases in drilling activity.
However, mining excluding oil and gas extraction grew 0.3%
as a result of increased overall production at copper,
nickel, lead and zinc mines.

Oil and gas extraction falls

Manufacturing output continues to rise

Manufacturing increased (+0.6%) for the third
consecutive month. Growth was mainly based in the
production of durable goods (+0.9%) as opposed to non-
durable goods (+0.1%). Manufacturers of machinery and of
transportation equipment (primarily motor vehicles)
benefitted from an increase in foreign demand during the
month. Gains were also posted in fabricated metal
products, furniture and related products, and primary
metal products. Manufacturing of computer and electronic
products was down, as was wood products.

Wholesale trade declines while retail trade continues to
grow

Wholesale trade retreated 0.6%, mainly because of lower
wholesaling of miscellaneous products (which include
agricultural supplies). Conversely, retail trade grew
0.6%, a fourth consecutive monthly increase. The November
growth was largely the result of increased activity at
motor vehicle and parts dealers and at clothing stores.

Construction down, home resale market up

Construction was down 0.3% as both residential and non-
residential building construction decreased. Engineering
and repair work was unchanged in November. In the
residential sector, construction of single-family
dwellings continued to decline. In non-residential
building construction, the decrease in institutional and
commercial buildings outweighed the increase in industrial
buildings.

Activity in the home resale market increased in
November, particularly in Eastern Canada, resulting in a
2.2% rise in the output of real estate agents and brokers.

The finance and insurance sector declines

The finance and insurance sector decreased 0.4%, mainly
as a result of lower volume of trading on the stock
exchanges. Sales of mutual funds were down slightly. The
output of insurance carriers was unchanged.

Other industries

The utilities sector was down 0.6%, as unseasonably
warm weather contributed to lower demand for electricity.

Some tourism-related industries, such as air
transportation and accommodation and food services, grew
in November.

Note to readers

The monthly gross domestic product (GDP) by industry
data at basic prices are chained volume estimates with
2002 as the reference year. This means that the data for
each industry and each aggregate are obtained from a
chained volume index multiplied by the industry’s value
added in 2002. For the 1997 to 2008 period, the monthly
data are benchmarked to annually chained Fisher volume
indexes of GDP obtained from the constant-price input-
output tables.

For the period starting with January 2009, the data are
derived by chaining a fixed-weight Laspeyres volume index
to the prior period. The fixed weights are 2008 industry
prices.

This approach makes the monthly GDP by industry data
more comparable with the expenditure-based GDP data,
chained quarterly.

Revisions

With this release of monthly GDP by industry, revisions
have been made back to January 2011. For more information
about monthly GDP by industry, see the National economic
accounts module on our website.

To contact the reporter on this story:
Ilan Kolet in Ottawa at
ikolet@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Marco Babic at mbabic@bloomberg.net

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Article source: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-01-31/canada-nov-gross-domestic-product-report-text-.html

“The state of air quality in Canada has improved significantly since the 1970s, in most regions, with respect to all major pollutant types,” said Joel Wood, Fraser Institute senior research economist and author of Canadian Environmental Indicators – Air Quality.

“Yet environmental and health care organizations continue to scare people into thinking that air pollution is increasing and that this presents a serious health risk in Canada. These claims are exaggerated or outright wrong.”

As an example, the study highlights a pair of recent reports from the Canadian Medical Association and Suzuki Foundation which argued for stricter air-pollution regulations in Canada, based on assumptions that air pollution was increasing or remaining constant. Both studies received extensive media coverage despite the fact they provided no historical context and arrived at their conclusions based on false assumptions.

Canadian Environmental Indicators – Air Quality examines long-term monitoring data from Environment Canada’s National Air Pollution Surveillance network on five major air pollutants regularly cited as posing health risks to Canadians: Ground-level ozone, particulate matter, nitrogen dioxide, sulfur dioxide, and carbon monoxide. The study also examines the air quality standards and regulatory mechanisms already in force in Canada to determine whether local air quality is getting better or worse, and how it compares to the clean air targets in place across the country.

The data indicate that, in most instances, Canadians currently experience significantly better air quality than at any other time since monitoring of air quality began in the 1970s, and that air quality continues to improve. Concentrations of two of the most concerning pollutants (ground-level ozone and ultra-fine particulate matter) have generally decreased across Canada since 2000.

Specifically, ultra-fine particulate matter concentrations have decreased since wide-spread monitoring began around 2000. In 2008, the latest year for which there is data for all provinces, the Canada-wide standard for ultra-fine particulate matter was achieved at all but two of 125 monitoring stations. Ground-level ozone has decreased in most Canadian provinces, including Ontario and Quebec, since 1980.

The study also found that average annual concentrations of carbon monoxide and sulfur dioxide have decreased in Canada by 87 per cent and 80 per cent, respectively, since monitoring began in 1974. Average annual nitrogen dioxide concentrations have decreased over 60 per cent since monitoring began in 1980.

“This analysis of national, long-term air-quality monitoring data refutes the widely publicized reports from health and environmental groups claiming that increasing air pollution is leading to increasing deaths and massive future health care expenditures,” Wood said.

The report notes that Canada’s air quality objectives, which are enforced through a flexible yet comprehensive policy framework that involves all levels of government, are stringent by international standards. Industrial operations may not release substances into the air without obtaining approval from provincial governments. The provincial approval process imposes restrictions on emissions sources to ensure local pollution levels do not exceed ambient air quality objectives set by the federal and provincial governments. Emissions from diffuse and mobile sources, such as motor vehicles, are controlled through standards and regulations imposed by federal, provincial, and local governments.

“Costly energy or environmental policy initiatives based on claims that air pollution is rising or exceeds safe levels need to be carefully scrutinized,” Wood said.

“There is no evidence that Canada’s air quality regulations need to be made more stringent. In many instances, tightening air quality regulations would only increase costs and have no discernible effect on improving air quality.”

Follow the Fraser Institute on Twitter – Become a fan on Facebook

The Fraser Institute is an independent Canadian public policy research and educational organization with offices in Vancouver, Calgary, Toronto, and Montreal and ties to a global network of 85 think-tanks. Its mission is to measure, study, and communicate the impact of competitive markets and government intervention on the welfare of individuals. To protect the Institute’s independence, it does not accept grants from governments or contracts for research. Visit www.fraserinstitute.org.

Article source: http://finance.yahoo.com/news/fraser-institute-air-quality-improving-113200106.html

Output fell 0.1 percent to an annualized C$1.27 trillion
($1.27 trillion) after being little changed in October,
Statistics Canada said today in Ottawa. Economists in a
Bloomberg survey forecast the economy would grow 0.2 percent,
based on the median of 23 responses.

The world’s 10th-largest economy grew 2 percent in November
from a year earlier, the slowest pace since February 2010,
according to Statistics Canada. Growth will weaken to an average
of 1.8 percent in the first three months of this year, according
to a monthly Bloomberg economist forecast published yesterday.
Bank of Canada Governor Mark Carney said Jan. 18 growth will be
“modest” as weak global demand curbs exports.

Oil and gas extraction and mining fell 2.2 percent in
November to C$57.7 billion, which Statistics Canada said
accounted for most of the decline in gross domestic product.

Wholesale trade fell 0.6 percent in November, offset by a
similar increase in retailing. Construction fell 0.3 percent
while manufacturing rose 0.6 percent, the third straight gain.

Home sales drove a 2.2 percent increase in the output of
real estate agents and brokers, and reduced stock trading cut
output in finance and insurance by 0.4 percent.

In a separate report, the agency said the industrial
product price index fell 0.7 percent in December from November,
the most since June 2010, on a drop in petroleum and coal.
Economists forecast a 0.1 percent decline in a survey with 11
responses.

The raw-materials price index fell 2.4 percent in December
on a 3 percent drop in mineral fuels. A Bloomberg survey of nine
economists had a median forecast for no change in the index.

Over 2011, industrial prices rose 2.8 percent while raw-
materials costs rose 4.7 percent, suggesting factory profit
margins have been shrinking.

To contact the reporter on this story:
Greg Quinn in Ottawa at
gquinn1@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story:
Christopher Wellisz at
cwellisz@bloomberg.net;
David Scanlan at dscanlan@bloomberg.net.

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Article source: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-01-31/canada-s-economy-records-surprise-0-1-drop-in-november-on-energy-declines.html

Mitt Romney is favored to defeat Newt Gingrich in today’s presidential primary in Florida, home to the largest …

Article source: http://finance.yahoo.com/news/liquidnet-canada-posts-record-growth-130000469.html

But wait, there’s more.

“I’m better than perfect,� another says. “I may Canada’s greatest know-it-all,� another contender claims.

Indeed. Of course, some mysteries are destined to remain forever unresolved, such as what the Canucks have to do to win a seventh game in the Stanley Cup final, how Kevin O’Leary became a prime-time matinee idol in two countries, and why Murdoch Mysteries is good enough for CBC but not for Citytv.

Sadly, Canada’s Greatest Know-It-All is slated to run just eight weeks, starting tonight, little more than half the time it will take for Canada’s Got Talent to find the Can-con equivalent of Michael Grimm.

And if you know who Michael Grimm is, you, too, could have what it takes to compete on a future edition of Canada’s Greatest Know-It-All.

The Know-It-All finalists will engage in “head-to-head mind games,� as it were, under the watchful eye — and loud voice — of the show’s host, Daniel Fathers. Fathers, wouldn’t you know, is a Brit, chiefly known for playing Brown Cessario in the 2008 Disney Channel movie, Camp Rock, and its sequel, Camp Rock 2: The Final Jam. Fathers also had a small role in CBC’s Heartland, which sounds like a Know-It-All category, but isn’t.

Of course, Canada’s most serious, and genuine, know-it-alls are competing on Jeopardy. Canada’s Greatest Know-It-All is pure hokum, in the vein of Canada’s Worst Driver or Canada’s Worst Handyman, but that doesn’t make it any less fun or entertaining. It’s the kind of show where the host says things like, “You guys are always telling me you could do things with one arm tied behind your back,� and then challenges “the guys� to do just that.

This is not a quiz show, Fathers says. “It’s a state of mind.�

Fathers is not a know-it-all, he insists, “but I do know how to handle them.�

The finalists hail from Windsor, Ont., Irricana, Alta., Powell River, B.C., Oliver, B.C., Georgetown, Ont., and “somewhere north of Prince Albert, Saskatchewan.� One contestant hails from Ottawa, but he’s not running for public office, even if he does refer to himself on his official bio as an “energy efficiency and sustainability officer.� Wassup with that?

Fans who choose to follow Canada’s Greatest Know-It-All from the beginning will no doubt spot their rooting interest early on.

Anyone who likes the underdog may find it difficult, though, not to root for someone who lives “off the grid,� without electricity or creature comforts.

It’s mighty tough, after all, to be a true-blue, dyed-in-the-wool know-it-all when you don’t have access to the Internet. Or TV, for that matter. (Discovery Canada, 10 ET/PT)

Three to see:

• Kevin O’Leary, a prime-time personality in two countries, is back with a new outing of Redemption Inc., in which he challenges the remaining apprentices to sell a minimum of $3,500 in 50/50 tickets for charity.

The charity in question is the Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment Team Up Foundation, which is part of the Leafs organization but is not actually connected to the team’s NHL performance. Got that? Good. (CBC, 9 ET/PT)

• House tackles the U.S. class war head-on in tonight’s hard-hitting episode about an underage homeless girl (guest star Bridgit Mendler) who needs emergency surgery at Princeton-Plainsboro hospital. Trouble is, the surgery requires adult consent, and the girl’s mother, a recovering drug addict, is in no condition to make the call.

Don’t assume this is House’s final season, by the way: Last week’s episode, the first new one since November, jumped sharply in the ratings over last fall. (Global, FOX, 8 ET/PT)

• Alcatraz, on the other hand, stumbled in its second week after a high-flying opener. In tonight’s outing, a prison escapee and unrepentant bank robber from the past (guest star Eric Johnson) reverts to old habits in the present, resulting in a Flashpoint-style hostage situation. There’s a twist, but only time will tell if the twist is enough to keep viewers engaged in future episodes. (Citytv, FOX, 9 ET/PT)

astrachan@postmedia.com

Twitter.com/astrachantv

Article source: http://www.canada.com/Monday+Canada+Greatest+Know/6072177/story.html

KITAMAAT VILLAGE, British Columbia — The latest chapter in Canada’s quest to become a full-blown oil superpower unfolded this month in a village gym on the British Columbia coast.

Here, several hundred people gathered for hearings on whether a pipeline should be laid from the Alberta oil sands to the Pacific in order to deliver oil to Asia, chiefly energy-hungry China. The stakes are particularly high for the village of Kitamaat and its neighbors, because the pipeline would terminate here and a port would be built to handle 220 tankers a year and 525,000 barrels of oil a day.

But the planned Northern Gateway Pipeline is just one aspect of an epic battle over Canada’s oil ambitions — a battle that already has a supporting role in the U.S. presidential election, and which will help to shape North America’s future energy relationship with China.

It actually is a tale of two pipelines — the one that is supposed to end at Kitamaat Village, and another that would have gone from Alberta to the Texas coast but was blocked by the Obama administration citing environmental grounds.

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Those same environmental issues are certain to haunt Northern Gateway as the Joint Review Panel of energy and environmental officials canvasses opinion along the 731 mile route of the Northern Gateway pipeline to be built by Enbridge, a Canadian company.

The fear of oil spills is especially acute in this pristine corner of northwest British Columbia, with its snowcapped mountains and deep ocean inlets. People here still remember the Exxon Valdez oil spill of 1989, and oil is still leaking from the Queen of the North, a ferry that sank off nearby Hartley Bay six years ago.

Story: GOP tries new strategy to get Canada pipeline

The seas nearby, in the Douglas Channel, “are very treacherous waters,” says David Suzuki, a leading environmentalist. “You take a supertanker that takes miles in order to stop, (and) an accident is absolutely inevitable.”

Prime Minister Stephen Harper says Canada’s national interest makes the $5.5 billion pipeline essential. He was “profoundly disappointed” that U.S. President Barack Obama rejected the Texas Keystone XL option but also spoke of the need to diversify Canada’s oil industry. Ninety-seven percent of Canadian oil exports now go to the U.S.

“I think what’s happened around the Keystone is a wake-up call, the degree to which we are dependent or possibly held hostage to decisions in the United States, and especially decisions that may be made for very bad political reasons,” he told Canadian TV.

Gingrich attacks

Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich quickly picked up the theme, saying that Harper, “who, by the way, is conservative and pro-American … has said he’s going cut a deal with the Chinese … We’ll get none of the jobs, none of the energy, none of the opportunity.”

He charged that “An American president who can create a Chinese-Canadian partnership is truly a danger to this country.”

But the environmental objections that pushed Obama to block the pipeline to Texas apply equally to the Pacific pipeline, and the review panel says more than 4,000 people have signed up to testify.

The atmosphere has turned acrimonious, with Natural Resources Minister Joe Oliver claiming in an open letter that “environmental and other radical groups” are out to thwart Canada’s economic ascent.

He said they were bent on bogging down the panel’s work. And in an unusually caustic mention of Canada’s southern neighbor, he added: “If all other avenues have failed, they will take a quintessential American approach: Sue everyone and anyone to delay the project even further.”

Jeff Mcintosh
 / 
AP

Environmentalists and First Nations (a Canadian synonym for native tribes) could delay approval all the way to the Supreme Court, and First Nations still hold title to some of the land the pipeline would cross, meaning the government will have to move with extreme sensitivity.

Alberta has the world’s third-largest oil reserves after Saudi Arabia and Venezuela: more than 170 billion barrels. Daily production of 1.5 million barrels from the oil sands is expected to increase to 3.7 million in 2025, which the oil industry sees as a pressing reason to build the pipelines.

Critics, however, dislike the whole concept of tapping the oil sands, saying it requires huge amounts of energy and water, increases greenhouse gas emissions and threatens rivers and forests. Some projects are massive open-pit mines, and the process of separating oil from sand can generate lake-sized pools of toxic sludge.

Meanwhile, China’s growing economy is hungry for Canadian oil. Chinese state-owned companies have invested more than $16 billion in Canadian energy in the past two years, state-controlled Sinopec has a stake in the pipeline, and if it is built, Chinese investment in Alberta oil sands is sure to boom.

“They (the Chinese) wonder why it’s not being built already,” said Wenran Jiang, an energy expert and professor at the University of Alberta.

In a report on China’s stake in Canadian energy, Jiang notes that if every Chinese burned oil at the rate Americans do, China’s daily consumption would equal the entire world’s.

Harper is set to visit China next month. After Obama first delayed the Keystone pipeline in November, Harper told Chinese President Hu Jintao at the Pacific Rim summit in Hawaii that Canada would like to sell more oil to China, and the Canadian prime minister filled in Obama on what he said.

Jiang reads that to mean “China has become leverage.”

But oil analysts say Alberta has enough oil to meet both countries’ needs, and the pipeline’s capacity of 525,000 barrels a day would amount to less than 6 percent of China’s current needs.

“I don’t think U.S. policymakers view China’s investment in the Canadian oil sands as a threat,” says David Goldwyn, a former energy official in the Obama administration.

“In the short term it provides additional investment to increase Canadian supply; that’s a good thing. Longer-term, if Canadian oil goes to China, that means China’s demand is being met by a non-OPEC country, and that’s a good thing for global oil supply. Right now we are spending an awful lot of time finding ways for China to meet its demand from some place other than Iran. Canada would be a great candidate.”

Article source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/46181932

Prime Minister Stephen Harper said in a speech last Thursday that the country needs to limit the growth of spending on the retirement income system as life expectancy increases. He promised not to hurt current recipients.

Expanding on Harper’s comments, Human Resources Minister Diane Finley said in Parliament on Monday that the Old Age Security program, a pillar of the pension system funded out of general government revenues, needs changing.

“The Old Age Security system is not sustainable now. We are going to make it that for generations in the future,” she said.

Old Age Security payments go to all Canadian seniors, whether they were employees or not, to provide the basic necessities of life. The tax system claws some of the money back from higher-income seniors.

Finley said a separate government pension plan, the Canada Pension Plan, which is funded by employers and workers, is actuarially sound.

In tackling programs for seniors, the Conservatives are venturing onto sensitive political ground as seniors tend to vote in great numbers. But the government insisted it is acting responsibly.

Liberal leader Bob Rae said Harper had pledged during the 2011 election campaign not to touch transfers to seniors.

“Is the prime minister committed to sustaining seniors? Or is he committed to breaking his election promises and breaking faith with the people of Canada?” Rae demanded.

Harper responded that he would not be cutting transfers to individuals.

“At the same time, everybody understands that there are demographic realities that do threaten the viability of these programs over the longer term. We will ensure that these programs are funded and viable for the future generations that will need them,” he said.

The government has not said how it would address the Old Age Security system, but speculation in the last several days has centered on the possibility that it will gradually raise the age of eligibility to 67 from 65.

In 1983, the United States decided to raise the age for collecting full Social Security benefits to 67 from 65 by 2022.

The Canadian government forecasts the number of people aged 65 or over will double to 9.3 million by 2030, and the ratio of taxpayers to seniors will decline substantially.

(Reporting by Randall Palmer; Editing by Peter Galloway)

Article source: http://news.yahoo.com/canada-says-old-age-security-plan-unsustainable-223604610.html

The 2012 NHL All-Star Game on Sunday drew a record average audience of 2.461 million viewers, an increase from the previous record set last year of 2.389 million people. Overall, more than 7.3 million people tuned in for all or part of the game.

“The numbers make it clear the NHL All-Star Weekend on CBC’s Hockey Night In Canada continues to be a must-see event for Canadian hockey fans,” said Julie Bristow, executive director, studio and unscripted programming, English services, CBC. “To see record audiences tuning in year after year exemplifies our dedication to producing the best in Canadian sports programming and to increase the game’s fan base in partnership with the NHL.”

It wasn’t just the game itself that broke a record.

Saturday night’s NHL All-Star Skills competition brought in 2.468 million people, also setting a new record.

Roughly 30 per cent of the population tuned in to some or part of CBC’s broadcast this past weekend — 10.2 million Canadians.

Team Alfredsson beat Team Chara 21-12 — despite a record-setting 108.8 mph slap shot by Bruins defenceman Zdeno Chara — in the skills competition but Team Chara got the last laugh in the all-star game itself, beating Team Alfredsson 12-9 in the showcase.

New York Rangers forward Marian Gaborik was named MVP of the game with three goals and one assist, while Alfredsson notched two goals and a helper in the loss.

Article source: http://www.cbc.ca/sports/hockey/nhl/story/2012/01/30/sp-nhl-all-star-record-break.html

By Jim Brunsden

Jan. 31 (Bloomberg) — Canada must “remain vigilant” of risks to its financial industry, global regulators said in a report on the country published yesterday.

“Particular attention” should be paid to “the exposure of the economy and financial system to adverse global economic developments, and the increasing indebtedness of Canadian households,” the Financial Stability Board said in an assessment of the country’s regulation.

Canadian authorities should consider giving regulators additional powers to combat credit booms, said the FSB, which is led by Bank of Canada Governor Mark Carney. Another priority should be to implement rules for credit-rating companies and structured finance products, the group said.

The FSB includes regulators, central bankers and finance- ministry officials from the Group of 20 countries. The G-20 brings together governments from the main industrialized and emerging economies to tackle global problems and co-ordinate their policies and rulemaking.

–Editors: Peter Chapman, Paul Badertscher

To contact the reporter on this story: Jim Brunsden in Brussels at jbrunsden@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Anthony Aarons at aaarons@bloomberg.net

Article source: http://www.businessweek.com/news/2012-01-30/canada-must-be-vigilant-of-financial-system-risks-fsb-says.html

Dr. Amin Muhammad
Professor of psychiatry at Memorial University in Newfoundland

Professor of Psychiatry Memorial University of Newfoundland

Dr. Amin A. Muhammad

Honour killings have been on the rise in Canada over the past decade, says the professor of psychiatry at Memorial University in Newfoundland. There have been more than a dozen cases since 2002, which is actually very little compared to the United States and the United Kingdom, which have seen hundreds of such killings since then, he says. The Pakistan-born professor thinks news of the Shafia trial outcome will ripple internationally, and warn potential immigrants that the practice won’t be tolerated here. And, he hopes, the outcome will make people more vigilant now. “So many people approach for help and intervention in the past were not taken seriously, even those potential victims that don’t have the courage to come and speak openly about it,” he says. “Now at least it will give them a little courage.”

Nazira Naz Tareen
Founder and past president, Ottawa Muslim Women’s Organization

Ashley Fraser / Postmedia News files

Nazira Naz Tareen

While the Shafia family’s Muslim faith played a role in the criminal proceedings, note that Islam does not condone killings in order to preserve honour, says the India-born founder and past president of the Ottawa Muslim Women’s Organization. “The Quaran says if you kill one human being, it’s like you’ve killed all of humanity,” she says. “If you save one human being, it’s like you’ve saved all of humanity.” The Shafias committed murder and “it’s totally, totally cultural and it’s totally against the teachings of Islam.” Since many Muslims read the Quaran in Arabic, they may not glean that the Prophet Muhammad actually afforded women more rights than men and that children no longer answer to parents in their teen years —they answer to God, she says. Most countries are misinterpreting Sharia law to mean the Prophet’s urging to “protect” women really means to control them, she adds.

Raheel Raza
Activist and author of Their Jihad, Not My Jihad

Courtesy Raheel Raza

Raheel Raza

Their communities so failed Zainab, Sahar and Geeti Shafia, aged 19, 17 and 13 and Rona Amir Mohammad, 53, that Ms. Raza wonders if they would have received help had they been four white women instead of four Afghan-Canadians. “Was this political correctness to a painful degree?” asks the Toronto-based activist and author of Their Jihad, Not My Jihad. It’s time to stop being so sensitive in the name of preserving multiculturalism, she says.. “Immigrants bring this excess baggage with them and as a community, our biggest problem is that we remain in denial and we can’t address the issues,” says the Pakistan-born Ms. Raza. “What this verdict has done is open the door to a great deal of debate and discussion. I think we have a long, long way to go.” While Canada wants its immigrants to integrate, when there are problems, they tend to be “ghettoized,” she says, and, with a mind for sensitivity, it’s “their culture, their problem…But what is sensitivity in comparison to four lives?”

Baldev Mutta
CEO of the Punjabi Community Health Centre in Brampton, Ont.

Peter J. Thompson/National Post files

Baldev Mutta

“I think it’s more of a men’s issue because the honour we talk about is predominately perpetuated by men,” says the CEO of the Punjabi Community Health Centre in Brampton, Ont. Every Saturday, 25 to 40 South Asian men gather in a men’s group and discuss the challenges of raising a family in a liberal Canada that functions differently from the traditional society they left behind. “There hasn’t been an opportunity for men to have a discussion around what constitutes an honour [here in Canada],” says Mr. Mutta, who emmigrated from India. He does get pushback from those who feel he’s giving his community a bad name by speaking out, but he’s more encouraged by the men in his sessions who are reframing their worldview. “We never shame men, we want them to own that every man makes mistakes.”

Alia Hogben
Executive director of the Canadian Council of Muslim Women

Julie Oliver / Postmedia News files

Alia Hogben

The Kingston, Ont.-based executive director of the Canadian Council of Muslim Women has trouble with the word “honour killing.” She prefers to call it “customary killing” since it’s maintaining patriarchal customs. But the Shafia case went above and beyond that to blatant, outright “femicide” —and it reveals a greater need for gender equality. “If you look deeper, that’s what this issue is. Why do men think, in this patriarchy, that they have the control and the power to kill somebody because…[they think] they are doing the wrong thing or are deviant?” She believes these kinds of killings can happen in any culture that’s dominated by men. “Do you think the Mormons, who have been here for generations, don’t have patriarchy?” she asks. “Anywhere there’s patriarchy, which allows you to say ‘Men have to be the protectors and guardians of women’ is heading for trouble.” Despite cases like the Shafias’, she believes Canada is doing a good job to combat these kinds of killings. Police and social workers are better educated and family law has been brought up to date.

Shenny Karmali
Child and Family Therapist

Handout

Shenny Karmali

When Ms. Karmali looks at the Shafia murder case, she doesn’t see an honour killing. Rather, she sees a complicated stew of emotions, expectations, conflict and a father well versed in the ways of the Western world, having lived in Australia and elsewhere before coming to Canada. She also understands where the shame and embarrassment element comes from. After all, she sees it routinely in her office, as a registered social worker, child, marriage and family therapist in Calgary who counsels many immigrant families who seek her out because of her East-African/Muslim background. “That still doesn’t justify the behaviour to me. There’s nothing to justify abuse,” she says. Even when considering cultural background, safety is always the most important thing. “Oftentimes what I will talk with families about is good intentions. Usually, I think those [strict actions] come from a place of good intentions, but sometimes there’s a disconnect.”

National Post
• Email: sboesveld@nationalpost.com | Twitter: sarahboesveld

Article source: http://news.nationalpost.com/2012/01/30/shafia-trial-six-perspectives-on-honour-killing/

Hot off the servers, the brand new bcliving features a fresh, image-rich design with professionally produced
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To see what local lifestyle living in beautiful British Columbia is all
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About Canada Wide Media:

Canada Wide Media was co-founded in 1976 by Author and Professional
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ranging from high-end print publications to the latest in digital and
mobile media.

Article source: http://ca.finance.yahoo.com/news/canada-wide-media-limited-launches-150000064.html

A California judge has dismissed a fraud claim brought by Oracle Corp against Hewlett-Packard Co in the bitter …

Article source: http://finance.yahoo.com/news/ace-canada-appoints-steven-lucas-144400823.html

Prime Minister Stephen Harper said in a speech last Thursday that the country needs to limit the growth of spending on the retirement income system as life expectancy increases. He promised not to hurt current recipients.

Expanding on Harper’s comments, Human Resources Minister Diane Finley said in Parliament on Monday that the Old Age Security program, a pillar of the pension system funded out of general government revenues, needs changing.

“The Old Age Security system is not sustainable now. We are going to make it that for generations in the future,” she said.

Old Age Security payments go to all Canadian seniors, whether they were employees or not, to provide the basic necessities of life. The tax system claws some of the money back from higher-income seniors.

Finley said a separate government pension plan, the Canada Pension Plan, which is funded by employers and workers, is actuarially sound.

In tackling programs for seniors, the Conservatives are venturing onto sensitive political ground as seniors tend to vote in great numbers. But the government insisted it is acting responsibly.

Liberal leader Bob Rae said Harper had pledged during the 2011 election campaign not to touch transfers to seniors.

“Is the prime minister committed to sustaining seniors? Or is he committed to breaking his election promises and breaking faith with the people of Canada?” Rae demanded.

Harper responded that he would not be cutting transfers to individuals.

“At the same time, everybody understands that there are demographic realities that do threaten the viability of these programs over the longer term. We will ensure that these programs are funded and viable for the future generations that will need them,” he said.

The government has not said how it would address the Old Age Security system, but speculation in the last several days has centered on the possibility that it will gradually raise the age of eligibility to 67 from 65.

In 1983, the United States decided to raise the age for collecting full Social Security benefits to 67 from 65 by 2022.

The Canadian government forecasts the number of people aged 65 or over will double to 9.3 million by 2030, and the ratio of taxpayers to seniors will decline substantially.

(Reporting by Randall Palmer; Editing by Peter Galloway)

Article source: http://news.yahoo.com/canada-says-old-age-security-plan-unsustainable-223604610.html

Minister of Human Resources Diane Finley. (Oct. 26, 2011)

Sean Kilpatrick/THE CANADIAN PRESS

Layoffs seldom come as a surprise. Workers know when a plant is losing business; when an employer is driven to cut costs; when a government is poised to slash its payroll.

When the axe finally falls, they’ve lived through months of debilitating anxiety. They need to be able to count on their employment insurance (EI) benefits.

Today, they can’t. An applicant who provides all the information required by Service Canada is supposed to get his or her first benefit payment within 28 days. But thousands of laid-off workers say they’ve been waiting months.

It’s impossible to get though to Service Canada; the phone lines are jammed. It takes hours to get an appointment with a claims officer when they go to the office in person. And when their turn finally comes, they’re often told their claim is “spooling” or “churning” in the computer and won’t be retrievable for three weeks.

Those whose layoff deviates in any way from the norm have to wait until an experienced claims evaluator — not a short-term contract employee — is available to review their application.

It is important to remember this isn’t government money. Service Canada is merely acting as the delivery agent for money entrusted to Ottawa’s care by employers and workers. These contributors have a right to the benefits for which they paid.

Why is the federal agency failing to keep its part of the bargain?

Here is Human Resources Minister Diane Finley’s answer: “Service Canada continues to carefully monitor EI processing to ensure the best possible service is provided to Canadians who are in need of benefits. We all take this matter seriously.”

Her actions don’t suggest that.

Over the course of 2011, she cut Service Canada’s EI staff by 1,000. Last October, when claims spiked, she did nothing. In November, when opposition MPs raised the alarm in the House of Commons, she did nothing. In December, when claimants at a handful of Service Canada offices resorted to violence, she did nothing.

Finally, this month, the minister brought in 165 temporary workers to process EI claims, reassigned 214 Service Canada employees from other duties and boosted the hours of 120 claims processors.

This is just the latest chapter in a long saga.

Six years ago, the department of Human Resources created Service Canada “to provide easy access to program and services.” It now handles everything from passport applications to EI claims.

The following year, the department moved from a paper system of filing and processing EI claims to an automated one to cut its staff. That means users had to fill out an online application form, either at home or at a Service Canada outlet.

This was fine for computer-adept clients with uncomplicated EI claims. But immigrants, older workers and applicants with a non-standard layoff (one complicated by an injury, a death in the family, illness or any other irregularity) struggled. Applicants who happened to make a mistake on their online claim were stuck in limbo until the computer spat it out unprocessed.

Until recently, Service Canada had enough workers to process their claims manually. Now the agency is operating at capacity when claims are coming in at an average rate. When they surge, a backlog quickly develops and applicants have to wait longer with no income.

For some that means serious financial hardship. For others it means draining their bank account to make up for Ottawa’s inability to full its commitment.

Finley’s short-term measures should ease the immediate crunch. But another spike will soon come along — many more, in fact, as governments and private employers carry out their plans to cut loose thousands of workers this year.

The government may not like EI. (“We do not want to make it lucrative for them to stay home and get paid for it,” Finley declared in 2009.)

But it has a responsibility to do its job fairly.

Carol Goar’s column appears Monday, Wednesday and Friday.

Article source: http://www.thestar.com/opinion/editorialopinion/article/1122864

On January 1, Electro-Motive Diesel and England- and Australia-based mining giant Rio Tinto both decided to lock out workers in what some union officials see as a coordinated attack. Rio Tinto, which locked out 780 workers represented by the United Steelworkers, wants the right to replace each union worker that retires with a contract employee making half a union-level wage and ineligible to join the union. The result would be that in one decade, unionized workers would likely be in the minority in the aluminum smelting facility in Alma, and that in two decades the union would not exist, according to USW organizer Joe Drexler.

U.S.-based Caterpillar, which owns the Electro-Motive Diesel locomotive plant through a subsidiary, locked out 420 members of the Canadian Auto Workers Local 27. Despite Caterpillar increasing its profits by 44 percent over the last year, the company is asking union workers to let it cut wages by by as $18.50 an hour (55 percent) in some cases. The company is also asking for the elimination of defined benefits pensions as well as reduction in overtime and vacation plans.

“It’s no coincidence in my view that two different companies decided to lock out the two biggest industrial unions in Canada—the Steelworkers and the CAW—on the same day. This looks like an orchestrated attack,” said Communication, Energy, and Paperworkers Union President Dave Coles, whose union is in the process of merging with the CAW. “When you have these kind of big gigantic struggles, you don’t who is going to win, but by the time this is done, these employer are going to have a goddamn bloody noses. We are not going to allow Canadian employers to kick the shit out of Canadian workers.”

Both unions and their supporters are demanding that Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper get involved, since these are foreign-owned companies. “Get back to the table, Caterpillar,” London, Ontario’s Mayor Joe Fontana said at the rally. “Get your ass down here, Prime Minister Harper.”

Under the Investment Canada Act, takeovers of Canadians companies by foreign companies require those foreign companies to demonstrate a “net benefit” to Canada. In 2007, Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper gave approval to Rio Tinto for the takeover of the mining facility in Alma, Quebec, previously owned by Alcan. In 2010, Harper also approved the takeover of London, Ontario-based Electro-Motive Diesel by  Caterpillar. Workers say it’s time for Harper to step in and help negotiate a fair settlement.

“Both Rio Tinto and Caterpillar are committing economic rape of Canadian workers and communities, with help from Prime Minister Stephen Harper, who allowed foreign corporations to invade our country without any net benefit to Canada,” USW Canada National Director Ken Neumann says.

The Caterpillar lockout in particular is internationa in scope, because the company says that if workers don’t agree to cut their wages in half, it will move production to a facility in Muncie, Indiana, where workers are already making less than the $16 an hour at Muncie, Indiana. The Muncie facility is already nonunion and the unions in Indiana faced with a loss of dues from the Indiana’s recently passed “Right to Work” law would most likely have a difficult time mustering the resources to organize the plant.

“It’s what we have been facing at the bargaining table quite a bit in the private sector in Canada. When we are at bargaining table, they compare what we make to lower wages in U.S. facilities,” says CAW Local 27 President Tim Carrie, whose union represents Caterpillar workers in London, Ontario. “President Obama talks a lot about creating goods jobs in America. I hope that his idea isn’t taking good-paying jobs from Canada and creating low paying jobs in the U.S. Otherwise, we are going to go to be in a race to the bottom.”

In both fights at Caterpillar in Ontario and Rio Tinto, workers are gearing up for a massive fight in their respectively small workplaces that could redefine labor relations not just in Canada, but worldwide.

“Rio Tinto has declared war not only on USW members but on our communities, on Quebec and on Canada,” said Quebec Director USW Daniel Roy. “We believe Rio Tinto will use its attacks in Alma to begin a major assault on workers and communities around the globe.”

“The lockout with Caterpillar is a watershed moment in Canada, it’s our equivalent of the PATCO strike,” Carrie says. “When PATCO happened [in 1981] we didn’t see an uprising of the labor movement, the silence was almost deafening. If we lose this fight at Caterpillar, other employers will recognize that the labor movement in Canada is weak.”

But Carrie is optimistic that with international and community support putting pressure on the Canadian government, victory at the Electro-Motive plant is possible.

“What Caterpillar has done has really galvanized the labor movement. I haven’t seen this level of community and labor support in a long time. … I think the Occupy movement had something to do with the level of community support we are getting in regards to education of public about what’s happening in class struggle and society,” he says. “This is an opportunity to fight back… It’s a watershed moment for the labor movement in Canada.”

Full disclosure: The United Steelworkers union is a sponsor of In These Times.

Article source: http://inthesetimes.com/working/entry/12617/american_low_wages_at_center_of_canadas_patco_like_struggle/

Accept Credit Cards on your iPhone with the Payfirma Mobile Payment App. (Photo: Business Wire)

Created in collaboration with merchants, the focus of this release is on
user efficiency, location awareness, and real-time information.
Businesses can now access real-time transaction reporting with daily,
weekly, and month-to-date sales keeping merchants on top of their
business. Each transaction is tagged with the location of the sale, so
merchants and their customers can see their transactions on a map, right
on their mobile device. This gives small businesses a new set of
business intelligence to improve their sales and also increase security.

Payfirma
also updated the app to support multiple languages, starting with
French. If the operating language is set to French on an iPhone or iPad,
Payfirma’s app will be automatically rendered in French. This makes the
app easier for the French Canadian market and also prepares the app for
international expansion.

Research and development has already started for the next version to
support the emerging NFC standards and the EMV payments standard, which
is popular in Canada and European markets.

About Payfirma

We help businesses accept credit and debit cards in their stores,
online
and on their mobile
devices. Our team designs and develops solutions that bring payments
to a new personal and customizable level. We offer a full range of traditional
point-of-sale solutions, eCommerce
capabilities such as hosted checkout and recurring billing, and at
the forefront, our mobile
payment suite. Payfirma is a simple solution with top-notch
service. To learn more about Payfirma, please visit http://www.payfirma.com,
follow us on Twitter @Payfirma,
or call us at 800-747-6883.

Photos/Multimedia Gallery Available: http://www.businesswire.com/cgi-bin/mmg.cgi?eid=50149833lang=en

Contacts

Payfirma Corporation
Carmela Samonte, 604-668-5814
Communications
Director
carmela.samonte@payfirma.com
www.payfirma.com

Article source: http://www.financialpost.com/markets/news-releases/Canada+Payfirma+Updates+Mobile+Payment/6073092/story.html

The Food and Drug Administration said carbendazim would remain illegal for citrus in any amount in the United States. Brazil and U.S. industry groups asked the FDA to reconsider its stance on the fungicide, widely used in Brazil to combat blight blossom and black spot, a type of mold that grows on orange trees.

The FDA started testing for the fungicide on January 4, after an alert from Coca-Cola, roiling orange juice futures to record highs as traders feared a prolonged disruption to supply.

Orange juice futures jumped almost 3 percent on Friday after the FDA announcement.

Traders also fretted that the fungicide testing would further dent demand if it translated into higher prices for consumers, or sparked fears of a health risk.

Brazilian orange juice makes up about half of all U.S. imports, and meets more than a tenth of domestic demand.

The U.S. Juice Products Association and Brazil’s CitrusBR urged the FDA to raise the amount of the fungicide, carbendazim, it will allow into the country by raising the legal limit for frozen concentrated juice.

“If this were considered, the whole problem would have been already resolved,” CitrusBR’s Christian Lohbauer told reporters on Friday.

These were the first public efforts by the two countries’ industries to persuade the FDA to restore juice imports into the United States since testing began almost a month ago.

Frozen juice exception

The industry groups called on the FDA to differentiate between ready-to-drink juice and frozen concentrate.

Since the concentrate is diluted before drinking, the level could be close to 60 parts per billion (ppb) without exceeding the FDA’s legal limit for drinkable juice, industry groups said.

The FDA said any imports with detectable levels of fungicide, which means above 10 ppb, would not be allowed in the country.

The European Union allows 200 ppb, and the FDA has said any level of fungicide below 80 ppb poses no health risk. The agency did not recall any juice already on store shelves in the United States.

Ready-to-drink juice, which makes up about 65 percent of Brazil’s juice shipments to the United States, does not seem to have a problem with traces of the fungicide.

Only frozen juice spikes above the limit because it is in concentrate form and would be diluted for drinking, Lohbauer said.

“The agency is using this lower maximum level … because the letter of the law requires the agency to do so,” the U.S. Juice Products Association said in a statement, and said a higher tolerance level would be the logical choice to protect consumers.

But the FDA did not budge on its testing policies.

“We’ve stated before that we would test imports on an ‘as is’ basis, and that’s still our policy,” FDA spokeswoman Siobhan DeLancey said in an email.

Brazil juice imports will continue to falter unless the FDA raises its tolerance level for fungicide, or Brazilian growers find an alternative way to keep trees free from mold, growers said. However, U.S. consumers still have plenty of juice to drink for now because of a large crop this season, analysts said.

The Brazilian juice industry said it would study alternatives if the United States continues to reject its juice shipments.

Positive results

The industry’s pressure on the FDA came after the agency announced on Friday that it had blocked three shipments of Brazilian orange juice and six from Canada that tested positive for carbendazim.

Canada, which makes up less than 1 percent of U.S. imports, does not grow its own oranges, and traders assumed the Canadian juice was grown in Brazil. The South American country often ships juice to Toronto, to get it to consumers in Chicago.

Of the six shipments detained from Canada, none had levels of fungicide higher than 31 ppb, and most were below 20 ppb. The Brazilian shipments that tested positive had carbendazim levels between 20 ppb and 52 ppb.

Two other Brazilian concentrate shipments tested positive for the fungicide, but the companies decided not to import the juice into the country, the FDA said.

The FDA said 29 of the 80 orange juice samples it had taken since testing began on January 4 had no traces of carbendazim, including two from Brazil and seven from Canada. Importers will have 90 days to export or destroy the product, the agency said.

The FDA said it would test all shipments twice, and detain any that tested positive for carbendazim at least once.

In the United States, trace amounts of the fungicide are still allowed in 31 food types including grains, nuts and some non-citrus fruits. The fungicide had been allowed for citrus until 2009 as a temporary measure, regulators said.

Article source: http://www.foxnews.com/health/2012/01/30/us-detains-orange-juice-imports-after-finding-fungicide/

The final of the CONCACAF women’s Olympic soccer qualifying tournament — lacking any element of need-to-win by either his Canadian team or the United States — wasn’t just another international friendly.

It was an international evisceration, with 25,427 witnesses to the act.

Having already earned their trip to London by winning Friday night’s semifinal over Mexico, the Canadians found themselves a little short of motivation — and miles short of the physical necessities — and would have needed both of those, in spades, to reverse the tide of recent history against the mighty Americans.

So it will be 11 years, 25 matches and counting since Canada’s last win over its continental rival by the next time they get to share the same pitch, and judging by Sunday’s night’s 4-0 result before a sold-out lower bowl crowd at BC Place, the gap isn’t narrowing perceptibly.

“That’s the difference. When the U.S. are hot, they’re hot, and they were white-hot tonight,� said Herdman, the recently-minted head coach of the national side, who actually apologized on behalf of the team for not doing better in front a big, enthusiastic crowd and a curious TV audience.

Players and coaches of both teams were blown away by the sellout crowd Sunday, and Canada-Mexico on Friday fell only a couple thousand short of one, as ticket sales, like the tournament itself, rallied from an indifferent start to a compelling climax.

But when it arrived, the Canadians were unable to rise to the occasion.

“All of Canada would have been watching tonight. You have the whole nation captivated, it was our chance to bring it alive,� Herdman acknowledged, “and we never really did get into a rhythm.�

The Canadians did manage to break down the American defence a handful of times but it was never Christine Sinclair with the final touch, and Melissa Tancredi sat out the first half with heavy legs left over from the Mexico game. Anyone else was overmatched by American goalkeeper Hope Solo, who charged bravely off her line to smother the two best chances, both in the first half, both by Christina Julien.

After the half, the Americans were on cruise control.

“But that’s what (the U.S.) can do to teams,� said Herdman. “We’ve seen them destroy teams over the last few years, and you can go about it two ways: sit back, defend deep, leave nothing open and hopefully scrap and scrap out a win — but if you do that, they’ll beat you in the last 20 minutes. Or you open the game up, have a go at them, and see what comes of it. If one of those two shots had gone in, it might have changed things a little bit — confidence, and the atmosphere, but . . . not to be.�

FIFA’s No. 1-ranked team looked all of that Sunday evening, and by the time Abby Wambach launched herself to nod home a lovely cross by Alex Morgan in the 24th minute to make it 2-0 — Morgan had already broken through the Canadian back line to score four minutes into the match — the deal was pretty much sealed.

Morgan figured in all four U.S. goals, scoring twice herself and setting up the 130th and 131st of Wambach’s stellar career, which bumped the formidable U.S. striker ahead once more of Sinclair, and into second place in the history of international women’s soccer.

But really, there was a solid handful of American players better than Canada’s best on this day — Morgan, Wambach, Solo, Carli Lloyd, Lauren Cheney — a show of depth and speed and power that the world’s No. 7-ranked team couldn’t come close to matching.

“I wouldn’t say they’re light-years ahead of us. In the first half, we’re down 3-0 but they had four shots,� said Sinclair, who didn’t have a large part to play in Sunday’s events. “They were clinical in front of goal. We had a couple of chances and didn’t score and it cost us dearly.

“I think they showed not only their depth but their stamina, and they rolled over us.�

“This is a massive learning curve for us,� admitted Herdman. “The Americans can boss a game because of their physicality, they can outrun you. When they’ve got world-class players with world-class speed, it’s a problem, so you’ve got to be able to keep up with them, that’s the first thing.

“They’ve got a different gear, and when they find it, it’s hard to keep with them. And from what we can see, the naked eye will tell you, there’s a bit of a gap there. (But) we can close that gap, I’m absolutely sure with some more conditioning work, how we manage our selections and manage players through the tournament, if we can do that a little bit better, we’ll be closer.�

London is six months away.

No other women’s team in FIFA’s top 10 has moved up as many places (two) in the last year as Canada. But as good as No. 7 may sound, it’s kind of like being the seventh-best women’s ice hockey team in the world. That, and $2.50, will get you a cup of coffee at Starbucks.

The Americans didn’t give up a goal the whole tournament.

Right now, they are that much better.

Vancouver Sun

ccole@vancouversun.com

Article source: http://www.canada.com/sports/Canada+never+rhythm+against/6070337/story.html

Muslims across the country, however, say the revelations in a Kingston, Ont., courtroom have shone a light on problematic aspects of their culture and illuminated new ways to tackle the issues.

For months Muslims say they’ve recoiled in horror at testimony alleging three members of the Shafia family plotted the deaths of four others in what prosecutors describe as an attempt to restore family honour.

The crown alleged three teenage Shafia sisters were killed after bringing shame upon the family by dating, shunning traditional religious garb and skipping school. The fourth victim, the family patriarch’s first wife in a polygamous marriage, allegedly endured years of abuse and feared for her life in the weeks before she died.

Justice Robert Maranger, who presided over the case, noted Sunday how difficult it is to conceive of a crime more “despicable,” “heinous” and “honourless.”

“The apparent reason behind these cold-blooded, shameful murders was that the four completely innocent victims offended your completely twisted concept of honour…that has absolutely no place in any civilized society.”

Crown attorney Gerard Laarhuis suggested the verdict is a reflection of Canadian values and ultimately a rejection of those where freedom is denied.

“This verdict sends a very clear message about our Canadian values and the core principles in a free and democratic society that all Canadians enjoy and even visitors to Canada enjoy,” he said.

Rona Ambrose, Canada’s minister for status of women, took to Twitter to comment: #Shafia. Honour motivated violence is NOT culture, it is barbaric violence against women. Canada must never tolerate such misogyny as culture.”

While many Muslims blanch at the term “honour killing,” believing it to be a misrepresentation of the faith they practice, they say the deaths of the four Shafia women reveal the need to take a stronger stand against domestic violence in the community.

Days before Mohammad Shafia, his son Hamed and his wife Tooba Yahya were each found guilty of four counts of first-degree murder, one Ontario city launched a program meant to stop such slayings from taking place in the future.

The Family Honour Project, launched by the Muslim Resource Centre for Social Support and Integration in London, Ont., is an initiative specifically targeting the sort of violence that allegedly took place in the Shafia home.

Centre board member Saleha Khan said plans for the project were afoot long before the case came to trial, but said the story has given the initiative even more urgency.

Despite the fact that honour-based violence occurs in many different cultures besides Islam, the stereotypes revived by coverage of the Shafia trial could further isolate Muslim women, she said.

“It’s really turned into an us vs. them,” Khan said in a telephone interview. “It’s basically created that kind of divide where…now, because of the kind of savagery that’s been painted on that, people who possibly would be victimized won’t come forward.”

The program aspires to end honour-based violence by providing culturally tailored support for the victims and changing the behaviours of the perpetrators. The local initiative forms part of a broader call to action that went out coast to coast late last year.

Islamic religious leaders banded together last December to denounce honour killings from the country’s mosques and educate Muslims about the call for gender equality at the heart of their faith.

Syed Soharwardy, a Calgary-based imam who founded the Islamic Supreme Council of Canada, said the Shafia case galvanized the community to address uncomfortable issues that too often get swept under the carpet.

Despite the fact that “honour killings” are explicitly condemned in the Qur’an, Soharwardy said such values sometimes take root in remote regions of Muslim countries where education is limited and scriptural doctrine is misinterpreted.

Imams were forced to speak out not only to protect their female followers from harm at home but to defend their religion from unjust vilification in the rest of Canada, he said.

The actions of one misguided family single-handedly revived stereotypes of violence and intolerance that have dogged the community since 911, he said.

“(Domestic violence) is not an epidemic. Once in a while we come across this,” he said. “It puts a bad name in Islam, it creates a very negative image of Muslims, and it provides opportunities to Islamophobes to reignite hate against Muslims and badmouth our religion.”

Community-based efforts, such as those launched by the imams, are the only effective way to combat honour-related crimes, according to one sociologist.

Aysan Sev’er, a professor at the University of Toronto specializing in the study of violence against women, said crimes involving a family’s reputation must be treated differently from more conventional slayings.

Honour-based violence is communal in nature, she said, since it involves deep-rooted social traditions and extensive collaboration with others.

“There’s a community component both in terms of putting pressure on the people and later on trying to justify, whitewash it, reduce the severity and so on,” she said.

Experts agree the issues raised in the Shafia case have touched off dialogues that could have long-term benefits for the Muslim community.

Soharwardy said the trial’s silver lining has come through conversations with women and youth that may once have been taboo.

“It motivates me to reach out to youth and women and those who are oppressed in their home,” he said. “It gives you hope as well that after such tragedies, people do learn some lessons.”

Article source: http://m.ctv.ca/topstories/20120130/shafia-trial-reaction-120130.html