Canada

OTTAWA • If the Bank of Canada was seeking a justification to finally begin to pull the trigger on interest rates is unlikely inflation figures on Friday gave its goal of closer .While the annual rate of price increase rose slightly more than expected last month, he was still in the comfort zone of the central bank.And despite a series of strong economic figures - pointing to a moderate and steady growth - the last debt crisis flare-up in Europe will overwhelm national considerations...Read Full Story

Citizen protests have been a major feature of the debates raging in Quebec about future directions in the province, and by extension - Canada. On April 22 an estimated 250,000 Earth Day participants made their way through the streets of Montréal. They called for an end to the tar sands, to shale gas development and the Charest government's Plan Nord mining expansion. They also took aim at Harper's environmental policies, Canada's withdrawal from the Kyoto Protocol and demanded immediate...Read Full Story

While many Americans might think of Canadian currency as "colorful Monopoly money with hockey players on the back," the truth is our neighbors to the north have an incredibly strong dollar that deserves to be taken seriously. And as of today, they also have some of the most technologically advanced bills you can find in the world. While the new $100 bill retains the same imagery, the Vancouver Sun reports it will no longer be made of paper. Instead, the new currency's made of polymers...Read Full Story

Reblogged from traveldestinationbucketlist: Cycling across Canada remains one of my proudest accomplishments, and I am happy to be back on track, sharing the experiences of my Trans Canada journey. When I left off, I had travelled across the magnificent Rockies, hiked and relaxed in Banff and Lake Louise, and head out for a few days of fun in Calgary.  It was surprising that I had met so few cyclists doing the same trans Canada journey – after all, I had read that close to 1,000 cyclists do...Read Full Story

Canadian Human Resources Minister, Diane Finley, recently announced changes to the Temporary Foreign Workers Program (TFWP). Under the new rules employers will be allowed to pay foreign temp workers 15 per cent less than the average fair market wage. Companys looking to hire foreign workers have to apply for a Labor Market Opinion (LMO) which has been fast tracked to within 10 business days. The feds estimate that they will process 150,000 temporary foreign worker applications this year...Read Full Story

This morning BoC Governor Mark Carney (pic. below) was guest to the radio station that earlier in the week dubbed him a "banking superstar"--the publicly owned CBC Radio 1. It was no surprise that the he was not pressed particularly hard when he said that the greatest danger to Canada's economy is the ongoing situation in the European Union. I would have though that Mr. Carney's targeted robbery of my chequing account at 2% per year would have been it! Carney danced around the issue of...Read Full Story

FREDERICTON – The New Brunswick government plans to cut 4,500 jobs from the province’s civil service over the next three years to tackle its deficit, a government source told The Canadian Press on Monday. The source said Tuesday’s provincial budget will outline the elimination of 1,500 jobs a year through attrition, which would reduce the size of the public service by five per cent at the end of the cuts. The province’s Progressive Conservative government has been searching for ways to...Read Full Story

Statistics Canada says exports and imports both slipped in March, but the country’s trade surplus rose to $351 million from $273 million in February.Read Full Story

Thousands of students across the country sang Tomorrow is Coming, a new song written by folk-rocker Luke Doucet, as part of Music Monday festivities.Read Full Story

Vancouver, British Columbia Canada’s population of 33.5 million people is growing faster than that of any other G8 nation — fuelled primarily by immigration — while the booming West continues to reshape this country’s demographic landscape, a new census has revealed. The latest national headcount, released Wednesday by Statistics Canada, shows strong and steady growth in nearly every corner of a country that remains firmly in the grip of a westward shift in population power. Up from 31.6...Read Full Story