Canada
column for Sunday, Feb. 23/14
THE CANADIAN REPORT
(c) By
Jim Fox
Door-to-door mail delivery will end this year in 11 cities including neighborhoods
in Oakville, Calgary, Winnipeg, Halifax and Repentigny, Quebec.
Canada Post announced the centers where people will have their mail
delivered instead to community boxes this fall in a cost-cutting move.
It’s the first phase of the postal service’s five-year changeover and will
affect about 100,000 addresses.
Canada
Post said the changes are necessary with costs rising and mail volumes dropping
and since just one-third of Canadian are still getting five-day-a-week home
delivery.
The initial neighborhoods affected are in areas that have nearby
community mail boxes and the infrastructure is already in place, the post
office said.
In
the larger cities, mail will continue to be delivered to businesses while in
smaller cities, most households and a larger number of businesses will switch
to group boxes.
Also affected by the change this year will be Fort McMurray, Alberta; Kanata,
Ontario; Bois-des-Filion, Charlemagne, Lorraine and Rosemere, all in Quebec.
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Prime Minister Stephen Harper still doesn’t have an answer from U.S.
President Barack Obama whether he will approve the controversial Keystone XL
pipeline.
When
asked about the fate of the project to ship Canadian oilsands crude to the U.S.
by pipeline, Obama instead called on Harper to work with him to reduce
greenhouse gas emissions.
“I
said previously that how Keystone impacted greenhouse gas emissions would
affect our decision,” Obama said at the “Three Amigos” summit in Mexico.
There is a “shared concern” about climate change, Harper said, noting a
recent U.S. State Department report gave the Alberta oilsands a good grade on
environmental impact.
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News in brief:
-
Suspended Senator Patrick Brazeau has a new job: managing a strip club in
Ottawa. Brazeau’s pay was stopped last November and he faces criminal charges
in connection with receiving $48,000 in unauthorized expenses. He wouldn’t
comment on his job as manager at the Barefax Gentlemen’s Club.
-
The Facebook social website phenomenon has taken over Canadians, with 14 million
people logging in daily. “Essentially, we're getting 50 percent of the Canadian
population on Facebook every day,” and Jordan Banks, head of Facebook Canada.
The number of mobile users accessing Facebook daily is 10 million, with people
checking their phones at least 20 times a day, he added.
---
Facts and figures:
Canada’s dollar has slipped to 89.85 cents U.S. while the U.S. dollar returns
$1.1129 in Canadian funds, before bank exchange fees.
The
Bank of Canada’s key interest rate is steady at 1 percent while the
prime-lending rate remains at 3 percent.
Stock
markets are higher, with the Toronto exchange index at 14,244 points and the
TSX Venture index 1,019 points.
The average price of a liter of gas across Canada is up at $1.292
(Canadian).
Lotto 6-49: (Feb. 19) 2, 7, 15, 24, 37 and 45; bonus 13. (Feb. 15) 1, 8,
37, 39, 44 and 45; bonus 21. Lotto Max: (Feb. 14) 6, 8, 11, 16, 17, 19 and 24;
bonus 29.
---
Regional briefs:
- Vancouver
tops the list of four Canadian cities in North America in the Mercer Quality of
Living rankings. The global business consulting company’s survey ranked
Vancouver first followed by Ottawa, Toronto and Montreal, with San Francisco in
fifth spot. Vancouver’s “relatively mild climate” gave it the edge over the
other Canadian cities, said Mercer’s Luc Lalonde. Lowest-ranked in North
America were Mexico City, Detroit, St. Louis, Houston and Miami.
-
The Ontario Provincial Police have searched a government computer storage
facility in the investigation of deleted emails about cancelled gas plants by
staff of former Liberal premier Dalton McGuinty. The Conservative party
complained about missing documentation relating to the Liberal’s plan to cancel
controversial gas plants in Oakville and Mississauga prior to the 2011 election.
The move cost up to $1.1 billion.
-
Canada’s iconic coffee shop chain Tim Hortons has come out with a “pre-cup”
agreement, similar to a “pre-nup.” This is aimed at helping to avoid problems
in this year’s Roll Up the Rim to Win contest. Arguments in previous years over
who should get the prizes, from a coffee to cars, led to the contract that sets
out the winner – the purchaser or the recipient of the coffee.
-30-
Jim Fox can be reached at canadareport@hotmail.com
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