CA-CANADA Summary (Reuters)
Ontario vows to balance budget, despite spending
TORONTO (Reuters) ? The Liberal government of Ontario, Canada’s industrial heartland, renewed its vow on Tuesday to eliminate its C$16 billion ($15.4 billion) budget deficit in six years, while also affirming some expensive spending promises made in the recent provincial election. In the Speech from the Throne, which opened the first session of the legislature since the October 6 vote, Lieutenant Governor David Onley read the government’s outline of its plans, including tuition cuts for college and university students, tax credits for seniors, and some lower taxes for families and businesses.
Canada oil sands output to triple by 2035: report
CALGARY, Alberta (Reuters) – Production from the oil sands will more than triple over the next quarter century, to 5.1 million barrels per day, Canada’s national energy regulator said in a report released on Tuesday. In a look at energy production and consumption through 2035, the National Energy Board said output from the oil sands, the largest source of U.S. oil imports, will continue to expand from around 1.5 million bpd currently as new mining and thermal projects tap the resources.
Canada’s visa system badly flawed: watchdog
OTTAWA (Reuters) – Canada could be admitting people who are security threats or carrying serious diseases because of a flawed visa system, a parliamentary watchdog warned on Tuesday. The report by the auditor general is likely to bolster U.S. critics seeking much tighter controls on the U.S.-Canada border on the grounds that Ottawa is letting in terror suspects and militants who could one day attack the United States.
Canadian retailers set for holiday season price cuts
TORONTO (Reuters) – Canadian retailers face a tough choice this holiday season: either hold the line on prices and risk scaring off consumers, or cut prices and trigger a downward spiral of profit-smothering discounts. Ed Strapagiel, executive vice president at KubasPrimedia, a market research firm in Toronto, said the price slide has already started, and could accelerate this weekend.
Insight: Lessons for U.S. from Canada’s “basket case” moment
OTTAWA (Reuters) – Finance officials bit their nails and nervously watched the clock. There were 30 minutes left in a bond auction aimed at funding the deficit and there was not a single bid. Sounds like today’s Italy or Greece?
Canada regulating pharmaceuticals badly: report
OTTAWA (Reuters) – Canada’s health ministry is not regulating pharmaceutical drugs well enough and is slow to address potential safety issues when it identifies them, an official watchdog reported on Tuesday. Interim Auditor General John Wiersema said Health Canada sometimes takes more than two years to complete an assessment of the risks of drugs already on the market.
Suit won’t stop Canada Wheat Board change: minister
OTTAWA (Reuters) – Legal challenges won’t stop Canada’s government from passing a law by the end of 2011 to end the Canadian Wheat Board’s grain marketing monopoly, Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz said on Tuesday. The Wheat Board and a third-party group will challenge the Conservative government’s plans in a Manitoba courtroom on December 6, arguing that Ottawa acted illegally by moving to scrap the CWB’s monopoly without holding a farmer vote, as the current law requires.
World Chefs: McLagan savors the odd bits others shun
TORONTO (Reuters) – Jennifer McLagan doesn’t necessarily want to shock readers with her new cookbook “Odd Bits: How to Cook the Rest of the Animal” but she’s really good at doing just that. In the first recipe called Headcheese for the Unconvinced she explains how to shave or singe the little hairs off a pig’s head before submerging it in brine with its cut-off ear and foot.
Canada bans exports aiding Iranian energy sector
OTTAWA (Reuters) – Canada will immediately ban the export to Iran of all goods used in the petrochemical, oil and gas industry, as part of an international sanctions package, the government said on Monday. Canada, the United States and Britain are limiting contacts with Tehran over concerns about Iran’s nuclear program.
Ontario judge upholds Occupy Toronto evictions
TORONTO (Reuters) – A Canadian judge upheld an order to evict protesters camped in a downtown Toronto park on Monday, giving the Occupy Toronto movement until midnight to vacate the park it has held for more than a month. Ontario Superior Court Judge David Brown ruled the eviction order – issued by the city last Tuesday and challenged in court by the protesters – did not violate the demonstrators’ freedom of expression and peaceful assembly.
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