Canada earns five speedskating medals at Four Continents championships

NEW YORK – Winnipeg Jets defenceman Neal Pionk has been fined US$5,000 by the NHL for clipping Florida Panthers forward Jesper Boqvist.

The offence took place at 14:36 of the third period in Winnipeg’s 5-0 loss to Florida on Saturday.

Boqvist was in the Jets’ zone and wrapped a pass around Pionk to teammate Anton Lundell.

The moment the puck came off his stick, Pionk hipchecked Boqvist, whose body spun in midair before hitting the ice.

Boqvist was down for some moments after the play and Pionk was not penalized for the play.

The fine is the maximum allowable under the collective bargaining agreement.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 17, 2024.

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TORONTO – The latest inflation reading due out Tuesday from Statistics Canada is expected to show a slight uptick for the month of October — but economists say the measure is still on a longer-term downward trend.

Economists polled by Reuters expect the consumer price index to come in at 1.9 per cent for October, up from 1.6 per cent in September which was the lowest inflation reading since February 2021.

The price of gasoline was a key reason the September number came in so low, as oil dropped to a low of around US$65 per barrel at one point. It’s also expected to be a driver for the increase in October, when it crested US$75 per barrel.

“We’re expecting headline to go back up to two per cent, but just like how it dropped down to 1.6 per cent, it’s mostly an energy story,” said RBC economist Claire Fan.

The expected inflation increase is in part based on shifts in last year’s baseline and shouldn’t be seen as a move away from progress on getting the measure down, she said.

“The broad story really is that this low inflation, or progressively easing inflation pressure, it’s still very much the trend,” Fan said.

Excluding the volatile measures of energy and food — which Fan expects to remain steady at 2.8 per cent — core inflation should tick lower to 2.2 per cent in Octoberfrom 2.4 per cent in September, she said.

BMO Capital Markets sees headline inflation coming in at 1.9 per cent and core inflation at 2.4 or 2.5 per cent, said Benjamin Reitzes, its managing director of Canadian rates & macro strategist, in a note.

“October looks to be a bump in the road for the downward trend in inflation. Prices didn’t exactly surge in the month, but base effects are challenging, suggesting that headline and core inflation will accelerate modestly.”

Along with a mild increase in gasoline prices, he expects surging property taxes to be a key driver for the increase. Rising taxes will help push up shelter costs, but it will be offset from a smaller increase in mortgage interest costs after the Bank of Canada cut interest rates again in October.

High mortgage payments due to interest rates and a wave of mortgage renewals have been putting upward pressure on shelter inflation, but the downward trend in rates should start to relieve pressure on shelter inflation, said Fan.

“On a month-over-month basis, I think we are, if anything, very close to an inflection point.”

The Bank of Canada lowered its key rate by half a percentage point in October to 3.75 per cent, the fourth drop since June.

On the rental side, Desjardins economist Maëlle Boulais-Préseault said in a note last week that rental inflation averaged 8.3 per cent in the third quarter, the highest pace since the 1980s.

That’s in contrast to owned accommodation price growth, which decelerated to 5.5 per cent as borrowing costs continued to come down, she said.

Rent inflation, which aims to measure what Canadians actually pay in rent rather than just the cost of new rentals, is expected to come down, but not in a hurry.

“Our outlook is for a slowdown in the pace of rent inflation over the next few years, in line with a rising unemployment rate and weaker population growth,” said Boulais-Préseault.

The softening of the labour market is also expected to help reduce pressure on inflation, said Fan.

That’s in contrast to the U.S., where inflation rose 2.6 per cent in October from a year earlier, compared with 2.4 per cent in September, as higher government spending and a robust labour market are making inflation reductions a challenge.

The two countries are diverging on a range of key economic measures, including real GDP per capita that is the broadest spread on record, said Fan. In Canada, the measure is three per cent below where it was in 2019, while it’s eight per cent higher in the U.S.

As the two economies diverge, the Canadian dollar has been under pressure, trading at lows not seen since 2020.

The weaker loonie, a possible upward revision of GDP, and the slight increase in October inflation all leads BMO’s Reitzes to expect the Bank of Canada to opt for a milder quarter-percentage-point cut in the key rate at its Dec. 11 meeting.

RBC however is expecting another half-point cut from the central bank, given the struggling economy and the time lag for rates to have an effect.

“Given how weak current conditions are, and given the fact that even if you cut rates today, it won’t help with things until probably at least a couple quarters down the road, they really want to front load any amount of easing,” said Fan.

“If they think the economy needs the support, they want to do it as quickly as possible.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 17, 2024.

OTTAWA – The CRTC is looking at how to redefine Canadian content, launching a new consultation on the question with plans to hold a public hearing in the spring.

Scott Shortliffe, the CRTC’s executive director of broadcasting, said Friday the regulator hopes to get robust public participation on the new definition.

The consultation is part of the CRTC’s implementation of the Online Streaming Act, which updated broadcasting laws to capture online platforms. Part of that effort involves looking to ensure Canadian content is visible and easily discoverable on streaming services.

The CRTC has issued a preliminary position suggesting it keep the points system that has long been used to determine whether content is considered Canadian. It is considering expanding that to allow more creative positions to count toward the points total.

“Canadian producers and entities are used to a points system … switching to a different system would be a great dislocation,” Shortliffe said.

The regulator also wants input on questions including whether artificial intelligence-created video can be considered Cancon.

While the Online Streaming Act was passed just last year, Shortliffe noted “it did not mention artificial intelligence because very honestly, that was an emerging issue.”

“In the time since it’s passed, the commission has become convinced that this is an issue that we must take into account,” he said.

Shortliffe said that includes questions about whether AI can be considered Canadian content, and if so, under what circumstances.

The regulator already held consultations with hundreds of stakeholders to discuss redefining Canadian content. Shortliffe said Canadian producers, writers and directors were “of course, extremely well represented.”

“We are very pleased that foreign streamers did take part. I would suspect that the foreign streamers possibly felt outnumbered at some of the sessions, but they had an important voice too.”

The consultation launched Friday applies to video content like television, not radio and streaming audio.

The CRTC is already facing a court challenge over its efforts to bring online platforms under regulation.

Global streaming services such as Netflix and Disney Plus are fighting an earlier directive the CRTC made under the Online Streaming Act requiring them to contribute money to Canada’s broadcast sector.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 15, 2024.

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