Fire destroys Anglican church in Saskatchewan village

Here is a roundup of stories from The Canadian Press designed to bring you up to speed…

N.S. votes: Tories to release platform today

The Progressive Conservatives are set to release their party platform today ahead of Nova Scotia’s Nov. 26 provincial election.

They will be the second of the three major parties to release a platform this week after the Liberals presented a plan containing $2.3 billion in election promises over four years.

Liberal Leader Zach Churchill, meanwhile, has an announcement planned in Halifax where he is expected to discuss improving health care for women.

NDP Leader Claudia Chender is in Cape Breton where she is scheduled to spend much of the day campaigning.

Tory Leader Tim Houston pledged to remove parking fees at all provincial hospitals, while Churchill promised to reduce immigration levels to align them with provincial Labour Department targets he says have been exceeded by the government.

Here’s what else we’re watching…

StatCan to release October jobs report today

Statistics Canada is set to release its October labour force survey this morning, shedding light on employment trends and wage growth last month.

RBC is forecasting the economy added a modest 15,000 jobs and the unemployment rate to have ticked back up to 6.6 per cent.

The jobless rate declined slightly to 6.5 per cent in September.

The Canadian job market has loosened significantly as high interest rates have restrained economic growth.

The Bank of Canada, which lowered its policy interest rate by 1.25 percentage points since June, now says it wants to see the economy rebound.

RBC says it expects the unemployment rate to reach seven per cent next year, before trending lower again.

What Trump’s election could mean for rates

Experts say Donald Trump’s election victory could shift interest rate policy in the U.S. as his promised policies risk higher inflation, which could ultimately have implications for Canadian rates and the loonie.

Markets rallied Wednesday and into Thursday in the wake of his victory as investors prepared for what his proposals might bring.

Among those promises are large tariffs on imported goods, especially from China, as well as lower tax rates and lighter regulation.

Economist Sheila Block says the large tariffs proposed by Trump would likely put upward pressure on inflation in the U.S.

Higher inflation would mean the U.S. Federal Reserve could be slower to cut interest rates, and markets are already shifting their bets on how low the central bank is likely to go on rates.

B.C. election judicial recounts expected to finish

Judicial recounts in British Columbia’s provincial election should wrap up today, confirming whether Premier David Eby’s New Democrats hang onto their one-seat majority almost three weeks after the vote.

Most attention will be on the closest race of Surrey-Guildford, where the NDP were ahead by a mere 27 votes, a margin narrow enough to trigger a hand recount of more than 19,000 ballots that’s being overseen by a B.C. Supreme Court judge.

Elections BC spokesman Andrew Watson says the recounts are expected to conclude today, but certification won’t happen until next week following an appeal period.

The Election Act says the deadline to appeal the results must be filed with the court within two days after they are declared, but Watson says that due to Remembrance Day on Monday, that period would end at 4 p.m. Tuesday.

When an appeal is filed, it must be heard no later than 10 days after the registrar receives the notice of appeal.

Another full recount is also taking place in Kelowna Centre, narrowly won by the B.C. Conservatives, while a partial recount will take place in Prince George-Mackenzie to tally votes from an uncounted ballot box that contained about 861 votes.

The Prince George-Mackenzie recount won’t change the outcome because the B.C. Conservative candidate there won by more than 5,000 votes.

If neither Surrey-Guildford nor Kelowna Centre change hands, the NDP will have 47 seats and the Conservatives 44, while the Greens have two seats in the 93-riding legislature.

Another beluga whale dies at Marineland

Three weeks after the death of another beluga whale at Marineland, the Ontario government is speaking publicly about its ongoing investigation of the park, saying water troubles are under control after a recent investment.

The province’s chief animal welfare inspector told The Canadian Press that to her understanding, marine mammal deaths at the tourist destination in Niagara Falls, Ont., have not been related to water quality.

Five belugas have died at the park in the last year and 17 have died since late 2019, government records show. Three other belugas sold to a Connecticut aquarium in 2021 have since died.

Kiska, the country’s last remaining killer whale in captivity, died in April 2023. One dolphin, one harbour seal, one grey seal, two sea lions and two Magellanic penguins have also died at the park in the past five years.

Marineland did not answer questions about the animal deaths, and instead twice responded to recent queries with accusations that journalism published by The Canadian Press was driven by its reporter’s “personal animal rights beliefs and activism.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 8, 2024

OTTAWA – Canada’s unemployment rate held steady at 6.5 per cent last month as hiring remained weak across the economy.

Statistics Canada’s labour force survey on Friday said employment rose by a modest 15,000 jobs in October.

Business, building and support services saw the largest gain in employment.

Meanwhile, finance, insurance, real estate, rental and leasing experienced the largest decline.

Many economists see weakness in the job market continuing in the short term, before the Bank of Canada’s interest rate cuts spark a rebound in economic growth next year.

Despite ongoing softness in the labour market, however, strong wage growth has raged on in Canada. Average hourly wages in October grew 4.9 per cent from a year ago, reaching $35.76.

Friday’s report also shed some light on the financial health of households.

According to the agency, 28.8 per cent of Canadians aged 15 or older were living in a household that had difficulty meeting financial needs – like food and housing – in the previous four weeks.

That was down from 33.1 per cent in October 2023 and 35.5 per cent in October 2022, but still above the 20.4 per cent figure recorded in October 2020.

People living in a rented home were more likely to report difficulty meeting financial needs, with nearly four in 10 reporting that was the case.

That compares with just under a quarter of those living in an owned home by a household member.

Immigrants were also more likely to report facing financial strain last month, with about four out of 10 immigrants who landed in the last year doing so.

That compares with about three in 10 more established immigrants and one in four of people born in Canada.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 8, 2024.

The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.

OTTAWA – The Parliamentary Budget Officer estimates the Trans Mountain pipeline is worth less than it cost to build in an updated financial assessment of the controversial project.

The budget watchdog says the pipeline could be worth between $29.6 billion and $33.4 billion, depending on what happens after the initial 20-year contracts expire.

Meanwhile, the cost to build the pipeline that went into service in May came in at $34.2 billion, dramatically higher than the $7.4 billion estimate in 2017.

The PBO says its valuation estimate doesn’t factor in sunk costs, such as the $4.5 billion the federal government paid to buy the project in 2018, or capital spending before 2024.

It says government-owned Trans Mountain Corp. has assets of $35.2 billion, liabilities of $26.9 billion and shareholder equity of $8.3 billion.

The PBO says that if the government were to sell the pipeline at either of the valuation estimates, it would not cover the shareholder equity that the corporation would have to write off and record a loss.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 8, 2024.

The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.