Investment

Investment key to post-pandemic recovery – Winnipeg Free Press

Published

4 years ago

August 31, 2020

WITH Canada continuing to battle COVID-19 and its profound impacts on our economy, the timing is less than ideal to appoint a new federal finance minister. However, Chrystia Freeland’s new role provides her a key opportunity to make her mark and set Canada on a course toward recovery post-COVID-19.

To achieve this, Canada will have to make significant new investments in the basic building blocks of a healthy society, including making it possible for everyone to earn a living wage, as well as ensuring access to quality health care at all ages, mental health supports and essential services.

Failing to address these significant challenges could have a serious negative effect on Canada’s future prosperity and security.

As part of the federal government’s 2021 pre-budget consultations, the Canadian Federation of Nurses Unions (CFNU) proposed investments targeted toward these social determinants of health to ensure a high quality of life for current and future generations of Canadians.

The real possibility of future health crises poses a particularly grave risk to the many Canadians without drug coverage, as well as to our economy. A universal single-payer pharmacare system is an investment in Canada’s future and an effective bulwark against future disease outbreaks.

Other key takeaways from the COVID-19 pandemic include the lack of mental-health services and affordable quality child-care options for families across the country. We must also address the disparities faced by workers in largely female-led sectors, including child care and long-term care, which have long been plagued by low wages and precarity.

With so few affordable options, parents — mostly women — are forced to choose between quality child care and going to work. This is unacceptable in a country as wealthy as ours.

Similarly, decades of neglect, resulting in inadequate staffing and substandard conditions across the country, led to seniors bearing the brunt of the COVID-19 pandemic.

We have an obligation to build healthier workplaces, create permanent jobs with fair wages and benefits, reform employment insurance provisions, and ensure that all workers in Canada have access to strong and effective occupational health and safety protections — including migrant workers and those who are faced with precarious and unsafe work.

Our future health and economy also rely on our natural environment. With our window to prevent catastrophic events closing fast, our collective goal must be to build climate-resilient communities. Canadians are feeling the impacts of climate change, yet we continue to lag in terms of our international commitments.

The massive changes required to shift our infrastructure and technology to a green economy would result in profound impacts on energy-sector workers, their families and communities. Labour unions have long called for the rapid implementation of a just transition strategy; we stand ready to collaborate with government toward a solution that guarantees dignified work and clean energy.

All of these critical challenges demand that our governments invest in health care and essential public services to better support families and communities. These long-overdue investments are necessary for our country to pave the way toward a healthy economic recovery.

This pandemic has shaken every facet of our lives. Undoubtedly, there will be many lessons to be learned from our experience with COVID-19, and a crucial one will be the importance of investing in crisis-proof systems. In a rapidly changing world, our resilience depends on it.

Canadians are counting on us. Let’s roll up our sleeves and get to work.

Linda Silas is a nurse and president of the Canadian Federation of Nurses Unions, representing nearly 200,000 nurses and student nurses across the country.

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Investment

Tesla shares soar more than 14% as Trump win is seen boosting Elon Musk’s electric vehicle company

Published

3 days ago

November 6, 2024

Anne Joseph

NEW YORK (AP) — Shares of Tesla soared Wednesday as investors bet that the electric vehicle maker and its CEO Elon Musk will benefit from Donald Trump’s return to the White House.

Tesla stands to make significant gains under a Trump administration with the threat of diminished subsidies for alternative energy and electric vehicles doing the most harm to smaller competitors. Trump’s plans for extensive tariffs on Chinese imports make it less likely that Chinese EVs will be sold in bulk in the U.S. anytime soon.

“Tesla has the scale and scope that is unmatched,” said Wedbush analyst Dan Ives, in a note to investors. “This dynamic could give Musk and Tesla a clear competitive advantage in a non-EV subsidy environment, coupled by likely higher China tariffs that would continue to push away cheaper Chinese EV players.”

Tesla shares jumped 14.8% Wednesday while shares of rival electric vehicle makers tumbled. Nio, based in Shanghai, fell 5.3%. Shares of electric truck maker Rivian dropped 8.3% and Lucid Group fell 5.3%.

Tesla dominates sales of electric vehicles in the U.S, with 48.9% in market share through the middle of 2024, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.

Subsidies for clean energy are part of the Inflation Reduction Act, signed into law by President Joe Biden in 2022. It included tax credits for manufacturing, along with tax credits for consumers of electric vehicles.

Musk was one of Trump’s biggest donors, spending at least $119 million mobilizing Trump’s supporters to back the Republican nominee. He also pledged to give away $1 million a day to voters signing a petition for his political action committee.

In some ways, it has been a rocky year for Tesla, with sales and profit declining through the first half of the year. Profit did rise 17.3% in the third quarter.

The U.S. opened an investigation into the company’s “Full Self-Driving” system after reports of crashes in low-visibility conditions, including one that killed a pedestrian. The investigation covers roughly 2.4 million Teslas from the 2016 through 2024 model years.

And investors sent company shares tumbling last month after Tesla unveiled its long-awaited robotaxi at a Hollywood studio Thursday night, seeing not much progress at Tesla on autonomous vehicles while other companies have been making notable progress.

Tesla began selling the software, which is called “Full Self-Driving,” nine years ago. But there are doubts about its reliability.

The stock is now showing a 16.1% gain for the year after rising the past two days.

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Investment

S&P/TSX composite up more than 100 points, U.S. stock markets mixed

Published

3 weeks ago

October 16, 2024

Anne Joseph

TORONTO – Canada’s main stock index was up more than 100 points in late-morning trading, helped by strength in base metal and utility stocks, while U.S. stock markets were mixed.

The S&P/TSX composite index was up 103.40 points at 24,542.48.

In New York, the Dow Jones industrial average was up 192.31 points at 42,932.73. The S&P 500 index was up 7.14 points at 5,822.40, while the Nasdaq composite was down 9.03 points at 18,306.56.

The Canadian dollar traded for 72.61 cents US compared with 72.44 cents US on Tuesday.

The November crude oil contract was down 71 cents at US$69.87 per barrel and the November natural gas contract was down eight cents at US$2.42 per mmBTU.

The December gold contract was up US$7.20 at US$2,686.10 an ounce and the December copper contract was up a penny at US$4.35 a pound.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 16, 2024.

Companies in this story: (TSX:GSPTSE, TSX:CADUSD)

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Economy

S&P/TSX up more than 200 points, U.S. markets also higher

Published

4 weeks ago

October 11, 2024

Anne Joseph

TORONTO – Canada’s main stock index was up more than 200 points in late-morning trading, while U.S. stock markets were also headed higher.

The S&P/TSX composite index was up 205.86 points at 24,508.12.

In New York, the Dow Jones industrial average was up 336.62 points at 42,790.74. The S&P 500 index was up 34.19 points at 5,814.24, while the Nasdaq composite was up 60.27 points at 18.342.32.

The Canadian dollar traded for 72.61 cents US compared with 72.71 cents US on Thursday.

The November crude oil contract was down 15 cents at US$75.70 per barrel and the November natural gas contract was down two cents at US$2.65 per mmBTU.

The December gold contract was down US$29.60 at US$2,668.90 an ounce and the December copper contract was up four cents at US$4.47 a pound.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 11, 2024.

Companies in this story: (TSX:GSPTSE, TSX:CADUSD)

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