A look at news events in July 2023:
1 — Scores of forest fires burn in Ontario and Quebec, and the smoke drifts hundreds of kilometres into the southern reaches of the provinces and into the central and northeastern U.S. Environment Canada issues smog warnings for northern and western Quebec, and parts of eastern and southern Ontario.
1 — Port workers across British Columbia go on strike. Negotiations supported by federal mediators fail to come up with a deal throughout the night to keep more than 7,000 employees on the job. The union says contracting out, port automation and cost of living are key issues in the dispute.
5 — Canada, the U.K., Sweden and Ukraine ask the United Nations’ highest court to rule that Iran illegally shot down a Ukrainian passenger jet in January 2020, killing all 176 people aboard. They want the International Court of Justice to order Tehran to apologize and pay compensation to the families of the victims.
5 — The federal government announces it is stopping advertising on Facebook and Instagram after parent company Meta promised to block Canadian news content there. Meta’s decision to block Canadian news was in response to Canadian legislation that will require tech giants to pay media outlets for content they share or otherwise repurpose on their platforms.
5 — Stellantis and LG Energy Solution announce that their electric vehicle battery plant in Windsor is back on track after reaching a “binding” financing deal with the governments of Canada and Ontario.
8 — The City of Winnipeg orders protesters who are blocking access to a landfill in support of a search for the remains of two Indigenous women to leave. The city says it issued an order to vacate in accordance with the Emergency Management Bylaw, demanding the protesters restore full access to the Brady Road landfill.
9 — In a legal decision described as the first of its kind in Canada, a Halifax sex worker successfully sues a client for nonpayment of services.
9 — Hundreds of people gather for a rally in support of striking British Columbia port workers in Vancouver as their job action stretches into its second week. Representatives from labour groups as far away as Australia and New Zealand speak in support of the strikers at the rally.
10 — Gordon Reid, the Canadian businessman who founded discount store chain Giant Tiger, dies at age 89. Reid opened the first Giant Tiger store in 1961 in Ottawa’s ByWard Market. The chain now has more than 265 locations across Canada and employs more than 10,000 people.
10 — Canada’s premiers kick off their annual conference in Winnipeg by meeting with Indigenous leaders.
12 — Olivia Chow officially takes office as mayor of Toronto. She becomes the first person of colour to lead Canada’s most populous city. She beat out more than 100 other candidates in a June byelection to replace John Tory.
12 — The Bank of Canada raises its key interest rate by a quarter point to five per cent. The central bank says it is raising the rate because of elevated demand in the economy and strong underlying inflation pressures.
12 — Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and other NATO leaders wrap up a two-day summit in Lithuania.
14 — Hydro-Quebec crews work to restore power to about 170,000 customers after severe thunderstorms, and at least one tornado, hit the province the day before. An entire month’s worth of rain fell in just two hours, flooding underpasses and more than 130 homes, while winds gusting to almost 100 kilometres an hour knocked down trees and power lines.
15 — The entire province of Alberta, parts of British Columbia, Saskatchewan and the Northwest Territories are covered in air quality alerts due to wildfire smoke.
15 — The North American Indigenous Games get underway in Nova Scotia.
16 — Smoke from Canadian wildfires creates unhealthy conditions south of the border and prompts the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to post air quality alerts for several states from Montana to Ohio.
18 — The BC Wildfire Service reports the province set a record for the total area burned in a year. Fires have scorched almost 14,000 square kilometres since April 1, surpassing the previous record of 13,543 square kilometres set in 2018.
18 — Port workers in British Columbia resume their strike at about 30 B.C. ports. Their union leaders announce they rejected the tentative contract terms drawn up by a federal mediator in a bid to end the labour dispute with the B.C. Maritime Employers Association.
19 — A Quebec Superior Court judge approves a $14.8-million sex abuse class-action settlement involving the Montreal archdiocese. It’s the first time a diocese in Quebec has settled a class action.
19 — The B.C. government directs the City of Surrey to move forward with an independent police service and not the RCMP.
20 — Correctional Service Canada Commissioner Anne Kelly says serial killer Paul Bernardo will remain in the Quebec medium-security prison he was transferred to earlier this year. Kelly tells an Ottawa news conference that Canada’s correction system is based on the rehabilitation of offenders, even if they are to be incarcerated for the rest of their lives.
23 — Warner Brothers’ movie “Barbie” breaks this year’s opening weekend record, and also shatters the first-weekend record for a film directed by a woman, Greta Gerwig. Studio totals show the film made $162 million in North American ticket sales.
24 — Elon Musk posts on Twitter that he will change the site’s logo from the famous blue bird to the letter “X” in the latest shakeup since he bought the social media platform for $44 billion last year.
24 — The Agricultural Producers Association of Saskatchewan encourages crop farmers to help neighbouring cattle producers by converting crops to livestock feed. The association says it will be a solution as some farmers write off drought-afflicted crops and cattle producers complain of feed shortages.
24 — The Centre for Addiction and Mental Health gets $156 million from the federal government over three years to launch and operate a new three-digit suicide-prevention hotline. Anyone in crisis will be able to dial 988 anywhere in the country to be connected with trained responders beginning at the end of November. The 24-hour service is free and will be offered in English and French.
26 — Irish singer-songwriter Sinead O’Connor dies at age 56. O’Connor, who was known for her fierce, expressive voice, became an international sensation with her cover of Prince’s ballad “Nothing Compares 2 U.” Rolling Stone magazine named her Artist of the Year in 1991.
26 — A partial settlement is reached in a lawsuit against the Calgary Stampede over the sexual abuse of young boys. The class-action suit alleged the organization allowed Phillip Heerema to abuse six boys dating back to the 1990s when he was a staffer with The Young Canadians, which performs each year in the Stampede’s grandstand show.
26 — The Canadian Human Rights Tribunal approves a $23.4-billion First Nations child welfare settlement that revolved around allegations that Ottawa’s underfunding of on-reserve child welfare services amounted to discrimination and that First Nations children were denied equal access to various supports.
31 — Actor and comedian Paul Reubens, who starred as Pee-wee Herman on TV and in movies, dies after a six-year battle with cancer.
REGINA – Saskatchewan Opposition NDP Leader Carla Beck says she wants to prove to residents her party is the government in waiting as she heads into the incoming legislative session.
Beck held her first caucus meeting with 27 members, nearly double than what she had before the Oct. 28 election but short of the 31 required to form a majority in the 61-seat legislature.
She says her priorities will be health care and cost-of-living issues.
Beck says people need affordability help right now and will press Premier Scott Moe’s Saskatchewan Party government to cut the gas tax and the provincial sales tax on children’s clothing and some grocery items.
Beck’s NDP is Saskatchewan’s largest Opposition in nearly two decades after sweeping Regina and winning all but one seat in Saskatoon.
The Saskatchewan Party won 34 seats, retaining its hold on all of the rural ridings and smaller cities.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 8, 2024.
The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.
Telus Corp. says it is avoiding offering “unprofitable” discounts as fierce competition in the Canadian telecommunications sector shows no sign of slowing down.
The company said Friday it had fewer net new customers during its third quarter compared with the same time last year, as it copes with increasingly “aggressive marketing and promotional pricing” that is prompting more customers to switch providers.
Telus said it added 347,000 net new customers, down around 14.5 per cent compared with last year. The figure includes 130,000 mobile phone subscribers and 34,000 internet customers, down 30,000 and 3,000, respectively, year-over-year.
The company reported its mobile phone churn rate — a metric measuring subscribers who cancelled their services — was 1.09 per cent in the third quarter, up from 1.03 per cent in the third quarter of 2023. That included a postpaid mobile phone churn rate of 0.90 per cent in its latest quarter.
Telus said its focus is on customer retention through its “industry-leading service and network quality, along with successful promotions and bundled offerings.”
“The customers we have are the most important customers we can get,” said chief financial officer Doug French in an interview.
“We’ve, again, just continued to focus on what matters most to our customers, from a product and customer service perspective, while not loading unprofitable customers.”
Meanwhile, Telus reported its net income attributable to common shares more than doubled during its third quarter.
The telecommunications company said it earned $280 million, up 105.9 per cent from the same three-month period in 2023. Earnings per diluted share for the quarter ended Sept. 30 was 19 cents compared with nine cents a year earlier.
It reported adjusted net income was $413 million, up 10.7 per cent year-over-year from $373 million in the same quarter last year. Operating revenue and other income for the quarter was $5.1 billion, up 1.8 per cent from the previous year.
Mobile phone average revenue per user was $58.85 in the third quarter, a decrease of $2.09 or 3.4 per cent from a year ago. Telus said the drop was attributable to customers signing up for base rate plans with lower prices, along with a decline in overage and roaming revenues.
It said customers are increasingly adopting unlimited data and Canada-U.S. plans which provide higher and more stable ARPU on a monthly basis.
“In a tough operating environment and relative to peers, we view Q3 results that were in line to slightly better than forecast as the best of the bunch,” said RBC analyst Drew McReynolds in a note.
Scotiabank analyst Maher Yaghi added that “the telecom industry in Canada remains very challenging for all players, however, Telus has been able to face these pressures” and still deliver growth.
The Big 3 telecom providers — which also include Rogers Communications Inc. and BCE Inc. — have frequently stressed that the market has grown more competitive in recent years, especially after the closing of Quebecor Inc.’s purchase of Freedom Mobile in April 2023.
Hailed as a fourth national carrier, Quebecor has invested in enhancements to Freedom’s network while offering more affordable plans as part of a set of commitments it was mandated by Ottawa to agree to.
The cost of telephone services in September was down eight per cent compared with a year earlier, according to Statistics Canada’s most recent inflation report last month.
“I think competition has been and continues to be, I’d say, quite intense in Canada, and we’ve obviously had to just manage our business the way we see fit,” said French.
Asked how long that environment could last, he said that’s out of Telus’ hands.
“What I can control, though, is how we go to market and how we lead with our products,” he said.
“I think the conditions within the market will have to adjust accordingly over time. We’ve continued to focus on digitization, continued to bring our cost structure down to compete, irrespective of the price and the current market conditions.”
Still, Canada’s telecom regulator continues to warn providers about customers facing more charges on their cellphone and internet bills.
On Tuesday, CRTC vice-president of consumer, analytics and strategy Scott Hutton called on providers to ensure they clearly inform their customers of charges such as early cancellation fees.
That followed statements from the regulator in recent weeks cautioning against rising international roaming fees and “surprise” price increases being found on their bills.
Hutton said the CRTC plans to launch public consultations in the coming weeks that will focus “on ensuring that information is clear and consistent, making it easier to compare offers and switch services or providers.”
“The CRTC is concerned with recent trends, which suggest that Canadians may not be benefiting from the full protections of our codes,” he said.
“We will continue to monitor developments and will take further action if our codes are not being followed.”
French said any initiative to boost transparency is a step in the right direction.
“I can’t say we are perfect across the board, but what I can say is we are absolutely taking it under consideration and trying to be the best at communicating with our customers,” he said.
“I think everyone looking in the mirror would say there’s room for improvement.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 8, 2024.
Companies in this story: (TSX:T)
Two years after the failed launch of a lending program, Canada Post is making another foray into banking services.
The postal service confirmed Friday that it will be offering a chequing and savings account in partnership with Koho Financial Inc.
The accounts will be launched nationally next year, though Canada Post employees will be offered early access as the product is tested.
Canada Post spokeswoman Lisa Liu said in a statement that there are gaps in the banking and savings products available that the Crown corporation looks to fill.
“Canada Post is uniquely positioned to fill some of these demands. Many of our existing financial products help meet the needs of new Canadians and those living in rural, remote and Indigenous communities, but we believe more is required.”
The MyMoney offering will be a spending and savings account where customers will be able to choose between features like high interest rates, cashback rewards and credit-building tools.
A document briefly posted to the Canadian Union of Postal Workers website said it would use a prepaid, reloadable Mastercard that will use money from the account like a debit card but offer the features of a Mastercard.
It said there will be a range of account tiers, including no-fee accounts and paid accounts with more features.
The plans comes after Canada Post launched a lending program with TD Bank Group in late 2022, only to shut it down weeks later because of what it said were processing issues.
Liu said the postal service has since been exploring other possible financial service offerings.
“Utilizing what we’ve learned, we are making a strategic shift from loans toward products more aligned with our core financial service products.”
The new account will be delivered with financial technology company Koho. A few months ago the company paired with Canada Post to allow its customers to deposit cash into their account through post offices.
Koho is also working to secure a Canadian banking license to expand its services.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 8, 2024.
The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.
Alberta forestry minister says wolverine, lynx trapping limits lifted to gather data
Court order will compel release of records in Dye & Durham competition probe
Quebec man’s acquittal in 1978 double murder ‘historic and exceptional,’ lawyer says
Health minister wants all Quebecers to have access to a health professional by 2026
Expert says silence in B.C. port lockout unusual while retailers call for urgency
Nova Scotia election: Liberals say province’s immigration levels are too high
NDP asks Speaker to examine social media influencer Lauren Chen’s refusal to testify
NDP calls on federal government to allow open work permits for temporary workers
