Eight stories in the news for Thuesday, Nov. 24
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TRUDEAU BEGINS AFRICA TRIP
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau arrived in Liberia Thursday as he begins a trip to Africa that will also take him to the summit of francophone nations in Madagascar this weekend. Trudeau has a busy day in Liberia, meeting with the country’s president, visiting a school and hosting a roundtable forum on women’s leadership.
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EXECS SAY GO AHEAD WITH CARBON PRICING
A group of Canadian corporate executives whose companies employ more than a million people is urging Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and the premiers to press ahead with collective climate action, including pricing carbon emissions. An open letter to the first ministers was released Thursday morning ahead of a planned meeting early next month in Ottawa. The 60-plus signatories include business leaders representing oil and gas, mining, forestry products, cement making, aluminium smelting, information technology, banking, grocery retail and building materials.
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PEDIATRICIANS WANT YOUTH PROTECTED FROM POT
The Canadian Paediatric Society is urging the federal government to take steps to protect children and youth should it follow through on its plan to legalize recreational marijuana next year. In a position statement released today, the CPS is recommending there be an age restriction for the purchase of pot and that the ingredient in cannabis that causes people to get high be restricted in products sold to young people.
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LAWREN HARRIS PAINTING SELLS FOR A RECORD $11.2M
The Lawren Harris painting “Mountain Forms” smashed the Canadian art record Wednesday by selling for over $11.2 million, more than double the previous record set in 2002. Heffel Fine Art Auction House had estimated the 1926 oil canvas would fetch between $3 million and $5 million. The buyer had bid the price of the landscape painting up to $9.5 million, but an 18 per cent buyer’s premium boosted the final tally to $11,210,000.
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FEDS TO INTRODUCE ELECTORAL REFORM BILL
The Trudeau government is poised to introduce a bill today that will deliver on some key Liberal promises to reform Canada’s election laws, even as suspicion lingers that they may renege on the biggest: replacing the country’s first-past-the-post voting system. The bill is expected to restore the right to vote to expatriates who’ve lived outside the country for more than five years.
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REPORT PUSHES FEDS FOR CHILD BENEFIT CHANGES
An anti-poverty group is calling on the federal government to make a small change to its key measure to combat child poverty rates to ensure families aren’t left behind as the cost of living rises. In its annual report to be released today, the group Campaign 2000 says the Liberal government’s new income-tested child benefit could fall short of its lofty goals because it isn’t automatically adjusted to combat rising food and housing prices.
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FENCE WASN’T AIMED AT PROTESTERS, OFFICIALS SAY
A federal agency denies that curbing the rights of protesters was the deciding factor in agreeing to a visiting Chinese delegation’s request for a privacy fence outside an Ottawa hotel. The National Capital Commission, which oversees federal lands in Ottawa, cites public inconvenience and traffic flow as the key factor. The Chinese asked the Westin hotel for the tall fence along the length of the building’s entrance during Premier Li Keqiang’s visit in September. The NCC says there was concern over pedestrian and vehicle traffic and the visibility of protesters did not come into play.
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HOMEOWNERS UNPREPARED FOR EMERGENCIES: POLL
A new survey suggests nearly half of Canadian homeowners would be ill prepared for a personal financial dilemma such as job loss. The poll released today by Manulife Bank finds that 24 per cent of those surveyed don’t know how much is in their emergency fund, 14 per cent have not put away any funds and nine per cent have access to $1,000 or less. Manulife says about half (46 per cent) of homeowners polled say they would have difficulty making their monthly mortgage payments in less than six months if their household’s primary income earner lost his or her job.
