Canada
column for Sunday, Jan. 20/13
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THE CANADIAN REPORT
(c) By
Jim Fox
Native protesters, unhappy after a meeting with Prime Minister Stephen
Harper, have again blocked bridges to the U.S., rail lines and snarled traffic.
Groups
waved banners and pounded drums in the “Idle No More” movement over what they
perceive is an erosion of their treaty and environmental land rights.
The largest mid-week protest involved hundreds at the Ambassador Bridge
in Windsor, Ontario that backed up truck traffic headed into Detroit for more
than a mile.
The
protest lasted several hours and was similar to others earlier at border
crossings elsewhere across Canada.
Natives again blockaded the Canadian National rail line near Belleville,
Ontario that stopped Via Rail passenger and freight trains between
Toronto-Montreal-Ottawa.
The protests also moved to the highway between Calgary and Edmonton
while about 100 people sang and played drums in a march in downtown Toronto.
Five
people were arrested after a group disrupted a hearing in Vancouver into the
proposed Northern Gateway pipeline.
Frank
Brown of the Heiltsuk First Nation said the pipeline would result in oil
tankers passing through his nation’s traditional waters.
Other road and rail blockades happened near Victoria, Portage la
Prairie, Winnipeg, Miramichi, Fredericton and in western Quebec and northern
Alberta.
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A
study shows residents of Quebec, Ontario and New Brunswick receive better value
from their public health-care systems than other Canadians.
The Fraser Institute, a public policy think-tank, compared the
per-capita cost of health care to the availability and quality of medical goods
and services.
Providing
the least value for money spent were Newfoundland and Labrador, Prince Edward
Island and Saskatchewan, the report said.
“This
study allows policy-makers and taxpayers to judge whether they receive good
value for their health-care dollars,” said Nadeem Esmail, a Fraser Institute director.
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News
in brief:
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The federal government has lost a computer external hard drive containing the
personal information of 583,000 people who received student loans between 2000
and 2006. The drive, missing from the Human Resources and Skills Development
Canada office in Gatineau, Quebec, has names, birth dates, Social Insurance
Numbers, addresses and student loan balances. The department also lost a USB
key containing personal data on 5,000 Canadians in December.
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When Claude Benoit leaves her job as head of the Old Port of Montreal Corp. on Feb.
28, the position will be abolished by the federal government. Benoit was at the
center of an expenses’ scandal in what were called inappropriate and questionable
spending. The government-run Canada Lands Co. will take over the Old Port, a
popular tourist area.
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Facts and figures:
The
Canadian dollar is down slightly at $1.0149 in U.S. funds while the U.S. dollar
returns 98.53 cents Canadian, before bank exchange fees.
The Bank of Canada’s key interest rate is steady at 1 percent while the
prime-lending rate is 3 percent.
Stock
markets are mixed, with the Toronto exchange index up at 12,652 points and the
TSX Venture index lower at 1,230 points.
Lotto 6-49: (Jan. 16) 14, 21, 27, 34, 37 and 38; bonus 10. (Jan. 12) 6,
16, 29, 30, 33 and 36; bonus 15. Lotto Max: (Jan. 11) 2, 25, 26, 37, 39, 48 and
49; bonus 40.
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Regional briefs:
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Ontario could soon have its first woman premier. Heading into next weekend’s Ontario
Liberal leadership election, Sandra Pupatello and Kathleen Wynne are the frontrunners
to succeed Premier Dalton McGuinty who has resigned mid-term. Trailing in the
race are Gerard Kennedy, Harinder Takhar, Charles Sousa and Eric Hoskins.
- British
Columbia has suspended the operations of the bus company involved in the crash
that killed nine people and injured dozens in Oregon last month. Mi Joo Tour
& Travel of Port Coquitlam failed to comply with laws governing driver’s
hours and pre-trip inspections, the Transportation Ministry said. A company lawyer
said icy roads, not driver fatigue, caused the crash of the bus returning to
British Columbia from Las Vegas.
-
Officials of the University of Prince Edward Island and Holland College say it
will cost hundreds of thousands of dollars more to operate largely for
electricity and heating when the harmonized sales tax begins in April. The PEI
government made a concession by reducing the tax that will combine the
provincial sales and federal goods and services taxes to 14 percent from 15.5
percent now with both individual taxes.
-30-
Jim Fox can be reached at canadareport@hotmail.com
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