Canada has decreed 2013 as the Year of Korea at the same time as free trade talks between the countries have apparently stalled. One of Canada’s largest exporters says lack of agreement with South Korea could cost producers here a fortune: “It would be devastating.”
Manufacturing has officially been eclipsed by the retail trade as the top employer in the country’s industrial heartland, figures show: “You can’t base an entire region’s economic development on shopping malls.”
A federal foundation is pleading for help after suffering disastrous stock market losses that cost nearly one-fifth of its parliamentary endowment, then replacing its entire team of fund managers: “It felt like a crash.”
A BC-based firm a with a billion-dollar investment in Egypt is appealing to the Prime Minister’s Office to ensure its assets are protected by “rule of law” amid civil unrest overseas: “We want to make sure the Canadian government is aware.”
A former chief scientist of fisheries is “appalled” by cuts to 7 of 9 research libraries, rated by the government as “one of the world’s best collections” on ocean sciences in a department founded in 1867.
Canada is claiming victory in a long, costly meat war with the United States that is estimated to have cost the economy more than $600,000,000 annually. One industry group marked the end of “years of expensive, time-consuming challenges and litigation” with the US.
Pension managers say many Canadians risk being “caught” in a federal bill requiring disclosure of personal data in pension plans with union participation. “The need may be to rethink the bill itself,” said an industry association representing pension plans with millions of beneficiaries.
A national panel has formally ruled the famed emblem of the Canadian Red Cross is unrelated to Christian symbolism, dismissing confusion over the two as an “inadvertent error.” The judgment came in the case of a Toronto broadcaster who claimed ambulances have red crosses “because they have something to do with Jesus.”
A media firm, the Bureau of Broadcast Measurement, has lost a trademark lawsuit for the second time in five months over use of its acronym to sell BlackBerry Messenger software. “We are pleased,” said Blackberry-maker Research In Motion.
New rules on mortgages insurance “add transparency” to the industry, says one of the nation’s leading private insurers. Federal regulations require that insurers have years of experience and millions of dollars in equity: “Not a bad idea.”
Apparent “turmoil” has erupted at the National Research Council following notices of job cuts and restructuring, documents disclose. The number of PhD research assistants at federal labs has dropped 28 percent since cabinet announced research should be geared as a “1-800” service for industry.
With fewer shopping days left than Christmas retailers, Transport Canada is promising a reform bill to hold railways to service standards will be introduced within days. A well-placed Blacklock’s source says the measure will be a “watered-down, bare bones bill” that will fail to meet commercial shippers’ demands for financial compensation against railways that fail to meet service standards.
A manufacturers’ group is expressing “unease” over an obscure Senate bill that ends 171 years of practice in notifying Canadians of changes in regulations: “How can you be transparent?”
An Alberta beverage firm has filed an application with the Department of Industry to trademark a new pastime: Coffee Night In Canada. “We all have our thoughts on the lock-out,” the applicant told Blacklock’s.
