Conservative fundraising runs into roadblock in Quebec

The prime minister's Quebec lieutenant, Denis Lebel, has spent the past couple weeks crisscrossing his home province on what the party is billing as his "End of Summer Tour" — a 12-day trek that has taken him from Charlevoix to Mount Royal to Saguenay and finally to a rally in Quebec City on Friday.

Lebel, who is also the federal infrastructure minister, says in a statement posted to the summer tour's official website that his goal is "reach out" to both card-carrying Conservative supporters and Quebecers at large "in order to listen to them."

"Evidently," he adds, "we also want our message to be heard."

If he really wants to dig deep into the details of his party's often fractious relationship with La Belle Province, though, he may want to dive into the data contained in the latest batch of financial reports filed by Quebec Conservative riding associations.

Conservative riding associations

According to the most recent returns, 30 of the 75 Conservative riding associations in Quebec reported no donation revenue at all in 2013.

An additional 20 associations pulled in less than $1,000 total throughout the year.

That number includes Lebel's own riding association of Roberval–Lac-Saint-Jean, which netted just $650 from three contributors.

In Pontiac — the riding held by former Foreign Affairs minister Lawrence Cannon from 2006 until 2011, when he was ousted by New Democrat rookie Mathieu Ravignat — contributions to the Conservative riding association somehow managed to work out to –$5,301.03.

(How, precisely, a riding association can fundraise a negative number of dollars is a mystery, as they don't appear to have refunded any contributions, which would normally account for such a result.)

Despite those somewhat sobering numbers, Lebel can take some comfort in his party's fundraising prowess in Montreal's Mount Royal, where the looming retirement of longtime Liberal MP Irwin Cotler in 2015 has emboldened Tory hopes of snagging their first seat in metropolitan Montreal.

Not surprising, it was also one of the stops on the minister's summer-ending tour.

Mount Royal Tories top Liberals in donations

In 2013, the Mount Royal Conservative Association raised $19,205 raised from 74 contributors.

To put that in perspective, over the same time period, the local Liberal association mustered up just $3,972 in donations from 59 supporters.

The biggest single haul for Quebec Tories, however, was in Minister of State for Small Business Maxime Bernier's home riding of Beauce, where 236 donors kicked in $45,905 to fill up the local coffers.

Overall, Quebec Conservative riding associations raised $177,733 in 2013.

That works out to three per cent of the Canada-wide grand total of $3,705,750.57.

New Democrat riding associations, meanwhile, raked in a comparatively whopping $348,592.87 in Quebec — just under 30 per cent of the party's Canada-wide total of $1,253,820.47.

Just five Quebec NDP riding associations reported no revenue at all, and 11 brought in less than $1,000.

NDP Leader Tom Mulcair's riding of Outremont pulled in the single highest total —  $22,325 — and the most extensive donor list was reported by Notre-Dame-de-Grace, which garnered the support of 551 contributors.

As for the Liberals, despite the end-of-May deadline, 13 of the party's Quebec riding associations haven't yet filed the required paperwork for last year — including Papineau, home of Justin Trudeau.

Liberals lag behind NDP

The available numbers, however, suggests that, as of last December, the determinedly upward trend the party has been enjoying in the polls wasn't causing a similar boost in fundraising numbers, at least at the local level.

In total, Quebec Liberal riding associations raised $246,945.89 in 2013, which is just over 10 percent of the cross-Canada total.

Of the 62 that have filed returns with Elections Canada, 10 reported receiving no contributions at all, and another 20 took in less than $1,000.  

The biggest windfall landed in Saint Leonard–Saint Michel, which reported $39,227 in contributions, with Brossard–La Prairie fielding the highest number of individual contributors at 264.

The Liberals can, at least, console themselves with the fact that they aren't the Bloc Québécois, whose riding associations raised just $117,216 in 2013.

That puts the once Quebec-dominant Bloc just slightly behind the Conservatives, and in last place, although that number could change, as there are more than 20 associations that haven't yet filed their 2013 reports.  

Of the Bloc riding associations that have submitted their numbers, Bas-Richelieu–Nicolet–Becancour is currently in the lead, with a final tally of $36,205 from 386 donors.

Seventeen associations reported no contributions at all, and 11 took in less than $1,000.

(Methodological note: As only 21 Green Party riding associations have filed reports for 2013, those numbers have been left out of this analysis.)

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Man wins $13M jackpot after playing same numbers for 28 years

A Victoria, B.C., man who has played the same numbers for 28 years finally saw his lottery strategy pay off.

This week, Duarte Almeida collected a jackpot sum of $13.6 million from the Aug. 2 draw.

"I am still shaking. I don't believe [that] I win the lottery," he told a crowd gathered at the B.C. Lottery Corporation's Vancouver office Friday. "It is very hard. I play all those years and I still think ... I think it's a dream — I [am] still sleeping."

Almeida said he didn't check his ticket against the winning numbers for almost three weeks after the draw. When he saw the six numbers match, he couldn't believe it.

"[I felt like] I was going to faint. The girl from the lottery ticket says, 'you OK? You want a chair?' She said 'I'm a gonna hold your hands. What is wrong?'" he said.

He eventually gave her the ticket, and she realized he had won the jackpot.

Once he let go of the clerk's hand, she called the B.C. Lottery Corporation office to confirm the win.

Almeida then went to tell his wife the good news.

"I come back to my truck and speak to my wife and she said, 'I don't believe you!'"

Almeida said he won with the six numbers that were picked for him by a little plastic lottery number picking gadget back in 1986. The same set of numbers came up twice, he said, so he decided to stick with them. 

The lucky numbers weren't the only part of his strategy. Almeida said he made a habit of buying tickets from out-of-the way places and smaller towns on Vancouver Island. In the end, Almeida bought his winning ticket at the Aitken and Fraser Market in Shawnigan Lake.

He said he would continue to play the lottery and had even bought some tickets on his way to pick up his cheque.

The only big-money decision he has made so far is to buy a new truck and that he'd be leaving his old truck in the BCLC parking lot for the time being.

"I fly to Victoria," he said.

He said he'd already called a tow company to pick up his old truck.

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Mediator walks out of B.C. teachers' strike resolution talks

Vince Ready has left talks between the B.C. teachers' union and the provincial government in Richmond, B.C., saying the sides are too far apart to come to a resolution anytime soon.

"I don't see a resolution here before the start of school given the positions of the parties. They are a long, long ways apart," the veteran mediator said. 

He has been working as a facilitator since Thursday, when talks resumed after a summer of stalled negotiations.

Veteran mediator Vince Ready said Friday night that the parties in the teachers' dispute were far from a resolution. On Saturday he walked, saying there was no need for him as the two sides were too far apart. (CBC)

Ready said he was trying to "establish some kind of a meaningful framework for mediation."

But, the two sides' positions on wages, benefits and class composition remained "a long ways apart," he told reporters as he left a building that had housed the talks on Saturday just after 5:30 p.m. PT.

There had not been enough movement between teachers and their employer for him to justify staying involved, he said, adding he couldn't imagine anything would develop over the weekend that would allow classes to start as scheduled on Tuesday.

Ready said the next steps are up to the negotiators working for the B.C. Teachers' Federation and for the B.C. Public School Employers' Association.

Both sides have already responded to his departure.

The BC Teachers' Federation tweeted that they have neither walked away from the bargaining table nor abandoned the idea of returning to the classrooms on Sept. 2.

B.C. Premier Christy Clark said the government remains committed to negotiating a fair deal that is affordable for taxpayers. She stressed the new deal with BCTF will have to "be in line with settlements for other unions."

The government's negotiator, Peter Cameron, said he was disappointed by Ready's decision, but agreed that the two parties were far off on important issues. The wages being sought by BCTF, he said, were higher than what any other union was asking for.

Ready previously negotiated similar dispute

Ready, who is in his early 70s, has been working in mediation for more than 30 years.

He has handled more than 7,000 labour and commercial disputes in the country, according to his website.

In 2005, Ready mediated a deal between B.C. teachers and the government, ending a two-week illegal strike action.

When Ready was asked to resolve this dispute between the two sides, he initially declined the job. At the time, he said he was too busy to commit to the task.

Ready later changed his mind and accepted the mediator position.

Strike started June 17

The B.C. teachers' full strike began on June 17. Prior to that, the government imposed a lockout during a partial strike earlier in the month.

Most teachers in the province consider class size and composition to be the most important issues in the ongoing contract dispute.

Vince Ready left talks between the B.C. teachers' union and the B.C. Public School Employers' Association on Saturday. (Tim Weekes/CBC)

About a quarter of B.C. classes have four or more special needs students. More than half of classes have between one and three special needs students.

The government says it is more efficient to group students with special needs together with an education assistant who provides extra help.

In the event that school does not start as planned, the provincial government is offering parents $40 a day for each of their children that is a public school student under the age of 13.

The money will come from savings made from not having to pay teachers during the strike, said B.C. Finance Minister Mike de Jong when he announced the plan in late July.

Some of the province's teachers responded by setting up day camps and child-care services, which will begin when school was scheduled to start.

"These disputes all settle at some point," said Ready. "But, certainly there's no basis for a settlement today."

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Health Canada pulling last of citronella-based bug sprays

Health Canada is pulling the last of citronella-based bug sprays off the shelves by the end of December because of "the absence of adequate safety data." The essential oil has been used as an insect repellent in Canada for decades.

The move has left scientists who advised Health Canada on the issue befuddled by the ban. So are many consumers who prefer natural bug sprays over ones with synthetic chemicals like DEET.

'It's the basis of the ban that I don't really understand'- Sam Kacew, Toxicologist

"It's the basis of the ban that I don't really understand," says toxicologist Sam Kacew.

Insect repellents are considered pesticides so they must meet strict safety standards. In 2004, Health Canada proposed phasing out citronella-based bug sprays because of new questions about its safety.

Small manufacturers who couldn't afford to submit detailed safety data saw their lines discontinued at the end of 2012. Those who submitted what data they could and tried to challenge the ban are now to see their products phased out at the end of this year.

In 2005, Kacew sat on an independent scientific panel to review Health Canada's position. He says the panel believed the study that led the government to question citronella's safety was flawed, in part because it examined what happened when rodents ingested the oil. "Humans are not going to drink citronella," he says.

The department told CBC that "the panel supported Health Canada's approach," but Kacew refutes that. He says the team of scientists concluded that citronella was safe as long as it didn't contain methyl eugenol, an impurity that could be a potential carcinogen. "In general, most of these citronella oils that were available for us to examine did not contain impurities, and they were regarded by us to be basically safe," he says.

Companies pay the price

Montreal company, Druide, has been selling government-approved citronella sprays and lotions since 1995.

"Where I am very sad is, in the end, [Health Canada] doesn't have anything against citronella, except questions about it," says Druide's owner, Alain Renaud.

Health Canada is ordering all citronella-based bug sprays off the shelves by the end of December because of "the absence of adequate safety data." (CBC)

​

He says he spent five years proving to Health Canada that his repellent didn't contain methyl eugenol.

But Renaud says that as soon as he won that battle the government "came back and said we still have questions and we need a complete toxicological report on many generations of animals."

That may be a standard approach, but Renaud eventually gave up his fight because his company doesn't believe in animal testing, and didn't have the estimated $1 million needed to fund a large-scale scientific study.

Druide's citronella-based bug spray was a bestseller for the company, which manufactures organic personal care products.

Renaud says he's had to lay off five employees because of the ban and has lost up to a million dollars spent on marketing his product and providing research for Health Canada. "At the end of maybe, five, 10 years of fighting, [Heath Canada] gets all our energy," he says.

DEET passed Health Canada's scrutiny because the manufacturers provided the required safety data. But citronella — an extract from lemon grass —  has never been patented, which makes it an unattractive investment for costly studies.

"If the market was such that this product was generating millions of dollars, then the industry would have done something re-active to try and get [citronella] back on the market," said Kacew.

That's the problem with other essential oils as well. They may be effective as bug repellents, but no one has yet funded the studies to prove they're safe.

DIY bug spray

Tracey TieF made and sold a natural bug spray with essential oils including lavender and rosemary for seven years before Health Canada shut her down recently.

The problem was that she hadn't registered her product and done any safety studies.

"I can't afford to run my own trial," says the certified health practitioner. "I feel afraid and I feel sick about it, actually, because for me, this is a passion."

TieF now puts that passion into teaching others how to make natural bug sprays. In a tiny room at Karma Co-op in Toronto, she passes out bottles, essential oils and recipes. "I'll teach people until [Health Canada] stops me," she vows.

Aimee Alabaster says she joined the class because she wants a natural bug spray for her children. "Everything out there for the most part contains DEET, and I don't want to put DEET on my kids."

Research has suggested DEET could be harmful to the central nervous system. But Health Canada states on its website that "registered insect repellents containing DEET can be used safely when applied as directed."

Come 2015, citronella bug sprays won't be entirely out of reach, you will just have to cross the border. The product will still be available in the U.S.

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Joining the military jarring for some aboriginals

The move from small and isolated communities to larger urban centres can be quite jarring for aboriginals who join the Canadian Armed Forces, says a newly released document.

Being so far away from their families brought some aboriginal recruits to tears, says an internal study, while others got sick on the kinds of food served in mess halls.

The culture shock of going from reserve to recruit is one of the biggest challenges the military must contend with as it competes with other employers to hire aboriginals, one of the fastest-growing segments of Canada's workforce.

Aboriginals were surveyed about how they adjusted to urban life after they joined the military. The Canadian Press obtained a copy of the findings, published this past June, under the Access to Information Act.

Some found it overwhelming to manage their schedules and pay their bills. Others complained about the rigour of military life, or switching from diets consisting of fresh caribou and char to standard mess-hall fare.

Feeling as though they had lost touch with their culture was another concern to many of the people surveyed.

"They reported having had negative perceptions of the city, the main reasons being that they felt lost, disconnected from their culture and had more difficulty building trust and friendships with people in the city," the report says.

"They also believed that the city is a hotbed of drugs, alcohol and violence."

Aboriginals long under-represented

Aboriginals have long been under-represented within the military.

They now make up only 2.3 per cent of the combined regular force and primary reserves, the report says. The target for aboriginal people in the military is 3.4 per cent.

The study, done by Defence Research and Development Canada, was meant to help the Canadian Armed Forces improve its existing programs to help aboriginal recruits from isolated communities better adapt to urban life while serving in the military.

The results of the study are based on focus groups held in Kingston, Ont., Saskatoon and Prince Albert, Sask., and Yellowknife between November 2012 and April 2013. A combined total of 35 people took part in the survey.

Participants reported feeling stereotyped after they joined the military.

"Some military members have the same perceptions — no matter where you go there is this same idea that all aboriginal people are drunks and are lazy," one of the participants said.

"The negative perception that people have about us makes it harder to get jobs or be integrated in the (Canadian Armed Forces). I always have to continually prove myself."

Others had a hard time being away from their families.

"It can be very difficult for some people to come from very isolated communities to life in the (Canadian Armed Forces) — they have no idea what to expect," one person said.

"Some of them couldn't adjust and couldn't stop crying; they weren't used to being away from their families and had no idea how hard it could be."

Not unique to the military

The military has appointed Lt.-Gen. Marquis Hainse, the commander of the army, as its "champion" for aboriginal issues, a spokeswoman said.

"Regarding the internal report produced by Defence Research and Development Canada ... (Canadian Armed Forces) leadership is consulting and analysing its recommendations," Marie-Helene Brisson wrote in an email.

Christian Leuprecht, who teaches at the Royal Military College of Canada and Queen's University in Kingston, Ont., said the problem of aboriginals being under-represented isn't exclusive to the military.

"I wouldn't chalk it up to the (Canadian Forces) not trying hard enough," he said.

"I mean, the RCMP has the same sort of problem, and generally security forces have that type of problem."

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Is it time for higher speed limits?

In B.C., the speed limits are rising on about 1,300 kilometres of highway this summer — in a few cases up to 120 km/h.

Quebec is exploring the idea of variable speed limits — as high as 120 but only when the weather's good — as part of a pilot project on two highways this fall.

Speed limits are rising to 120 km/h on sections of three multi-lane highways in B.C. (B.C. Government)

Not to be overtaken, some Ontario motorists have mounted a campaign that would allow vehicles to be able to roll along at up to 130 km/h on some of the province's better highways.

So far there is no interest from the provincial Ministry of Transportation in seeing that happen, and in fact some provinces are even trying to slow things down.

Drivers on busy stretches of highway outside Regina and Saskatoon are having to take their feet off the accelerator after the limit was dropped to 90 km/h from 110 km/h earlier this year.

Across Canada, motorists can be forgiven for being confused: a speed that's deemed to be just fine on a nice, four- or six-lane straightaway in one province could result in fines or demerit points in others.

But determining the prime speed, the one ultimately deemed best both for safety and for getting drivers where they want to go in the most timely fashion, isn't easy. It involves a complex equation of engineering, road safety concerns and politics.

Caught in the middle

"It's a tough one for provincial governments because, politically, talking about higher limits on highways will always be more popular than talking about lowering limits, and yet the science might suggest otherwise," says Ian Jack, managing director of communications and government relations for the Canadian Automobile Association.

Maximum speed limits on various stretches of provincial highway across Canada range from 90 km/h in Prince Edward Island to 120 km/h in British Columbia. (Richard Grasley, Tara Kimura/CBC)

As a result, politicians can feel caught in the middle, and that might explain the interest in trying something like Quebec's pilot project, he says.

"I'm almost certain that the advice from bureaucrats in almost any jurisdiction would be that raising limits might not be the best idea. But then on the political level you've got to get re-elected and you've got to deal with voters, so there's that reality as well."

In Ontario, the limit for multi-lane, 400-series highways is 100 km/h, a speed one online campaign wants to see rise to 130 in rural areas, and 120 in many areas around some of the big cities.

Chris Klimek, founder of Stop100.ca, says the group has a simple goal that would bring Ontario roads in line with roads in many other jurisdictions in the U.S. and Europe.

"Our mission is basically to legalize the existing speeds, the existing practices on our roads," he says.

"Most countries are posting between 120, 130 kilometres an hour and this is exactly the sort of speeds we are driving here in Ontario when the traffic is flowing and it's uncongested.

"So we want to legalize the actions of a safe and prudent majority of drivers."

Not the autobahn

Klimek has a long list of numbers and arguments, including provincial figures that he says show how speed contributed to only 6.7 per cent of deaths on Ontario roads in 2009.

He also has comments from other jurisdictions such as Utah where speed limits were increased in test zones without an increase in the rate of fatalities.

And he rejects any suggestion that a higher limit might mean drivers would just go another 10 or 20 km/h above than that.

'Very few people have a desire to do 160, 170, so we don't have to be calling for the autobahn.'- Chris Klimek

"People are simply sticking to what feels comfortable and safe for them.

"Nobody has a death wish. People still want to get home or to their vacation location."

Klimek says that advocating for 130 in some areas is not suggesting Ontario highways should rival Germany's famed autobahn, which has sections where drivers can drive as fast as they wish.

"Very few people have a desire to do 160, 170, so we don't have to be calling for the autobahn," says Klimek.

On that, at least, he is in sync with the provincial government. Those who set the limits in Ontario have no plans to change them.

Speed limits are reviewed by the Ministry of Transportation every three to five years, and after the last review in 2012 a decision was made to leave them as they are.

"Experience in other jurisdictions indicates that fatal collisions can increase with higher limits," Bob Nichols, senior media liaison officer for the Ontario Ministry of Transportation, said in an email.

"Even with today's posted speed limits, speed continues to be a major factor in collisions, injuries and fatalities on Ontario roads," he said.

"In 2011, speed contributed to 16 per cent of all fatalities and just under 10 per cent of all injuries due to motor vehicle collisions in Ontario."

Speed and distraction

In 2007, Ontario introduced a seven-day licence suspension and seven-day vehicle impounding for excessive speeding and aggressive driving, including following too closely, driving 50 km/h or more above the posted limit and weaving in and out of traffic too closely.

A study by Western University in London, Ont., along with the MTO earlier this year found that there have been about 58 fewer speed-related deaths or injuries a month for males between 16 and 24 years of age since the law took effect.

The CAA, which considers distraction the top road safety issue these days, thinks people should approach the idea of raising speed limits with caution. (UrbanImages/ Shutterstock)

"The findings of the study demonstrated measurable improvement in road safety with clear evidence of speed reductions on provincial highways, as well as a remarkable reduction in collision casualties and the number of drivers engaging in extreme speeding," Nichols said.

The Ontario Provincial Police considers speeding a form of aggressive driving and a major cause of collisions, says Sgt. Kerry Schmidt of the OPP's Highway Safety Division.

In 2013, the OPP issued 219,000 speeding tickets and investigated 253 fatal motor vehicle collisions. Forty-seven (16 per cent) of the 292 deaths in those collisions were speed-related.

Schmidt says there is "quite a spread" in speeds driven on 400-series highways.

"I know that everyone thinks that everyone is travelling far in excess of the speed limit, but if you were to actually monitor traffic and look at the speeds you'd be surprised how many people are driving at the speed limit, as well as below the speed limit."

Saskatchewan's move to reduce the speed limit on a stretch of the Trans-Canada highway, as well as Highway 12 north from Saskatoon, "was just to increase safety on those stretches of highway," says Joel Cherry, a communications consultant for the Ministry of Highways and Infrastructure.

Both stretches of road are busy and have at-grade access points.

"There was definitely pretty significant lobbying made by people in the area, and the ministry listened to their concerns," Cherry said.

Safe and responsible

Public sentiment also had an impact a decade ago when the limit for some Saskatchewan highways was increased to 110 from 100. 

At the time — 2003 — there was "significant public interest in raising the speed limits to 110, and it was determined that the design specifications of the highways could accommodate the increased speed limit," Cherry said.

"Other jurisdictions, such as Alberta, already had 110 km/h speed limits and it was observed that drivers there responded in a safe and responsible manner."

The CAA, which considers driver distraction the top road safety issue these days, thinks people should approach the idea of raising speed limits with caution.

Making decisions based on fact, and trying out pilot projects are good ideas, Jack says.

"At the same time … the overwhelming majority of evidence internationally is that speed kills, so that raising highway limits generally is likely to lead to more fatalities."

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Should Canada be sending icebreakers to the North Pole?

An international law professor says Canada is wasting time and money by sending two icebreakers to the North Pole.

Michael Byers says under international law Canada will not be able to claim the Pole.

"There is no plausible way in which Canada could claim the North Pole and that is why this mapping exercise at the North Pole by Canada is so perplexing. It is a waste of millions of dollars and a waste of valuable ship time," says Byers, who holds a Canada Research Chair in global politics and international law at the University of British Columbia.

The CCGS Louis S. St-Laurent and the CCGS Terry Fox arrived at the North Pole Wednesday night. Crews on the ships are mapping that area of the Arctic Ocean seabed and gathering scientific data in support of Canada's territorial claim under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea.

Some Arctic observers, including Rob Huebert at the University of Calgary, say it's worth the effort.

"The Arctic always has this ability to confound us and I do not think for a moment that it is in Canadian interest to simply assume that there is nothing without having properly looked there in the first place," says Huebert.

The icebreakers will spend several weeks mapping the area near the North Pole. They will also travel to the eastern side of the Lomonosov Ridge, near Ellesmere Island.

Huebert says two Russian icebreakers are also at the Pole, doing the same type of mapping work for Russia.

Russia currently has claims to the North Pole. 

Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird announced in December that Canada's claim submitted to the United Nations would include the North Pole. 

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Household spending drives Canada's economic growth in 2nd quarter

Canada's economy soared in the second quarter, to an annualized pace of 3.1 per cent, as households spent more, marking the largest quarterly gain since the third quarter of 2011.

The jump in gross domestic product (GDP) was greater than the 2.7 per cent rate economists were expecting, and follows sluggish growth to start the year, the economy's worst performance in more than a year.

The jump came as the agency updated its result for the first quarter to an annual pace of 0.9 per cent compared with an earlier reading of 1.2 per cent in the first three months of the year.

Statistics Canada said Friday that real GDP was up by 0.8 per cent during the quarter ended June 30, compared to a 0.2 per cent increase in the first three months of  2014.

On a monthly basis, the economy grew in June by 0.3 per cent.

In a statement, Finance Minister Joe Oliver said the news is evidence the government's plan for the economy is working, and that "our unrelenting focus on jobs, growth and long-term prosperity is paying off for Canadians from coast to coast to coast."

Statistics Canada said economic activity increased in all sectors except non-profit institutions serving households.

Consumers led the increase, with household consumption up by 0.9 per cent for the three-month period ended June 30.

Canadians spent 1.2 per cent more on goods in the second quarter, and 0.7 per cent more on services.

Spending on housing showed a marked increase, with investment in residential structures up 2.9 per cent by quarter and home ownership transfer costs up by nine per cent after two previous quarters of decline.

Exports also rose by 4.2 per cent in the second quarter — the strongest performance since the third quarter of 2011 — after declining by 0.2 per cent in the first three months of the year.

"The Canadian economy looks to be firing on more cylinders after a particularly tough winter," writes TD Bank senior economist Randall Bartlett in a note to investors.

He also finds positive signs for the future, writing that momentum in the second half of the year is also "strong."

"If this begins to translate into stronger employment and wage growth in the Canadian labour market, it will work to further reinforce our view that the Bank of Canada will raise interest rates in the second half of 2015," Bartlett added.

In the United States, annualized GDP grew by 4.2 per cent in the second quarter after contracting by one per cent in the first quarter.

Despite the positive report, the S&P/TSX traded lower to start the day, down 17.8 points to 15,540 points in the early morning. The decline was partly due to lower-than-expected consumer spending in the U.S. dragging down U.S. markets.

The Canadian dollar rose slightly by 0.13 cents US to 92.2 cents in Friday morning trading.

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Telecom giants to exclude seniors, veterans from paper bill fees

Canada's big telecom companies say they will keep charging customers additional fees for producing and mailing paper bills, with some exceptions.

The announcement came after executives from nearly a dozen major telecom companies — including Bell, Rogers and Telus — met with the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) for an all-day meeting in Gatineau, Que.

The companies said they would exempt these groups from paper billing (pay-to-pay) fees:

• Seniors.
• Individuals with disabilities.
• Military veterans.
• Customers with no internet connections.

But in a statement released after the meeting, regulators say that doesn't go far enough.

CRTC chair Jean-Pierre Blais said "many Canadians who will not benefit from the exemptions will be disappointed with the outcome so far."

A consumer advocacy group says Canadians are paying hundreds of millions of dollars a year in paper bills from telecom companies. This week, telecom giants said they would exclude seniors, veterans and certain other groups from such fees, but the CRTC says that's not good enough. (CBC)

Blais also praised the four companies — Cogeco Cable, MTS Allstream, SaskTel and Shaw Communications — that have opted not to charge for paper fees, saying "Canadians should keep this in mind when they select service providers."

The broadcast regulator had urged participants prior to the meeting to make firm decisions about the fees they charge, with an eye toward eliminating them altogether.

The federal government has twice promised to end pay-to-pay policies: In its October 2013 throne speech and in the 2014 budget.

According to a study released this week by the Public Interest Advocacy Centre, Canadians pay over $500 million a year in paper billing fees.

The advocacy group says low-income Canadians and seniors shoulder the heaviest burden, as they are less likely to have access to the internet. An estimated 15 per cent of Canadians do not have internet access at home. 

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B.C. wildfires could set record for area burned

B.C. could set a new record for the total amount of forest burned by wildfires this summer if the forecasts for a warm, dry fall are correct, say officials with B.C.'s Wildfire Management Branch.

Since the season began in April, over 330,000 hectares have been burned. The record was set in 2010 when 337,149 hectares were burned.

"If we get a little more fire activity through September, which the long range forecast is calling for, we'll likely surpass that record," says provincial fire information officer Dustin Eno.

Environment Canada is forecasting overall warmer than normal temperatures in the months of August, September and October for British Columbia.

About 1,200 personnel — some from as far as Australia and Alaska — are already deployed to fight the fires, with another 85 arriving from Ontario to give crews a break.

Off the 1,311 total wildfires to date, the majority have been in B.C.'s central Interior and Northwestern regions.

The largest of them is the Chelaslie River fire at more than 129,000 hectares. It is only 20 per cent contained since it was sparked by lightning in early July.

Active lightening strikes are largely responsible for the active fire season this year. About 60 per cent of this year's fires have been sparked by lightning, with the remainder caused by humans. On average, the ratio is split evenly most years.

While the fires have only triggered a few evacuation this summer, numerous air quality advisories have been issued and rescinded in Prince George and surrounding areas over the summer due to smoke from the fires.

The Lower Mainland and Fraser Valley also experienced hazy conditions when a weather system pushed smoke from the central Interior down the Pemberton Valley.

Despite the highly active wildfire season, campfire bans were lifted this week for coastal areas from Vancouver Island, Haida Gwaii to the Lower Mainland, and in the northwest.

Eno says that while much of the province is still warm and dry, cooler temperatures overnight have contributed to an increase in humidity.

Environment Canada is forecasting overall warmer than normal temperatures in the months of August, September and October for British Columbia. Confidence levels range from 100 per cent for the south and central coast to 40 per cent in the northern part of the province. (Environment Canada)

"A lot of people may have seen dew on cars and that makes a difference in creating some moisture in the fine fuel in the forest," said Eno.

"Because we have those recovery periods overnight, any fires we do see aren't as likely to spread as quickly as we saw earlier in the [fire] season."

A wave of cool, wet weather is forecast to wash across the province over the long weekend starting with the north coast.

Even with the ban removed, campfires must meet certain safety restrictions.

"That means less than half a metre by half a metre, said Eno.

"They need to be safe. That means that any fuels near the fire should be removed. The fire has to be supervised at all times — even stepping away for a minute is prohibited,"

He also reminded campers fires should be lit in calm wind conditions and after putting it out, campers should check that the ashes are cool enough to touch.

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'It's genuinely beloved': Why Canadians continue to crush on Tim Hortons

Picture the richest best-dressed company director and the poorest worst-dressed unemployed worker — both could be seen holding a cup of Tim Hortons coffee in their hand and neither would feel awkward. 

"Could you do that with Starbucks? Could you do that with other brands? Tim's is every man and every woman, and that's its power," said Alan Middleton, a York University assistant marketing professor.

That observation, which Middleton says was originally made by cultural anthropologist Grant McCracken, helps to explain the enduring love affair that Canadians have with the coffee and doughnut giant.

And it's a love affair that's provably true, says Middleton, who specializes in domestic and international branding and is the executive director of the Schulich Executive Education Centre.

"It's genuinely beloved," Middleton said. 

To allay any fears Canadians may have over the announcement of the merger with Burger King, Tim Hortons took out a two-page newspaper ad on Wednesday promising that a Tim Hortons coffee before and after the deal will remain the same. 

What the ad didn't point out is that Tims has been owned by American-based interests before. Wendy's International bought the chain in 1995 and hung on to it until 2006 when it was spun off as a separate public company. But analysts say Tim's ownership hasn't seemed to matter to Canadians and hasn't affected the chain's Canadian identity.   

While it's the biggest coffee chain in Canada, with more than 3,600 stores across the country, Tim Hortons consistently ranks high in brand studies, he says, and qualitative and quantitative research shows that Canadians believe the company is reflective of Canada.

Its community work, sponsoring local sporting clubs has earned it a number of sponsorship awards, while its work in student programs and the Tim Horton Children's Foundation have engendered an enormous amount of goodwill.

Interbrand Canada, a leading brand consultancy firm, annually ranks the best Canadian brands based on financial analysis, the role of the brand in consumer purchasing decisions and brand strength. This year, Tim Hortons came in fifth but it was the highest ranking retail brand in their top 25, which Interbrand Canada managing director Carolyn Ray attributes in large part to Tim Hortons' ''authenticity."

Among the highest in 'authenticity'

"Authenticity is about your heritage and your values and being true to who you are and I think Tim Hortons, certainly in the retail sector, scored among the highest in authenticity," Ray said. "Which means all the things they do in the community and all the things they deliver from a customer service perspective are viewed by consumers as authentic."

Authenticity, or being relatable to consumers, is different than Canadians having some kind of strong patriotic attachment to the brand. Middleton dismissed the notion that Canadian ties to the company, founded by Toronto Maple Leaf hockey player Tim Horton, come from any profound sense of nationalism. There are certainly tinges of pride, but it's not overt.

"We don't do well in responses to nationalism," he said.

The Molson Canadian beer "I am Canadian" rant commercial, in which average Canadian Joe talks about why it's great to be Canadian, is a perfect example, he said.

Author Douglas Hunter believes Tim Hortons became a Canadian cultural phenenomenon in part because of the CBC's Royal Canadian Air Farce doughnut shop sketches.

"The individual commercial was huge but when they tried to turn it from the Molson Canadian brand to an ongoing campaign, it failed," he said. "We don't buy based on nationalism. We buy based on 'this company kinda gets us.'"

Middleton credits Tim Hortons' success on a combination of its strong roots in communities, its ability to cater to consumer wants while introducing new products and its marketing and advertising strategy.

While some of Tim Horton's tearjerker "True Stories" commercials may resonate with Canadians and are important, most of the company's advertising goes toward highlighting the products they offer, Middleton said.

Have a 'value' proposition

"They constantly communicate what the product's good for, what the beverage is good for and that it's good value. So they have a value proposition," Middleton said. 

Douglas Hunter, author of Double Double: How Tim Hortons Became a Canadian Way of Life, One Cup at a Time, said Tim Hortons has been very shrewd about not building up their own self importance.

"They've done good marketing around people telling their own stories. They've let people tell their own stories. It's always dangerous for a company to tell you 'I'm really important to you and your identity.'"

Former Ontario PC Leader Tim Hudak was among a number of politicians who made regular campaign stops at Tim Hortons. (Chris Young/Canadian Press)

Hunter believes Tim Hortons became a Canadian cultural phenomenon in part because of the CBC's Royal Canadian Air Farce doughnut shop sketches, which featured characters sitting around a table at a coffee shop, riffing on the events of the day. Although the sketches never specifically referred to Tim Hortons, the coffee chain was the major player in Canada at the time.

"If you were thinking of a coffee doughnuts store, you really were thinking about Tim Hortons," he said. "And I think it did come out of that doughnut gang idea. We really started to equate this idea that ordinary, mushy, middle-class, middle-spectrum political values Canadians go to Tim Hortons and meet and talk about the day."

From that perception grew a new political reality, said Hunter, where Tim Hortons was the place where you met "ordinary Canadians" and was the only place that politicians could be seen meeting Canadians.

"Have we jumped the shark on that yet? I don't know. I kind of thought that we had. Even in 2012, when I was [touring] the book, I was still seeing media shorthand of  'the Tim Hortons voters.' I thought 'why do we keep talking about the Tim Hortons' voter?' I think people just go to Tim Hortons."

The "Tim Hortons" voter may just be part of the Canadian lexicon, much like "double double" and "roll up the rim" have all become familiar phrases.

"It's the difference between calling it Tim Hortons and Tim's," said Middleton, the marketing professor. "Brands would die for that crossover affection."

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PETA shoots down plan to target more urban deer in N.B.

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) is taking aim at a pilot project in New Brunswick's Kennebecasis Valley that will see hunters targeting more urban deer.

Under the project, 200 hunting permits will be earmarked for private properties in the Kennebecasis area, north of Saint John. Most will require hunting with a bow.

There are about 88,000 deer in New Brunswick heading into this fall's hunting season, according to the Department of Natural Resources. A pilot project in New Brunswick's Kennebecasis Valley that will see hunters targeting more urban deer is under fire by PETA. (Courtesy of the KV Regional Deer Committee)

​

Hampton, Quispamsis and Rothesay are all set to undertake the pilot project, and PETA members by the thousands have voiced their displeasure with town councils.

Quispamsis Mayor Murray Driscoll has received hundreds of emails, but the impact has been minimal.

"They were all the same content, they were no different," he says. "They just had different names on the address."

Several hundred more were sent to his councillors, and the same goes for Hampton and Rothesay.

"I think that we've always looked at the emails," Driscoll says. "But when you have a mass email like that and it's just a common letter it doesn't have the same impact as somebody who attends a council meeting and has an individual letter showing their personal concern."

'They were all the same content, they were no different.'- Murray Driscoll, Quispamsis mayor 

PETA sent an email alert to nearly 60,000 Canadian members asking them to voice concerns over the new hunting program in the area. The call to action prompted more than 6,000 people to swamp members of the three town councils with emails.

According to the Department of Natural Resources, there are about 88,000 deer in the province heading into this fall's hunting season. In the Kennebecasis Valley region, it's about 10 deer per square kilometre. In the Fredericton area, it's one deer per square kilometre. Many residents say it's a problem.

Bob Doucet is both a Hampton town councillor and chair of the Kennebecasis Deer Committee representing the three municipalities. He understands the concerns, but says he has confidence in New Brunswick hunters.

"So when you concentrate some bow hunters into this area, it's all concerned with safety, and that's where DNR comes into play, and that's what we are concerned with is — the safety of it. And that's why when the biologist and the rangers and stuff get involved, it would be done as safe as possible."

Stephanie Bell, PETA's director of cruelty casework, says the bow-hunting plan is cruel.

"We'd like to weigh in and set the record straight in regards of bow hunting being one of the cruellest forms of hunting," she says.

Bell says PETA gave members the opportunity to use the template email, or send their own. 

The email campaign was so overwhelming that Quispamsis had its IT department spam-block the incoming letters.

Bell says she's disappointed the emails were silenced, rather than considered.

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4 things to know about a national public inquiry for murdered aboriginal women

A public inquiry into Canada's missing and murdered aboriginal women is vital, if you ask provincial and territorial leaders, opposition parties and aboriginal groups. The federal government, however, suggests it's a misguided approach.

With so much debate about a public inquiry, here's a closer look at how one could work and what it could reasonably hope to achieve.

What would an inquiry look like?

The goal of a public inquiry should be to identify the factors causing these deaths and disappearances, so that they can be addressed, argues the Native Women's Association of Canada.

In order to do that, as many as possible of the more than 1,000 documented cases of murdered and missing aboriginal women from the last 30 years should be explored, said Dawn Harvard, vice-president for the NWAC.

"In an ideal world I would say we should talk to all of the families, we should look at all of those women, because every one of those women was important and it was a tragic loss," she said. Families of the missing, police, child welfare authorities and others could all be called as potential witnesses, she said. Topics like sexism, racism and poverty would all be relevant to the discussion. 

Harvard wasn't prepared to comment on limits for how long the inquiry should take or how broad a time frame it might examine, saying that would still have to be discussed.

What would we learn that we don't already know?

"We need to see where we dropped the ball with these cases up until now," says Harvard.

'There should be a positive, collaborative, respectful response to what is a deep-rooted social issue.'- Marlene Brant Castellano, research co-director at the Royal Commission on Aboriginal People

She hopes an inquiry would identify instances in which indigenous women were treated differently by the authorities.

"It's that kind of thing that needs to come out and it's that kind of thing that will not come out if we don't have that legal clout to gain access to files, to essentially force people to come forward if they are subpoenaed and testify and discuss what happened in a number of these cases where it was obvious that our women were being treated differently."

What kinds of changes have past investigations prompted?

In 1996, the Royal Commission on Aboriginal People presented a 4,000-page report that included 444 recommendations. Most of those recommendations were never put into practice, says Marlene Brant Castellano, the co-director of research for the commission.

"The results of the inquiry, the product of $50 million, was dismissed by the government in place in 1996-97, with the exception of a healing fund to deal with the trauma of residential schools. What happens with inquiries is that if they have no living, breathing, in-power, in-place champions, the inquiry gathers dust," she said.

Laurie Odjick holds a sign with photo of her daughter Maisy, who went missing along with Shannon Alexander in 2008 at age 16. Odjick was taking part in a rally in Ottawa last October honouring the lives of missing and murdered aboriginal women and girls. (Fred Chartrand/Canadian Press)

However, she does believe an inquiry or other discussion around murdered and missing aboriginal women is necessary.

"There should be a positive, collaborative, respectful response to what is a deep-rooted social issue," she said.

Public inquiries work best when they expose cover-ups and failures by government, says Prof. Nelson Wiseman, director of the Canadian studies program at the University of Toronto. He cites the Gomery Inquiry into the federal sponsorship scandal or the Walkerton Commission into the tainted water supply of a community in Ontario as examples.

In the case of violence against aboriginal women, Wiseman believes an inquiry is unlikely to help.

"I don't think a public inquiry is going to contribute in and of itself to ameliorating or solving this problem. I think we know what the issues are," he said, mentioning poverty, lack of housing, violence and alcohol and drug use as contributing factors.

"What will the inquiry actually lead to? What action is going to change? Do I think the inquiry is going to tell us? I think we're going to get some pablum," he says.

Are there alternatives?

Something less cumbersome than a full public inquiry might be a better solution, suggests former Harper adviser Bruce Carson. He'd like to see the prime minister call an independent advisory panel, like it did on Canada's role in Afghanistan. In 2009, John Manley presented a report that examined four options for Canada's future role in the country and recommended that Canadian Forces remain in Afghanistan, as long as NATO provided additional support.

Carson argues that such a panel would have a more focused mandate and could be asked to report back in a shorter time frame. 

If federal officials are unwilling to launch a single, national public inquiry, Harvard says some in the aboriginal community have expressed interest in seeing each province and territory launch its own inquiry.

"If we have the support and we take the approach from a province-to-province basis, maybe the time has come that we need to start leading the charge," she said.

On Wednesday, aboriginal groups meeting with territorial and provincial premiers in Charlottetown said a roundtable with key federal ministers could be an important first step in moving the issue forward.

Opposition Leader Tom Mulcair went further, saying if the NDP win the next election, it would call a public inquiry within 100 days of taking office.

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Two Canadian Coast Guard icebreakers reach North Pole

Twenty years after Canadian icebreakers first reached the North Pole, two Canadian Coast Guard ships have recreated the feat.

The CCGS Louis S. St-Laurent and the CCGS Terry Fox arrived at the North Pole at 7:26 p.m. Wednesday night.

The CCGS Louis S St-Laurent 50 nautical miles away from the North Pole. (DFO Newfoundland and Labrador/Twitter)

When a fog lifted, the ships were surrounded by blue sky and second year ice, a senior officer on board the  St-Laurent said in an email to the CBC.

"A visit from Santa preceded a hockey game and an 'Ice Bucket Challenge' in support of ALS."

The ships will spend another nine days in the work area, then head back to Kugluktuk, Nunavut, for a crew change September 18.

The coast guard vessels left earlier this month to gather scientific data in support of Canada's territorial claim on the Arctic sea floor, including the area under and beyond the North Pole.

The six-week journey will take them to the eastern side of the Lomonosov Ridge, a long undersea feature that runs from near Ellesmere Island in Nunavut northward over the pole.

The move comes seven years after a Russian submarine planted a Russian flag on the seabed beneath the pole. 

During his annual northern tour earlier this month, Prime Minister Stephen Harper said Canada cannot be complacent in the face of growing Russian aggression. 

Crew on board the CCGS Terry Fox following the CCGS Louis S St-Laurent en route to the North Pole. (DFO Newfoundland and Labrador/Twitter)

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Premiers turn to trade on Day 1 of meetings

Canada's premiers have kicked off their annual meeting in Charlottetown, and the leaders of British Columbia, Saskatchewan and Alberta are already promising to review their regional trade agreement to see what barriers remain between their provinces.

Premier Robert Ghiz, who is hosting this year's Council of the Federation meeting, is scheduled to talk to reporters at 11:30 a.m. ET, following comments by New Brunswick Premier David Alward and B.C. Premier Christy Clark. CBCnews.ca will carry the press conferences live.

Earlier Thursday, Clark, Saskatchewan Premier Brad Wall and Alberta's Dave Hancock started the day by announcing they're going to take a look at the New West Partnership to see if regulations are preventing trade opportunities.

Wall said, for example, that if a company wants to make first aid kits for Canada, that business would have to satisfy 10 different sets of regulations as to what might constitute a first aid kit.

"So this seems dumb and I think at the heart of improving trade issues is trying to remove dumb from the economy," Wall said.

British Columbia Premier Christy Clark, along with the premiers of Saskatchewan and Alberta, said they'll review regulations to try to knock down more trade barriers between their provinces. (Andrew Vaughan/Canadian Press)

Clark said all of the provinces have room to improve trade, but pointed to the federal government, too, and said she wants to help it understand all the things it can do to increase trade.

"We know that trade barriers kill jobs. We know that red tape gets in the way of putting people to work across the country. And it doesn't make any sense to any of us that we should be putting artificial barriers in the way of creating jobs, because a job that's created in Saskatchewan is also of benefit to people who live in PEI," she said.

While the agenda is expected to focus on trade, the premiers are also expected to talk about Canada's aging population, health-care and pensions.

The 13 premiers, who met Wednesday with native leaders, started their day with a photo-op, walking down the rain-slicked street in front of the provincial legislature, where they dropped their umbrellas and posed for a group photo.

Ghiz reminded the premiers that it was in Charlottetown 150 years ago that the premiers from the Maritimes and two Canadian provinces gathered for a conference that cemented the idea of Confederation.

The meeting wraps up Friday.

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Céline Dion fans post touching tribute for René Angélil

New

'We've always known that Céline has never been alone,' says international message

CBC News Posted: Aug 27, 2014 11:12 AM ET Last Updated: Aug 27, 2014 11:12 AM ET

Members of an international group of Céline Dion fans have come together to send an emotional tribute to the Quebec-born singer's husband, René Angélil, who is battling cancer.

The 10-minute tribute was posted on YouTube on Monday, nearly two weeks after Dion announced she was putting her career on hold to care for Angélil.

Incorporating Dion's music and pictures of the couple, fans from as far way as Czech Republic, Lebanon and Tahiti recognized the 72-year-old's contribution to Dion's career:

International singing star Céline Dion leans on husband René Angélil's shoulder as he responds to a question at a news conference in Montreal in September 1999, in his first public appearance after undergoing cancer treatments. (Paul Chiasson/Canadian Press)

"Thank you for everything you have accomplished," the message reads. "We've always known that Céline has never been alone on stage, that you two were and have always been a team."

​Angélil stepped down as Dion's manager in June after 30 years. He has been treated for cancer a number of times, most recently in December.

A message on Dion's official website responded to the tribute with gratitude:

"Thank you to Ashley Berner from the United States and all the wonderful fans from around the world for creating this beautiful video honouring René," the statement reads. Berner is among the fans shown in the video.

"It is a very touching way to show your love and support."

Comments on this story are moderated according to our Submission Guidelines. Comments are welcome while open. We reserve the right to close comments at any time.

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Note: The CBC does not necessarily endorse any of the views posted. By submitting your comments, you acknowledge that CBC has the right to reproduce, broadcast and publicize those comments or any part thereof in any manner whatsoever. Please note that comments are moderated and published according to our submission guidelines.

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How the Saint Mary's University rape chant video is changing frosh week

A year after a controversial underage sex chant frosh video went viral, Saint Mary's University in Halifax held a news conference to talk about this year's orientation week plans.

The frosh week chant glorifying non-consensual underage sex with girls was posted online, prompting some university student unions to take precautions for the school year that begins next week.

In the video, which sparked a nationwide debate, students used the word "young" as an acronym in a chant that included the lines: "Y is for your sister […] U is for underage, N is for no consent […] Saint Mary's boys we like them young."

University officials vowed to make changes, including renaming orientation week to Welcome Week.

SMU introduced a new vetting and training process for Welcome Week leaders, who are trained in a two-day course that includes sessions on sexual consent, diversity, alcohol, mental health and leadership.

"There is a now an orientation steering committee that was formed to redesign Welcome Week and make it more educational, desexualized, inclusive and keeping with the mission and values of Saint Mary's. We want our new students to have fun and make new friends, but also to learn what it means to be respectful and in-turn make Saint Mary's a better place for the entire community," the university said in a note to students.

Wednesday's news conference provided further details about plans for this year's orientation week.

James Patriquin of SMU's student association said representatives from the university will be involved in planning and monitoring orientation week activities. 

"This year, we've kind of taken a different approach," he said. 

"We want to create a community here of pro-social bystanders where everyone is equipped with skill sets to identify a dangerous situation and then intervene." 

SMU graduate student Sandra Pagnottella said she thinks it's a good idea for the university to get involved.

"I mean, everything that happened last year is obviously not a great thing, but I'm glad that SMU is taking over and making sure that everything's going to be done the way that they want it to be done," she said.

But Pagnottella admits it may be hard to get students to give up drinking altogether. 

"Students are students, I mean everybody has their expectations of what first-year students do," she said.

Dalhousie University's student union is also making changes around what is being offered to first-year students and leaders.

"We, basically, have adapted our training to include a lot of things around sexual assault, sexual harassment prevention. Consent is a huge portion of what we're going to be covering for first-year students, as well as our leaders," said Danny Shanahan, Dalhousie, executive vice-president of the student union

Dalhousie student Jacy Conrad said orientation week should focus more on meeting new people and less on drinking.

"Every year there's an issue with drinking in universities during frosh week, so it's probably a good idea to tone down the drinking aspect of it," she said.

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NHL expansion plans in the works: reports

The NHL is considering expanding by as many as four teams, according to a pair of reports, with Toronto and Quebec City in the mix to land new franchises.

Howard Bloom of Sports Business News tweeted that the league will add four franchises "by 2017" in Toronto, Quebec City, Las Vegas and Seattle.

Bloom added that the NHL would take in $1.4 billion in expansion fees with the deals.

Also on Tuesday, Tony Gallagher of the Province, based in Vancouver, reported that an NHL team in Las Vegas is a "done deal," according to "sources close to the situation."

However, French-language TVA Sports reported that NHL deputy commissioner Bill Daly denied the league is looking to expand.

"It's not in our plans," TVA Sports quoted Daly as saying in French. "There is absolutely nothing new on that."

The NHL hasn't expanded since the Columbus Blue Jackets and the Minnesota Wild joined for the 2000-01 season.

NHL commissioner Gary Bettman, who has previously dismissed talk of expanding beyond the league's 30 teams, visited Seattle in May for an update on a proposed new arena.

In July, former NHL great Wayne Gretzky's agent denied a report that his client is among a group of investors looking to bring a team to the city.

Toronto and Quebec City have long been considered candidates if the NHL decides to expand beyond the seven Canadian-based clubs in operation.

Quebec City hasn't had an NHL team since the Nordiques moved to Denver in 1995.

Toronto, of course, is already home to the Maple Leafs, but it's possible that Canada's most populous city could support a second team, whether in the city proper or the surrounding suburbs.

Markham, Ont., just north of Toronto, has flirted with the idea of funding the construction of an NHL-sized arena, but those plans have stalled.

Arid Las Vegas may seem like an odd place for a hockey team, but the Twitter account attributed to Panthers goalie Roberto Luongo suggested a sizable home-ice advantage could be enjoyed against weary visitors to Sin City.

"Gonna be unreal when Las Vegas goes undefeated at home every year," tweeted @strombone1.

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Hurricane Cristobal unlikely to cause problems for Atlantic Canada

Hurricane Cristobal is expected to gain strength as it approaches waters off Newfoundland this week.

However, forecasters say it's unlikely the storm will cause much trouble on land.

The Canadian Hurricane Centre in Halifax says Cristobal should remain far offshore as it passes south of the island Friday and over the Grand Banks.

The hurricane is headed for Bermuda after causing flooding that officials have blamed for at least five deaths in the Caribbean.

The National Hurricane Centre in Miami says Cristobal will likely avoid a collision with the U.S. Eastern Seaboard.

But it's warning of dangerous surf and rip current conditions from central Florida to North Carolina.

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Beam me $10M: Ont. firm a finalist in contest to make Star Trek Tricorder

Sonny Kohli shows off the Pulse Wave device. CloudDX's Tricorder device could be an extension of what that diagnostic product can already wirelessly do. (YouTube screengrab)

A tiny company from Mississauga, Ont., has made the final cut of companies competing to make a science fiction dream a reality and win the $10-million Qualcomm Tricorder XPrize.

CloudDX is among 10 finalists for the 3-1/2-year-old prize, which aims to develop a consumer-focused, mobile device capable of diagnosing and interpreting a set of 15 medical conditions and capturing five vital health metrics.

Picture the gizmo from Star Trek, where doctors would wave a wireless contraption over a sick person and the machine could instantly diagnose what's wrong with them, non-invasively. That's what companies competing for the prize are trying to create.

"As we move to the final stage of this process, we are one step closer to putting health care in the palm of your hand," said Grant Campany, senior director of the Qualcomm Tricorder XPrize.

The 10 finalists (and employees involved), in alphabetical order, are:

• Aezon (Rockville, Md.), led by Tatiana Rypinski, a team of student engineers from Johns Hopkins University partnering with the Center for Bioengineering Innovation & Design.
• CloudDX (Mississauga, Canada), a team from medical devices manufacturer Biosign and led by company chief medical officer, Dr. Sonny Kohli.
• Danvantri (Chennai, India), a team from technology manufacturer American Megatrends India and led by director and CEO Sridharan Mani.
• DMI (Cambridge, Mass.), a team led by Dr. Eugene Y. Chan of the DNA Medicine Institute partnering with NASA, the National Institutes of Health and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
• Dynamical Biomarkers Group (Zhongli City, Taiwan), a team of physicians, scientists and engineers led by Harvard Medical School Prof. Chung-Kang Peng.
• Final Frontier Medical Devices (Paoli, Pa.), a team led by the founders of Basil Leaf Technologies—brothers Dr. Basil Harris, an emergency room physician, and George Harris, a network engineer.
• MESI Simplifying diagnostics (Ljubljana, Slovenia), a team from diagnostic medical device manufacturer MESI and led by CEO, Jakob Susteric.
• SCANADU (Moffett Field, Calif.), a team from Silicon Valley-based startup SCANADU led by technology entrepreneur, and co-founder and CEO, Walter De Brouwer.
• SCANurse (London, England), a team from diagnostic medical manufacturer SCANurse and led by biomedical engineer and founder Anil Vaidya.​
• zensor (Belfast, Ireland), a team from clinical sensor and electrode company Intelesens and led by the chief technology officer, Prof. Jim McLaughlin.

Kohli, a critical-care physician, says the inspiration for the device stemmed from his experiences volunteering as a doctor in Haiti after the devastating earthquake in 2010.

"A Tricorder-type device [is] something that's mobile, something you can carry with you ... you can take to disaster relief zones or villages or your grandma's house," Kohli says in a video on the contest website. "It's shocking to me that is hasn't been done."

The company already has a device known as a Pulse Wave that goes around the wrist and is able to monitor vitals such as blood pressure, heart rate and various arrhythmias easily, constantly and painlessly. The Tricorder prototype that emerges could prove to be similar to that.

CloudDX made the final cut after a panel of judges reviewed their entry based on safety issues, user experience and a health assessment. Among 21 entries, CloudDX was deemed credible and worthy enough to move on.

Teams will now compete in both diagnostic experience evaluations and consumer testing for their prototypes, which is slated to happen late next year. The final judging and awards ceremony will take place in early 2016.

Up to three winners will ultimately share the $10 million.

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Man 'formally cautioned' after entering Justin Trudeau's home by mistake

Ottawa police say no charges will be laid after Justin Trudeau's home was entered into while his family slept earlier this month, because the man spotted in video surveillance "entered the wrong home by accident."

The 19-year-old man turned himself in to police the same day investigators released surveillance video footage of him that was recorded in Trudeau's neighbourhood, police sources told CBC News.

He told police he was intoxicated at the time and he had entered the wrong home by accident. He has since apologized to Trudeau's family.

Police sources said the young man was also deeply embarrassed by the media coverage.

The incident occurred sometime overnight Aug. 15-16 while Trudeau was out of town.

Ottawa police released a video Friday of a person of interest who was believed to have been connected to the break-in at Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau's home. The man in the video turned himself in to police after its release. (Ottawa police)

"A thorough investigation has determined no charges should be laid," Ottawa police said in a media release Tuesday morning. "A satisfactory amount of evidence shows the person entered the wrong home in error."

The individual has been "formally cautioned" by police, the release added, and the case is now closed.

An Ottawa police news conference is scheduled for 11:30 a.m. ET.

In the past month, five break-ins have been reported in the Rockcliffe Park neighbourhood where Trudeau lives. 

His family's case was the only one in which nothing was stolen and a note was left behind.

When officers went to the back door of the home, they found a letter purportedly left by the vandals, a police source told CBC News. The letter was set on five or six knives owned by the family that had been laid out on the floor, the source said.

The letter stated items could have been stolen but weren't, and that the family should lock the home's doors in the future.

Police sources said the young man told them he put the knives on the floor and pointed them at the note to draw attention to it.

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Trade a hot topic ahead of premiers' meeting in Charlottetown

As premiers and territorial leaders gather in Prince Edward Island for their annual summer meeting this week, talk will turn again to barriers to trade that exist between provinces even as the country negotiates more free-trade deals abroad.

Saskatchewan Premier Brad Wall is leading the push for fewer internal trade barriers.

Wall lists trade irritants, such as the fact that companies outside Ontario face a 10 per cent premium if they want to bid on procurement in that province.

"What comes from these small protectionist measures is there's going to be a reaction. And we're going to have less trade and less free procurement. That just never works economically. It's been proven," he told CBC News this week.

Saskatchewan is also engaged in a trade battle with Quebec. Saskatchewan argues Quebec is blocking the import of dairy products blended with canola.

Saskatchewan won at the dispute resolution tribunal, but Quebec is appealing.

And Wall is frustrated.

"It just highlights that the current agreement on internal trade — it's not sufficient. We could do something much bolder. We can have a Canada free-trade zone. I think this makes common sense for Canadians everywhere."

This internal discussion comes just as the federal government released the details of its trade agreement with Europe.

It includes opening up local construction projects to European companies and allows the provinces to trade with Europe more easily.

Prince Edward Island Premier Robert Ghiz, who is chairing the meeting, says there's a lesson there for the provinces.

"Let's look at the trade agreements that we have with other countries. And if those trade agreements make it easier to trade with a different country, compared to another province, then we've got a problem," Ghiz said.

Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne says she's open to the idea of a balance between lowering trade barriers while still protecting the interests of local industries.

She points to the difficult negotiations over Canada's dairy industry during the free-trade talks with Europe.

"It will be the same discussion between B.C. and Ontario, for example, on wine. How do we advance the overall cause so that the B.C. wine industry can thrive and Ontario's industry can thrive," said Wynne.

"I'm open to removing those barriers. But I also want to make sure that whatever we do is going to be in the interests of Ontario's wine industry."

Meanwhile, the premiers will be joined, informally, by the U.S. and Chinese ambassadors to Canada, as well as Canada's ambassadors to those two countries.

Wall thinks that's a great idea.

"I really do think it will shine a light on the importance of trade with our largest partner in the United States, and our fast-growing trade partner in China."

Wynne, too, is pleased, especially now that the provinces are holding another trade mission to China in October.

But, she adds, there is one person missing from the table: Prime Minister Stephen Harper.

"The fact that the federal government has refused, that Stephen Harper has refused to come and meet with the premiers, I think is a very big problem.

"It's a big problem in terms of international trade. It's a big problem in terms of internal trade. It's a problem in terms of national interest, like a Canadian energy strategy, or like infrastructure investment. It would be better if the federal government were at the table with us," Wynne said.

The federal industry minister did release a discussion paper last week that lists two options on internal trade.

One is to scrap the 20-year-old national trade agreement and negotiate a new one. The second is to amend the current deal.

Either way, James Moore wants the provinces to do more. "My preference is for us to all be more ambitious than we've been thus far," Moore told CBC Radio's The House.

But some provinces don't like Moore's suggestion they should do more, arguing Ottawa hasn't done much to improve internal trade, either.

"They need to lead by example. The provinces will have a lively discussion about it, and will come up with practical solutions," Manitoba Premier Greg Selinger told CBC News.

Besides trade, the premiers have a number of other issues on their agenda for the three-day Council of the Federation meeting, including a Canadian energy strategy, infrastructure investment and fiscal transfers from Ottawa.

They will begin with a meeting with aboriginal leaders on Wednesday, during which they are expected to renew their call for a national inquiry into missing and murdered aboriginal women.

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How the Burger King deal could change Tim Hortons

Canadians aren't likely to lose their beloved double-doubles or the Timbits that prove so perplexing to our American neighbours. But the planned acquisition of Canada's Tim Hortons by the U.S.-based Burger King will undoubtedly bring changes.

Tim Hortons agreed Tuesday to be bought by 3G Capital, the investment firm that owns Burger King. The Miami-based burger chain said the new combined company would be based at the current headquarters of Tim Hortons in Oakville, Ont. 

The $94-a-share deal has been unanimously approved by the boards of both companies, but is still subject to a shareholder vote. Regulators in the U.S. and Canada will also likely want a say.

If completed, the deal would automatically give the merged entity more clout simply by making it the world's third-largest quick-service restaurant. The new company would have combined global sales of $23 billion and have 18,000 locations in 98 countries.

But beyond the dollars, what's at stake for the Canadian icon?

"Tim's won't die because of foreign ownership, they'll die because foreign ownership will bring forth ... death by a thousand cuts," says Alan Middleton, executive director of York University's Schulich Executive Education Centre.

The companies said Tuesday that Daniel Schwartz, CEO of Burger King, would become CEO of the new company. Current Tim Hortons CEO Marc Caira would become a director of the new company, as well as its vice-chairman. In a joint press release the two entities reassured customers that they'd continue to operate "as standalone brands," promising to preserve existing "iconic brands." 

But such early day promises don't always last. 

The majority owner of Burger King, 3G Capital, is a "ravenous" global investment firm based in Brazil, says Middleton, and it is one that tends to push for quicker profits than, say, Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway or other leading acquisition firms.

On the other hand, Barry Schwartz, an investment manager at Baskin Financial in Toronto, says that 3G Capital's cost-cutting ways and focus on tight capital expenditures could be highly beneficial for Tim Hortons.

"3G has been extremely successful converting strong brands and making them even stronger," says Schwartz. "We think this is a huge, huge win for Tim Hortons' shareholders."

Ketchup cutters

Canadians might remember the private equity firm 3G from another recent purchase. 

In 2013, 3G and Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway, bought Heinz. That led to hundreds of residents of the small southern Ontario town of Leamington, known as the tomato capital of Canada, losing their jobs as the company sought to cut costs.

While back-office cuts are unlikely to matter to the customer at the counter, that focus on profits might eventually change the way Tim Hortons operates, perhaps leading them to test fewer new items.

"Tim's success is because of successful trial and error," said Middleton. "The fact that they have constantly so many [new items] is part of what keeps the Tim's franchise fresh in people's minds, because it's never exactly the same Tim's year to year."

One of the latest ventures of the chain, which celebrated its 50th year, is made-to-order paninis for the lunch-time crowd, a growing segment.

The coffee chain's experiments aren't always successful, though. A five-year partnership to sell Cold Stone ice cream in some of its stores ended earlier this year. 

The latest addition to the Tim Hortons menu is its dark roast coffee, a bid to expand its reach in the lucrative coffee market. 

It's too early to know whether that item will succeed. Tim Hortons already boasts selling eight out of 10 cups of coffee consumed in Canada, though McDonald's is slowly eating away at that huge lead.

'Canadians are very loyal, they don't change buying habits as fast as Americans, they're not as price seeking as Americans. They're more patient.'- Alan Middleton, executive director at York University's Schulich Executive Education Centre

Overall, the deal is expected to be a big win for Tim Hortons, particularly in its faltering attempts to expand globally.

Burger King, with its more than 13,000 locations in nearly 100 countries and territories, has tremendous reach and expertise around the world.

That translates into on-the-ground help such as location mapping, knowledge of regional competition and networks of local suppliers. 

More importantly, though, the burger empire has the capital needed by the Canadian icon to market itself to consumers in the U.S. and abroad who are unfamiliar with the brand.

Burger King's know-how may be most crucial in the highly-competitive American market where Tim Hortons has struggled since entering in 1984 in New York state.

"The coffee shop segment is crowded and you've got two huge players that have very good, very strong customer loyalty [in the U.S.]," said David Henkes, vice-president of Chicago-based food industry consultancy Technomic.

"Tim Hortons has sort of tried to figure out how to be that No. 3 player," but it's been a struggle in part because Americans don't understand "the brand heritage of Tim Hortons," says Henkes.

An aggressive plan

Despite questions over its saturation of the Canadian market and its struggles in the U.S., Tim Hortons new chief executive Marc Caira outlined an "aggressive" plan in February to grow both here and abroad. 

By 2018, the company plans to open 500 restaurants in Canada, with about half of them added this year alone. The company currently has more than 1,300 stores. 

In the U.S., it hopes to expand its 850-strong network of stores with 300 more by 2018. 

The company also has 38 restaurants in the Persian Gulf, where it's seen some success. There it hopes to add about 220 locations in the same time period.

Schwartz sees the Tim Hortons-Burger King deal as a "huge win" not only for the Canadian restaurant, but also for Canadian taxpayers in the long term.

The new merged company would be headquartered in Canada, where the corporate tax rates are substantially lower. The basic U.S. rate stands around 35 per cent, while Canada's is about 10 points lower, depending on the province.

"It would create a large world-class company based in Canada, paying taxes in Canada, increase the exposure of the Toronto stock market and potentially lead to more tax inversions of U.S. and foreign companies coming into Canada," said Schwartz. Tax inversions are the relocation of a company's headquarters to a country with lower taxes.

But ultimately, will it make any difference for the average Canadian?

No, says Middleton, not unless cost-cutting measures change the nature of Timmies.

"Canadians are very loyal, they don't change buying habits as fast as Americans, they're not as price seeking as Americans. They're more patient," said Middleton.

But if 3G takes it a step too far, they could find themselves faced with a profit-line that looks more like an inverted hockey stick, a sudden downward move, as Canadians say, "This is no longer my Tim's."

A look at some of the numbers involved in the proposed burger and coffee tie-up. (Richard Grasley/CBC)

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Rogers, Shaw launch rival Netflix-like service Shomi

Rogers and Shaw have unveiedl their Shomi streaming service, pitching it as a rival to Netflix. (iStock)

A new subscription video-on-demand service with 11,000 hours of popular TV shows was unveiled today in Toronto by Rogers Communications and Shaw Communications.

Shomi is a joint venture of Rogers and Shaw, and will initially be available to their internet or TV customers.

Users will be able to access the service on tablet, mobile, online and through Xbox 360. At any one time, two internet-enabled devices and one set-top box can be streaming video from Shomi in a single home.

Shomi will launch in the first week of November at a suggested retail price of $8.99 per month, the same price as Netflix after its price rise announced earlier this year.

Shomi will offer 340 TV series and 1,200 movies, with 30 per cent Canadian content.

Shomi has past-season streaming rights to popular contemporary TV shows including:

• Modern Family
• Sons of Anarchy
• Sleepy Hollow
• Shameless
• 2 Broke Girls

"We keenly understand the media landscape is rapidly changing and that viewers are looking for greater flexibility when it comes to what they watch and how they watch it," Barbara Williams, senior vice-president for content at Shaw Media, said in a statement.

Although the company is a joint venture of Shaw and Rogers, it will operate as a stand-alone entity. With almost one third of anglophone Canadians already subscribing to Netflix, it will be a struggle for the service to attain a significant subscriber base. 

However, both companies need a strategy to build their businesses, as traditional cable sales are flat, with the big operators poaching each other's customers and more Canadians considering cutting the cord altogether.

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Public inquest called in deadly Quebec seniors' home fire

A public coroner's inquest will be called to look deeper into the circumstances surrounding one of the deadliest seniors' home fires in Canadian history. 

Public Security Minster Lise Thériault told a news conference this morning the public inquiry will examine the cause of death of each of the 32 victims as well as details surrounding the fire at the Résidence du Havre in January in the town of L'Isle Verte. 

"I hope this inquiry will allow the families and loved ones of the victim to have a clearer picture concerning the nature and causes of this tragedy," she said. 

The fire broke out in the early morning hours of Jan. 24 at the private seniors' home in the town, located not far from Rivière-du-Loup. The residents who died in the fire were unable to get out of the burning building, some perishing on external balconies while waiting for rescue. 

The blaze renewed calls for deeper examination of the safeguards and emergency plans in place for similar facilities. 

Thériault said the coroner charged with the inquiry will have the mandate of finding the cause and exact circumstances of the fire and make recommendations to ensure that a similar incident doesn't happen again. 

The announcement comes two weeks after the owners of the seniors' home asked for a public inquiry into the fire. 

According to the owners, that public hearing is the the only way to "allow Quebecers to know the truth."

The date of the inquiry has not been announced.

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Ontario man missing after fire in 1977 found alive in U.S.

An Ontario man declared missing almost 37 years ago and assumed dead has been found alive in the United States. 

Ontario Provincial Police in Middlesex County said in September 1977 that Ronald Stan, 32 at the time, was reported missing following a barn fire in the former Township of East Williams, 35 kilometres west of London. 

The OPP and the Ontario Office of the Fire Marshal investigated the fire. 

In 1986, nearly nine years after Stan disappeared, he was declared dead by the courts. 

But in July 2014, a routine audit of the case reopened the investigation into his disappearance, and found he was alive. 

The OPP discovered that Stan, now 69 years old, had been living in the U.S. under the name Jeff Walton. 

Police have contacted the families affected by the discovery. 

U.S. authorities have also been notified. 

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Are burger bits next? Tim Hortons, Burger King in merger talks

In what could be a whopper of a deal for Tim Hortons, Burger King is in talks to buy the iconic Canadian company.

A joint statement by the companies says they hope to form a new corporation that would be based in Canada — although they would continue to operate as standalone brands.

New-York based investment fund 3G Capital owns a little over two-thirds of Burger King and is effectively proposing to build a Canadian holding company that would own both chains but operate them independently.

Right now, Burger King is based in Miami; Tim Hortons headquarters are in Oakville, Ont. But the coffee chain only recently returned to its origins as a purely Canadian company. For years, it was owned by U.S. burger chain Wendy's before being spun out in an IPO in 2006.

If a merger is completed, the new company would become the world's third-largest quick-service restaurant chain, with more than 18,000 locations and sales of about $22 billion.

So what's behind the merger?

Business commentator Michael Hlinka said on CBC Toronto's Metro Morning on Monday that Burger King may be making a "tax inversion" play with this move.

The basic U.S. corporate tax rate is about 35 per cent, while Canada's, depending on the province, is around 26 per cent.

"There's that extra nine per cent of value that they're right now giving away," said Hlinka.

By merging with a Canadian company and setting up a head office in Canada, U.S. companies can sometimes achieve significant tax savings, Hlinka said.

"You've got to merge with a company one-quarter your size ... then you can technically set up your headquarters in Canada, even though you still keep everybody in the United States. It's almost like a mailing address more than anything else."

A number of U.S. pharmaceutical companies have tried similar moves in recent years, most notably Valeant, which bought up Mississauga, Ont.-based generic drugmaker Biovail in 2010. Valeant was U.S.-based at the time, but is now headquartered in Laval, Que., after buying what was then Canada's largest drug company.

Pfizer also recently tried to buy AstraZeneca in order to move itself to England, which has a much more favourable tax regime.  Two other U.S. drug firms, Medtronic and AbbVie, are also in the process of trying to buy two Irish drug companies, again, largely for tax reasons.

That's not to suggest that taxes are the only factor at play here — Burger King is, after all, trying to get its hands on a successful business in its own right.

Tims released earnings on Aug. 6 that beat expectations, and the stock has been rising ever since. Share in Tim Hortons on the TSX had gained almost 15 per cent in the last two weeks even before the Burger King news broke over the weekend.

Burger King shares have also been doing well, so the deal won't be cheap for 3G — shares in both Tim Hortons and Burger King have never been more expensive.

Burger King and Tim Hortons confirm they are in merger talks, and if consummated, the move would create the world's third largest fast-food restaurant chain. (Patrick Morrell/CBC)

Canada's federal corporate tax rate is 15 per cent, and Ontario currently tacks on another 11.5 per cent, putting  the total tax bill for a company residing in Ontario at 26.5 per cent.

Burger King's latest annual report reveals that thanks to some generous tax breaks on overseas profits, the company's effective tax rate last year was 27.5 per cent — not egregiously higher than the company would have paid if it were based in Ontario.

Indeed, beyond tax savings, Burger King may also be trying to keep pace with a key competitor, Hlinka said.

"McDonald's has become very serious about making a good cup of coffee in the past several years and Burger King hasn't really stepped up, so maybe this is how they're going to compete with McDonald's globally," he said.

So what's the upside for Tims?

"If Tim Hortons gets its coffee into all those Burger King stores worldwide, that would be absolutely huge for it, and I think that might be part of this strategy as well," he said.

The company also says any transaction will be structured to deepen the connections each brand has with its customers, franchisees, employees and communities.

CBC's Michelle Cheung spoke to customers at a busy Tim Hortons location in downtown Toronto on Monday morning.

Jesse Babwah, a regular Tim Hortons customer, said he's concerned that a merger with the U.S. burger giant could erode Tim Hortons's unique Canadian flavour.

"I like that Tim Hortons has a lot of Canadian identity," he said. "And I hope it doesn't change too much from what it is now."

Hlinka however, doesn't believe a Burger King-Tim Hortons merger would mean big changes for the customer picking up his daily double-double. He said Burger King would be unwise to tinker with Tim Hortons successful model.

"Tim Hortons just had fantastic [earnings] results, they're making money, they're expanding their offerings, they're doing a lot of things right on the execution end," he said.

"This company just has this incredible momentum behind it that just makes the company work. It's worked for the past 45-50 years, it's going to be with us for another 45 or 50," he said.

"If you go through some of the underground food courts, there will be a lineup at Tim Hortons that will stretch seemingly around the block, meanwhile there's five other places selling coffee and people are just like, 'No, I'd rather wait for the Tim Hortons coffee.'"

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