Statistics Canada is expected to provide its latest snapshot of the job market this morning when it releases its labour force survey for the month of September. Economists polled by Reuters are forecasting the Canadian economy added 27,000 jobs in September and the unemployment rate to have ticked higher to 6.7 per cent. The economy added 22,000 jobs in August as the unemployment rate rose to 6.6 per cent. Meanwhile, the Bank of Canada is expected to release its business outlook survey and its Canadian survey of consumer expectations this morning. The reports come ahead of the central bank's i

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is calling on provinces and territories to start negotiating pharmacare deals as soon as possible. Trudeau spoke to reporters this morning as he wrapped a visit to the Association of Southeast Asian Nations Summit in Laos, where he touted the "real progress" made in Ottawa after the Senate passed the pharmacare bill. That legislation was central to the political pact between the Liberals and the NDP, who pushed hard for the bill to be introduced. Now that it is law, the pharmacare legislation allows the provinces and territories to cut deals with the federal gover

O'Reilly Oilfield Services Ltd. has been fined $90,000 after pleading guilty to one count of failing to protect the health and safety of workers under its supervision. The sentence comes after one worker was severely burned by a fire in July 2021 at an oil and gas site near Valleyview, in northwest Alberta. The Alberta government says it happened when liquid from a decommissioned pipeline ignited and overflowed from a portable flare stack. Crown prosecutors withdrew five other charges against the company. The Crown also withdrew 15 occupational health and safety charges against Canadian Natu

Gunmen killed 20 miners and wounded another seven in Pakistan’s southwest, a police official said Friday. It’s the latest attack in restive Balochistan province and comes days ahead of a major security summit being hosted in the capital. Police official Hamayun Khan Nasir said the gunmen stormed the accommodations at the coal mine in Duki district late Thursday night, rounded up the men and opened fire. Most of the men were from Pashtun-speaking areas of Balochistan. Three of the dead and four of the wounded were Afghan. Nobody claimed immediate responsibility for the attack. According to

The Bhagwant Maan government has come under the target of the farmers due to non-starting of paddy procurement in Punjab. The United Kisan Morcha has announced to block the roads for three hours in the entire state on Sunday. Farmer leader Balveer Singh Rajewal said that the Punjab government had claimed to start purchasing paddy but nothing has happened so far, so a decision has been taken to block the roads to warn the state government. Some farmers of the state had planted PR-126 and other hybrid varieties of paddy at the behest of the Aam Aadmi Party government, which the sheller owners a

Sukhbir Badal is also active between the panchayat elections in Punjab. He has warned the Aam Aadmi Party government of the state that the bullying in the panchayat elections will cost the AAP government dearly in the Giddarbaha by-election. Badal said that he had never seen such bullying against the opposition in his 40 years of political journey. On the other hand, the case of Gurpal Dhotian, an accused of smuggling poisoned liquor, has been unanimously elected Panch with the support of the ruling Aam Aadmi Party in Dhotian village of Tarn Taran district. According to reports, no one else f

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has congratulated the prime minister of Thailand for her country's recent move to legalize same-sex marriage. Trudeau made the comments during a bilateral meeting with Thailand's new prime minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra while attending the Association of Southeast Asian Nations Summit hosted this year in Vientiane, the capital of Laos. The prime minister held back-to-back meetings with Asian leaders for much of the day. Trudeau said that at a time when rights are backsliding around the world, Shinawatra's leadership on gay marriage is "exceptional." Thailand’s

The Quebec government has introduced legislation to give itself new powers to cap the number of international students in the province. The bill tabled today is part of a larger push to lower the number of non-permanent residents in Quebec, which has increased to 600,000 from 300,000 in the last two years. Immigration Minister Jean-François Roberge says there were 120,000 foreign students in the province last year, up from 50,000 in 2014, and Quebec is using all the tools at its disposal to reduce temporary immigration. The new bill would allow the government to fix the number of internationa

The Alberta politician who was removed from the United Conservative Party caucus after comparing transgender children to feces has been voted back in. Jennifer Johnson, the MLA for Lacombe-Ponoka, says she grew “personally and professionally” in the 17 months since being removed from caucus. “Now, I am eager to apply what I have learned to benefit everyone who calls this province home,” Johnson said in a news release. The MLA was kicked out last year after a 2022 recording surfaced of her comparing transgender youth to a batch of cookies laced with “a little bit of poop.” She has b