Canada’s two most populous provinces, Ontario and Quebec, have privately expressed concerns with a federal government plan to slash the price of patented drugs, arguing that such regulatory changes could hurt investment in life sciences.
Reuters
Reuters: Canada warns U.S. against drug import plans, citing shortage concerns
ReutersCommentCanada opposes any U.S. plans to buy Canadian prescription drugs that might threaten the country’s drug supply or raise costs for its own citizens, officials have told U.S. authorities, in a new setback to the Trump administration’s efforts to tackle high drug prices, according to documents obtained by Reuters.
Reuters: Canada told drugmakers it would limit scope of some new price rules
ReutersCommentThe Canadian government has assured the pharmaceutical industry that new features of its plan to cut drug costs would apply only to new medicines, Health Canada said, offering some relief to drugmakers even as other regulations could still lower prices of medicines already on the market.
Reuters: In Canada, a little-known drug regulator shows its teeth
ReutersCommentA tiny, little-known government agency is ramping up regulation of Canada’s pharmaceutical industry, seeking to rein in prices for patented drugs that are among the highest in the world, according to industry sources and a Reuters analysis of government data.
Reuters: Canadian regulator failed to make checks on risky mortgage brokers
ReutersCommentThe financial services regulator in Canada’s biggest province failed to make planned checks on mortgage brokers it had identified as risky because its resources were stretched, according to documents obtained by Reuters under freedom of information laws and information provided by the regulator.
Reuters: Canada housing agency pushes for better income checks to catch fraud
ReutersCommentCanada’s housing agency has asked the country’s tax authority to take a “more direct and formal role” verifying income claimed on mortgage applications, part of a two-year plan to tackle mortgage fraud, documents obtained by Reuters show.
Reuters: We were forced to work for Western-run mine, say migrants who fled Eritrea
ReutersCommentBemnet Negash never got to say a proper goodbye to his family. In February 2006, government officials arrived at his school in the highlands of Eritrea and put him and his classmates on a bus to a military training camp.
Reuters: Husky oil spill in Canadian river followed two others nearby - records
ReutersCommentA Husky Energy Inc oil spill into a major Canadian river on July 20 was the third in the same area in eight months, government records showed, and could put new pressure on the province of Saskatchewan's energy regulator to improve its monitoring of pipelines.
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Reuters: CN Rail struggled with track improvements after fiery derailments
ReutersCommentCanada's biggest railway struggled to keep some heavily used track in adequate repair even after a string of derailments last year showed the danger of moving oil on poorly maintained track, documents obtained by Reuters show.
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Reuters: Goldcorp struggles with leak at Mexican mine
ReutersCommentMexican regulators said they are examining whether mining company Goldcorp Inc (G.TO) broke any regulations in its handling of a long-running leak of contaminated water at Mexico's biggest gold mine.
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Reuters: Porter Airlines asks court to block release of safety reports
ReutersCommentPorter Airlines, Canada's No. 3 airline, has asked a court to keep Transport Canada from releasing documents that describe its recent safety record under Canada's Access to Information Act, court records show.
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Reuters: Is the public kept in the dark about Canadian air safety issues?
ReutersCommentRegulators threatened to ground Canada’s Porter Airlines over safety problems in 2008, according to documents reviewed by Reuters, but the matter was kept secret for years - a sign, some critics say, of how little the public is told about the safety of Canadian airlines.
The documents, prepared by staff at the federal transport regulator, show that in early October that year, Canadian government inspectors scored Porter at only two on a scale of one to five, where five is best and three indicates compliance. The threat was first reported in the Canadian media in 2011 but the score and some of the reasons for it have not been previously disclosed.
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Reuters: CN Rail derailment numbers soared before recent crashes
ReutersCommentCanadian National Railway's safety record deteriorated sharply in 2014, reversing years of improvements, as accidents in Canada blamed on poor track conditions hit their highest level in more than five years, a Reuters analysis has found.
Canada's Transportation Safety Board (TSB) said on Tuesday that track failure may have played a role in CN's three recent Ontario accidents, which have fueled calls for tougher regulation. The agency said oil unit trains, made up entirely of tank cars, could make tracks more susceptible to failure.
Data obtained under access to information laws and analyzed by Reuters shows a broader trend, which has not been previously reported, and could pile more pressure on CN Rail to slow down trains or reduce their length. A crackdown on oil trains could raise the cost of shipping Canadian crude by rail.
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Reuters: The steel industry's fight for American stomaches
Reuters1 CommentWhen the steel industry goes to Washington, it usually talks about trade, tariffs and taxes. But there is also the small matter of fruit cocktail.
After years of declining food can shipments, steelmakers and packaging producers are in the midst of an ambitious push to rebrand canned goods as convenient health food. They're even trying to rename the pantry, to "cantry."
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Reuters: How a Canadian Prairie city made an Ebola vaccine
Reuters1 CommentAn experimental Ebola vaccine that is offering some hope for West Africa was invented in a small Canadian Prairie city and had its roots in the Cold War, the German town of Marburg and a disease scare that panicked Toronto in the 1970s.
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Reuters: Target Canada's supply chain gridlock: how Barbie SUVs snarled traffic
ReutersCommentA pink Barbie-branded SUV that seats two toddlers offers a surprising glimpse into the myriad problems that jammed up Target Corp's supply chain when it set up shop in Canada, and the challenge facing Target's new Canadian head.
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Reuters: Social media empowers anti-mining activists
ReutersCommentFacebook and other social networks are making it easier for anti-mining activists to derail projects, helping them get their message out and organize more quickly against an industry that is already struggling with high costs and volatile prices.
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Reuters: Behind serial killer cases, Canada's forsaken women
ReutersCommentSarah de Vries started running away when she was 13, in 1983. She lived in cheap apartments and grim hotels in downtown Vancouver, British Columbia - places that would let a teenager turn tricks. Later, she got hooked on heroin.
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Reuters: Canada union leader puts fresh stamp on a classic role
ReutersCommentTORONTO, Sept 19 (Reuters) - Ken Lewenza, president of the Canadian Auto Workers, knows how to play the part of the tough union boss. Leading the CAW through fraught contract talks with the Detroit Three automakers, he pounds the table and shakes his fist as he argues the union's case, and he's not afraid to swear on camera.
But as Lewenza charts the future of the CAW, which has expanded well beyond its base in manufacturing, the former Chrysler worker has proved more flexible than past leaders, selling a big union merger and tough concessions to a sometimes militant membership.
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Reuters: Canada's dented auto union seeks new road map
ReutersCommentOSHAWA, Ontario, April 9 (Reuters) - Bev McCloskey had only been working at General Motors for a couple of weeks in 1949 when word went out that there was trouble on the line.
It was her first strike, but not her last. In those years, McCloskey and the other workers at GM's Oshawa, Ontario, plants walked out over almost every contract, winning a string of concessions and forging Canada's most powerful union.
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