Bangladesh factory burned down by angry workers

A devastating fire ripped through a Bangladesh garment factory supplying major Western retailers, police and industry officials said on Friday, in a blaze set by workers angered over rumours of a colleague's death in police firing.

Garments are a vital sector for the South Asian nation, whose low wages and duty-free access to Western markets have helped make it the world's largest apparel exporter after China.

But a series of deadly incidents, including a building collapse that killed more than 1,100 people in April, has sparked global concern over weak safety standards in the country's $22-billion garment industry.

Latest incident

There were no reports of casualties in Friday's fire, which gutted a ten-storey building at Gazipur, 40 kilometres north of the capital, Dhaka.

But fire fighters were still battling to douse the fire in four nearby buildings, more than 15 hours after it had begun around midnight on Thursday, after workers finished for the day.

"We are still struggling to control the flames," said fire official Mahbubur Rahman, adding that 22 fire service and civil defence units been thrown into the fire-fighting operation.

At the scene, a Reuters photographer said burnt garments strewn on the floors bore brand names from U.S. retailers such as American Eagle Outfitters Inc, Gap Inc and Wal-Mart Stores Inc.

Other brands on the clothes included Li and Fung Ltd , Marks and Spencer Group PLC, Sears Canada Inc , Fast Retailing Co Ltd's Uniqlo and Inditex S.A. brand Zara.

'Now all the workers are at risk of becoming jobless'- Mohammad Atiqul Islam

Nur-e-Alam, a senior manager of Standard Group, said the factory had stored the next six months of its supplies for top global retailers, including Gap and Wal-Mart.

"We were the biggest supplier of Gap in Bangladesh," he said, adding "Our cargoes were ready for shipment and all that was burnt up."

The loss to the firm could run into more than $100 million, estimated another group official, who asked not to be identified, saying the final tally could exceed his figure.

The factory was among the ten biggest in the country, said Mohammad Atiqul Islam, president of industry body the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association, adding that the destruction could cost workers their jobs.

"Now all the workers are at risk of becoming jobless," he said.

18,000 employees

As many as 18,000 people worked at the factory, its owner, Mosharraf Hossain, told Reuters.

A local police official dismissed as baseless the claim that a worker had died in the firing, adding that a group of workers assisted by nearby residents had set the fire.

"We are investigating to find out the reason for this heinous act," said Mohammad Kamruzzaman, the officer in charge of the Joydevpur police station that guards the area.

Police and witnesses said tempers flared following a mosque loudspeaker announcement of a worker's death after police fired in the air to break up a road blockade by workers who had earlier vandalized the factory and set two buildings on fire.

Police had to fire shots in the air to scatter the workers and let in fire fighters, Mushfiqur Rahman, another manager at Standard Group, told reporters.

The recent string of accidents in Bangladesh has put the government, industrialists and the global brands that use the factories under pressure to reform an industry that employs four million people and generates 80 percent of export earnings.

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Alberta floods push federal deficit to $3.8B

The gap between how much the federal government spends versus how much it takes in went further into the red in September, in part because of costs related to the devastating Alberta floods.

The deficit increased to $3.8 billion in September, the Finance Department said in a release Friday.

That's up from $2.2 billion in the same month a year earlier. Ottawa was actually on track to have a smaller deficit, but the floods that devastated much of Alberta this summer changed that.

To help clean up after the floods that started on June 20, Ottawa recorded a $2.8-billion liability for disaster assistance in September. That setback was partially offset by the $700 million the government took in from selling 30 million GM shares that same month.​

"Absent the impact of these two one-time factors, the deficit for September 2013 would have been $1.7 billion," the finance department noted in a release.

The government saw a revenue jump during the month, taking in $21.1 billion more in tax revenues, an increase of almost 11 per cent. But that was more than offset by an almost 20 per cent increase in expenses to $22.5 billion.

For the cumulative April-to-September fiscal period, Ottawa's running a $10.7-billion deficit. For the same period last year, the deficit was smaller, at $9.4 billion.

"The government remains on track to balance the budget in 2015," the Finance Department said in the release.

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Telus takeover of Public Mobile gets Competition Bureau OK

The regulator in charge of ensuring a fair level of competition for consumers has given its approval for Telus to take over its much smaller cellular rival, Public Mobile.

The Competition Bureau of Canada has issued what's known as a "no action letter" for the transaction, after determining that it "is unlikely to substantially lessen or prevent competition in the sale of mobile wireless telecommunications services in Southern Ontario and Greater Montreal."

Those are the two main markets for Public Mobile, which came about after the last wireless spectrum auction in 2008 as an alternative to the Big 3 telecom incumbents of Bell, Rogers and Telus. Public Mobile primarily caters to the lower end, pre-paid part of the market. Telus signed a deal to buy Public Mobile and its 280,000 customers earlier this year.

During the bureau's review, it learned that Public Mobile was going to discontinue its $19/month "Unlimited Talk" plan due to financial sustainability issues. The bureau had concerns that the Telus sale might alter the timing of those plans, but in the release the bureau said it was satisfied by Telus's pledge to keep that deal going until the end of 2014 at least, something Public Mobile had promised.

Industry Minister James Moore already signed off on the deal earlier this month, making permission from the Competition Bureau the last major regulatory stumbling block that had to be crossed.

Public Mobile customers will be rolled into Telus's existing coverage map soon, both companies say.

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Ontario's competitiveness stalled, task force says

Ontario's productivity has stalled because of the skills gap and lack of both private and public sector investment, according to a task force that annually assesses the province's competitiveness.

Headed by influential business thinker Roger Martin, the Task Force on Competitiveness, Productivity and Economic Progress was created in 2001 to monitor Ontario's performance compared to other provinces and U.S. states.

'What I would say is we've got all the basics and we don't do the last 10 per cent that we have to do'- Roger Martin

Its 12th annual report concludes the province is not living up to its economic potential. In fact, it still stands 19th among 28 global peers, the same ranking it achieved 12 years ago.

"Clearly, Ontario is falling behind its competitors," the report concludes. "This story is a result of more than a decade of missed opportunities, wasted potential, and complacency on the part of business leaders and policymakers."

Corporate taxes have been cut to record low levels, and the marginal tax rate on investment has improved substantially, but there has not been a corresponding increase in investment in the province, Martin said.

Ontario is emerging from a culture of protectionism and that can take a long time, he said in a recent interview with CBC's Lang & O'Leary Exchange.

Hangover from protectionism

"I think we have this long hangover of being a protected market for a long time where there was not any motive to innovate. We could wait and see what somebody else does across the border and then we'll do it here." he said.

"We've got to get that long game in the economy that we only win, we only prosper as an the economy if you're trying to do new different things first, before anybody else."

While the information technology sector has received  a shot of cash, technology investment has grown even faster in U.S. states over the past five years.

Companies are sitting on cash and failing to invest in equipment, R&D, software, patents and other productivity tools, Martin said in his report, but every year more executives are adopting a more competitive mindset, the task force report says.

"The way I think about competition – competition is like a good trainer – it will train you, It will give you feedback, it helps you get better," Martin said..

The report highlights the Ring of Fire, an area rich in chromite northeast of Thunder Bay, as a potential growth engine for the province.

But development there has been stalled by lack of infrastructure support by the provincial government, specifically a road to improve access, Martin says. Cliff Natural Resources recently pulled out of the area, saying development was taking too long.

Gaps in youth education

Another area that the province should tackle is youth education, he said.

With youth unemployment standing at 16.9 per cent, Ontario needs to address the lack of skills among young workers.

"I've come to the view that the No. 1 thing, if I were to have government do one thing, it would be to make innovation education mandatory in K through 12 so you could not graduate from secondary school without having systematic education in innovation," Martin said.

 "Ontario should also reform its training routes for skilled trades to help increase both the quantity and quality of skilled tradespeople," his report concludes.

Ontario has a good economic foundation, but needs adjustment to improve its growth potential, Martin told CBC.

"If you look back at all the things that you've invested in as a province over a long period of time, they've mainly been good things – the education system, the good health care, the good industries, a great key city in Toronto for Ontario," he said.

"What I would say is we've got all the basics and we don't do the last 10 per cent that we have to do."

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Toronto business accelerator grooms data-driven firms

A newly opened business accelerator in Toronto aims to move Canada ahead in the growing field of data-driven technology.

The business of helping companies make sense of data is estimated to grow to $50 billion worldwide in the next five years from $5 billion today, say the founders of OneEleven accelerator, which had its grand opening last week.

'This is the future.  And this is just one small microcosm that really represents what needs to happen right across Canada.'- John Ruffolo, OMERS Ventures

Unlike a business incubator, which helps people with ideas in early stage entrepreneurship, an accelerator promotes more mature businesses to the next stage in their development, said Bilal Khan, managing director of OneEleven.

"They've been funded, they now have a product, they have a few companies that are prowling with them, but they now have to commercialize that technology and help it scale. So it's really market-focused and not really [idea generation]," he told CBC News.  

With the backing of a group of Toronto companies and institutions plus public sector money, the accelerator has chosen a handful of firms working in data optimization, data aggregation and data analytics, all areas arising out of cloud computing.

"They're not green, they're all very mature, they're very sophisticated entrepreneurs. They either have built companies successfully and now they're building the second or third or they have a very deep, demonstrated expertise. They're building solutions to very complicated problems," Khan said.

Tulip Retail, makers of software that lets retailers create online versions of their stores, and Granata Decision Systems, a software startup that helps marketers improve their campaigns, are among the companies chosen. Some have emerged from the Kitchener-Waterloo technology hub in Ontario.

Peer-to-peer network

At OneEleven, they are surrounded by similar startups, working on similar problems, giving them an opportunity to share ideas, Khan said.

Like many growing businesses in need of financing and a forum, last week gave OneEleven an opportunity to pitch to 120 prospective investors.

"The pitch is scary," said Ali Asaria of Tulip Retail. "It's a very short amount of time to gather interest, establish credibility and then get people to buy in."

Asaria said his business is at a difficult stage and it's hard to establish the right conditions to grow in Canada.

"It's tough. I mean you are making a big bet and you have to convince others to join you. It's one of the hardest things I have ever done," he said.

Craig Boutilier, who used to chair a  university computer science program, now runs Granata.

"Right now we are looking for ... a large seed round of funding, something in the order of three quarters of a million to a million dollars," he told CBC News.

OneEleven seeks to bridge the gap between research and commercialization for firms involved in high-performance computing, helping its entrepreneurs rub shoulders with both venture capitalists and academics.

Toronto technology potential 

Khan said Toronto has a promising cluster of such data-driven firms.

"Over the last few years we've done an incredible job of seeding early stage technology companies, getting people thinking about entrepreneurship is a more common career path and as a result we have a more vibrant entrepreneurial community in Toronto," he said.

"Over the last 10 years, we started seeing some really great successes, but the problem is once they get to be post-seed, potentially global companies, they don't have the resources to get them to that level and that is really a critical gap in our ecosystem that exists here," Khan said.

The backers include Ontario Centres of Excellence, Bennett Jones, Osler, Ryerson University and OMERS Ventures.

OMERS Ventures CEO John Ruffolo sees the accelerator as a promising model for mid-stage companies going into a burgeoning technology field.

"This is the future.  And this is just one small microcosm that really represents what needs to happen right across Canada," he said.

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Keystone XL pipeline threatened by U.S. oil boom

A sudden surge in U.S. oil output could derail plans to build the massive Keystone XL pipeline to ship Canadian oil from Alberta to refineries on the American Gulf Coast, Canada's U.S. ambassador was warned in internal emails.

In a series of emails unearthed by an access to information request from energy think tank Pembina Institute and provided to CBC News, Canadian energy counsellor Paul Connors warned ambassador Gary Doer in the summer that America's current oil boom could alter the viability of cross-border pipeline plans.

Many options

Keystone XL is a proposed 1,900-kilometre pipeline being pitched by Calgary-based TransCanada that aims to bring Canadian oilsands oil from Hardisty, Alta., south through five U.S. states to oil refineries on the Gulf Coast in Texas.

The plan is an ambitious one, coming with a price tag of more than $7 billion, and has faced numerous regulatory hurdles over several years while various governments and companies try to negotiate the final details.

Broadly, Canada lacks the refining capacity to adequately process the billions of barrels of oil that are contained in the Athabasca oilsands. America, meanwhile, has more than enough refineries operating at less than full capacity, so the plan has been pitched as an economic bonanza for both sides.

'Our customers remain extremely supportive of Keystone XL.'- TransCanada statement

But recent events may have changed those economics somewhat. A series of oil discoveries in the Bakken, Eagle Ford and Permian basins scattered across the continental U.S. have increased America's possible oil output to a far higher level than previously believed.

The U.S. now has so much recoverable oil that it's now expected to surpass Saudi Arabia as the world's largest oil producer at some point in the next 10 to 20 years.

Refineries are configured to process different types of crude — heavy crude goes to heavy refineries, light crude to light ones. Currently, heavy oilsands oil from Alberta goes to heavy oil refineries predominantly on the U.S. Gulf Coast.

"The significant increase in U.S. domestic production in recent years is light sweet crude which has lower [greenhouse gases] than heavy crude," Connors wrote in an email to Doer in June.

The best way for America to profit from its current oil boom could be to export its new sources of light crude, because that's what's most in demand internationally and that's what fetches the higher prices.

"However, if reducing U.S. [greenhouse gas] emissions is the goal, the U.S. could decline to export its light sweet crude surplus [and] domestic light sweet crude would begin to [replace] heavy oil imports."

Environmental concerns

U.S. President Barack Obama has repeatedly said that his government would only approve the Keystone XL project if it would not materially alter America's greenhouse gas emissions. So a suddenly plentiful energy alternative with a smaller environmental footprint could change the lay of the land.

For its part, TransCanada says it remains fully committed to the plan — as are its customers.

"TransCanada does not build pipeline projects and then hope we can fill them. Our Keystone XL customers have signed 20-year, binding commercial agreements because they needed to connect oil supplies in Canada and the U.S. to refineries," the company said in an email to CBC News.

"Our customers remain extremely supportive of Keystone XL, and the markets understand that you need to have the right infrastructure in place to move product at the right time."

Natural Resources Minister Joe Oliver agrees with that statement, telling CBC News that even with the conventional oil boom, "the U.S. Energy Information Administration projects that the U.S. will need to import 7.4 million barrels of oil per day in 2035."

"Therefore, Keystone XL will displace an unstable source of heavy oil from Venezuela, with the same or higher greenhouse gas emissions, with a friendly, stable and reliable source of Canadian oil," Oliver's statement reads.

Indeed, if the project doesn't go ahead, the U.S. State Department acknowledges that alternative modes of oil transport (such as rail) that emit as much as eight per cent more greenhouse gases will likely deliver the oil that Keystone XL would have.

Ottawa backs plan

"Our government supports the Keystone XL pipeline because it would enhance national security, create tens of thousands of jobs and generate billions of dollars in economic activity in both Canada and the U.S.," the spokesperson said.

Still, any indication that the Americans have less of an appetite for Keystone could be bad economic news for Canada, which mainly produces heavy oil, almost all of which currently goes to the U.S.

If America chooses to use more of its own lighter oil domestically and needs less heavy Canadian oil, there is little Canadian oil producers could do in the short term to maintain a market for their product.

Canadian oil, known as Western Canada Select, already trades at a discount of about $30 compared to the American benchmark, West Texas Intermediate or WTI, mainly because it's heavier and therefore more expensive to refine, which limits the number of refineries willing to take it.

"While this is economically sub-optimal for the heavy oil refineries, it would make the mix of U.S. crude oil lighter and less [greenhouse gas] intensive," Connors wrote. 

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New discount carrier Jetlines prepares for launch in Vancouver

'Jetlines' to be launched by a group of aviation veterans

CBC News Posted: Nov 28, 2013 6:15 PM PT Last Updated: Nov 29, 2013 4:03 AM PT

A new discount airline could soon be coming to Western Canada, potentially offering significantly cheaper air travel for Canadians.

The company is called Jetlines. It's being launched by a group of aviation veterans based in Vancouver.

Already, the company says it has negotiated landing slots at airports in Western Canada.

"We're starting from Winnipeg and west and routes… that are not served or they're underserved or they're only served through a connection," said David Solloway, who will serve as Jetlines' chief commercial officer.

Solloway said they are modelling the company after such deep-discount airlines as Ryanair in Europe and Allegiant Air in the U.S., offering fares 40 to 60 per cent cheaper than current averages.

To keep costs down, Jetlines says it will charge passengers extra fees for things like checking bags and selecting seats in advance.

The company has already applied for an airline licence to operate large aircraft in Canada and hopes to offer select flights as early as next fall.

With files from the CBC's Farrah Merali

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Nova Scotia approves $1.5B Maritime Link energy project

Nova Scotia's energy regulator has approved the $1.5-billion Maritime Link project to bring in hydroelectricity from Labrador.

Click on the image to read more about the Maritime Link project. (CBC)

The Utility and Review Board (UARB) tentatively endorsed the project earlier this year, but it attached a list of conditions to ensure the project doesn't impose a heavy burden on Nova Scotia ratepayers.

On Friday, it released a decision saying the Nova Scotia energy company Emera Inc. and Newfoundland's Nalcor have met its condition for secure access to enough market priced electricity to make the Maritime Link the least expensive option for consumers.

Emera wants to build a subsea cable which that would allow Nova Scotia's electric utility to buy energy from the Muskrat Falls hydroelectric plant in Labrador when it is completed in 2017.

"While the Board finds that the Maritime Link Project is the lowest long-term cost alternative, it is not on an overwhelming basis," read the decision. "There are various scenarios, within a range of reasonable assumptions that perform almost on an equivalent basis, or even  better in a few cases, than the Maritime Link Project."

Still, the board found the deal "slightly more robust than the various other alternatives."

Earlier this month, Nova Scotia Energy Minister Andrew Younger came up with his own list of conditions, saying the government is opposed to a revised agreement to proceed with the Maritime Link project because it puts province's ratepayers at risk of having to pay for cost overruns.​

The UARB said it's confident it has addressed the concerns expressed by the new provincial government.

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Black Friday shopping stampede starts early in U.S.

The U.S. holiday shopping season started early this year, as major retailers opened stores Thanksgiving Day — 24 hours earlier than the typical Black Friday event.

While some shoppers said they didn't like it, they appeared to be out in large numbers regardless, both yesterday and today.

While malls were mostly calm, there were scattered reports of fights and other problems.

Black Friday is typically the biggest shopping day of the year in the United States. For a decade, it had been considered the official start of the holiday buying season.

In Canada, retail trade also stepped up substantially, with almost half of all Canadians expected to shop today, CBC's Charlsie Agro reported.

In the past few years, U.S. retailers have begun pushing opening times into Thanksgiving night.  The same thing occurred in Canada, as mall owner Cadillac Fairview pushed some openings to 7 a.m. At Toronto's Eaton Centre, the doors opened at 6 a.m., and people were lined up to get it, Agro reported.

"It's all in an effort to capitalize on the American shopping phenomenon," she said.

Jervis Benjamin, 8, of Wayzata, Minn. rides in a cart during Black Friday shopping - on Thursday. (Craig Lessig/Associated Press)

The U.S. holiday openings came despite threatened protests from workers' rights groups, which are opposed to employees working on the holiday instead of spending the day with family.

Overall, the National Retail Federation expects retail sales to be up four per cent to $602 billion US during the last two months of the year. That's higher than last year's 3.5 per cent growth, but below the six per cent pace seen before the recession.

Analysts expect sales to be generated at the expense of profits, as retailers will likely have to do more discounting to get people into stores.

Here's how the start of the holiday shopping season is playing out (all times are ET, unless otherwise specified):

Friday, 9:15 a.m.: Authorities said a police officer suffered a broken wrist as he broke up a brawl between two men waiting in line for Black Friday shopping deals at a Southern California Wal-Mart store.

The San Bernardino Sun said the fight occurred about 7 p.m. Thanksgiving night when store managers decided to open the doors early to accommodate more than 3,000 waiting people. The doors were originally scheduled to open at 8 p.m.

Police said there were three fights at the store in Realto. Two of them were inside over merchandise; the third was outside, when the officer got injured.

One of the men involved in the fight outside was arrested for suspicion of assault with a deadly weapon. Police allege that he was kicking the other man in the head when he was down on the ground.

Friday, 9:05 a.m.: Jill Teal said she does most of her shopping online, but she was out at Kohl's department store in Clifton Park with her sister, Judy Espey. Their shopping trip started at 4 a.m.

Espey, the mother of three children ages 12 to 16, said her purchases included the Beats line of headphones and speakers.

She actually began her shopping Thursday night, when she ducked out after having dinner with her family to buy a 50-inch flat-screen television at Wal-Mart for $288. But she said she wasn't thrilled that stores now open on Thanksgiving, believing that it takes away from the fun of shopping with friends on Black Friday.

"I don't really dig the Thanksgiving night thing. I feel bad for the workers," Espey said. "They've ruined Black Friday."

Friday, 8:50 a.m.: Crowds waiting for vouchers for a deal on televisions walked away empty-handed after an in-stock guarantee fell through at a Wal-Mart store near Tampa, Fla.

Wal-Mart had promised that shoppers can get a voucher to buy the product later if a store is sold out, as long as the shopper is inside the store within one hour of a doorbuster sales event. At the store in Lutz, Fla., that meant either a television or a voucher for anyone in line before 7 p.m. Thursday.

Customers told Bay News 9 that by 7:15 p.m., they were told that all the televisions — and vouchers — were gone.

Pasco County Sheriff's deputies who were already working at the store were asked for assistance. The crowd didn't get unruly, but customers told the television station they were upset.

Wal-Mart spokeswoman Danit Marquardt said the company is looking into the situation.

"It is always our goal to take care of our customers — especially on an important shopping day like Black Friday."

Friday, 8:35 a.m.: The atmosphere was calm at the stores Judy Phillips and Bonnie Dow had hit Friday morning. Their annual Black Friday trek began Thanksgiving night at a mall in Wilton, a town north of Albany, N.Y. They eventually made it to Target in nearby Clifton Park.

"No one's been fist-fighting with anybody," Dow said.

Phillips said they got "great deals" on such items as blankets, sheets and comforters, but her efforts to buy the popular Furby toy had come up empty.

"They're all sold out," she said.

Friday, 8:15 a.m.: Dana and Estevan Branscum of Chicago were stopping by a Target in the Chicago suburb of Niles to look for "little things" like movies.

"I never shop for big ticket items on Black Friday because I know I won't get them," said Dana Branscum, a 27-year-old grocery store manager.

The Friday morning visit was her second time at the store in less than 10 hours.

She and her mom headed out Thursday evening to do a full circuit of shopping: Kohl's, Target, J.C. Penney and Michael's craft store. She said it was much busier Thursday night than on Friday morning, but it also seemed more civilized than usual.

"I've been doing Black Friday for a couple years. It seemed very organized," she said. There even were still a few televisions left at Target when she and her mom arrived around 8:30 p.m. CST, a half-hour after the store opened. At that time, the lines for the checkout stretched about 20 feet into the nearby health and beauty department, she said.

Friday morning was considerably quieter, with no lines at the checkout and plenty of parking spots right out front at about around 6 a.m. CST.

"Everybody is sleeping now I think," said Estevan Branscum, a 24-year-old executive chef.

The Branscums plan to spend $800 to $1,000 this holiday season. They say if they had kids, they'd be spending much more.

Their big-ticket items this year — already purchased a week ago — were a TV for Estevan and a Coach purse for Dana.

They also stopped by Home Depot to buy a new Christmas tree.

Friday, 7:45 a.m.: How to make sure you're getting the best deals? Many retailers, for instance, will match deals you find elsewhere. These apps can help you find better prices to show the cashier. Some let you search for coupons, while others tell you whether you're better off buying online instead. And one keeps track of all those promotional fliers that do little good if you forget them at home.

Unfortunately, If you prefer to shop at mom and pop stores, you won't find any deals here. But if you don't mind big retailers, these apps offer a hefty selection of deals from them. These are all free, easy to use and beautifully designed:

• RetailMeNot (available for Android, iPhone): This app lets you search for coupons from your favorite stores, so you can instantly save 10 per cent, 20 per cent or even more on a single item or your entire shopping cart. You can scroll through the list of hot deals on the home page or search for a specific store.
• Amazon and RedLaser (available for Android, iPhone, Windows): These two apps let you check prices online, for those retailers that will match cheaper prices you find in hopes you'll buy on the spot.
• Cartwheel by Target (available for Android, iPhone): Target's app has coupons for everything from electronics to toys to cereal. Once you find a coupon you want to use, you tap the add button. Then present the cashier with a single barcode that has collected all the coupons you selected.
• Flipp (available for iPhone): This app helps you find and track newspaper circulars. You can leave the paper behind, as Flipp has digital versions with the coupons in them.

Friday, 7:30 a.m.: Curtis Akins, 51, drove about three hours from Tifton, Ga., to watch the annual Macy's tree-lighting ceremony at Lenox Square mall in Atlanta on Thanksgiving. The store opened for shoppers at 8 p.m. on Thanksgiving, and the rest of the mall opened at midnight.

By 5 a.m. Friday, he was sitting on a bench — looking slightly exhausted — inside another mall as his wife shopped for deals. The North Point Mall in Atlanta's northern suburbs had the feel of an airport terminal in the pre-dawn hours, with some store gates open, others closed and many shoppers slowly shuffling along, bleary-eyed.

Akins said he wasn't keen on Black Friday starting earlier and earlier.

"I think it's going to end because it's taking away from the traditional Thanksgiving," he said.

Friday, 7:10 a.m.: Target Corp. has announced a "very successful start" to the Black Friday shopping weekend.

The retailer opened at 8 p.m. on Thanksgiving, an hour earlier than a year ago. At Target.com, where nearly all the deals were available on Thanksgiving, traffic and sales were among the highest the Minneapolis-based retailer has seen in a single day.

In the early morning hours after the deals first became available, Target says its website saw two times more orders compared with a year ago at that time.

Hot items include Apple Inc.'s iPad Air, several large-screen TVs and Nintendo's 3DS XL, which all sold out by mid-morning Thursday. In stores, crowds began gathering hours before the 8 p.m. opening. Target said that lines stretched several blocks.

Target said the stores' electronics and toys sections were popular destinations. In many locations, the Element 52-inch TV sold out in minutes.

Friday, 7 a.m.: Colder temperatures aren't deterring shoppers in upstate New York, as Black Friday becomes a family affair.

"We like to shop this time of night. We get in and out. We're having a ball," said Rosanne Scrom as she left the Target store in Clifton Park, N.Y., at 5 a.m. with her sister and their daughters. It was about 20 degrees then.

Scrom said they spent about 20 minutes in the store buying "whatever we see on sale that people will like."

"We're spending more this year," said her daughter, Tiffani, 21.

"We're getting more bargains," her mother added.

The store wasn't jammed, and the Scroms said they had more time to mull purchases and not worry about people snatching items from their carts, something that has happened to Rosanne Scrom "lots of times" during previous Black Friday shopping excursions.

Friday, 6:50 a.m.: Authorities say a police officer answering a call of alleged shoplifting at a Chicago area department store shot the driver of a car that was dragging a fellow officer.

The wounded driver of the car and the dragged officer were both taken for hospital treatment of non-life-threatening shoulder injuries, police say. Three people were arrested.

Mark Turvey, police chief in Romeoville, Ill., said police got a call shortly after 10 p.m. Thursday of two people allegedly shoplifting clothes from a Kohl's store in the southwest Chicago suburb.

"As officers approached the front door, one of the two subjects ran out the door into the parking lot" and the officer chased him to a waiting car, Turvey said.

"The officer was struggling with the subject as he got into the car and then the car started to move as the officer was partially inside the car. The officer was dragged quite some distance. He couldn't get out," Turvey said.

The police chief said a backup officer fired two or three shots toward the driver when he refused orders to stop, striking him once in the shoulder.

There were no reports of any injuries to shoppers hunting for deals ahead of Black Friday.

A store manager contacted early Friday said he had no further information and referred The Associated Press to a corporate spokeswoman, who didn't immediately return a message Friday.

Friday, 6:30 a.m.: Wal-Mart Stores Inc. said that best sellers for its Thanksgiving sale included big-screen TVs, Apple's iPad Minis, laptops, Microsoft's Xbox One, Sony's PlayStation 4 and the game "Call of Duty: Ghosts."

The world's largest retailer said that customers also bought 2.8 million towels, 300,000 bicycles and 1.9 million dolls.

Wal-Mart started its deals at 6 p.m. on Thanksgiving, two hours earlier than last year. The retailer said 1 million customers took advantage of its one-hour guarantee program, which allows shoppers who are inside a Wal-Mart store within one hour of a doorbuster sales event to buy that product and either take it home that day or by Christmas. That program started a year ago with three items and was expanded to 21 this year.

For the first time this year, customers were offered wristbands for popular products, allowing them to shop while they waited for deals.

Friday, 5:45 a.m.: Amazon has managed to attract customers from big store chains such as Wal-Mart and Best Buy with low prices and convenient shipping. Now, stores are fighting to get customers back.

Stores are doing such things as matching the lower prices on Amazon and offering the same discounts in stores as on their websites. For its part, Amazon.com Inc. is giving customers the option to pick up items at physical locations and adding Sunday delivery.

There's a lot at stake for both sides. Amazon has built a following, but wants to grow its business around the world. Meanwhile, brick-and-mortar retailers struggle to keep shoppers from using their stores as showrooms to test out and try on items before buying them for less on Amazon.

The holiday season ups the ante. Both online and brick-and-mortar retailers can make up to 40 per cent of their annual revenue in November and December. And this year, they're competing for the growing number of shoppers who are as comfortable buying online as in stores.

Thursday, 11 p.m.: J. C. Penney's store in Manhattan was busy with bargain shoppers buying discounted sweaters, bed sheets and luggage, but the store was not packed. Among the doorbuster deals were 50 per cent off on all fashion silver jewelry. The struggling department needs a solid holiday shopping season to help recover from a botched up transformation plan.

The company has brought back sales events and basic merchandise like khakis in forgiving fits. To kick off the holiday shopping season, Penney opened at 8 p.m. on Thanksgiving. That was much earlier than the 6 a.m. opening on Black Friday a year ago.

Tamara Robinson, 37, from Brooklyn, said she has been buying more at Penney in the last few months. Robinson was throwing bed sheets and comforters into her cart at Penney and planned to spend about $200 at the department store on Thursday. She then planned to go to Macy's and Best Buy.

 "I am going to shop all night," she said.

Thursday, 8 p.m.: Crowds of cheering shoppers pushed through the doors at the flagship Macy's Herald Square in New York City when it opened.

About 15,000 shoppers were at Macy's right before the doors opened, estimated Terry Lundgren, CEO, president and chairman of the department store chain. Last year, the store had 11,000 people right before the midnight opening.

 Lundgren, who was at the entrance, told The Associated Press that the retailer knew it had to open when it found out other competitors were planning to open on Thanksgiving night. He also said it received positive feedback from its employees. "We're a competitive group," he said. "It's very clear they (the shoppers) want to be here at 8 p.m."

Thursday, just before 8 p.m.: At Macy's in the Manhattan borough of New York City, bargain shoppers were grabbing discounted coats, perfume and handbags. It was mayhem in the shoe department with shoppers pushing and shoving each other to grab boxes of cold weather boots, discounted by 50 per cent, that were stacked high on tables. One item catching people's attention: Bearpaw boots that resembled Uggs. They were priced at $34.

 "This is my first Black Friday, and I don't particularly like it," said Tammy Oliver, 45, who had a box of Bearpaw boots under her arm, a gift for herself. "But I did get some good deals."

Denise Anderson, 49, along with her husband and 16-year-old daughter, were visiting Manhattan from Fayetteville, Ark. They arrived in Manhattan on Saturday and had spent $3,000 to $4,000 on themselves. She has done Black Friday shopping back at home but wanted to do it in New York.

"We're people watching," she said. "We wanted to see the craziness."

Thursday, 5:41 p.m.: A Kmart store in the Manhattan borough of New York City was packed with people shopping for clothing and holiday decor items. The discounter, whose parent is Sears Holdings Corp., opened at 6 a.m. and planned to stay open for 41 hours straight. Clothing was marked down from 30 per cent to 50 per cent.

 Adriana Tavaraz, 51, from the Bronx, who had just finished work at a travel agency at around 4 p.m., spent $105 on ornaments, Santa hats and other holiday decor for herself and her family at Kmart. She saved about 50 per cent. But Tavarez said her holiday budget was tight because she was grappling with higher costs like food and monthly rent, which rose $100 to $1,700 this year.

"I struggle a lot," said Tavaraz, who started saving for holiday presents in June and planned to spend a total of $200 for holiday presents. "Nowadays, you have to think about what you spend. You have to think about tomorrow."

As for celebrating Thanksgiving, she planned to have her family over for dinner at 8 p.m.

"Everything is ready," she said.

Thursday afternoon: Pizza Hut has offered to rehire the manager of a northern Indiana restaurant who was fired over his refusal to open up on Thanksgiving Day.

Tony Rohr said he has worked at the Elkhart restaurant since starting as a cook more than 10 years but was told to write a letter of resignation after his refusal. He said he declined in a meeting with his boss and instead wrote a letter explaining that he believed the company should care more about its employees.

"I said, `Why can't we be the company that stands up and says we care about our employees and they can have the day off?"' Rohr told WSBT-TV of South Bend, Ind.

Rohr said he was thinking about the other workers at the restaurant.

"Thanksgiving and Christmas are the only two days that they're closed in the whole year, and they're the only two days that those people are guaranteed to have off and spend it with their families," he said.

Plano, Texas-based Pizza Hut issued a statement Wednesday saying it respects an employee's right to not work on the holiday and that the store owner has agreed to reinstate Rohr. 

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Canada's economy grows at fastest pace in 2 years

CBC News Posted: Nov 29, 2013 9:14 AM ET Last Updated: Nov 29, 2013 9:42 AM ET

Canada's economic growth was stronger than expected in the third quarter.

Statistics Canada says the national gross domestic product grew at a 2.7 per cent annual rate, two-tenths of a point above estimates.

The pace of growth was the fastest in two years, when the economy expanded by 3.5 per cent. For comparison purposes, the U.S. economy is expanding at a 2.8 per cent annual pace.

The mining sector was a strong performer, as mining and oil and gas extraction were up 2.2 per cent in the quarter.

There were also gains in the manufacturing, retail, and wholesale trade, finance and insurance sectors. 

The loonie gained a fifth of a cent to 94.67 cents US following the release of the data.

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Nov 29, 2013 10:15 AM ET Nov 29, 2013 10:15 AM ET Nov 29, 2013 10:15 AM ET Nov 29, 2013 10:20 AM ET Nov 29, 2013 10:15 AM ET

Index	Last Trade	Change
TSX COMPOSITE	13454.94	84.11
DOW	16162.35	65.02
NASDAQ	4063.54	18.79
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Black Friday deals no guarantee of retail bonanza

Canadian retailers are pulling out more stops this year to lure bargain-hunting shoppers on Black Friday, but the promotional blitz may not reap the bottom line rewards many stores are hoping for.

From B.C. to the Atlantic provinces, malls are opening before sunrise tomorrow as the U.S. shopping phenomenon pegged to the day after American Thanksgiving makes further inroads north of the border.

'Very simply, the consumer in Canada hasn't really become comfortable with the concept.'- Ryan Brain

But as much as retailers are hoping shoppers will be in a buoyant mood this far ahead of the traditional Christmas shopping season, there's no guarantee their purchases will have a significant impact on retailers' fortunes.

"Very simply, the consumer in Canada hasn't really become comfortable with the concept," says Ryan Brain, a partner and consumer expert with consulting giant Deloitte Canada in Toronto.

Brain sees a couple of reasons why Canadian shoppers have not fully embraced the Black Friday phenomenon.

"We haven't grown with the concept here in Canada, so like anything, it perhaps will take some time," he says.

But another key factor is that Canadian consumers are turning more and more to retailers' websites rather than just heading out to a store.

Online shopping is increasing "to such a degree in popularity that it's really the customer that dictates when they shop, how they shop, what they want," says Brain.

"The notion of a Black Friday just doesn't really mean much if you're totally in control of the shopping experience."

Trying to take control

Retailers, however, are doing what they can to exercise some control over the consumer dollar by offering shoppers plenty of opportunities to go to stores in search of Black Friday deals across Canada. In some cases, the retailers and shopping mall managers have ramped up their Black Friday strategy significantly over last year.

Shopping centres across the country that are managed by Cadillac Fairview are opening a few hours earlier tomorrow in response to what company officials considered was a good pilot project at nine properties — mostly in Ontario — a year ago.

"It was very successful," says Wendy Greenwood, director of marketing for Cadillac Fairview's Ontario portfolio.

Some U.S. shoppers like Lorinda Haines of Nunica, Mich., are willing to camp out for days ahead of Black Friday. Haines had her tent pitched in front of Best Buy in Muskegon, Mich., on Nov. 25, four days ahead of this year's Black Friday. (Natalie Kolb/Muskegon Chronicle/Associated Press)

"Our traffic was up an average of 22 per cent and this year we expanded the program nationally."

That means centres will be opening generally at 7 a.m. (8 a.m. in Quebec) tomorrow. While in Toronto, the flagship Eaton Centre downtown will open at 6 a.m.

The first 100 shoppers to arrive at the guest services desk at each centre will also receive a $10 card that can be used at any store in any Cadillac Fairview property.

This year's early openings are something of an evolution for the company. A few years ago, it would receive a few requests for early openings on Black Friday from U.S. retailers operating stores in their centres.

"But we've now found even our Canadian retailers just love Black Friday," Greenwood says. "They like to kick-start the holiday shopping season early. It helps to keep the dollars in Canada, keep people shopping locally instead of going across the border on Black Friday, because it's a big shopping day in the U.S."

'Significant sales occasion'

At Future Shop stores across Canada, doors will open tomorrow at 6 a.m. (8 a.m. in Quebec), the same time as they would open on Boxing Day and a Black Friday first for the electronics retailer.

Communications manager Elliott Chun says Black Friday has become a "very significant sales occasion" for Future Shop.

Chun wouldn't disclose specific figures, but said the company is "seeing double-digit growth in terms of our sales when you look at both the Black Friday weekend and Cyber Monday," which falls on Dec. 2 this year.

Cyber Monday is another American marketing term, designed to encourage consumers to shop online for even more prospective bargains on the first Monday after U.S. Thanksgiving.

'Every year there seems to be a heightened interest for Black Friday.'- Elliott Chun

Chun says the move to earlier Black Friday openings this year was prompted by the "year over year foot traffic, web traffic and sales increases we're seeing since 2009."

"Every year there seems to be a heightened interest for Black Friday."

Other retailers also appear to pulling out more stops with Black Friday promotions this year.

At RedFlagDeals.com, a website and app for bargain hunters, a "Black Friday and Cyber Monday" page is chock full of flyers for major retailers like Wal-Mart and Best Buy.

Spokesperson Fiona Story says the website has been seeing "exponential growth" since it started offering Black Friday deals about five years ago. At that time, there were just two Black Friday deals from Canadian retailers.

"We're now looking at 200 deals as of last year … and we expect that number to grow as well," she says.

What about Boxing Day?

Story says she expects growth "could approach Boxing Day level in terms of retailers getting involved. But Boxing Day is still really the largest one in Canada. It will still be smaller than that but we are seeing it start to catch up a bit more."

Still, for all the efforts retailers are putting into trying to lure customers, there is no guarantee their bottom lines will be significantly bolstered once all the Black Friday sales have been tallied.

The arrival of Target and other U.S. retailers in Canada has ratcheted up competion in the Canadian retail landscape. (Dave Chidley/Canadian Press)

Marion Chan, principal of TrendSpotter Consulting in Toronto, says that within the retail landscape of Canada, competition has "just been ratcheted up so much" with the arrival of so many U.S. retailers.

"The big push is promotion, promotion, promotion and all that is doing is just driving down the profit margins of everybody involved." 

"It's great for the consumer," Chan says. "But it's not so great for the overall economy. Our retail economy … can't survive on this kind of constant promotion and so to have yet one more day when they're going to slash their prices, something's going to have to give."

In her mind, that means retailers "can't have both Black Friday and Boxing Day."

She's not sure Black Friday is the day for Canadians because "it doesn't mean anything to us," and doesn't seem to have much context beyond being a big kickoff day for holiday shopping in the U.S.

"Canadians will vote with their dollars," she says.

"If consumers come out in droves for these Black Friday sales, then we know they want it, but it's not going to help our retail economy at all."

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Bet against the loonie, Goldman Sachs says

One of the world's most influential investment banks says betting that the loonie is going to fall is one of its best investment tips for 2014.

After trading in a fairly narrow band between 95 cents and $1.05 US for the past three years, the bank says it expects the loonie to lose some of its value next year, because of a number of factors.

Canada has had a current account deficit — the balance of payments between Canada and the rest of the world for all goods, services, investments, imports and exports — for the last five years. 

'We see good reasons for gradual [loonie] weakness'- Goldman Sachs

Goldman says all else being equal, that should lead to any currency losing some of its value. But that hasn't happened with the loonie due to a variety of other factors that the bank says are about to end.

A strong banking sector was able to attract foreign investment, enough to offset a 30 per cent decline in manufacturing since the recession. But our much lauded financial sector isn't attracting as much foreign investment as it once did, Goldman notes.

Over the past few quarters, capital inflows have slowed rapidly, pushing the [balance of payments] into deficit of about one per cent of GDP currently," Goldman says.

The loonie was also seeing some time in the sun as a reserve currency, which means other foreign governments were stockpiling it, and increasing its value. That trend is also slowing, Goldman says.

Another thing working against the loonie is that instead of a rate hike next year (which would push the loonie higher) economists are now saying it's not impossible that we see a cut, as inflation remains low. 

"Our baseline is for the [Bank of Canada] to be on hold, but since the money market curve is pricing a small chance of hikes through end-2014, we see risks here also skewed to the downside," Goldman Sachs said.

The bank also says the housing market is likely to drag the loonie lower. "With house prices already very elevated … it is likely that private consumption will no longer be the kind of positive impulse to the economy that it was in the past," the bank said.

"All told, there are a number of reasons why the Canadian dollar has scope to weaken," the report reads. "Combining all these factors, we see good reasons for gradual [loonie] weakness to persist for idiosyncratic reasons [and] a steady drift weaker and gradual underperformance relative to other major currencies, in particular the U.S. dollar."

Add it all up and the bank suggests the loonie could fall by as much as seven per cent. The loonie was trading hands at 94.38 cents US on Wednesday.

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Shipyard workers walk off job complaining of bullying

Updated

Irving Shipyard employees in Halifax upset about worker's death

CBC News Posted: Nov 28, 2013 9:40 AM AT Last Updated: Nov 28, 2013 11:23 AM AT

Around 300 shipyard workers in Halifax walked off the job this morning, complaining of bullying from management. 

The workers left the Irving Shipyard just before 9 a.m. AT on Thursday and made their way down Barrington Street in downtown Halifax, blocking traffic in both directions.

They told CBC News they're upset by the death of a co-worker and they blame bullying by management at the yard.

Protesters said the dead worker, who had about 30 years of experience, was suspended for complaining about scaffolding safety.

Flags at the yard are flying at half-mast. 

The workers said they had permission to walk off the job and plan to march to the Nova Scotia legislature, which opens Thursday for the fall session.

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Eurocopter pitches Super Puma for local offshore flights

Helicopter giant Eurocopter flew its flagship Super Puma helicopter over St. John's Wednesday, in a bid to grab the lucrative job of ferrying oil workers to offshore installations.

The Super Puma EC225 is a $29-million state-of-the-art aircraft, which its manufacturer says is more suitable than the Sikorsky S-92 that Cougar Helicopters currently uses.

"It's a platform that has been designed for the offshore," Eurocopter executive Guillaume Leprince told CBC News.

Eurocopter executive Guillaume Leprince says the Super Puma is specifically designed for offshore work. (CBC)

​Eurocopter is hoping to persuade oil executives that its aircraft is a superior choice to the Sikorsky. For instance, passengers do not have to sit next to the auxiliary fuel tank.

The more critical difference, and one that resonates in the wake of the Cougar Flight 491 crash in March 2009 that killed 17 people, is that investigators found that the helicopter crashed after a sudden loss of oil pressure in the gearbox.

"The EC 225 has certification  ... for a run-dry capability of 30 minutes, and we have even been able to show the capability of over 50 minutes," Leprince said.

The Sikorsky in the Cougar 491 crash was able to fly for just 11 minutes after the loss of oil pressure.

The Super Puma itself, though, has had problems. In 2012, for instance, Super Pumas were forced to ditch in the North Sea on two occasions. No one was killed in either incident, but all of the aircraft were temporarily grounded during investigations that indicated the problem was connected to cracks in the gearbox.

Cougar is not commenting on whether Super Pumas may be in the company's future in Newfoundland and Labrador, although it has flown them here in the past, and its parent company uses them in other locations.

The decision on which aircraft will be used will ultimately rest with ExxonMobil, a key player in Newfoundland and Labrador's oil industry, and its partners, Husky Energy and Suncor. 

Eurocopter believes its Super Puma EC225 is the best choice for flights between St. John's and offshore installations like the Hibernia platform. (CBC)

​Lana Payne, the Atlantic director of Unifor, the trade union formed through the merger of the Canadian Auto Workers and the Communications, Energy and Paperworkers, said she likes the 30-minute run-dry capability.

"Clearly experts have said [that] is necessary for offshore transport," she said.

"Whether or not this is a better helicopter than we have, I don't know."

Even so, the 30-minute run-dry period is not mandatory for helicopters travelling to the Hibernia platform and other oil installations off Newfoundland's east coast.

Payne said that is more important than which company gets the contract.

"We should not be looking for the bare minimum for regulatory standards.  We should be looking to exceed them, always," she said.

ExxonMobil, in a statement, said that it would be inappropriate to discuss the details of any proposals that it has received.

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Oil down to 6-month low of $92

Oil prices hit a six-month low on Thursday. (AP Photo/Dario Lopez-Mills) (The Associated Press)

The price of oil was heading down toward $92 a barrel on Thursday, near six-month lows, after U.S. crude stockpiles rose for a tenth consecutive week.

By early afternoon in Europe, benchmark U.S. crude for January delivery was down 16 cents at $92.14 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange, having dropped $1.38 on Wednesday. Floor trading on the Nymex was closed Thursday for the Thanksgiving holiday, resulting in low trading volumes.

Oil has declined from about $110 in September due to reduced tensions in the oil-rich Middle East but above all to muted demand and high supplies.

The Energy Department reported that crude supplies increased by 3 million barrels, or 0.8 per cent, in the week ended Nov. 22. The nation's supply of crude oil is now 391.4 million barrels, which is 4.6 per cent above year-ago levels and "well above the upper limit of the average range for this time of year," the report said.

"Growing U.S. oil production played its part in this, exceeding 8 million barrels per day for the first time since January 1989," said analysts at Commerzbank in Frankfurt in a note to clients. "U.S. crude oil stocks have reached their highest level for a November since records began in the early 1980s."

Brent crude, a benchmark for international oils, was down 36 cents at $110.46 a barrel on the ICE Futures exchange in London.

In other energy futures trading on Nymex:

• Wholesale gasoline fell 0.51 cent to $2.6895 a gallon.
• Heating oil lost 0.31 cent to $3.0399 a gallon.
• Natural gas retreated 0.4 cents to $3.891 per 1,000 cubic feet.

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Housing affordability eroding, RBC says

The Canadian Press Posted: Nov 27, 2013 8:50 AM ET Last Updated: Nov 27, 2013 9:15 AM ET

The Royal Bank says higher prices and an increase in mortgage rates have made home ownership less affordable for the average Canadian family.

RBC's latest research on the proportion of average household income needed to maintain a home — mortgage payments, utilities and municipal taxes — increased over the summer for a second consecutive quarter.

The level of deterioration differs from region to region and on the type of home, but RBC says that for the average bungalow the affordability measure rose to 43.3 per cent of a family's pre-tax income — up seven-tenths of a percentage point.

The bank says on two-storey homes, the affordability reading rose 0.6 of a percentage point to 48.9 per cent, and condos remained the most affordable by far with at 28 per cent of pre-tax income.

But city affordability issues were the worst in Vancouver, where it would take 84.2 per cent of an average household's pre-tax income to maintain a home.

That compared with a still high affordability measure of 55.6 per cent in Toronto.

Elsewhere, affordability scales that were closer to historic norms, with Montreal at 38.3 per cent; Ottawa at 37.3, Calgary at 33.7 and Edmonton at 32.9 per cent of household pre-tax income.

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Nov 27, 2013 10:15 AM ET Nov 27, 2013 10:15 AM ET Nov 27, 2013 10:15 AM ET Nov 27, 2013 10:20 AM ET Nov 27, 2013 10:15 AM ET

Index	Last Trade	Change
TSX COMPOSITE	13359.81	10.04
DOW	16093.28	20.48
NASDAQ	4036.63	18.88
SP 500	1807.23	4.48
TSX-VENTURE	929.48	0.88

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Rogers scores national NHL TV rights for $5.2B

Media conglomerate Rogers Communications has launched a shot across the bow of the broadcasting landscape in a $5.2-billion deal for the right to broadcast NHL games across Canada for the next 12 years.

The deal, announced Tuesday, goes from 2014 to mid-2026, and is groundbreaking in its scope. It's the first time a major North American sport has sold exclusive national broadcast rights to a single entity, Rogers Media president Keith Pelley noted at a press conference Tuesday morning.

Rogers will make an up-front payment of $150 million, and then annual payments starting at $300 million, which will escalate to $500 million in the final year of the deal. According to CRTC data, TSN and RDS only took in a combined total of $541 million in revenue last year.

'While this looks like a big loss for Bell Media, it never had these national broadcasts which were historically owned by the CBC. We would expect Rogers to sell some of these games to Bell to help monetize the fees paid to the NHL.'- Dvai Ghose, Canaccord telecom analyst 

The deal is more than two times the value of the $2 billion that U.S. broadcaster NBC agreed to pay the NHL for 10 years, starting in 2011.

As part of the deal, Rogers has inked a side pact to sublicense some Saturday games and other rights to CBC and Quebecor's French-language TVA network.

Among other things, that means there will be two Saturday night hockey games on CBC each week for the next four years, just as there are now. In total, CBC will air 320 hours worth of Hockey Night in Canada content on the main network over that time. Rogers will sell the ad space for that time slot, and keep the revenue. But representatives from both the CBC and Rogers said Tuesday the partnership works for both sides.

"Canadians will have more games, more content and more choice than they've ever had before," Pelley said.

CBC partnership

"We have reached out to make sure Canadians will have access the way they have before," Rogers CEO Nadir Mohamed said, in what's likely his last major duty before stepping down as CEO of the company next month. "I believe it's great for CBC and great for Canadians," Mohamed said.

CBC/Radio-Canada president Hubert Lacroix agreed, saying the deal works for the public broadcaster by allowing the network to continue to promote their programming through Hockey Night in Canada, without having to spend money and take on the risk that comes along with being the exclusive broadcasting partner.

"This is how the public broadcaster sees itself in the future," Lacroix said. "This is how CBC needs to go forward, [with] partnerships."

The deal does mean, however, that the CBC will likely not be the only network to broadcast NHL games on Saturday nights. Rogers now has the broadcasting rights to air hockey games on any of its networks — whether that's on the City channels, or on one of the Rogers Sportsnet channels that comes with more premium cable packages.

For now, "the plan is to have the Stanley Cup final on CBC," Pelley said. "Our goal is to get maximum reach to Canadians."

But if a Canadian team makes the finals, "it wouldn't be out of the question" for Rogers to simulcast the game of some of its other networks, Pelley said. "We would look at that option [but] our plan is to have the finals on CBC."

For its part, the league touted the deal as good for fans in that it will lead to more options than ever before to watch games on multiple platforms, some of which aren't currently available.

"We wanted to ensure that our fans would have access to our games no matter what platform they were interested in, or what platform may develop," NHL commissioner Gary Bettman said. "We may be looking at things in the course of this deal that don't currently exist."

The NHL sent out this image of what a sample broadcast schedule of last Saturday's games might look like for fans. (NHL)

The league gave a glimpse of what the future of hockey programming could look like, issuing on its official Twitter account an infographic of what the programming night would have been for last Saturday's games, based on the new rights deal. Click here to see that graphic, but it's also embedded just above.

Bell left out

While partnering with the CBC and TVA, the deal is notable in that it locks out Rogers rival Bell from playing a role in what is likely the most valuable television property in Canada — the national rights to broadcast NHL games.

But that's not to say TSN is completely blocked out of NHL hockey.

"We submitted a bid we believed was valuable for the NHL and appropriate for our business, but were ultimately outbid," Bell Media said in response to a query from CBC News.

While losing its status as a national NHL broadcaster, the network does retain, however, a large slate of regional games, including 10 Toronto Maple Leaf matches next year. The following year, that figure jumps to 26. 

TSN also holds the regional broadcasting rights to more than 60 Winnipeg Jet games through 2021, and roughly three quarters of all Montreal Canadiens games. In addition, TSN's French-language network RDS "currently has a deal for Sens [Ottawa Senator] and Habs games which we expect to renegotiate," Bell spokesperson Scott Henderson said.

Among numerous other assets, Bell owns a minority ownership stake in Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment (MLSE), the company that owns the Leafs, basketball's Raptors and soccer's MLS franchise.

"In hockey, our partnerships with the Leafs, Jets, Canadiens, Sens, and Hockey Canada (including the World Juniors) remain core to our TSN and RDS TV, radio and digital properties," Bell Media's statement reads.

Telecom analyst Dvai Ghose of Canaccord says the deal certainly isn't good news for Bell, but is hardly a fatal blow.

"While this looks like a big loss for Bell Media, it never had these national broadcasts which were historically owned by the CBC," Ghose said. "We would expect Rogers to sell some of these games to Bell to help monetize the fees paid to the NHL."

High stakes

The deal is far and away the largest of its kind in Canadian history. But Pelley brushed off questions as to whether the broadcaster can make money from the deal, noting that the particulars of the agreement can't be compared to other agreements.

Rogers has paid, by orders of magnitude, more than the NHL's previous broadcast partners have paid for deals. But Pelley says that's not an apples-to-apples comparison because they include digital rights, to stream games and other hockey content across mobile content.

"It's a deal you can't compare to any other based on the fact that it's multiplatform," Pelley said.

For his part, Mohamed says he's very confident the deal represents good value for shareholders' money.

"Does it make sense economically? Categorically, this is positive for shareholders," Mohamed said. "[It's] positive from a net present value perspective [and] we would look at this deal as being accretive right from the get-go."

Reaction on stock markets to the deal was muted, with Rogers shares losing a little over one per cent to trade at $46.20 on the TSX. Bell shares were largely unchanged

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Jim Love, Canadian Mint chairman, helped run offshore 'tax-avoidance scheme' for clients

The chair of the Royal Canadian Mint, who also served as an adviser on international taxation to the federal Finance Department, helped engineer the transfer of millions of dollars of a prominent Canadian family through offshore tax havens in what others involved characterized as a "tax avoidance scheme," documents obtained by CBC News show.

Love was appointed to the board of the Canadian Mint in 2006 and elevated to chairperson in 2009. (Troy Fleece/Canadian Press)

Slightly more than $8 million was moved through offshore entities in Bermuda, Barbados and Antigua, later prompting allegations that the arrangement, if exposed, could lead to potentially hundreds of thousands of dollars in "taxes, interest and penalties." The documents show there were also concerns about secrecy and instructions to shred files.

The hundreds of records are part of a sprawling lawsuit against James Barton Love, a Toronto tax lawyer who chairs the mint's board of directors, and others by descendants of former prime minister Arthur Meighen. Quietly settled in 2011, the lawsuit saw family members allege that the offshore transactions, which began in 1996, were unlawful and negligent and that Love "breached his fiduciary duties and acted oppressively."

Love countered in sworn statements that the offshore manoeuvres "resulted in significant savings of Canadian tax" for Meighen's heirs — an amount he estimated at $1 million.

He also emphatically denied any breach of trust and said he had "specifically advised" there were risks to the offshore arrangement.

None of the allegations was ever tested in court.

'Complex transaction'

Love, a close friend of Finance Minister Jim Flaherty who was appointed to the Mint's board in 2006, was also a trustee for most of the last decade of the Arthur Meighen Trust, an entity set up by the former Conservative PM in 1949 to distribute his wealth to his family. Before taking on that formal role, documents show Love had been an adviser and "close" friend to several Meighen family members.

If you have more information on this story, or other investigative tips to pass on, please email investigations@cbc.ca.

It was in that advisory role that Love, in the mid-1990s, informed the managers of the Meighen Trust that they could get "Canadian tax relief on the income from about 40 per cent of the [trust] assets" if they moved the money offshore, Meighen's great-granddaughters say in their statement of claim.

The use of secret accounts in offshore jurisdictions like Switzerland or the Cayman Islands has been thrust into the media limelight in recent years, following a spate of data leaks — including from several Swiss banks — that exposed account-holders' identities and information.  The most recent large leak was made public in April, when CBC News teamed up with the U.S.-based International Consortium of Investigative Journalists to report on secret accounts linked to 130,000 people worldwide.

But moving assets to offshore trusts, while not inherently illegal, was being targeted to some degree by Canadian tax authorities for decades before that. The federal government brought in its first legislation in the 1970s to tax offshore trusts, enacted further measures in the 80s and 90s, and as recently as June overhauled the applicable Income Tax Act sections.

The court records show tax lawyer Love himself acknowledged as much to one of the trustees of the Meighen money, explaining that "the Income Tax Act had strict rules to prevent transfers of assets from Canada to avoid Canadian taxation," according to an affidavit he filed.

'If I were the [Canada Revenue] Agency, I would like to have a look at that and analyze all of the transactions that were carried on here'- Laval University tax law professor André Lareau

But he nevertheless advised the trustee that "it might be possible to structure a transaction that would have the intended results…. Such a result might be obtained through a more complex transaction," the affidavit says.

At the time, the Meighen fortune was overseen by a troika consisting of family patriarch and Order of Canada recipient Donald Wright, a composer and philanthropist; Canada Trust, which later merged with TD Bank; and Meighen's grandson Michael Meighen, then a Conservative senator.

Canada Trust was won over by the proposed "tax-avoidance scheme," as it termed the offshore transaction in an internal memo filed in court. "We are certainly supportive of reducing tax on the income flow from the trust to the greatest extent possible," it wrote to Wright.

And Michael Meighen said he went along as well, hoping to help his cousins keep more money in their pockets.

"Jim Love made a proposal to place certain assets offshore. The purpose that was explained to me was that it was for tax planning," Meighen said in an interview earlier this month. "I acquiesced quite happily."

'House of cards'

The money was routed through a web of nearly two dozen transfers, involving numbered companies in Ontario, accounts in New York, international business corporations in Barbados, a new Bermuda-based trust called the Stratford Trust and, ultimately, holding companies in Antigua, with loans and share purchases between them. Eventually, the Antigua corporations were put under the control of an Antiguan lawyer named Septimus Rhudd — who is mentioned more than a thousand times on unrelated matters in the tax-haven data leak that emerged earlier this year, CBC News found.

"They had names for all kinds of things, for companies, for this and that. I didn't know what it was or what it represented," Michael Meighen recalled.

After being steered through the array of foreign corporations and accounts, it appears the money itself ended up back in Canada: The Antigua holding companies that absorbed the funds hired Love's Toronto-based financial firm, Legacy Private Trust, as an investment manager. Stock holdings and other assets were kept at an affiliate of National Bank of Canada.

Laval University professor of international tax law André Lareau, who CBC News asked to look over the transactions, called the operation a "house of cards."

"If I were the [Canada Revenue] Agency, I would like to have a look at that and analyze all of the transactions that were carried on here," he said.

Love says in his court filings, however, that the transfers were specifically designed "in a manner that would arguably result in no Canadian income tax being exigible on the income earned on the assets."

The money started to trickle back into Meighen family hands in 2004, when one of Arthur Meighen's grandsons received a payment of $2.3 million. The lawsuit alleges Love told the grandson he "would be free and clear" of any obligations to report it to tax authorities. "Relying on Love's advice, [the grandson] did not report these funds," the statement of claim says.

Love's statement of defence denies he made any such remarks.

'I don't recall it'

Reached by CBC News, Love wouldn't answer specific questions about the Arthur Meighen fortune, citing a confidentiality clause in the lawsuit settlement. But he denied Legacy Private Trust, where he is CEO and chairman, has any dealings in the offshore world.

"It doesn't do any," he said. "Legacy Private Trust would have no reason to be involved in any of that."

Former senator Michael Meighen, seen next to the Parliament Hill portrait of his grandfather, onetime prime minister Arthur Meighen, says he 'acquiesced quite happily' in the plan to move some of the family's assets offshore. (Fred Chartrand/Canadian Press)

Numerous court documents suggest otherwise, including Legacy's own statement of defence, which explicitly states that the firm invested the Antigua holding companies' money.

Love also denied knowing anything about the Stratford Trust, the Bermuda entity set up to help shift Meighen family money offshore. "I don't know about a Stratford Trust…. I don't recall it," he said — at odds with the fact he mentions it 42 times in three sworn statements filed in court.

Still other court records contain a claim that Love gave instructions to shred the personal documents of a Meighen family member — but that instead, the documents ended up getting handed over to the lawyers who sued him. Love says he advised that only irrelevant files should be destroyed.

Another allegation repeated against him is that he sought to keep the offshore investments "absolutely secret" and withheld information from Meighen family members; Love says in his sworn statements that he was as transparent as could be.

Settled

The epic $15-million court fight between Love and the Meighen heirs was finally settled two years ago. The defendants — including Love, his law partner and their current and former firms, as well as Legacy Private Trust and Canada Trust — agreed to pony up $8.9 million, but without admitting fault.  

It's not clear how much of that, if anything, Love or his companies had to pay, or whether Canada Trust, any other defendant or any of their insurers is footing the bill. The parties wouldn't talk due to their promise of confidentiality.

"I was disappointed that litigation grew up within, I guess you could say, my extended family," former senator Michael Meighen said when asked how the legal battle has affected the Meighen clan. "I was very sad about it. Why would I think that would happen? I had no reason to."

If you have more information on this story, or other investigative tips to pass on, please email investigations@cbc.ca.

Jim Love email

Canadian Mint chair and Toronto lawyer Jim Love sent the following as part of an email to CBC News on Tuesday afternoon: 

"My law practice has, since 1975, involved International Tax Planning. Over the years I have been involved with literally hundreds of situations where International structures have formed a part of transactions structured for clients. This includes structures and transactions that have been undertaken in all of the law firms with which I have been associated. In each and every case these structures and related transactions are very carefully reviewed to ensure that they are in full compliance with all Canadian tax rules that are in force at the time the transactions are undertaken, that all anticipated changes to Canadian tax rules are taken into account and that the tax rules of all jurisdictions that are part of the structures and transactions are scrupulously followed. As I indicated to you, tax rules in various jurisdictions, including Canada, have changed over time. When an unanticipated change occurs that affects a structure or transaction that had been previously established, that structure or transaction must be amended or wound up depending upon the circumstances."

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Xbox One lease-to-own option multiplies cost of hot gift

A St. John's credit counselling service is advising shoppers to buy rather than lease the Xbox One, one of the hottest gifts this Christmas season. 

Microsoft's Xbox One gaming console retails for a cool $499, plus tax. The product sold more than than one million units on its opening day of sale earlier this week. 

Al Antle, of Credit Counselling Services of Newfoundland and Labrador, says it's buyer beware when it comes to high interest rates. (CBC)

​But that price a relative steal compared to what you'd pay if you chose the lease option from businesses such as Easyhome.

The company is offering the new video game system for $19 a week for two years, or $76 a month.

But with an interest rate of 29.9 per cent, the consumer would end up paying close to $2,000 over that time, assuming it's not paid off earlier. 

No one from Easyhome returned CBC's calls for comment.

Most stores in the St. John's area sold out of the Xbox One within days of its release last week, leaving desperate parents and gaming gurus with nowhere else to turn.

Al Antle, executive director of Credit Counselling Services of Newfoundland and Labrador, worries some were lured by what appears to be the cheaper lease option.

"When it comes to our children, we are driven and obsessed and consumed to make sure that our kid has the best possible experience that we can bring about, irrespective of the cost," Antle said.

"If you have it for two years, you're probably going to spend upwards of $2,000 dollars in payments to get this thing — for want of a better word — at a hawk in a two-year period," he told CBC News. 

"This 29.9 per cent is signficant. It truly is. Particularly when the prime rate is 2.5."

Antle said it's the classic case of buyer-beware, since there's nothing illegal about the lease option or rate.

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Paycheques inched higher in September

The average weekly earnings of the typical Canadian worker ticked up to $918 in September, pretty well flat compared to the previous month but up 1.9 per cent compared to the same month a year earlier.

Statistics Canada reported Wednesday that the average weekly earnings of non-farm payroll employees ticked higher because of a number of factors.

One of them doesn't appear to be the number of hours worked, however, as the average came in at 33 hours a week in September — just slightly below the 33.1 hours seen in the same month in 2012.

People employed in construction saw the highest wage increases, with the average jump being just under seven per cent in the past year.

The average construction worker took in $1,220 a week. That number has been trending consistently higher since September 2011, Statistics Canada says.

Outside of construction, no sector of the economy is seeing wage gains of more than three per cent. In the accommodation and food services industry, wages are actually down by just under one per cent over the past year.

Paycheques were, on average, higher in every single province and territory except Manitoba over the past year, with P.E.I. leading the way at 3.5 per cent growth. In Manitoba, the average was unchanged.

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Auditor general raises concerns about food safety, border security

Canada's Auditor General has raised red flags around food safety, border security, emergency plans on First Nations reserves and rail safety in his annual fall report tabled on Tuesday.

Michael Ferguson found that the Canadian Food Inspection Agency did recall unsafe food products in a timely fashion, but the recall system fell apart once a major food recall was announced.

"While illnesses were contained in the recalls we examined, I am not confident that the system will always yield
similar results," Ferguson said in his fall report.

The CFIA did not adequately manage the food recall system between 2010 and 2012 said Ferguson, who found that the agency did not have the documentation necessary to determine whether recalled food products had been disposed of, nor did it have the information necessary to identify and correct the cause of the recall in a timely way.

While registered meat establishments are required to maintain product distribution records to quickly help locate products during a food safety investigation, the audit report found many examples of incomplete documentation.

In two large meat recalls in 2012, the auditor general found that timely access to records was a challenge.

The XL Foods investigation was delayed because the firm was slow in providing the CFIA with distribution records, which the agency said were given to them in an unusable format. The investigators spent several days going through the paper work before it could be used.

Similarly, during the recall by New Food Classics in March 2012 also involved delays in obtaining distribution records, the audit report found.

Another major concern identified by the auditor general in his fall report had to do with illegal entries into Canada.

People who pose a risk to the safety and security of Canadians have succeeded  in entering the country illegally,
the auditor general found.

"I am very concerned that our audit found too many examples of controls not working," Ferguson said.

The Canada Border Services Agency does not always receive the information it needs from air carriers in order
to efficiently target high-risk passengers, the audit report found. And, it said, the RCMP often lacks the information necessary to monitor the success of its border enforcement activities.

The auditor general also found:

• "Significant weaknesses" in Transport Canada's oversight of rail safety, which completed only one in four of its planned audits of federal railways over a three year period.

• The federal government will need to keep an eye on costs for its national shipbuilding procurement strategy to ensure Canada gets the ships and capabilities it needs to protect nationals interests and sovereignty.

• Responsibility for emergency management on reserves among the various stakeholders were either absent or unclear.

• Producers impacted by disasters with smaller total payouts often wait more than a year for financial help.

• Access to government services is not focused on the needs of Canadians and the process is too complex for Canadians.
• Five of seven audited departments have made unsatisfactory progress since 2011 in their efforts to ensure that effective.

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Tablets may be half of all computer sales in 2014

New research from digital consultancy Canalys suggests that tablet computers will make up more than 50 per cent of all computers sold in the world next year, and Android-based tablets are expected to outsell Apple iPads by a factor of two to one.

Globally, the worldwide computer market expanded by 18 per cent last year, even as sales of conventional desktop and laptop computers continued to decline. In relatively short order, tablets have grown to make up 40 per cent of all computer sales, a ratio that's expected to tip over to the other side some time next year.

There will be around 285 million tablets sold around the world next year. That contrasts with an expected 192 million laptops and 98 million desktops. Canalys expects the tablet figure to grow even more, to 396 million by 2017, while the other two categories steady out.

Although Apple has lost its dominance in the tablet market it practically invented with the iPad, it nonetheless maintains the edge in profitability from the devices.

"Apple is one of the few companies making money from the tablet boom," Canalys senior analyst Tim Coulling said. "Premium products attract high value consumers; for Apple, remaining highly profitable and driving revenue from its entire ecosystem is of greater importance than market share statistics."

Outside of the big two, Canalys says Microsoft could be poised to make exponential gains from an admittedly small base. Microsoft made up about two per cent of all tablet sales in 2012. Canalys expects its sales to more than double to as much as five per cent by the end of next year.

"To improve its position it must drive app development and better utilize other relevant parts of its business to round out its mobile device ecosystem," said Canalys research analyst Pin Chen Tang.

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H&M vows 'living wage' for factory workers by 2018

Hennes & Mauritz, the world's second-largest clothing retailer, laid out a plan on Monday to pay a fair "living wage" to some 850,000 textile workers by 2018, saying governments were acting too slowly.

"We believe that the wage development, driven by for example governments in some countries, is taking too long, so we want to take further action and encourage the whole industry to follow," H&M said in a statement on its website.

H&M sources most of its garments from factories in Asia, particularly Bangladesh, where a factory collapse in April that killed almost 1,130 people put pressure on big brands to improve the working conditions of those making clothes for the West.

'We are willing to pay more so that the supplier can pay higher wages'- H&M on textile workers

H&M, which did not source from that factory, was the first company to sign a Europe-led safety pact for Bangladesh garment factories after the collapse. It has urged Bangladesh and Cambodia to raise the minimum wage and revise it annually.

Violent protests over pay have forced the closure of hundreds of Bangladeshi garment factories in recent weeks even though factory owners have agreed to a proposed 77 percent rise in the minimum wage.

Rock bottom wages and trade deals have made Bangladesh's garments sector a $22 billion industry that accounts for four-fifths of exports, supplying retailers such as Wal-Mart Stores Inc, and Primark as well as H&M.

About 3.6 million of Bangladesh's 155 million people work in the clothing industry, making it the world's second-largest garments exporter behind China. Around 60 percent of garment exports go to Europe and 23 percent to the United States.

A labourer works at a workshop of a textile factory in Suining, China. European fashion retailer H&M is promising a living wage for all workers who make its garments by 2018.

H&M said it would support factory owners to develop pay structures that enable a fair living wage in two model factories in Bangladesh and one in Cambodia in 2014 and then scale up the model to the 750 factories it works with by 2018.

It wants wages to be negotiated annually and reviewed by democratically elected trade unions or worker representatives.

Helena Helmersson, global head of sustainability at H&M, made the commitment at a conference on living wages in Berlin organised by the Dutch and German governments.

"We are willing to pay more so that the supplier can pay higher wages," H&M said. "We believe that our purchasing practices will lead to better efficiency and productivity."

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