In today’s news: Interest rate cut possible this week: Economists

Here’s a roundup of stories from The Canadian Press to bring you up to date…

Interest rate cut possible this week: Economists

Economists and market watchers are betting that the Bank of Canada will cut another interest rate this week amid growing evidence that inflation is easing sustainably.

Expectations that the bank will cut its overnight lending rate when it makes its scheduled announcement on Wednesday have been raised since last week’s release of Statistics Canada’s latest inflation report, which showed annual inflation eased to 2.7 per cent in June.

The inflation reading was lower than the 2.8% that markets had expected and helped boost market confidence that the Bank of Canada may be poised for a second rate cut, on top of the 25 basis point cut announced last month. .

Last month’s rate cut, which cut the central bank’s key rate from five to 4.75 percent, was the first in more than four years.

Desjardins’ Royce Mendes says that in addition to the latest inflation report, recent data showing rising unemployment as well as subdued growth expectations for Canadian companies support the prospect of further tapering.

While inflation remains higher than the Bank of Canada’s two per cent target, Mendes said he believes a longer delay could have negative repercussions.

Here’s what we’re watching…

LCBO workers return to work after ratifying agreement

Workers are back on the job today at Ontario’s top liquor retailer, but the Liquor Control Board of Ontario says stores won’t be open for business until Tuesday.

The union representing 10,000 of its workers said members on Sunday ratified a new deal with the liquor retailer to end a strike that has closed its stores for two weeks.

The ratification came after the deal appeared to be up in the air on Friday.

Both OPSEU and the LCBO had announced that a tentative agreement had been reached, but the union said the strike would continue after the employer refused to sign a return-to-work protocol.

The retailer said the union has introduced new monetary demands and the employer will file an unfair labor practice complaint.

But the LCBO issued a statement Saturday saying reopening plans were back on track, and a back-to-work protocol signed by both sides did not include “new monetary elements.”

A look at a year of strong mayoral powers

In the year since so-called strong mayoral powers were granted to council chiefs in an area of ​​Ontario municipalities, most mayors have used them sparingly — if at all — though a sense of unease remains in some corners against the broad authority.

As of this month, nearly 30 mayors have had the ability for a year or more to propose regulations and pass them with the support of a third of aldermen, vetoes over regulations and the chiefs of employment and fire, among other powers.

Premier Doug Ford’s government subsequently devolved powers to many more mayors, even when they were not interested in receiving them, and Ontario now has a total of 46 powerful mayors.

Many of them are in the province’s biggest cities, and the president of the Ontario Big City Primas group said mayors have generally “exercised enormous restraint and responsibility” in carrying out their duties.

A year after the flood claimed four lives, reforms are slow

The mother of a boy who died a year ago in a Nova Scotia flood says her grief returns daily, along with frustration over what she sees as the province’s slow pace in reforming climate disaster preparedness.

Tera Sisco’s six-year-old son, Colton Sisco, died after the vehicle he was in overturned during torrential storms on July 22, 2023. About 258 millimeters of rain fell in West Hants Township – a rural area at northwest of Halifax – during the night. flood

Six-year-old Natalie Harnish died in the same vehicle as Sisco, while Nick Holland, 52, and Terri-Lynn Keddy, 14, were swept away by the same vehicle way and they also died.

The tragedy has drawn repeated calls for the Progressive Conservative government to improve the province’s emergency alert system as severe weather events hit the province with disturbing regularity.

A recent review released by the municipality of West Hants said it was two hours and 41 minutes between the first rescue responses and the province sending out an alert urging citizens to “shelter in place”. Blair Feltmate, director of the Intact Center for Climate Adaptation at the University of Waterloo, called that “way too long a delay.”

Expression in Newfoundland town for rescued fishermen

One powerful word was echoed in the Newfoundland community of New-Wes-Valley on Sunday: “Wonder.”

Again and again, residents walking or talking among themselves in local shops described the rescue of seven local fishermen who somehow survived two days in a life raft in the Atlantic Ocean as nothing short of miraculous.

The fishing boat Elite Navigator and its crew appeared to be missing Wednesday evening after several days at sea fishing for turbot. The vessel was reported missing on Thursday after sending its final signal around 8:30 p.m. the night before, the Canadian Coast Guard said. The ship had caught fire, forcing the crew to abandon ship and await rescue on a life raft.

In New-Wes-Valley, which is an amalgamation of three small fishing communities along Newfoundland’s northeast coast, people prepared for the worst. Fishing is among Canada’s deadliest professions, and tragedy is a common thread that binds Atlantic Canada’s coastal communities.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published on July 22, 2024.

The Canadian Press