Month: January 2018

Telecoms, CBC And Others Urge CRTC To Establish Agency To Help Locate Piracy Websites – Business – CBC News

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Prominent members of Canada’s entertainment industry are calling for a new federal agency to locate and shut down websites that are portals for illegally obtained video and audio content. Bell Canada, Rogers Communications Inc., Quebecor Inc., Cineplex Inc., Canadian Broadcasting Corp. and several other organizations have banded together to create FairPlay Canada. They argue that Canadian jobs are at risk because consumers can get access to TV shows, movies and music from websites that don’t pay for the content that they stream to consumers. They want the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications…

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Canadian Dollar Falls From 4-Month High After Trump Boosts U.S. Dollar – Business – CBC News

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The Canadian dollar retreated from a four-month high against the U.S. dollar on Thursday after comments from U.S. President Donald Trump boosted the greenback against most major currencies. During his first visit to the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Trump stressed that he ultimately wanted to see a stronger U.S. dollar. The move comes on the back of comments made by Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin on Wednesday, when he said a weaker buck was good for American exporters.Those comments had sent the U.S. dollar to a three-year low against a basket of currencies. On Thursday, the…

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Canada Trialing Use Of Ethereum Blockchain To Enhance Transparency In Govt Funding – National | Globalnews.ca

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The Canadian government has launched a trial to explore the use of blockchain technology in making government research grant and funding information more transparent to the public. For the trial, the National Research Council (NRC) is using the Catena Blockchain Suite, a Canadian-made product built on the Ethereum blockchain, to publish funding and grant information in real time. When the NRC creates or amends a grant, the pertinent information is stored on the Ethereum blockchain, and posted on an online database that Canadians can peruse. “Blockchains provide the ultimate in transparency and…

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GPU Prices Skyrocket, Breaking The Entire DIY PC Market – ExtremeTech

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If you’re looking to build a PC today, chances are you’re in trouble. Cryptocurrency mining has driven the prices of GPUs from “inflated” to “utterly absurd.” In fact, prices are so high, they’re actually higher, in some cases, than we’d expect a person to spend on an entire computer. It’s one thing to say people shouldn’t buy in when a GPU (See on Amazon) is running $50 to $100 over MSRP (and we’ve railed against these kinds of price wars before), but the pricing here is nuts. AMD’s Vega 56…

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Rise In Duty-Free Allowance Could Cost Hundreds Of Thousands Of Jobs: Study – Business – CBC News

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Canada’s retail industry is warning that raising the duty-free allowance for cross-border shipments could lead to hundreds of thousands of job losses and cut billions of dollars from the Canadian economy. The numbers come from a Retail Council of Canada-commissioned PwC study out Friday that shows the potential fallout if Canada agreed to requests from U.S. lawmakers to increase the duty-free allowance from $20 to $800 as part of NAFTA talks. “It has very, very significant implications for not only our sales, but for employment in the industry, for Canadian…

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Canadian Oil Selling At A Deep Discount – And It Hurts – Business – CBC News

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North American oil prices are marching toward $65 US a barrel this month, giving the industry a boost after the market collapsed three years ago. The oil sector hasn’t seen these prices since late 2014, but most companies in Alberta are receiving significantly less, just above $40 US a barrel. The Alberta oilpatch continues to increase oil production, but as pipelines fill up, companies are receiving less money for their oil compared to the rest of the continent. While there is always a gap between the North American benchmark, West Texas Intermediate (WTI),…

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U.S. Border Guards Can Search Your Phone: Here Are Some Details On How – Technology & Science – CBC News

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In one of several testy exchanges during a U.S. Senate hearing this week, the country’s secretary of homeland security was pressed to explain a new policy that allows customs agents to examine the cellphones of travellers at the border. “I want to make sure I understand this. I live an hour’s drive from the Canadian border,” said Vermont Sen. Patrick Leahy. “If I go to Canada and visit some of my wife’s relatives, and I come back … they [can] say, ‘We want your laptop and your phone and your pass…

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Why you should switch to LED lightbulbs right now, before the law requires it – The Washington Post

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When Jason Chroman relocated from San Francisco to the suburbs, he and his family moved into a bigger, newer house. It was all very exciting until their first electric bill arrived. “The house was maybe 30 percent bigger, but the electric bill was something like 200 percent more,” Chroman said. So he started looking around to figure out what could be using so much power. He found the answer when he looked up: “Because it was a new house, it had a lot of recessed lighting, all of which was…

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Ottawa’s New Carbon Pricing Plan Will Reward Clean Companies – Politics – CBC News

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The federal government added more meat to the bones of its core environmental policy Monday by releasing draft legislation on how pricing carbon pollution will work in Canada. The new legislation is the federal backstop and will apply to all provinces that haven’t created their own system and put it in place by September 2018. Here are three things to take away from the proposed legislation: The price on carbon pollution will start at $10 a tonne this year and increase to $50 a tonne by 2022. Environment Canada is launching…

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Rogers Employees Say Managers Turn A Blind Eye So Call Centre Workers Can Lie And Cheat Customers – Business – CBC News

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Call centre employees working for Rogers Communications say the telecom company is pressuring them to try to make a sale on every call — even to elderly people who don’t understand or need certain products or services. In emails and interviews with Go Public, dozens of Rogers workers say they’re under “extreme pressure” to hit sales targets or risk termination. Their claims come on the heels of Bell Canada workers revealing similar pressures to upsell customers, often at the expense of ethics. “You’re supposed to look at a customer’s account and…

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