The CRTC has once again refused to mandate the big telcos sell wholesale access to their wireless networks to fledgling rivals without towers of their own, a decision critics call a blow for competition and for Canadians fed up with big cellphone bills. At the request of Economic Development Minister Navdeep Bains, the regulator spent months reviewing its ruling from last March that threatened to put Sugar Mobile out of business. On Thursday, the CRTC reaffirmed its decision that the discount Wi-Fi-based provider has no right to resell access to Rogers’s network to keep its…
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Paper Documents In Hospitals Not Always Properly Destroyed: Study | CTV News
It was while sitting in a doctors’ lounge and watching a janitor take away a huge recycling bin that Dr. Nancy Baxter stumbled on a major problem with the way hospitals operate. Inside that bin, she saw paperwork containing the personal medical information of hospital patients. It was paperwork that should have been shredded, but instead, the janitor was planning to take it to recycling. The types of bins available in many hospitals, designating where sensitive documents and where recycling should go. She soon discovered it’s a disturbing amount. Dr.…
Read MoreHeavily Indebted Canadians Need To Watch U.S. Interest Rate Announcement: Don Pittis – Business – CBC News
A rise in U.S. interest rates tomorrow is so confidently expected by nearly everyone that a failure to hike rates would shock world markets. In his first official press conference since taking over for Janet Yellen, Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell is expected to set the direction for interest rate increases this year and into the more distant future. What he says will matter to investors around the world. It will also matter to Canadian borrowers. One reason market watchers are so confident Powell will raise the key U.S. federal funds rate from 1.5 to…
Read MoreBudget Says Some Paper Currency Will No Longer Be Legal Tender – Politics – CBC News
The Liberal government announced Tuesday — in an item buried deep in its 367-page 2018 budget document — that some paper currency will no longer be accepted as legal tender. The $1000 bank note will no longer be legal tender, pending the introduction of legislative changes. The Bank of Canada will still accept the bills for an exchange. (Bank of Canada) While the Bank of Canada stopped printing the $1,000 note in 2000, there are still about 700,000 of those bills still in circulation across the country. As part of a plan…
Read MoreBell Customers Say Sales Reps Misled At The Door: ‘Guaranteed’ Price For Services Keeps Going Up – Business – CBC News
A Toronto man feels misled by telecom giant Bell Canada, after signing up at the door for services he says he was guaranteed would remain the same price for two years, but increased after just six months. Gianmarco Minichillo was eating dinner with his family last May when a sales agent for Bell Canada knocked on his door, touting the fact that Bell had just installed fibre-optic cable in his neighbourhood, and offering a promotional package for TV, internet and home phone services. “He told me it was a guaranteed…
Read MoreExpect Longer Border Waits After Marijuana Legalization, CBSA Report Warns – National | Globalnews.ca
The legalization of marijuana could lead to longer waits at Canada’s border crossings as officers deal with “cannabis tourists,” warns an intelligence report obtained by Global News. The declassified Canada Border Services Agency document also said that illicit exports of marijuana “are expected to increase” after legalization, putting additional strain on officers. “Unless exemptions are made for personal amounts of marijuana, cannabis legalization may increase workloads for officers and translate into longer border wait times, particularly at land borders,” it said. Border delays will be particularly bad during summer months…
Read MoreTD Bank Becomes Latest To Bar Customers From Using Credit To Buy Cryptocurrency – National | Globalnews.ca
The decision follows moves by several U.S. banks to stop allowing credit card purchases of bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. The value of bitcoin soared last year, trading for more than C$20,000 per bitcoin. The value of the cryptocurrency has since come off its all-time highs and trades for around C$13,000, but remains up significantly from where it was a year ago. Read full story here: TD Bank Becomes Latest To Bar Customers From Using Credit To Buy Cryptocurrency – National | Globalnews.ca
Read MoreCRTC Rejects Call For Public Inquiry Into Aggressive Telecom Sales Practices – Business – CBC News
A consumer group is protesting the CRTC’s refusal to hold a public inquiry into numerous claims of aggressive and misleading sales practices by some of Canada’s major telecoms. The telecom regulator says there’s no need for an inquiry. But the Public Interest Advocacy Centre (PIAC), a non-profit agency based in Ottawa, says the decision hurts consumers. “CRTC throws consumers to telco sales dogs,” PIAC’s executive director, John Lawford, said in a statement. “The CRTC refusal to inquire into the shocking sales practices of Canada’s major telecommunications and broadcasting companies says to consumers, ‘You’re…
Read MoreNova Scotia Power Testing Tesla Batteries In Electrical System – Halifax | Globalnews.ca
Nova Scotia Power is testing Tesla batteries in a pilot project exploring how they can be used to provide a more reliable power supply. A couple dozen battery compartments, each about the size of an enclosed portable toilet, have been installed at an electrical substation in Elmsdale, N.S. The modular arrangement is called a Powerpack system; essentially a giant rechargeable battery. A smaller-scale system was installed in Australia. “The wind blows when it blows, the sun shines when it shines, but people like to watch TV at night,” Jill Searle, the NSP’s…
Read MoreTelecoms, CBC And Others Urge CRTC To Establish Agency To Help Locate Piracy Websites – Business – CBC News
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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