Workers Compensation Board: Instead of trying to relight an old bonfire, the MFL would better assist both workers and employers by promoting the undertaking of a comprehensive review of what is a long outdated program. What all workers need is 24-hour, year-round comprehensive injury and illness coverage, regardless of cause. , according to Winnipeg Free Press. The philosophical underpinnings of the program extend back 150 years to Prussia, when Otto von Bismarck implemented the first program as a measure to calm then-revolutionary social unrest. Fast forward a century and a half and workers are more likely to fall ill due to lifestyle choices or fate, or be injured while off the job, than be disabled due to their workplace accident. The Manitoba Federation of Labour recently renewed its chronic complaint about the Workers Compensation Board, alleging the WCB's approach to setting annual premiums for employers provides an incentive for employers to suppress valid claims of workplace injuries and illnesses. The WCB, through a tripartite board of directors equal members drawn from labour, employers and representatives of the public interest , administers a legislative program. Injured and sick workers, disabled due to workplace accidents or conditions, are compensated and rehabilitated, while their employers, which pay for the costs of the program through annual assessments, cannot be sued by their workers. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.

Australian Broadcasting Corp.: Indonesia has downgraded its relations with Australia and suspended co-operation on people smuggling after outrage over reported eavesdropping on senior Indonesian leaders phones, officials said Wednesday, according to The Chronicle Herald. Australian Broadcasting Corp. and The Guardian reported Monday that they had documents from National Security Agency leaker Edward Snowden showing that the top-secret Australian Signals Directorate targeted Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyonos cellphone and the phones of first lady Kristiani Herawati and eight other government ministers and officials and Meanwhile, Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott told Australias Parliament that he would do everything he reasonably can to repair relations with Indonesia. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.

feasibility study: Typically it takes a long time for an ambitious new venture like this to move from feasibility study to real-world reality existence. But this time, plans have taken shape with the breathtaking speed of an amusement-park ride, according to The Star. The two people behind that study were Rita Davies, formerly the visionary executive director of culture for the city of Toronto, and John Calabro, an editor, writer and teacher who runs the small publishing company Quattro Books and Toronto will get a major new book fair a year from now, has learned. Organizers will announce Wednesday that the first edition of Inspire!, a.k.a. the Toronto International Book Fair, will open next November at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre. News of the fairs launch comes just three months after the release of a feasibility study, funded by the Ontario Media Development Corp., which raised the tantalizing prospect of a reimagined Toronto book fair after six years without one. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper: The parliamentarian of the year awards, now in their seventh year, are thrown by Macleans magazine and decided by the votes of MPs, according to The Chronicle Herald. I was a bridesmaid for six years, Cuzner said and Sackville-Eastern Shore MP Peter Stoffer edged out Prime Minister Stephen Harper as parliamentarian of the year at an awards show in Ottawa on Tuesday. Stoffer had won most congenial parliamentarian the past six years, so the room full of politicians, staffers and journalists was stunned when that award was handed instead to Cape Breton-Canso MP Rodger Cuzner. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.

basis points: The extra interest Toronto must pay to borrow from the bond market compared with federal government benchmarks rose four basis points, or 0.04 percentage point, to 94 basis points since city council urged Ford to step aside after he admitted to smoking crack cocaine . During the same period, borrowing costs in the broader Bank of America Merrill Lynch Canadian Provincial Municipal Index fell one basis point, according to The Star. The crisis at city hall has escalated since the first news reports by the Toronto Star and other media six months ago that the mayor had been caught on video smoking crack cocaine. Ford refused to step down after admitting he used the drug , and that he purchased illegal drugs while mayor and Mayor Rob Ford s crack scandal is beginning to weigh on the citys finances, driving up borrowing costs and threatening to delay fixes to North Americas second-worst traffic congestion. Anybody who is outside the city or outside the country may just want to clean up their portfolios before this thing gets even uglier, said Hosen Marjaee, senior managing director of fixed income at Manulife Asset Management Ltd., which manages $16 billion in debt, including Toronto bonds. I m not worried about the city or city finances or the ability to pay its debt, I m worried about the negative press its getting, and inability to move on. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.

Canada: OTTAWA - Smugglers were caught trying to slip dramatically more people into Canada in 2011 over the previous year at largely unguarded points along the border with the United States, says a newly declassified report. , according to Winnipeg Free Press. At the same time, the number of people nabbed while being spirited into the United States from Canada fell slightly during the same period to 360 from 376. Canadian border guards are silhouetted as they replace each other at an inspection booth at the Douglas border crossing on the Canada-USA border in Surrey, B.C., on August 20, 2009. Smugglers were caught trying to slip dramatically more people into Canada in 2011 over the previous year at largely unguarded points along the border with the United States, says a newly declassified report. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Darryl Dyck Authorities apprehended 487 people as smugglers attempted to sneak them into Canada at remote locales, up from 308 in 2010, says the binational report on border security. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.

Fitch Ratings: TORONTO - Sky high prices in the Canadian real estate market won't be climbing for much longer, says a report by global rating agency Fitch Ratings. , according to Winnipeg Free Press. Fitch Ratings said the Canadian economy will be exposed when this happens, as many homebuyers have financially stretched themselves to borrow for their home purchase and will be in for a shock once interest rates start to climb. For sale signs stand in front of a condominium September 27, 2011 in Montreal. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Ryan Remiorz The agency forecasted Tuesday that home prices across the country are in for a "soft landing" and will either flatten out or slightly decrease over the next five years. It estimates that current prices are overvalued by up to 26 per cent in some regions and could fall by as much as 10 per cent in some places. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.

fraud complaints: The RCMP estimates the alleged fraud at $20 million with thousands of victims, according to 660 News. One individual who was the subject of several fraud complaints was targeted in the investigation, which the RCMP launched in November 2011 and MONTREAL Fifteen people working in an alleged call centre in Montreal have been arrested on charges they were involved in a mass-market fraud that spanned Canada and the United States. The Mounties teamed up with U.S. authorities as well as Quebec provincial police and city police in Montreal and Chateauguay to conduct the operation. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.

Haiti: On Thursday the Queen Street store will unveil a different kind of pop-up shop, featuring decorative homewares made by artisans in Haiti, with 25 per cent of the retail purchase price already paid to the artisans, according to The Star. Prices range from $12 for a papier m ch bird to $300 for a quilt and Hudsons Bay has signed up to give shoppers the chance to support Haitian artisans without having to travel to Haiti to do it. The items include handmade pillows and quilts , glittering glasssware in the vodou tradition and metal works and papier m ch objets d art. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.

Human Resources and Skills Development Canada: More changes are coming to employment insurance, according to The Chronicle Herald. The governments reforms to the EI system to date have been hugely controversial. But Human Resources and Skills Development Canada says the upcoming changes are all about improving the system and Ottawa is starting work on a program it calls EI Service Delivery Modernization. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.