Another significant increase today, pushing many fuel prices well over thresholds many people never thought they’d see, and with more increases tomorrow as new carbon tax rates come into effect.
Diesel on the island is up another 17 cents a litre while diesel in Labrador is up by 18 cents. That brings the price of diesel even closer to the $3.00 a litre mark on the island and pushing the price over $3.00 a litre in some parts of Labrador.
Furnace oil is up by close to 15 cents a litre. That brings the price of furnace oil to over $2.00 a litre.
Stove oil has also seen a double-digit increase— 14.62 cents on the island and 15.64 cents in Labrador.
Meanwhile, another increase is expected tomorrow with the introduction of a new carbon tax rate on gasoline and diesel fuels in all parts of the province. Gasoline will see a 2.6 cent a litre increase as of midnight tonight, while diesel will see another increase of 3.1 cents in carbon taxes.
That brings the total carbon tax on gasoline to 11.05 cents per litre, and 13.41 cents for diesel.
News reports on Friday said Musk was considering firing workers and inviting influencers to boost Twitter's revenue.
Patrick Pleul/AP
In conversations with bankers, Elon Musk pitched ideas to lift Twitter's bottom line, reports say.
But he didn't share details, and banks financed his Twitter buyout deal because he had other assets.
Musk's private pitch to bankers contradicts his position that he doesn't care about Twitter's profitability.
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In conversations with bankers before he took Twitter private, Elon Musk suggested cutting workers, inviting influencers to create content, and introducing subscription services to improve Twitter's bottom line, according to multiple news reports on Friday.
Musk also suggested monetizing tweets and cutting executive and board pay, per reports from Bloomberg, the Washington Post, and Reuters, all quoting unnamed sources who knew about his fundraising efforts.
Musk approached the bankers after announcing his buyout offer on April 14 and before Twitter's board accepted his $44 billion proposal on April 26, Reuters reported.
Even though Musk floated these ideas to bankers to improve Twitter's bottom line, he did not include them in the formal plans that were presented to Twitter's board, Bloomberg and the Post reported. Instead, he said he would make sure the deal is profitable, sources told Bloomberg.
Despite the lack of details, lenders still bought into Musk's vision because the billionaire already owns several valuable assets that could be useful when he takes up loans for the deal, the Post reported.
Musk's behind-the-scenes conversations about the bottom line contradict his public statements about the Twitter purchase. Twitter is "not a way to make money," Musk said at an April 14 live event, adding, "I don't care about the economics at all."
Musk has avoided sharing concrete plans for the social-media platform. All he's said publicly is that he plans to add an "edit" function, remove spam bots, open Twitter's algorithm up to changes, and loosen content moderation on the site.
Musk's suggestion to lay off employees is likely to add to the disquiet that Twitter employees have been feeling since news of Musk's offer became public. Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal said this week no layoffs are planned, but some employees are already looking for a way out, Insider's Kali Hays reported.
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News reports on Friday said Musk was considering firing workers and inviting influencers to boost Twitter's revenue.
Patrick Pleul/AP
In conversations with bankers, Elon Musk pitched ideas to lift Twitter's bottom line, reports say.
But he didn't share details, and banks financed his Twitter buyout deal because he had other assets.
Musk's private pitch to bankers contradicts his position that he doesn't care about Twitter's profitability.
Get the latest tech news & scoops — delivered daily to your inbox.
In conversations with bankers before he took Twitter private, Elon Musk suggested cutting workers, inviting influencers to create content, and introducing subscription services to improve Twitter's bottom line, according to multiple news reports on Friday.
Musk also suggested monetizing tweets and cutting executive and board pay, per reports from Bloomberg, the Washington Post, and Reuters, all quoting unnamed sources who knew about his fundraising efforts.
Musk approached the bankers after announcing his buyout offer on April 14 and before Twitter's board accepted his $44 billion proposal on April 26, Reuters reported.
Even though Musk floated these ideas to bankers to improve Twitter's bottom line, he did not include them in the formal plans that were presented to Twitter's board, Bloomberg and the Post reported. Instead, he said he would make sure the deal is profitable, sources told Bloomberg.
Despite the lack of details, lenders still bought into Musk's vision because the billionaire already owns several valuable assets that could be useful when he takes up loans for the deal, the Post reported.
Musk's behind-the-scenes conversations about the bottom line contradict his public statements about the Twitter purchase. Twitter is "not a way to make money," Musk said at an April 14 live event, adding, "I don't care about the economics at all."
Musk has avoided sharing concrete plans for the social-media platform. All he's said publicly is that he plans to add an "edit" function, remove spam bots, open Twitter's algorithm up to changes, and loosen content moderation on the site.
Musk's suggestion to lay off employees is likely to add to the disquiet that Twitter employees have been feeling since news of Musk's offer became public. Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal said this week no layoffs are planned, but some employees are already looking for a way out, Insider's Kali Hays reported.
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Ilana Diener holds her son, Hudson, 3, during an appointment for a Moderna COVID-19 vaccine trial in Commack, N.Y. on Nov. 30, 2021.EMMA H. TOBIN/The Associated Press
Moderna, Inc. has officially asked Health Canada to authorize its COVID-19 vaccine for children as young as six months old, making the company the first to seek Canadian approval to inoculate babies, toddlers and preschoolers against the pandemic virus.
Patricia Gauthier, Moderna’s Canadian general manager, told a news conference Friday that the company submitted its application to Health Canada Thursday night, not long after it filed for approval in the United States.
“We’re really proud to announce that we filed to Health Canada [Thursday] night our dossier to ask for the extension of the indication for a vaccine so that we could protect potentially infants as early as six months of age,” Ms. Gauthier told a Montreal audience at an event announcing plans for a Moderna vaccine plant in Quebec. “So it’s now in the hands of Health Canada.”
Many Canadian parents have been waiting eagerly to find out when the shot will be available to the youngest children. Right now, Health Canada has approved the Pfizer-BioNTech shot, sold under the brand name Comirnaty, for children as young as five, and Moderna’s shot, SpikeVax for children as young as six.
It’s too early to say how soon Health Canada will make a ruling on Moderna’s application. In the past, a few weeks to a few months have elapsed between vaccine-makers submitting their data on COVID-19 shots and the regulator granting approval.
News of Moderna’s application emerged on the same day the Massachusetts-based company fleshed out its plans for a manufacturing plant in the Montreal area that will eventually pump out shots for COVID-19 and other respiratory illnesses, along with future vaccines for whatever yet-to-emerge virus sparks the next pandemic.
“With this new Moderna facility Canada will now have more timely and more secure access to domestically-produced mRNA vaccines to respond in the event of future health emergencies, including future pandemics,” federal Health Minister Jean-Yves Duclos said.
Moderna and the federal government announced last August that they had signed a memorandum of understanding that would culminate in Moderna making Canada the site of its first manufacturing plant outside the United States, but the parties did not announce a location for the facility until Friday.
Moderna has since announced plans to build a plant in Australia on a similar timeline.
When the pandemic hit, Moderna was a startup with limited production capacity and no approved products. It contracted with other vaccine-makers, namely Switzerland’s Lonza, to pump out tens of millions of its mRNA shots, which alongside a similar vaccine made by Pfizer-BioNTech, helped curb the death toll of the pandemic.
Messenger RNA is a single-stranded molecule that transmits instructions for cells to manufacture proteins. In the case of the mRNA vaccines for COVID-19, the shots were encoded with a message telling cells to make the spike protein that studs SARS-CoV-2, coaxing the immune system to mount a defensive response it could repeat if the real virus showed up.
The shots were the first mRNA products to garner regulatory approval around the world.
“For the first time in the history of medicine, we have a molecule that is an information molecule and that changes everything,” Mr. Bancel, the Moderna CEO, said. “It is like going from Blockbuster to Netflix. It is a change of paradigm and we’re bringing this technology to Canada, which we’re very excited about.”
Moderna is now working on updated versions of its COVID-19 vaccine aimed at a broad range of variants, including the super-contagious Omicron, which has blunted the ability of vaccines to prevent mild infections. The mRNA vaccines still substantially reduce the risk of severe illness and death, especially in those who have received three or more doses.
Moderna has other prospective mRNA shots in its pipeline, including an mRNA flu shot scheduled to enter a phase three trial this fall, and an mRNA shot for respiratory syncytial virus, or RSV, for older adults that is already in phase three. RSV is a seasonal respiratory virus that is most dangerous to the very young and very old.
The “ultimate goal,” said Shehzad Iqbal, Moderna Canada’s medical director, is to create a single annual shot that would be effective against multiple strains of COVID-19, influenza and RSV.
“We can create all these great vaccines, but if people don’t take them, it doesn’t help,” Dr. Iqbal said in an interview before Friday’s announcement. “If you can simplify the implementation side by combining them into one shot, then it just becomes a little bit easier to get better uptake.”
That goal is a tall order: There is currently no approved vaccine for RSV, while making a universal flu vaccine has bedevilled researchers for decades.
Along with producing vaccines against infectious respiratory diseases, the other purpose of the Moderna plant would be to supply Canada with emergency shots in the event of another pandemic.
By the time COVID-19 emerged, Canada had scant vaccine manufacturing capacity, leaving the country to rely on imported COVID-19 shots. The sector shrank over decades under multiple governments.
Canada did have a contract with the pharmaceutical giant GlaxoSmithKline to produce a pandemic flu vaccine at its plant in Quebec, but when the pandemic was caused by a coronavirus, not influenza, that contract was useless.
The mRNA platform, capable of being quickly recoded with the genetic sequence of a new virus, is more flexible than older ways of making vaccines.
The federal government has announced more than a billion dollars in investments in the biomanufacturing sector since the pandemic began, including $200-million for Resilience Biotechnology to expand its mRNA-making facility in Mississauga; $126-million for a National Research Council plant to make Novavax’s COVID-19 shot; and $415-million for Sanofi Pasteur to build a new flu vaccine facility in the Greater Toronto Area.
With files from Canadian Press
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Earlier this week, Elon Musk followed through on his promise to acquire Twitter, with the social media company announcing the acceptance of Musk’s $44 Billion offer.
By most measures, Twitter is not the most popular social media site. Metrics often have Twitter trailing other social platforms like Facebook and Instagram by considerable margins. That said, Twitter has become an integral platform within the games industry as both individual game developers and companies use the platform heavily to promote their work, their games, or share any and all thoughts they deem fit to tweet.
“Twitter is generally a great networking tool for developers — trending hashtags, asking for advice, the ability to retweet work or portfolios, and just casually replying to tweets has helped many folks connect with each other,” says Victoria Tran Community Director for Inner Sloth, the developers of Among Us.
Twitter is easily accessible to developers and instantly connects them with their players, content creators, and journalists, Tran says. And for corporations, there are advantages to Twitter that don’t exist on competing platforms.
“Twitter is also relatively low lift in terms of producing content — it focuses on words, while other platforms like Instagram and TikTok require more work with images or video,” Tran adds. “It’s a quicker way to connect, and unlike Facebook, you don’t necessarily have to friend request people in order to chat with them,” though this last part comes with its own problems of course.
But for the most part, game developers from indies to AAA find value in Twitter’s approach to social networks. Two AAA game developers currently employed at major studios who wished to remain anonymous said they got some of their first big game industry jobs through Twitter
But news of Musk’s acquisition of Twitter has caused a flurry of reactions across Twitter’s most prominent users, including those working in the video game industry. Musk, who is best known as the founder of the electric car company Tesla, is a prominent Twitter user himself who takes to his account to post musings about his many businesses, unsolicited advice on public transit, and sometimes memes. Can this person change Twitter, and if so, what will happen?
“Twitter is also relatively low lift in terms of producing content — it focuses on words, while other platforms like Instagram and TikTok require more work with images or video.” “
Musk describes himself as a “free speech absolutist” and has tweeted out ideas of what he would like to see changed about Twitter in the past. Musk has repeatedly espoused the virtues of “free speech” and has called Twitter a “digital town square,” including in his statement following the acquisition.
One area Musk could expand on this idea is by loosening rules around what users are and aren’t allowed to Tweet. Short of illegal content, Musk has said recently at a TED conference that he would let “gray area” Tweets exist which could give license to harassment and trolls.
This is the most concerning possibility after the Musk takeover for professionals who run Twitter accounts for some of the largest video game companies.
One Social Media Professional at a North American AAA studio tells IGN, “We can already see a very cautious response from the Twitter userbase, especially among those who are victims or witnesses of harassment and abuse on the platform.”
The employee, who wished to remain anonymous given that their company has yet to put out an official statement, adds that from a professional view, any loosening of standards could lead to a loss of audience.
“We spent months and years cultivating our audiences on this platform, we’re very concerned that they might choose to leave it behind in fear of even more abuse at the excuse of ‘free speech.’ The same goes for brands, as it’s still unclear what some of these features would mean for content moderation and reporting, which is already an issue today.”
Musk’s rhetoric has spooked social media professionals who already contend with changing algorithms and shifting trends on a daily basis. While Twitter is not perfect, the Musk acquisition threatens to put people who work with social media daily into unknown waters.
“Twitter has been the go-to platform for video game developers and publishers for a long time now and its ease of use and accessible audiences made this platform important to rely on,” says Colin Cummings, who runs Social Media and Community for Evolve PR. “If anything disrupts this, or makes this worse, then my role as a community and social media manager just got more important.”
To be clear, Musk’s takeover of Twitter has yet to be finalized and it’s unclear exactly what changes are coming to the service. So far, Musk has only promised to enhance Twitter with new features, including making the algorithm open source, defeating spambots, and “authenticating all humans.”
"We spent months and years cultivating our audiences on this platform, we’re very concerned that they might choose to leave it behind in fear of even more abuse at the excuse of ‘free speech.’"“
But for professionals who use Twitter for work, the concern is that there just aren’t viable alternatives to Twitter available right now. “There is no perfect replacement for Twitter and we’ll have to work extra hard to build our audiences, curate a community, and to establish our core communications like blog posts or newsletters,” says Cummings.
The concern is that “the gaming community that has been centralized on Twitter will fracture and spiral off into a dozen different places.”
“He bought Twitter for a lot of money and I feel like it is naive to say nothing is going to change. We just have to hope it’ll be for the better or just a lateral move.”
For others, social media is such a chaotic field, to begin with, that Musk’s takeover of Twitter is just the latest sea change impacting a vital job the uninformed believe is done by interns.
“Social media sites come and go,” says Tran. “Facebook was the place to be, now its organic reach is almost gone. TikTok is the hot new thing. Vine is dead. Just another billion-dollar corporation — or person, in this case — duking it out while everyone else gets tossed in the waves. Just another Monday.”
Matt T.M. Kim is IGN's News Editor. You can reach him @lawoftd.
Elon Musk's tweet about Coca-Cola came two days after the billionaire acquired Twitter in a $44 billion deal.
HANNIBAL HANSCHKE /Getty Images
Elon Musk tweeted on Wednesday that he'd like to buy Coca-Cola.
His reason? He wants to "put the cocaine back" in the soft drink, the billionaire wrote.
Many Twitter users have been posting suggestions for other companies that Musk should purchase.
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Elon Musk tweeted on Wednesday that he would like to purchase Coca-Cola to "put the cocaine back in" the drink.
Musk's post came two days after the billionaire acquired Twitter in a $44 billion deal. "Let's make Twitter maximum fun!" he tweeted less than an hour after voicing his plans for the beverage company.
While Musk's comments about Coca-Cola were likely tongue-in-cheek, they bear some historical truth.
At the time, Pemberton's recipe included a cocaine extract obtained from coca leaves. He described the drink as a "patent medicine" and "brain tonic and intellectual beverage."
A 1988 New York Times article on The Coca-Cola Company also reported how cocaine was initially included in the drink but eliminated it by the 1900s.
Representatives for The Coca-Cola Company did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Insider.
Musk's tweet about Coca-Cola, which went viral, prompted a response from Rep. Lauren Boebert, who took a jab at Hunter Biden's documented drug use. "Has Hunter been asking you for favors?" she wrote.
Since Musk's acquisition of Twitter was announced, many of the platform's users have tweeted suggestions at him on what companies he should buy next.
One Twitter user wrote that Musk should "buy Fox" to get another season of the "Firefly" TV series greenlit, to which Musk responded: "Some sci-fi that actually features sci-fi would be great."
Twitter has seen huge swings in its user numbers since the buyout, with politically left-leaning accounts losing thousands of followers and right-wing users gaining them in droves.
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April 27 (Reuters) - A U.S. judge slammed Elon Musk on Wednesday for trying to escape a settlement with regulators requiring oversight of his Tesla Inc (TSLA.O) tweets, saying the billionaire was "bemoaning" the 2018 deal now that he felt Tesla was "invincible."
The ruling comes after the Twitter Inc (TWTR.N) board accepted on Monday Musk's $44 billion deal to buy the social media platform. read more
The dispute stems from the claim by the Securities and Exchange Commission that Musk, the CEO of Tesla, defrauded investors on Aug. 7, 2018, by tweeting that he had "funding secured" to potentially take the electric car company private at a premium, when in reality a buyout was not close. Tesla shares rose following the tweet.
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Musk's lawyers had sought to terminate the 2018 consent decree that resolved those SEC securities fraud charges, arguing that the regulator's pursuit of Musk "crossed the line into harassment" and impeded his constitutional right to free speech. read more
U.S. District Judge Lewis Liman in Manhattan rejected those arguments as well as Musk's request to block a separate SEC investigation into tweets that Musk posted last year regarding the sale of some of his Tesla stock.
"Musk cannot now seek to retract the agreement he knowingly and willingly entered by simply bemoaning that he felt like he had to agree to it at the time but now — once the specter of the litigation is a distant memory and his company has become, in his estimation, all but invincible — wishes that he had not," wrote Liman.
The 2018 agreement required Musk and Tesla to each pay $20 million civil fines and for Musk to step down as Tesla's chairman. The consent decree also required Musk to obtain pre-clearance from Tesla lawyers for tweets and other public statements that could be material to Tesla.
Tesla did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Wednesday.
Shares of Tesla were about 2.4% higher at $897.62 and Twitter stock was down 2% at $48.67 in afternoon trading.
The SEC's probe related to Musk's sale of some of his Tesla shares is over tweets he sent on Nov. 6 last year that asked readers if they supported his selling 10% of his Tesla stake, and saying that he would abide by the poll results. The SEC has subpoenaed Musk and Tesla to determine if those tweets were vetted before they were published.
A majority of the readers did support such a share sale, and the poll caused Tesla's share price to fall. Musk has since sold more than $16 billion of Tesla stock.
Liman said it was "unsurprising" that the SEC would have questions about the unusual manner in which Musk went about deciding to sell his stock.
Musk has been escalating his attacks on the SEC. Earlier this month he referred to the regulator as "those bastards." read more
Musk calls himself a "free speech absolutist" and has criticized Twitter's policies that moderate speech and are aimed at curtailing harassment.
"By 'free speech,' I simply mean that which matches the law," Musk tweeted on Tuesday, the day after the Twitter board of directors accepted his bid. "If people want less free speech, they will ask government to pass laws to that effect. Therefore, going beyond the law is contrary to the will of the people."
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Reporting by Tom Hals in Wilmington, Delaware, and Peter Henderson in Oakland, California;
Editing by Chizu Nomiyama and Leslie Adler
Global ambitions to tackle climate change are being confronted by rising concerns about energy security, according to a new report by RBC, which is why oil and natural gas are going to be used for quite a while.
The Russian invasion of Ukraine has sent energy prices soaring, as there are supply concerns for many commodities such as oil, natural gas and coal. As many countries grapple with energy security and affordability issues, there is less emphasis on climate change.
That's why the authors of the report say countries like Canada now have to figure out how to produce more oil and gas in the short term, all the while trying to meet climate goals.
"Short of major additional action, oil and gas will likely remain critical and contentious energy sources for longer than some think," the report notes.
In the last few months, there has been arenewed push by countries like Canada and the United States for more oil and natural gas production. At the same time, some countries in Europe are investing inliquefied natural gas terminals to import more natural gas and also looking at coal and oil-fired electricity toreduce reliance on Russian gas.
Global demand for oil keeps rising and is expected to increase for several more years, according to the International Energy Agency.
The RBC report highlights how many governments around the world are also offering subsidies to offset high gasoline and power prices, including "usual climate leaders" such asGermany,California, andBritish Columbia.
Oilsands companies are investing in carbon capture and storage facilities, among other measures to reduce emissions. (Kyle Bakx/CBC)
Climate change is still a priority, said RBC economist Colin Guldimann, but there isn't as much momentum as compared to six months ago after the UN climate conference.
"Many will admit that things have changed markedly, especially in the energy space, in the last couple of months," he said in an interview.
Canada must now thread the needle of meeting climate goals while also meeting energy needs.
Even after oil demand peaks, Guldimann said "the pace of that decline, and the steepness of how quickly that decline happens, is fundamentally uncertain."
Investments in clean energy are happening, but instead of replacing fossil fuels, much of that energy is offset by rising consumption around the world as the population grows.
"We think energy demand is set to surge over the next couple of decades and how we meet those energy needs is really the critical question today," he said.
"I think countries are going to struggle to switch their energy systems over to ones that are non-emitting extremely quickly. Green infrastructure takes time to build, and technologies that can replace oil are still sort of coming to the fore."
The RBC report calls for more ambition to curb emissions, not only from the oilpatch, but other sectors too such as building retrofits, zero-emission vehicle subsidies and more transmission lines to move clean power around the country.
On Monday, credit ratings agency Moody's said it expects oil producers to generate record profits and free cash flow this year — and oil prices could remain high for the next 12 to 18 months.
Oil prices dropped by more than five per cent at one point on Monday as lockdowns in China are dampening economic activity. As commodity prices fluctuate so wildly, some oil companies could delay production increases.
"I wouldn't be surprised to see if a lot of these companies say 'You know what, let's defer this decision where we have to expand our spending," said Jeremy McCrea, an analyst with Raymond James, "which ultimately will keep oil and gas prices higher, longer."
Climate change was top of mind around the world following the COP26 climate conference in Glasgow in November. (Kyle Bakx/CBC)
Elon Musk and Twitter are reportedly nearing a deal that would allow the world's richest man to take over the social media company.
The two sides were engaged in detailed negotiations through the weekend discussing details of a possible takeover, including a timeline and possible breakup fees should a deal fall apart, according to the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal and other media outlets.
The reports said a formal agreement could come this week, possibly as early as Monday. Twitter shares rose four per cent to $50.49 US a share on Monday, but below what Musk had called his "best and final" offer of $54.20. That would value the social networking giant at $43 billion US.
Two Canadian banks — the Royal Bank of Canada and CIBC — are among a consortium of a dozen lenders who agreed to help Musk finance a bid of up to $46.5 billion US. Royal Bank agreed to lend Musk $750 million US, and CIBC $400 million US, according to a regulatory filing.
Twitter and Musk did not respond to requests for comment, but Musk once again drew attention to his interest in the company based on preserving free speech principles in a tweet on Monday.
I hope that even my worst critics remain on Twitter, because that is what free speech means
It's the latest development in a fast-moving saga over the past few weeks, one that saw Musk quietly buy enough shares in Twitter to become its biggest single shareholder, before declaring his interest in the company was "passive" and denying he had any interest in controlling it.
After being invited to join the board, Musk then rejected that offer and turned more aggressive, launching a formal takeover bid. Twitter's board rejected that by implementing a "poison pill" designed to thwart any unwanted advances.
That move was largely designed to buy Twitter some time to come up with a better alternative to Musk's offer, but the board's sudden receptiveness is a sign that the company hasn't managed to come up with another plan, Wedbush Securities analyst Dan Ives said.
"While the board approved the poison pill, which essentially gave them time to find a 'white knight' and second bidder, likely they are now empty handed," he said on Sunday.
WATCH | Here's why Elon Musk wants to buy Twitter:
Analyst breaks down Musk's Twitter move
11 days ago
Duration 3:39
Wedbush Securities analyst Dan Ives discusses why Elon Musk is trying to buy Twitter and whether or not the billionaire's hostile takeover attempt is likely to succeed. 3:39
Musk has said he wants to buy Twitter because he doesn't feel it's living up to its potential as a platform for free speech.
In recent weeks, he has voiced a number of proposed changes for the company, from relaxing its content restrictions — such as the rules that suspended former U.S. president Donald Trump's account — to ridding the platform of its problems with fake and automated accounts.
Musk says Twitter needs to be taken private so that it will not be bound by the constraints that public companies face and can focus on making changes to ensure free speech, adding an edit button and cracking down on spam.
Going private
The latest developments signal the beginning of a new chapter for Twitter, with the likeliest scenario being that Musk takes it over, Ives said.
"[Wall] Street will read this news today as the beginning of the end for Twitter as a public company, with Musk likely now on a path to acquire the company unless a second bidder comes into the mix," he said.
Some of the company's investors are eager to avoid a drawn-out affair.
"I would say, take the $54.20 a share and be done with it," Sahm Adrangi, portfolio manager at Kerrisdale Capital Management, a hedge fund that owns more than one million shares in the company, told Reuters.
People wearing face masks walk past a bank's electronic board showing the Hong Kong share index in Hong Kong, Monday, April 25, 2022. Asian shares declined Monday after U.S. stocks ended last week on a tumble as global markets' expectations for higher interest rates continued to set the tone. (AP Photo/Kin Cheung)
TOKYO (AP) — Asian shares declined Monday after U.S. stocks ended last week on a tumble as global markets' expectations for higher interest rates continued to set the tone.
Japan's benchmark Nikkei 225 lost 1.9% in morning trading to 26,583.70. South Korea's Kospi slipped 1.6% to 2,661.94. Hong Kong's Hang Seng dropped 2.8% to 20,064.32, while the Shanghai Composite shed 2.4% to 3,012.93. Trading was closed in Australia for Anzac Day, a national holiday.
The news that Emmanuel Macron won the run-off French presidential election over the weekend, clinching a second term as was widely expected, reassured markets that France won’t abruptly shift course in the midst of the war in Ukraine.
But a significant show from contender Marine Le Pen, a populist and nationalist, served as a reminder of how fragile that situation might be, analysts said. Le Pen pledged to dilute French ties with the EU, NATO and Germany, and spoke out against EU sanctions on Russian energy supplies.
Rising COVID-19 cases in China are setting off worries about more pandemic lockdowns that would crimp economic recoveries in the region. Other nations are also dealing with economic woes related to COVID-19, such as the absence of tourism revenue in Japan, where cases are still going up and down while it gradually opens its borders, but only to business travelers.
Investors are also watching profit reports from companies, including Japanese big names that are coming in weeks ahead. Several reports from U.S. companies, which have already been released, have been disappointing, contributing to the fall that ended last week on Wall Street.
What the U.S. Federal Reserve might do is high on investors' minds. The chair of the Federal Reserve has indicated the central bank may hike short-term interest rates by double the usual amount at upcoming meetings, starting in two weeks. The Fed has already raised its key overnight rate once, the first such increase since 2018.
The S&P 500 fell 2.8% Friday to 4,271.78, marking its third losing week in a row. The Dow dropped 2.8% to 33,811.40, its biggest drop in 18 months. The Nasdaq lost 2.6%, closing at 12,839.29. The Dow and Nasdaq also posted losses for the week.
Smaller company stocks also fell sharply. The Russell 2000 slid 2.6% to 1,940.66.
“Coming after the heavy sell-off in Wall Street to end last week, overall risk appetite in the region may come under pressure as well,” said Yeap Jun Rong, market strategist at IG in Singapore.
Markets around the world are feeling similar pressure on rates and inflation, particularly in Europe as the war in Ukraine pushes up oil, gas and food costs.
In energy trading, benchmark U.S. crude lost $2.91 to $99.16 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Brent crude, the international standard, fell $2.93 to $103.72 a barrel.
In currency trading, the U.S. dollar edged down to 128.51 Japanese yen from 128.59 yen. The euro cost $1.0789, down from $1.0803.
NARL Marketing says an employee has been the victim of a cybersecurity breach, but it is unknown at this point what information was taken, or how it may impact customers of North Atlantic.
The company says the breach occurred on April 13, with an employee email being compromised.
While North Atlantic is working to determine exactly what information was downloaded, the email account in question contains personal information of some customers, such as names, banking, financial, and contact information.
NARL Marketing, which operates North Atlantic across the province, says it is working with a team of cybersecurity experts to investigate the impacts of the incident, and have reported the matter to the Federal Privacy Commissioner and the RCMP.
They encourage customers to monitor their accounts, notifying financial institutions of any suspicious activity.
Those who believe they may be affected by this incident are encouraged to contact communications@northatlantic.ca for further information.
Recent moves by U.S. technology giants Meta, Google and Amazon to significantly beef up their presence and staffing levels in Canada have cemented the country's status as a growing hub for technology talent.
While Canada's tech boom may be welcome news for those who dream of working for these tech giants, it comes at a cost for local startups, which suddenly have to compete with foreign Goliaths for the country's best and brightest.
"The more companies are being created and built, the more pressure there is," said Jeremy Shaki, co-founder of Lighthouse Labs, a Toronto-based technology education company that offers coding boot camps and other services for people looking to level up their careers.
Shaki says it's no secret why large foreign tech firms are eager to set up shop in Canada; beyond the access to new customers, Canadian universities are cranking out skilled workers at a rapid clip — and they often come at a fraction of what they would cost in places like Silicon Valley.
In late March, Meta (formerly known as Facebook) announced plans to hire up to 2,500 people in Toronto and in other parts of Canada, while Google says it's looking to triple its workforce here. Amazon wants to hire for some 600 tech jobs.
But in pure financial terms, these companies have the resources to outbid everyone else when it comes to securing the right person, and that can make things difficult for local firms trying to compete.
More than just money
Ron Spreeuwenberg faces that challenge every day. He's the CEO of HiMama, a software company founded in Toronto in 2013. HiMama makes software solutions for the child-care industry and employs roughly 180 people, more than half of whom have been hired in the past two years.
Now boasting 10,000 customers, the company has expanded its hiring pool well beyond their home base of Toronto, with staff across Canada and the U.S.
Canada's days of being little more than a source of cheap coders are over, says Spreeuwenberg.
"I think we had a period of time where we were lucky, where we could find really great quality talent at lower compensation rates," he said in an interview. "But people have found out about us and it made it challenging."
WATCH | How small startups compete with the big guns:
Fighting to keep Canada's tech talent
3 days ago
Duration 0:50
Ron Spreeuwenberg, CEO of Toronto-based software company HiMama, says his business is booming but it is getting harder and harder to compete with U.S. giants setting up shop in Canada because of all the technology talent here. 0:50
The biggest thing Spreeuwenberg says he hears time and again from new hires is that they want the opportunity to grow and develop their skills. "The No. 1 reason why people choose a company or a role is what the company does and the opportunity for them, in terms of learning and development, and the challenge," he said.
That said, he acknowledges money helps. "We know we're competing against companies … who certainly can afford a lot more than us when it comes to compensation."
Spreeuwenberg says a major selling feature for recruiting would-be hires to HiMama from outside Canada is the country itself, as is the opportunity to work toward the company's goal of improving childhood development.
"Those are very important for us and things that a lot of our employees care deeply about," he said.
Meta recently announced plans to hire up to 2,500 more people in Canada, as part of a plan to pivot toward what is called the metaverse. (Evan Mitsui/CBC)
That desire to do good work and help solve problems is a major theme at another Canadian startup, Mysa, based in St. John's. Founded as a Kickstarter project in 2016, the smart thermostat company has grown from just two employees at launch to more than 100 across Canada today, serving more than 150,000 customers.
Just as Shopify is synonymous to Ottawa, and BlackBerry is to Waterloo, the 800-pound gorilla of the technology sector on the East Coast is Verafin, a St. John's-based cybersecurity firm that made headlines last year when it was bought by Nasdaq for nearly $3 billion.
While not a household name in the rest of Canada, Verfin's successes have shone a light on the region's booming technology sector, said Mysa co-founder Joshua Green.
That means he, too, is dealing with the same compensation conundrum other startups face: It's hard to compete with deep-pocketed big tech.
But just as HiMama appeals to people looking to live in Toronto, he's able to make a similar pitch.
"That quality of living, of being able to work for a technology company while also living in a place like Newfoundland and Labrador, is appealing to not everyone, but a growing number of people," Green said.
"And the No. 1 reason why I think people want to join — our mission and the purpose of why we exist as a company — is to fight climate change."
Investment money pouring in, too
The HiMamas and Mysas of the world aren't just attracting the attention of tech giants like Google, Meta and Microsoft when it comes to hiring; they're also attracting U.S. investment dollars.
HiMama recently secured $70 million in funding from Boston-based private equity firm Bain Capital — a sign of just how on the radar Canada's tech ecosystem has become.
"There's a lot of interest from investors outside of Canada in Canadian companies because of the talent and the quality of the startups," said Craig Leonard, a partner with venture capital fund Graphite Ventures.
"But also, they are relatively less expensive at times than some of the companies who would be built in, in some of the other ecosystems, [like] say, in the United States."
According to a recent report from commercial real estate firm CBRE, Toronto is the third-largest technology hub in North America. Ottawa and Vancouver also rank in the top dozen, well ahead of places like Austin, Texas, Portland, Wash., and Chicago.
Though it may be hard to believe, there are more tech workers in Toronto than there are in Seattle, which is home to Amazon and Microsoft.
Not that long ago, lower salaries would have been a major selling point for a U.S. tech company looking to establish a beachhead in Canada. But the pandemic changed things some, as the shift toward virtual offices allowed Canadian companies to attract talent from around the world.
"It also levelled up the salaries and the opportunity for Canadian talent to go and work for other companies," said Leonard.
WATCH | Tech at its best is a 'flywheel' of talent, this investor says:
Canada a 'flywheel' of tech talent
3 days ago
Duration 0:36
Craig Leonard with investment firm Graphite Ventures says the right tech ecosystem for everyone is one where companies invest in their employees to create value for them, but also end up creating the next generation of companies in the process. 0:36
For Dr. Alexandra Greenhill, the CEO of Vancouver-based health-care-focused artificial intelligence firm Careteam Technologies Inc., a little healthy competition is good for everyone, making companies of all sizes better, while also spurring on the next generation of startups.
"If we do this right, it could be a very positive thing for the country," she said in an interview. "But if we don't do this right, it can be a disaster."
Greenhill said she recently lost a handful of great people to Amazon, after it set up shop in her backyard of Vancouver and were "offering two to three times the salary that I offer my engineers."
While she doesn't begrudge anyone for leaving, she'd like to see large rivals invest a little more in training less experienced workers, as opposed to simply hoovering up a local talent pool that's been painstakingly created over time.
"We can give them all kinds of perks and interesting things to do and whatnot, but the pure dollars are just completely out of our league and drive all the prices up," she said.
Though Greenhill admits it's a constant struggle, she's optimistic about Canada's tech future, because she can see what's possible when the right environment is created — one that encourages foreign companies to come in and participate in the ecosystem, rather than just take from it.
Technology giants, including Netflix, Google, Amazon and Facebook (now known as Meta), have been on a hiring spree in Canada of late. (Jason Alden/Bloomberg)
She's on the board of Canada's Digital Technology Supercluster, a government-led initiative seeking to fast track Canada's status as a digital hub. Greenhill says the initiative combines the carrot of government cash to fund tech projects, with the stick that strings come attached to that money.
Specifically, foreign tech giants wishing to participate have to invest themselves and set up roots, too.
"They have a role to play in making the ecosystem a better, stronger place," she said.
A rising tide lifts all boats
With the backing of government, the supercluster initiative plays something of a convener role, Greenhill said, holding big tech "accountable for their commitments and inviting them to behave like good corporate citizens."
And instead of seeing big tech as an adversary, they can help to cross-pollinate the whole ecosystem. "They set up accelerators, they become mentors, they create joint projects with the local companies," she said.
To the investment community, dollars and cents will always be top of mind, but Graphite's Leonard says the best outcome for Canada's tech sector is one where there's a lot of collaboration and competition.
"If you get that consistent investment … it creates a flywheel effect of anchor companies that then develop that talent," he said. "They start companies, those companies exit, that talent goes back into the pool, as well as investment dollars."
Without that collaboration and long-term commitment, there will be no rising tide to raise all boats.
"If we don't do anything, you can end up being a country that just exports talent," Greenhill said.
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