Canada

May 26, 2009 -- Detroit—The Honorable Janet Napolitano, U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security, and the Honorable Peter Van Loan, Canadian Minister of Public Safety, toured port operations today on both sides of the shared United States/Canada border and signed an agreement to make Shiprider—joint law enforcement teams stationed along the international maritime border—permanent.    » read more »

TORONTO, May 26 -- Canadian Solar Inc. (Nasdaq: CSIQ) today announced its unaudited financial results for the first quarter of 2009 ended March 31, 2009 and updated outlook for full year 2009 shipments.

Dr. Shawn Qu, Chairman and CEO of Canadian Solar, commented: "Our results for the first quarter were in line with our expectations, as we continued to exercise prudent financial management in response to the global economic downturn and the resulting pressure on all levels of the solar industry value chain. We are working closely with our supply partners to make sure that our cost structure remains competitive.    » read more »

May 21, 2009 -- In the midst of heated debate over the future of the Canadian oil sands, a new report from the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) says that prudent greenhouse gas regulations can safely limit emissions while allowing for robust development of the oil sands.

The report argues that oil sands production delivers both energy security benefits and climate change damages, but warns that both are often overstated. “For the near future, the economic and security value of oil sands expansion will likely outweigh the climate damages that the oil sands create,” it says, “but climate concerns cannot and must not be ignored, and will become more important over time.” Policymakers, it emphasizes, must carefully balance the two concerns.    » read more »

May 25, 2009 -- CAW members working at General Motors in Oshawa, Windsor, St. Catharines and Woodstock, Ontario have voted overwhelmingly in favour of a new collective agreement, ratifying the deal by 86 per cent after a series of meetings were held over the past two days.

CAW President Ken Lewenza said this new deal should provide a much-needed sense of security to the thousands of active members and tens of thousands of retirees at General Motors in Canada.    » read more »

WASHINGTON, May 5, 2009 - Canada's Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz and United States Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack today re-affirmed that all appropriate steps are being taken to protect public health and strengthen the pork industry in both countries.

Additional analysis conducted by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency of the H1N1 Influenza A has re-affirmed that the virus found in swine at a farm in Alberta, Canada, is the human strain. The CFIA has fully isolated and contained the situation on the Alberta farm.    » read more »

Consumer Confidence Weak but Optimism Exists

New York, NY, April 22, 2009 -- Global declines in consumer activity appear to be moderating or bottoming out, according to this month’s Nielsen Economic Current scorecard of consumer behavior, a regular report from The Nielsen Company. The report found that out of 11 major GDP countries, only one country – Germany – changed positions on the Nielsen scorecard, showing an uptick in consumer behavior during the month of February.    » read more »

Pittsburgh (Apr. 9) – The United Steelworkers (USW) announced it has challenged the pending federal permit in the controversial $5.4 billion TransCanada Keystone Pipeline that’s using under-standard thin-wall pipe for transport of crude oil from Alberta, Canada to Houston, Texas.

USW International Vice President Tom Conway transmitted a formal complaint to the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) on Apr. 6, urging the special permit requested by TransCanada be denied. He said the 2,000 mile pipeline is planned using a 36-inch thin-wall pipe at higher maximum operation pressure than is safely permitted under existing regulations. Read the entire Conway letter here.    » read more »

WASHINGTON, April 6, 2009 -- Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack today said that he will attend the Group of Eight (G8) Agricultural Ministerial in Treviso, Italy, April 18-20.

"Hunger and malnutrition afflict more than one billion people around the world, causing human suffering, political instability and economic stagnation," said Vilsack. "This ministerial affirms our strong commitment to global food security and provides a unique opportunity to work with other agriculture ministers in developing a shared strategy to deal with food security issues."    » read more »

Tuesday, March 31, 2009 - Surface transportation trade between the United States and its North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) partners Canada and Mexico was 27.2 percent lower in January 2009 than in January 2008, dropping to $47.5 billion, the biggest year-to-year percentage decline on record, according to the Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS) of the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT). The $47.5 billion in U.S.-NAFTA trade in January 2009 was the lowest monthly amount since January 2004.

The value of U.S. surface transportation trade with Canada and Mexico fell 10.3 percent in January from December. Month-to-month changes can be affected by seasonal variations and other factors.    » read more »

2009-03-12 -- Statement of Ray G. Young, GM executive vice president and chief financial officer:

As GM Canada announced last night, the members of the Canadian Auto Workers (CAW) union have ratified a new competitive agreement with GM Canada (GMCL), which is vital to the continued transformation of the Canadian operations. The agreement between GMCL and the CAW will quickly reduce costs in Canada by significantly closing the competitive gap with U.S. transplant automakers on active employee labor costs and substantially reducing GMCL's legacy costs by introducing cash contributions for health benefits, increasing employee health care cost sharing, freezing pension benefits and removing hourly pension cost of living adjustments.    » read more »

March 10, 2009 -- MADISON – Wisconsin Governor Jim Doyle announced today that Wisconsin’s exports increased by 9.2 percent to a $20.6 billion in 2008. Wisconsin now ranks as the 18th-largest exporting state, compared to its 21st largest rank in 2006. Since Governor Doyle took office, exports have increased by 92 percent.

“Wisconsin companies aggressively pursued overseas markets and drove our exports to record levels despite a global economic slowdown,” Governor Doyle said. “As Governor, I’m committed to doing all I can to support a climate that encourages success for our exporters.”    » read more »

Leaders establish Clean Energy Dialogue, discuss global security concerns

February 19, 2009 -- Ottawa, Ontario -- President Barack Obama and Prime Minister Stephen Harper today agreed the United States and Canada will pursue economic recovery measures and efforts to strengthen the international financial system to counter the global economic recession.

"I value our strategic partnership with Canada and look forward to working closely with the Prime Minister to address the global economic recession and create jobs, to protect our environment through promoting clean energy technologies, and achieve our shared goals in responding to international security challenges." said the President.    » read more »

WASHINGTON (February 19, 2009) — President Obama completed his first international trip to Canada today with a plan for cooperation to address global warming and move our economies to cleaner energy sources. This included an agreement to work together on cleaner vehicles, a smart power grid, and carbon capture sequestration technology for coal. Significantly, tar sands oil was not included in this agreement.
Following is a statement from Susan Casey-Lefkowitz, Director of the Canada Program for the Natural Resources Defense Council:    » read more »

February 19, 2009 -- OTTAWA - Today, President Obama and Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper met in Ottawa, where they discussed energy and agreed to work together to tackle global warming.

Statement of Sierra Club Dirty Fuels Campaign Coordinator Pat Gallagher:

"We hope today’s meeting is the start of cooperation between our nations to address global warming."

"President Obama has made it clear since taking office that he's serious about tackling climate change. He's made clean energy a key part of his economic recovery package. He's already taking bold steps to cut global warming emissions from coal plants and cars and create green jobs. We hope Canada will follow suit."    » read more »

February 17th, 2009 -- Q Mr. President, thank you for doing this -- Canadians are very excited about your trip.

THE PRESIDENT: Thank you.

Q When they watch you today sign your recovery bill into law, how concerned should they be that the Buy America clause is still there, even though you've given assurances international trade agreements will be respected -- how concerned should they be?    » read more »