In this edition:
- Minister of Transport announces new sound requirements for hybrid and electric vehicles
- Study: Perceptions of shared values in Canadian society among the immigrant population
- Canada’s ban on foreign property buyers won’t apply to many workers, international students
Minister of Transport announces new sound requirements for hybrid and electric vehicles
Hybrid and electric vehicles have quiet motors and produce almost no sound at low speeds, which can make their presence on our roads hard to detect. Quiet vehicles pose an increased risk of collision to road users such as cyclists, pedestrians, and Canadians with disabilities.
Today, the Minister of Transport, the Honourable Omar Alghabra, announced that the Government of Canada is amending the Motor Vehicle Safety Regulations to mandate minimum levels of noise from hybrid and electric vehicles.
Under the new requirements, all hybrid and electric vehicles will now be required to have sound emitters that would produce noise at low speeds. Automakers can determine the type of sound the vehicle makes, but the volume and pitch must allow a road user to hear if a vehicle is speeding up or slowing down.
Study: Perceptions of shared values in Canadian society among the immigrant population
A new study, entitled “Perceptions of shared values in Canadian society among the immigrant population,” published today in Economic and Social Reports, compared the proportions of immigrants and Canadian-born people who believed that Canadians share values to a great extent. This provides a subjective assessment about how immigrants view Canadian society with regard to values that enable their integration. These values represent the democratic norms or standards that provide a basis for social inclusion in a diverse society.
Nearly double the proportion of immigrants as Canadian-born people believed that Canadians share values on ethnic and cultural diversity (47% of immigrants compared with 24% of Canadian-born people), linguistic duality (42% compared with 23%) and respect for Indigenous cultures (37% compared with 18%) to a great extent.
Recent immigrants had particularly favourable perceptions, but smaller proportions of established immigrants believed that Canadians share values to a great extent. However, immigrants landed in Canada for 20 years or longer had more favourable perceptions of shared values than Canadian-born people.
Canada’s ban on foreign property buyers won’t apply to many workers, international students
Days before non-residents are banned from buying homes in Canada, the federal government has announced a number of exemptions, including for many foreign workers and international students who plan to live in Canada long-term.
From January 1, 2023, non-Canadians will be prohibited from buying residential property for two years. The federal government announced the ban as part of its April budget, saying the measure would help improve housing affordability for Canadians.
Details about who the ban would cover, and who would be exempt, were released yesterday, giving prospective buyers and realtors just 11 days to wrap up any purchases that could be prohibited in the new year.
Focus on Markets
How 2022 shocked, rocked and rolled global markets
Trillions of dollars wiped off world stocks, bond market tantrums, whip-sawing currency and commodities and the collapse of a few crypto empires – 2022 has been perhaps the most turbulent year investors have ever seen, and for good reason.
Tallying the final numbers is useful but doesn’t even come close to telling the whole story.
Dow drops 700 points as December sell-off continues
Stocks fell today as a year-end sell-off returned to Wall Street following a brief respite this week.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 727 points or 2.18 per cent. S&P 500 declined 2.71 per cent, while the Nasdaq Composite was 3.48 per cent lower.
This decline follows a 526-point rally in the Dow on Wednesday after better-than-expected earnings from Nike and FedEx, as well as strong consumer sentiment data for December. The S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite surged 1.49 per cent and 1.54 per cent, respectively, yesterday.
However, the selling returned today as investors remained concerned that further monetary tightening from central banks around the world will push the economy into a recession.
Through the Daily Updates, the GNCC aims to deliver important business news in a timely manner. We disseminate all news and information we feel will be important to businesses. Inclusion in the Daily Update is not an endorsement by the GNCC.
