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© St. Petersburg Times, published July 14, 2002
Western Canada phone giant Telus Corp. is cutting 6,000 jobs to reduce its debt of $9-billion.
The job cuts amount to one-fifth of the 30,000 workers and include 5,000 union jobs and 1,000 management positions at the telecom company headquartered in suburban Vancouver.
The cutbacks at the country's second-largest phone company after Bell Canada will result largely by consolidating customer-service centers in Alberta and British Columbia and closing most of its retail stores.
Last month, Telus offered voluntary buyout and early-retirement packages to 11,000 workers.
A potential strike affecting national parks and historic sites was averted as public service workers for Parks Canada ratified a collective agreement. The contract covers 5,000 employees, members of the Public Service Alliance of Canada.
There's concern in Great Lakes waters shared by Canada and the United States about the Asian carp. The fish has made its way north from Mississippi where it was introduced in the 1970s to eat algae and snails in ponds. They have the potential to seriously damage the Great Lakes ecosystem as they consume vast amounts of food, are highly prolific and can quickly grow to a size at which they have no natural predators.
Canadians are buying less booze than they did a generation ago, Statistics Canada reports. As well, connoisseurs have switched to buying more red wine than white, but beer remains the beverage of choice. Last year, the average Canadian bought about 2 gallons of liquor, mostly Canadian whisky, 3 gallons of wine and 22.5 gallons of beer.
It was a losing week for stock markets and the Canadian dollar slipped lower.
The Toronto Stock Exchange index closed Friday at 6,819 points, its lowest level in nine months, while the Canadian Venture Exchange was lower at 1,127 points.
Canada's dollar dipped to 65.23 cents while the U.S. dollar was worth $1.5330 Canadian before bank exchange fees.
The Bank of Canada key interest rate is steady at 2.5 percent while the prime-lending rate is 4.25 percent.
Lotto 6-49: (Wednesday) 1, 5, 7, 10, 26 and 49; bonus 19. (July 6) 10, 21, 23, 28, 31 and 39; bonus 7.
Alberta "oil patch vandal" Wiebo Ludwig is taking up the fight against oil companies again. As his parole ends after serving prison time for oil industry bombings and vandalism, Ludwig is behind a project to create a "sniffer bus" to travel the Prairies testing air quality. He has blamed the energy industry and its emissions for harming his family, livestock and land.
A case of West Nile virus has been found in a dead crow in Winnipeg, the first time it has been detected west of Ontario. The mosquito-borne virus was found last month in two cases in Montreal. Most people bitten by an infected mosquito won't become ill as it happens "only in very rare cases," said Dr. Susan Roberecki, Manitoba's deputy chief medical health officer.