More than 115 cases of eye damage reported in Ontario after solar eclipse
More than 115 people who viewed the solar eclipse in Ontario earlier this month experienced eye damage after the event, according to eye doctors in the province.
While Canadians are feeling the pain of record-high inflation, among G7 nations we are surpassed by Germany, the U.S., and the U.K., who are also experiencing astronomical rates of increase over the past year.
While much of this inflation is fuelled by pandemic shutdowns and supply chain disruptions, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has amplified these existing pressures among advanced economies, which are seeing a price rise in nearly everything — from food and fertilizers to energy and natural gas.
The spillover effects of COVID-19 and the Russia-Ukraine war are now affecting the pockets of many households in the advanced G7 economies.
With the meeting of G7 finance ministers underway this week in Bonn, Germany, CTVNews.ca compiled data from the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Statistics Canada, and the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) to analyze and compared how Canada’s inflation stands among its G7 peers.
Can't see the graphs below? Click here
While every G7 country saw rising inflation, the U.K.’s shot up to 9 per cent in April – its highest since the early 1980s. Meanwhile, the U.S. reached its highest level in more than 40 years, at 8.3 per cent. Canada'st inflation also reached a peak at 6.8 per cent, the highest since 1991.
A recent report by the IMF shows that global economic prospects suffered a huge setback, largely exacerbated by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The report said such events raise economic risks, and policy tradeoffs can become more challenging. Inflation is now a “clear and present danger for many countries”, according to the report.
Experts at the IMF project that due to the war-related disruptions, global inflation to remain elevated for much longer than anticipated earlier.
Among its G7 peers, Canada has the fourth highest inflation followed by Italy, France and Japan. With an estimated lowest inflation rate of 2 per cent, Japan is seeing its strongest inflation in three decades.
The central banks across all G7 nations are now rushing to tighten their monetary policy, as many drift away from their inflation targets. Just last month, the Bank of Canada raised its key interest rate target by half a percentage point to one per cent to curb inflation. It has further said there will be more rate hikes.
In a recent speech in Montreal, Bank of Canada deputy governor Toni Gravelle said that a "perfect storm" boosted inflation.
For consumers, this is a double whammy.
The economic upheaval brought by the pandemic and the war in Ukraine has impacted inflation, Gravelle said in his remarks. Regular purchases like gasoline and groceries will continue to shoot up due to the higher prices for commodities such as oil, wheat, and fertilizer.
Moreover, due to the high cost of production, businesses are passing a portion of this cost to regular households.
According to Statistics Canada, higher prices of fertilizer and natural gas have increased the cost for farmers, who have passed along some of these costs to consumers.
Almost all G7 nations are now feeling the pain of high food prices.
While the U.S has the highest food inflation among all G7 nations, the U.K.’s cost of food is also on a steep rise, along with worries around food scarcity.
Recent data from OECD shows that Canada has the second highest food inflation among its G7 peers.
Experts in Canada say that rising inflation will push more Canadians to the risk of hunger as inflation outpaces their grocery budgets.
One of the leading contributors to fuel inflation is energy prices.
With Russia supplying around 19 per cent of the world’s natural gas and 11 per cent of oil, energy prices have jumped alarmingly and this holds true for all G7 nations. Canada lags behind G7 nations, when it comes to energy prices.
European countries in G7 are taking a bigger hit.
Among the G7 economies, Germany is the most dependent on Russian fuel and the steep price hit is being felt by its industrial-heavy business sector as well as consumers. According to recent data by the OECD, gas spot prices in Europe are more than 10 times higher than they were a year ago. The cost of oil has also doubled over the same period.
To combat the rising energy prices, Germany recently slashed its fuel tax through a US$16.5 billion energy package. Other European G7 nations have taken similar steps.
With the ongoing Ukraine crisis, France also introduced new measures to help households, companies, farmers, and fishermen cope with rising energy prices. Last year, France capped gas and power price increases and offered financial handouts to low-income households. To shield companies and consumers from higher bills, Italy approved a package of US$4.9 billion. The package will cover 5.2 million families keeping their energy bills at the level seen last summer.
Ahead of the G7 meeting, in a recent speech to the Brussels Economic Forum on Tuesday, U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet L. Yellen commended European leaders for their proposal to phase out all Russian energy supplies within six months.
“No country controls the wind and the sun. Let’s make sure that this is the last time that the global economy is held hostage to the hostile actions of those who produce fossil fuels,” she said.
More than 115 people who viewed the solar eclipse in Ontario earlier this month experienced eye damage after the event, according to eye doctors in the province.
A Sherwood Park family says their new house is uninhabitable. The McNaughton's say they were forced to leave the house after living there for only a week because contaminants inside made it difficult to breathe.
A man has been handed a lengthy hunting ban and fined thousands of dollars for illegally killing a grizzly bear, B.C. conservation officers say.
The B.C. NDP has asked the federal government to recriminalize public drug use, marking a major shift in the province's approach to addressing the deadly overdose crisis.
The Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) says it's investigating an interaction between a uniformed officer and anti-Trudeau government protestors after a video circulated on social media.
An emergency slide fell off a Delta Air Lines jetliner shortly after takeoff Friday from New York, and pilots who felt a vibration in the plane circled back to land safely at JFK Airport.
Sophie Gregoire Trudeau says there is 'still so much love' between her and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, as they navigate their post-separation relationship co-parenting their three children.
George Mallory is renowned for being one of the first British mountaineers to attempt to scale the dizzying heights of Mount Everest during the 1920s. Nearly a century later, newly digitized letters shed light on Mallory’s hopes and fears about ascending Everest.
A loud explosion was heard across Hamilton on Friday after a propane tank was accidentally destroyed and detonated at a local scrap metal yard, police say.
As if a 4-0 Edmonton Oilers lead in Game 1 of their playoff series with the Los Angeles Kings wasn't good enough, what was announced at Rogers Place during the next TV timeout nearly blew the roof off the downtown arena.
Mounties in Nanaimo, B.C., say two late-night revellers are lucky their allegedly drunken antics weren't reported to police after security cameras captured the men trying to steal a heavy sign from a downtown business.
A property tax bill is perplexing a small townhouse community in Fergus, Ont.
When identical twin sisters Kim and Michelle Krezonoski were invited to compete against some of the world’s most elite female runners at last week’s Boston Marathon, they were in disbelief.
The giant stone statues guarding the Lions Gate Bridge have been dressed in custom Vancouver Canucks jerseys as the NHL playoffs get underway.
A local Oilers fan is hoping to see his team cut through the postseason, so he can cut his hair.
A family from Laval, Que. is looking for answers... and their father's body. He died on vacation in Cuba and authorities sent someone else's body back to Canada.
A former educational assistant is calling attention to the rising violence in Alberta's classrooms.
The federal government says its plan to increase taxes on capital gains is aimed at wealthy Canadians to achieve “tax fairness.”