Work stoppage possible as WestJet issues lockout notice to maintenance engineers' union
A lockout notice issued by WestJet to a union representing aircraft maintenance engineers could result in a work stoppage next week.
Statistics Canada says retail sales in April posted their largest drop since April last year at the start of the pandemic as governments moved to deal with its third wave.
Statistics Canada said Wednesday retail sales fell 5.7 per cent to $54.8 billion in April, the largest decline since April 2020 during the pandemic's first wave.
The agency also said its preliminary estimate suggested an additional drop of 3.2 per cent for May, but cautioned the figure would be revised.
TD Bank economist Ksenia Bushmeneva said third wave-related restrictions on non-essential and in-person shopping held back retail sales in April as expected.
"In addition to restrictions, auto dealers were also impacted by the shortage of microchips, limiting their inventory and weighing on sales that month," Bushmeneva wrote in a report.
"While the microchip shortage may persist for some time, other headwinds will ease. With the vaccination campaign gathering speed and most provinces gradually lifting restrictions in June, consumer spending is on track to rebound strongly in the second half of the year."
The drop in April sales was concentrated in retailers deemed "non-essential" as sales fell in nine of 11 subsectors.
Core retail sales -- which exclude gasoline stations and motor vehicle and parts dealers -- fell 7.6 per cent.
Sales at clothing and clothing accessories stores plunged 28.6 per cent in April, while general merchandise stores dropped 8.1 per cent.
Statistics Canada said sales at building material and garden equipment and supplies dealers fell 10.4 per cent, their first drop in nine months.
Meanwhile, sales at motor vehicle and parts dealers and gasoline stations also fell for the first time in four months
Sales at motor vehicle and parts dealers fell by 1.4 per cent, while sales at gasoline stations fell 4.1 per cent in April.
Retail sales in volume terms fell 5.6 per cent in April.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 23, 2021.
A lockout notice issued by WestJet to a union representing aircraft maintenance engineers could result in a work stoppage next week.
A man accused of arson in a January Old Strathcona apartment fire is expected to be charged with manslaughter after a body was discovered in the burned building late last month.
A man was denied a $5,000 payout from his brother after a B.C. tribunal dismissed his claim disputing how many kittens were born in a litter.
Three bodies recovered in an area of Baja California are likely to be those of the two Australians and an American who went missing last weekend during a camping and surfing trip, the state prosecutor’s office said Saturday.
Almost a week after all London Drugs stores across Western Canada abruptly closed amid a cyberattack, they began a "gradual reopening" on Saturday.
Quebec provincial police handed out hundreds of fines to Hells Angels members and other supporting motorcycle clubs who met for their 'first run' in a small town near Sherbrooke, Que.
Auston Matthews was back on the ice with his teammates Saturday.
Russia has put Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on its wanted list, Russian state media reported Saturday, citing the interior ministry’s database.
According to an X post by the Transportation Security Administration, officers at the Miami International Airport found the small bag of snakes hidden in a passenger's trousers on April 26 at a checkpoint.
Alberta Ballet's double-bill production of 'Der Wolf' and 'The Rite of Spring' marks not only its final show of the season, but the last production for twin sisters Alexandra and Jennifer Gibson.
A British Columbia mayor has been censured by city council – stripping him of his travel and lobbying budgets and removing him from city committees – for allegedly distributing a book that questions the history of Indigenous residential schools in Canada.
Three men in Quebec from the same family have fathered more than 600 children.
A group of SaskPower workers recently received special recognition at the legislature – for their efforts in repairing one of Saskatchewan's largest power plants after it was knocked offline for months following a serious flood last summer.
A police officer on Montreal's South Shore anonymously donated a kidney that wound up drastically changing the life of a schoolteacher living on dialysis.
Since 1932, Montreal's Henri Henri has been filled to the brim with every possible kind of hat, from newsboy caps to feathered fedoras.
Police in Oak Bay, B.C., had to close a stretch of road Sunday to help an elephant seal named Emerson get safely back into the water.
Out of more than 9,000 entries from over 2,000 breweries in 50 countries, a handful of B.C. brews landed on the podium at the World Beer Cup this week.
Raneem, 10, lives with a neurological condition and liver disease and needs Cholbam, a medication, for a longer and healthier life.