Air Canada walks back new seat selection policy change after backlash
Air Canada has paused a new seat selection fee for travellers booked on the lowest fares just days after implementing it.
The rising cost of living is worrying Canadians and defining the Ontario election as prices go up on everything from groceries to gas.
In the Greater Toronto Area, the average price for a litre of fuel just hit a record-breaking $2.09 while prices in Montreal soared to $2.15 on Monday. Both are below Vancouver, where prices recently reached $2.34. Experts predict no immediate relief.
“Usually I put $50 a week,” a driver told CTV News. “Now I’m putting $80 a week for the same amount of gas.”
Food prices have also surged.
"Vegetables have gone up in prices, canned goods have gone up in prices, the fruit and everything else,” a shopper told CTV News. “Even the meat. Meat's ridiculous.”
The rising cost of living appears to be top of mind for voters in Ontario, where the leaders of provincial parties debated Monday for the last time before a June 2 election.
Progressive Conservative leader Doug Ford has pledged to temporarily cut gas and fuel taxes while the Liberals are promising to lower all transit fares to one dollar until 2024. The NDP is proposing grants for energy efficient upgrades to homes, which could help lower utility bills.
"I'm undecided as far as which party, but whoever can take control of the cost of living,” a voter told CTV News.
Sarika Agrawal says she would spend $100 a week to feed her family of five a year ago. Today she says it costs closer to $200.
"Grocery prices and gas prices: two things they should do something about,” Agrawal told CTV News.
There has at least been some relief in the housing market. For the second month in a row, the price of homes in Canada dropped, according to data from the Canadian Real Estate Association. The average cost of a Canadian home in April was $746,000, down from a record high of more than $816,000 in Feb. 2022 – a decrease of nine per cent. Although increasing mortgage rates are helping cool the market, houses in Canada are still more expensive than they were a year ago.
The hot housing market in Vancouver is no exception. In the city’s east side, a dilapidated and completely uninhabitable two-bedroom home was recently listed for $1.5 million.
“There's not a whole lot out there for $1.5 million, strangely enough,” Vancouver realtor David Hutchinson told CTV News.
Statistics Canada is set to release its latest inflation numbers on Wednesday. While many hope inflation has peaked, data released in April showed inflation had reached a 30-year-high of 6.7 per cent.
Air Canada has paused a new seat selection fee for travellers booked on the lowest fares just days after implementing it.
An ongoing municipal strike, court battles and revolt by half of council has prompted the province to oust the mayor and council in Black River-Matheson.
Three officers on a U.S. Marshals Task Force serving a warrant for a felon wanted for possessing a firearm were killed and five other officers were wounded in a shootout Monday at a North Carolina home, police said.
A Calgary elementary school principal has been charged with possession of child pornography, authorities announced Monday.
The Vancouver Island Health Authority is downplaying what staff describe as a cockroach infestation in a medical unit of Saanich Peninsula Hospital.
Toronto police say 12 people are facing a combined 102 charges in connection with an investigation into a major credit fraud scheme.
One of the winners of a historic US$1.3 billion Powerball jackpot last month is an immigrant from Laos who has had cancer for eight years and had his latest chemotherapy treatment last week.
Britney Spears and her father Jamie Spears will avoid what could have been a long, ugly and revealing trial with a settlement of the lingering issues in the court conservatorship that controlled her life and financial decisions for nearly 14 years.
The clock is ticking ahead of the deadline to file a 2023 income tax return. A personal finance expert explains why you should get them done -- even if you owe more than you can pay.
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.
The lawyer for a residential school survivor leading a proposed class-action defamation lawsuit against the Catholic Church over residential schools says the court action is a last resort.
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.