Most of Canada to receive emergency alert test today
The federal government will test its capacity to issue emergency alerts today, with the exception of Ontario, where the test will take place on May 15.
Roaring back from shutdowns related to the COVID-19 pandemic, Americans are on an unprecedented spending spree that is driving up prices and hampering global supply chains.
“We’ve got this huge economy restarting from a low point that it hit about a year ago, and it’s coming straight up like a rocket,” George Calhoun, a professor at Stevens Institute of Technology in New Jersey, explained in a recent interview with NBC News.
The surge in demand is driving up the costs of all sorts of products from food to furniture. Most recently, Starbucks reported that it has been having trouble sourcing its ingredients.
However, one of the biggest shortages is for raw materials like lumber, much of which is imported from Canada.
When asked if he’s ever seen such a wild swing with lumber prices, Ken Simonson, chief economist for the Associated General Contractors of America replied: “It’s crazy.”
He added that the Trump-era tariffs on Canadian lumber that the Biden administration wants to double is a real concern:
“That has certainly added some kindling to the fire on these lumber prices... As buyers of your products, the construction industry wants to see that tariff go away.”
Lumber prices tripled during the pandemic due to constraints on production and a housing boom that had a locked down nation eager to find a new place to live or renovate their existing residence.
According to CTV News' Chief Financial Commentator Pattie Lovett-Reid, there is still soaring demand for lumber and long-term supply issues that won’t be resolved overnight.
In addition to the rising costs, consumers are also faced with Trump-era tariffs on Canadian lumber that the Biden administration now wants to double.
In 2018, the Trump administration imposed a 20 per cent tariff on Canadian softwood, before the COVID-19 pandemic hit, but lowered it to nine per cent late last year after a decision by the World Trade Organization.
U.S. industry analysts say tariffs and lumber costs add an extra US$35,000 to the price of a new home. That figure is so steep, Habitat for Humanity worries its charity could be priced out.
“We’re seeing an increase of about 50 per cent across the board of all supplies,” saidLeah Miller, CEO of Habitat for Humanity of Greater Sacramento. “We’re having to be very nimble and find creative ways to get busy.”
The U.S. is not alone in slapping new tariffs on foreign materials. In May, the Canada Border Services Agency set steep anti-dumping tariffs on leather-upholstered furniture manufactured in China and Vietnam, as high as 295 per cent and 101 per cent, respectively.
Top officials are downplaying the fears of rising costs and inflation, insisting that prices will stabilize when the pandemic is no longer an economic problem, but lawmakers are coming under intense pressure from home builders and other industries to cut tariffs.
“We have had several months of high inflation that most economists, including me, believe will be transitory as our economy gets back in full swing after the pandemic,” U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen told the House of Representatives Committee on Thursday.
The White House has since launched a task force to deal with critical supply chain disruptions, but officials say they are confident that the issue will resolve itself in the coming months.
The federal government will test its capacity to issue emergency alerts today, with the exception of Ontario, where the test will take place on May 15.
Prince Harry, the Duke of Sussex, has made headlines with his recent arrival in the U.K., this time to celebrate all things Invictus. But upon the prince landing in the U.K., we have already had confirmation that King Charles III won't have time to see his youngest son during his brief visit.
An Ontario man found out that a line of credit he thought was insured actually isn't after his wife of 50 years died.
After more than a century, Boy Scouts of America is rebranding as Scouting America, another major shakeup for an organization that once proudly resisted change.
With Donald Trump sitting just feet away, Stormy Daniels testified Tuesday at the former president's hush money trial about a sexual encounter the porn actor says they had in 2006 that resulted in her being paid to keep silent during the presidential race 10 years later.
In March, Indonesian officials and local fishermen rescued 75 people from the overturned hull of a boat off the coast of Indonesia. Until now, little was known about why the boat capsized.
An Ontario woman said it would have been impossible to buy a house without her mother – an anecdote that animates the fact that over 17 per cent of Canadian homeowners born in the ‘90s own their property with their parents, according to a new report.
A long-simmering feud between hip-hop superstars Drake and Kendrick Lamar reached a boiling point in recent days as the pair traded increasingly personal insults on a succession of diss tracks. Here’s a quick overview of what’s behind the ongoing beef.
When Speaker Greg Fergus tossed out Pierre Poilievre from the House last week, "those of us who have experience as parliamentarians simply couldn't believe our eyes," writes former NDP leader Tom Mulcair in his column for CTVNews.ca
An Ontario man says he paid more than $7,700 for a luxury villa he found on a popular travel website -- but the listing was fake.
Whether passionate about Poirot or hungry for Holmes, Winnipeg mystery obsessives have had a local haunt for over 30 years in which to search out their latest page-turners.
Eighty-two-year-old Susan Neufeldt and 90-year-old Ulrich Richter are no spring chickens, but their love blossomed over the weekend with their wedding at Pine View Manor just outside of Rosthern.
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 mother goose and her goslings caused a bit of a traffic jam on a busy stretch of the Trans-Canada Highway near Vancouver Saturday.
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.