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Hoping for some relief at the grocery store this fall? Don’t rely on it
When it comes to rising food prices, it looks like we won’t be catching a break anytime soon.
Canada’s food suppliers are once again issuing notices to retailers informing them of upcoming price increases.
The letters signal that you’re likely to pay more at the grocery store this fall, in a year that’s already seen nearly double-digit price increases.
Food prices in stores rose 9.7 per cent in May from a year earlier, Statistics Canada said last month.
Sylvain Charlebois, a professor of food distribution and policy at Dalhousie University in Halifax, said food price increases could reach 10 percent before starting to slow.
“We expect food inflation to peak between now and the end of September,” he said. “In fact, it could get north of 10 percent before things start to calm down.” Read More
In some cases, higher food prices are due to the Canadian Dairy Commission’s approval of a second milk price increase this year. (Sean Kilpatrick/The Canadian Press)
Rogers to credit customers for 5 days of outage service
Was your cell phone or internet service down as part of the massive Rogers outage?
This news may offer some comfort.
The company says it will credit you for five days of service after the outage affected cellular and Internet use by millions of Canadians.
The outage began on Friday, July 8, with lingering effects felt over the weekend. This disrupted government services and payment systems, prompting criticism and questions from the federal government and the telecommunications regulator.
“We’ve been listening to our customers and Canadians across the country who have told us how significant the impact of the outage has been for them,” said Chloe Luciani-Giroir, a spokeswoman for Rogers, in an email to CBC News. Read more.
Were you affected by the Rogers outage? We want to hear from you. How did it affect your day or weekend? Email us at marketplace@cbc.ca.
Rogers blamed the July 8 outage on a network system failure following a maintenance update on the core network. (Galit Rodan/The Canadian Press)
Surprise: These refund emails from CERB are not scams
The email from Service Canada requesting the return of CERB benefits has all the hallmarks of a scam, according to some people who received it.
On Twitter and Reddit, recipients said the formatting looked significantly different from government correspondence they had received in the past. One even wrote that the government logo looked “terrible” as if it had been made with the no-nonsense MS Paint app.
“You were being paid more benefits than the amount you were originally eligible for,” said one such email seen by CBC News.
However, Service Canada has confirmed that the emails are the real deal. Now you have to pay. Read more
Some recipients of emails claiming CERB benefits have gone online to forums like Reddit to discuss whether they were part of a scam. It turned out that the emails were indeed from Service Canada. (CBC)
“What century are we in?” This man waited 4 days in the corridor for surgery to fix a broken leg
Four days is a long time to wait for surgery if you have a broken leg bone.
But that was the experience of Ron Prickett, 76, of Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario, who spent days in pain in the hallway of Wiarton Hospital on a stretcher after a bicycle accident in Sauble Beach.
After arriving there by ambulance, Prickett was placed in a small makeshift room in one of the facility’s hallways, with nothing to distract him and no way to turn the lights on or off.
His experience is another example of an underfunded provincial health system straining due to staff shortages and capacity issues as tired and underpaid hospital workers leave due to the exhaustion of fighting the COVID-19 pandemic for more than two years.
“It amazes me that in Ontario we have these facilities and I can’t fix a broken bone. I have to lie with a broken bone in my body for four days,” he said. “It’s so frustrating. I have no control.”
On Thursday, Liesel Prickett, Ron’s daughter, told CBC News that her father was finally scheduled for surgery Thursday morning at the London Health Sciences Center in southwestern Ontario.
“I hear he may be sent back to Wiarton to recover. Let’s hope it won’t be in the hallway again,” she said via text message. Read more
Ron Prickett of Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario, shown on better days, broke his femur in a bicycle accident and was on a stretcher in the hallway of Wiarton Hospital for four days before undergoing surgery in London, Ontario. (Submitted by Liesel Prickett)
What else is going on?
Woman faces $50,000 fine for missing shingles after bylaw complaint: Homeowner says bylaws should be applied equally or not at all.
No new equipment or land for several years, say farmers hit by rising interest rates: An increase in the Bank of Canada’s benchmark interest rate will slow agricultural investment.
Health Canada approves first COVID-19 vaccine for youngest children: Vaccine will be available for children between 6 months and 5 years of age
Bank of Canada raises interest rate to 2.5%. Here’s what this means for you: The bank is aggressively raising interest rates on loans to fight rampant inflation.
Marketplace needs your help
We’ve all heard of inflation and contractionary inflation, but have you heard of modest inflation? It is a practice for businesses to charge the same price as always for services while including less. Consider hotels that no longer offer daily room cleaning or flights that no longer come with free carry-on bags. Let us know where you’ve seen this in action. Email us at marketplace@cbc.ca.
We’re going shopping and want to hear from you! What makes you shop at a particular store? Does the music or store layout play a factor? And have you noticed that your clothing size changes depending on where you shop? We want to hear your stories. Email us at marketplace@cbc.ca.
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