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CTV News
23 minutes ago
- CTV News
Emergency cash from province means Northern Ont. town won't cease operations Aug. 1
Facing an end to municipal operations Aug. 1, Fauquier-Strickland is receiving $300,000 from the province to help it get through the next few months. After going public with its financial crisis, officials in Fauquier-Strickland say the province has agreed to provide it with $300,000 in emergency funding to pay for operations for the next few months. Council had passed a motion to cease municipal services effective Aug. 1 and lay off remaining staff, getting the province's attention to its financial plight. It even planned to sell the community's snowplow. FS_PublicWorks News that the Township of Fauquier-Strickland could cease to exist at the end of the month was a shock to residents across the province, but especially to those in the community. (Lydia Chubak/CTV News) According to the agenda for a special meeting July 31, the township has accumulated an operating deficit of $2.5 million since 2014, in addition to $3.04 million in debts. All reserves had been exhausted and the township was getting by using its line of credit, which was almost exhausted. That led the township's council to vote to cease operations Aug. 1. $300K in emergency funds In a letter dated July 25, however, Robert Flack, Ontario's minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing, said the province would give Fauquier-Strickland $300,000 to fund operations for the next three months, provided they met certain conditions. The first condition was that they rescind the motion to cease municipal operations and lay off staff on Aug. 1. Councillors must also adopt its 2025 operating budget, including water and sewer, by Aug. 31. A spending freeze must also be put in place, tax bills have to be issued and financial documents have to be submitted to the ministry by Sept. 15. 'To ensure appropriate and prudent decisions are made with the best interests of the residents of your community, I expect council to fulfill its duties and responsibilities under the Municipal Act,' Flack wrote. That includes managing their finances in a way that ensures 'the financial integrity of the township.' If all conditions are met, the township would receive $32,200 in August, $195,000 in September and $72,800 in October. Read the full agenda for the July 31 meeting here.
Global News
an hour ago
- Global News
Australia announces YouTube account ban for children under 16
The Australian government announced YouTube will be among the social media platforms that must ensure account holders are at least 16-years-old from December, reversing a position taken months ago on the popular video-sharing service. YouTube was listed as an exemption in November last year when the Parliament passed world-first laws that will ban Australian children younger than 16 from platforms including Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, TikTok and X. Communications Minister Anika Wells released rules Wednesday that decide which online services are defined as 'age-restricted social media platforms' and which avoid the age limit. The age restrictions take effect Dec. 10 and platforms will face fines of up to 50 million Australian dollars (US$33 million) for 'failing to take responsible steps' to exclude underage account holders, a government statement said. The steps are not defined. Wells defended applying the restrictions to YouTube and said the government would not be intimidated by threats of legal action from the platform's U.S. owner, Alphabet Inc. Story continues below advertisement 'The evidence cannot be ignored that four out of 10 Australian kids report that their most recent harm was on YouTube,' Wells told reporters, referring to government research. 'We will not be intimidated by legal threats when this is a genuine fight for the wellbeing of Australian kids.' Get breaking National news For news impacting Canada and around the world, sign up for breaking news alerts delivered directly to you when they happen. Sign up for breaking National newsletter Sign Up By providing your email address, you have read and agree to Global News' Terms and Conditions and Privacy Policy Children will be able to access YouTube but will not be allowed to have their own YouTube accounts. 1:55 Quebec looks into social media ban for children under 14 YouTube said the government's decision 'reverses a clear, public commitment to exclude YouTube from this ban.' 'We share the government's goal of addressing and reducing online harms. Our position remains clear: YouTube is a video sharing platform with a library of free, high-quality content, increasingly viewed on TV screens. It's not social media,' a YouTube statement said, noting it will consider next steps and engage with the government. Story continues below advertisement Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said Australia would campaign at a United Nations forum in New York in September for international support for banning children from social media. 'I know from the discussions I've had with other leaders that they are looking at this and they are considering what impact social media is having on young people in their respective nations,' Albanese said. 'It is a common experience. This is not an Australian experience.' Last year, the government commissioned an evaluation of age assurance technologies that was to report last month on how young children could be excluded from social media. The government had yet to receive that evaluation's final recommendations, Wells said. But she added the platform users won't have to upload documents such as passports and driver's licenses to prove their age. 'Platforms have to provide an alternative to providing your own personal identification documents to satisfy themselves of age,' Wells said. 'These platforms know with deadly accuracy who we are, what we do and when we do it. And they know that you've had a Facebook account since 2009, so they know that you are over 16.' Exempt services include online gaming, messaging, education and health apps. They are excluded because they are considered less harmful to children. The minimum age is intended to address harmful impacts on children including addictive behaviors caused by persuasive or manipulative platform design features, social isolation, sleep interference, poor mental and physical health, low life-satisfaction and exposure to inappropriate and harmful content, government documents say.
CTV News
an hour ago
- CTV News
Trump's tariffs give chocolate makers in Canada, Mexico an edge over U.S. firms
"Elbows Up" chocolate for sale at the Maker House in Ottawa (Katie Griffin/CTV News Ottawa) LONDON/NEW YORK — U.S. President Donald Trump's trade tariffs are meant to boost domestic manufacturing. But in the chocolate industry, they're doing the opposite: ramping up the cost of importing already-pricey cocoa and hurting the competitiveness of local factories versus Canadian and Mexican outfits that supply the U.S., according to conversations with 11 industry executives, representatives, experts and traders. Under the United States-Mexico-Canada free trade pact (USMCA), which the Trump administration has confirmed remains in place, Canada and Mexico can export chocolate to the U.S. tariff-free no matter where they sourced their inputs of cocoa, a tropical crop that does not grow in the United States. Canada also has zero tariffs on imports of raw and semi-processed cocoa like butter and powder, while Mexico grows its own beans, meaning factories both north and south of the U.S. border can produce more cheaply than those domestically who now have to pay tariffs of between 10 to 25 per cent on cocoa inputs. The rates could rise to 35 per cent on Aug. 1. A government official said that the White House continues to monitor trends in trade and commerce and listen to industry feedback to deliver on Trump's economic agenda. Top U.S. chocolate maker Hershey, which mainly makes chocolate in the U.S. but has plants in Canada and Mexico, has estimated it would face US$100 million in tariff costs in its third and fourth quarters if the levies remain in place. Smaller firms like Somerville, Massachusetts-based Taza Chocolate, which produces chocolate from scratch using imported cocoa, have no alternatives to U.S. manufacturing. Taza in May had to pay $24,124 in duties on a container of cocoa from Haiti, subject to the blanket 10 per cent tariff imposed by Trump, a Customs and Border Protection invoice showed. Taza faces a customs check of more than $30,000 to release its next container of cocoa from the Dominican Republic, founder and CEO Alex Whitmore said. 'For a company our size, that's our profit margin gone so the immediate thought is OK, the rules have changed, we just need to create the most cost-effective solution for the consumer,' said Whitmore. He initially explored offshoring part of Taza's manufacturing to Canada to benefit from USMCA terms, but decided against it given the significant investment of both money and time that would require, in a volatile business environment. 'Right now, the environment is so uncertain that we're just hunkering down and hoping this will pass,' Whitmore said. 'A lot of us business owners are kind of frozen.' Customs data compiled for Reuters by Trade Data Monitor (TDM) shows Canada's chocolate exports to the U.S. grew by 10 per cent in volume terms in the five months to end-May, indicating some Canadian manufacturers are taking advantage of the opportunity created by tariffs. Companies benefiting are mostly Canadian and Mexican contract chocolate makers, or multinational contractors like Barry Callebaut that have a significant footprint in Canada and Mexico, industry sources said. Barry Callebaut, which has just under half its North America chocolate factories in Canada and Mexico, declined to comment. Its CEO Peter Feld said at its July post-results conference call: 'On tariffs ... we have operations in the U.S., we have operations in Canada, we have operations in Mexico. So we can actually navigate this environment in the right way.' Contract chocolate firms produce raw chocolate that U.S. factories add ingredients to and sell as American chocolate. Tariffs - a pillar of Trump's 'America First' economic agenda - come at a delicate time for U.S. chocolate makers as consumers are already buying less after absorbing double-digit inflation over the past several years. In chocolate specifically, prices have risen sharply as cocoa tripled in value to hit record highs in the first four months of last year, and remains well above historical averages because of adverse weather and disease in top growers Ivory Coast and Ghana. Under pressure from rising input costs, Hershey earlier this month rolled out double-digit price hikes across its confectionary products like Reese's cups to retailers like Walmart and Kroger. Cocoa accounts for about 30 to 50 per cent of the cost of a bar of chocolate. Hershey said its recent price hikes were not related to tariffs. Taza has raised its wholesale prices by 10 per cent since a year ago, and the price of its chocolate bars on its website rose in June to $6.99 from $5.99 previously, but Whitmore also said tariffs would cause further price hikes. Because cocoa can't be sourced domestically, Hershey said in May it is 'engaging with the U.S. government to seek an exemption' for cocoa. It declined to comment on whether it was counting on imports from its Canada and Mexico plants to help mitigate tariff costs. M&Ms maker Mars, which said Tuesday it is investing $2 billion in its U.S. manufacturing, including chocolate, has not changed its sourcing structure and continues to make 94 per cent of its U.S. products locally. A Lindt LISN.S spokesperson said the Lindor truffle maker will decide on possible changes to its sourcing after Aug. 1. Paolo Quadrini, director general of Mexican chocolate and candy association Aschoco Confimex, said U.S. tariffs are 'creating new opportunities for Mexican companies.' 'The sentiment among companies and entrepreneurs, as well as requests from U.S. chocolate companies to manufacture in Mexico, is real and has been increasing,' he said. The chocolate market in the U.S., the world's top chocolate consumer, is worth $25 to 30 billion, according to investment bank TD Cowen, and imports from top supplier Canada account for about 10 per cent of that total, while those from No. 2 supplier Mexico account for some 2.5 per cent. Tareq Hadhad, CEO of mid-sized Nova Scotia-based chocolate maker Peace by Chocolate said tariffs had largely prompted Canadian and American firms to opt for locally produced goods but that contract chocolate makers in Canada had benefited from the new trade dynamic. 'It's an advantage for them,' he said. (Reporting by May Angel, Helen Reid and Jessica DiNapoli; Editing by Lisa Jucca and Anna Driver)
