Five new schools will be built in Saskatchewan, including new joint public and Catholic schools in Saskatoon's Willowgrove neighbourhood, Premier Brad Wall announced Thursday.
Also announced was a new middle school that will be built in Warman, new schools to consolidate St. Patrick Elementary School and St. Joseph Middle School in Swift Current, a replacement school for Ecole St. Thomas Elementary School in Lloydminster, and a major renovation to Regina's Ecole St. Andrew Elementary School.
"This is the largest number of new schools announced in a single day in Saskatchewan history," said Wall. "These new facilities will improve the lives of roughly 2,900 students and will represent a total investment of $95 million when they are completed."
The new Willowgrove schools have been on the Ministry of Education's capital request list since 2005 under the "critical space shortage" category. The public school division had initially planned to build a joint building with the City of Saskatoon, and the Catholic school was to stand alone. But last June, the government told the Catholic division its request would get speedier consideration if it built a joint public-Catholic school building.
Optimistically, a source told The StarPhoenix that the announcement means construction contracts could be ready for tender by early 2011, with the earliest possible school opening being fall 2013.
All six projects are now in the approval-in-principle stage and receive a total of $6 million dollars from the government to complete detailed plans and specs, which must be finished before construction can start.
In addition to those major projects, $5 million is being advanced to support facility maintenance projects in Churchbridge, Melfort, Loon Lake, Imperial, Rosthern, Swift Current and Lucky Lake.
Regina and Saskatoon Public School Divisions will also receive additional financial support to complete facility audits.
In the past two years, the Government of Saskatchewan has committed more than $300 million towards 28 major school capital projects and close to 400 smaller projects in schools across Saskatchewan.
Prime Minister Stephen Harper has cashed in on his bet with U.S. President Barack Obama over the Olympic men's gold-medal hockey game.
The U.S. president's top representative in Canada, Ambassador David Jacobson, delivered a 24-pack of Molson Canadian to the doorstep of 24 Sussex Drive on Friday morning.
Mr. Harper and Mr. Obama had each wagered a box of beer on the outcome of the Canada-U.S. men's Olympic final, which was won by Canada 3-2 in dramatic fashion on Sidney Crosby's overtime goal.
Mr. Obama, through Jacobson, added an extra case of Yuengling, the president's American brew of choice had he won the friendly wager.
"To show there's no hard feelings, the president also threw in a case of Yuengling on top of the Molsons," Jacobson told the prime minister, adding he also wanted to "congratulate the Canadian people on the Games."
"They were great, the athletes were great and the spirit and hospitality were great to my people and around the world."
Mr. Harper responded in kind, lauding the American athletes and visitors to the Games -- and thanking them for making good on their wager.
"David, you guys always fulfil your promises to us and we appreciate it."
White House press secretary Robert Gibbs wore Team Canada's colours during his daily briefing in Washington a week ago after losing a similar bet to Mr. Harper's spokesman Dimitri Soudas.
Mr. Soudas said the two cases of beer would be donated to the Hockey Hall of Fame in Toronto.
Saskatoon's most-discussed real estate development may be revived by the University of Saskatchewan's largest-ever donor.
Karim Nasser, the man behind a $12-million property donation to the university last month, which is the institution's largest ever, says he is working on a plan to revive Lake Placid's $200-million River Landing megaproject.
"The project is a fantastic project for the city," Nasser said in an interview Wednesday. "We liked it from Day 1 and were disappointed when (Lake Placid CEO Michael Lobsinger) wasn't able to proceed with it."
Nasser, a retired civil engineering professor who heads Victory Majors Investment Corp., confirmed he has entered into negotiations with Lake Placid to restart the development. But he said everything hinges on whether city council decides Monday to consider reinstating an expired sale agreement with Lake Placid.
"If they agree, the money is available, whatever the city says is the amount... right away we will give them the cheque," Nasser said. "We'll be very happy to be able to do it."
Nasser, who said he would not go into details until negotiations are finalized, will speak to council Monday night alongside Lobsinger about their proposal for the site. A partnership agreement for the entire $200-million hotel-office-condo project is being negotiated, he said, and should be finalized by the end of the week.
"We'll be working together," Nasser said.
The city's agreement to sell the prime riverfront land to Lake Placid for $4.5 million ended in October, but many councillors said in November if Lobsinger was able to secure the money, they'd move to re-enter negotiations with the company.
At that time, Lobsinger told council he was "one signature away" from securing long-awaited funds for the entire project from overseas. He said the money had been tied up in regulatory limbo.
City officials have since begun crafting a new request for proposals for the land in an effort to make the requirements for developers more flexible.
That includes getting an updated appraisal on how much the land is now worth.
Sandi Schultz, special projects manager for the city, said regardless of what Lobsinger and Nasser propose, councillors "would not be in a position to accept outright whatever their proposal might be."
"The best their proposal could hope for is that it's referred to the administration to report back," Schultz said. "The proponents will make their case and answer any questions and councillors could accept it through a referral to administration or not entertain the proposal at all."
The proposal is different than others because it has already gone through the approval process once and could get moving faster, Schultz said.
"That puts this in a different light," she said.
Councillor Glen Penner, who backed selling the River Landing land directly to Lake Placid Developments in November if funding came through, said he's still interested in striking a deal but first needs assurances the money is actually coming.
"We would have to have the kind of assurance that is undeniable and absolutely secure and if that were the case, I'd be prepared to have another look," he said. "There can be no more playing around with this city or city council."
Nasser is not new to the city's development industry.
He built a real-estate portfolio of apartment buildings and commercial properties in Saskatoon during the 33 years he taught engineering at the University of Saskatchewan before forming Victory Majors Investment Corp., which went public in 1999, to manage the properties.
Last month, Nasser, his wife Dora and their five children donated $12 million worth of property to the university, the value of which will be channelled into student awards, two new campus buildings, the College of Engineering and the Edwards School of Business.
"We're basically very loyal to our university, as well to our community, and we would like to do all we can for both our university and our community whenever if there is chance," Nasser said.
Nasser said he hopes his involvement ends the 30-plus years of false starts developing the site and gives a needed boost to River Landing.
Saskatoon is ready for a megaproject of this scope, which he said has always reminded him of Rockefeller Center, which he recalls fondly from his time in New York City.
"It's something fantastic," he said. "The city has never had a project that has attracted everyone's attention like this."
Nasser's involvement "can only be seen as a positive," Penner said.
Finance Minister Jim Flaherty boasted about Canada's relative fiscal strength Tuesday as Britain and other members of the European Union face intense political divisions and social unrest over massive debt problems.
Mr. Flaherty, who is on the second leg of a two-day trip that began in New York, said Canada is on track to balance its budget, while also enjoying renewed business confidence and consumer demand and has the world's strongest and best-regulated banking system.
"Our nation fully intends to build on that crisis-tested advantage," he told the Canada-United Kingdom Chamber of Commerce.
He acknowledged there has been "upward pressure" on the Canadian dollar, which closed near parity Tuesday at 98.62 U.S. cents, its highest finish since July 25, 2008.
But Mr. Flaherty, who along with Bank of Canada governor Mark Carney warned only months ago of the dangers of a high-flying currency, seemed more sanguine about it on Tuesday.
"Canada's relatively strong fiscal position is assisting the rise of the dollar," he said.
The Government of Canada, he said, is "not worried, but watchful," with regard to real estate prices, Mr. Flaherty told a business audience, noting his recent decision to toughen requirements for government-insured mortgages.
"One has to watch this to make sure that one does not have borrowers who cannot afford higher interest rates, because as we all know interest rates are historically low and they have nowhere to go but up."
Nevertheless, Mr. Flaherty, who acknowledged less flattering statistics such as the 8.2% unemployment rate, said the Canadian and global economies remain vulnerable due to the huge indebtedness of many countries, particularly the U.S. economy.
"I think we're all concerned about... the size of the U.S. deficit," he said, citing the economy's dependence on Canada-U.S. Trade.
He also noted concern about massive debt problems in a number of European countries, including Greece.
"We look forward to other developed nations of the world showing their plans to move out of deficit, towards balanced budgets over time," he said.
"That is necessary for the firm restoration of confidence in developed countries, that we all have a plan to exit from the stimulus" spending programs launched after the global crisis broke out in the autumn of 2008.
While Canada's $53.8-billion federal deficit sounds huge, it represents 3.5% of the country's gross domestic product, and less than a third of the current U.S. and British deficit-to-GDP ratios.
Mr. Flaherty's budget, released March 4, announced reductions in planned spending that the finance minister said would bring the deficit down to $1.8 billion by 2014-15.
Kevin Page, Canada's independent parliamentary budget officer, has labelled Mr. Flaherty's projections too optimistic, and has projected the deficit will be down to just $12.3 billion by 2014-15.
But that higher figure would still represent just 0.6% of Canada's projected GDP.
Congressional Democrats took the first step on Monday toward a quick final vote on a healthcare overhaul and House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi vowed to muster the votes needed to pass it.
With a close vote expected later this week, House Democrats hustled to line up support and President Barack Obama hit the road in Ohio to push his case for a sweeping overhaul of the $2.5 trillion healthcare system.
Republican opponents promised to make Democrats who support the healthcare bill pay in November's congressional elections, when Democratic control of Congress could be threatened by political fallout over the issue.
But Democratic leaders counselled nervous lawmakers to hold firm and pass the bill, which has been the focus of a political battle that has mired the Congress in legislative gridlock for nine months.
"We need courage," Obama told a crowd in Strongsville, Ohio, during his third road trip in the past week to rally support for his top legislative priority. "This debate is about far more than politics."
The House Budget Committee began the drive toward a final vote, advancing changes sought by House Democrats and Obama to the Senate-passed healthcare bill. Democrats Chet Edwards and Allen Boyd, who opposed the House-passed bill in November, broke with their party on the largely party-line 21-16 vote.
House Democratic vote-counters say they are still short of the votes necessary to pass the overhaul but Pelosi was confident they will hit the magic number by week's end.
"When we bring the bill to the floor, we will have the votes," Pelosi told reporters.
The overhaul would constitute the most dramatic changes to the healthcare system in more than four decades, extending coverage to more than 30 million uninsured Americans and banning insurance practices like refusing coverage to those with pre-existing medical conditions.
Health insurer shares were mixed on Monday as the broader market was little changed. The Morgan Stanley Healthcare Payor index was up 0.2% and the S&P Managed Health Care index dropped 1.1%.
Obama also maintained the upbeat tone put forth by the White House during the weekend, telling ABC News: "I believe we are going to get the votes. We're going to make this happen."
Republicans condemn the health bill as a costly government takeover that would lead to higher insurance premiums and less consumer choice. They plan to launch a series of television ads against House Democrats who support the overhaul.
Wow, attack ads... not surprising.
"If there's one thing the American people didn't want, it was for us to make healthcare more bureaucratic and expensive," Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell and House Republican leader John Boehner said in a joint commentary in The Wall Street Journal.
Democrats are waiting for final cost estimates from the Congressional Budget Office and more advice from the Senate parliamentarian before unveiling a final package and deciding the exact process for passing it. In a two-step procedure, House Democrats want to approve the Senate's version of the bill and make changes sought by Obama and House Democrats through a separate measure passed under budget reconciliation rules.
Those rules require only a simple majority in the 100-member Senate, bypassing the need for 60 votes to overcome Republican procedural hurdles.
Pelosi said it was undecided whether the House would take a direct vote on the Senate-passed bill or include it in a separate vote on the reconciliation package. The House Rules Committee will meet on Thursday to determine the process.
House Democratic leaders met in Pelosi's office on Monday to discuss their options but announced no final decisions. "When we have the substance then we will decide on the process," Pelosi said.
The changes in the reconciliation bill include expanding subsidies to make insurance more affordable and extending more state aid for the Medicaid program for the poor.
They also would eliminate a controversial Senate deal exempting Nebraska from paying for Medicaid expansion costs, close a "doughnut hole" in prescription drug coverage for seniors and water down a tax on high-cost insurance plans.
Republicans want Democrats to vote directly on the Senate bill, which includes unpopular provisions like the Nebraska Medicaid deal, so they can use the vote against them in November.
"To resort to these kinds of tactics to deal with this is just plain wrong," Representative David Dreier, the senior Republican on the House Rules Committee, told reporters.
The Saskatchewan Party government points out that the NDP Opposition is "obstructionist," while the NDP accuses the Saskatchewan Party of "bullying."
Another game of chicken is underway at the legislative assembly over sitting hours, and the ultimate result may be some long, talk-filled days ahead.
Saskatchewan Party House Leader Dan D'Autremont has tabled a motion that would allow the legislative assembly to sit from 8 a.m. to midnight.
He told reporters it's necessary because the NDP is not allowing legislation to proceed to committee and won't agree on a specified amount of time for debating each bill, meaning each must be allotted the maximum 20 hours.
The NDP has "given no indication whatsoever that any of the pieces of legislation will move forward in a timely fashion," said D'Autremont. "This is not something we want to do. My colleagues and I would prefer not to do this. But we need to be prepared if we have to go to extended hours."
But NDP House Leader Kevin Yates said the government is looking for something the NDP never asked for when it was in power.
He said he indicated in a meeting with D'Autremont that the NDP was prepared to work with the government but simply wanted more information on what it was bringing forward. The government then sprung the notion of extended hours, said Yates.
"We need to see everything before we know what it is. The other thing is, like I told him, is that each piece of legislation impacts various groups and we're consulting with those groups and there may be issues in these bills that we don't understand, so there may be amendments we want to make to those bills. All that work takes time," said Yates, noting the Opposition had co-operated with the government in passing three bills when the session began last fall.
While by agreement the legislative assembly has a set start and end date, Yates said there are provisions in the rules that allow for it to be automatically extended by five days. But D'Autremont said that's exactly what the Opposition wants -- to instead have the number of days extended to allow it more question periods to blast the government.
This is not the first time the two sides have wrangled over extended hours.
In the spring sitting of 2008, the legislature briefly adopted extended sitting times of 10 a.m. to 1 a.m. when the government wanted to ensure there was enough time for debate on the budget and six bills it wanted passed. The NDP resisted a unilateral change to the legislature rules that it said was the result of government bungling of the legislative schedule.
An agreement was reached after about ten days, although there were only extended hours used on three days. If an agreement isn't reached this time, the current motion will come forward for debate on Tuesday.
There were more jobs created in February than economists were expecting, but your chance of snagging one of those positions was much better if you were a man nearing the age of retirement or in the public service.
Canada had a net gain of 20,900 people finding work in February, Statistics Canada said Friday. This helped bring the unemployment rate down one basis point to 8.2%.
These results were better than expectations of economists looking for a gain of about 15,000 jobs.
Demographically, all the net employment growth came from men 55 and older with job gains of 26,000, and the public sector where the head count grew by 46,000.
Statistics Canada said employment among men and woman 55 or older has been growing steadily for many years as baby boomers have entered this age group.
Gains of 60,000 in full-time employment in February offset the 39,000 losses in part-time employment last month. Full-time work has been responsible for all of Canada's net employment gains since last summer.
Since last July, the country has seen 159,000 more people working, contrasting with job losses of 417,000 at that point since the employment peak in October 2008, Statistics Canada said.
Douglas Porter, deputy chief economist with BMO Capital Markets, called the February results "impressive," noting the strong gains in full-time work and the lowered jobless rate that's five basis points lower than the recent peak of 8.7% last August.
"One small quibble was that the job gains relied quite heavily on the public sector, and we know that train can't continue much longer," he said in a research note, referencing the job situation in government, where action is expected to deal with growing budget deficits.
Ian Pollick, economics strategist with TD Securities, called last month's job trends "strong, though somewhat peculiar." He noted the heavy concentration of jobs gains in full-time work.
"In this light, it is important to note that this is an encouraging dynamic as presumably full-time workers have a greater capacity to spend money in the economy relative to those who are part time," he wrote in a report.
Pollick, however, said the loss of 7,500 people from employment in the private sector "suggests that businesses are still hesitant to reabsorb labour capacity and highlights the general private-sector concern over the firmness of the recovery."
By industry, some of the biggest employment gains last month came in manufacturing (17,000), natural resources (11,000), accommodation and food services (27,000), and health care and social assistance (16,000).
Losses were seen in other sectors such as retail and wholesale (-34,000) and finance, insurance, real estate and leasing (-22,000).
Alberta was the only province with a "notable employment loss," with 15,000 fewer people having jobs there in February. There was little change in Ontario and Quebec, while gains were seen in provinces such as British Columbia, Nova Scotia and Saskatchewan.
The seemingly unstoppable Canadian dollar posted its ninth straight winning session Wednesday and is destined for parity with the U.S. greenback this summer, says a top Canadian economist.
The loonie grew ever closer to that mark Wednesday, closing at 97.48 US cents and flirting with a high last seen five months ago. It has been on a tear since the government released data early this month showing the economy growing at a blistering five per cent in the most recent quarter.
The growth figures, combined with a slightly more hawkish tone from the Bank of Canada, have prompted traders to conclude the bank will soon raise rates to keep the economy from overheating.
Avery Shenfeld, the chief economist at CIBC World Markets, said Wednesday he expects a rate hike in July and growing demand for Canadian investments will drive the loonie beyond parity with the U.S. dollar.
It will climb as high as $1.02 US by September, before dropping to 97 cents US by year's end, he forecasts.
"If, as we expect, the (Bank of Canada) is out in front of the U.S. Federal Reserve by a couple of quarters (in raising interest rates), a higher Canadian dollar will help tighten monetary conditions," Shenfeld said in a report. "It's easy to see the Canadian dollar running a few cents through parity after the first hike."
Many consider the bank to be between a rock and a hard place. If it raises rates, it will push the dollar to parity and put a serious damper on exporters. But if it does not raise rates, then the bank would appear soft on inflation and also possibly damage the economy.
"I think it's an error. They will raise rates, but they shouldn't," said Benjamin Tal, also an economist with CIBC. "It will cool down the economy a little bit, so the hope is they will not do too much. They don't really have a clear target, so they will test the waters with maybe 50 to 75 basis points and take it from there."
The dollar's last dance with parity occurred in July 2008, when oil prices spiked above $145 US a barrel. The Bank of Canada made what it referred to as a conditional commitment almost a year ago to keep record low interest rates of 0.25% steady until the second half of 2010.
With an economic recovery now apparently taking root, many are banking on Bank of Canada governor Mark Carney acting sooner rather than later.
"Nobody should be surprised if the Bank of Canada begins hiking rates as soon as its June-end line in the sand has passed," said Shenfeld, adding he expects rate increases will be implemented at a measured pace. "There's the uncertainty that the Bank of Canada will still face regarding the global outlook after 2010. It's not just Canada that will be weathering a fiscal tightening; it's the U.S., Europe, Japan and China as well."
"Banking reforms could restrain lending room globally, and the U.S. housing market, the root source of the 2008-09 shock, is still a mess. Going full bore with rate hikes in the first year or so of recovery risks having to do an about-face if any of these minefields blow up," said Shenfeld.
The Right Honourable Stephen Harper, Prime Minister of Canada, is turning for the first time ever to YouTube to put his political spin on last week's Speech from the Throne and is even taking questions at www.youtube.com/talkcanada.
The Office of the Prime Minister announced today that Mr. Harper's reaction to the Speech from the Throne will be streamed tomorrow morning from the House of Commons.
"Canadians, especially younger Canadians, are no longer getting their news from just television, radio and print media. They are turning to new media in increasing numbers," according to a PMO statement.
Politicians both in the Canada and the U.S. often complain they don't like their messages being filtered through the traditional media or having to answer questions from reporters.
"Social media is changing the way Canadians interact with politicians. It allows Canadians to have unfiltered and immediate access to information. Livestreaming compliments our Government's current use of social media," the PMO stated.
Mr. Harper will follow up his viral performance with another appearance on YouTube on Tuesday at 7 p.m. where he will answer selected questions that have to be in by Sunday at 1 p.m. EST.
A Windsor surgeon who performed two unnecessary mastectomies is seeking to have her privileges reinstated at Windsor's Hotel-Dieu Grace Hospital in the midst of three investigations into her practice. Dr. Barbara Heartwell, who is under investigation by the hospital, the Ontario Ministry of Health and the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario, will make her case before a panel of hospital board members at a formal hearing today.
Heartwell's troubles began three weeks ago, when Hotel-Dieu announced she had misread a pathology report and performed an unnecessary mastectomy last fall on Leamington, Ontario woman Laurie Johnston, who never had breast cancer.
On February 23, Heartwell voluntarily stopped performing surgeries at Hotel-Dieu after it was revealed she also removed Janice Laporte's cancer-free breast in 2001.
But three days later, Heartwell "unexpectedly" withdrew her agreement and wanted to return to the operating room. In a rare move, Hotel-Dieu's interim chief of staff at the time, Dr. Kevin Tracey, immediately suspended her privileges, hospital officials said Tuesday.
Under the Ontario Public Hospitals Act and hospital bylaws governing professional staff, Heartwell was entitled to have her suspension reviewed by Hotel-Dieu's medical advisory committee -- comprised of leading physicians at the hospital -- within five days. The committee then makes a recommendation to the hospital's board of directors on whether to reinstate privileges.
A panel of board members will hear submissions Wednesday from the medical advisory committee and Heartwell, who will attend the hearing with her lawyer.
Hospital board chairman Egidio Sovran said the board will act as a quasi-judicial decision maker and "must act impartially in accordance with relevant legislation."
The board will make its decision after considering arguments from both sides.
Heartwell can appeal the decision to the Health Professions Appeal and Review Board, an independent tribunal that holds hearings concerning doctors' hospital privileges. Hotel-Dieu is currently reviewing all of Heartwell's past cases. The Ministry of Health also got involved recently, sending investigators to Windsor.
In addition, the ministry is also reviewing about 3,000 pathology reports following the January 4 suspension of another Hotel-Dieu medical official, pathologist Dr. Olive Williams, over errors in her work. Williams, who analyzed specimens for all three hospitals in the area, has since resigned from Hotel-Dieu.
The College of Physicians and Surgeons is investigating both Heartwell and Williams.
A weekend admission by former Alaskan governor and U.S. vice-presidential hopeful Sarah Palin over her family's use of the Canadian healthcare system while growing up in Alaska has critics of the outspoken hockey mom crying foul online.
"My first five years of life we spent in Skagway, Alaska, right there by Whitehorse," Palin said during a speech in Calgary on Saturday. "Believe it or not -- this was in the '60s -- we used to hustle on over the border for healthcare that we would receive in Whitehorse. I remember my brother, he burned his ankle in some little kid accident thing and my parents had to put him on a train and rush him over to Whitehorse and I think, isn't that kind of ironic now. Zooming over the border getting healthcare from Canada."
It was little surprise that Sarah Palin's first visit to Canada would be in Calgary. And there was little shock that she was able to curry favour with the local Albertan crowd by speaking at length and with much authority about the Alaska government's process of securing TransCanada for the Alaska Pipeline Project.
But given Palin's previous warnings about the ills of expanding government role in U.S. healthcare, American media and the general blogosphere were buzzing over the claim.
On the Daily Kos website, one post -- entitled Sarah "The Death Panel Queen" Palin Went to Canada for Healthcare -- called the former Alaskan governor "opportunistic" and "hypocritical."
"It's good enough for her, but not for the rest of the American people who don't have easy access to Canada and a system that isn't based on wage discrimination?" the post made on the left-leaning political blog stated.
And Gawker.com also pointed out Palin's comment, writing that her family put her brother on a train "and sent him to Canada for the socialism."
Palin has previously claimed Canada should dismantle its public healthcare system and called the push by U.S. President Barack Obama to nationalize the American system "irresponsible," suggesting the move would allow "death panels" to choose whether Americans would live or die.
The Yukon reference was the only time healthcare was mentioned in Palin's speech or in her subsequent interview with Conservative Senator Pamela Wallin, who is still best known as a veteran TV journalist.
Wallin instead pressed Palin on why she wanted to be a political leader if she was warning members of the Tea Party Patriots -- a disparate group of anti-tax, libertarian activists -- not to take someone on as their leader because "a politician will disappoint."
Palin also spoke about how, as governor, she significantly hiked state taxes for oil companies, or, in her words, "readjusted the value" of extracting a resource that belong to Alaskans.
Several conservative Alberta politicians were in attendance at the Calgary event, including former premier Ralph Klein, federal cabinet minister Stockwell Day, Calgary MPs Rob Anders and Lee Richardson, and Wildrose Alliance leader Danielle Smith -- who has drawn many comparisons to the former U.S. vice-presidential hopeful.
U.S. President Barack Obama cast America's private health insurance companies Monday as the premium-hiking villains in the nation's healthcare crisis and hailed Canada's publicly funded healthcare as a system that "works."
But as he embarked on a spirited and far more partisan phase of his campaign to pass landmark healthcare legislation, Obama defended himself against liberal critics who feel betrayed the White House has abandoned plans to create a U.S. government-run insurance program.
"On one side of the spectrum, there were those at the beginning of this process who wanted to scrap our system of private insurance and replace it with a government-run healthcare system like they have in some other countries," Obama told an audience in Glenside, Pennsylvania. "Look, it works. It works in places like Canada, but I didn't think it was going to be practical and realistic to do it here."
Obama has set a difficult March 18 deadline for the U.S. House of Representatives to act on his demand for passage of a $950 billion healthcare bill that cleared the Senate before Christmas.
The White House is optimistic that Obama could then sign a final version of the legislation, incorporating a series of amendments proposed by the president, into law early this spring.
In the interim, Obama has some heavy lifting to do with the American public, which has become sceptical of a comprehensive bill amid persistent economic concerns and congressional inaction.
Several polls have shown a majority of Americans, though confused about what's in the legislation, want Obama to set aside healthcare reform or start over from scratch.
Obama's speech in Pennsylvania, the first of several he has planned in the coming weeks, was designed to try to turn public opinion around.
Gone was the Obama who sounded more professor than president when pitching healthcare during January's state of the union and his recent healthcare summit in Washington.
He delivered a campaign-style address targeting Republicans who criticize healthcare reform as too costly in a time of economic turmoil, but did not attempt change when they held the levers of power in Washington.
"My question to them is: 'When's the right time? If not now, when? If not us, who?'" Obama said. "You had 10 years. What happened? What were you doing?"
Obama was even less charitable toward private insurance companies that continue to raise premiums on middle-class customers even as they routinely deny coverage to Americans who have pre-existing health conditions.
"The insurance companies continue to ration healthcare based on who's sick and who's healthy, on who can pay and who can't pay," he said.
The president referred to a recent case in California, where Anthem Blue Cross attempted to raise premiums by 39%.
"Because there's so little competition in the insurance industry, they're okay with people being priced out of the insurance market... they'll still make more money by raising premiums on customers that they keep," Obama said. "And they will keep on doing this for as long as they can get away with it."
The White House health plan seeks to provide almost 31 million Americans with medical coverage by imposing an "individual mandate" requiring them to buy insurance, with federal subsidies provided to people who cannot afford a plan.
It would bar insurance companies from denying coverage to the sick, curb massive premium hikes and eliminate the practice of setting lifetime limits on coverage.
The legislation would also seek to lower the cost of private insurance for the middle class by creating a series of healthcare exchanges that would allow people to shop around for better deals.
John Boehner, the Republican leader in the House of Representatives, said Obama's latest healthcare sales pitch was "heavy on snake oil." Republicans contend Obama's plan would drive up the U.S. deficit and force cuts to existing entitlements, such as Medicare coverage to U.S. seniors.
But some Democrats believe Obama needed to regain control of the healthcare narrative by making a moral case for near-universal coverage. At times, Obama has made a more intellectual argument about the threat rising healthcare costs pose to the overall U.S. economy.
"That's the most fiery I've seen him since the early campaign," said Pennsylvania Senator Arlen Specter, who attended Obama's speech. "When I was listening to him I wished that he had given that in the state of the union. If it's the state of the union he would have reached a lot more people."
With a sense of humour and a populist vision, Sarah Palin on Saturday evening brought her message of lower taxes, free markets and energy development to the heart of Canada's oil and gas industry. It was a receptive crowd in Calgary that listened to the 2008 Republican vice-presidential candidate in her first public appearance outside the United States since she stepped down as governor of Alaska.
She drew on some Canadian connections in her family history, and recalled how when she was young, those who were ill went to Whitehorse for medical treatment. She lauded the Winter Olympics in Vancouver, noting the Canadian men's hockey gold medal win over the Americans, and the connection of her own family to the game.
But what she really struck on before an audience of more than 1,000 was a message of energy development, competition, smaller government and doubts that climate science is a settled thing.
"We've got to become more energy independent," she said.
Her concern, she said, is waiting for unfriendly regimes to develop their resources. Relying on those puts the United States in a less safe and less prosperous position, she said.
She also brought up the East Anglia climate change e-mail scandal, saying it made "settled science feel a little unsettled." And cap-and-trade proposals to reduce emissions would lead to job losses and a heavier tax burden, she said.
Lauding Canada's approach to the environment, she said that Canada has sought to balance environmental progress with economic concerns.
As she has been before, she was critical of some of the coverage she received when running with John McCain, and said her patience wore thin with the "mainstream media." She noted a reporter told her she had a Canadian accent. "So?" Palin said she responded.
"That interview didn't go very well," Palin told Saturday's crowd. "Not many of them did."
Her low-tax, small-government assertions went down well with a Calgary audience that appeared sympathetic to her vision. The massive debt the United States has incurred is "immoral," she said, as the bill will be left for today's children to eventually pick up.
In the audience were both Calgary business leaders and politicians.
One of those was Conservative MP Lee Richardson. "I thought it was impressive," he said.
Another in the audience was Gary Holden, president and CEO of ENMAX, an energy company. He said Palin is someone of high principal whose conservative views went down well there.
But he also noted the part of her speech in which she spoke of the Alaska pipeline. That pipeline, Holden said, can be viewed as competition to Alberta.
"That's an important thing for the United States to recognize, is that we see ourselves as within on our border being a supplier of oil and gas to the United States," he said. "We aren't necessarily going to benefit if the Alaska pipeline goes ahead."
Microsoft will officially launch Office 2010 to businesses at an event that is slated for May 12, the company announced on Friday.
Enterprises with volume license agreements will be able to obtain the finished product that same day, Microsoft added. Office 2010 is set to go on general sale to consumers and business without licensing deals sometime in June.
As expected, Microsoft today also unveiled a program that provides a free upgrade to Office 2010 for customers who purchase the older Office 2007 between now and September 30.
Earlier this week, Microsoft's chief financial officer had confirmed that the Office 2010 Technology Guarantee Program would launch this month. Last month, details of the free Office 2010 upgrade program leaked to the Internets when a Microsoft technology specialist briefly posted information to the firm's partner community site.
Customers who purchase an eligible copy of Office 2007 between March 5 and September 30 will be allowed to download a corresponding edition of Office 2010 for free when the new suite is available in June. Users who want a DVD installation disc will have to pay a small shipping-and-handling fee. Microsoft said fees would be announced in June.
Buyers of Office Home and Student 2007 will receive a free copy of Office Home and Student 2010, while buyers of Office Standard 2007 and Office Basic 2007 will be eligible for a free copy of Office Home and Business 2010, a new addition to the Office line-up. Purchases of Office Small Business 2007, Office Professional 2007 or Office Ultimate 2007 will be eligible for a free copy of Office Professional 2010.
Office 2010 is the first of Microsoft's suite line to drop less-expensive upgrade editions. Instead, Microsoft plans to sell single-license activation keys via its online store and select retail outlets to customers who want to upgrade from older editions, or from the bare bones Office Starter 2010 that will come pre-installed on new PCs.
There is a limit of 25 free upgrades per person, a standard Microsoft practice meant to push businesses with multiple copies to its volume licensing deals.
Microsoft has set up a website that spells out the upgrade program in detail. To see the website, click here.
Ronald Smith, the only Canadian on death row in the United States, is one step closer to Montana's execution chamber after an appeal court ruling that upheld his death sentence for the brutal murders of two American Indian men in 1982.
But Smith's 25-year fight to avoid a lethal injection for his crime, which has revived the Canadian debate over capital punishment, could ultimately gain a boost from parts of the ruling made Friday, which highlighted his rehabilitation in prison, the "pitiful" failings of his initial defence lawyer and the power of Montana's governor to grant clemency in the case.
In fact, the Seattle Ninth Circuit judges, who upheld Smith's sentence in a 2-1 ruling, nevertheless appeared to send a message directly to Montana Governor Brian Schweitzer, who has the authority to commute the 52-year-old Canadian's death penalty despite the failed appeal.
"By all accounts, Smith has reformed his life," majority judges Sidney Thomas and Margaret McKeown stated in their decision.
"He has developed strong relationships with various members of his family and has taken advantage of the educational opportunities offered by the prison that houses him. He has expressed deep regret for his deplorable actions."
However, the judges noted that "the consideration of these issues are beyond our jurisdiction in this case. Clemency claims are committed to the wisdom of the executive branch."
Mark Warren, a Canadian human-rights specialist who has testified on Smith's behalf, said on Sunday that the "extraordinary" phrasing of the judges' ruling is a silver lining in the rejected appeal.
"In 20 years of reviewing death-penalty decisions, I've never seen more surprising language than the final paragraph in the Smith opinion," he said. "The court signalled as clearly as it could that Ron Smith should be granted clemency by the governor of Montana."
Smith, who is from Red Deer, Alberta, initially asked to be executed after confessing to the murders of Harvey Mad Man and Thomas Running Rabbit during a drugs-and-alcohol-fuelled hitchhiking trip to the United States with two Canadian friends.
Smith later claimed that depression, fear and bad legal advice had prompted his prison death wish, and he began trying to avoid execution with help from Canadian government officials.
The clemency issue shot into the Canadian political spotlight in October 2007 when it was revealed that the Conservative government was abruptly ending years of efforts by Canada's diplomats to convince Montana's top politician to commute Smith's death sentence.
Canadian government officials at the time said they were "not going to seek clemency in cases in democratic countries, like the United States, where there has been a fair trial."
But the new hands-off policy, defended at the time by Prime Minister Stephen Harper as consistent with his government's tough-on-crime policies, was ruled "unlawful" last year by the Federal Court of Canada, which ordered federal officials to restart their lobbying effort to prevent Smith's execution.
The Government of Canada later agreed to re-launch the clemency bid, but Smith's lawyers indicated last year that a renewed push to convince Schweitzer to commute the death sentence would likely only begin in earnest after the Ninth Circuit appeal was decided.
Now, because of the court's split decision and the life-and-death issues involved in the Smith case, his legal team is expected to seek an "en banc" review of Friday's ruling by a wider panel of Ninth Circuit judges.
A further appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court is also an option, but history suggests Smith stands little chance of winning there.
For now, only Schweitzer's intervention could halt the momentum toward Smith's execution.
The publisher of a Texas newspaper that ran a column equating Canada's patriotic Olympic fervour with Nazi-era Germany has apologized.
Gary Wortel of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram said Friday that although he believes in "great flexibility" in terms of what opinion writers can say, sports columnist Gil LeBreton went too far by equating Canadians' flag-waving festivities with Germany having "swastikas everywhere" during the 1936 Olympics.
In a letter posted online, Wortel called LeBreton's comparison of the 2010 Vancouver Games to the Berlin Games "insensitive."
"As publisher of the Star-Telegram, I apologize to readers and all Canadians who were offended by sports columnist Gil LeBreton's insensitive comparison of the 2010 Vancouver Olympic Games to those that occurred in Berlin in 1936," he wrote.
"We reacted quickly to the column with an online apology from LeBreton late Monday and an in-paper version the next day."
"Some have accepted the apology; others have not. I want to personally say that I'm sorry the column appeared in my newspaper, and I know LeBreton sincerely regrets his comments."
"I, like many Americans, have strong ties to Canada," he wrote.
"I was born in Canada and my Dutch parents were liberated by Canadian soldiers after WWII. Canada should be very proud of what its athletes accomplished in Vancouver and for the gracious, enthusiastic way it hosted the 2010 Winter Games."
The article, as it appeared online, is below:
By Gil LeBreton
Fort Worth Star-Telegram
VANCOUVER, British Columbia -- After a spirited torch relay ignited pride in every corner of the country, the Olympic Games began and quickly galvanized the nation.
Flags were everywhere. The country's national symbol hung from windows and was worn on nearly everyone's clothing.
Fervent crowds cheered every victory by the host nation.
But enough about the 1936 Berlin Olympics.
At the opening of these Olympic Winter Games more than two weeks ago, Vancouver organizers expressed the hope that they could show the world a truly "Canadian Games."
That they succeeded in that, there is little doubt.
For 17 days we were barraged with Canadian flags, rode buses and trains with people in sweatshirts and jerseys adorned with Canadian maple leafs, and were serenaded at venues by Canadian spectators, lustily cheering for Canadian athletes.
The first Olympics I ever attended were also in Canada, the 1976 Summer Games in Montreal. For a kid not long out of college, it was a profound experience, seeing Lasse Viren, Alberto Juantorena, Nadia Comaneci -- the athletes of the world -- on the sporting world's grandest stage.
One of the speakers at that Olympics used a phrase that lingers with me still: the family of man.
There is no earthly event that reinforces that notion as well as an Olympic Games. For all of the latter-day Games' inherent commercialism, that ideal persists. I truly believe that.
It persists, despite the overwhelming chauvinism of the past two weeks.
They showed us Canadian Games, all right. And in most cases, nothing but Canadian Games.
I'm not talking about TV coverage. I have no idea what Bob Costas and NBC were televising back in the States.
But from the opening ceremony to Sunday's closing, from the tragic death of Georgian luger Nodar Kumaritashvili to Sunday's gold-medal hockey game, on the streets of Vancouver and at the Olympic venues, only a token nod was given to the rest of the world's athletes.
I was as surprised as I was disappointed.
Had the classic Canadian inferiority complex finally decided to bite back? Or was this a dark consequence of the Own the Podium program?
At the Games' outset, Canada's obsession with finally winning its first gold medal as a host nation was understandable -- quaint, almost.
But that story swiftly swept the luge tragedy off the front pages. There were no follow-up stories about investigations, memorials or retributions to the family.
Kumaritashvili himself was blamed for the fatal accident. The luge competition went on. Some Canadian lugers even callously complained about the shortening of the track.
And so the tone for these Games was set.
It was Canada's party, and no dead luger, no critical British tabloid and no visiting Americans were going to spoil it.
That attitude is regrettable, because a good, if not especially memorable, Olympics followed.
U.S. skier Lindsey Vonn won her cherished gold medal in the women's downhill, validating all the product endorsements and cover shoots she will have between now and 2014.
Evan Lysacek struck a blow for U.S. men's figure skating, giving legendary coach Frank Carroll an Olympic champion for the first time.
Texas-based Olympians fared well, winning five medals, which is as many as Finland, Japan and Italy.
Speedskater Chad Hedrick of Spring earned silver and bronze medals, Denton's Jordan Malone won a relay bronze in short track, and the Dallas Stars' Brenden Morrow (gold) and Jere Lehtinen (bronze) are going home with hockey medals.
But a lot happened that didn't make the front pages of the Vancouver newspapers or find its way into the Canadian TV network's opening montage.
Norway's Marit Bjoergen won three gold medals, a silver and a bronze in cross-country skiing to become the ninth athlete to win five medals at a single Winter Olympics.
Skier Maria Riesch finished in the top 10 in all five Alpine events. Her native country, Germany, won at least one medal on every day of this Winter Olympics.
American short track speedskater Apolo Ohno won three medals, giving him eight and making him the most decorated U.S. Winter Olympian of all time. But that's nothing -- Norway's Ole Einar Bjoerndalen, at age 36, won two biathlon medals and now has 11.
Canada's rush to the victory stand over the Games' final week resulted in a Winter Olympics record for a single nation, 14 total. The U.S. hockey team can take solace that its silver-medal finish Sunday was the Americans' 37th medal, also a record for one nation.
But for the most part, the most underappreciated soul at these Olympics was an American or a European on the medals stand.
Yes, every host nation cheers lustily for its native Olympians. But never in my experience to the extent that we saw here, where the rest of the world's athletes were little more than drink coasters at the party.
South Korean Kim Yu-Na's dazzling gold-medal performance in women's figure skating, for example, was overwhelmed here by the attention given to Quebec's Joannie Rochette, whose mother tragically died.
Chief organizer of the Games, John Furlong, mentioned Kumaritashvili briefly in his Closing Ceremony remarks. But the hosts' insensitivity had long ago been duly noted.
At a news conference Saturday, for example, someone asked Ken Melamed, mayor of Whistler, where the luge run was located, if the village planned some sort of memorial to the luger from Georgia.
Why, yes, the mayor said, "We have to find a way to acknowledge Nodar . . . and the Canadian athletes that have done well."
See? They don't get it.
The Vancouver Games' ticketing policy didn't help the partisan scene at the venues. To order Olympic tickets through the Vancouver 2010 Web site, a buyer had to have a Canadian address.
China sold 6.8 million tickets to its 2008 Summer Olympics. Vancouver only made 1.6 million available. The Canadians wanted to "Own the Podium," but organizers made sure that they owned the grandstands at each venue as well.
I'm still mystified that Canada fans were able to grab what seemed to be 98 per cent of the tickets at the hockey venue. Olympic crowds have always been more inclusive.
In his closing news conference Sunday, IOC president Jacques Rogge acknowledged that there were "teething pains" as the Vancouver Games began.
"There was an extraordinary embrace by the city of Vancouver," he said. "Something I've never seen before."
There was embracing, all right, but then Canadians have always had the reputation for drinking a lot of beer. The loose marijuana laws only added to the nightly revelry in the downtown streets -- which, frankly, seemed to have little to do with the Olympics.
Canada wanted to hold a party, and the Canadians did. The gold medals only seemed to fuel them.
Team Canada hockey jerseys became the uniform of the streets. Maple leafs were either hanging or on clothing everywhere.
One thing I never saw: a simple flag or shirt with the five Olympic rings. Not anywhere. After 15 Olympics, that was a first.
I didn't attend the '36 Olympics, but I've seen the pictures. Swastikas everywhere.
No political reference is meant, just an Olympic one. What on earth were the Canadians thinking?
An Olympic host is supposed to welcome the world. This one was too busy being (their word) "patriotic."
"Now you know us, eh?" chief organizer Furlong said.
We thought we did two weeks ago. Now, I'm wondering if Canadians can even recognize themselves.
One day after Avatar was disappointed at the Oscars, a Vancouver restaurant owner plans to file a lawsuit in B.C. Supreme Court today claiming copyright infringement against director James Cameron and other makers of the highest-grossing film of all time.
Emil Malak, 57, says the similarities between his Terra Incognita and James Cameron's Avatar are too striking to simply be a coincidence.
Malak's lawyer Suzan El-Khatib said the claim to be filed today will name, among others, Avatar writer and director James Cameron, his company Lightstorm Entertainment Inc., and Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation.
El-Khatib said there are both general and specific similarities in the two stories including the premise of humans going to mine precious minerals on a planet inhabited by indigenous people.
In both stories, she said, a tree is a focal point and contains the collective memories of the indigenous people. In Terra Incognita, it is a Life Tree. Cameron calls it the "Hometree."
Even the characters are similar, she said, with both incorporating spotted faces, long braided hair, flat noses and yellow eyes.
"They are quite alike," El-Khatib said yesterday.
She said the suit will make a claim against the defendants for "damages for copyright infringement for substantially reproducing, adapting and publicly presenting, or in the alternative authorizing such acts, the plaintiffs work as a literary work and a cinematographic work entitled Avatar."
Malak, who owns the Bellaggio Cafe at Hornby Street and Robson Street in Vancouver, began thinking about his sci-fi tale in 1996 at the suggestion of his then seven- and eight-year-old sons who wanted him to write something more exciting than the opera and historical fiction he'd been working on.
It was a turning point in Malak's life. In 1996 he had lost his Granville Island Hotel in a $5 million bankruptcy.
"I took a three-year sabbatical. I lived on about $2-300 a month. I stayed with my brother in Richmond and did nothing but write," said Malak.
He began putting pen to paper for what he calls his "children's story" in 1997 and in the end he figures he spent $100,000 on his script.
He hired a graphic artist to draw his character designs and a screen writer to co-write the script. He took a screen writing course and first copyrighted his work with the Writers Guild of Canada in 1998. He copyrighted it with the guild nine more times between 1998 and 2003, every time he advanced the story and characters.
In a February 27, 1998 note filed with his documents at the Writers Guild of Canada, he wrote that he was copywriting his work because he was "afraid of the big boys."
"I had just lost Granville Island (and) lost $5 million so you become very intuitive. You don't trust anybody," said Malak. "I was so scared someone was going to steal it."
Malak, who was born in Egypt, educated in England and moved to Canada in 1993, believes it was October 2002 when he sent his script and graphic designs to about twenty movie studios including Cameron and his company Lightstorm Entertainment Inc.
He got no response and the script was never returned to him. Malak was stunned to learn of the similarities between his story and Avatar when the movie was released late last year.
Malak told The Province newspaper he believes that James Cameron had an idea similar to his - to write about indigenous people on another planet - but there's no way to account for stories that are up to 60% similar in his opinion.
"Is it possible that two ends can come up with so much similarities? Life tree, same mining material just called different names, the tails?" said Malak. "The basic building blocks of both stories are very similar."
In the end, Malak believes Avatar was shaped in part by his story and he is filing the B.C. Supreme Court writ today because he wants it to be known. He insists it's not about the money.
"I eat three times a day. I have a great life," he said. "The big boys have to recognize you can't just take things and make it a part of yours and walk all over the small guys."
"In my own heart I'm very happy and very comfortable that my vision has become a blockbuster."
A massive asteroid was to blame for the demise of the dinosaur, and not a volcanic eruption, scientists have finally agreed. The team of 41 international scientists came to their conclusion after analysing the past 20 years of research.
The mass extinction wiped out more than half of all species on the planet, including the dinosaurs and some large marine reptiles, the scientists decided.
They concluded the impact, that happened around 65 million years ago, cleared the way for mammals to become Earth's dominant species. The 15-kilometre wide asteroid is believed to have hit the planet with a force one billion times more powerful than the atomic bomb at Hiroshima.
It resulted in the crater known as the Chicxulub crater buried underneath the Yucatan Peninsula.
The asteroid, about the size of the Isle of Wight, would have blasted material at high speed into the atmosphere. That set off a chain of events that caused a global winter, wiping out much of life on Earth in a matter of days, the review says.
Scientists had previously argued about whether the so-called Cretaceous-Tertiary (KT) extinction was caused by the asteroid or by volcanic activity in India over 1.5 million years. For the new study, scientists analysed 20 years of work by palaeontologists, geochemists, climate modellers, geophysicists and sedimentologists.
They concluded that geological records show the event that triggered the extinction destroyed marine and land ecosystems rapidly, meaning an asteroid impact was the only plausible explanation.
Dr Joanna Morgan, co-author of the review from Imperial College London, said: "We now have great confidence that an asteroid was the cause of the KT extinction."
"This shrouded the planet in darkness and caused a global winter, killing off many species that couldn't adapt to this hellish environment."
Co-author Dr. Gareth Collins, also from Imperial College, added: "The explosion of hot rock and gas would have looked like a huge ball of fire on the horizon, grilling any living creature in the immediate vicinity that couldn't find shelter."
"Ironically, while this hellish day signalled the end of the 160-million-year reign of the dinosaurs, it turned out to be a great day for mammals who had lived in the shadow of the dinosaurs prior to this event."
"The KT extinction was a pivotal moment in Earth's history, which ultimately paved the way for humans to become the dominant species on Earth."
A group of Saskatchewan First Nations says it is partnering with the Seminole Indian Tribe of Florida to pitch a 55,000 seat stadium and hotel and casino project for downtown Regina.
However, the project, with an estimated cost of $1.2 billion -- hinges on the Government of Saskatchewan's willingness to sell its casinos in Regina and Moose Jaw, said Chief Rick Gamble of the Beardy's and Okemasis First Nation, one of ten First Nations in Saskatchewan backing the plan.
"If they say they don't want to sell the casinos, this proposal dies," Gamble said in an interview Thursday.
Gamble said the project has significant financial backing from the Seminole Tribe, which in 2006 purchased the Hard Rock chain. The parties would also be looking for the provincial government to contribute some money from the sale of the casinos toward construction of a stadium, as well as to the Government of Canada for infrastructure money, he said, adding that ongoing casino proceeds would help cover costs.
However, Enterprise Minister Ken Cheveldayoff told reporters Thursday that the money-making casinos operated by Saskatchewan Gaming Corporation are not on the auction block. Even so, he said he still looks forward to meeting with the proponents of the project to discuss the group's ideas further.
"I've always said right from the beginning that I don't want to cut any private sector proposal short. I want to hear it full out. I want to see the full proposal in its entirety," Cheveldayoff said.
He added that six other private sector groups have also come to the government with ideas for building a stadium or a related development. A feasibility study paid for by all three levels of government and the Saskatchewan Roughriders was released Monday, and found a covered stadium could be built downtown at a minimum cost of $386 million, and could operate without ongoing operating subsidies.
With that report now on the table, Cheveldayoff said the government wants to again have a discussion with interested private sector players to see how they might play a role.
Gamble said the project being pursued by the First Nations envisions a Hard Rock hotel and cafe being attached to a new stadium located downtown along Dewdney Avenue. The existing casino would eventually move into the hotel, and the old casino would become home to high-end shops, Gamble said. The First Nations and the Seminoles, along with involvement by the Metis Nation of Saskatchewan, would have joint ownership, he said.
Celebrated Canadian architect Douglas Cardinal has been commissioned to produce a potential design for a retractable roof stadium.
Regina Mayor Pat Fiacco said he previously met with the First Nations group and heard what they have to say, just as he has met with other groups pursuing stadium ideas.
"It's certainly big. There's no question their proposal goes far beyond the scope of a new entertainment facility. It is a major redevelopment of that entire property," Fiacco said.
No commitments have been made to any project, he said. But no matter what happens on that downtown property, the city will likely have a role to play because there is basic infrastructure work that will need to be done, Fiacco said.
"I think we have an obligation to do that. To what degree, that's a decision that council will make and we haven't spoken about dollars yet," Fiacco said
Saskatchewan Roughriders president and chief executive Jim Hopson said the club has no position for or against the proposal, but met with the group to hear its ideas.
"I saw it as just an informational meeting by a group of interested people," said Hopson, who said interest from the community and private sector is "great."
"But we really have no opinion on whether it's possible (or) could it happen."
Hopson did note that the size of the stadium being discussed by the group is larger than what the team feels is best suited to its needs, which is around the 33,000 mark and expandable to more than 45,000 for events such as the Grey Cup.
Gamble maintained that he hopes the provincial government will consider the casino sale to make the First Nations proposal happen.
"Quite frankly, (our proposal) was precipitated by the fact that we were made to understand that they were for sale, that they wanted to get out the gaming industry, they didn't want to be running casinos," said Gamble, who would not specify who in government had indicated the casinos could be sold.
He said a plus for the group's proposal is that it wouldn't saddle taxpayers with a big financial burden.
"Who is going to step up to the plate in the manner that we are prepared to do?" he said. "It involves First Nations and a lot of creativity and a lot of financial backing from very capable people."
Canadians will be using newly-designed money printed on polymer instead of cotton-based paper bills by next year as part of a plan to modernize the currency and crack down on counterfeiting, Finance Minister Jim Flaherty announced Thursday in the federal budget.
The Bank of Canada is anticipating that it will start printing the new bills within the next 18 months.
"These new notes will have security features and they will be easy to authenticate," said Julie Girard, a spokesperson for the Bank of Canada. "People will know if it's genuine and (the new bank notes) will be hard to counterfeit. All of this will help us stay ahead of counterfeiters."
Loonies and toonies are also slated to undergo changes in their composition to reduce costs at the Royal Canadian Mint, but "will bear the same look and feel" as the existing ones, said Royal Canadian Mint spokesperson Christine Aquino.
Canadian nickels, dimes, quarters and half-dollars already switched to the patented multi-ply plated steel technology in 2000. It is less expensive than producing coins that are primarily made out of nickel or copper.
Girard said the government will be printing fewer notes since bills made of polymer can last up to two to three times longer than the cotton-based paper bills. The material is considered to be more durable and resistant to tears or damage.
The polymer-based bank notes have already been adopted in other countries, such as Australia. While the Finance Department indicated that there is only one manufacturer of the polymer material, based in Australia, Girard said that the notes would still be printed in Canada.
The bills are expected to have a revamped design, including a small window on the bill that prevents it from being photocopied. The budget also said that the changes would reduce the impact on the environment because the bank notes would last longer and can be recycled.
U.S. President Barack Obama on Wednesday decided to roll the political dice on healthcare reform, telling Congress it "owes the American people a final vote" on a $950-million bill aimed at providing insurance to 31 million people lacking medical coverage.
After failing last week to win Republican support for the long-stalled legislation, Obama told Democratic leaders in the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives they have a responsibility to move ahead without backing from the opposition party. He asked that a final vote be held within the next few weeks, likely before lawmakers break for Easter.
"We can't just give up because the politics are hard," Obama said in a 15-minute White House speech.
"At stake right now is not just our ability to solve this problem, but our ability to solve any problem."
Obama's decision to force a conclusion to Washington's yearlong debate comes after a high-stakes healthcare summit with Republican leaders on February 25 collapsed without any significant compromise from either side.
Republicans demanded Obama scrap plans for a comprehensive healthcare bill -- calling it an unaffordable intrusion by the U.S. government -- and asked that Democrats start over with a more piecemeal approach that addressed the most egregious abuses in the system.
But Obama said Wednesday any effort to "tinker around the edges" of the country's $2.5-trillion-a-year healthcare system was pointless.
He argued such an approach would not address the biggest problems in the U.S. system -- lack of access to affordable care for the uninsured, the practice of denying coverage of Americans with pre-existing health conditions and skyrocketing out-of-pocket costs for companies and families.
"The fact is, health reform only works if you take care of all these problems at once," Obama said.
In deciding it's now or never for healthcare reform, Obama is taking the biggest risk of his presidency outside of his decision to launch a military surge in Afghanistan.
Support for Obama's signature domestic policy initiative has fallen steadily amid delays in Congress and as the American public's priorities shifted to concerns about stubbornly high unemployment.
Both the Senate and the House of Representatives passed separate versions of healthcare legislation before Christmas.
Plans to pass a final bill for Obama's signature, however, got shelved in January when Democrats lost their 60-seat, filibuster-proof "supermajority" in the Senate after the election of Republican Scott Brown to the late Edward Kennedy's seat in Massachusetts.
Now Democrats must use a complicated legislative fast-track process called 'reconciliation' that will force an "up or down" vote in the Senate, allowing passage of the legislation with a simple 50-plus-one majority.
The strategy is for the House of Representatives to pass the existing Senate bill, and then have both chambers adopt amendments to incorporate new proposals from Obama, including four ideas proposed last week by Republicans.
The completed legislation would then be presented to Obama to sign into law.
Obama is facing a potentially substantial hurdle in the House of Representatives, where passage of a revised healthcare bill is threatened by pro-life Democrats who want tighter restrictions on federal funding for abortion.
Other Democrats are nervous about polls showing a majority of Americans want healthcare put aside for a greater focus on the economy.
Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell called Obama's legislation "politically toxic in the extreme" and predicted its passage would turn the midterm congressional elections in November into a national referendum on the issue.
"You ignore the overwhelming desires of the American people at your own peril," McConnell said.
But Obama cast the healthcare issue as a test of leadership.
"I know there's a fascination, bordering on obsession in the media in this town about what passing health insurance reform would mean for the next election and the one after that... that's not why we're here," Obama said. "I don't know how this plays politically, but I know it's right."
The White House health plan seeks to provide almost 31 million Americans with medical coverage by imposing an "individual mandate" requiring them to buy insurance, with federal subsidies provided to people who cannot afford a plan. It would also bar insurance companies from denying coverage to the sick, curb massive premium hikes and eliminate the practice of setting lifetime limits on coverage.
The legislation would also seek to lower the cost of private insurance for the middle class by creating a series of healthcare exchanges that would allow people to shop around for better deals.
Obama has rejected the idea -- favoured by many liberal Democrats -- of creating a government-run health insurance program to compete with private providers.
Three days after Canadians belted out "O Canada!" to celebrate Canada's Olympic hockey win, Stephen Harper's Conservative government is asking whether the anthem should be changed.
The phrase "In all thy sons command" has some women calling for a gender-neutral version, Industry Minister Tony Clement says, citing an email from a constituent.
"For 50 years... I've listened to our anthem and felt excluded by the line," Tina Prietz, 60, of Huntsville, Ontario, wrote to Mr. Clement. "Yes, you've guessed it, I'm female."
The Conservative government said in Wednesday's Speech from the Throne that it will ask Parliament to examine the original wording of the anthem. Officials said later a parliamentary committee will study whether the phrase "In all thy sons command" should be changed to "Thou dost in us command," which the Office of the Prime Minister says is the wording from the original version.
Mr. Harper's aide Andrew MacDougall said the government does not have a view on the change.
Prietz said she was proud to see so many Canadians win gold medals and hear the national anthem during the Olympics, but added some of the words stick in her craw.
"I would love to see the anthem slightly changed to 'In all of us command,'" Prietz said.
Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff doesn't object to a more "gender-sensitive" anthem, but said the government should take serious steps to improve the status of women. The anthem is based on lyrics penned in 1908, and slightly altered in the 1980 National Anthem Act. The original French version survives unaltered.
Nancy Charest, a Liberal candidate from Quebec (it is unknown if she is related to Quebec Premier Jean Charest), has suggested that Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff does not have the ability to push for what is in the best interest of Quebecers.
Charest, the party's candidate for the riding of Mitis-Matane-Matapedia in eastern Quebec, made the comments during a cocktail reception for the Liberal Party on February 18 in Matane, Quebec.
The event was held to bid farewell to former Liberal lieutenant Denis Coderre, who resigned after a dispute with Ignatieff.
"I believe Mr. Ignatieff understands our realities but he doesn't have the ability to give Quebec what it wants," Charest said during a speech.
Charest didn't hide her admiration for Coderre, who represents the Quebec riding of Bourassa.
"A person who allowed me to stay the course is Denis Coderre because of his authenticity and perseverance with these issues," she said. "He's my favourite!"
Asked about the state of his relationship with the Liberal leader, Coderre joked that the two likely wouldn't be heading off on a weekend getaway together anytime soon.
The local Bloc Québécois candidate for the riding, Jean-Francois Fortin, said he agreed with Charest, who ran unsuccessfully for the federal Liberals during the 2008 election, when it came to Ignatieff.
"It is clear, in my opinion... that people who once had hope with the arrival of Michael Ignatieff as the head of the Liberal Party of Canada will surely be better represented by the actions of the Bloc Quebecois in Ottawa," he said.
In its biggest investment of its kind to date, the Government of Canada announced on Tuesday that investments of up to $19 million for the creation of a canola cluster to bring together scientific expertise to research the crop.
Included in the funds is $4.6 million to research Club-root disease in canola, which threatens production. Work is already underway at this point in time.
The main factor in the decision on the funding was to make the industry more competitive and capture higher market percentages. The funding is going to the Canola Council of Canada to lead research in partnership with the Flax Council of Canada, industry scientists and universities.
"The oil seed industry is an important driver of Canada's economy and that's why our government is making strategic investments to keep our producers on the cutting-edge of innovation," said Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz. "This research will help our producers protect their crops, build their operations and their profitability, expand their markets, and continue to provide a healthy product for consumers around the world."
Three areas are to be the focus of research: oil nutrition, meal nutrition and production. The cluster will also focus on nutritional benefits of flax for humans and animals.
A Leamington, Ontario woman who underwent an unnecessary mastectomy at Hotel-Dieu Grace Hospital in Windsor, Ontario, has a prominent Toronto law firm and one of the most powerful public relations companies on the planet launching legal action on her behalf.
Laurie Johnston will hold a news conference Wednesday at the office of law firm Torkin Manes. In a media advisory, PR giant Hill & Knowlton said Johnston "will make a statement about the reasons for her legal action."
It will be Johnston's first public statement since she learned she wasn't the first patient at Hotel-Dieu to have a breast removed unnecessarily.
Johnston, who had a cancer-free breast removed by Dr. Barbara Heartwell in November of 2009, and Janice Laporte, a Sarnia, Ontario woman who underwent an unnecessary mastectomy by the same surgeon in 2001, have triggered probes by the Ontario Ministry of Health and the provincial body that regulates doctors. Hotel-Dieu is also reviewing cases involving Heartwell and pathologist Dr. Olive Williams.
Dr. Heartwell has voluntarily stopped operating last week after Hotel-Dieu officials learned through the media of the unnecessary mastectomies. At the time that Dr. Heartwell stepped down, the hospital announced it had suspended Dr. Williams on January 4 after reviewing her pathology reports since November.
Torkin Manes chairman Ronald Manes has been repeatedly named one of the best lawyers in Canada by his peers and is a governor of the Law Society of Upper Canada, which is the body that regulates lawyers.
Johnston's case is being handled by Barbara MacFarlane, who, according to the Torkin Manes website, is one of three lawyers at the firm who handle medical malpractice suits.
Harvey Strosberg, a Windsor lawyer who has litigated several medical malpractice suits, said there is no question Johnston has a strong case.
"This is a case where the doctor says, 'I made a mistake.' It's just a matter of damages. That's the kind of case that will probably never see the inside of a courtroom," Strosberg explained.
Strosberg predicted Johnston's lawyer will likely negotiate a settlement. Doctors are insured through the Canadian Medical Protective Association, a non-profit organization funded by doctors and the provincial government that pays damages in medical malpractice suits.
"Surgeons make mistakes from time to time. It's tragic when it happens," Strosberg said.
Did you know that it has been "illegal" to drive while texting or talking on your cellular phone (with the exception of a hands-free device) since January 1? Well, if you didn't, you had a grace period of up until March 1.
Now, cops are not going to be that lenient anymore.
"For the first couple of months we were issuing warnings in the hopes that people would break old habits and develop safer habits," said Saskatoon Police Service Staff Sergeant. Grant Obst.
Drivers who do not adopt safer driving habits risk getting a $280 ticket and four demerit points on safe driver programs. The legislation states that people cannot surf the Internet or send text messages or emails while driving.
Drivers are also not allowed to send or receive phone calls unless it is done with a hands-free device.
The Saskatoon Police Service will now be focusing more on drivers who violate the legislation.
"We think by telling everyone that we are out there in an undercover and high-profile capacity, then maybe they will think twice about engaging in that risky behaviour," Obst said.
Cops will be at location throughout Saskatoon in squad cars and unmarked vehicles. However, a problem that cops face is that people often use their handheld devices out of view, such as when they send a text with their phone in their lap.
To get a better view, officers will be in unmarked high-clearance vehicles such as trucks or SUVs. Obst said he believed 17 tickets were handed out Monday to people who were using their handheld devices while driving.
"Our goal is not to go out and write a whole bunch of tickets, our goal is to get motorists to comply," Obst said.
By saying that writing tickets isn't the goal of police officers, Obst may be taking the fun out of being a police officer.
Regina's residents seem to be turning into bookworms, thanks to the new single integrated library system (SILS), known as the Saskatchewan Information & Library Services Consortium, which allows users to order materials from any library in Saskatchewan and have them brought in to the branch of their choice.
So far, SILS has been in use at four public libraries. By the end of the year, all of Saskatchewan's 306 public libraries will be connected with the convenience of a single library card.
Already in the first month of operation, the Regina Public Library loaned 1,700 items to Saskatoon, which is a significant increase from the 100 items loaned to the same library all of last year.
"It seems to have caught on very well, for Regina in particular," said Jeff Barber, Regina Public Library director. "We've had very busy libraries."
The idea to integrate libraries was sparked five years ago, but it was brought to life in October 2008 when the Government of Saskatchewan committed $5.2 million for the system, the first of its kind in Canada.
Last December, Saskatoon became the first library to adopt the system, followed by the Palliser Regional Library, Southeast Regional Library and the Regina Public Library in early February.
The remainder of the six library systems will be phased in throughout the course of the year.
Barber said the potential of SILS is endless as new interactive modules are introduced to readers both off and online.
Users will have access to professional reviews of literature and add their own opinions as well. Online services can also be expanded further to allow users to pay fines and use systems from mobile devices.
Alberta and Ontario are already examining if they would like to place their libraries all under one umbrella, but Barber said expansion outside of Saskatchewan is highly unlikely.
But still, being the first to lead the way is something of which Saskatchewan can be proud, he added.
"Saskatchewan is used to leading, trying new things and being cooperative," said Barber. "We are the largest implementation that we know of in the world and it's a great feeling."
So far, the system has had a few minor glitches as administrators work on implementing some suggestions from the public. But for the most part, Barber said the transitions from old to new have been relatively smooth.
The project brings together members of the Saskatchewan Information and Library Services Consortium, made up of ten library systems and the Provincial Library, which is a branch of the Ministry of Education.
Prime Minister Stephen Harper has cashed in on his bet with U.S. President Barack Obama over the Olympic men's gold-medal hockey game.
Saskatoon's most-discussed real estate development may be revived by the University of Saskatchewan's largest-ever donor.
Congressional Democrats took the first step on Monday toward a quick final vote on a healthcare overhaul and House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi vowed to muster the votes needed to pass it.
The Saskatchewan Party government points out that the NDP Opposition is "obstructionist," while the NDP accuses the Saskatchewan Party of "bullying."
There were more jobs created in February than economists were expecting, but your chance of snagging one of those positions was much better if you were a man nearing the age of retirement or in the public service.
You don't see much of Jerry Seinfeld on his own new NBC show, The Marriage Ref, which he lets someone else host.
The seemingly unstoppable Canadian dollar posted its ninth straight winning session Wednesday and is destined for parity with the U.S. greenback this summer, says a top Canadian economist.
The Right Honourable Stephen Harper, Prime Minister of Canada, is turning for the first time ever to YouTube to put his political spin on last week's Speech from the Throne and is even taking questions at www.youtube.com/talkcanada.
A Windsor surgeon who performed two unnecessary mastectomies is seeking to have her privileges reinstated at Windsor's Hotel-Dieu Grace Hospital in the midst of three investigations into her practice. Dr. Barbara Heartwell, who is under investigation by the hospital, the Ontario Ministry of Health and the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario, will make her case before a panel of hospital board members at a formal hearing today.
Microsoft will officially launch Office 2010 to businesses at an event that is slated for May 12, the company announced on Friday.
Ronald Smith, the only Canadian on death row in the United States, is one step closer to Montana's execution chamber after an appeal court ruling that upheld his death sentence for the brutal murders of two American Indian men in 1982.
One day after Avatar was disappointed at the Oscars, a Vancouver restaurant owner plans to file a lawsuit in B.C. Supreme Court today claiming copyright infringement against director James Cameron and other makers of the highest-grossing film of all time. 
A massive asteroid was to blame for the demise of the dinosaur, and not a volcanic eruption, scientists have finally agreed. The team of 41 international scientists came to their conclusion after analysing the past 20 years of research.
A group of Saskatchewan First Nations says it is partnering with the Seminole Indian Tribe of Florida to pitch a 55,000 seat stadium and hotel and casino project for downtown Regina.
Canadians will be using newly-designed money printed on polymer instead of cotton-based paper bills by next year as part of a plan to modernize the currency and crack down on counterfeiting, Finance Minister Jim Flaherty announced Thursday in the federal budget.
Three days after Canadians belted out "O Canada!" to celebrate Canada's Olympic hockey win, Stephen Harper's Conservative government is asking whether the anthem should be changed.
Nancy Charest, a Liberal candidate from Quebec (it is unknown if she is related to Quebec Premier Jean Charest), has suggested that Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff does not have the ability to push for what is in the best interest of Quebecers.
In its biggest investment of its kind to date, the Government of Canada announced on Tuesday that investments of up to $19 million for the creation of a canola cluster to bring together scientific expertise to research the crop.
Did you know that it has been "illegal" to drive while texting or talking on your cellular phone (with the exception of a hands-free device) since January 1? Well, if you didn't, you had a grace period of up until March 1.
There's a new craze among residents of Regina.
