The Order of Canada recognizes outstanding achievement and service in a variety of fields.
Recipients on hand today included Toronto crime novelist Howard Engel,
singer-songwriter Connie Calder was recognized for her contribution to the arts.
So was native artist Alex Jeanvier, whose mural graces the ceiling of the Canadian Museum of Civilization.
And journalist Valerie Pringle was honoured for her contributions to broadcasting and her volunteer work.
This year marks the 40th anniversary of the Order of Canada.
Still to come, some advice on how to spend your money this weekend.
Should you go to the movies or not?
CBC News Today continues in just a moment.
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That's not quite what I said.
The environment continues to have their facts wrong.
What do you do to these specific allegations?
Asking the tough questions.
The spin stops here.
CBC News, politics with Don Newman.
Today at 5 Eastern on CBC News World.
In an ever-changing world.
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The blue board of the TSX shows our Canadian dollar at $103.99.
Higher than it has been in 30 years.
The Canadian dollar opened trading at $1.04 to the American greenback.
The loonies gain comes as crude oil prices rise and tensions grow in the Middle East.
Got a few clues for you.
It stars two of Britain's best in a stark thriller where murder is the game.
And it is a remake of a film classic.
Now if you think you know the answer, the only other question is going to be who done it better.
CBC's Yelena Adzik gives her verdict today on the scene.
Hello, this is your movie scene review.
Any good sleuth knows you've got to cover the five basic W's.
So here's my investigation.
I'm an actor.
Why have I never heard of you?
You will.
Before long.
That sounds threatening.
The first W is the what of it all.
We're talking about an intriguing premise where a famous mystery writer has his wife's lover over for drinks.
And a proposition that will change their lives forever.
I want you to steal the jewels.
You break in.
The next W covers who is involved.
Michael Caine is at his usual cocky best.
As the conniving author, he's got an abundance of wealth and wit.
Fantastic.
Where's the ladder?
What ladder?
Unfortunately, Jude Law does not match Michael Caine's charms.
What are you going to say?
I'm all ears.
The film starts out as a marvelous duel of dialogue, but is quickly defeated by Law's overacting and underwhelming performance.
Okay, so we've covered the what and the who of the mystery.
The next W, where?
This modern masterpiece of a British mansion is where the entire film takes place, and its techno gadgetry lends well to the suspense.
Also, actor turned director Kenneth Branagh takes full advantage of the soaring ceilings with creative and sharp bird's eye views.
And what about the fourth W?
When?
Actually, we have to go back to 1972.
That's when the first sleuth came out, also starring Michael Caine, but in the opposite role.
And back then, his co-star was Laurence Olivier.
That version, as well as this remake, are both based on a play.
And I must admit, despite a few modern updates, Kenneth Branagh's version doesn't come close to the mastery of the original.
And that all brings me to the final W of any mystery, why?
Why, indeed.
Don't give your money to this sleuth.
I highly recommend renting the old sleuth instead.
This one lacks the mental sparkle of the original, so it's only getting two stars out of five.
For the Movie Scene, I'm Yelena Anzick.
A boy in China just four years old is turning into an accomplished swimmer with lots of help from an enormous partner.
He's been trained to swim with a beluga whale, weighing half a ton.
Check this out.
It is part of a campaign in China getting children to perform extreme athletic feats.
Well, it took almost a year to get the whale used to swimming with humans, and now, while they get along just fine, even though they're tricks, well, look at that.
They don't always work out, but boy, did they try.
In a moment, Nick Cernkovich joins us from the CBC Weather Center.
He'll tell us about the week of fires, as well as some wet weather on Canada's east coast.
But first, I want to show you the scene high above the earth.
Two astronauts from the space shuttle Discovery have wrapped up the mission's first spacewalk.
They were at it for close to six hours today.
Thank you for watching, and enjoy this view.
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Hi folks, I'm meteorologist Nick Cernovich with a look at top weather stories coast to coast.
Now no secret, across the west coast fires ravaging southern California.
A bit of good news there, humidity and temperatures both working in our favor here.
Temperatures a little lower across the coast, humidity also a little bit higher.
Now if you remember from yesterday, I showed you the satellite imagery and there was a bank of fog toward northern California.
It's actually slid down a little bit south of Los Angeles and just poking into San Diego.
San Diego not actually seeing the fog right now.
But again, it's an indicator of the kind of moisture that we've got rolling in.
Now along coastal sections of California through the south, we've actually got foggy conditions,
visibilities down to next to zero.
But that means that the humidity and the moisture in the air actually rising up as well.
That's working in our favor here.
Now it does look like some areas though still in some sunshine at risk once again.
But especially across coastal sections, it looks like we're actually doing okay.
Los Angeles right now checking in at 16 degrees, cooler as you head toward the north.
A little bit of a warm pocket though through the interior.
Now take a look at the dew points.
Now memorize this number here, 16 for Los Angeles.
The dew point, which is a measure of the humidity, is at 14.
Now the dew point can be as much as the temperature but not more.
And if it is equal to the temperature, you've got 100% saturation or 100% relative humidity.
And in this case, we're pretty darn close there.
Humidity, humidex values really rising up there and that's helping out fire crews.
Winds also, by the way, quieting down quite a bit.
One note, however, as we head through Sunday and Monday,
it looks like the Santa Ana winds might just pick up again.
So we'll have to watch that.
Okay, let me take you over to the east coast.
Lots of moisture, no shortage of it here heading up the eastern seaboard.
If you have travel plans anywhere from North Carolina, South Carolina,
over toward New York State through the next 24 hours,
check with your airlines, could be some delays over there.
Rain showers just poking in through southern Ontario at this hour,
but expect to see more of them rolling in.
As a high pressure system off toward the Atlantic pushes this moisture inland,
we'll see a fair amount of rainfall rolling all the way up into Atlantic Canada by Sunday.
That's a look at the wet weather on the east coast.
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This is CBC News. I'm Suhanna Marchand.
Here's what's making news right now.
The soaring loony.
Our dollar surges above a dollar four U.S. in morning trading.
That's a high not seen in 33 years.
The slumping U.S. greenback and high commodity prices fuel the increase.
You know, I think we're numb.
Picking up the pieces.
Thousands in California return to devastated neighborhoods.
Weary firefighters are still battling nine major fires in that state.
The investment dollars will go.
People are going to be mining it for as long as it's going to be here.
Alberta residents like it.
Oil companies don't.
The decision to increase royalties charged to energy companies.
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Hello, everyone. Welcome to CBC News today.
More mixed emotions today as Canadians once again are riveted to the flight of the loony.
Early today traded above the dollar four U.S. level.
That's for the first time since May of 1974.
Jeannie Lee is watching those numbers for us.
Once again, Jeannie, Canadians craning their necks to watch the loony.
What's it flying at now?
Well, trying all day to sidle up to a dollar four U.S. again, Suhanna, after breaking through to that level early on.
And as you say, it was the highest since May of 1974.
And just as we're getting used to a 70s style dollar, get set to go back further in time because the Canadian dollars dash past parity shows no signs of letting up.
So here's where it's now.
We've been trying to capture it at a dollar four, but it's trading just under that.
A dollar three ninety four.
Yeah, there it goes.
The next notable level to watch would be a dollar four forty three.
And that would be the highest since 1960, and that was forty seven years ago, of course, but just about half a cent away.
Now, there is a reason the loony is known as the petrodollar.
Its 20 percent rise this year has closely tracked the price of Canada's black gold, which is up 50 percent this year.
The latest run up is because of worries about supplies from the Middle East that they may dry up because of escalating conflict between Turkey and Kurdish rebels in northern Iraq.
Plus those new U.S. sanctions against Iran.
And that all sent the price of oil to a record high of 92.22 a barrel overnight.
And gold has also been shinier than it has been in 28 years, now at about seven hundred and eighty seven dollars an ounce.
That's because investors are running to gold after dumping the U.S. dollar to new lows against the euro because it's looking like the U.S. will have to cut its interest rates again to kick up that economy.
All of this is making Canadians jeer or cheer, depending on what having a high dollar means to them.
I can tell you, Suhana, it's meaning more heat on retailers to cut prices.
Today, in fact, one Canadian tire near the border in Sarnia, Ontario, has caved.
It's cutting all of its prices to match U.S. prices immediately to keep shoppers from crossing the border.
And that's what a lot of shoppers are talking about.
Thank you, Jeannie. Jeannie, by the way, we'll be back with more of today's business news later in the program.
In Southern California, fire crews and homeowners are making some gains against the deadly wildfires that have burned since last week, but they are also finding shocking amounts of damage and worse.
Many residents are just beginning to learn how little is actually left of their homes.
And exhausted crews know they cannot let up in their battle even as the weather turns in their favor.
We're getting the upper hand, but we've still got a lot of work to do.
More than 20,000 homes are still in danger, most of them near San Diego.
Firefighters say it will take days to control the remaining fires, even in good conditions.
Many evacuation orders were lifted, most shelters will close today.
But for thousands of people, going home means looking at burned-out shells and thinking about how to rebuild.
Recovery crews, I should also tell you, found six bodies yesterday.
Two were in a house north of San Diego.
Four were in the desert near the Mexican border, and they fear they will discover more victims as they enter other burned-out areas.
Reporter Steve Futterman is in Rancho Bernardo.
That's a city near San Diego that was very hard hit by fires.
He has this update on the closing of the football stadium, which had been the largest shelter for people forced out of their homes.
We have people already rebuilding.
This gentleman lost his home.
He has construction crews here.
They're tearing down the house.
This may be the first person trying to rebuild here in San Diego County after having his home destroyed.
He just wanted to be the first person to get going.
He figures there's going to be a backlog, a work permit backlog, a backlog in trying to get inspectors to approve new changes and approve rebuilding.
So they want to be the first, and they may very well.
They have a bulldozer here.
They've knocked down the chimney, and they're ready to rebuild right now.
This may be the first person in San Diego County rebuilding.
As far as the stadium, stadium expected to be shut down in just under two hours at 12 noon local time here in California.
Qualcomm Stadium a few days ago had around 15,000 evacuees there.
It had dwindled to just several hundred, and officials here in the city said no need to make the stadium an evacuation center with that few number.
They're going to move these people to other shelters.
Meanwhile, it's possible the football team here, the National Football League San Diego Chargers, could still play their game at Qualcomm Stadium.
That's scheduled for Sunday, but no announcements been made on that yet.
I just want to talk about those bodies that recovery crews found yesterday for a minute, Steve.
Four of them out in the desert.
What details are you learning about that discovery late yesterday?
Well, officials have been always concerned.
This is the Harris Fire, and the Harris Fire actually went to the Mexican border.
Even its portions went into Mexico.
Fire officials were very concerned because it burned an area where often illegal immigrants congregate that perhaps some illegals who had crossed the border,
obviously trying to stay away from authorities, they might get caught by the flames.
Now, these charred bodies were recovered yesterday in a canyon that's a big congregation point for illegal immigrants.
There's been no positive identification.
It may never be.
They'll obviously try to get some dental records, but it's unclear whether they'll ever really find out who these people are.
But it is felt that they were illegals, and authorities do fear that they might find other illegals who have been caught up by the flames, killed by the flames in the days and weeks ahead.
And you know, those numbers could only increase, as you say.
Fire crews, though, are making progress.
They did certainly through the night.
How are they doing today, Steve?
They say they're doing very, very well.
The biggest fire has been this Witch Fire, or Witch Creek Fire.
This is the fire that came through here.
It has now consumed around 80,000 hectares, destroyed more than 800 homes.
Right now, it's 30 percent contained.
That may not sound like a lot when we're talking about total containment of some of the fires near Los Angeles,
but just yesterday, that fire was 20 percent contained, and two days ago, one percent contained.
So they feel they're making a great deal of progress with the winds diminishing.
That's Steve Funderman reporting from Rancho Bernardo, California.
There is an oil biz buzz in Alberta today, thanks to Premier Ed Stelmak.
It is the morning after his announcement of a big royalty increase that will take almost $1.5 billion more of the industry's profits.
We're going to get reaction from two hot spots in the business.
David Gereau is at Smitty's Restaurant in the boom town of Fort McMurray,
where he's been talking to people who work in the industry.
But first, let's go to Calgary and David Gray with reaction from the head office.
David, it has been almost 24 hours now that people are digesting this information.
How is it going over?
Well, that's a really good question.
It all depends who you talk to, Sahana.
If you take a look at the markets, here we are in a day where oil, as Jeanne pointed out earlier,
has just broken another record high, over $92 a barrel.
And the markets are fairly flat at one point.
Oil prices are sorry, the oil stocks were down.
Prices in oil and gas companies are about even now.
Some of the juniors are down.
They're taking a bit more of a hit.
But when it's $92, you'd think, yeah, they should be up today.
They should be riding that wave, and that doesn't seem to be happening at this point.
But who knows?
It's a rubes game to see what the market is doing in these early hours.
Overall, yes, the oil patch is angry.
They're angry because they feel like somebody's put their hand in their wallet and taken out $1.4 billion.
At least that's the plan by 2010.
They're angry because they feel like they've lost their best friend that they ever had,
which was the Alberta government, which for years has kept a very stable royalty regime.
In a business where there are so many volatile factors, the weather, trying to find the resource,
of course the price that's high now, but could be low in another month, who knows what's going to happen.
Now suddenly there's another variable, which is the royalty rate.
So they're angry about that.
On the other side of this, of course, there's what people in Alberta are thinking.
And remember, not everybody here works in the oil patch, and you forget that sometimes when you're outside of Alberta.
And some of those folks are saying, you know what, we should have had more.
The royalty review panel said take $2 billion, not $1.4.
These things have been introduced over time now, so the money won't be coming as quickly as possible.
And they say, look, elsewhere on the planet, this is a global phenomena,
that governments are asking for a bigger take of the oil patch.
Elsewhere they're saying people are getting more, they're taking more, and Alberta still is a pretty good picture.
So it really depends who you talk to, how you respond to this today.
You know, David, it would be remiss of us not to talk about the politics of all of this.
So give me a sense of the political play behind these moves.
Oh, it's interesting.
When Ed Stelmach, the Premier of Alberta, finished his address yesterday, he said to reporters,
he almost pleaded with them, guys, don't call this a compromise.
Whatever you do, don't say compromise.
Of course it's a compromise.
It's a big compromise.
It comes in kind of about halfway.
And you take a look at what Stelmach had to work with, he could have brought in everything,
which would have made the oil patch even angrier, but it may have bought him more votes.
Who knows? It depends how that trickles down.
We still have to wait in this front.
Now, it's always important to remember that this has happened before in Alberta.
Take a look in the history books.
In the early 1970s, there was another green and untested Premier,
kind of in the same position as Ed Stelmach is.
He decided to take on the oil companies.
He raised royalty rates in the midst of an environment of huge threats at the time,
and things worked out fairly well for him.
His name, of course, was Peter Lougheed.
I knew you were going to bring that up, and so you should.
Thanks for the update, David.
Thanks, Anna.
That's David Gray in Calgary.
Now, there is also a lot of chatter about Stelmach's plan further north,
if you go up in Alberta to Fort McMurray.
That's an oil town. It is in full boom.
The CBC's David Gereau is eavesdropping on the table talk among locals
at Smitty's Restaurant this morning.
David, as people sit down at their pancakes and orange juice,
what's the buzz there?
Well, it should come as no surprise that everyone is talking about the royalty review
and the decision that was made yesterday.
After all, the oil sands are in their backyard,
and if they're not employed by the big oil companies like Sincrude and Suncor,
then they're likely employed by a lot of the other industries
that are supporting the oil sands.
Now, I was surprised to find out that people here are very much in favour
of the decision that Stelmach made yesterday.
Oil workers I talked to this morning didn't expect that it was going to impact their jobs at all, really.
They said, hey, there's lots of oil left in the tar sands,
and as long as it's profitable, they're going to keep on taking it out.
And if these companies leave, well, then others are going to be lining up to take their place.
And those that live in this community say that maybe it's about time for a slowdown.
They've had some difficulty with the way that the economy has just grown
and leaps and bounds here, and that's caused some, well, problems here in the town.
People paying thousands of dollars for rent and things like that.
So they see this as promising.
They think that they're going to potentially get some of that money
to put in towards infrastructure projects in their community.
So they're hopeful that Stelmach will certainly not forget about them
and really where all the resources are from.
So the optimists are looking at it in terms of ways that this might help their town.
That's right, yes.
And actually, I have one of those optimists here with me right now,
and her name is Ramona Morrison.
Now, Ramona has been living here for 29 years,
and Ramona, I wonder how you feel about the decision that Stelmach made yesterday.
Well, I love the term balance.
Creating a balance is what we're looking for, and through that balance process,
we are hoping to achieve a great sum of money from the royalties
to ensure that we can continue to develop and have assistance,
more emergency response police and firefighters, housing,
and a really serious shortage of affordable housing.
There's lots of housing here, but we need affordable housing
for the service sector in particular to be able to supply
to the demands that the oil industry requires.
So it's a catch-22.
I agree totally with the Premier when he says, they succeed, we succeed.
The royalties will increase when their revenues increase.
So to me, it's a positive way to look at it.
It's a way to the future.
It's a way to build this province and our country.
And I'm delighted to be part of it.
I'm delighted.
I know we've had our trials and tribulations,
and hopefully with this announcement,
we are going to receive the most needed assistance,
the dollars to put back into the region to ensure that we can achieve the goals
and objectives that we as citizens, we as business people look forward to doing.
So you certainly seem to have high hopes that this is going to benefit the town.
I absolutely do have high hopes,
because I think that the Premier's idea of creating a balance,
and through that process, his intention obviously is to create a balance.
A balance meaning that we are able to supply, we are able to get staff,
we are able to have affordable housing,
to be able to make a comfortable environment for our people to live in.
That is our resource.
Our resources are our people.
We get them from all over the world.
So we want to get them, we want to keep them,
and we want to encourage them to be part of the success story.
Through that, in the eyes of the Premier and the politicians,
and the huge shareholders, we look to them for guidance,
we look to them for money, we look to them for a bright future.
Ramona, thanks very much for that.
So as you heard right there, obviously a lot of hope right now
that the community is going to benefit from this,
that they are going to get a nice big chunk of those dollars that are going to be coming in,
and I guess really only time will tell as far as how the oil companies are going to react
and whether or not there is going to be a slowdown here,
or whether it is going to be business as usual and potentially a brighter future for this community.
That's David Gero in Fort McMurray, Alberta.
Here is a look now at some of what is still to come on CBC News Today.
We will hear why an activist for peace in Darfur is pessimistic about the talks that start tomorrow
between rebels and the government of Sudan.
We are also going to see the effect the fires in California will have on the health of people there.
And we will drop in on Rideau Hall where the Governor General has been honouring people with the Order of Canada.
We are back in just a moment.
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That's not quite what I said.
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CBC News Politics, Today at Five Eastern on CBC News One.
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Our ability to live is at stake.
It's a hoax. It's an outrageous lie.
Who's fueling the global warming debate?
Essentially, big coal and big oil are writing policies for the Bush White House.
To protect the state. Tonight at 10 Eastern on CBC News World.
Our top story this hour. Here it is, the blue board of the TSX for the first time in over 30 years.
The Canadian dollar opened trading at $1.04 to the American greenback. You see it now at $1.0398.
The loonies gain comes as crude oil prices rise and as tensions grow in the Middle East.
Long awaited talks begin tomorrow on bringing peace to Darfur.
But the first meeting in Libya will not get off to an auspicious start.
That's because there's been a surge in the fighting in Darfur.
Not to mention a lot of dissent among those at the negotiating table.
And most importantly, two main rebel groups are going to boycott the talks altogether.
Joining me with his thoughts now is Clementa Pack.
He's a human rights activist. He founded a group called Canadian Students for Darfur.
And he is in New Westminster, BC.
Clementa Pack, this is really not the first time that peace talks are trying to resolve the conflict in Darfur.
How hopeful are you about this new round beginning tomorrow in Libya?
Thank you, Suhana. I have to say that I'm not hopeful at all, given the history.
Certainly the situation is much more complicated because of the many rebel groups that have branched off from the original one.
We have about 13 rebel groups now and they are competing amongst themselves.
We also have indications that the bigger ones have said they are going to boycott the peace talks.
So sadly we don't have as much hope as one would wish.
But anyway, the good thing about hope is that we could wake up tomorrow and the situation would change.
Could that be naive hope in this case?
Well, certainly if you look at what is going on on the ground, the conflict is continuing.
Villages are still being burned. Women are being raped, both in Darfur and in Chad.
They are lacking food and basic resources. The Sudan government is not quite serious about this process.
We also know that Sudan is now not even abiding by the comprehensive peace that brought about the resolution of the conflict between the North and the South.
So if you look at all of the issues surrounding the peace talks to be held tomorrow, the sense of hope is very, very dim, so to speak.
But as I said, we don't have any more choices but to hope because so far the world has said never again many times,
and yet every day, every hour, people are dying and the conflict continues.
And I know you're in contact with people on the ground there.
What is the sense among those conversations you've had with those people as to what's ahead for them?
Well, I mean, from some of my contacts on the ground, and I'm not going to name names because the Sudan government has the habit of punishing people
who provide information to those of us outside, including those of us living here in Canada,
what I can say is that there is a sense of tiredness.
People are just sick and tired of the disaster that has been going on for the past four years,
and they are just hoping and begging that the international community would for once in a lifetime abide by the good old phrase, never again.
So they are hoping and praying that the powers that be, in this case China and Russia,
would perhaps be able to pressure their good friend Umar al-Bashir of Sudan to make concessions,
and that those who are friends to the multiple rebel groups would also apply pressure on the rebel groups to accept a common front
that would then facilitate stability, which would then allow for the deployment of the proposed 26,000 contingent from UN member nations.
Clementa Pak, you mentioned China and Russia, and we know the UN is called the situation in Darfur,
the worst humanitarian crisis of the century.
For Canadians, what can Canada do to help effect change?
Certainly, I want to believe that it is a Canadian value to see peace and coexistence based on the history of Canada itself.
And Canada can use its position as a moderate global power, you know, to negotiate and bring all the dissenting groups together,
both within the UN and even within the African Union.
Canada could also pressure members of the Arab League to speak much more forcefully,
because as we know, the citizens of Darfur, contrary to what a lot of people perceive, are not Christians.
They are also Muslims praying five times a day.
So if Canada can use its leverage, both within the UN and outside of the UN, to bring those who have the power to influence both sides together,
I think that we stand a much more better chance of getting peace.
Let me be quick to add that in my opinion, the Canadian government has to appoint a special envoy to the Sudan.
It would be nice to see the Prime Minister's office have somebody whose job would be to inform and appraise the Canadian government
about what is going on in the ground and help facilitate Canada's role in bringing about peace in Darfur.
You know, while we wait for diplomatic and political action, you are working on humanitarian needs right now.
What kind of aid do the people of Darfur need most right now?
Suddenly, three areas would come up when one speaks about the needs of the over three million people who have been displaced.
Of course, those half a million people who have been killed, you know, they are dead and gone,
but we owe it to them to ensure that those who remain in the camps and in Darfur are safe.
So we speak about basic necessities like medicines, we speak about just toiletries,
because, you know, as I like to say, think about taking care of students at SFU, which is my university,
just 26,000 of us a day when you've lost everything, and then multiply that by three million people who have lost absolutely everything.
So we need food, we need medicine, we need housing.
And of course, it would be good to have some programs in the refugee camps to sort of get the youth going
and sort of begin to address the trauma that the women and girls who have been victims of multiple rapes,
to try to get them going in ways that would allow them to fully and easily reintegrate into society once the conflict is over.
You know what, it's been good to talk to you, and I thank you for letting us know exactly what those needs are.
Clementa Pak, joining us, thanks for your time.
Thank you very much, Suhana. It's great to speak to you.
You take care.
Bye-bye.
I've got some news just coming over the wires that I'm looking at now.
Ontario's finance minister is leaving cabinet.
Greg Sorbera says it is for personal reasons.
He will stay on as a member of the provincial legislature.
He made the announcement in a very hastily called news conference in Toronto just moments ago.
It's a story we are certainly watching for you here at Queen's Park in Toronto.
Let's go back to our above par loony and the pressure it has put on retailers here to match U.S. prices.
One store in a very Canadian chain has felt the heat, and it is making a single dramatic move to win back angry shoppers.
Jeannie Lee is back with that story and more. What's going on, Jeannie?
How about total price parity, Suhana?
Wow.
Yeah, it has come to shoppers in Sarnia, Ontario at the local Canadian Tire store.
The manager says he will match prices found at U.S. retailers and immediately.
Now, you can't get much closer to the U.S. border than Sarnia,
and the manager says he's trying to convince his customers not to take the bridge to cheaper prices.
He's being a bit of a maverick about this because the Sarnia store is reported to be the only one
in the entire chain to make this move.
Walmart Canada and Zellers have announced price matching on some items,
but they and other retailers have said it will take time to press their suppliers to pass on their extra profits from the higher dollar.
So the unilateral decision by one store manager in Sarnia to act immediately sure stands out.
And there's a fresh report of just how much manufacturers are losing heart and losing orders as the dollar gains in value.
StatsCan surveyed manufacturers through the last two quarters,
and it found almost one in four plan to cut back production over the next three months,
and half think they will manage to hold steady while only a quarter see themselves getting busier.
Aside from fewer orders from U.S. clients whose purchasing power is shrinking,
Canada's otherwise strong economy has a super low jobless rate and a labor shortage in some areas,
adding to the challenges for manufacturers.
And in fact, the more the dollar goes up and the faster it does that,
the greater the chance of lower interest rates for all kinds of businesses, including manufacturers.
After all, one reason the dollar has shot up in value is that currency traders are running away from the U.S.
where rates are going down and may be cut again.
Meanwhile, rates here are perceived to be staying steady.
If you chop our rates, traders may back off the loonie,
and the Bank of Canada might want to do that because the high dollar is whacking so many Canadian businesses,
including manufacturers, exporters, and the tourist trade.
Well, to another major story, and what was expected to be a major sell-off of Canada's energy stocks
after Alberta jacked up royalties that oil and gas companies will have to pay,
but not by as much as first thought.
So as a group, energy stocks are pretty muted today.
The group is still up 6 percent so far this year and back to where it was in the middle of last month,
just before the panel suggested the oil and gas firms pay 20 percent more in royalties.
You'll see the group sinking about 4 percent on that news, but it has since recovered,
pulled up as the price of oil has also gone up.
And today's muted reaction may be because oil prices are so hot today, hitting yet more record highs.
So while Alberta contemplates adding to its famous budget surplus, Canada's surplus is also ballooning.
The latest figures from the finance department are out, and in August, the surplus was up $911 million,
almost double the increase of a year earlier.
Finance says it's thanks to higher revenue from sales tax and corporate income tax.
The August bonanza brings the total surplus for the first five months of this fiscal year to almost $8.7 billion.
That's up 20 percent from last year.
While Master Chief may not have only saved the world, he's made Microsoft even richer.
The popular character from the Halo video game series has helped the company lift its profits by 23 percent in the last quarter.
Halo 3 helped to beat investors' expectations by raising Microsoft's profits to the $4.3 billion mark.
Microsoft also sold a lot more of its new Windows program, and with the holiday season still to come,
analysts expect a stronger next quarter with more demand for Halo 3 and the Xbox game system.
And Apple releases its latest version of its operating system today.
It's called Leopard and will cost about $120 free if you buy a new Mac.
Apple says the upgrade includes 300 new features.
Some critics have praised its backup abilities, and Apple still seems bulletproof when it comes to keeping out viruses and adware.
So 300 new features, Suhanna, but one of them is a Danish spell check.
So we're talking really small improvement for the most part.
I don't know. Everyone wants to know how to say, I love you in Danish. I think it's Jeg elske dig.
Somebody's going to call me and correct me. But you want to spell check that before you send it.
And I'll send it back to you with that message, but I won't say it because I remember what you said.
Thank you, Jeannie.
Okay.
Still ahead for you.
Still ahead for you, the smoke, the soot, the dust.
It is hard to take a deep breath right now in Southern California.
A doctor there talks to us about breathing and other health problems caused by the wildfires when CBC News Today continues.
Friday on the weekend scene.
Jude Law, Michael Caine and director Kenneth Branagh ditch about remaking a classic.
The real game has just begun.
The weekend scene, Friday at 7.30 Eastern on CBC News World.
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I was turned down for my life insurance.
What happened?
I don't know. Maybe it was my medical history or the blood test they made me take.
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Kathy and Michael each got approved for $150,000 of life insurance from Canada Protection Plant.
What makes them so different?
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So you're saying that they got $400,000 each with their medical history?
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So why are you paying the same insurance premiums as him?