In the news today: Analysts expect jobless rate edged up in December

Here is a roundup of stories from The Canadian Press designed to bring you up to speed…

Analysts expect jobless rate edged up in December

Statistics Canada will release the country’s job report for December this morning.

November saw Canada’s unemployment rate rise to 6.8 per cent — the highest jobless rate since January 2017 outside of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Analysts at RBC and BMO believe that number will have edged up again in December to 6.9 per cent, as the country’s labour market continues to underperform.

The analysts also expect Canada added a modest 10,000 jobs in December.

The labour market survey comes ahead of the next Bank of Canada interest rate decision on Jan. 29.

Here’s what else we’re watching…

Liberals to announce new leader March 9

The federal Liberals will announce a new leader on March 9, the party announced late Thursday, giving potential candidates just two weeks to decide to run and potential voters less than three weeks to join the party in order to vote.

The National Board of Directors met Thursday night to decide the initial rules for the race to race to succeed Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who announced Monday he will resign as soon as a new leader is chosen.

Contenders have until Jan. 23 to declare their candidacy and will have to pay a $350,000 entry fee to participate in the race.

The Liberals did not say Thursday how people will vote, but did tighten the rules around who will be eligible to cast a ballot in the race after concerns were raised that anyone with a Canadian address over the age of 14 could potentially vote.

To take part in this selection process, you must be registered as a Liberal member by Jan. 27, be at least 14 years old, and be a Canadian citizen, permanent resident or have status under the Indian Act.

Questions linger about coming border watchdog

The fight for an independent review body to keep an eye on Canada’s border agency may be over, but there are lingering concerns in civil society circles about how much bite the new watchdog will have.

Travellers, immigration detainees and others who feel they have been mistreated by the Canada Border Services Agency will be able to complain to the Public Complaints and Review Commission once it begins operating.

The border agency’s thousands of employees manage the flow of millions of travellers and commercial shipments entering Canada annually. They collect, analyze and distribute information about people and goods at border points, air terminals and seaports.

Border officers can stop travellers for questioning, take blood and breath samples, and search, detain and arrest people without warrants.

Currently, an internal border agency unit handles complaints from the public, while other bodies – including the courts, the federal privacy commissioner and the National Security and Intelligence Review Agency – examine various concerns.

Summit aims to help disabled Canadians find work

As some Canadians with disabilities face challenges finding work, an upcoming summit is aiming to help those seeking jobs connect with potential employers, while educating the latter on ways to boost accessibility.

The virtual event, billed as the Untapped Talent Summit, is being put on Monday by the Canadian Council on Rehabilitation and Work.

The event also coincides with the organization’s launch of an online job board geared toward people with disabilities, which will provide them with free access to inclusive job postings and tailored resources.

CCRW president and CEO Maureen Haan said the organization sees a need to “shift the landscape for disability and work” in Canada.

“What we hear from our clients is that the job market is tough and they are up against people who may be seen as having better skills than they do, because of their disability,” said Haan.

Can missionary records improve climate models?

A team led by McGill University researchers came up with a method they hope could improve climate models over Africa by combining them with 19th century missionary records, refashioning dubious documents in a bid to better inform projections of global warming’s impact.

Models are an important way for scientists and decision-makers to understand how human influence is changing the climate. To come up with those projections, climate models depend on historical baselines – temperature and precipitation, for example – to validate and refine their results.

But a lack of historical region-specific data across parts of Africa, plus a major deficit in weather stations compared to North America and Europe, has contributed to model uncertainty.

“Africa’s absence from the underlying data makes deploying these projections uncomfortable, as it partly represents the continent’s marginalization from global scientific discourse during and after colonialism,” says a study published last month in the peer-reviewed journal Climate of the Past.

To fill that data gap, lead author Philip Gooding turned to a perhaps unlikely source – writings of 19th century Christian missionaries in Tanzania.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Jan. 10, 2025.

The Canadian Press