Stockholm, Sweden (AHN) – Sweden tops the list of 18 members of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development that could stamp out smoking in the next 50 years. According to a study by Citi Investment, there will likely be no smokers in Sweden by 2028.

The forecast is based on the fact that Sweden has the smallest percentage of smokers in the 18-member OECD, at 15 percent.

Sweden is followed by Australia, whose 17 percent of smoking residents would probably end the vice by 2030, and Iceland, which has 16 percent of its population who light up, by 2033.

The percentage of other nation’s population who smoke and Citi’s forecast of the end of smoking within the next 5 decades are:

• Canada, 18 percent — 2040
• United Kingdom, 21 percent — 2040
• Norway, 21 percent — 2042
• United States, 21 percent — 2046
• Netherlands, 28 percent — 2048
• Belgium, 20 percent — 2051
• Japan, 24 percent — 2054
• New Zealand, 18 percent — 2058

Worst case scenarios are painted for Greece, which has 40 percent of its population as smokers and is forecast to stamp out smoking by 2231, and Germany, despite having only a 23 percent population of smokers, may end up as the last to lick the habit by 2280.

The study pointed out that in many OECD nations smoking has been declining since the 1960s when almost half of the population lit up and after residents became more aware of the ill health effects of nicotine on their body. It also helped that public smoking has been banned in many countries.

Because of the long-term impact of the zero smoking campaign on OECD nations – which are major markets for tobacco firms – Citigroup downgraded its ratings on Imperial Tobacco, British American Tobacco and Philip Morris to “hold” from “buy.”

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Ottawa, Ontario, Canada (AHN) – Many Canadian workers would begin 2011 paying higher personal income and payroll taxes, the Canadian Taxpayers Federation warned Tuesday.

For personal income taxes, the federation said all the 16 income and family groups in each Canadian province would pay 2 percent higher taxes.

For business payroll taxes, because of hikes in payroll tax thresholds, workers earning more than $44,200 a year would shell out $76 more, while their employers would have to pay $110 more.

The federation blamed the increase to the federal government’s hike in the Canadian Pension Plan premiums and the creation of new, non-insurance based programs funded by Employment Insurance premiums, which caused the program to create a deficit to be covered by higher rates.

The federation pointed out that income tax and payroll tax increases in previous years evened out because some groups enjoyed cuts, while others had to pay more. In 2011, all income levels, family scenarios and geographical location would be affected negatively.

Worst hit will be residents of Ontario, British Columbia and Nova Scotia because inflation rates in these provinces are higher than national average. As a consequence, Ontario residents would be hit with a 4.3 percent increase, BC residents 2.9 percent and Nova Scotians 2.8 percent.

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Ottawa, Ontario, Canada (AHN) – Canada’s population was at 34.2 million as of Oct. 1, according to Statistics Canada. The agency said the increase–the largest in 40 years–was driven mainly by immigration.

For the third quarter of 2010, 65 percent or 84,200 people of the 129,300 who were added to Canada’s head count were migrants. The new arrivals did not just stay in key urban centers such as Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver, but also spread out into the provinces and territories.

Tiny Prince Edward Island welcomed 1,200 new migrants during the quarter, Quebec opened its door to 16,800 arrivals and Manitoba allowed into the province 4,700 new Canadians.

The only exception was Alberta. Some 60 percent of its growth for the quarter was because of births by established residents.

For the last quarter of 2010, Canada is expected to welcome from 240,000 to 265,000 immigrants.

To help the provinces cope with the surge of arrivals, Ottawa grants subsidies based on 2005 immigration levels. Ontario, a traditional immigrant destination, gets an average of $3,400 per migrant to help the newcomers resettle in their new home. Other provinces, except Quebec, receive about $2,900 per head.

Because of the new patterns of immigration, Citizenship and Immigration Minister Jason Kenney said Ottawa would redistribute federal funding accordingly. The surge in immigrant arrivals had caused federal settlement funds to triple from less than $200 million in 2005-06 to $651 million in 2010-11. However, by next year, Ottawa will reduce the amount to $598 million.

The $43 million cut may drastically affect settlement services offered by agencies such as the Eritrean Canadian Community Center, South Asian Women’s Center, Ethiopian Association, Afghan Association of Ontario and Bloor Information and Life Skills Center, which are facing budget shortfalls of 70 percent or higher.

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Kananaskis, Alberta, Canada (AHN) – Federal Finance Minister Jim Flaherty on Monday gave Canadian provinces until 2015 to wipe out their budget deficits. He encouraged the provinces to address their financial problems to avoid facing a debt crisis similar to what some European Union nations are grappling with.

Most Canadian provinces have already made plans to achieve balanced books within the next five years. Ottawa, however, has an eight-year timetable to remove its projected $18.7 billion deficit. Although Ontario accounts for 40 percent of Canada’s economy, Flaherty said the largest province’s fiscal situation does not place Canada’s economy at risk.

To help provinces cope with decreasing revenues and increasing expenses, Ottawa hiked transfers for 2011-12 to $56 billion, which is $2.2 billion higher than the current year’s transfers. The federal transfers are allocated for delivery of front-line services such as health care and social programs.

Flaherty added that he ordered a one-year protection of federal transfers to provinces in which there would be no reductions in major transfers for next year. The move costs Ottawa $1.1 billion.

In the same meeting of finance ministers, the group agreed to Flaherty’s proposal to establish a new private-sector retirement savings fund that will provide Canadians more retirement savings options. The fund will be open to small Canadian firms, employees whose companies do not want to participate and self-employed workers.

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Waterloo, Ontario, Canada (AHN) – The board of directors of BlackBerry-maker Research in Motion named Thursday co-chief executives Jim Balsillie and Mike Lazaridis as co-chairmen. On the same day, RIM announced its third quarter results which featured a 40 percent rise in sales.

Because of the higher-than-expected performance, RIM’s sales jumped to $5.49 billion, fueled mainly by its BlackBerry smart phone sales in North America and internationally. As a result, Q3 net income rose to $911.1 million from $628.4 million. It translates into $1.10 per share.

RIM declared earnings per share of $1.74, which is higher than analysts’ forecast of $1.65.

RIM’s financial performance sent shares of the firm climbing in New York trading after hours.

On Thursday also, the RIM board announced that member James Estill left the technology firm because of a business conflict and John Richardson would be retained as lead independent board director. Estill has been with RIM since 1997.

Almost two years ago, the Ontario Securities Commission prohibited Basillie from serving on RIM’s board for one year because of wrongly priced stock options given to all company workers from 1996 to 2006. The OSC also mandated Lazaridis and Estill to pay penalties for the same error.

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Ottawa, Ontario, Canada (AHN) – A survey made by Harris/Decima for Canada Post found out that 80 percent of Canadians prefer to receive Christmas cards sent by snail mail.

In 2008, only 71 percent of Canadians said they still look forward to receiving traditional holiday greeting cards by post.

The survey indicated many Canadians still prefer to older ways of sending greetings during the Yuletide season based on the average of 15 Christmas cards they plan to send this year.

About 60 percent said they will not send electronic greeting cards this year, while those who plan to send one gave an average of only five digital cards.

Seventy-five percent of Canadian women will send Christmas cards this year by post, compared to only 62 percent of men.

In anticipation of higher volume of Christmas mail, Canada Post started on the first week of December weekend deliveries, while during weekdays the postmen will delivery letters and parcels until 9 p.m.

According to Doug Jones, Canada Post senior vice president for operations, the agency added extra flights to its national air network and 50 more highway services to complement the over 1,400 Canada Post trucks that delivery mail daily throughout Canada. Aside from road and air routes, Canada Post also moves 10 tractor loads of mail each business day by rail.

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Seoul, South Korea (AHN) – Canadian Finance Minister Jim Flaherty announced Wednesday the signing of an agreement with the China Insurance Regulatory Commission. The deal allows Chinese insurers to invest in Canadian capital markets.

Flaherty, who is now in Seoul, South Korea to attend the G20 meeting, said the Chinese deal gives the Canadian financial markets access to a potential pool of $106 billion. He said the agreement is a vote of confidence for Ottawa’s economic prospects and soundness of the country’s financial systems.

It also sends the message to other countries that Ottawa is open to foreign investors despite the decision last week by the federal government of Canada to reject Australian mining giant BHP Billiton’s $40 billion offer to buy the Potash Corporation of Saskatchewan.

The agreement is the third under China’s Qualified Domestic Institutional Investor program, which allows approved institutional investors in China to invest funds overseas pooled from mainland residents to approved financial markets abroad.

The deal strengthens further Ottawa’s trade ties with Beijing. For the past five years, Canada’s exports to China have grown by almost 55 percent, making the south Asian giant the third largest export market for Canada and the country’s second biggest merchandise trading partner.

The agreement is the result of more than one year effort by Flaherty to convince China to consider Canada as an investment haven. In August 2009, Flaherty went to China with Bank of Canada Governor Mark Carney and in June this year the finance minister again visited China ahead of the G20 Toronto summit.

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Ottawa, Ontario, Canada (AHN) – Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper is standing by his Wednesday decision to reject Australian giant mining firm BHP Billiton’s $40 billion offer for Potash Corp. However, Harper opened the door Thursday to a review of Canada’s foreign investment laws.

The decision was hailed by Saskatchewan Premier Brad Wall and three other premiers, but money managers and policy experts said greater clarity is needed on what foreign firms can or cannot buy. Industry Minister Tony Clement is banned by law to discuss for 30 days the reasons behind the rejection of BHP’s offer.

Harper told the House of Commons that when dealing with foreign investments, Ottawa would always put a premium on the Canadian economy, while being open to global trading and investments.

Ottawa’s decision prompted the opposition to demand a rewriting of the Investment Act to make the review process more transparent.

The BHP offer is the second major rejection made by Investment Canada by a foreign takeover. In 2008, Ottawa spurned an offer by Alliant Techsystem, based in Minnesota, to purchase Canadian arms maker MDA Corp.

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With the introduction of its daily, non-stop Toronto-Delhi flight from Oct 31, Air India now flies non-stop to India from all its destinations in North America.

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Ottawa, Canada (AHN) – The Canadian Women’s Hockey League, which is gearing up to join the NHL as a pro hockey league, is in need of funding to realize its plans of becoming a professional league.

And in order to attain its aspiration, the CWHL will need about $2 million in financial support.

According to the CWHL, the cost in running a five-team league and pay the players a modest salary would be about $1.7 million.

For this season, the league is expected to operate on a $500,000 budget, with players paying for their own equipment.

It currently has five ice hockey teams: three based in Ontario, one in Quebec, and one in Boston, Massachusetts.

Talks between the CWHL and the NHL continue on a reported deal.

According to the CWHL, it is within two weeks of approaching five NHL teams to negotiate sponsorships and service sharing for its five teams, but it needs the backing of the NHL.

The CWHL plans to negotiate with the Maple Leafs, Ottawa Senators, Buffalo Sabres, Montreal Canadiens and the Boston Bruins.

The CWHL is slated to open the 2010-11 season on Oct. 23.

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