National Business

VANCOUVER — The Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouversays home sales got off to a strong start in the first month of 2024 but the pace of newly listed properties did not keep up with demand. The board says January home sales totalled 1,427, a 38.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The nation’s employers delivered a stunning burst of hiring to begin 2024, adding 353,000 jobs in January in the latest sign of the economy’s continuing ability to shrug off the highest interest rates in two decades.

OTTAWA — Business insolvencies rose 57.2 per cent in December compared with a year earlier, according to the Office of the Superintendent of Bankruptcy. For the entire year, business insolvencies were up 41.

LONDON (AP) — Climate activist Greta Thunberg was acquitted Friday of refusing to follow a police order to leave a protest blocking the entrance to a major oil and gas industry conference in London last year.

TORONTO — DesRosiers Automotive Consultants says auto sales jumped 14.9 per cent in January compared with the year before. Manufacturers reported an estimated 112,862 transactions for the month, up from 98,259 units in January 2023.

GATINEAU, Que. — Ottawa is launching a new pay transparency website that will offer comparable data on workforce representation rates and pay gaps experienced by four key groups at federally regulated private sector employers.

It was a passionate student letter in 2020 that caused the Southern York County school board to reconsider its logo: a Native American man, representing the “Warriors.

MONTREAL — TC Transcontinental says it's closing its printing plant in St-Hyacinthe, Que. The Montreal-based company says it will gradually reduce operations at the plant, with a complete closure scheduled in April.

TORONTO — Indigo Books & Music Inc. says it has received a proposal to take the retailer private from a pair of companies owned by controlling shareholder Gerald Schwartz. The non-binding proposal from Trilogy Retail Holdings Inc.

TORONTO — A blast from the past is coming to Toys "R" Us Canada. HMV, the entertainment brand that departed the country seven years ago, said this week that it has begun selling merchandise in five of the toy retailer's Ontario locations.