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Victoria, British Columbia, Canada (AHN) – British Columbia Premier Gordon Campbell announced Monday a reshuffle in his cabinet to focus on the province’s main aims of supporting families, education and the economy.

Cabinet members who were moved include George Abbott, who was given the education portfolio; Margaret MacDiarmid, who got tourism; Barry Penner, who was picked to head Aboriginal Relations and Reconciliation; and Murray Coell, who got the environment portfolio.

Among those whom Campbell retained in their posts are Finance Minister Colin Hansen, Health Minister Kevin Falcon, Attorney General Mike de Jong and Minister of Public Safety Rich Coleman.

New appointees are Stephanie Cadieux as minister of community, sport and cultural development, and Paul Taylor as chief of staff. Taylor, the former chief executive officer of the Insurance Corporation of British Columbia, will replace Martyn Brown, who testified in the Basi-Virk corruption trial.

Campbell, who is suffering from a 9 percent voter support in polls, said in a statement, “This new structure will streamline government processes for critical natural resource industries to ensure we can better attract global investment and turn proposed projects and investments into actual work sites and jobs. It enables us to move forward with our federal partners towards establishing a ‘one project, one process’ model.”

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Toronto, Ontario, Canada (AHN) – In a bid to overcome his rival’s lead in the upcoming Toronto mayoral elections, poll second-player and former Ontario Deputy Premier George Smitherman disclosed on Thursday plans to open a green Silicon Valley for Toronto.

Smitherman’s proposal, aimed at chipping away votes from leading mayoral candidate Councilor Rob Ford, envisions the creation of an incubator area expected to bring in environmental NGOs, green energy establishments and research and technology firms.

To help promote the green tech center, Smitherman said he would tap members of different ethnic chambers of commerce to come up with a team of 500 members who would promote the center as well as the city during their travel overseas for business.

On Wednesday, Smitherman also tried to court the votes from poll third-placer and Toronto Deputy Mayor Joe Pantalone by citing the A-plus he and Pantalone got from the Toronto Environmental Alliance for their green platforms.

Ford, in turn, painted Smitherman – who was also former Ontario Health Minister – as not trustworthy because of the latter’s involvement in the eHealth funding and contract scandal. eHealth attempted to digitize medical records in Ontario, but an audit revealed the province has produced little results. The project is also mired in dubious contracts and excessive consultant fees.

The Toronto election is scheduled for Monday.

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San Francisco, CA, United States (AHN) – U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton hinted at a San Francisco forum that Washington is inclined to allow more oil sands from Canada. She made the statement in response to a question from the audience at the Commonwealth Club of San Francisco.

The indication of the potential policy came at a time that TransCanada’s application to extend its Keystone XL pipeline project is still pending. The proposal involves 1,700 miles of pipeline to transport fuel sourced from bitumen from Alberta to Texas, doubling exports to as much as 900,000 barrels per day.

TransCanada’s proposal is under review by the State Department, which is being hounded by lobby groups to reject the project following the Gulf of Mexico oil disaster this year.

Clinton said the department has not yet finished all the analysis on the TransCanada proposal, but said Washington is inclined toward the project because it’s a choice of being dependent on “dirty oil” from Canada or from the Middle East.

Clinton acknowledged tolerating “dirty oil” is a reality that the U.S. government has to face until it has sufficient clean, renewable energy available to meet the growing demand for power.

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Yellowknife, Northwest Territories, Canada (AHN) – The federal government of Canada has tentatively reached an agreement with the Northwest Territories to devolve province-like powers to the region. The powers include the northern resources and royalties it generates.

Although the deal is still a draft agreement in principle, Ottawa and the NWT governments agreed to work for a final devolution agreement, said the spokesman of the Indian and Northern Affairs. The tentative agreement was reached last month after at least 20 years of talks between the two sides.

Ottawa and NWT officials will review the tentative agreement in the next few weeks and reconvene on Oct. 30 to discuss their next move. Indian Affairs said it expects the transfer of power would be gradual.

NWT Premier Floyd Roland last week shared the development with members of the Legislative Assembly in his sessional statement. Roland said he hoped the 16th Assembly would be able to secure the powers and resources from Ottawa to give the NWT government a greater say in shaping the territories’ future.

Roland said, “We all know that this work of creating a strong foundation for the future is not easy. But we have all worked to put in place the resources, tools, and processes that will allow us to realize the unprecedented opportunities that are still before us.”

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Kamloops, British Columbia, Canada (AHN) – The Department of Fisheries and Oceans of Canada has estimated that there are 34.5 million sockeye salmon on the Fraser River system in British Columbia. It is the largest run in about a century.

The record-high salmon population has revived the almost dying commercial fishery industry in the province as processing plants can the catch of 12 million fish.

Thousands of tourists are visiting the banks of Adams River, which is part of the Fraser River system, to take a look at the millions of red sockeye salmon, whose population dwindled to just 1.5 million in 2009. Adams hosts a Salute to Sockeye festival, which normally brings in crowds of 100,000 to 120,000. This year, festival organizers expect more than 150,000 visitors.

To ensure the department has the right numbers, technicians are counting the dead salmon by cutting off its tail with a sharp knife, and are counting the fish spawned in the river and washed downstream.

To protect BC’s salmon abundance, several groups organized protests on Sunday to prevent oil tankers from docking in the province’s waters. The rallies, organized by the Wilderness Committee, Greenpeace and No Tanks!, were held at Second Beach in Stanley Park and Third Beach.

No Tanks! Officials called for a 100 percent ban on oil tankers on the West Coast, particularly those carrying oil from Alberta tar sands, which pass through a pipeline to Burnaby and loaded to supertankers docked on BC shores.

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Toronto, Ontario, Canada (AHN) – Toronto’s candidates for mayor are focusing on tax cuts and other economic issues to the detriment of social issues in the city.

With city elections upcoming, the candidates’ speeches center on reduction of vehicle registration fees and land transfer taxes, freezing property taxes, cutting councilors’ office budgets and reducing the city’s payroll.

Leading candidate Councilor Rob Ford promised voters on Friday to have a $1.67 billion surplus during his first four years in office, without reducing city services. To achieve the promise, Ford plans to cut the cost of government by 2.5 percent or $230 million in 2011. Ford also vowed to save $67.6 million by replacing only 50 percent of employees who retire or resign.

Other measures that Ford plans to impose if he wins and replaces outgoing Mayor David Miller are to save $66.7 million by using a more competitive bidding process and another $80 million by doing away with the fair-wage policy. The latter mandates Toronto to pay wages equivalent to union rates of private sector contract workers.

The overemphasis on economic issues has led some voters to ask in town hall meetings for the candidates’ stand on social issues such as hunger, delayed child care subsidies and homelessness. Because of the economic crisis and poverty in Ontario’s capital city, Toronto food banks handed out 1.1 million baskets of groceries in 2009, which is a 14 percent rise compared to 2008.

About 75,000 Toronto households are waiting for affordable shelter, while the child care subsidies of 17,000 Toronto children have been delayed.

Toronto projects a $503 million budget deficit for 2011. With Ford’s planned spending cuts of $525.6 million next year, the city would have a surplus of $22.6 million, which the councilor estimated would go up to $1.67 billion by the end of 2014.

However, several groups such as the Toronto Board of Trade, former budget chiefs and rival candidates dismissed Ford’s budget surplus prediction as too optimistic, but lacking in specifics on how the next mayor would achieve such large targets.

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Toronto, Ontario, Canada (AHN) – The battle for a larger share of the $16.8-billion Canadian cellphone market continues to be waged by industry players.

In a bid to make as many hand held units available to consumers, more Canadian supermarkets are including mobile phones on their aisle offerings.

Loblaws announced on Wednesday new partnerships with majority of Canada’s cellphone makers, which would add five new brands to over 500 Loblaw chains across the country. Loblaws has actually been offering cellphones in its retail outlets since 2005.

Shoppers Drug Mart made a similar move in July when it carried Rogers Communications hand held units in its 36 stores across Ottawa. The deal with Shoppers, which sells cosmetics and drugs, was timely for Rogers which ended its dealership with electronics chain The Source after the latter was purchased by Rogers’ rival Bell Canada in early 2009.

Loblaws Vice President of Telecom Services Maria Forlini said the company decided to expand its cellphone offerings because of their belief that the market still has room for growth. Forlini cited Canada’s 70 percent mobile phone penetration rate – which is one of the lowest in the world.

Forlini said with 13 million consumers shopping at Loblaws weekly, the supermarket chain could be a major retailer of cellphones in Canada.

Even new telecom companies such as Wind Mobile and Public Mobile have entered into deals with supermarkets to make their products within reach of more consumers in an attempt to have a larger share of the cellphone market.

According to Bank of America Merrill Lynch estimates, cellphone subscriber growth would continue to expand at an annual rate of 7.5 percent. That would translate into at least 3.9 million new clients.

The growth is also expected for the more expensive smartphone market, particularly in the U.S. Technology trends company ComScore reported on Wednesday that Research in Motion’s BlackBerry is still the top smartphone in the U.S. with a 37.6 percent market share, followed by Apple’s iPhone with 24.2 percent.

On third spot were phones that use Android operating systems, which includes Samsung, LG and Motorola.

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Ottawa, Ontario, Canada (AHN) – Canadian Public Safety Minister Vice Toews announced on Sunday that Ottawa has allocated $90 million, spread over the next five years, to provide cyber security for Canada. The government seeks to stop the growing threat of cyber crimes against the government, industries and individuals across Canada.

The investment would secure the computer systems of the government of Canada and partner with other governments and industry to protect systems that are vital to Canadian security, economic prosperity and quality of life.

Toews said in a statement, “”But just as cyberspace is constantly evolving, so too are the cyber threats to our security, prosperity and quality of life. It’s time to take protection of Canada’s cyberspace to the next level and that’s exactly what Canada’s Cyber Security Strategy will do.”

However, a computer security expert downplayed Toew’s announcement. Richard Rosenberg, professor emeritus of computer science at the University of British Columbia said the announcement had scant details and the $90 million allocation is not sufficient.

Rosenberg stressed Toews should have made it clear that despite the measures being taken by the federal government there is no guarantee of protection against cyber attacks. He also urged Canadians to help battle cyber attacks by not downloading attachments from strangers and to be wary of attachments even from friends.

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San Francisco, CA, United States (AHN) – Research in Motion has upped the ante in its battle to gain a greater share of electronic gadget pie. On Monday, the maker of BlackBerry launched its anticipated PlayBook during RIM’s yearly developer conference in San Francisco.

RIM President and Co-Chief Executive Mike Lazaridis said the 9.7 millimeter (0.38 inches) gadget that has a 177.8-mm (seven-inch) screen that would be the benchmark for tablets. Aimed to rival Apple’s popular iPad, the PlayBook offers seamless integration with other RIM devices.

That would allow current BlackBerry owners to use an existing plan to shift to the PlayBook. The smaller size and built-in security – such as message encryption – of the gadget is expected to be a hit with businessmen.

Another advantage by PlayBook over iPad is its ability to handle high-definition video, which iPad lacks, because of RIM’s use of Adobe software.

However, what Lazaridis showed at the conference were just prototypes. The PlayBook will be on sale only in early 2011 in the U.S. and a few months later in other countries, including Canada. It won’t be available yet for Black Friday, which is RIM’s largest selling day for its devices.

Apple is also scheduled to launch its new model of iPads at about the same time that the PlayBook would hit the American market.

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Toronto, Ontario, Canada (AHN) – Ericsson won on Friday its bid for Nortel Networks’ Multi Service Switch business globally with an offer of $65 million.

The bid includes all assets of the MSS business worldwide, including the associated Data Packet Network, Services Edge Router product groups, all customer contracts and some intellectual property related to Nortel’s MSS business.

Ericsson beat Adam Chowaniec and Pat DiPietro, which had a bid of $39 million. Their bid was backed by a California private equity investor, who promised to hire 95 percent of Nortel’s MSS employees.

The MSS has 66 Canadian workers and 180 overseas, plus 80 contract staff. All of them have the option of continuing their employment with Ericsson.

The sale is subject to approval of Canadian and U.S. courts.

John Luszczek, general manager of Nortel’s MSS business, said in a statement, “Today’s announcement is welcome news for so many stakeholders – our customers, partners, suppliers and employees. It is yet another proof-point of Nortel’s ongoing commitment to preserve innovation and customer relationships that we have nurtured and grown over the past two decades.”

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