Canada's inflation rate jumped to 3.7 per cent in July, as the cost of shelter and durable goods went up at a fast enough pace to push the cost of living up to its highest level since 2011, CBC reported. Statistics Canada reported Wednesday that the homeowners' replacement cost index, which is related to the price of new homes, went up at an annual pace of 13.7 per cent in July. That's the fastest uptick on record dating back to 1987.

Laurentian University has issued a request for proposals from firms to undertake a review of its governance and operations as it continues through its insolvency restructuring, Sudbury.com reported. The university has set an Aug. 31 deadline for companies bidding on any one of, or a combination of the following: a governance review of Laurentian’s senate; a governance review of Laurentian’s board of governors; and an operational review. Companies interested in the contract have been asked to make submissions through MERX (reference No. 0000205175) and Bonfire.

London-based Pearson PLC will pay $1 million to settle charges it misled investors about a 2018 cyber intrusion involving the theft of millions of student records, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) said on Monday, Reuters reported. The educational-publishing firm did not admit nor deny the regulator's charges, the SEC said, but in 2019 the firm disclosed in its annual report that the data breach may have included birth dates and email addresses, when, in fact, it knew that such records were stolen.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s government said that it will make Covid-19 vaccines mandatory for airline and rail passengers, transportation workers and federal employees, in one of its final announcements before the start of a Canadian election campaign, Bloomberg News reported. Government officials said on Friday that the plan is to require government staff to be inoculated by early fall. Workers and passengers on airlines, railways and cruise ships will also need proof of vaccination by the end of October. “We need to regain public confidence in travel.

Mexico can use a multibillion dollar transfer from the International Monetary Fund to prepay debt, as the country’s president is considering, but the government would need to purchase the funds from the central bank, Banxico Governor Alejandro Diaz de Leon said, Bloomberg News reported. The IMF’s transfer to the central bank of the recently-approved reserves, worth roughly $12 billion, isn’t a “donation,” Diaz de Leon said in an interview late Thursday.

Thousands of small and medium-sized Cuban businesses will be allowed to incorporate in the coming months, in one of the most important economic reforms taken by the island's Communist government since it nationalized all enterprises in the 1960s, Reuters reported. The reform, details of which came to light this week, will permit small and medium-sized businesses for the first time since 1968, putting an end to the legal limbo in which many have existed for years in the Soviet-style economy.

Over six months after Laurentian entered insolvency proceedings, the Sudbury, Ont., university has published a draft framework for claims to be submitted by faculty, staff and employees affected by restructuring — but one of the parties says the details aren't finalized and negotiations are ongoing, CBC reported. All parties are due before a judge next on Tuesday for a discussion on the compensation methodology.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is planning a snap election for Sept. 20 to seek voter approval for the government's costly plans to combat COVID-19, Retuers reported. Trudeau is set to make the announcement on Sunday, according to sources. Trudeau aides have said for months that the ruling Liberals would push for a vote before end-2021, two years ahead of schedule. Trudeau only has a minority government and relies on other parties to push through legislation. In recent months he has complained about what he calls opposition obstruction.

Two meetings of groups of creditors of indebted Ocho Rios attraction Mystic Mountain Limited, MML, held during the past week, have failed to resolve issues related to whether the beleaguered company will be declared bankrupt and its assets sold off to repay bondholders and other persons and institutions it owes money, the Jamaican Gleaner reported. Unresolved, too, is whether MML's changing payment proposal to settle its debt will be accepted by the creditors. Likewise, the status of the trustee the company chose to oversee that process is still not settled.

Mexico is considering using its share of recently-approved International Monetary Fund reserves, worth about $12 billion, to repay the country’s debts, President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said, Bloomberg News reported. Although the funds add to the central bank reserves, Mexico has enough bandwidth to use them to pay down debt, Lopez Obrador said at a daily press conference Wednesday. “The reserves have grown a lot and they pay very little interest,” he said.