OTTAWA, June 5 (Reuters) – The Bank of Canada continued to
signal it might have to raise interest rates on Tuesday but it
softened its recent hawkish language a bit in reaction to a
sharp deterioration in global financial conditions sparked by
renewed fears about Europe.

The central bank kept its key overnight rate at a low 1
percent, saying that while an increase might still be needed, it
would depend on the strength of economic growth.

OTTAWA, June 1 (Reuters) – Canada’s economy grew less in the
first quarter than the Bank of Canada had expected, and well
short of market forecasts in March, suggesting the central bank
will be in no rush to follow through on a warning it could raise
interest rates.

Gross domestic product expanded 1.9 percent in the quarter
on an annualized basis, Statistics Canada said on Friday, in
line with market forecasts for the quarter, but below the
central bank’s most recent projection of 2.5 percent growth.

OTTAWA (Reuters) – Canadian police on Wednesday named a man with a bizarre Internet trail as an alleged kitten-killer and bisexual porn star as their suspect in a gruesome case involving a dismembered torso, mailed-out body parts, and what one senior officer said was the worst crime scene his force has ever seen.

Montreal police released a photograph of, who also uses the pseudonyms Eric Clinton Newman and Vladimir Romanov, and asked people across Canada to help locate him.

OTTAWA, May 29 (Reuters) – Canada’s population is aging
fast, and the number of people over 65 hit a new record in 2011,
official statistics showed on Tuesday, a trend that will steepen
in coming years as baby boomers retire.

Canada’s overall population remains younger than that of
some of its biggest trading partners. But the growing number of
elderly is still expected to put enormous pressure on the
government to cover soaring healthcare and pension costs.

OTTAWA, May 29 (Reuters) – Canada’s population of senior
citizens hit a record high in 2011 as the oldest of the baby
boomer generation entered retirement, new census data showed on
Tuesday, an omen of the soaring health and pension costs the
government will face in coming years.

Canadians aged 65 or older represented 14.8 percent of the
population in 2011, up from 13.7 percent five years earlier for
a total of nearly five million of the country’s 33.5 million
inhabitants.

OTTAWA (Reuters) – Canada created a stunning 140,000 jobs in just two months this year, the most in 30 years and a source of pride for a government bragging that the economy has got its moxie back.

But scratch the surface of the official data, and stir in a few secondary figures, and the picture looks far less upbeat.

OTTAWA/TORONTO, May 25 (Reuters) – Canada on Friday posted a
smaller-than-expected budget deficit for 2011-12, giving Finance
Minister Jim Flaherty some leeway to react if needed to what he
called an “unstable” situation in Europe.

In addition to the jitters over the possible Greek exit from
the euro, Flaherty faces a heated housing market at home and
warned that new data on Friday showed no sign of moderation in
Toronto, where a condo craze has spurred talk of a bubble.

OTTAWA, May 25 (Reuters) – Canada’s preliminary budget
deficit for 2011-12 came in below forecasts despite big spending
in the final month of the fiscal year to compensate the province
of Quebec and pay for buy outs for thousands of public service
workers.

The Department of Finance reported on Friday the federal
deficit was C$23.5 billion ($22.8 billion) for the year ending
March 31, below the government’s forecast of a C$24.9 billion
shortfall.

OTTAWA, May 23 (Reuters) – Canadian retail sales bounced
back in March after a weak February, but sales looked soft
excluding the auto sector, and the figures sent mixed signals
about first-quarter growth.

The 0.4 percent increase in retail sales, reported by
Statistics Canada on Wednesday, showed consumers spent more
after a weak start to the year, but did not quite resume their
2011 role as the main drivers of growth.

OTTAWA, May 22 (Reuters) – Government budget cuts could
threaten the privacy of personal and business information as
Canada’s statistics agency abandons its st andalone computer
system and finds cheaper ways to obtain its data.

Canada’s privacy watchdog, who famously challenged policies
at Facebook and Google, and chief statistician
Wayne Smith both se e risks in Statistics Canada cost-cutting
measures, part of a broad effort to eliminate the Canadian
federal budget deficit by 2016.