Ottawa, Ontario, Canada (AHN) – Ottawa is planning to put in place massive spending cuts in a bid to give Canada’s economic recover a big push. Federal Finance Minister Jim Flaherty was scheduled to outline the new economic policies in a speech Monday in Oakville, Ontario.

Ahead of his speech, Flaherty hinted there would be bitter pills for Canadians since the new policies would likely not be popular among residents. He insisted the proposed cuts seek to protect Canada’s advancement.

Flaherty stressed the measures are Ottawa’s way of preventing fiscal trouble in Canada similar to what is happening in Ireland. Ottawa plans to return to a balanced budget by 2016 through major cuts in key areas and ending the two-year $48-billion stimulus plan according to timetable.

Over the weekend, Flaherty hosted a consultation with business leaders in Toronto on how Canada’s Economic Action Plan will continue to shape the country’s economic future for next year’s budget. He acknowledged after the consultation that Canadians are concerned with the economy, jobs and their household budgets.

Ottawa is also getting feedback on four key issues from the public through online consultations which started Nov. 19.

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Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada (AHN) – Manitoba Education Minister Nancy Allan announced Thursday the province will push for a new law that would increase the truancy age to 18. That means young residents would be required to acquire an education or training until they reach 18.

Allan said the change was necessary because of global educational and work benchmarks going higher and that a high school diploma is often not sufficient to acquire a good job or carve a successful career.

Allan said in a statement, “Success in the modern economy will be dependent on students having every opportunity to pursue post-secondary education, training and apprenticeships. Those opportunities are lost when a young person does not have a high-school diploma or equivalent. Raising the compulsory education age to 18 will help ensure kids stay in school and are well prepared for life beyond the classroom.”

The current law in Manitoba requires students to remain in school until they reach 16. While the present truancy age has yielded an improvement in high school graduation rate to 80.9 percent in 2009 from 72.4 percent in 2001, Manitoba Premier Greg Selinger said the planned change should not be seen as dictating to the youth what they should do, but as helping them become successful in life.

Ontario and New Brunswick were the first Canadian provinces to adjust upward their truancy age to 18 in 2006. Alberta will discuss a similar measure this weekend. Nova Scotia is mulling a similar policy.

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London, England, United Kingdom (AHN) – The British coalition government is planning to change labor rules that would lead to an ultra-flexible work system in which Britons could work for as few as two hours a week.

Welfare Ministers Lord Freud and Maria Miller said the changes are expected to benefit residents who could not offer the usual eight hours of work per day or even part-time employment.

The concept of slivers of time was established by former British Broadcasting Corporation producer Wingham Rowan for parents who have young children, disabled workers, someone who has to take care of a dependent adult or a person who has long been out of work and wants to get back into the labor scene slowly.

The concept would be part of the new universal credit under the welfare reforms announced last week by Works and Pensions Secretary Iain Duncan Smith. Laws, however, would have to be changed because the lesser working hours would have an effect on how benefits would be cut once a resident’s income has reached a particular level.

For instance, the “earnings disregard” benchmark for single parents is at $7,500 (5,000 pounds), which ministers want to be increased to $11,250 (7,500 pounds).

While the government is contemplating on the slivers of work scheme, major British retailer Tesco offered the concept to employees who want to earn extra during the holiday season, but could not afford to add four extra hours to their regular shift.

The Tesco offer, which the company had been testing for a year, is the firm’s response to changing shopping patterns. Tesco will formally launch the program Monday.

So far, 10,000 workers out of 340,000 U.K. Tesco employees spread in 2,500 stores had signed up for the scheme.

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Ottawa, Ontario, Canada (AHN) – While western governments such as Canada and Britain are pushing for more trade ties with Asia, diplomatic ties with Africa are being considered for a downgrade.

Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister Lawrence Cannon and International Trade Minister Peter Van Loan are participating in the 22nd Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Ministerial Meeting on Nov. 10 and 11 in Japan. Van Loan will stay for several more days to join Prime Minister Stephen Harper in the APEC Economic Leaders; Meeting scheduled Nov. 13 and 14.

The Japan meeting will discuss measures to continue promoting economic growth, cooperation, trade and investment across the Asia-Pacific region after the global economic crisis.

From Japan, Harper will fly to South Korea to attend the G20 meeting, which will tackle sustaining the economic recovery and avoiding a possible global battle over exchange rates and trade.

However, while aggressively pursuing trade ties with Asia and the Pacific, Ottawa is planning to close some of Canada’s embassies in Africa. According to reports, the embassies slated for closure are in Cameroon, Zambia and Tunisia.

Canada has only 21 embassies out of 53 African nations. Foreign affairs experts said the planned closure of some embassies could be interpreted as Ottawa’s way at getting back at African nations for the latter’s failure to support Canada’s recent bid to win a UN Security Council seat. In the past years, Ottawa shuttered its embassies in Malawi, Gabon, Guinea and South Africa.

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London, England, United Kingdom (AHN) – While the British coalition government raised the retirement age in last week’s spending review, ministers say they are also planning to increase the state pension to $210 (140 pounds) a week. The current pension is a maximum of $146.48 (97.65 pounds) for singles and $234.23 (156.15 pounds) for couples.

A major change in state pensions, the plan would result in the system becoming more simplified and an end to means-tested top-ups. The revisions would be contained in a green paper the coalition government will come up with by the end of 2010.

Ministers said by using a single-tier system, they expect to reduce the bureaucracy and save the government $9 billion (6 billion pounds) a year.

The changes appears to be the government’s way of placating citizens who were angered by the removal of the child benefit for Britons earning over $66,000 (44,000 pounds) a year. The change benefits married couples and full-time mothers who stay at home.

In last week’s spending review, Chancellor George Osborne announced the increase of the state pension age to 66 for both genders by 2020. It is six years ahead of an earlier announcement.

An actuary firm identified women born in 1954 as the biggest loser in the announcement because they would have to work for two more years before they could retire at age 66, while women born a year earlier would get their state pensions when they turn 63.

The actuary firm said the loss is not just in extra working years, but in pension income worth more than $22,500 (15,000 pounds).

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