According to Statistics Canada’s 2011 National Household Survey, there were 7,925 people who speak Chinese living in Windsor, Ontario. In recent years, carpool is emerging in local Chinese community.
Carpool is popular among Chinese students who are studying in Windsor. They offer and find carpools through specific groups on WeChat, a Chinese scotia media platform. They attribute this phenomenon to convenience.
The map is based on the data from Statistics Canada 2016 Census. It shows the growth of married couples between 2011 and 2016 in all tracts in Halifax Regional Municipality. Darker colours mean highest growth rates, while lighter colours mean lower rates. Click on each census tract can see specific figure.
Resource: Statistics Canada
According to the data, many people moved to rural areas of Halifax Regional Municipality in the past five years. The area between South St. and Inglis Street is only tract near downtown which attracts more married couples to settle. The number of married couples in the area increased 6.5 per cent from 2011 to 2016.
Dongsheng Li used to be an auditor in Halifax. Now, he is planning to move to Toronto with his wife.
This 26-year-old man was an international student from China. After graduating from Saint Mary’s University in 2015, Li found his first job at Grant Thornton, and successfully immigrated to Nova Scotia in 2016.
“When we graduated from Saint Mary’s University, it was hard for us to find a job in Nova Scotia. So many other international students chose to find jobs in Toronto or Calgary,” Li said in Chinese in an interview. “However, my wife, who is also my classmate, had already had a job in Halifax. And we thought the immigration policy in Nova Scotia would be easier for us than Ontario. So we still wanted to stay in Halifax. I got the job at Grant Thornton after I sent 114 resumes.”
The situation changed when Li’s wife was pregnant. Li said that he quit his job to care for his wife. Now, as the father of a newborn child, he can’t find a suitable job when he needs it most.
“There aren’t too many job openings in Halifax. And most positions are either too high or too low. It is impossible for me to get those high positions. But I don’t want to have a low position because I have had several years working experience. So I have to look for jobs in big cities like Toronto,” Li said.
Ting Li, Dongsheng Li’s wife, said that she doesn’t want to move to another city with her husband. “Dongsheng doesn’t have too much time to find a job, like how long he took for his first job. If he moves to Toronto, I will definitely follow him, although we have to give up our house and network here,” Ting Li said in Chinese.
This kind of experience is not unique to Li. Many new immigrants from other countries decide to be nominated in Nova Scotia and move to other provinces when they have the identity. According to the data from Statistics Canada, the number of net-migration in Nova Scotia was -1,034 during the year 2015 to 2016. That number for Ontario is 6,154.
Benita Bunjun, professor of Sociology at Saint Mary’s University, says many factors contribute to this phenomenon. “We don’t only leave for economic reasons, but we also leave for social or sense of belonging… So people who have moved here for work, and sometimes their wives or husbands or partners can’t find work, they have no choice other than they separate. So that also has pushed people to leave.”
On July 13, 2017, a case which involved slip and fall claim was dismissed by Supreme Court of Nova Scotia. According to the decision document, the main reason of dismissing was the lack of key evidence.
The case was heard on May 31 and June 1, 2017. However, the incident happened in seven years before.
Halifax was hit with a major winter storm on the night between February 16 and 17, 2010. After the storm, Jean Andrea Flowers visited the Wal-Mart Store in the Halifax Shopping Centre with her partner. Flowers fell down and injured herself when she was leaving the store.
As a result of that, she wanted to sue OPB Realty and Allterrain Contracting Ltd. for liability. OPB Realty is the owner of Shopping Centre, and Allterrain has the responsibility for cleaning maintenance.
In an emailed statement, Michelle Kelly, the defendant’s lawyer pointed out that other than the plaintiff, there was no one who could testify on behalf her client, and there was no video tape of the incident.
In addition, the evidence that Flowers showed to prove that the walkways were not sanded or salted was inconclusive.
“So, there was no liability found on the part of the defendants, i.e. in law they were not responsible for the slip and fall.” Kelly says.
Flowers and her lawyer didn’t reply to requests for interviews.
William Lahey, law professor of Health Law Institute of Dalhousie, says these cases are difficult to prove.
“The first point is that in a negligence case, the plaintiff has to show that the injury was caused by the carelessness of the defendant,” Lahey says. “And in this case, there’s nobody in court can testify that they filled in the document based on their first-hand knowledge or reliable second hand knowledge of what the condition of the walkway actually was.”
Slip and fall cases are very common in Canada. They are considered as in the field of tort law.
Lahey thinks that in most tort cases, defendants win more than plaintiffs, because finding conclusive evidence is the biggest problem for plaintiffs.”The law puts the burden of proof on the plaintiff, meaning the person who is injured…” Lahey says. “…Defendants don’t have to show anything, the burden is on the plaintiff to show defendants’ carelessness as the injury.”
Interview audio clip:
Canada’s largest entertainment and media company suffered a $3.3 million decrease in box office sales during the first three months of its most recent fiscal year compared with the same period last year. The figures are contained in Cineplex’s 2017 first quarter report.
According to the statement, Cineplex gained $195.4 M through box office in the first three months in its fiscal year. There is a 1.7 per cent decrease from $198.6 M in 2016.
Cineplex considers that the decrease is due to films. On the statement of Management’s Discussion and Analysis, Cineplex says because of “a weak film slate,” its attendance decreased 4.8 per cent from 20.6 M in 2016 to 19.6 M in the first quarter of 2017.
Cineplex by mckied on TradingView.com
Cineplex’s stock prices have been decreasing.
Cineplex used the same reason to explain the significant increase in 2016. When box office in the first quarter increase 23.5 per cent from $156.0 M in 2015, Cineplex contributed that change to “an all-time quarterly attendance.”
James Power, a business professor at Dalhousie University, thinks this phenomenon is normal in theatre industry. “The change from 2015 to 2016 was because of some all-time high attendance in 2016. And yet in 2017, that continuation of increased attendance didn’t continue, it dropped a bit in 2017. So probably 2016 was an exceptional year,” Power says.
Despite the lower lower box-office sales, Cineplex gained revenue in other areas, which means that, overall, the company still had a 4.0 per cent increase in revenue: $394.2 M in 2017 compared to $378.9 M in 2016.
Cineplex’s first quarter amusement revenues in 2017 are $41.4 M, an increase of 37.2 per cent over the prior year period. The majority of the significant increase is from Tricorp and SAW, which were acquired in the fourth quarter of 2016. Tricorp is a provider of interactive video and amusement game services in the United States. And SAW is a provider of coin-operated rides.
“What companies are always looking for is, as far as I know, a new source of revenue. They are always looking something new that will allow them to get new sources of revenues,” Power says. “Because of revenue patterns, companies can’t always grow so much.”
Power also points out Cineplex’s food service revenues have an “interesting increase” from $33.1 M in 2016 to $ 33.9 M in 2017. “It goes against what you would expect, because the box office revenue is decreased. That means Cineplex might increase their selling prices. And on the other hand, the cost of selling might decrease.”
Cineplex doesn’t reply to its food services revenue yet.