March 1 - 15, 2019
PHILIPPINE ASIAN NEWS TODAY
13
Minister Garneau to
ground planes
Update: Canada’s transport
minister Marc Garneau said Monday
he won’t ground dozens of Boeing
737 MAX 8 jetliners operated by
three Canadian carriers, unless an
investigation into a deadly Ethiopia
crash gives him reasons.
As of this press time, Minister
Garneau is closing Canadian skies
to the Boeing 737 Max 8 aircraft,
effectively grounding the planes
over safety concerns arising from
the crash of an Ethiopian Airlines
flight that killed everyone on board,
including 18 Canadians.
The decision to ground the
planes is a precautionary move
that was made after a review of all
the available evidence, Garneau
told a news conference Wednesday
in Ottawa that was twice delayed
by what he called new incoming
information.
“There are -- and I hasten to
say not conclusive -- but there are
similarities” between the Ethiopian
Airlines flight profile and that
of a Lion Air flight involving the
same aircraft that crashed off the
Indonesian coast in October, the
minister said.
Those similarities, he said,
“exceed a certain threshold in
our minds with respect to the
possible cause of what happened
in Ethiopia. This is not conclusive,
but it is something that points
possibly in that direction, and at
this point we feel that threshold
has been crossed.”
The “safety notice” means
none of the aircraft -- or a new
version, the Max 9, which isn’t as
widely used -- can fly into, out of,
or over Canada, he added: “I will
not hesitate to take swift action
should we discover any additional
safety issues.”
Garneau
tipped
off
his
American counterparts just before
the announcement about the
Canadians’ change of heart on
the aircraft. Hours later, President
Donald Trump announced that the
United States would follow suit.
Garneau said evidence about
multiple Boeing 737 Max 8 flights
suggests a worrying correlation
between the Ethiopian Airlines
crash and the tragedy in Indonesia
less than five months ago. In
certain circumstances, the planes’
systems try to tilt their noses down,
contrary to the efforts of pilots -- a
pattern that was seen in both flights
before they crashed, he said.
“I would repeat once again
that this is not the proof that
this is the same root problem,”
he emphasized. “It could be
something else.”
Passenger-rights
advocate
Gabor Lukacs said Wednesday that
it would be prudent for Garneau to
suspend use of the aircraft until
questions are answered about
what caused the Ethiopian crash.
He said airlines should allow
passengers to rebook on other
planes or cancel their tickets without
penalty if they have apprehensions
about flying on a Max 8.
Garneau said affected travellers
should contact their airlines to find
out what to do, he added.
“There will be some disruption,
there’s no question about that,” he
said, but safety is more important.
He said he hopes the planes will be
flying safely within weeks.
Air Canada, along with
Southwest and American Airlines,
had been the major outliers in resisting a grounding of the planes.
Air Canada has 24 Max 8 aircraft
(out of 184 in its main fleet), which
it uses mainly for domestic and
U.S. routes, while Calgary-based
WestJet Airlines Ltd. has 13 Max
8s (out of about 150 planes).
Air Canada cancelled London-
bound flights from Halifax and
St. John’s, N.L., after the United
Kingdom banned all Boeing Max 8
jets from its airspace.
Garneau said the American
authority
is
“an
extremely
professional organization” and
Canada is “very comfortable”
with it as a certifying agency for
American makers’ airplanes. (mb.
com)
***********
percent in 2017 represents the
lowest rate of poverty ever based
on Canada’s Official Poverty Line
(formerly known as the Market
Basket Measure). This historic
low poverty rate represents an
important step towards the
Government of Canada’s goal to
cut poverty in half by 2030.
The Government of Canada
is working hard to reduce the
number of Canadians living
in poverty and strengthen the economy. With the help of
programs such as the Canada
Child Benefit and the top-up
to the Guaranteed Income
Supplement,
there
were
825,000 fewer Canadians living
in poverty in 2017 than there
were in 2015. More are expected
to be lifted out of poverty as the
impacts of these investments are
realized in the years to come.(
Source:Employment and Social
Development Canada)
Canada reaches lowest poverty rate in history
March 8, 2019, Gatineau,
Quebec
Employment
and
Social
Development
Canada
In a country as prosperous as
Canada, everyone should have a
real and fair chance to succeed.
The Government of Canada is
focused on growth that benefits
all Canadians, investing $22
billion since 2015 in efforts to
help grow the middle class and
reduce poverty.
Last week, Statistics Canada
released results from the 2017
Canadian
Income
Survey,
which revealed that the Poverty
Reduction Strategy’s interim
target of reducing poverty by
20 percent by 2020 had already
been reached—a full three years
ahead of schedule. By meeting
this target, Canada has reached
its lowest poverty rate in history.
The poverty rate of 9.5
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