National Business

Office vacancies are rising in Canada and could soar higher in the coming months as a second wave of the pandemic extends the mass exodus of workers from office towers and communal workspaces.

ST. JOHN'S, N.L. — Newfoundland and Labrador's Finance Minister tabled the 2020-2021 provincial budget Wednesday. Here are some highlights: - A $1.84-billion deficit – but it’s a $309-million improvement from what had been forecast in July.

For Al Figueiredo, the scenic drive down highway 116 to Crystal Beach was enough to convince him to leave Toronto.

CALGARY — Hundreds of Canadian employees of Royal Dutch Shell could be affected by its plan revealed Wednesday to cut between 7,000 and 9,000 jobs worldwide by the end of 2022. The company has 3,500 workers in Canada, accounting for about 4.

MONTREAL — Garda World Security Corp. is making a hostile play for G4S after the British security company spurred its US$5.2 billion offer two weeks ago.

BOSTON — Seventeen years after it was born with the help of CIA seed money, the data-mining outfit Palantir Technologies is finally going public in the biggest Wall Street tech offering since last year's debut of Slack and Uber.

WASHINGTON — The U.S. economy plunged at an unprecedented rate this spring and even with a record rebound expected in the just-ended third quarter, the U.S.

CALGARY — Kinross Gold Corp. is moving to secure additional supply for its Alaska gold operations by buying a controlling interest in the Peak Gold project from Royal Gold, Inc., and Contango Ore, Inc., for $125 million.

TORONTO — RBC Ventures business Ownr says it has acquired Founded Technologies. Ownr was founded in 2017 in a bid to simplify the process of registering or incorporating a business, while Founded automates sophisticated legal tasks.

SILVER SPRING, Md. — More Americans signed contracts to buy homes in August, suggesting the hot U.S. housing market will continue to churn well into fall. The National Association of Realtors said Wednesday that its index of pending sales rose 8.