National Business

VICTORIA — A maximum 20-per-cent home-flipping tax is among new regulations taking effect in British Columbia as of Jan. 1, with a promised middle-income tax cut arriving in the coming months as well as a spring carbon tax increase.

TORONTO — Toronto-based private equity firm Birch Hill Equity Partners has completed its acquisition of the Rexall Pharmacy Group. Birch Hill acquired the drugstore chain from previous owner McKesson Corp. in a transaction that closed Dec.

Canada's main stock index ticked higher on the final day of 2024, putting a bow on a year that saw impressive gains for North American markets. The S&P/TSX composite index was up 107.35 points at 24,727.

Stocks indexes closed mostly lower on Wall Street on the final day of another record-setting year. The S&P 500 slipped 0.4% Tuesday, but still managed to rack up a gain of 23.3% for the year, its second straight year with gains of more than 20%.

ST. JOHN'S, N.L. — An airport executive in Labrador hopes a new energy deal with Quebec could help attract a competing airline company to the northern region, where flights costs have climbed at more than three times the national rate.

MONTREAL — A second attempt to free a ship stuck in the St. Lawrence River northeast of Montreal won't take place until Sunday.

Tracking spending patterns in your current budget can provide insight into the coming year.

TORONTO — Toronto police say they have arrested and charged three teenage boys after a robbery at a mall in North York Monday night. Officers were called to Fairview Mall shortly before 9 p.m. after reports of a robbery at a jewelry store.

WINNIPEG — Manitoba Premier Wab Kinew is leaving the door open to financial support for people affected by possible tariffs and other actions that may be taken by United States president-elect Donald Trump.

PROCTER, B.C. — A sense of panic is growing in tiny southeast British Columbia communities around Kootenay Lake over fears they will be cut off from their neighbours and jobs by an escalating ferry service labour dispute, says a local businesswoman.