National Business

WestJet passengers in Vancouver may soon be taking COVID-19 tests before takeoff. WestJet Airlines Ltd.

TORONTO — The Canadian dollar shot up on Friday as North American markets continued to react to the U.S. Federal Reserve's new inflation-tolerant monetary policy, revealed in a Thursday speech by chair Jerome Powell.

TORONTO — Ontario says it will introduce legislation this fall to freeze rent for some families next year. Municipal Affairs Minister Steve Clark's office says in a statement that the proposed rent increase for 2021 was to have been 1.5 per cent.

TORONTO — Some of the most active companies traded Friday on the Toronto Stock Exchange: Toronto Stock Exchange (16,705.79, down 25.70 points) Suncor Energy Inc. (TSX:SU). Energy. Up 17 cents, or 0.79 per cent, to $21.76 on 12.67 million shares.

LOS ANGELES — TikTok celebrities Bryce Hall and Blake Gray are facing criminal charges after they hosted recent parties in the Hollywood Hills despite the city's ban on large gatherings during the coronavirus pandemic, authorities said Friday.

ZEBULON, N.C. — A Tesla driver, whose car was on Autopilot mode, was watching a movie on his phone when he crashed into a sheriff’s deputy's car, the North Carolina State Highway Patrol said.

Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. is bracing for further impacts on the housing market from the COVID-19 pandemic.

MGM Resorts is laying off 18,000 people as an unchecked pandemic leaves economic scars across a broad swath of U.S. industries, particularly those that rely on healthy crowds of people. The layoffs at MGM, which amount to about a quarter of its U.

CALGARY — Statistics Canada says capital spending in the country's oil and gas sector fell by 54 per cent in the quarter ended June 30 as numerous producers chopped budgets amid sliding global oil prices.

SMITH FALLS, Ont. — Canopy Growth Corp. says it will open its first retail cannabis stores in Alberta. The Ontario-based company says it's set to open 10 stores under the Tweed and Tokyo Smoke banners and has additional locations in the pipeline.