National Business

The cancellation of business conferences and conventions across the country is costing cities hundreds of millions of dollars in lost revenue as the COVID-19 pandemic devastates the tourism industry.

Postmedia Network Inc. will lay off about 80 employees and permanently close 15 community publications as the newspaper conglomerate navigates the financial fallout of COVID-19.

CALGARY — Calfrac Well Services Ltd. says it has now cut 70 per cent of its North American staff as demand for its hydraulic fracturing and other well completion services continues to fall in view of low oil prices.

TORONTO — The prime minister of Papua New Guinea is threatening to take over a gold mine operated by Barrick Gold Corp. after operations were suspended there last weekend in the midst of a dispute over renewal of its mining lease.

TORONTO — Aleafia Health Inc. says former Ontario Provincial Police commissioner and federal cabinet minister Julian Fantino is resigning from the company's board.

The pandemic increased sales of Merck medicines during the first quarter as households around the world stocked up, but the drugmaker expects a significant hit this quarter as the full force of the outbreak lands. Merck & Co.

WASHINGTON — U.S. consumer confidence plunged in April as millions lost their jobs and there was an unprecedented deterioration of an index that monitors their attitudes about current business and work conditions.

WASHINGTON — U.S home prices were rising at a steady pace in February, before the viral outbreak shuttered much of the economy and caused a sharp decline in home sales. March sales of new and existing homes then plummeted as much of the U.S.

VANCOUVER — HSBC Bank Canada reported a drop in its first-quarter profit compared with a year ago as it took a charge related to bad loans it expects due to the downturn in the economy.

RIO DE JANEIRO — Brazil is emerging as potentially the next big hot spot for the coronavirus amid President Jair Bolsonaro’s insistence that it is just a "little flu” and that there is no need for the sharp restrictions that have slowed the infection