Policy change means women giving birth away from reserve aren’t alone + MORE Apr 10th

Bank of Canada announcement, corporate earnings and Manitoba budget are on tap for week of April 10

Somayaji Ayalasomayajula, 22, Mechanical Engineer, Toronto
I’ve been interested in growing my money since I was 12. At a pretty young age my dad gave me some money and helped me buy a GIC (guaranteed income certificate) with it. I think the aim was to help me see how money grows through interest and compounding. After that, my dad and I got a bank statement every three months that showed I made about $20 in interest on that GIC. I thought that was just the greatest thing.
I’ve always loved the Internet and computers and am a big self-learner. At age 18, I opened a self-directed account with one of the Big Five banks and bought a mutual fund. I really didn’t like the interface that the site offered for trading stocks, which is what I eventually wanted to do, so I started reading up on different self-directed accounts with other financial institutions. I finally found an interface I liked through Questrade. The more up-to-date interface meant I could generally trade fairly quickly, which was what I wanted at the time…

If you’ve been an index investor in Europe these last several years, you’ll have taken your lumps. Between sovereign debt crises, political disintegration and non-existent growth, it’s been the worst-performing of the major investable regions since the last recession. But a turning point may be at hand. In its April ETF strategy report, National Bank of Canada Financial Markets went so far as to suggest investors take some of their profits on U.S. equities and add weight to their European holdings.
The rationale for this tactical shift has as much to do with the state of American markets as of those across the pond: There’s a growing political risk, evidenced by the health-care debacle, that the new administration in Washington, D.C., will not be able to deliver much on its agenda—all while U.S. equity valuations remain stretched. “The potential for disappointment in the United States is gradually increasing, as it seems the president is unable to fully rally the GOP behind his plans while we believe C,” National Bank analysts Daniel Straus and Ling Zhang wrote…

Minister of Health Jane Philpott speaks with the media during a break in meetings at the Finance Ministers meeting in Ottawa, Monday, December 19, 2016. (Adrian Wyld/CP)
OTTAWA — Health Minister Jane Philpott says Ottawa will now pay for someone to travel with indigenous women who need to leave their communities to give birth — a change to what she called an “extremely unhelpful” policy.
In an interview with The Canadian Press, Philpott said she heard a “cry loud and clear” from indigenous health experts who were urging the federal government to allow pregnant aboriginal women to leave home with an escort.
“It is a major policy change for us,” Philpott said. “It requires significant resources in order to be able to do that, but it is absolutely a wise investment.”
Indigenous women without proof of a medical need to have someone escort them have long been forced to have their children alone and far from from their land, language and heritage, the minister continued…

Ontario’s departing Metrolinx chief Bruce McCuaig will become a key player in setting up federal investment institution