Math Isn't Adding Up For Manitoba Students
The scores dropped particularly sharply in Manitoba and Alberta. By 2012, Manitoba had joined Newfoundland and Labrador and Prince Edward Island as provinces with total scores below average.
The report suggests that Canada's math teachers need to shift their focus away from discovery-based learning and move back towards traditional methods.
Report author Anna Stokke says teachers should base 80 per cent of their math classes on direct learning such as memorizing multiplication tables and practising long division.
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Canola Producers Facing Unfavorable Conditions
Dry conditions and early reports of flea beetles are posing challenges to Prairie canola farmers.
Clint Jurke of the Canola Council of Canada says some growers are still planting canola and there is a chance that they could be putting seed into upper layers that have dried out.
He says most regions were fortunate to have a good snowpack that boosted soil moisture going into the growing season. But a lack of spring rain has reduced moisture reserves to varying degrees.
As for the flea beetles, he says it doesn't look like anyone's had to spray for them yet, and they're hoping it stays that way.
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Wildfires Fueled By El Nino Effect
Experts say El Nino has brought an early start to the wildfire season across rural Western Canada.
El Nino creates a warm patch of water in the Pacific every two to seven years.
Although it doesn't boost temperatures, it reduces rainfall -- creating dry conditions that fuel fires.
The Canadian Forest Service says the tinderbox effect will be felt from Oregon to British Columbia, and across the northern prairies and the Northwest Territories.
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Feds Intensify Retirement Savings Debates
Opposition MP's say the Harper government should not be believed when it says it might allow Canadians to voluntarily increase their contributions to the Canada Pension Plan.
NDP Leader Tom Mulcair and Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau say the prime minister spent years rejecting calls for the expansion of the CPP.
Last month, Ontario passed a bill to create its own mandatory pension plan for those who don't have a workplace pension.
The federal Conservatives branded the Ontario plan as a ``job-killing payroll tax.''
Retirement income shapes up to be a major issue in the campaign for the next federal election, which is less than five months away.
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Apple iPhone Glitch Reported
Apple says it is aware of a newly discovered software glitch that can cause iPhones to mysteriously shut down when they receive a certain text message.
Affected phones restart automatically when they receive a message with a specific string of characters.
Owners can prevent the problem by using phone settings to turn off message previews.
