The Three-Day Weekend Experiment

“Once people hear that the economics are very good, maybe we won’t have everybody dash to gas and throw out coal. We hope the rest of the world can learn from our plant.” A technology that holds the hope for cleaner use of coal will be tested on a commercial scale for the first time in Canada next year, aiming to resolve big uncertainties about the vast amount of power it will need.

If you haven't heard, our airplanes are already getting some of their gas from algae.

The Victoria Day long weekend could be a dry one for many Ontarians if they don’t brave long lines Thursday at liquor stores, where workers are poised to go on strike at midnight. Shoppers in Ontario looking to stock up on wine and spirits reported massive lines at LBCO locations and shopping carts filled to the brim with more than a weekend’s worth of booze. The lineups to buy liquor at the LCBO near Yonge-Dundas Square in Toronto extended into the aisles of the store just after 1 p.m.

With less than 24 hours before the strike deadline, the National Post’s Jake Edmiston breaks down the LCBO and its operations by the numbers. $4.7-billion made in LCBO sales in the 2011-12 fiscal year $1.63-billion in dividends paid to Ontario government in the 2011-12 fiscal year $415-million in HST collected in the 2011-12 fiscal year

MONTREAL — Alcoa will eliminate about 500 jobs by permanently closing two potlines this summer at its smelter in Baie-Comeau, Que., while also delaying construction of more efficient facilities at the smelter for three years. The company said Thursday that the job cuts will be made through retirements and attrition at the smelter, which currently has about 1,400 employees. One of the potlines had been expected to be shut down later this year and the second in 2015. Instead, they will both be closed by August.

Last week ahead of a ruling by the Portuguese Constitutional Court on whether or not the austerity measures it approved were legal, Portugal's PSI stock market took a dive. PSI Stock Index On March 25 the index was at 6023. It closed at 5637 on April 5 a decline of 6.4%

OTTAWA — The federal government expects to pay more than $3.5 billion in accumulated severance over three years to public servants who remain in their jobs, retired, quit, were fired or laid off. Newly released reports show the federal government expected to spend $1.45 billion in the 2012-13 fiscal year that just ended — and at least another $600 million in 2013-14 — on the payout of voluntary and regular severance accumulated over several years by tens of thousands of government employees.

Every year, the Big Lottery Fund gives out millions of pounds from the National Lottery to community groups and projects that improve health, education and the environment. Naturally, finance is a huge part of what we do. We have approximately 1000 employees based across the UK including 23 people within the finance department who we actively encourage to gain formal qualifications. Over recent years, we’ve developed a finance apprenticeship scheme as a way to grow our own talent in combination with AAT (Association of Accounting Technicians) and Kaplan.