The Reminder is making its archives back to 2003 available on our website. Please note that, due to technical limitations, archive articles are presented without the usual formatting.
Edmonton - Alberta Premier Ralph Klein asked his agriculture minister to look into consumer beef prices Monday, as a new report suggested meat packers have doubled their profit margins during the BSE crisis. The report released Monday shows the price of meat in grocery stores hasn't really changed much in the past year, while the price farmers are getting for their cattle is rock bottom. Brian Mason, a New Democrat member of the provincial legislature, said profit margins at the packing plants have gone up 200 per cent since last May. Halifax - The Halifax health authority is facing a blizzard of grievances from employees who have to make up working days lost during last month's record storm. Many health-care workers didn't make it to work during the Feb. 19 storm, which dumped more than 90 centimetres of snow on the province. The region's health authority said that health-care workers who missed shifts because of the snow would have to make up those days with vacation time, or by working extra shifts. Ottawa - Prime Minister Paul Martin fired the chair of Via Rail for calling an Olympic champion who spoke up against the sponsorship program a "pitiful" single mother. Pelletier, 69, lost his job Monday despite apologizing for his comments about Bdard, whom he called "a poor girl who doesn't have a spouse, as far as I know."
