National Business

TOKYO (AP) — Japanese automakers Honda and Nissan have announced plans to work toward a merger that would form the world’s third-largest automaker by sales, as the industry undergoes dramatic changes in its transition away from fossil fuels.

WINNIPEG — The Manitoba government is ending its yearlong fuel tax holiday but bringing back the levy at a lower rate.

CALGARY — Oil and gas producer Vermilion Energy Inc. says it is acquiring privately held Westbrick Energy Ltd. for $1.075 billion.

OTTAWA — Statistics Canada says the economy grew 0.3 per cent in October, helped by strength in the mining, quarrying, and oil and gas extraction sector, following a 0.2 per cent increase in September.

Beijia Ge's work duties change on an hourly basis. The Kingston, Ont., resident might be chatting with Chinese students about their secrets and challenges, or helping someone pack a suitcase, or baking cakes with a senior citizen.

OTTAWA — The union representing some 3,000 railworkers says it has reached a new deal with Canadian National Railway Co.

MONTREAL — Social workers on the front lines of homelessness in Montreal say they feel increasingly powerless as more people find themselves forced to live in tents during the winter.

When Dean May's team of cleaners entered the home, dressed head to toe in protective suits, thick green dust covered every surface. "We literally left footprints when we were walking in the house," he recalled.

CALGARY — It’s the holidays, which means for many across the Prairies, there’s no better time to get locked in a dungeon with a dragon. Or smoke out Colonel Mustard in the billiard room with the revolver.

It’s mid-December at a large supermarket in Mississauga, Ont., and Christmas music plays softly over the speakers as customers roam the aisles, picking the perfect lemon and eyeing the large olive counter in the middle of the store.