National Business

MONTREAL — Air Canada will temporarily lay off 16,500 employees starting this week as the airline struggles with fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic.

CALGARY — A final investment decision clearing the way for construction of the long-delayed Keystone XL Pipeline was greeted with relief on Tuesday by an Alberta oilpatch where production has grown faster than pipeline capacity.

TORONTO — Some of the most active companies traded Tuesday on the Toronto Stock Exchange: Toronto Stock Exchange (13,378.75, up 340.25 points.) Suncor Energy Inc. (TSX:SU). Energy. Up $3.49, or 18.4 per cent, to $22.46 on 24.9 million shares.

TORONTO — Canada's main stock index capped its worst first quarter since at least the financial crisis more than a decade ago on an upswing caused by a rise in the energy sector. The key sector rose by 15.

Canadian grain is in high demand as shippers try to feed a growing appetite from mills and governments seeking to shore up staple reserves amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

TORONTO — Credit counsellor Pamela George is hearing from Canadians who feel lost amid the financial strife of COVID-19. After the Ottawa-based adviser began offering free phone consultations last month, the stories began to flow in.

Uncertainty looms across the country as the economic fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic pushes the economy toward a recession that some expect to be worse than the 2008 financial crisis.

TORONTO — Canada's housing market could see a significant pullback this year because of the COVID-19 pandemic, but could rebound next year, a report by RBC says.

TORONTO — The Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan Board says it earned a net return of 10.4 per cent last year with net assets reaching $207.4 billion. The pension fund manager says its investment income reached a record $20.2 billion as of Dec. 31.

BOSTON — A California woman was sentenced Tuesday to seven months in prison for paying bribes to rig her two daughters' college admissions exams and get one of them into Georgetown University as a fake tennis recruit.