Canada is surrounded on three sides by oceans.
To the north, the Arctic Ocean borders Yukon, Northwest Territories, and Nunavut.
Off the west coast of British Columbia is the Pacific Ocean.
The Atlantic Ocean, meanwhile, sits to the east of Canada’s Maritime provinces, which include Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and Prince Edward Island.

Attention: Simon Theroux
I’m writing regarding a recent incident involving the City of Montreal. On January 3rd, after filling up my car, I returned to my residence around 10:30 p.m. and inadvertently parked near an orange “No Parking” sign. It was quite hard to see this sign as it was covered in blowing snow. I carried one bag of groceries to my apartment and when I came back for the second bag, I discovered that my unlocked vehicle was gone.
I checked your website and it said that cars were being towed to a lot at the end of Henri-Bourassa Street to make way for snow removal trucks. The next day, I took a $3 bus ride to the stated address, but my car was not there. I called the City and Customer Service Representative Viviane Belanger was able to finally solve the mystery. It turned out that it had been necessary to establish a secondary lot in order to accommodate all of the cars that needed to be towed. Unfortunately the website had not been updated to include the second address. Thus, visitors to the website only saw information related to the primary lot.
Once I obtained the address of the secondary lot, I set off to find my car. It was snowing again and -32°C. I waited for over half an hour for another bus, paid the driver another $3, and headed two kilometres in the opposite direction. Twenty minutes later, I found my car at the other address, its wheels stuck in snow, its exterior covered with grime, and its windshield displaying a $115 towing bill. To make matters worse, someone managed to steal $80 worth of my gasoline, presumably by siphoning it out of the fuel tank.
The fine is due tomorrow. I’ve tried repeatedly to pay it online but always receive a message saying the information hasn’t been entered into your system. I don’t dispute the charges, but I just want to confirm that I should pay the invoice in spite of the mistakes made by the City.
Sincerely,
Fatima Djaout

A:As crude oil becomes scarcer and high gasoline prices threaten the world economy, it is clear that alternative energy sources must be found soon. The best alternatives to petroleum would be renewable forms of energy that are sustainable and cause less pollution. One such alternative is biodiesel fuel made from plant and animal material. This idea is not a new one: In 1893, a German engineer, Rudolph Diesel, invented an engine that ran on peanut oil and other plant oils, but by the 1920s the abundance of inexpensive petroleum meant that gasoline soon became the main source of energy for cars and trucks.
B: Today, biodiesel fuel can be made from a wide variety of easily renewable plants such as soybeans and canola. It can even be made from waste vegetable oil and animal fats. Biodiesel engines produce much less pollution than gasoline engines, and, fortunately, engines designed for gas consumption need only minor modifications to run on biodiesel fuel. This feature of biodiesel is important when weighing its merits against other options such as hydrogen fuel cells. These other options, though less polluting than biodiesel, are nonetheless based on technology that is still some years away from general use.
C: Despite their benefits, biodiesel fuels can be expensive to produce and can still negatively impact the environment. To be economically viable, biodiesel fuels have to produce more energy than is required to make them, but energy—petroleum-based energy, in fact—is needed to grow the crops these fuels are made from and to produce the fuel itself. Moreover, petroleum-based fertilizers and pesticides are still used in producing these plants. Another drawback is the shortage of land available in the world to grow food, let alone crops for fuel. This last problem, however, may be solved by making biofuel from algea. This green plant produces more energy than other plants and can be grown in areas unsuitable for food production.
D: Currently, low consumer demand for biodiesel fuel makes it both more expensive to produce and less available than gasoline. However, as the growing scarcity of crude oil drives gasoline prices higher, the demand for biodiesel fuel will likely increase. The price of gasoline could rise even higher if the costs of its impact on the environment and public health are taken into account. Biodiesel has yet to become the fuel of choice, but it may be in the near future.
E. Not given in any of the above paragraphs.

Live-in Caregiver Amy Mercado is concerned that current policy reforms in the Canadian Temporary Foreign Worker Program are simply band-aid solutions to bigger issues. The program allows Canadian families to hire foreign workers to live temporarily in their homes and care for elderly, young, or disabled citizens. The program is one of three ways that immigrants can acquire permanent Canadian residency. Originally trained as a nurse, Mercado came to Canada from the Philippines 13 years ago to work as a live-in caregiver. She is now a Canadian citizen. Suffering verbal harassment in the first few years of her employment, she’s only too aware of how often live-in caregivers face unsafe working standards. “Although foreign live-in caregivers are technically under the same labour laws as Canadian workers, they work and live in someone else’s private home,” Mercado explains. “They can suffer a lot of unseen damage.”
Ministry Official Mark Swanson says that while the program is nowhere near perfect, they’re trying their best to reform it. “Recent protections, such as the implementation of a standardized employment contract between caregivers and families and a phone help line for caregivers, have made a big difference,” Swanson says. One of the major changes was allowing caregivers to apply for open work permits while waiting for residency. However, the program is currently backlogged with about 80,000 applicants, and wait times can be up to 38 months.
Mercado says policy changes are helpful, but are not enough. One of the greatest challenges that caregivers face is having to leave their own children and families behind in their home country. The wait time for residency means they are separated for several years. “It’s sad and ironic, I took care of other people’s children for 3 years while I was separated from my own,” Mercado says. “Family reunification needs to be made the top priority for policy reform.”
Although the Live-in Caregiver Program needs to be reformed, it appears what’s subsequently needed is federal investment in childcare and old-age programs. Foreign supply of labour is a mere band-aid solution to Canada’s lack of funding for such programs.