National Business

TORONTO — The Toronto Regional Real Estate Board says it is forecasting a 12.4 per cent increase in home sales for 2025, with 76,000 properties changing hands throughout the region as lower borrowing costs lead to improved affordability.

MONTREAL — A Quebec furniture manufacturer says the threat of U.S. tariffs on Canadian goods has forced it to lay off 115 people in the province.

TORONTO — Every year Kathy Rowe and her husband exchange the same Christmas gift: plane tickets to the United States.

HALIFAX — Federal Transport Minister Anita Anand says Ottawa will spend up to $25 million to improve the Port of Halifax.

The CEO of Sheertex says she's had to temporarily lay off 40 per cent of the company's staff, in part because of tariffs the U.S. has promised to place on Canadian goods.

Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. is forecasting a rebound in home sales and prices this year as homebuyers take advantage of improved borrowing conditions, but its outlook is clouded by the threat of widespread tariffs from the U.S.

PARIS (AP) — France’s government survived a no-confidence vote Wednesday in parliament, and the state budget for 2025 was finally adopted.

NEW YORK (AP) — Eugene Levy's trademark eyebrows fly off for Little Caesars. A tongue dances to Shania Twain to promote Nestle's Coffee Mate Cold Foam. And Meg Ryan and Billy Crystal reunite at Katz's Deli in an ad for Hellmann's.

OTTAWA — Canada's trade surplus with the U.S. widened in December as overall exports rose thanks in part to higher energy prices, Statistics Canada said Wednesday.

TORONTO — Canada's main stock index was up more than 150 points in late-morning trading, led by gains in industrial, utilities and technology stocks, while U.S. stock markets were mixed.