National Business

Mark VanderVeen and his team at Clean Works were determined to work at all hours, even over Easter weekend, to get their sanitization equipment out to front-line workers.

CALGARY — A Calgary energy analyst says the plunge by benchmark U.S. crude oil prices into negative territory for the first time on Monday is a short-term anomaly that likely won't have a lasting effect on Canadian producers.

VANCOUVER — A report from the B.C. Real Estate Association says the 2020 COVID-driven recession will be deep, although it could be shorter than other Canadian economic downturns.

MONTREAL — AMD Medicom Inc. says it will open a new Canadian mask manufacturing facility near its Montreal head office by July. The move is expected to create at least 33 permanent jobs.

Canadian businesses struggling amid the COVID-19 pandemic are getting some relief from the e-commerce platforms they use to sell their goods and services. E-commerce companies including Shopify Inc., Amazon.com Inc.

CALGARY — A move by Husky Energy Inc. to halt production of 80,000 barrels per day takes the total reduction in Canadian crude output to about 365,000 bpd since the onset of measures to deal with the COVID-19 pandemic, an analyst says.

MONTREAL — CAE says it has signed a contract to manufacture and supply 10,000 ventilators for the Canadian government. Financial terms of the agreement were not immediately available.

LAVAL, Que. — Alimentation Couche-Tard Inc. is dropping its pursuit of Caltex Australia Ltd. due to the COVID-19 crisis. The company had been working on a revised takeover bid after an earlier offer was rebuffed.

OTTAWA — Statistics Canada reports wholesale sales rose 0.7 per cent to $67.5 billion in February, even as sales were hurt by rail blockades and the early effects of COVID-19. Economists had expected a decline of 0.

NEW YORK — The much-hyped battle between Kenny “Babyface” Edmonds and Teddy Riley was derailed by audio issues, forcing the R&B producers to postpone the Instagram Live event.