It says after removing the effects of price changes, particularly lower gasoline prices, retail sales in volume terms rose 0.7 per cent.

The agency says higher sales were reported in six of 11 subsectors, representing 47 per cent of total retail sales.

The largest increase in sales was a 3.1 per cent rise at clothing and clothing accessories stores, while sales at motor vehicle and parts dealers rose 0.7 per cent for a third consecutive monthly gain.

Gasoline station sales decreased 1.3 per cent in March, mainly reflecting lower prices at the pump.

Retail sales rose in six provinces in March, with Ontario reporting the largest increase of 0.4 per cent in dollar terms.

Daniel Leblanc of Renaissance Petitcodiac made the request to council last night stating that it is an unnecessary expense.

Mayor George Leblanc supported the motion, but with some reservation.  He says past experience has shown that the rocks may be needed to help protect the infrastructure.

“I have the experience of having some of the condo owners along side the river calling me with concerns about erosion along the riverbank,  creeping towards their condo,  and going down there week after week and watching it until it encroached into the trail.”

He says it’s important that we protect the structures along the river as well.

“We have to be careful and we have to be responsible when we’re looking at protecting the building and the assets along the river.  I’m not an Engineer, I don’t know what it takes to protect them.  I certainly don’t want to see 1500 feet of riprap along there as our riverfront but I think we also have to balance the interests of the infrastructure and the buildings and so on that we have along the river.”

The motion received unanimous support from councillors, and work will be delayed for roughly two weeks while councillors take a closer look at whether or not the work needs to be done.

He is expected to take questions from the media in the early afternoon — his first since the Senate expenses scandal boiled over on the long weekend.

Until then, however, he will be talking up Canada’s mining companies and their role in developing countries such as Peru.

The new approach was rolled out last fall, and aims to align Canada’s aid spending more closely with its commercial interests — to much consternation from aid groups who fear Canadian business promotion will take precedence over poverty reduction.

At the same time, the policy is meant to encourage ensure Canadian investors uphold high standards when it comes to labour and environment in developing countries.

Peru is one of Canada’s key recipients of foreign aid, and Canadian mining companies have a large presence in parts of the country known for social unrest. So Peru — as well as Tanzania — is a key testing ground for the extractive industries orientation of foreign policy.

“It’s still very conceptual,” said Ottawa-based trade analyst Laura Dawson.

Canadian direct investment in Peru was $6.9 billion in 2012, much of it in the natural resources sector.

And while many Canadian aid activists want to see mining companies treat their foreign labour fairly, they are leery about how Harper will use the new approach.

“From my perspective, Harper is pursuing the wrong policy in Latin America,” said Jen Moore of MiningWatch Canada.

The Canadian government is now seen as a representative of Canadian mining companies in the region, she said, “aimed at maximizing profits and investor protections for mining companies at the expense of people and the environment.”

While in Peru, Harper hopes to also discuss whether Canada should be participating in the Pacific Alliance free-trade talks.

Peru has been a strong advocate to get Canada at the table, and Canada now has observer status. But neither the alliance — Mexico, Colombia, Chile and Peru — nor Canada is sure whether Canada should actually take the plunge.

Harper will spend all day Thursday in Colombia at a Pacific Alliance summit, checking out the talks to see what Canada would gain from joining them.

Canada already has free-trade agreements with all four Pacific Alliance countries, but the new pact aims to go beyond trade in goods to include free movement of labour, capital and investment as well.

The Canberra Times reports that an air search for Prabhdeep Srawn is focusing on a specific location within the Kosciuszko National Park, about 350 kilometres southwest of Sydney.

It says a search helicopter used a thermal camera in an effort to locate the source of the voices, but no one has been found yet.

The 25-year-old Brampton, Ont., man hasn’t been heard from since parking his rental car May 13 in the village of Charlotte Pass.

Members of his family have arrived in Australia to help in the search.

They believe that Srawn’s chances of survival are a bit higher than a normal hiker because he has had extensive survival training as a reservist in both the Canadian and Australian military.

The search is being conducted by Australian National Parks and Wildlife Service officers, police and State Emergency Service volunteers.

The hiking route Srawn is believed to have taken is considered an easy walk in good weather, but it can quickly become very treacherous in bad weather.

Should the search be suspended completely, the family said it would ask the Canadian government to pressure Australian officials to send in the military.

Canadian consular officials in Sydney have been in contact with the family to offer their assistance.

A spokesman for the Joint Rescue Co-ordination Centre in Victoria, B.C., says the crash took place off the west side of Stuart Island, which is located in the Strait of Georgia, northeast of Campbell River, B.C.

He says nobody has reporter hearing or seeing the crash, and the plane was found upside down by someone who came across the scene.

Rescue crews from the Canadian Armed Forces and Canadian Coast Guard have been on scene.

There is no information yet on the victim’s age, gender or hometown.

A string of attacks in the middle eastern country has killed more than 270 people in just the past week.

Baird says consular officials are in touch with the Canadian’s family and are offering assistance.

He says he’s grown “increasingly concerned” about the violence that has rocked Iraqi cities and towns in recent days.

Baird says while the security situation in Iraq has been fragile for years, the most recent violence is “particularly troubling” and risks plunging the country into a civil war.

He says Canada will be monitoring the situation carefully and is urging Iraqi authorities to do all they can to increase security.

Rising tensions between Sunnis and the Shiite-led government in Iraq have burst into a new round of bloodshed recently with scenes reminiscent of some of the worst carnage during the days when the two Islamic sects battled each other as well as U.S.-led forces in the chaotic years after Saddam Hussein’s ouster.

The violence has raised fears the country is sliding back to the brink of civil war amid rising Sunni anger over perceived mistreatment at the hands of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki’s government and dangerous spillover from Syria’s civil war next door, where the two factions are also pitted against each other.

A series of blitz attacks on Monday, stretching from north of Baghdad to the southern city of Basra and targeting bus stops, open-air markets and rush-hour crowds, killed 113 people.

Meanwhile, 20 were killed after a car bomb exploded as Sunni worshippers were leaving a mosque after evening prayers Tuesday in Baghdad. Several smaller attacks struck areas elsewhere in the country earlier Tuesday.

— with files from the Associated Press.

Kellie Leitch, the parliamentary secretary for Human Resources and Skills Development Canada, is defending the pricey advertising campaign amid opposition criticisms that the Harper government is promoting a program that doesn’t yet exist.

Leitch says the government is making sure workers and employers are aware of what she says are grants that are available for skills training.

However the grant program, at this point, is nothing more than a concept that still has to be negotiated with provincial governments and business groups.

And several provinces have expressed concerns — even outright hostility — about the three-way sharing proposal for funding individual skills training, which isn’t likely to even get approved by parliament until late this year.

New Democrats are demanding to know why the Harper government is buying air time for the ads during the NHL playoffs, which it says can cost up to $190,000 a minute.

“We are making sure Canadians know about the skills opportunities that are available to them,” Leitch told the House of Commons on Tuesday. “We are making sure employers know that this grant is available to them as well.”

She also told the House that during recent consultations in British Columbia on the skills grant, “they were talking about how people were walking in asking for this opportunity, because we want to link Canadians with jobs.”

However the government department confirmed no such grants exist. If all goes according to plan and the provinces agree, the grants could be available sometime next year.

An email from a spokeswoman said the grants “will be introduced as part of the renewal of the Labour Market Agreements with the provinces and territories in 2014–15,” adding that the “final design will be negotiated with provinces and territories over the next year, in consultation with stakeholder groups.”

Peter Van Loan, the Conservative government House leader, described the proposal last week as “a concept of how it could work” and as a “proposal that needs to be fleshed out and developed fully.”

The Quebec government has already rejected the three-way sharing program, saying the money on the table represents a cut in federal skills funding while at the same time giving Ottawa more control over provincial jurisdiction.

Ontario, Alberta and the Atlantic premiers have all expressed varying reservations about the proposed program.

“Why are they spending $190,000 a minute on Hockey Night in Canada ads for a program that does not even exist?” NDP critic Mathieu Ravignat asked Tuesday during the daily question period.

In an interview, Ravignat said the government is wasting money raising expectations for a program that simply is not available.

“There’s very little public money to go around these days for programs such as this,” said Ravignat.

“Until the provinces are on board, the government needs to stop advertising this program.”

Leitch however attacked the opposition for failing to support the measure, which was announced in the March federal budget.

“I encourage the opposition to get on board, make sure Canadians receive the skills they need so they can fill those jobs and we can grow our economy, because if they do not get on board I guess we will just have to do it ourselves,” the Conservative MP told the Commons.

It was not clear how Leitch expects the opposition to support the granting program. It is not going to be included in the first budget implementation bill this spring, so will not likely be subject to a parliamentary vote until next fall at the earliest.

Mulcair says he didn’t go to police after that 1994 meeting with Laval’s then-mayor Gilles Vaillancourt because there was no evidence.

Mulcair, who was then a political rookie seeking office for the first time, says he never actually had proof he was being offered cash by Vaillancourt.

He says Vaillancourt simply offered him an envelope.

He says he refused the envelope, cut short the meeting, and kept his distance from the powerful mayor of Laval.

Media have posted a statement given by Mulcair in July 2011 to police in which he says Vaillancourt repeatedly told him he wanted to help him, while holding up an envelope in his hand.

The statement quotes Mulcair as saying he discussed the meeting with fellow Liberal Vincent Auclair, whom Vaillancourt also allegedly offered an envelope.

Vaillancourt was arrested on May 9 and faces several corruption-related charges, including gangsterism. He has pleaded guilty to the charges and denied offering bribes to other politicians.

One of those alleged targets was Serge Menard, a former federal and provincial MP with the Bloc Quebecois and Parti Quebecois. Menard was allegedly offered $10,000 cash by the mayor in 1993.

Like Mulcair, he was a rookie provincial politician on the verge of winning his first election. And like Mulcair, he says he refused the money, then decided to remain publicly silent about the incident.

Menard, a lawyer, is quoted in a Montreal La Presse report saying that what happened two decades ago is not technically illegal — because corruption laws apply to civil servants, ministers and legislators.

He told the newspaper that the relevant Criminal Code articles don’t make any reference to exchanges that involve regular citizens running as candidates for office — which is what he and Mulcair were at the time of Vaillancourt’s alleged offer.

The perils of tornado season were tragically demonstrated Monday when a massive twister flattened homes and demolished an elementary school in Moore, Okla. At least 24 people, including nine children, were killed during the mammoth storm which sprang up with less than 20 minutes notice.

Canadians are far less likely to face such a storm, meteorologists said, noting the country’s geographic location offers some natural protection.

Geoff Coulson, warning preparedness meteorologist with Environment Canada, said the country sees an average of 62 tornadoes each year compared to the 1,200 that touch down in the U.S. He said the frequent combination of warm air from the Gulf of Mexico and cooler currents from the north leave Canada’s southern neighbour particularly vulnerable to severe weather.

Despite the decreased risk, however, Coulson said Canada still employs many of the same precautions Americans use to stay out of harm’s way.

“I think there’s a lot of similarities in the way people are getting information,” Coulson said in a telephone interview.

He said 90 per cent of Canada is covered by weather radio systems that communicate with Environment Canada, monitor weather systems and emit warning tones when a major storm is approaching.

Such weather radios are the primary warning systems in place in the U.S., he added. In both countries, warnings are issued between 10 and 20 minutes before a tornado is expected to touch down.

American communities at high risk for twisters may also have an emergency siren system installed. Coulson said a handful of Canadian jurisdictions have implemented this system.

Canadians who want to be kept apprised of serious weather developments should check in with local radio stations or the Environment Canada website at weather.ec.gc.ca.

One place they can’t yet turn for information, however, is their mobile phone, Coulson said.

American officials have started exploring the idea of looping cellular transmission towers into their warning systems, but no concrete action has been taken yet, he said.

Canadian meteorologists are even further from realizing that goal, he said, adding that officials are trying to strike a balance between issuing timely warnings and lulling the public into a false sense of security.

“We’re watching quite closely the developments in the U.S. with respect to linking in through cellphone towers … but there still seems to be a number of hurdles that have to be crossed before we get to that point.”

Canada is no stranger to deadly tornadoes.

One salt mine worker was killed in August 2011 when a massive tornado ripped through the southern Ontario town of Goderich, causing about $12 million worth of damage.

A storm that tore through Edmonton in 1987 claimed 24 lives.

But Canada’s most severe tornado, which touched down in Elie, Man., in June 2007, did not result in any fatalities despite packing winds of up to 400 kilometres an hour.

Savvy storm preparation played a roll in keeping human harm to a minimum, local residents said, adding many of those who witnessed the storm took shelter in basements or other low-lying areas.

Such a move tops the list of government recommendations for tornado survival. The guidelines also encourage Canadians without access to a basement to take cover under sturdy pieces of furniture away from doors, windows or outside walls.

Those who are caught out of doors when severe weather sets in are urged to get inside immediately, while people on the water are urged to come ashore.

Coulson said such precautions are wise even if a thunderstorm is not showing signs of morphing into a treacherous twister.

“When thunder roars, go indoors,” he said. “If you’re close enough to a thunderstorm to hear the thunder from it, the lightning that’s produced is close enough to be deadly.”

The Canadian Red Cross urges families to take the time to devise an emergency plan.

Canadians should decide on a safe shelter area, an alternative rendezvous point out of the home and an out-of-town emergency contact and share the details with all family members.

It’s also a good idea to devise an evacuation route and make sure all family members are familiar with it, the organization said in its online emergency preparedness guidelines.

Another key precaution is to make an emergency preparedness kit that will see both family members and pets safely through at least 72 hours.

The kit should include food, water, batteries, a radio, cash, a first-aid kit and special items such as medications.

Thirty-year-old Martin Bouchard was an RCMP officer in Manitoba and had a French accent and plenty of friends.

But three years into the marriage, Krista Bouchard started noticing symptoms of post traumatic stress disorder — apparently related to her husband’s posting in Shamattawa, a First Nations reserve that she said was resistant to outside policing.

“He’d show up at a call and end up having an axe thrown from the roof of a house at him,” Krista Bouchard, 38, said.

But most traumatic for her husband were the suicides. There were calls that changed her husband life forever.

“The biggest thing was the hangers, they called them. They were cutting people out of the trees weekly for attempted suicides and suicides,” she said.

Suddenly her husband was constantly negative, alienating friends and being confrontational at work — a change in behaviour she would have never predicted when the pair exchanged vows.

“He was so proud to be an RCMP member, yet he was always looking for the negative,” Bouchard said. “It felt like he was always in a battle with somebody.”

Over the next decade of his RCMP career, Bouchard said her husband became increasingly hostile towards her and their two daughters, to the point she feared for their safety and the couple separated.

Martin Bouchard continued working as a Mountie despite being diagnosed with depression and PTSD.

On Nov. 8, 2012, just four days after handing in his gun and badge, he took his own life.

Bouchard linked her husband’s death to his largely untreated struggle with PTSD and believes it could have been prevented if the RCMP had helped him cope with the horrors he faced on the job.

As lawsuits emerge and claims for PTSD-related disability pensions climb, Bouchard and other spouses of current and former Mounties are asking the force to play a larger role in preventing and treating the work-related disorder.

“It’s the responsibility of the employer when PTSD is a result of the job, to ensure that those members are taken care of,” Bouchard said.

“They were aware (he) was diagnosed with PTSD and they never, ever, once promoted the idea of treatment for him.”

While company coverage for a limited number of counselling sessions was helpful, Bouchard said her husband needed much more assistance.

Counselling didn’t work for him despite visits to various therapists, Bouchard said.

“He was never getting beyond the initial six-week appointment where they finally started to delve into things.”

But a national representative for the RCMP said members’ physical and mental well-being is top priority.

“Work-related health issues, whether physical or mental, are taken very seriously,” spokesman Greg Cox said in an email statement.

Mounties are screened for mental health issues every three years and offered treatment options, he said, adding those in high-risk duty such as undercover work or service in isolated regions receive increased focus and monitoring.

Officers showing signs of PTSD have their responsibilities “adjusted in accordance with their limitations and restrictions while supporting their treatment,” Cox said.

The seeming disconnect between what the force offers and what it delivers also has another spouse puzzled.

The woman, whose husband is currently on sick leave for PTSD-related issues, agreed to be interviewed upon the condition of anonymity.

She said she doesn’t want to jeopardize her husband’s career because he’s in the process of going back to work.

“There’s a fear that we’ll be penalized because we’re speaking out,” the Alberta resident said.

She said her husband has been dealing with PTSD since a traumatic event early in his career, and that it’s been compounded by many more incidents since then.

“He’s been to more deaths of children than I can count. They’ve had shifts where they’ve had six bodies in six days and they haven’t had any debriefing,” she said.

“I can’t count the suicides, I can’t count the violent assaults and murders. We’re not talking one car accident, we’re talking multitudes.”

While not all detachments are remiss in providing their members with treatment and debriefing, the woman said the force lacks resources and communication between departments, particularly in isolated areas.

“They’re not being debriefed after every critical incident because there’s not the manpower to go down every single day.”

She said RCMP health services might diagnose a member and tell the detachment there’s an underlying medical condition affecting the officer’s performance.

But detachment commanders essentially assume that officers left on duty are full acting members and there’s nothing put into place to support them, she said.

The woman said her husband’s strange behaviour led her to believe he had PTSD.

“He numbed out … I came home one day to pick something up from work and he was on a day off. He was standing near the kitchen sink.

“I came home three hours later and he was still standing there and couldn’t tell me why.”

She said that while her husband’s detachment failed to acknowledge his illness and provide help, that might not be the case for the entire force.

“We’re not trying to damage the RCMP,” she said. “What we’re trying to do is say, ‘This a job that has inherent dangers.’”

“My husband wears a bulletproof vest and he carries a gun to protect his physical safety. I’m just asking them to give him some things … that are going to protect (his) mental safety as well.”

But the tools to ward off PTSD are a ways off, said Dr. William Koch, a B.C. clinical and forensic psychologist who specializes in treating trauma survivors, including Mounties.

Despite families’ pleas for help, Koch said large employers such as the RCMP can be slow in implementing policy changes.

“They’re kind of like a large tanker ship that’s very hard to turn out in open water,” Koch said.

People who avoid coping with their feelings are most at risk of developing the disorder, and that’s a dangerous combination for officers who don’t discuss their trials for fear of stigma within the organization, he added.

Koch said counselling that involves a member sharing his woes isn’t effective and has proven worse in clinical trials than no treatment at all.

First responders who experience trauma react best to cognitive behavioural therapy, Koch said.

The treatment, over a period of weeks, involves officers reliving traumatic experiences repeatedly in a controlled environment until their responses normalize and they regain a sense of safety or calm.

Koch said it’s been shown 50 to 80 per cent effective in most clinical studies.

“People who receive that kind of specific treatment get substantially better. They cease to be a clinical case. They have improved functioning.”

Last month, former Mountie James Ward filed a lawsuit in B.C. claiming the RCMP failed to provide adequate treatment for his work-related trauma.

Statistics from Veterans Affairs Canada show the number of disability claims for RCMP members afflicted with PTSD has doubled in the last five years.