BAY, NEO FINANCIAL TO OFFER NEW HUDSON’S BAY MASTERCARD

Canada’s oldest retailer is teaming up with one of the country's newest financial technology companies to offer a new credit card. The partnership between Hudson's Bay Co. and Neo Financial announced Tuesday comes three months after U.S.-based Capital One said it was ending its relationship with HBC and Costco Canada in 2021. Iain Nairn, president and CEO of Hudson's Bay, says the new Hudson's Bay MasterCard is part of the retailer's “digital-first strategy” to improve the company's digital offerings and customer experience. He says the company has increasingly “digitally savvy” shoppers that will appreciate the new card's digital applications, though customers will also receive a conventional plastic card.

Air Canada plans to lay off at least 1,500 more employees as it temporarily cuts 17 U.S. and international routes because of COVID-19. The route suspensions will take effect Feb. 18 and last until at least April 30, an Air Canada spokesperson said Tuesday by email. Affected customers with bookings will be contacted with options, including alternative routings, the company said. The moves will affect about 1,500 unionized employees and an undetermined number of management positions, Air Canada said. Affected routes include Montreal/Toronto-Boston, Montreal/Toronto-New York LaGuardia, Montreal/Toronto-Bogota, Toronto-Dublin, Vancouver-Seattle, Vancouver-Tokyo Narita and Vancouver-London. “We appreciate the need for measures to prevent the spread of new variants of COVID-19 in Canada,” Wesley Lesosky, who represents the Air Canada component of CUPE, told CBC.ca. “But restrictions have to be accompanied by solutions.”