Good evening, readers.

We start tonight’s brief with some bad news on the economy.

Fewer people were looking for work in January, driving the unemployment rate lower despite job losses in the month, Statistics Canada said Friday.

The agency said the economy shed 25,000 jobs in January, compared to economists’ expectations for a slight gain.

Desjardins economist Kari Norman said the January labour force survey marks a “bit of a U-turn” for the economy, which had steadily added jobs across the previous four months.

January’s job losses mostly came from the private sector and part-time work, and were largely concentrated among women aged 25 to 54.

Ontario bore the weight of the losses last month, particularly in the manufacturing sector.

The Canadian Press has more.

Meanwhile, Canada’s new consulate in Greenland is officially open.

The consulate has been operating quietly for several weeks but Gov. Gen. Mary Simon and Foreign Affairs Minister Anita Anand are in Greenland’s capital Nuuk for the ceremonial opening today.

Anand raised a Canadian flag at the consulate and people gathered spontaneously sang O Canada, while they waved both Canadian and Greenland flags.

CP has this one too.

Canada’s nuclear industry says there’s significant interest from several provinces in building new reactors to help meet surging demand for electricity.

Ontario, which already counts on nuclear for more than half of its electricity, has pledged billions to refurbish existing facilities and to build small modular reactors (SMR), agreeing to help other provinces take advantage of the new technology. The first of those reactors are expected to come online in 2030, and would make Canada the first G7 country to generate power from SMRs.

The federal government referred Darlington SMRs to the Major Projects Office last year, and partnered with Ontario in collectively pledging $3 billion towards their construction, as iPolitics and QP Briefing first reported in October.

Alberta, Saskatchewan and New Brunswick have reached an agreement with Ontario to share information on SMRs, while Saskatchewan announced last week that it had started a technology selection process for large nuclear facilities.

George Christidis, president and CEO of the Canadian Nuclear Association, said even provinces that were formerly cool on the industry are starting to reverse course, singling out Nova Scotia’s move to relax restrictions on uranium mining.

“We’re seeing again, across the board, different provinces, different jurisdictions that are explicitly looking at nuclear to meet their energy needs, as well as other provinces that are starting just to kind of get themselves more familiar,” he said in an interview with iPolitics.

Marco Vigliotti has this one.

And finally, in this week’s Adjournment Proceedings, Aya Dufour looks at the growing number of First Nations seeking equity stakes in major projects, and the challenges and opportunities they face along the way.

She reports that there’s at growing number of Indigenous leaders pursuing project equity in lieu of benefits agreements, as demand for Indigenous financing programs can attest.

The Canada Indigenous Loan Guarantee program, for example, has already held over 300 meetings since its inception a little over a year ago.

“There’s a strong demand across Canada,” said newly minted CEO Kristan Straub.

“We’ve approved one loan guarantee already, and there are several other deals that are advancing along.”

Lobby Wrap: Ontario Dairy Farmers register to talk about the food guide and trade negotiations

In Other Headlines

Internationally

An unprecedented four-site, dual-cauldron Winter Olympics opening ceremony replete with references to Italian icons and culture is scheduled to officially start the Milan Cortina Games on Friday as the sports spectacle returns to a nation that last hosted the event 20 years ago.

This is the most spread-out Olympics — Summer or Winter — in history, with competition venues dotting an area of about 8,500 square miles (more than 22,000 square kilometers), roughly the size of the entire state of New Jersey.

The main hub Friday is in Milan at San Siro soccer stadium. There also will be three other places where athletes can march, some carrying their country’s flag: Cortina d’Ampezzo in the heart of the Dolomite mountains; Livigno in the Alps; Predazzo in the autonomous province of Trento.

That allows up-in-the-mountains sports such as Alpine skiing, bobsled, curling and snowboarding to be represented in the Parade of Nations without needing to make the several-hours-long trek to Milan, the country’s financial capital, and back.

AP reports.

In Other International Headlines

The Kicker

The Eglinton Crosstown LRT is finally opening this weekend.

Sure, it’s like six years late but Premier Doug Ford doesn’t want to hear any negativity.

At a press conference on Friday, he dismissed reporters’ questions about how the province could celebrate opening the oft-delayed line by accusing them of “beating a dead horse.”

He also refused to launch a public inquiry into the maligned line, even though he did just that with Ottawa’s problem-plagued O-Train.

Have a great night!