National Business

CALGARY — The end of Alberta's oil production curtailment program and purchase of natural gas producer Painted Pony Energy Ltd. earlier this year will help Canadian Natural Resources Ltd.

MONTREAL — Dollarama Inc. said it will pay a bonus to employees for their work during the pandemic as it raised its dividend and reported a higher third-quarter profit.

LONDON — Britain's medical regulator warned Wednesday that people with a history of serious allergic reactions shouldn’t get the COVID-19 vaccine from Pfizer and BioNTech, and investigators looked into whether two reactions on the first day of the U.

TORONTO — Canopy Growth Corp. will cease operations at five facilities across the country and lay off more than 200 workers — the latest in a series of dramatic cuts the cannabis company and several others have made this year. Smiths Falls, Ont.

Calgary-based Whitecap Resources Inc. is cementing its position as a consolidator of conventional oil and gas producers in Western Canada with a friendly $550-million all-stock deal to buy rival TORC Oil & Gas Ltd.

RIO DE JANEIRO — Commercial flights with Boeing 737 Max jetliners resumed Wednesday for the first time since they were grounded worldwide following two deadly accidents nearly two years ago.

WASHINGTON — U.S. employers advertised slightly more job openings in October, but hiring slipped as a resurgence of COVID-19 threatens the economic recovery. And the number of Americans fired or laid off rose for the first time since June.

MONTREAL — Hydro-Quebec has launched a new energy storage business aimed at power producers, transmission providers and distributors, as well as commercial and industrial markets. The utility says EVLO Energy Storage Inc.

TORONTO — Clothing retailer Roots reported its third-quarter profit rose compared with a year ago as the company cut costs. Roots says it earned $10.3 million or 24 cents per diluted share for the quarter ended Oct.

THE HAGUE, Netherlands — An explosion damaged a Polish supermarket in a Dutch town near Amsterdam early Wednesday morning, the third such blast in two days.