Five stories in the news today, March 1, from The Canadian Press:

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NEW ‘SKINNY BASIC’ TV RULES KICK IN

As of today, Canadian TV viewers have a choice between their beefy cable or satellite services or a slimmed-down service dubbed “skinny basic.” Cable and satellite TV companies are now required to offer their customers a basic service package for $25 or less. Channel lineups must include at least 10 local or regional stations, as well as educational programming and legislative channels where available.

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GROUP AIMS TO SPEED MOVE TO CLEAN ECONOMY

A group called Smart Prosperity that wants Canada to speed up the transition to a high-efficiency, low carbon economy will launch today in Vancouver. The cross-sectoral group includes business leaders, labour, non-governmental organizations, government and academics and aims to make Canada a global environmental brand.

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CANADA RAISES SOME $16M FOR SYRIAN AID

The dollars are still being counted, but the money donated by Canadians for overseas Syrian relief efforts will likely fall well short of the maximum $100 million the government had promised to match. Monday marked the final day for Canadians to give money for Syrian aid in order to ensure those dollars were matched by the federal government.

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UBER TO SUSPEND EDMONTON OPERATIONS

Uber officials say they are suspending operations in Edmonton for now after the Alberta government said it would make insurance available to drivers, but likely not until the summer. Ramit Kar, the general manager for the ride-booking company in Alberta, says operations would cease as of this morning, but didn’t say how long the suspension would last.

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B.C. fILES INJUNCTION TO EVICT HOMELESS CAMP

The B.C. government has filed a court application to evict the remaining homeless campers from a tent city on the lawn of Victoria’s courthouse. Government officials say a court date has not yet been set to hear the application, but a draft injunction order says remaining campers must leave by 5 p.m. on March 14. The campers staged a party at the tent city last week in defiance of a Feb. 25 deadline to leave.

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ALSO IN THE NEWS TODAY:

— Statistics Canada will release the gross domestic product numbers for December.

— Senators Kelvin Ogilvie and Art Eggleton will release a report on obesity rates in Canada.