Emgold Mining Corporation is announcing that it has entered into an agreement with M Partners Inc. to act as its exclusive lead agent in connection with a brokered private placement offering on a best efforts basis to raise gross proceeds of up to $10,000,000 through the offer and sale of units of the Company.

The Company will issue up to 50 million units at a price of $0.20 per Unit. Each Unit will comprise one common share and one share purchase warrant. Each warrant will entitle the holder to purchase one additional common share for a period of 24 months from closing at an exercise of $0.35 per share.

The Agent will receive a cash fee equal to 8% of the aggregate gross proceeds of the Offering and compensation warrants exercisable to acquire that number of units that is equal to 8% of the total number of units sold in the Offering, at an exercise price of $0.20 per unit for a period of 18 months from closing.

For those concerned about the potential impacts arising from the U.S. housing and subprime mortgage market and how that will affect Canadian markets can rest a little easier today. The CIBC World Markets' latest Canadian Portfolio Strategy Outlook report finds that the rise in global energy and base metal prices will outweigh any negative impact felt by the $100 billion meltdown in U.S. subprime mortgage markets.

The TSX rises and falls more on the impact of global growth due to its resource and energy base. The continued increases in energy and metal prices have thus far improved the overall outlook for the TSX. Further good news comes as the subprime market represents less than five per cent of new mortgages in Canada but over 20 per cent in the U.S.

Chief Strategist and Chief Economist at CIBC World Markets Jeff Rubin says, "While we expect to see further distress in both the U.S. housing market and the subprime mortgage market, there is little if any evidence of broad contagion effects in financial markets. Corporate spreads remain tight by any historic benchmark while option volatility on the S&P 500 is only a fraction of that seen during last year's panic attack over the U.S. Federal Reserve's tightening."

A Kelowna man found to have sold and exchanged securities for life insurance policies and other companies' securities has been ordered out of the securities market. He must also pay $100,000 to the British Columbia Securities Commission for violating securities laws.

Cameron Kuipers, of Kelowna, has been notified that he cannot trade securities for at least 16 years except in limited circumstances. He cannot be a director or officer of any company nor can he engage in any investor relations activities for 16 years.

Kuipers is the president, director and sole owner of Ultimate Ventures Inc., a Kelowna-based company, and Trivera Investments Inc., which is headquartered in Vancouver. The two companies were in the business of purchasing life insurance policies from elderly and terminally ill people for a percentage of their face values and to assume the obligation to pay the premiums on them. Profits were to come from the expectation that the policy sellers would die before the cost of paying the premiums exceeded the discount at which the policies had been purchased.

The Board of Directors of Montréal Exchange Inc. announced today that it has decided in favour of listing the Exchange's shares by proceeding with a listing without offering. The listing should occur once the formal procedures have been completed, which should be in March or April 2007.

"The Board's decision to list the Montréal Exchange's shares was based fundamentally on the recognition of the level of maturity attained by the organization," declared Luc Bertrand, President and Chief Executive Officer of the MX.

Sears Holdings Corporation announced today that 81.3% of the Sears Canada shares voted at the Special Meeting of Sears Canada shareholders held earlier today were voted in favor of the proposed going-private transaction, including 58.3% of the votes cast by minority shareholders.

However, pursuant to an order of the Ontario Securities Commission (OSC) dated August 8, 2006, the shares held by The Bank of Nova Scotia, Scotia Capital Inc. and Royal Bank of Canada that are the subject of support agreements with Sears Holdings and the shares acquired in the offer from Vornado Realty L.P. - which collectively represented approximately 30% of the minority shares - were excluded from the calculation of the "majority of the minority" approval.

On October 31, 2006, the Minister of Finance announced its proposal to amend the Income Tax Act (Canada) to apply a Distribution Tax on distributions from publicly-traded income trusts. Under the proposal, existing income trusts will be subject to the new measures commencing in their 2011 taxation year, following a four-year grace period. The Minister of Finance issued a Notice of Ways and Means Motion to Amend the Income Tax Act and on November 7, 2006 obtained approval from Parliament to enact the proposal.

In simplified terms, under the proposed tax plan, income distributions will first be taxed at the trust level at a special rate estimated to be 31.5%. Income distributions to individual unitholders will then be treated as dividends from a Canadian corporation and eligible for the dividend tax credit. Income distributions to corporations resident in Canada will be eligible for full deduction as tax free inter-corporate dividends.