OTTAWA – Canada’s exporters appear to be finally delivering the goods. Not only are the country’s manufacturers enhancing product sales, but they’re doing it in record numbers based on the latest numbers for January – with food products, vehicles and auto parts driving a lot of the gain. Statistics Canada said Wednesday that manufacturing sales jumped 2.3 per cent to ...
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Lower fares won’t get in way of Canadian airlines’ ‘incredibly bright’ future, report says
Airfares will be seduced by the third consecutive year in 2016 because of weak fuel prices, growing capacity and the threat of recent competition, however this won’t make much of a dent in Canadian airlines’ profits, based on a new report. Despite an inadequate domestic economy, “the air travel industry’s future is quite bright,” says the Conference Board of Canada ...
Read More »Gluskin Sheff founders demanding $185 million from company in post-retirement benefits
The co-founders of Gluskin Sheff + Associates Inc. are kept in an unsightly legal struggle with the company, claiming it owes them a staggering $185 million in post-retirement entitlements. The Toronto-based investment firm revealed on Thursday that it’s involved in a “private arbitration” with Ira Gluskin and Gerald Sheff. Gluskin needs a payment of $75 million, while Sheff is demanding ...
Read More »Canadian wholesale trade holds steady in January on lower auto sales
OTTAWA – The need for Canadian wholesale trade remained unchanged in January from December as lower auto sales cancelled out gains in other sectors, Statistics Canada said on Thursday. Analysts in a Reuters poll had predicted a 0.2 percent rise in wholesale sales from December. In volume terms, sales fell by 0.2 per cent. Sales in the motor vehicles and ...
Read More »MaRS Catalyst Fund focuses on the ‘double bottom line’ — social impact and returns
It started about 15 months back by having an initial seed capital investment of $1 million from the Virgin Unite Canada Foundation and Vancouver’s Mindset Social Innovation Foundation. Now the MaRS Catalyst Fund, which defines itself like a national impact venture fund, has achieved its first close with $3 million in the kitty. Indeed until that hurdle had been cleared ...
Read More »The Condiment Wars: How a misstep by Heinz laid the path for French’s quest to become Canada’s Ketchup King
In November 2013, managers at H.J. Heinz Co. gathered their workers within the cafeteria of the company’s century-old plant in Leamington and broke some bad news. The plant’s new owners – Berkshire Hathaway and Brazilian private equity finance firm 3G capital – had chose to shut the plant down. It was unclear whether the small Southwestern Ontario town was going to get over this ...
Read More »U.S. crude breaks through US$40 as oil rallies for second day on optimism for producer meeting
NEW YORK – Oil surged above US$40 a barrel in New York the very first time since December as central banks?in the U.S. to Norway signaled they will continue to provide economic stimulus to support demand. A weaker dollar following a Federal Reserve policy decision on Wednesday that indicated two U.S. rate hikes this year rather than four also drew ...
Read More »William Watson: The one (and only) way government can help labour markets
Participants in labour markets can handle matters all on their own own If the Liberal platform is a guide – and we’re a democracy therefore it should be – next week’s budget contains $775 million of new money for a number of “labour market development” initiatives. Though any support for markets among left-of-centre parties is to be encouraged, the thing ...
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