Posts By: Brent White

Westjet: Flying high with low fares

Posted by & filed under Accounting Principles.

Description: Despite increasing competition from newer low fare airlines such as NewLeaf Travel Co. Inc. and Canada Jetlines Ltd., Westjet Airlines reported third quarter earnings of $116 million this week. Westjet intends to continue its strategy of being a low cost provider in the face of this competition. The airline also noted it is looking… Read more »

Challenging the puppet economy

Posted by & filed under eCommerce.

Description: Last week’s Wiley Weekly Accounting Updates featured a story on job churn: a concept voiced by the Finance Minister Bill Morneau to discuss the world of vanishing permanent jobs. And certainly one cause of job churn has been the so-called gig economy, where businesses like Uber maintain tall those drivers picking up passengers under… Read more »

How about those co-op placements?

Posted by & filed under Accounting Careers, Contemporary Business Issues.

Description: How about those co-op placements? Universities and community colleges have been offering them in various forms as the discussion of experiential learning enters the common vocabulary. Everything isn’t always rosy with co-op placements though. Unpaid service and uncertain legal status may be some of the downsides on these attempts to provide students with practical… Read more »

Gambling on governance at ALC

Posted by & filed under Auditing, Corporate Governance.

Description: Cooperation between governments is a good thing. And in Atlantic Canada, the four provinces have cooperated for years as shareholders in one gambling organization, the Atlantic Lottery Corporation (ALC). This week, however, an audit report issued by the four auditors general of the Atlantic provinces concluded that the four provinces need to do a… Read more »

Big cuts at Bombardier

Posted by & filed under Accounting Careers, Accounting Principles.

Description: Bombardier announced this week that it’s cutting about 10% of its workforce. This is around 7,500 jobs in total, with about 2,000 or so of those at home here in Canada. CEO Alain Bellemare cited competitive pressures as prompting these cuts. Two-thirds of this latest round of layoffs will hit Bombardier’s rail division. Date:… Read more »

Corporate governance at MEC

Posted by & filed under Corporate Governance.

Description:  Mountain Equipment Co-op (MEC) has responded to concern from its members and scrapped certain criteria it had proposed for its board members. Given its role as a major retailer, MEC wanted board members who had governance or management experience in large and complex organizations. But this upset MEC’s members who appealed to the principle… Read more »

Competition Bureau and Loblaws

Posted by & filed under Accounting Careers.

Description: The Competition Bureau is running into trouble in its ongoing investigation of Loblaw’s pricing practices. The problem seems to be that Loblaw’s suppliers seem  reluctant to talk to the regulator for fear that Loblaws might retaliate against them. One thing the Bureau may be examining is Loblaw’s controversial practice of asking for 1.45 %… Read more »

Finally after seven years

Posted by & filed under Accounting Careers, Advanced Accounting.

Description: After seven long years, it looks like Nortel pensioners will have a better deal as this bankruptcy saga winds down. While pensioners are probably relieved to see issues settled, it has been a very expensive process. The total for legal and professional services paid out of the Nortel funds is over $2.5 billion, making… Read more »