Description: Canada created almost 160,000 jobs in September. That means that the country is out of the deep job loss hole prompted by the pandemic. Statistics Canada states that this job surge has pushed the unemployment rate down to 6.9 %, the lowest since the Covid-19 shutdown began. One intriguing question are how many Canadians… Read more »
Posts Categorized: Financial Reporting and Analysis
Caisse Drops Oil
Description: Pension manager Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec – often simply referred to as the Caisse – plans to drop its investments in the oil business within the next year. Currently, this industry makes up about 1% of the Caisse’s approximately $400 billion in assets. The Caisse, like many other pension funds, has… Read more »
Food Court Passport Patrol
Description: With Covid-19 cases rising in several provinces in the latest phase of the pandemic, governments, such as Ontario, have responded with requiring vaccine passports for customers dining in restaurants. Policing the passport is especially tough in food courts, where food is purchased from a variety of vendors but consumed in a common area not… Read more »
Big Party at Queen’s
Description: Last Wednesday police broke up a major street party on University Avenue near Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario. Though the crowd was estimated at 3,000 — well in excess of tbe 100 person limit under the Covid restrictions – less than 20 participants were arrested or charged. Queen’s University stated “consequences for this behaviour… Read more »
Craft Beer Sales Up
Description: Two of Canada’s largest craft beer makers reported that sales were up in 2020, despite the fact that Corona virus had shut down sales channels in bars and restaurants. Big Rock Brewery of Calgary had its highest sales in seven years. Waterloo Brewing Ltd. saw strong growth of 20% during the year, a figure… Read more »
Loblaws: Dividends Up; Hero Pay Over
Description: Grocery chains have been among the winners during the pandemic. With more people working at home, and restaurants either operating under restrictions or not operating at all, grocers are growing their sales. Loblaws has decided to bump up its dividends to shareholders given that profits were up in the most recent quarter. Left on… Read more »
More on the MEC
Description: Last week this blog featured a story on the sale of Canada’s Mountain Equipment Co-op (MEC) to Kingswood Capital Management. This week comes news that MEC considered another alternative to solve its financial problems: a direct appeal to its close to six million members. But the decision-makers rejected the member bailout model as “impracticable… Read more »
TSX hits high
Description: This past Thursday, the S&P/TSX composite index hit a new high at 16,612.81 points. Some believe that recent hints that interest rates won’t be rising may have contributed to this new high point. Rising oil prices may also have helped fuel the optimism. Since its low point in December, the market has soared over… Read more »
Credit card myths
Description: Debt on your credit cards can be a common way to sink your financial plan. But university students are often targeted by those marketing credit cards. If you want to use this form of credit – and its pretty hard to avoid it in our time – you should know some common myths about… Read more »
Death Spiral
Description: The Globe and Mail is saying New Brunswick is in a ‘death spiral’ financially. The problem is that the tiny province is in the last stages of an election campaign and none of the political leaders really seems to be seriously engaging the issue. In the past ten years, New Brunswick has basically doubled… Read more »
Understanding Financial Accounting
Intermediate Accounting, 13th Edition
Financial Accounting, 8th Edition
Auditing: A Practical Approach, 4th Edition
Managerial Accounting, 6th Edition
Accounting Principles, 9th Edition