July 2013 Canadian Economic Fundamentals

[Ally]

Train explosion raises questions about shipping oil by rail




At least five people died and 40 were missing on Sunday after a runaway train carrying crude oil derailed and exploded in the center of a small Quebec town in a disaster that raised fresh questions about shipping oil by rail.







The train was hauling crude in 72 tanker cars from North Dakota to eastern Canada. It was parked, without a driver, but then it rolled downhill, gathered speed and derailed on a curve in the small town of Lac-Megantic at 1 a.m. Saturday morning.





Read the full article here.

 

[Ally]

Pipelines essential to Canada's prosperity




It seems Canadians can't pick up a newspaper or read the news online without hearing about pipelines.




We know that recent pipeline incidents have some Canadians questioning the safety of pipelines, but we want to assure you that our member companies are committed to continuously finding better ways to make pipelines even safer. And, while we do that, we also want to demonstrate how important pipelines are to our economy and Canadian families. In fact, pipelines are one of the enablers of our prosperity.





Read the full article here.

 

[Ally]

Canada's battle of economy vs environment




Canada is aiming to double oil exports by 2030.




Most of the increase will come from the oil sands of northern Alberta but environmentalists are warning of a powerful impact on greenhouse gas emissions.





Read the full article here.

 

[Ally]

Divvying up the single-family lot




Kathleen Higgins and her husband John have one extremely valuable asset that they're trying to use to help their children get a foothold in the local housing market.


It's their own single-family lot in north Delta, currently the site of a 1970s-era house where the Higgins brought up seven children.


But they'd like to redevelop the house to help those kids. Not by building a gigantic mansion with multiple suites, as some families have done. Nor by selling it and handing out down payments to their children for starter condos, while they retire to a small apartment.





Read the full article here.

 

[Ally]

Ottawa's mortgage fixes one year later




Jonathan Coe is anxious to get out of his west-end Toronto apartment and into his first house, but that dream was put on hold again last year when the federal government changed the rules.





Seun Olowolafe, on the other hand, who is articling now, plans to move out of his parents' Toronto-area home and buy a three-storey loft while mortgage rates, though rising, are still low. His brother is helping to lock him in with a mortgage broker, and the property will be ready next year.





Read the full article here.

 

[Ally]

Ever heard of mortgage cancellation fees? You will soon




You`re probably used to seeing cancellation fees from hotels, airlines and cellphone providers, but not when you`re getting a mortgage.




Such fees are slowly becoming more common as a small but growing number of discount mortgage brokers are tying cancellation fees to rock-bottom rates. Here`s why.





Read the full article here.

 

[Ally]

Job growth expected to continue at healthy pace through 2013






Despite economic uncertainty across the globe, Canadian employers have added more than 250,000 jobs over the last 12 months, according to Statistics Canada, and the trend is expected to continue through the end of the year.






Forty-eight per cent of the 400 hiring managers surveyed are planning on hiring new permanent, full-time employees between July 1 and Dec. 31, 2013, an increase of eight percentage points from this time last year, found a survey by CareerBuilder.





Read the full article here.

 

[Ally]

IMF upgrades Canada's growth forecast




TORONTO - The Canadian dollar closed higher Tuesday amid data showing that Canadian housing starts declined less than expected last month and that prospects for economic growth have improved.




The currency was ahead 0.3 of a cent at 95 cents US as Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation said starts came in at an annualized rate of 199,586 units in June, a decrease from 204,616 in May.





Read the full article here.

 

[Ally]

Continuing shifts in mortgage interest rates




Well interest rates have been the hot story once again in the market.




I`ve spoken in the past about how why rates are up, this week I`m going to explain where they are, where`ve recently been, and where we are going in the next 12-18 months and beyond.





Read the full article here.

 

[Ally]

Will the Lac-Megantic tragedy spur change?





Then last week, tragedy struck again when a train hauling crude exploded in the small town of Lac-Megantic.




Proponents of tar sands pipelines took this tragedy as an opportunity to sell the public on the safety benefits of pipelines. Hypocrisy that this is the same industry that cries foul when we connect climate change and extreme weather aside, they're just missing the point.





Read the full article here.

 

[Ally]

'Bitumen bubble' turns to 'bitumen bump' in oil price




A second straight week of dwindling U.S. crude inventories propelled oil prices to their highest in 16 months, pushing Canadian heavy crude prices to levels that are nearly double those seen when the government of Alberta warned of a $6-billion shortfall in energy revenue.




The Canadian heavy crude market is benefiting from both rising U.S. benchmark oil prices as well as unexpectedly narrow discounts to lighter-grade oil. That spread is now around $16 a barrel, compared with a $40 gap last January when fears about insufficient pipeline capacity weighed on producers.





Read the full article here.

 

[Ally]

Job growth expected to continue at healthy pace






Despite economic uncertainty across the globe, Canadian employers have added more than 250,000 jobs over the last 12 months, according to Statistics Canada, and the trend is expected to continue through the end of the year.






Forty-eight per cent of the 400 hiring managers surveyed are planning on hiring new permanent, full-time employees between July 1 and Dec. 31, 2013, an increase of eight percentage points from this time last year, found a survey by CareerBuilder.





Read the full article here.

 

[Ally]

Few signs of a thaw in Canada's housing market




Canada`s housing market is slowly coming out of the cold, but economists say there`s no comeback in the works.




Newly released data from the Canadian Real Estate Association (CREA) says sales of exiting homes fell 3.1 per cent in April compared to the same month last year, with transactions down in about 60 per cent of local markets.





Read the full article here.

 

[Ally]

Canadian home prices climb, but at a slower pace




Canadian home prices were 1.8 per cent higher in June than a year earlier, the smallest annual gain since November, 2009.




The pace of home price increases has been slowing in the wake of the sharp downturn in home sales that began last summer and has only recently begun abating. But, while home prices aren't rising by as much as they used to, they are rising more than many economists expected.





Read the full article here.

 

[Ally]

Luxury home sales impacted less by mortgage rule changes, experts say





Ottawa`s tightened mortgage rules seem to have had less of an impact on high-end real estate than on the overall market, according to experts.






`Most people who are going to buy a $3 million to $5 million house usually have access to the funds,` said Elli Davis, a sales representative with Royal LePage in Toronto. `They don`t really care if they pay a touch more.`






Read the full article here.

 

[Ally]

Leery of bond returns? You have options




It's no secret that today's low but rising interest rates are bad for bonds. You're not getting much yield to begin with. To make matters worse, bond prices move in the opposite direction to interest rates, so the value of your bond holdings have been hit hard as rates have started to rise.





But what are the alternatives? Many investors have moved some of their bond holdings to stocks, but you can't move too much and still maintain a balanced, diversified portfolio. After all, you shouldn't be overexposed to uncertain stock markets either.





Read the full article here.

 

[Ally]

7 key changes in Harper's new cabinet




Prime Minister Stephen Harper unveiled a new cabinet on Monday bringing what he called "generational change" to his inner circle ahead of a throne speech this fall and a policy convention in late October.




Here are 7 changes to note about Harper's new cabinet:




The government had hinted that there would be more women in the new cabinet and Harper was hyping it up when he announced on Twitter that he was "proud to be naming four new strong, capable women to the ministry," but the fact is that men still dominate his front bench and there are only two more women in cabinet than there were before the shuffle.





Read the full article here.

 

[Ally]

Residential real estate prices heat up in June





Home buyers extended a trend of increasing sales into its fourth consecutive month, according to the Canadian Real Estate Association as mortgage rates also crept up last month.




However, economists suggested Monday the higher rates could help cool the market through the second half of the year.





Read the full article here.

 

[Ally]

Canadian home sales tick up for fourth consecutive month




Home buyers extended a trend of increasing sales into its fourth consecutive month, according to the Canadian Real Estate Association as mortgage rates also crept up last month.




However, economists suggested Monday the higher rates could help cool the market through the second half of the year.



Read the full article here.

 

[Ally]

Galen Weston's plans to grow the family legacy




When Galen G. Weston took over his family`s Loblaw Cos. Ltd. grocery chain in 2006, at the age of 33, he didn`t just inherit an iconic Canadian retail institution. He also took on an obligation to re-engineer a failing growth strategy.




The plan that the iconic Canadian company had put into place a few years earlier to take on Wal-Mart, which included building more low-price Superstores, had gone awry and Loblaw had lost billions of dollars in market value.





Read the full article here.