Trade War: US slaps 220 percent duty on Canada's Bombardier jets

The Bombardier CS 300 performs its demonstration flight during the Paris Air Show, at Le Bourget airport, north of Paris, June 15, 2015

The U.S. Commerce Department on Tuesday slapped preliminary anti-subsidy duties on Bombardier Inc’s CSeries jets after rival Boeing Co accused Canada of unfairly subsidizing the aircraft, a move likely to strain trade relations between the neighbors.

The department said it imposed a steep 219.63 percent countervailing duty on Bombardier’s new commercial jets after it made a preliminary finding of subsidization. Boeing has complained the 110-to-130 seat aircraft were dumped below cost in the U.S. market last year while benefiting from unfair subsidies.

An April 2016 order for 75 CSeries jets from Delta Air Lines stemmed from the same harmful sales practices European rival Airbus SE employed to win business in the 1990s, according to Boeing.

The Commerce Department’s penalty against Bombardier will only take effect if the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) rules in Boeing’s favor in a final decision expected in 2018.

Bell Buys MTS for In $3.9B Deal

 BCE Inc. has signed a friendly deal valued at $3.9 billion to buy Manitoba Telecom Services Inc.

The agreement will add Manitoba's largest phone, Internet and wireless company to a Montreal-based telecommunication business that stretches across Canada.

"Bell and MTS have a shared legacy of service and innovation that spans more than a century,'' BCE president and CEO George Cope said in a statement.

"We are honoured to join with the MTS team in this all-Canadian transaction to deliver the benefits of new infrastructure investment, technology development and the best of broadband communications to Manitobans."

The acquisition will add 2,700 employees from Manitoba Telecom to BCE's Bell phone business. Bell's western operation will nearly double to 6,900 people as a result and operate as Bell MTS, headquartered in Winnipeg.

CP

Bell Canada faces $750M lawsuit over allegedly selling customer data

A lawsuit seeks $750 million in damages for breach of privacy, breach of contract and breach of the Telecommunications Act. (CBC File Photo)

The Canadian Press
A $750-million national class-action lawsuit has been filed against Bell Canada over alleged breaches of privacy arising from its recently discontinued target ads program.

The suit against subsidiaries of Bell  alleges that the defendants used the program to track, collect and sell the sensitive account and internet browsing information of their customers to advertisers.

It seeks $750 million in damages for breach of privacy, breach of contract and breach of the Telecommunications Act.

Canadian Toy Testing Council Shut Down After 63yrs For Insolvency

Children play during a 2010 Canadian Toy Testing Council event to announce its top toy picks. (Pawel Dwulit/CP)

The Canadian Toy Testing Council known for testing toys for children since 1952 has shut down after members were unable to secure financial backing. The council operates through a network of through families in the Ottawa region who would take the toys home and judge them on design, durability, safety and playability.

The group also produced an annual pre-Christmas list of top toys and books.

But last year the volunteer-run organization did not operate its toy testing program or produce its annual list because of what it described as funding challenges.

In a news release Tuesday, the organization said it had been under financial stress for several years.

Canada Revenue Agency filings for the council show the organization's revenue was cut in half from 2011 to 2012, to $52,328 from $98,743, and the group could not recover. The council reported revenue of $46,101 in 2014.

Awareness: Ontario farms under bird flu quarantine

Canadian Press
Twenty-nine poultry farms in Ontario were under quarantine on Sunday after the Canadian Food Inspection Agency established an avian influenza control zone in the wake of the disease being found on a turkey farm in the province earlier this month.

The agency had said last week that H5 avian influenza was found on a farm in Woodstock, Ont. It had placed the infected premises and eight other farms under a quarantine.

That quarantine was broadened over the weekend as a new control zone — stretching out in a 10 kilometre radius from the infected farm in southwestern Ontario — was established.

Selfishness Is Good Business

The journey of life is not complete in the entirety of its existence when apt privileges fail to serve its very purpose. The long drive to be successful and accomplished is deeply in-grained in the human DNA, whether it is for the better or worse of the lot. Regardless, the glory of self comes to play in the theatre of dreams.

Selfishness is often seen as a dark expression of oneself over the common good. In some school of thoughts, it is seen as the root cause of the ills in the society. At the tail end of all contemporary issues we face in the world, you’ll trace scintilla of self coming to play big time. Terrorism, corruption, crime, scam, homicide and abuse; all emanated from the selfish ideology of some few.

Read full on ablethoughts

New report warns of perils of corporate farming in Canada

A farmer works a potato field in North Tryon, P.E.I. in this July 13, 2000 photo. CP

The Canadian Press
A board member for the National Farmers Union says without laws that support decent farm livelihoods, Canada could lose its next generation of farmers.

Matt Gehl, board member for Saskatchewan, says the country could end up with something like “the serfdom many of our ancestors tried to escape.”

On Tuesday, the NFU released an update to its 2010 report on corporate farmland buyup, farm debt and input financing.

Business Canada: How ‘arrogance’ led to Target’s failure

Hundreds of shoppers wait for the opening of the new Target store in in Guelph, Ont. on Tuesday March 5, 2013. Dave Chidley CP

Torstar News Service
Target Corp. never understood the Canadian marketplace, according to experts reacting to the announcement on Thursday that the discount retailer will close all 133 of its stores in Canada in the next five months, leaving 17,600 people jobless.

“They underestimated the Canadian competition,” said Jamie Tate, of Tate Economic Research Inc., a Toronto firm that has worked with Canadian Tire Corp. and Walmart Canada.

“You might even want to call it arrogance.”

The Minneapolis-based Target began opening stores in Canada in March 2013, and the first ones were swarmed by shoppers who wanted to see what the vaunted chain had to offer.

But Target couldn’t keep the shelves stocked, couldn’t offer the same products it sold at stores in the U.S. and couldn’t match U.S. prices.

Federal Government Boost Ontario Auto Parts With $101m For Business Expansion

Conchita Villena removes, for measurment and testing, a camshaft for General Motors' GEN4 V8 engines, bound for GM sport utility vehicles, May 12, 2006 at Linamar Corp.'s Camcor manufacturing plant in Guelph, Ontario. The federal and Ontario governments are handing over $101 million to a Guelph-based Linamar, which is promising to create 1,200 "high-quality" local jobs over the next decade. | Bloomberg via Getty Images

The Canadian Press
The federal and Ontario governments are handing over $101 million to a Guelph-based auto parts manufacturer that is promising to create 1,200 "high-quality" local jobs over the next decade.

Linamar Corp. (TSX:LNR) announced Tuesday a $500-million expansion to its Ontario operations, with the Ontario government providing a $50.25-million grant and Ottawa contributing $50.7 million in the form of a repayable loan.

"There's no shortage of regions that are willing to offer all kinds of incentives to companies," Linamar CEO Linda Hasenfratz said at an announcement ceremony. "And I think it's wonderful to see our governments stepping up and being competitive."

Transport Minister Lisa Raitt said the federal loan will support the project to ensure that Linamar's total investment of over half a billion dollars stays in Canada.

New disease in canola found in Canada for first time

Canola Flower/Wikipedia

John Cotter The Canadian PressA disease that has reduced yields in some European canola crops by up to 50 per cent has been detected for the first time in North America in a Manitoba field.

The Canadian Food Inspection Agency said it has confirmed the presence of Verticillium longisporum among canola crop plots at a farm research station in the province.

“The CFIA has taken action to limit any spread of this pest beyond its current location by prohibiting the movement of host material and agricultural equipment used in the trial plot,” Elena Koutsavakis, a CFIA spokeswoman wrote in an email from Ottawa Thursday.

“The agency is also conducting trace-out searches on seed used in the trials and developing surveillance plans around the plot to determine when the pest arrived and if it has spread prior to detection.”

Expect it! Higher tariffs on some imports

CBC
In a follow-on to the 2013 budget, new tariffs amounting to some $333 million annually will be applied to 72 countries, including such prominent consumer product exporters as Brazil, China, Indonesia, Mexico, Singapore and South Korea.

Those countries had been on a list of less developed countries that were subject to lower tariffs since 1974 but which are now considered "higher-income and trade-competitive."

Less than two per cent of imported goods will be affected, and certain high-profile consumer goods, such as iPods and MP3 players, have been exempted

Canada free trade with SouthKorea begins

Korean President Park Geun-hye, left, listens to Prime Minister Stephen Harper respond to a question during a joint media availability in September after the two leaders formally signed a free-trade agreement. (Adrian Wyld/Canadian Press)

The Canada-South Korea free trade agreement comes into force Jan. 1. The Canadian government forecasts exports to Korea will increase 32 per cent.

The agreement is especially good news for  Canadian cattle and pork producers. For example, the 40 per cent Korean tariff on Canadian beef will be gradually eliminated over 15 years.

The agreement was signed in Ottawa on Sept 22. Ottawa sees the pact with Korea as a stepping stone to other free trade agreements in Asia.

The Gulping Pay Gap Between Canada Business CEOs And Workers

A masked protestor marches during the Occupy Vancouver group assembly in Vancouver on Oct. 15, 2011. Demonstrators protesting corporate greed and social inequality are packing a one-block square behind the Vancouver Art Gallery. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Geoff Howe

Andy Blatchford, The Canadian Press
Canada's top-paid CEOs saw their compensation climb at double the rate of the average Canadian between the depths of the recession and 2013, a new study has found.

The country's 100 highest remunerated chief executive officers pulled down an average of $9.2 million in 2013, about 25 per cent more than the $7.35 million they amassed in 2008, said an analysis released Thursday by the left-leaning Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives.

By comparison, the average Canadian income in 2013 was $47,358, about 12 per cent more than the 2008 level.

"It's a sort of a highly visible manifestation of growing income inequality in Canada," said the study's author, Hugh Mackenzie, who crunched the numbers on the CEOs of 240 publicly listed Canadian corporations on the Toronto Stock Exchange.

Canadian exports will rise despite cheaper oil, says RBC expert

An increase in exports of items that aren't energy-related should be more than enough to offset the impact of slumping oil prices, Royal Bank says. (Timothy Fadek/Bloomberg)

CBC News
One of Canada's biggest banks says an increase in exports that aren't oil and an uptick in consumer spending because of cheaper gasoline prices should be enough to offset the impact on the economy from cratering oil prices.

In its latest market outlook, the Royal Bank of Canada says 2014 was a turning point for Canada's economy in that economists finally started seeing a long overdue increase in Canadian exports from things outside of the always volatile energy sector.

Tim Hortons CEO Marc Caira named Canada Business Newsmaker of the Year

Tim Hortons' former chief executive Marc Caira has been named The Canadian Press Business Newsmaker of the Year for 2014

By David Friend

Debate over the marriage of doughnuts and burgers unfolded in Canadian coffee shops and the corridors of power in Washington, as seemingly everyone had something to say about the pairing of Tim Hortons and Burger King in 2014.

The US$11-billion deal helped Tim Hortons' former chief executive Marc Caira secure the title of The Canadian Press Business Newsmaker of the Year for 2014, in an annual survey of editors and broadcasters.

"Caira (love him or not) did something major and unexpected this year. Now coffee drinkers, and coffee servers, will have to wait for the consequences," said Doug Cudmore, business editor at the Toronto Star.

Plunge in crude oil prices named top Canadian Press business story of the year

A person pumps fuel in Toronto after gasoline prices rose overnight on Wednesday, September 12, 2012.  CP

Lauren Krugel, The Canadian Press

From Alberta oilfields to Bay Street boardrooms to the gas station on the corner, the precipitous drop in crude prices is expected to have far-reaching impacts across the country heading into 2015, making it The Canadian Press Business News Story of the Year.

The abrupt turnaround in oil markets was chosen by half of the 50 editors and news directors across the country who participated in the annual survey.

In explaining their pick, many respondents noted the story's ripple effects beyond the oilpatch.

Richard Dettman, business editor at News 1130 in Vancouver, said the halving in crude prices over a six-month span created a "gusher of stories" — the hit to federal and provincial government coffers, the plunging loonie and the benefit to consumers, to name a few.

Toronto Business Paid $31m in Overtime Last Year

Torstar News Service
More than 100 city employees made more than $20,000 in overtime pay last year.

Of those, nearly all earned more than $100,000 in 2013, in part because of those high payouts.

The city paid a total of $30.7 million in overtime last year. Close to 12,000 city employees received a piece of that, ranging from just 30 cents to more than $78,000, according to city data obtained by Torstar News Service.

More than 1,200 of those employees, from across 28 divisions, earned more than $100,000 for the year.

Those overtime figures, say councillors and union officials, may be the unintended consequence of budget cuts under former mayor Rob Ford that forced some senior officials to make unallocated reductions — working with fewer staff but faced with a burgeoning workload due to unprecedented events such as last year’s ice storm.

Canadian companies who went global through crowdfunding

Crowdfunding is increasingly becoming a growth strategy for real — but still small — companies with big ideas. Mass Fidelity, headquartered just east of Toronto, turned to Indiegogo earlier this year to help get its Core wireless speaker system from the prototype stage into production. | Mass Fidelity

Michael Oliveira The Canadian PressThere was $1.3 million raised for high-fidelity wireless speakers, almost $1.2 million for specialty drones and $820,000 for smart-bikes.

In 2014, three tiny Canadian companies went from teetering in obscurity to making headlines on tech blogs around the world thanks to successful crowdfunding campaigns that spurred exponential growth almost overnight.

Once the domain of hobbyists and tinkerers, crowdfunding is increasingly becoming a growth strategy for real — but still small — companies with big ideas.

“An older paradigm about crowdfunding was four guys in their garage who couldn’t find money any other way,” said Steve Tam, a marketing manager with Indiegogo Canada.

Bar business owner launches class-action lawsuit against Beer Store and LCBO

The Beer Store is one target of a new class-action lawsuit launched by a Burlington pub owner

Torstar News Service
A Burlington bar owner has launched a proposed $1.4-billion class-action lawsuit against the LCBO and Beer Store over a secret “conspiracy” to limit competition.

David Hughes, owner of The Poacher, is taking the legal action on behalf of beer-drinking Canadians, according to his notice of action, filed in the Ontario Superior Court on Friday.

“The action arises from a conspiracy to fix, raise, maintain or stabilize prices of beer in Ontario,” the notice reads.

“During the conspiracy period, the defendants participated in illegal and secretive discussions and made agreement relating to prices and distribution areas of beer in Ontario,” it continues.

The allegations have not been proved in court.

Tim Hortons Become Restaurant Brand International

Mohamed Omar | Huff
With the spontaneity of a newlywed couple, Tim Hortons and Burger King have gone and created a new parent company.

Restaurant Brands International will be the name of the new company that houses the two just-hitched firms, according to a press release. RBI will be based in Oakville, Ont. and oversee 18,000 restaurants operating in 100 countries.

The name won't be creeping up on Canadians, though. Restaurant Brands International will only serve as the corporate name, according to Global News.

Tim Hortons will remain "an independent, iconic Canadian brand," said Marc Caira, president and CEO of Tim Hortons Inc, "but with significant opportunities to accelerate our brand development around the world."