Invest in Canada

Harper Government has Launched $1-Billion Clean Energy Fund, Invests in New Technology, Creates Jobs

Canada will further demonstrate its leadership in the development and advancement of clean energy technologies thanks to the launch of the $1-billion Clean Energy Fund, announced in May by the Honourable Lisa Raitt, Minister of Natural Resources, during an address to the University of Alberta.
“By investing in the Clean Energy Fund, our Government is encouraging [...]

‘Boring is cool’ for Canadian banks

In any other industry at any other time, trying to build an ad campaign around stability would send shudders through marketing mavens. But there has never been a better time to be a stodgy Canadian banker.
“I guess boring is cool and Canada is cool,” said Jim Little, chief brand officer with Royal Bank of Canada, [...]

Is Canada’s housing market tanking or taking off?

The Canadian housing market is beginning to look like a large jumbled puzzle. A week after a report showed the price of an average house had soared to a record high, an alternate report suggested Wednesday prices have in fact declined for five consecutive months.
Both sources are respectable, and their data accurate. But different methodology [...]

Alberta aims to revive natural gas industry

The government of Alberta, sideswiped by the recession and depressed natural gas prices, is stepping up its efforts to resuscitate drilling and compete against massive supplies of shale gas from British Columbia and the United States.
Premier Ed Stelmach’s government is expected on Thursday to extend royalty breaks on natural gas production. Observers also believe the [...]

Investing in Canada: 3 Top Stocks to Buy Now

I’ll say it right up front: investing in Canada is one of my top five-year investing themes.
The Canadian dollar is cheap (in PPP terms) versus the U.S. dollar. Canada’s banks are strong and more conservative than ours and its government is conservative and sensible. And unlike the United States, Canada is an energy exporter. In [...]

Alberta’s oil sands show signs of life

Unlimited overtime pay was just one of the many perks John Halbauer enjoyed as a welder during Alberta’s super-sized energy boom.
That’s disappeared, along with 11 of the 25-year-old’s 13 co-workers who got laid-off in January. “I was worried. I didn’t know if I was going to have to move back home or what,” the Kimberley, [...]

Condo resales are on a roll

The new-condo market may be just starting to warm up again but the resale market is hot. Units in highly sought after areas are drawing multiple offers and selling quickly.

The new-condo market may be just starting to warm up again but the resale market is hot, according to May statistics from the Toronto Real Estate [...]

Pace of economic decline is slowing – Economy improving

The outlook for the economy continues to improve, based on Statistics Canada’s leading indicator.
The statistics gathering agency said Wednesday the pace of decline in its leading indicator index slowed sharply in May to just 0.1 per cent. That marked the smallest of nine consecutive declines, Statistics Canada said.
In fact, the month-over-month change – from a [...]

RBC predicts recession will end next quarter

Royal Bank of Canada has become the first of the country’s major banks to officially predict the recession will end in the third quarter as fiscal and monetary stimuli begin to heal the economy.
With housing resales up, manufacturing declines slowing and the third quarter just two weeks away, Canada can look forward to better times [...]

Flaherty sees U.S. deficit as biggest threat to recovery

The biggest risk to Canada’s economic recovery is not the rising dollar or climbing oil prices, but the burgeoning U.S. deficit, Finance Minister Jim Flaherty said at the close of the Group of Eight finance ministers meeting.
Although Canada is showing signs of renewed economic life and better consumer confidence, Mr. Flaherty said “I worry about [...]