In this edition:
GNCC webinar on Working for Workers Act
Industrial raw material prices up 37%
Port Colborne business service squad receives new grant
Fort Erie community benefit fund will go to affordable housing
Toronto index set for biggest weekly drop since March 2020
GNCC webinar on Working for Workers Act
Industrial raw material prices up 37%
Prices of products manufactured in Canada, as measured by the Industrial Product Price Index (IPPI), rose by 1.7% month over month in May and by 15.0% compared with May 2021. Prices of raw materials purchased by manufacturers operating in Canada, as measured by the Raw Materials Price Index (RMPI), increased 2.5% on a monthly basis in May and posted a 37.4% year-over-year increase.
Higher prices for energy and petroleum products (+10.7%) led the gain in the IPPI‘s monthly increase. This commodity group has been rising since January 2022 and prices are 78.5% higher than in May 2021. Motor gasoline (+14.6%) and diesel fuel (+10.9%) drove the monthly gain in this group. Tight supplies of refined petroleum products, along with higher prices for crude oil, played a role in these price increases.
The monthly gain in raw material prices was mostly due to higher prices for crude energy products (+8.6%). The price for conventional crude oil rose 8.9% in May, following a decline of 7.6% in April. Year over year, conventional crude oil was 82.2% higher in May. Uncertainty about supply continued to put upward pressure on prices, on both a month-over-month and year-over-year basis.
Port Colborne business service squad receives new Digital Main Street grant
A $50,000 grant from the Digital Main Street program will allow Port Colborne’s digital service squad to continue helping small businesses over the next two years.
“Since wrapping up the Digital Main Street program in Feb. 2022, we are very thankful to receive this new funding,” said Gary Long, manager of strategic initiatives. “It gives the economic development and tourism services division an opportunity to keep promoting the benefits of digital transformation through to 2024.”
Brick-and-mortar small businesses in Port Colborne with an interest in Digital Main Street can start the process by visiting www.portcolborne.ca/digitalmainstreet. Follow-up meetings, which are being conducted virtually at this time, will be set up by the city’s DSS member, Tianna Thomas. The Digital Main Street program will run in Port Colborne until March 31, 2024.
Fort Erie community benefit fund will go to affordable housing
As part of the development on 7 Central Avenue, the Town of Fort Erie (TOFE) and Compass Heights Development Ltd. (CHD) have entered into a Community Benefits Agreement pursuant to Section 37 of the Planning Act, which is of mutual benefit to both parties.
The Town of Fort Erie will receive a cash contribution of $190,000 from Compass Heights Development Ltd. The funds will be allocated to a dedicated account by the Town to fund a future Community Improvement Plan for affordable housing. In turn, CHD can successfully increase the height to a 12-storey building, adding 30 additional mixed-use units.
Toronto index set for biggest weekly drop since March 2020
Canada’s main stock was set for its biggest weekly drop since the pandemic-driven market rout in March 2020, even as gains in healthcare and technology firms lifted the market on Friday.
At 9:48 a.m. ET (13:48 GMT), the Toronto Stock Exchange’s S&P/TSX composite index was up 150.68 points, or 0.79%, at 19,154.74, with all the sub-sectors trading higher.
The index was recovering after a brutal selloff on Thursday on fears that aggressive interest rate hikes from major central banks could trigger a recession. For the week, it has lost 5.8%.
Reading Recommendations
Distressed deals pile up in Canada’s once-booming housing market
BNN Bloomberg
Zohal Habibi hadn’t even moved into her new home in the suburbs of Toronto when she started regretting the purchase. “We took a very bad decision,” she says.
It’s not about the house itself. She and her husband are excited about the extra space it’ll give them and their two young kids. The problem is the price they agreed to pay for the three-bedroom home in March: $920,000 (US$711,000).
Not long after, prices started to slide, and quickly. By the time their lender got around to appraising the house in May, it marked the value down to $800,000. A second appraisal a few weeks later was even grimmer — $740,000.
Legally bound to the deal but no longer able to obtain a big enough loan to go through with it, the couple pleaded with the seller to nudge down the price. On Thursday, they closed at $810,000. “We didn’t know that the market would crash,” Habibi says.
Through the Daily Updates, the GNCC aims to deliver important business news in a timely manner. We disseminate all news and information we feel will be important to businesses. Inclusion in the Daily Update is not an endorsement by the GNCC.
