three wise monkeys

Electricity, public transit and household goods and services to cost more by year’s end
May 29, 2008 04:30 AM
Romina Maurino
THE CANADIAN PRESS

Consumers feeling the impact of high oil prices at the pumps may be in for new headaches this year as soaring energy prices drive up the cost of everything from airline tickets to dry cleaning, couriers and diapers.

High oil prices, which have already boosted the price of gasoline, fertilizers and food, may hit Canadians in new areas, according to economists.

An initial wave of increases could expand to the price of public transportation as well as household goods and services as diverse as home-cleaning services and diapers, said Adrienne Warren, an economist at Scotiabank.

“Through the summer and into the fall, we’ll probably see increasing pressures on a wider range of goods outside of transportation such as air fares and train fares, to consumers goods in your grocery stores and your department stores.”

These “rely on distribution and manufacturing that are energy-intensive and that will put more pressure on the retailers to pass the costs that they’re facing on to the consumers,” Warren said.

While the price of a big-screen TV is unlikely to change because such electronics are often manufactured outside of Canada and benefit from the strong loonie, services such as dry cleaning, carpet cleaning, car rentals and couriers could all increase.

“A large part of their costs comes from transportation, going from home to home, or energy use,” she said.

Yesterday, Dow Chemical Co. became the latest company to announce price increases because of the high cost of energy. The Michigan company, which makes chemical, plastic and agricultural products, said it had seen a fourfold increase in the price of raw materials over the last six years.

Dow’s announcement came a day after Nova Scotia Power said it applied for a rate increase of just under 12 per cent. The province’s electric utility said it needed the extra money to cover soaring fuel prices.

Earlier this month, Air Canada and WestJet imposed domestic fuel surcharges that would add $90 a round-trip for flights of more than 1,601.6 kilometres each way.

Also, Kimberly-Clark Corp. said it would raise prices for its Huggies diapers, Pull-Ups training pants, Cottonelle and Scott bathroom tissue, Viva towels and Kleenex facial tissue by as much as 8 per cent.

But it’s still too early to be stockpiling any goods just yet, TD economist Craig Alexander maintained.

“Up to this point, we really haven’t seen the traditional pass-through that has been characteristic during previous oil price shocks,” he said. “Markets have been very competitive, and so as a result, businesses have not been willing to pass along the end result to the consumer.”

Doug Porter, a senior economist at the Bank of Montreal, said inflation on consumer goods has thus far been “relatively limited.”

“For some of the price increases to stick, you’d need solid underlying economic momentum, which I don’t think is a given in Canada, and certainly not in the U.S. over the next year,” Porter said.

“But we’re at risk, if oil prices continue moving higher, of it becoming a little bit more of a serious inflation risk.”

Source: The Toronto Star

Many stores in the U.S. are limiting bulk sales of some kinds of the grain as supply fears leap

Apr 24, 2008 04:30 AM
Dana Flavelle
business reporter

In another sign the global food crisis is hitting North American consumers, Wal-Mart Stores Inc. says it is limiting sales of some kinds of rice at many Sam’s Club warehouse-style stores in the United States due to “recent supply and demand trends.”

Sam’s Club customers can buy up to four bags of jasmine, basmati and other white long-grain rices, Wal-Mart said yesterday.
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Canadians can expect to pay more at grocery stores as higher feed costs advance through the food chain

Apr 25, 2008 04:30 AM
Dana Flavelle
business reporter

Canadian consumers can expect to see more price hikes in food amid global shortages of basic grains and soaring fuel costs, more food industry executives are warning.

“These are stunningly challenging and unique times,” Michael McCain, president and chief executive officer of Maple Leaf Foods Inc., said at the company’s annual meeting in Toronto yesterday.
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Health Canada expected to label chemical they contain – bisphenol A – a dangerous substance

Apr 15, 2008 08:15 PM
Brenda Bouw
THE CANADIAN PRESS

VANCOUVER–Three of Canada’s major retailers said today they are pulling plastic water and baby bottles that contain the controversial chemical bisphenol A, in anticipation of Health Canada labelling it a dangerous substance.
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Mar 31, 2008 04:30 AM
Martin Knelman

STRATFORD

A recent cover of The New Yorker magazine depicted Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton sharing a bed, both drowsily reaching for the same fabled red phone at 3 a.m. The image gave one hilarious answer to the question of who would be better equipped to handle the ultimate crisis call. Why couldn’t they share ultimate responsibility at the White House?

Almost as ludicrous, it strikes me, was the notion that several people could share the job of artistic director of the Stratford Festival. But that is what the festival announced, in 2006, with no joke intended.
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New research into inter-ethnic unions suggests we’re reverting to a less romantic idea of marriage

Mar 15, 2008 04:30 AM
Nicholas Keung
Immigration/Diversity Reporter

I grew up in a traditional Chinese household, where I was taught my future life partner must have an equal, if not better, upbringing than mine. That mentality is embedded in the ancient saying, “A bamboo door should match a bamboo door; a wood door should match a wood door.” Essentially, what it means is you have to marry someone in the same social class if you want the relationship to last.

The Chinese are not alone in this worldview. Many Indians are still bound by caste and the arranged unions that flow from it. And acute class-consciousness is a persistent feature of British identity.
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It’s all academic in the census tract with highest percentage of well-educated people

Mar 14, 2008 04:30 AM
Leslie Ferenc
Staff Reporter

What scientific theory did James Hutton pioneer in his 1795 book Theory of the Earth?

Time’s up. Don’t know?
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Wed, March 12, 2008
By MARY-JANE EGAN, SUN MEDIA

For 25 years, a London microbiologist has been trying to convince a dubious world that some bacteria are good for you.

“This is why we’re alive, because we have bugs in the gut that keep us alive,” says Gregor Reid, a professor of microbiology at the University of Western Ontario.
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Wed, March 12, 2008
By HANK DANISZEWSKI, SUN MEDIA

The slogan is Good things Grow in Ontario.

But finding those good Ontario-grown products in your supermarket is getting tougher.

The rising value of the Canadian dollar means food manufacturers find it easier to go global when they buy and process products.
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By Oliver Whitehead

The Harper government’s latest move to deny support to film and television programming that it deems offensive is an assault on the values of civilization.

As such, of course, it is nothing new; the Harper Conservatives have merely taken their modest place in a long but dismal line of authority figures whose fear and suspicion of the power of creativity has stifled the expression of original ideas for centuries.
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