ForestEthics Advocacy — a spin-off of ForestEthics, which is a registered charity — released a shareholder analysis conducted using Bloomberg statistics that found 71 per cent of all companies operating in the Fort McMurray, Alta., area are not Canadian.

Of the remaining companies that are headquartered in Canada, many are largely foreign-owned, the group says. For instance, while Husky Energy is a Calgary-based company, 91 per cent of it is owned by foreigners, most notably Hong Kong billionaire Li Ka-shing.  Read More…

Courtesy of Balance Junkie

I haven’t written a Bulls vs. Bears post in a while. Given the tremendous stock market run from the end of last year through the end of the first quarter of this year, it seems like a good time to assess the current position of the markets. I recently read two articles which, on the surface, appear to make inverse arguments.

One article says that stocks are the place to be even if the global economy slows. The other makes the case for historically low stock market returns over the next decade – whether the economy recovers or not. I think there may be more common ground here than a first glance would indicate. Let’s take a look at each argument and see if we can draw any conclusions.  Read More…

The loonie traded as high as $1.0204 before easing back to close at $1.0194, a gain of 3/10ths of a cent from Thursday’s close.

Data from the Bank of Canada show that the last time the loonie topped $1.02 was September 16, 2011.  Read More…

Courtesy of Balance Junkie

As much as we love our long weekends, the longstanding complaint is gas prices will go up and the weather will be lousy.

True to Murphy’s law, gas prices jumped up prior to the Easter long weekend. We were on holidays driving south to Salt Lake City where prices in the US also jumped.  As we were driving, even I jumped on the bandwagon asking my wife why gasoline prices always went up before long weekends.  My wife replied “So they really go up before a long weekend?  How do you really know?  do you have some statistics?”  Read More…

The system has grown over the decades to include a host of provisions, tax avoidance language and credits that provide tax relief for particular groups of Canadians, ranging from parents to volunteer firefighters. Helping people navigate that system has become big business.  Read More…

Courtesy of Balance Junkie

It’s almost Easter and many of us have thoughts of eggs and baskets running through our heads. Everyone’s looking forward to enjoying a little chocolate and some quality time with family and friends. In terms of finance, however, we often speak of eggs and baskets in the context of diversification.

Diversification means spreading your investments among asset classes that are less correlated with one another. You can put some of your money in stocks, some in bonds, commodities or real estate. The idea, of course, is that if one asset class is hit with a large decline the others will either rise or stay the same, cushioning the blow to your overall portfolio.  Read More…

On the plus side, imagine filling out a return that consists of a single sheet of paper or web page. Simply total up taxable earnings and multiply by a single rate that is applicable to all people regardless of income level to determine how much you owe. That, in essence, is a flat tax system.  Read More…

For the first time, its BlackBerry is no longer the top selling smartphone in the country, according to data compiled by research firm IDC and Bloomberg.

Apple’s wildly popular iPhone device took the top spot for 2011 with sales of 2.85 million devices in Canada, easily beating BlackBerry sales that totaled 2.08 million.

It marks the first time that the BlackBerry has not been the top-selling smartphone in Canada since its introduction.  Read More…

February existing home sales in Canada grew by 1.4% from a month earlier, Canadian Real Estate Association data showed on Thursday.

Sales had fallen 4.5% in January from December.

The industry group said sales were up 8.6% from a year earlier, compared with a 4% gain in January. The annual numbers were not seasonally adjusted.

The national average home price rose 2% on a year-over-year basis to $372,763 in February, compared with a 1.2% gain in January.  Read More…

Her business, which uses technology to support interactive meetings and conferences, has just three full-time employees. So she wanted something that was easy to set up and understand, a plan that would cover a wide range of medical expenses and offered the firm certainty of costs.

What she ended up choosing was not an insurance plan at all, but a private health services plan (PHSP).

“This was an alternative way of providing a benefit that was very straightforward and very transparent,” she says. “It’s a good compromise with a minimum of hassle.”