We’ve been here before so we’re going to find some things that are new. That’s the gist of a message from business advisor Rick McPartlin. It is pretty much a universal one these days. We saw a provincial government issue half of a budget – just …
Paul Martin Saskatchewan
Economic forecast isn’t pretty
This is the time when the banks start to issue their forecasts for the provincial economy for the final quarter of the year. The first out of the gate is RBC Royal Bank - their narrative is not especially pretty for Saskatchewan. Saskatchewan, the …
We Sure Showed Them
Residents of this province delivered something of a protest over the carbon tax in June by parking their cars. Retail sales figures for the month came out on Friday, one of those reports that captures a lot of attention because it is a nation-wide …
Banner Month for Wholesale Sector
Although we’ve been seeing some signs suggesting a showdown or, perhaps even a recession, there are also signs pointing in exactly the opposite direction. A case in point is the wholesale community. This is also often a bellwether for where the …
Manufacturing Hits a Wall
Now that the country – indeed the world is in recession watch after a momentary brush with an inverted yield curve – we are looking at every indicator out there to see if it offers a signal about where things are headed. The latest big metric to …
What’s it Going to Be? TFSA or RRSP
We’ve got them but we’re not especially sure how to use them. That’s the basic finding of a new retirement preparation survey conducted for RBC Royal Bank. It says more Canadians now have TFSAs than RRSPs but a big percentage of those with the …
They are Not Quite Equal
Anti-fossil fuel advocates like to say this country should dump the petroleum sector in favor of alternative energy production but they don’t talk about the thousands who would be left on the outside looking in. A new report from StatsCan has …
Is a Recession in the Cards?
When the stock market had a one day swoon, dropping roughly one percent on something called the inverted yield curve in the US, all the talk was about a recession. The decline was over in a day and no American recession yet. But why the …
Residential permits buck trend
This might sound a little out of the ordinary, but Saskatchewan in June posted one of the higher increases in the value of residential permits issued across the country. We have generally been in negative territory on this particular indicator …
Trudeau joins growing parade
Our Prime Minister has joined a small but tarnished group of powerful people who have some explaining to do about the way they conduct themselves. For the second time, Justin Trudeau has run afoul of the ethics commissioner in this country. The …
