JULY 1995 Editon
DUTIES
From 13 June, allowances for residents returning to
Canada were increased as follows:
* $20 exemption,
available after a 24 hour absence, is increased to $50.
* $100 exemption for
absences of at least 48 hours is doubled to $200.
* Seven-day exemption
increases from $300 to $500 and the once a year restriction on the seven-day
exemption is eliminated.
Raising the exemption limits supports the objectives of
the Canada-United States Accord on Our Shared Border, which aims to
permit travellers to easily cross the Canada-U.S. border while freeing
resources to better focus on anti-smuggling initiatives. These and other
changes will allow Revenue Canada to focus more on processing commercial
importations from the U.S. which have increased by 43 per cent since 1992.
CANADIAN TIRE
In January we reported that Canadian Tire Corp, was
pulling out of the U.S. for the second time and closing its 10 Auto Source
stores. Now the company has announced major expansion plans for Canada. It
expects to create 2,000 jobs in the next three years and open 240 new stores
nationwide. Some "new-format" stores are already open. Though they
specialize in home, sport, leisure and auto products, the wide aisles in the
new stores are also stocked with tapes, videos, compact discs, footwear and
clothing. In some stores, Canadian Tire has plans to introduce greenhouses and
doughnut and coffee shops. There will be an additional 75 to 100 employees at
each store compared with the regular ones to boost customer service.
ADVERTISING
A recent survey suggests the best way to disseminate
product information remains old-fashioned word of mouth, and it's a lot
cheaper. A survey of 2,005 adults found that the majority, 67 per cent, relied
most for product purchase information on talking to friends, family and
colleagues. The next most popular source of information was newspapers followed
by, in order of importance, flyers, magazine ads, TV commercials, radio and
junk mail. So-called new media, such as ads on Internet, other on-line services
and home shopping influenced only 5 per cent of respondents.
STEVIA
This metre-high bush is native to Paraguay. Its leaves
are 300 times sweeter than table sugar, easy to use and it will not break down
during baking. It will last for decades on pantry shelves and is completely
free of calories. These qualities and the promise of an all-natural,
all-purpose sweetener, have made stevia a hot research-and-development item in
Canada. It is now being bred and grown by Agriculture Canada in Southern
Ontario. The object is to develop a hybrid stevia that will turn into a
high-profit substitute crop for the region's increasingly beleaguered tobacco
farmers. If the plant does not take in Ontario, there are places in Nova Scotia
and B.C where it can be easily grown and the dried leaves are selling for $5 to
$6 a kilogram. Since the 1970s, the Chinese have been cultivating the plant for
the growing Japanese market which buys $200 million annually for use in food
and drinks.
GAS PUMPS
A federal document shows that 13 per cent of gasoline
pumps tested across Canada last year did not meet government accuracy
standards. The most mistake-prone pumps were in Atlantic Canada, where 20 per
cent of those tested displayed the wrong volume. Ontario pumps scored best with
an error rate of 9 per cent. The error rate was 19 per cent in Quebec, 13 per
cent in the Prairies and 11 per cent in the Pacific region.
THE MARINES
The U.S. Marine Corps' advanced concepts development unit
has begun experimenting with Wal-Mart's computerized distribution techniques to
enable field commanders to order supplies directly from offshore cargo ships.
The military's fascination with the Wal-Mart chain came after military planners
noticed that its stores seemed to stay well-stocked without huge "back-room"
warehouses.
FERRIES
Over the last 35 years the B.C. Ferries fleet has grown
from two ships to 40, making it one of the largest and most sophisticated ferry systems in the world. Last year the
fleet carried more than 22 million passengers, a 3.9 per cent increase over
1993. 8.4 million vehicles-representing a two-per-cent increase- used the
ferries last year. The busiest route was the Swartz Bay-Tsawwassen route with
6.3 million passengers and two million vehicles.
TRANSATLANTIC FREE TRADE
The United States has promised to study proposals for a
transatlantic free-trade agreement and pledged that its long-term goal is to
integrate the economies of North America with Europe. The free-trade zone
concept, first floated by Canada last year, has been backed by Britain and
Germany and is now the subject of a study by the 15-nation European Union.
Economic ties between the United States and Europe are already enormous with
Europe accounting for almost half of the foreign revenues of American firms.
MERCHANDISING
Licensing may have its frivolous moments but it is a
serious business. Sales of licensed merchandise in Canada and the United States
hit $70 billion (U.S.) last year, up five per cent from 1993. The hit products
so far this year include Casper and Batman Forever as well as the
1994 The Lion King. In fact, Pizza Hut sold out of Casper puppets weeks
before its promotion was scheduled to end on July 1. And some McDonald's
restaurants sold out of Batman drinking glasses just days after a major promotion
began. But for every success there is a failure. Amy, the doll from the current
movie Congo, was described by experts as being "dead on
arrival" when she hit store shelves. And merchandise for Waterworld,
the film that has received so much negative publicity about its out-of-control
budget, is also being cut back. Retailers also got burned last year with too
much Flintstones merchandise.
CALL CENTRES
Following the lead of New Brunswick and Manitoba, the
Quebec government has announced it will drop the provincial sales tax for
telephone call centres to attract companies. Call centres employ people to
service telephone lines taking calls on 1-800 numbers in areas such as
catalogue sales. Two Montreal-area colleges will offer training courses
starting in August to train agents for call centres. About 250,000 call-centre
jobs are expected to be created in North America every year for the next five
years. The sector currently employs 35,000 in Quebec. Meanwhile, the largest
hotel franchise in the U.S. is setting up a trial customer reservation centre
in Saint John, N.B. The government is giving $600,000 to Hospitality Franchise
Systems Inc to cover startup costs. But the company must refund the money if it
doesn't create 100 full-time jobs within two years. The government reckons the
money will be recouped in three years just on provincial income tax alone, not
counting the sales tax, property tax or the licence for cars etc. The company
receives more than 30 million calls annually at its six existing reservation
centres in the U.S.
WORKERS' COMPENSATION
Canada has some of the most generous workers'
compensation benefits in the world but its premiums aren't the most expensive.
Systems in Canada are less expensive than those in Australia, France, Britain
and the Netherlands but more costly than in Japan, Germany, Switzerland and the
United States. Workers' compensation costs Canadians an estimated $7.5 billion
a year, of which $2.2 billion is spent on health care and rehabilitation and
the rest on benefits and pensions to injured workers. Each year, about 1.2
million Canadians are injured at work, though most do not lose time as a
result. 75 per cent of injured workers are back on the job within six weeks.
MINING
British Columbia's mining industry got some relief in
1994 as soaring copper prices and a depressed Canadian dollar helped the
industry to its first profitable year since 1989. Total profits from the
province's 20 operating mines and single smelter reached $192 million for 1994,
up from a loss of $14 million in 1993. Spending on early-stage exploration
activity totalled $10 million in 1994, marginally up from 1993. Total
exploration and development spending rose 18 per cent to $46 million much of it
devoted to advanced projects. The industry rebound was helped by the reopening
of three B.C. copper mines, closed because of the weak dollar. Three more small
ones are expected to open in 1995
PETS
Petstuff Inc. a U.S. superstore of Roswell, Georgia which
moved into the Toronto area only last fall, is closing all four pet supply
superstores and laying off 100 employees. The decision comes on the heels of
Petstuff's takeover by another U.S. pet superstore chain, Petsmart of Phoenix,
Arizona. Both chains operate large-scale stores that sell an array of
pet-related products. Like Toys "R" Us and Home Depot, they are
dubbed category killers because they are dominant in one type of product. The
poor performance by Petstuff in Toronto has been blamed on the bad selection of
locations for their stores. But Petsmart, with 186 stores in 24 states, plans
to return to Canada in under a year. One beneficiary is Pet Valu Inc. of
Markham, Ontario which operates 215 pet food stores in Ontario and Manitoba.
SPORTS
Industry experts expect a shakeout in Canada's $3 billion
a year sporting goods field as three category killers face off. The giant
Sports Chek, operated by the Forzani Group of Calgary, is facing stiff
competition from two U.S. giants Sportmart Inc. and Sports Authority Inc. Other
Canadian stores are retreating from the sporting goods business. The T. Eaton
Co. and Sears Canada have both largely abandoned sporting goods at some new or
remodelled outlets which carry only a limited selection of athletic shoes and
licensed apparel. Sears, which derives 2 per cent of sales from sports
merchandise may pull sporting goods from all 110 outlets across the country.
Eatons is also reported as taking a "hard look" at its home audio
departments because of the threat from competitors such as Future Shop Ltd. and
Adventure Electronics Inc.
TECHNOLOGY
A woman was taken ill recently with a collapsed lung over
India on a flight from Hong Kong to Scotland. To land could have been fatal
because of the change in cabin pressure. Two doctors used a British Airways
knife and fork to open her chest, a coat hanger to introduce a catheter and a
pen top and an empty bottle to drain the air pocket that built up. By the end
of the flight she actually ate breakfast. Co-incidently, the same airline has
just announced it is developing a "telemedicine satellite link" to
monitor passengers taken ill. The system will allow doctors on the ground to
monitor vital signs of passengers anywhere in the world via a laptop computer.
Sensors are attached to a sick person and the unit plugs into the aircraft's
satellite communications system via a socket in the seat's arm rest.
ART
In a bid to reduce the boredom of living in the Calgary
Zoo, some paintbrushes were given to a Sri Lankan elephant named Kamala. She is
now gaining international acclaim as an artist and raising much-needed funds
for the zoo. Original Kamalas hang across North America and parts of Europe.
The mostly 45-by-60 centimetre canvases are priced at $400 to $1,500 and about
60 pieces have been sold so far. Prints are available for those who cannot
afford originals.
CELLULARS
Last month, a British businessman who drove at 185
kilometres an hour while using a mobile telephone and reading a map on his
steering wheel was jailed for three months.
In almost a thousand schools in 14 U.S. states,
high-school driver-education classes include training in the safe use of
cellular phones while driving.
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