FEBRUARY 1996 Edition
ISRAEL
Negotiators have reached a tentative agreement on a
free-trade deal between Canada and Israel. The deal, which must be reviewed by
both governments, would eliminate tariffs on all manufactured goods and many agricultural and fish products. The
agreement will enable Canadian companies pursuing business opportunities in
Israel to compete on an equal footing with international competitors. Israel
has such agreements already with the U.S. and the European Union.
COFFEE
Americans are drinking half as much coffee as in the
early 1960s. It has been estimated that U.S. per capita consumption fell 10 per
cent last year after an 8 per cent decline in 1994. Americans drank an average
of 1.7 cups of coffee a day last winter against an average of more than three
cups in the early 1960s. Industry watchers link the downturn to dramatic
fluctuations in retail prices after two bad frosts in Brazil over an 18 month
period. Others cite changes in taste preferences towards colder and sweeter
drinks. One sector that has bucked the trend is the specialty coffee bar. There
were about 200 coffee bars in 1989 and more than 10,000 in 1995.
CROSS-BORDER SHOPPING
According to Statistics Canada, Canadians making shopping
trips to the U.S. fell 2.8 per cent in November from October continuing a three
year trend as the Canadian dollar lost value against its U.S. counterpart.
About 2.926 million Canadians made same-day trips in November, down from 3.01
in October.
TECHNOLOGY VISITS PROGRAM
This innovative program is run by the Canadian
Manufacturers' Association and the National Research Council. Manufacturing
executives can take advantage of this government-industry program which allows
them to visit other plants and exchange information. The aim of the Technology
Visits is to demonstrate new technology and production methods at work in a
real plant and allow executives to gain insight on how they can improve and
enhance their own operations. In the last 18 months, more than 1800 executives
have toured plants across Canada. About 50 visits a year are conducted. More
information may be obtained in B.C. from: Geoff Grover at 685-8131 or
nationally from: John Fenwick at 1-800-798-0201, Ext 294.
WORTH
If employees were aware of the day-to-day worth of doing
their jobs, they would feel more motivated to help their companies succeed,
according to a U.S. study by Ernst & Young. Almost 60 per cent of workers
and 77 per cent of managers in a poll of 1,000 large companies said they would
work harder if they knew how their jobs help the company make money. Only 15
per cent of workers surveyed knew how much it cost either to make a product or
to provide a service for their company. A growing number of companies are
practising "open book management" in which they give financial
information to employees.
SHUTDOWN
According to the Financial Post, the three week U.S.
government shutdown has cost American taxpayers US$400 million in penalties and
lost revenues. This was made up of penalties the government was forced to pay
to hundreds of independent contractors and revenues lost from park fees and
other services which were shut down. The total $1.4 billion tab was accumulated
during a six day period in November that idled about 800,000 workers--and cost
$700 million--and a second two-week hiatus for 260,000 that ran up another $700
million. Ironically, the shutdown delayed plans to lay off several thousand
workers as part of a 10 per cent reduction in the federal payroll which have
now been delayed until February.
AUTOMATION
It stocks shelves, fills prescriptions and even bills
patients automatically. The "Pharmacy Robot"--a new, high-tech
computer system that can stock and retrieve drugs flawlessly in record time is
finding its way into U.S. hospitals. Twenty-five facilities have already
installed it and others are jumping at the chance. The system was developed
around 1990 to ensure accuracy and reduce the possibility of human error. Out
of 30 million prescriptions the robots have filled so far, there have been zero
errors.
AUTOS
Despite a slowdown in the North American automobile
market, the Canadian auto industry built a record 2.38 million vehicles in
1995, a 4.2 per cent increase over the 2.28 million built in 1994. General
Motors led the pack, up 25 per cent to 907,833 thanks largely to strong
production of the Lumina and Monte Carlo. Chrysler was No 2, down 23 per cent
to 538,097, due to an eight-week shutdown. Ford was third, up 8 per cent
producing 533,433 cars and light trucks. Honda produced 106,133 Civics and
Toyota, 90,492 Corollas. CAMI Automotive, a joint venture between GM Canada and
Suzuki, saw production up 15 per cent to 196,630 vehicles.
TECHNOLOGY
In 1991 a farmer cut a fibre-optic cable when burying a
dead cow. He closed four of the Federal Aviation Administration's 30 main
air-traffic control centres for over five hours. A year earlier, a bug in some
AT&T software brought the company's long distance network to a halt for
nine hours. When the Defence Department's cyber-security team attacked 3,000 of
the Pentagon's own computers, only 5 per cent of the people operating the
target systems detected the intrusion.
COLDS
The cold remedy-market was worth $724 million in Canada
in 1995. (Headache remedies $210 million, cold and sinus remedies $257 million,
antihistamines $135 million, non-prescription cough syrups $80 million, nasal
decongestants $16 million and throat lozenges $26 million). This market has
remained stagnant over the past few years as recession-weary consumers reach
more for cheaper private label products such as the Life label at
Shoppers Drug Mart which have swallowed at least 35 per cent of the market. A
U.S. Food and Drug Administration study of over-the-counter cold medications
reported that chicken soup was "as good as anything else in relieving the
symptoms of colds."
CHILE
Chile's entry into the NAFTA is frozen because the U.S.
President lacks "fast-track' approval from Congress to negotiate an
agreement. However, Canada and Chile have agreed to pursue an interim bilateral
free-trade agreement without waiting for participation from Washington. This
could give Canadian companies the jump over U.S. competitors in the
fast-growing Chilean market. Canadian exports to Chile in the first nine months
of 1995 were $265 million and imports were worth $233 million. Planned and
current Canadian investment in Chile totals $7 billion in mining,
telecommunications and other sectors.
JOBS
Human Resources Canada says the place to look for work in
B.C. in 1996 is in community, business and personal services which are forecast
to add 21,000 jobs this year, for a total of 716,000. Another job-growth area
is vaguely called "other-manufacturing' which involves primarily the
high-tech sector which is projected to gain 3,000 jobs for a total of 125,000.
Forestry, wood products and paper, and allied industries will remain relatively
constant with about 105,000 jobs. Public administration which took a big drop
in 1995 will shrink again to about 102,000 jobs. The retail and wholesale trade
will remain flat at about 325,000 jobs.
WHEAT
Despite a temporary transportation shutdown last year,
Canadian wheat exports to China soared to 5.3 million tonnes, the highest level
in three years. This represents an increase of 1.4 million tonnes, or more than
35 per cent, over 1994 levels. Canadian shipments now account for 40 per cent
of all wheat imported by China, making the Chinese the largest single foreign
buyer of Canadian wheat.
Severe drought and
widespread flooding in different parts of China affected 38 per cent of the
country's farmland last year. Despite this, Chinese authorities reported a 1995
grain harvest of 455 million tonnes, up 10 million from the previous year
LUMBER
The bad news is that due to a large unsold inventory,
residential construction had its worst year in three decades with approximately
111,000 housing starts. This is causing everybody from lumber suppliers to
kitchen cabinet makers to review what to do with their excess capacity. The
good news is that some new export markets such as Florida and Texas are being
developed by some suppliers. Also, the Japanese lumber market has made a sharp
turnaround--prices are up 5 to 10 per cent from late 1995 having dropped 20 to
30 per cent earlier in the year which means that B.C. coastal mills can refocus
their attention on that market.
CHARITY
Fewer Canadians gave to charity in 1994 but those that
did gave more. A total of 5.3 million tax filers reported donations to charity,
a figure that has been declining since the mid-eighties. But the total amount
of money given increased to $3.39 billion, $40.4 million more than in 1993 and
up 9 per cent over 1991.
Newfoundlanders, who have the lowest median income at $27,000, had the highest
median donation at $250. Nationally, the median donation was $150 on a median
income of $34,100. British Columbians and Albertans were the second lowest
givers to charity after Quebec. Donors over age 65 gave an average $890, 40 per
cent higher than the Canadian average.
McGROWTH
McDonald's Corp. ended 1995 with record international
growth having opened 1,300 restaurants outside the U.S. with 60,000 new jobs.
751 non-US outlets were opened in 1994. 20 per cent of the openings were in
countries McDonald's were not even in five years ago. 10 more countries were
added in 1995 including Qatar, Honduras and St. Maarten. The others are
Estonia, Romania, Malta, Colombia, Jamaica, Slovakia and South Africa.
McDonald's now has more than 17,400 restaurants in 89 countries worldwide.
MOVIES
Last month we reported that Disney is opening two studios
in Canada. A Toronto production company has now announced that it will build a
$200 million state-of-the-art feature film studio in Charlotte, N.C. largely
because the federal government dithered over the site it really wanted, on an
armed forces base in Toronto which will close this summer. Image Factory
Entertainment is planning to build a 162,000 square-metre studio with 22 sound
stages, four of them the world's biggest and the studio will employ 3,000
people. It is estimated that the annual value of production at the studio will
be $1.5 billion which exceeds the total film and television production revenue
in Canada. The Charlotte facility will surpass Toronto as the third-largest
film and TV production centre in North America.
BABY WATCHERS
Two mothers in San Francisco have created what's believed
to be the world's first video for infants, reports The Examiner. "What do
babies most like to watch on TV? Other babies, of course." Babymugs
features a background of upbeat music and 85 infants doing such varied things
as drooling, lying inert, staring at the screen and falling out of the picture.
Local stores are reportedly selling out of copies.
CORDON BLEU?
* Titles of three new
cookbooks: Butterflies in My Stomach, Unmentionable Cuisine and Entertaining
with Insects.
TRIVIA
* In 1995, the most popular colour in Canada
and the U.S. for most new cars and trucks was white. Dark green ranked No.1
among sport and compact cars.
* In 6,000 BC, at the end of the New Stone
Age, the population of the world was roughly equal to the present-day
population of Canada.
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