August 2006 Edition
TRANSPORTATION
According to Statistics Canada, Canada's transportation sector posted strong growth for the second consecutive year in 2005 as economic activity in three major modes (trucking, rail and aviation) increased substantially. More than one third (35 per cent) of the GDP generated by the sector came from trucking. Air, water and rail transportation combined contributed another 25 per cent. The remainder was generated by transit and pipeline industries. Air transportation experienced the fastest growth in economic output. Last year, the approximately 3,360 for hire trucking companies had revenues of C$27-billion.
BOOMING
Alberta has run short of steel, concrete and lumber as its unprecedented construction boom gathers momentum. The latest crisis is a dire shortage of portable toilets. Across the province, orders for portable commodes are backing up as residential and commercial construction sites, particularly in Calgary, corner available supplies, leaving latecomers such as outdoor entertainment festivals scrambling.
TAGS
Radio frequency identification (RFID) tags are still too expensive to use to track individual goods such as toothpaste tubes or soup cans. The small electronic tags store information that can be read when they pass within a few centimetres, or a few metres depending on the type of tag, of a reader. Currently, tags cost around 20 cents each but the ultimate dream of the RFID industry is to tag every item in a store, replacing product bar codes. It is estimated that these costs could be below 5 cents by 2010.
EXPORTS
The first quarter of this year saw Canada's exports to Mexico surge by 58 per cent to C$950-million. Two promising niches are parts for assembly operations and Canadian beef. It is projected that the value of exports of beef to Mexico in 2006 will be C$430-million. The cumulative annual growth rate of Canadian exports to Mexico since NAFTA went into effect in 1993 has been 12-per cent.
TRAFFIC
Every single day, 2.5-million people now fly through the airspace directly over metropolitan Paris. equivalent to about a quarter of its population.
DEBT
The average American college student graduated this year with more than US$19,000 in debt. Some graduates are now leaving college with student loan debt in the six figures. The rise in unmanageable debt has raised concerns that many graduates won't be able to pursue careers in fields that have traditionally paid modest salaries, such as teachers.
TRENDS
A Michigan company has developed gas pump viewing and has been testing the service for several months in Dallas with TV monitors installed above gas pumps that show short clips of news, weather and traffic, and, of course, advertising. This fall, the company plans to expand the program to a total of 100 gas stations in Dallas, Houston and Atlanta. Programs are tailored to the average length of time it takes to fill up with gas, about four minutes.
TOURISM
Last year, spending in Canada by business and leisure travellers totalled C$61.4-billion. More than 31-million non-residents travelled to Canada in 2005, spending almost 18-billion while Canadians spent $43.5-billion on domestic travel. Canada's tourism industry generates tax revenues estimated at almost $16-billion for all levels of government. The industry employs 625,600 people and a million more depend on the sector indirectly for their livelihood. Tourism is the world's largest industry in 2006 and is expected to generate US$6.5-trillion of economic activity.
PORTS
A new container port on Canada's West Coast is expected to open next year. The facility in Prince Rupert, B.C. will have an eventual capacity of 1.2-million TUEs (20-foot equivalent units). The first phase of the project, which could provide capacity of up to 750,000 TEUs, should be completed by October, 2007.
BRAZIL
Between 2002 and 2005, Brazilian exports to Africa rose by 153-per cent and imports from Africa by 149-per cent. With the Middle East the increases were 84-per cent and 75-per cent respectively and with Asia 111-per cent in both cases. The total value of Brazil's exports to these regions rose from US$13.4-billion to $28.8-billion while imports increased from $12.1-billion to $26-billion. Total exports virtually doubled from $60.3-billion to $118.3-billion.
IMAGE
Chinese cities have been ordered to put back their cycle lanes in the hope of restoring the nation's image as the land of the bicycle. However, Beijing's most popular statistics is that the city sells 1,000 cars every day. Its least popular statistic is that the length of time it takes to reach any given destination has doubled in 10 years. The government is also considering following London's lead and introducing congestion charges to cut traffic.
DIAMONDS
The export of diamonds from Canada's Northwest Territories has surged to almost three times what it was in 1999, the first year of production. In 2005, diamond exports from the area were worth C$1.7-billion, twice the value in 2002. The main destination for Canada's diamonds are the United kingdom and Belgium. In 2004, Canada was third in the world in terms of production value and sixth in terms of value. It trailed only Botswana and Russia in terms of value.
HEALTH
During the last 20 years, the total number of people with diabetes worldwide has risen from 30-million to 230-million and is expected to reach 350-million by 2025. China and India now have the most diabetes sufferers in the world. Today, out of the top ten countries with diabetes, seven are developing countries.
BEAUTY
Research in the U.S. indicates that more men are turning to teeth whitening and fake tans to improve their appearance on their wedding day. Of those surveyed, 42-per cent of men planned to diet before the wedding, while 12-per cent aimed to get their teeth whitened and eight per cent wanted a fake tan. Among brides-to-be, 72-per cent planned to diet, 27-per cent wanted their teeth whitened and 60-per cent wanted a fake tan. The average couple planned to spend US$22,000 on their wedding day.
HIGHWAYS
A congestion-beating project has been launched in Britain that could lead to some of the UK's 14,500 kilometres of disused railway being paved with rubber. The flexible highways are made of panels of shredded car tires laid over existing tracks. This project will provide a use for some of the estimated 50-million tires disposed of in the UK each year.
RECREATION
The national average price for a Canadian waterfront recreational property reached C$380,507 this spring. A survey has found that a quarter of Canadians are willing to pay more for recreational property than their homes. The desire for a waterfront paradise is so strong that the average price for a cottage has topped the national average price for a two-storey house by $40,000.
COFFEE
A Panamanian specialty coffee, a rare variety of the geisha plant strain, recently sold for US$50.25 a pound. At over 50 times the price of standard beans, the geisha beat the previous record of $49.75 a pound held by a Brazilian bean. Last year, beans from the same farm sold for $20.00 a pound.
AGING
In 2003\2004 there were 1,941 homes for the aged in Canada. Nearly 103,500 women lived in these homes compared with just under 42,400 men. Homes for the aged alone generated C$9-billion in revenue The cost for each resident to live in a home for the aged amounted to $50,126 a year on average, or $136.76 a day.
ALTITUDE
Rising more than 5,000 metres above sea level, China's newest railway line will be the highest ever built. It is so high that some luxury railcars will be outfitted with oxygen masks for the uppermost elevations. The line will run 1,100 kilometres from Golmud in Qinghai province to Lhasa, capital of Tibet.
LUXURY
Construction has begun on the latest Cunard "queen" liner, the Queen Victoria. Two months before, the cruise-line company began selling tickets for the ship's maiden voyage, set for early 2008. The opulent vessel will feature a 6,000 book library, a three-storey theatre and a two-deck ballroom. She will sail with a crew of 900 to look after 2,000 passengers.
VALUE
According to the American Nursery and Landscape Association research that it sponsored indicates that lush, well-planned landscaping can increase a home's value by 7 to 15 per cent.
COOLERS
Sales of coolers to traditional female consumers are stalling and the liquor industry has been forced to turn its attention to heavier-drinking young men to keep the cooler category growing. Women still account for nearly 60 per cent of the C$587-million worth of coolers sold in Canada last year but have been turning to martinis and other mixed drinks.
FEES
According to the European Commission, credit and debit card fees are pushing up retail prices by as much as 2.5 per cent in some EU markets. Depending on where customers live in the EU, they could pay double in annual fees for Visa and Mastercard. The findings are part of an ongoing EU investigation into competition in the financial services sector. If card providers have breached the EU law they can be fined. bank fees also vary widely across the EU.
VINEYARDS
England is now home to more than 350 vineyards covering 2,300 acres and the amount of land used for wine-growing is expected to rise by almost half as much again by 2010. Warmer weather and the success of sparkling wines have contributed to the boom which has attracted the attention of vintners from France to California who are looking for investment opportunities.
LOGS
In British Columbia the export of raw logs is equated with the loss of jobs. Those exports have increased more than 10-fold over the past ten years. Log exports, primarily to the U.S., hit a record 4.77-million cubic metres in 2005, up from 3.55-million metres in 2004. A cubic metre is approximately the volume of wood in one telephone pole.
MONEY
For the millions of Americans without bank accounts, prepaid cards, also called stored-value cards could be the next-best thing. Prepaid cards can be loaded with money and used as a debit card, but without a bank account. While credit-card growth has stagnated in recent years, the prepaid market is booming. It is estimated that the dollar volume of prepaid cards, US$126-billion last year, will top $470-billion by 2010.
MEDITATION
During soccer's recent World Cup, Buddhist monks In Cambodia who are normally not allowed to watch television, movies or artistic displays, were allowed to watch the games on television providing they did not bet on the games nor cheer or scream.
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