KITCHENER —
The thunderstorm may have only lasted a few minutes, but it left hours of work in its path.
After Tuesday night’s storm, Waterloo Region residents and emergency crews were busy Wednesday cleaning up downed trees and damaged property left by the nearly 120 km/h winds that blew through the area.
An 80-foot tall maple tree in front Lara Swift’s Glasgow Street home in Kitchener was split in half, hitting her house before landing on the yard.
“Peeked out the window just in time to see the top of this giant tree just go,” she said. “It was loud, loud and intense, I was really worried it was going to go through the roof.”
The tree shattered a window and damaged part of Swift’s roof. She estimates cleanup will take a while.
“All the neighbours got out with their chainsaws and cut up all the big branches and pulled them off the road,” Swift said.
Part of the tree still stands on her neighbour’s lawn.
Some Kitchener residents were shocked by the power of the storm.
“It’s really surprising that the wind can be that intense, in that short span of time to actually bring a tree like this down and cause this much damage,” Justin Flip said.
“A good hour and a half cleaning up all the branches that had fallen yesterday and cutting them into smaller pieces to drag to the front,” said Lyndsay Brown.
“That was the biggest storm I’ve ever seen go through. Branches just falling, it looked like my yard was filling up,” said Gwynne Redford.
Homeowners weren’t the only ones dealing with the aftermath.
Waterloo regional police say they received more than 100 reports of dangerous conditions, most related to the storm.
Kitchener-Wilmot Hydro was also kept busy due to downed power lines. About 15,000 customers were without power at the peak of the storm. Power has since been restored to most customers.
At Public House Kitchen and Bar in Kitchener, the newly set up patio was completely destroyed.
“It looked like total annihilation,” said co-owner Carly Blasutti.
But the owners arrived to a surprise Wednesday morning, with the walls of their patio fixed.
“It’s impossible to be in despair when you have the entire community come to your side,” Blasutti said.
CALGARY – TC Energy Corp. has lowered the estimated cost of its Southeast Gateway pipeline project in Mexico.
It says it now expects the project to cost between US$3.9 billion and US$4.1 billion compared with its original estimate of US$4.5 billion.
The change came as the company reported a third-quarter profit attributable to common shareholders of C$1.46 billion or $1.40 per share compared with a loss of C$197 million or 19 cents per share in the same quarter last year.
Revenue for the quarter ended Sept. 30 totalled C$4.08 billion, up from C$3.94 billion in the third quarter of 2023.
TC Energy says its comparable earnings for its latest quarter amounted to C$1.03 per share compared with C$1.00 per share a year earlier.
The average analyst estimate had been for a profit of 95 cents per share, according to LSEG Data & Analytics.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 7, 2024.
BCE Inc. reported a loss in its latest quarter as it recorded $2.11 billion in asset impairment charges, mainly related to Bell Media’s TV and radio properties.
The company says its net loss attributable to common shareholders amounted to $1.24 billion or $1.36 per share for the quarter ended Sept. 30 compared with a profit of $640 million or 70 cents per share a year earlier.
On an adjusted basis, BCE says it earned 75 cents per share in its latest quarter compared with an adjusted profit of 81 cents per share in the same quarter last year.
“Bell’s results for the third quarter demonstrate that we are disciplined in our pursuit of profitable growth in an intensely competitive environment,” BCE chief executive Mirko Bibic said in a statement.
“Our focus this quarter, and throughout 2024, has been to attract higher-margin subscribers and reduce costs to help offset short-term revenue impacts from sustained competitive pricing pressures, slow economic growth and a media advertising market that is in transition.”
Operating revenue for the quarter totalled $5.97 billion, down from $6.08 billion in its third quarter of 2023.
BCE also said it now expects its revenue for 2024 to fall about 1.5 per cent compared with earlier guidance for an increase of zero to four per cent.
The company says the change comes as it faces lower-than-anticipated wireless product revenue and sustained pressure on wireless prices.
BCE added 33,111 net postpaid mobile phone subscribers, down 76.8 per cent from the same period last year, which was the company’s second-best performance on the metric since 2010.
It says the drop was driven by higher customer churn — a measure of subscribers who cancelled their service — amid greater competitive activity and promotional offer intensity. BCE’s monthly churn rate for the category was 1.28 per cent, up from 1.1 per cent during its previous third quarter.
The company also saw 11.6 per cent fewer gross subscriber activations “due to more targeted promotional offers and mobile device discounting compared to last year.”
Bell’s wireless mobile phone average revenue per user was $58.26, down 3.4 per cent from $60.28 in the third quarter of the prior year.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 7, 2024.
TORONTO – Canada Goose Holdings Inc. trimmed its financial guidance as it reported its second-quarter revenue fell compared with a year ago.
The luxury clothing company says revenue for the quarter ended Sept. 29 totalled $267.8 million, down from $281.1 million in the same quarter last year.
Net income attributable to shareholders amounted to $5.4 million or six cents per diluted share, up from $3.9 million or four cents per diluted share a year earlier.
On an adjusted basis, Canada Goose says it earned five cents per diluted share in its latest quarter compared with an adjusted profit of 16 cents per diluted share a year earlier.
In its outlook, Canada Goose says it now expects total revenue for its full financial year to show a low-single-digit percentage decrease to low-single-digit percentage increase compared with earlier guidance for a low-single-digit increase.
It also says it now expects its adjusted net income per diluted share to show a mid-single-digit percentage increase compared with earlier guidance for a percentage increase in the mid-teens.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 7, 2024.
