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MONTREAL – Swedish private equity firm Altor has signed a deal to buy CCM Hockey, as the two companies eye new demographics and try to build out the global market share of Canada’s oldest hockey equipment maker.

Altor, which owns ski maker Rossignol Group, said Thursday it acquired a “significant” majority stake in CCM from Birch Hill Equity Partners, which had purchased the company from German sportswear giant Adidas in 2017.

The investment company said it aims to help Montreal-based CCM “unlock growth opportunities” across the 40-plus countries in North America, Europe and Asia where it currently operates.

“We are impressed by the durability and innovation that continues to keep the performance of their products at the forefront,” said Andreas Källström Säfweräng, who heads investments in consumer goods companies at Altor.

“Together we will continue the tradition of making sure that all players and goalies are represented in the best possible way in the sport they love.”

CCM’s management will also reinvest in the company, it said in a release. Financial terms of the agreement were not disclosed.

The deal is expected to wrap up by year’s end, pending regulatory approval.

Established in 1899, CCM grew into a major manufacturer of hockey sticks, skates and pads, now claiming a roughly 35 per cent share of the global market.

National Hockey League stars from Canada who tote CCM gear include Sidney Crosby and Connor McDavid, while Toronto Maple Leafs captain Auston Matthews and Professional Women’s Hockey League superstar Sarah Nurse also sport the brand.

The equipment-heavy sport has high earnings potential, with some gear sold at hefty premiums alongside a gradual expansion in the game’s popularity overseas, from Australia to China.

“Hockey is a lucrative business,” said Michael Naraine, associate professor of sport management at Brock University.

“It’s not as global as basketball or soccer but it is global to an extent, and there is money to be made.”

While items such as smaller pads yield lower margins, the more visible accessories often come with high price tags and profits.

“When you see Auston Matthews play hockey, you don’t see his shin pads or his elbow pads, but you see his skate and you see his stick,” Naraine said.

“The cost to produce a stick is probably $40, and high-end sticks are retailing for $429.”

Skates used to top out at about $800, said Naraine, who worked in sports retail in the early 2010s. Now the priciest pairs can sell for almost double that.

“Part of that is the insatiable desire by hockey parents in this country to want turn out the next Wayne Gretzky, Sidney Crosby and now Connor McDavid. But part of that is also just the consumer acceptability for more expensive composite technology.”

The CCM deal comes after the owner of rival Bauer Hockey announced earlier this week that affiliates of Fairfax Financial Holdings Ltd. will acquire controlling interest in the business.

Peak Achievement Athletics Inc. did not reveal the value of the deal, but said the transaction will hand Fairfax an equity interest previously owned by asset management company Sagard Holdings Inc.

Fairfax and Sagard acquired Bauer out of bankruptcy in 2017, paying $575 million for the sports equipment manufacturer.

Despite those financial troubles, Bauer remains the dominant player in the industry, boasting up to 60 per cent market share across the globe. Its acquisition by Fairfax could allow for more cost efficiency and expanded sales potential through outlets such as Sporting Life, owned by the Toronto-based financial firm.

“Bauer’s market share in North America in particular is pretty strong,” Naraine said. “But I could see Bauer taking a bit of a hit in Europe because of the CCM purchase.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 2, 2024.

PARIS – Premier François Legault says the federal government should force asylum seekers arriving in Quebec to move to other provinces, including people who have already settled in the province.

Legault said during a trip to Paris on Wednesday that he wants half of the asylum seekers currently in Quebec to be transferred elsewhere in the country.

The premier says it doesn’t make sense that Quebec receives about 45 per cent of would-be refugees in Canada, despite accounting for only 22 per cent of the population.

The federal government says it wants a fairer distribution of asylum seekers across the country, but the office of Immigration Minister Marc Miller says Ottawa won’t force provinces to take in more people.

Ottawa is offering financial incentives to provinces that want to help and is threatening to reduce the number of economic immigrants for provinces that resist.

Legault said on Tuesday that his government has asked Ottawa to create waiting zones for asylum seekers entering the country, as is the practice in France.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 2, 2024.

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VANCOUVER – British Columbia’s party leaders jousted over affordability, health care, conspiracy theories and the opioid crisis in their first and only radio debate of the province’s election campaign.

The debate on Vancouver station CKNW brought NDP Leader David Eby, B.C. Conservative Leader John Rustad and Green Party Leader Sonia Furstenau into the same room for the first time on the campaign trail ahead of the Oct. 19 vote.

The fractious and freewheeling hour-long debate hosted by Mike Smyth was conducted with open microphones and saw the leaders frequently speaking over each other.

Rustad repeatedly accused Eby of telling “outright lies” about the Conservatives, while Furstenau said her rivals were ignoring root causes of B.C.’s affordability and opioid crises, in favour of handouts and quick fixes.

The debate started civilly enough with a question on affordability, with Eby saying cost-of-living issues had been “challenging” for households and that the NDP’s proposed middle-class tax cut was aimed at driving down costs.

Rustad agreed that affordability was the top issue in the campaign, and asked “why suddenly now” was Eby talking about tax cuts, while Furstenau said it was “fascinating” that neither Eby nor Rustad wanted to talk about the factors that drove unaffordability in the province, including “financialized” housing and a “backwards-looking” fossil fuel industry.

But Eby swiftly tried to focus on Rustad’s candidate slate, repeatedly citing a social media post by Chris Sankey, the B.C. Conservatives’ candidate in North Coast — Haidi Gwaii, that suggested COVID-19 vaccines “cause Aids.”

“When you can’t even bring yourself to say that that’s problematic, that you don’t agree with that, then how are you gonna run a health care system?” Eby asked Rustad, calling the situation “incredibly bizarre.”

It was an apparent reference to a post last October on social media platform X in which Sankey mentioned a condition he called “Vaccine Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome.”

Eby asked whether Rustad agreed with Sankey that vaccines caused AIDS and whether Sankey would have a role in health policy.

Rustad responded by saying “I like how (Eby) attacks an Indigenous candidate” — Sankey being a member of the Tsimshian community of the Lax Kw’ Alaams band — and said that while B.C. faced a host of pressing issues “David Eby wants to go negative … because he can’t defend his record, he can’t defend what he’s doing.”

Furstenau said her own party was putting forward “serious candidates,” and that “there is a problem with candidates in the Conservative slate.”

She said the province needed people who did not use “Twitter and conspiracy theories” to guide their thinking.

When discussion turned to the opioid crisis, Rustad said the NDP’s policies of “safe supply and decriminalization have failed,” and the B.C. Conservatives would bring a “common sense approach” to the issue.

He said safe supply sites would be turned into “recovery intake sites,” and that under Eby, the government had become “one of the biggest drug dealers in the province.”

Eby agreed that while some people using drugs needed treatment and a way out of addiction, Rustad was inconsistent with his positions, telling different things to different people.

Furstenau said there needed to be a “war on poverty” and a continuum of care, instead of a singular focus on the “most severe” outcomes of the toxic drug crisis that has claimed more than 15,000 lives since the declaration of a public health emergency in B.C. in 2016.

The only televised debate of the B.C. election campaign will be held on Oct. 8.

The party leaders will be back together again later Wednesday at an event with the Greater Vancouver Board of Trade where they will speak with business leaders.

The leaders’ encounters come as Rustad has been told by a campaign working to end violence against women that organizers are withdrawing their permission for him to wear a moose hide pin meant to show support.

Moose Hide Campaign co-founder Raven Lacerte says in a letter that elected leaders have a unique level of responsibility to uphold basic standards of respect, “including respect for Indigenous Peoples and those along the gender continuum,” and that Rustad is “not upholding these standards.”

The Conservative campaign did not respond to a request for comment on the letter.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 2, 2024.