Gas prices in Alberta have shot up by about 10 cents per litre in the last couple of days and experts say we haven’t yet seen the highest prices at the pumps.
The price for gas in Edmonton spiked to about $1.55.9 per litre Thursday morning. The price in Calgary hit $1.57.9, although cheaper prices could be found at some stations in both cities.
2:33 Gas prices creeping up across Edmonton amid war in Ukraine
Gas prices creeping up across Edmonton amid war in Ukraine
Gas prices in Calgary haven’t been below about $1.30 per litre since June 2021. About one year ago, Calgarians paid about $1.15 per litre, and two years ago the cost of gas was about $0.78 per litre.
The president of Canadians for Affordable Energy, an organization focused on keeping energy services affordable, said Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has “everything to do with it.”
“Russia is the third-largest producer of oil,” Dan McTeague explained. Many nations, particularly those in Europe, rely too much on Russian oil, he continued. But he said that even the United States, which would have received one million barrels of oil a day through the cancelled Keystone XL Pipeline, “now relies on almost 800,000 barrels a day on Russia.”
“As we sanction Russia — its oil and gas — it leaves the world extraordinarily short on supply.”
Canada has banned all imports of Russian crude oil, though the country hasn’t been dependent on crude oil from Russia for years.
The trickle-down effect
The price of oil sat at about US$110 per barrel Thursday and McTeague said we can expect to see that increase to US$130 or US$140 over the next couple of weeks as the conflict continues.
Experts said it won’t only be drivers who are affected by the price increases. The cost of diesel is rising at an even faster rate, McTeague explained. The price increases will trickle down to everything from public transit to the cost of food, he explained.
“We’re going to pay much more for everything, even those of us who don’t drive,” he said. “Agricultural products and of course processing costs and transportation costs are going through the roof.
“It looks like we’re going to have to, as it were, buckle up and hunker down for the next several weeks at least.”
Candace Owen is the co-owner of Chris’ Delivery Service (CDS), an Edmonton and area courier service that delivers things like small packages, prescriptions, legal documents and bank deposits in and around the city.
“The cost of gas, one year ago today was 35 per cent less than right now. That is a big increase in one year,” Owen said. “We’ve also had some drivers that couldn’t economically maintain working because of the cost of fuel and the cost of living.”
Owen said CDS drivers pay for their own fuel. The company charges its customers a fuel surcharge, but it only covers about 75 per cent of fuel costs.
The company has not raised its prices in five years but Owen said unfortunately, that changed Thursday morning. The company decided to increase prices by about five per cent as a way to try to absorb some of the extra costs it’s facing.
“We strive to give great service for a low price but unfortunately with everything — literally everything — going up, we have to go with the times too, and there’s going to have to just be a little bit of a price raise,” she said.
“Unless you are getting the same amount of a raise at work that matches the raise of everything going up, then it affects you negatively.”
1:56 Albertans need to get used to paying higher prices for gas: Expert
Albertans need to get used to paying higher prices for gas: Expert – Jun 22, 2021
Charles St-Arnaud, a chief economist with Alberta Central, said that while the increase in oil prices will be a benefit to the province and oil sector revenues, the general public does not stand to benefit.
“We’ll be paying more for natural gas to heat our homes, more for gasoline to put in our cars, more for electricity because here in Alberta a lot of our electricity production is made through natural gas. All of that will increase and push inflation higher,” he explained.
“Inflation is starting to erode their purchasing power,” St-Arnaud said of consumers in Alberta. “Interest rates are increasing too, so suddenly their debt services is up. So everything is kind of pushing against them having space for discretionary spending.”
1:55 Calgary gas prices soar to record levels as war in Ukraine continues
Calgary gas prices soar to record levels as war in Ukraine continues
Alberta’s 2022 budget promises natural gas bill rebates for consumers. A utilities rebate will be triggered starting Oct. 1 if gas prices exceed $6.50 a gigajoule.
Opposition leader Rachel Notley called it a phantom plan, given that the government’s own forecasts don’t predict the price will ever reach that threshold and the government has not set aside any money to pay it out.
Premier Jason Kenney was asked about the rising gas prices during an unrelated news conference Thursday morning. He said that while he is concerned about the increasing cost, the government’s focus right now is on the natural gas rebate program announced in the budget.
“We know that these gas prices are hitting everybody all around the world, not just here,” Kenney said.
The premier also said it wouldn’t make sense for Alberta to offer a rebate with the federal carbon tax set to increase to 11 cents on April 1. He once again called on the federal government to scrap its carbon tax.
“The urgent thing is for the government of Canada to stop making this situation even worse, because they plan on April 1 on increasing taxes on gasoline through an increase in the carbon tax. This is ridiculous,” he said.
“If Justin Trudeau were to agree not to raise the gas tax, federal gas tax, on April 1, then we would look for sure at further relief here in Alberta. But a provincial cut when he intends to increase it leaves consumers no further ahead.”
TOKYO (AP) — Japanese technology group SoftBank swung back to profitability in the July-September quarter, boosted by positive results in its Vision Fund investments.
Tokyo-based SoftBank Group Corp. reported Tuesday a fiscal second quarter profit of nearly 1.18 trillion yen ($7.7 billion), compared with a 931 billion yen loss in the year-earlier period.
Quarterly sales edged up about 6% to nearly 1.77 trillion yen ($11.5 billion).
SoftBank credited income from royalties and licensing related to its holdings in Arm, a computer chip-designing company, whose business spans smartphones, data centers, networking equipment, automotive, consumer electronic devices, and AI applications.
The results were also helped by the absence of losses related to SoftBank’s investment in office-space sharing venture WeWork, which hit the previous fiscal year.
WeWork, which filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in 2023, emerged from Chapter 11 in June.
SoftBank has benefitted in recent months from rising share prices in some investment, such as U.S.-based e-commerce company Coupang, Chinese mobility provider DiDi Global and Bytedance, the Chinese developer of TikTok.
SoftBank’s financial results tend to swing wildly, partly because of its sprawling investment portfolio that includes search engine Yahoo, Chinese retailer Alibaba, and artificial intelligence company Nvidia.
SoftBank makes investments in a variety of companies that it groups together in a series of Vision Funds.
The company’s founder, Masayoshi Son, is a pioneer in technology investment in Japan. SoftBank Group does not give earnings forecasts.
Shopify Inc. executives brushed off concerns that incoming U.S. President Donald Trump will be a major detriment to many of the company’s merchants.
“There’s nothing in what we’ve heard from Trump, nor would there have been anything from (Democratic candidate) Kamala (Harris), which we think impacts the overall state of new business formation and entrepreneurship,” Shopify’s chief financial officer Jeff Hoffmeister told analysts on a call Tuesday.
“We still feel really good about all the merchants out there, all the entrepreneurs that want to start new businesses and that’s obviously not going to change with the administration.”
Hoffmeister’s comments come a week after Trump, a Republican businessman, trounced Harris in an election that will soon return him to the Oval Office.
On the campaign trail, he threatened to impose tariffs of 60 per cent on imports from China and roughly 10 per cent to 20 per cent on goods from all other countries.
If the president-elect makes good on the promise, many worry the cost of operating will soar for companies, including customers of Shopify, which sells e-commerce software to small businesses but also brands as big as Kylie Cosmetics and Victoria’s Secret.
These merchants may feel they have no choice but to pass on the increases to customers, perhaps sparking more inflation.
If Trump’s tariffs do come to fruition, Shopify’s president Harley Finkelstein pointed out China is “not a huge area” for Shopify.
However, “we can’t anticipate what every presidential administration is going to do,” he cautioned.
He likened the uncertainty facing the business community to the COVID-19 pandemic where Shopify had to help companies migrate online.
“Our job is no matter what comes the way of our merchants, we provide them with tools and service and support for them to navigate it really well,” he said.
Finkelstein was questioned about the forthcoming U.S. leadership change on a call meant to delve into Shopify’s latest earnings, which sent shares soaring 27 per cent to $158.63 shortly after Tuesday’s market open.
The Ottawa-based company, which keeps its books in U.S. dollars, reported US$828 million in net income for its third quarter, up from US$718 million in the same quarter last year, as its revenue rose 26 per cent.
Revenue for the period ended Sept. 30 totalled US$2.16 billion, up from US$1.71 billion a year earlier.
Subscription solutions revenue reached US$610 million, up from US$486 million in the same quarter last year.
Merchant solutions revenue amounted to US$1.55 billion, up from US$1.23 billion.
Shopify’s net income excluding the impact of equity investments totalled US$344 million for the quarter, up from US$173 million in the same quarter last year.
Daniel Chan, a TD Cowen analyst, said the results show Shopify has a leadership position in the e-commerce world and “a continued ability to gain market share.”
In its outlook for its fourth quarter of 2024, the company said it expects revenue to grow at a mid-to-high-twenties percentage rate on a year-over-year basis.
“Q4 guidance suggests Shopify will finish the year strong, with better-than-expected revenue growth and operating margin,” Chan pointed out in a note to investors.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 12, 2024.
TORONTO – RioCan Real Estate Investment Trust says it has cut almost 10 per cent of its staff as it deals with a slowdown in the condo market and overall pushes for greater efficiency.
The company says the cuts, which amount to around 60 employees based on its last annual filing, will mean about $9 million in restructuring charges and should translate to about $8 million in annualized cash savings.
The job cuts come as RioCan and others scale back condo development plans as the market softens, but chief executive Jonathan Gitlin says the reductions were from a companywide efficiency effort.
RioCan says it doesn’t plan to start any new construction of mixed-use properties this year and well into 2025 as it adjusts to the shifting market demand.
The company reported a net income of $96.9 million in the third quarter, up from a loss of $73.5 million last year, as it saw a $159 million boost from a favourable change in the fair value of investment properties.
RioCan reported what it says is a record-breaking 97.8 per cent occupancy rate in the quarter including retail committed occupancy of 98.6 per cent.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 12, 2024.
