Canada’s inflation rate jumped higher last month, to an annual pace of four per cent, mostly because of an increase in gasoline prices.
Statistics Canada reported Tuesday that the inflation rate ticked higher by 0.7 percentage points, in large part because gasoline prices increased on an annual basis for the first time since January.
Pump prices increased by 4.6 per cent in August alone, and are up by 0.8 per cent compared to where they were a year ago.
Energy prices tend to have an outsized impact on the overall inflation rate, because they filter down into everything else, from production costs to transportation of goods.
Karleen Jack is feeling the pinch of higher gasoline prices on two fronts — as a small business owner and as a consumer. She runs Lawn Warriors Property Maintenance, a business providing outdoor maintenance such as yard care, leaf and snow removal, in Ajax, Ont., just east of Toronto.
She normally services clients from all over the region, but the high price of gasoline right now has forced her to limit the distance she’s willing to go.
“We’ve had to be creative,” she told CBC News in an interview. “Based on the increases from last year, we had to zone down to a smaller territory.”
Karleen Jack is the owner and operator of Lawn Warriors Property Maintenance in Ajax, Ontario. (Laura MacNaughton/CBC)
From gas in her truck to premium fuel for her hedgers, leaf blowers, trimmers and mowers, she feels every pump increase directly. She estimates her costs rose by about 15 per cent last year, but she hasn’t been able to pass those increases on to her customers. So she’s cutting back on the number of jobs she takes on and the amount of income her family-run business gets from every one.
“You can do that — but within reason and only for so long,” she said.
Vijay Muralidharan, an energy analyst and managing director with R Cube Consulting Inc., says people like Karleen and others should brace themselves for prices to stay high, as oil prices are once again flirting with $100 a barrel, and the winter in North America is likely to cause diesel prices specifically to spike
“Don’t be surprised if this high inflation is sticky and stays higher levels in the coming months,” he told CBC News in an interview. “The only thing that can drive this is demand falling and that can happen only through a recession, a deep recession that will kill demand.”
Fuel isn’t the only thing getting more expensive either. Prices for other essentials, like food and shelter, continued to increase.
The cost of keeping a roof over your head increased by six per cent in the year up to August, an uptick from 5.1 per cent in July. Within that, rent was a major factor, with average rents increasing by 6.5 per cent across the country.
It didn’t get any cheaper to own, either.
Mortgage interest costs rose by another 2.7 per cent during the month, and are now clocking in at a 30.9 per cent increase in the year up to August. That’s up from July’s already-eye-watering level of 30.6 per cent.
Grocery CEOs agree to work on price stabilization
The CEOs of Canada’s five biggest grocery store chains have agreed to work with the government on price stabilization and come up with a plan to address it within three weeks. The government said if the CEOs did not meet that deadline, they could face punitive taxes.
There was one source of comparable relief, however, from an unexpected place: the grocery aisle.
The price of food purchased from stores increased by 6.9 per cent in the past year. While that’s still almost twice the overall inflation rate, it’s down from recent highs of more than 11 per cent.
It’s also the slowest annual increase to the typical grocery bill since January 2022.
Economist Robert Kavcic says that slowing inflation doesn’t mean people should expect prices to come down in absolute terms any time soon. (Laura MacNaughton/CBC)
While that may be good news for most Canadians, anyone waiting for an outright decline in their grocery bill is likely to be disappointed. Economist Robert Kavcic with Bank of Montreal says “there’s a big distinction between slowing inflation, which is good news and actually outright declines in in prices.”
“If you go from eight per cent inflation to let’s say one or two per cent, that doesn’t mean the price of your grocery bag is falling,” he said in an interview. “We’re going to get some relief in terms of the inflation rate, but not necessarily what it costs you to actually go out and buy food and feed your family.”
The unexpectedly high inflation number upped the odds of another rate hike by the Bank of Canada to as much as a 50/50 chance, but Kavcic says a lot can happen between now and the Bank of Canada’s next rate decision on October 25 — including another inflation number, for September.
“In a month or two, if we’re still looking at inflation prints like this, I think the Bank of Canada might in fact actually have to come off and and and take another stab at this,” Kavcic said, adding that he still thinks the bank is likely to stand pat for a while.
“Rates are probably high enough to do the job. They just haven’t been high enough for long enough.”
VANCOUVER – Contract negotiations resume today in Vancouver in a labour dispute that has paralyzed container cargo shipping at British Columbia’s ports since Monday.
The BC Maritime Employers Association and International Longshore and Warehouse Union Local 514 are scheduled to meet for the next three days in mediated talks to try to break a deadlock in negotiations.
The union, which represents more than 700 longshore supervisors at ports, including Vancouver, Prince Rupert and Nanaimo, has been without a contract since March last year.
The latest talks come after employers locked out workers in response to what it said was “strike activity” by union members.
The start of the lockout was then followed by several days of no engagement between the two parties, prompting federal Labour Minister Steven MacKinnon to speak with leaders on both sides, asking them to restart talks.
MacKinnon had said that the talks were “progressing at an insufficient pace, indicating a concerning absence of urgency from the parties involved” — a sentiment echoed by several business groups across Canada.
In a joint letter, more than 100 organizations, including the Canadian Chamber of Commerce, Business Council of Canada and associations representing industries from automotive and fertilizer to retail and mining, urged the government to do whatever it takes to end the work stoppage.
“While we acknowledge efforts to continue with mediation, parties have not been able to come to a negotiated agreement,” the letter says. “So, the federal government must take decisive action, using every tool at its disposal to resolve this dispute and limit the damage caused by this disruption.
“We simply cannot afford to once again put Canadian businesses at risk, which in turn puts Canadian livelihoods at risk.”
In the meantime, the union says it has filed a complaint to the Canada Industrial Relations Board against the employers, alleging the association threatened to pull existing conditions out of the last contract in direct contact with its members.
“The BCMEA is trying to undermine the union by attempting to turn members against its democratically elected leadership and bargaining committee — despite the fact that the BCMEA knows full well we received a 96 per cent mandate to take job action if needed,” union president Frank Morena said in a statement.
The employers have responded by calling the complaint “another meritless claim,” adding the final offer to the union that includes a 19.2 per cent wage increase over a four-year term remains on the table.
“The final offer has been on the table for over a week and represents a fair and balanced proposal for employees, and if accepted would end this dispute,” the employers’ statement says. “The offer does not require any concessions from the union.”
The union says the offer does not address the key issue of staffing requirement at the terminals as the port introduces more automation to cargo loading and unloading, which could potentially require fewer workers to operate than older systems.
The Port of Vancouver is the largest in Canada and has seen a number of labour disruptions, including two instances involving the rail and grain storage sectors earlier this year.
A 13-day strike by another group of workers at the port last year resulted in the disruption of a significant amount of shipping and trade.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 9, 2024.
The Royal Canadian Legion says a new partnership with e-commerce giant Amazon is helping boost its veterans’ fund, and will hopefully expand its donor base in the digital world.
Since the Oct. 25 launch of its Amazon.ca storefront, the legion says it has received nearly 10,000 orders for poppies.
Online shoppers can order lapel poppies on Amazon in exchange for donations or buy items such as “We Remember” lawn signs, Remembrance Day pins and other accessories, with all proceeds going to the legion’s Poppy Trust Fund for Canadian veterans and their families.
Nujma Bond, the legion’s national spokesperson, said the organization sees this move as keeping up with modern purchasing habits.
“As the world around us evolves we have been looking at different ways to distribute poppies and to make it easier for people to access them,” she said in an interview.
“This is definitely a way to reach a wider number of Canadians of all ages. And certainly younger Canadians are much more active on the web, on social media in general, so we’re also engaging in that way.”
Al Plume, a member of a legion branch in Trenton, Ont., said the online store can also help with outreach to veterans who are far from home.
“For veterans that are overseas and are away, (or) can’t get to a store they can order them online, it’s Amazon.” Plume said.
Plume spent 35 years in the military with the Royal Engineers, and retired eight years ago. He said making sure veterans are looked after is his passion.
“I’ve seen the struggles that our veterans have had with Veterans Affairs … and that’s why I got involved, with making sure that the people get to them and help the veterans with their paperwork.”
But the message about the Amazon storefront didn’t appear to reach all of the legion’s locations, with volunteers at Branch 179 on Vancouver’s Commercial Drive saying they hadn’t heard about the online push.
Holly Paddon, the branch’s poppy campaign co-ordinator and bartender, said the Amazon partnership never came up in meetings with other legion volunteers and officials.
“I work at the legion, I work with the Vancouver poppy office and I go to the meetings for the Vancouver poppy campaign — which includes all the legions in Vancouver — and not once has this been mentioned,” she said.
Paddon said the initiative is a great idea, but she would like to have known more about it.
The legion also sells a larger collection of items at poppystore.ca.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 9, 2024.
