The St. Lawrence Seaway strike is costing the Port of Windsor $1.3 million per day in lost economic activity, and it will only be a matter of days before local companies have difficult decisions to make that will only amplify that impact, Port Windsor CEO/president Steve Salmons said Monday.
About 360 workers who operate the locks on the Canadian side of the international seaway walked off the job at 12:01 a.m. Sunday to back their wage demands.
The Seaway corporation is contracted by the federal government to operate the system.
“As a shipping centre, we only have a certain number of days to our season,” Salmons said. “The end of December, we lose shipping and we can’t get these lost days back.
“Everyone was aware of the negotiations and there’s been some short-term preparations made for a stoppage. It’s still costing the economy $40 million per day.
“By the end of the week we’ll see some nervousness and by the end of the second week there’ll be extreme anxiety.”
The St. Lawrence Seaway is vital to North America’s commercial transportation system.
It supports 241,286 U.S. and Canadian jobs and generates $46.8 billion in annual economic activity.
Salmons said the timing of the strike is particularly troublesome for the agricultural sector. Record grain yields have been enjoyed by farmers on both sides of the border at a time when grain prices and world demand are high due to the Russia-Ukraine war.
“Grain has a limited shelf life, so there are provisions in (Canadian) law that allow for grain to be shipped during a strike,” Salmons said. “I would expect that might be the federal government’s first directive during this strike.”
The Seaway corporation has already filed a legal request to start the process to allow grain to be shipped.
Salmons said one of the local firms to be first impacted by the strike will likely be Archer-Daniels-Midland’s Windsor operation that crushes soybeans and canola for oils and handles wheat. A lot of those products are then shipped to Europe and South America.
“They buy 70 per cent of their grains and soya from farmers in Essex, Kent and Lambton counties,” Salmons said. “Once they run out of storage space, they’re going to tell the farmers they can’t buy any more of their crops.”
Salmons added the Windsor Salt Company, which has already endured a lengthy strike of its own, also can’t properly service its biggest markets in the Greater Toronto Area.
The Port of Windsor processed $400 million worth of goods last year.
In addition to grain and salt, the major goods moved by ship locally are specialty steel for the auto industry and aggregate materials for construction.
With winter approaching, the auto industry is normally stockpiling these specialty steels, which aren’t produced in North America, to last until the seaway re-opens after the cold weather.
He said the region’s large construction projects — Gordie Howe International Bridge and NextStar Energy battery plant — won’t be affected by the strike as the American-controlled Sault Ste. Marie locks are unaffected by the labour dispute.
Salmons said Windsor handled 600 ships last year and there were another 6,000 ships that passed in transit through the region.
If the work stoppage continues, he said it won’t be long before residents see ships dropping anchor in designated anchorage spots in the Detroit River and surrounding lakes.
All ships in passage through the seaway leading into the weekend were able to clear the locks given the union’s 72-hour strike notice.
For now, Salmons said his clients have told him they’ll ride out the turbulence. There have been no delays of commercial ships arriving in Windsor yet, but a European ship carrying steel for the auto industry is due to arrive locally by the end of the week.
However, HMCS Glace Bay’s week-long visit to Windsor for a marine career fair and public tours was cancelled. The ship was supposed to arrive locally Tuesday, but the Department of National Defence feared letting one of its warships sail into the western lakes and then getting trapped.
The strike isn’t just impacting major corporations.
The voice of small and medium business, the Canadian Federation of Independent Business (CFIB), released a statement urging the federal government to get the St. Lawrence Seaway open quickly.
“Small businesses were seriously affected by the long strike at B.C. ports and the supply chain disruptions it caused this summer,” said CFIB’s vice-president for national affairs, Jasmin Guénette.
“The last thing the Canadian economy needs right now is another strike blocking a busy trade route and impacting businesses once again. Small businesses are already dealing with inflation, labour shortages, heavy debt loads and weak demand.
“They cannot suffer from another strike that would impact their bottom line.”
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Telus Corp. says it is avoiding offering “unprofitable” discounts as fierce competition in the Canadian telecommunications sector shows no sign of slowing down.
The company said Friday it had fewer net new customers during its third quarter compared with the same time last year, as it copes with increasingly “aggressive marketing and promotional pricing” that is prompting more customers to switch providers.
Telus said it added 347,000 net new customers, down around 14.5 per cent compared with last year. The figure includes 130,000 mobile phone subscribers and 34,000 internet customers, down 30,000 and 3,000, respectively, year-over-year.
The company reported its mobile phone churn rate — a metric measuring subscribers who cancelled their services — was 1.09 per cent in the third quarter, up from 1.03 per cent in the third quarter of 2023. That included a postpaid mobile phone churn rate of 0.90 per cent in its latest quarter.
Telus said its focus is on customer retention through its “industry-leading service and network quality, along with successful promotions and bundled offerings.”
“The customers we have are the most important customers we can get,” said chief financial officer Doug French in an interview.
“We’ve, again, just continued to focus on what matters most to our customers, from a product and customer service perspective, while not loading unprofitable customers.”
Meanwhile, Telus reported its net income attributable to common shares more than doubled during its third quarter.
The telecommunications company said it earned $280 million, up 105.9 per cent from the same three-month period in 2023. Earnings per diluted share for the quarter ended Sept. 30 was 19 cents compared with nine cents a year earlier.
It reported adjusted net income was $413 million, up 10.7 per cent year-over-year from $373 million in the same quarter last year. Operating revenue and other income for the quarter was $5.1 billion, up 1.8 per cent from the previous year.
Mobile phone average revenue per user was $58.85 in the third quarter, a decrease of $2.09 or 3.4 per cent from a year ago. Telus said the drop was attributable to customers signing up for base rate plans with lower prices, along with a decline in overage and roaming revenues.
It said customers are increasingly adopting unlimited data and Canada-U.S. plans which provide higher and more stable ARPU on a monthly basis.
“In a tough operating environment and relative to peers, we view Q3 results that were in line to slightly better than forecast as the best of the bunch,” said RBC analyst Drew McReynolds in a note.
Scotiabank analyst Maher Yaghi added that “the telecom industry in Canada remains very challenging for all players, however, Telus has been able to face these pressures” and still deliver growth.
The Big 3 telecom providers — which also include Rogers Communications Inc. and BCE Inc. — have frequently stressed that the market has grown more competitive in recent years, especially after the closing of Quebecor Inc.’s purchase of Freedom Mobile in April 2023.
Hailed as a fourth national carrier, Quebecor has invested in enhancements to Freedom’s network while offering more affordable plans as part of a set of commitments it was mandated by Ottawa to agree to.
The cost of telephone services in September was down eight per cent compared with a year earlier, according to Statistics Canada’s most recent inflation report last month.
“I think competition has been and continues to be, I’d say, quite intense in Canada, and we’ve obviously had to just manage our business the way we see fit,” said French.
Asked how long that environment could last, he said that’s out of Telus’ hands.
“What I can control, though, is how we go to market and how we lead with our products,” he said.
“I think the conditions within the market will have to adjust accordingly over time. We’ve continued to focus on digitization, continued to bring our cost structure down to compete, irrespective of the price and the current market conditions.”
Still, Canada’s telecom regulator continues to warn providers about customers facing more charges on their cellphone and internet bills.
On Tuesday, CRTC vice-president of consumer, analytics and strategy Scott Hutton called on providers to ensure they clearly inform their customers of charges such as early cancellation fees.
That followed statements from the regulator in recent weeks cautioning against rising international roaming fees and “surprise” price increases being found on their bills.
Hutton said the CRTC plans to launch public consultations in the coming weeks that will focus “on ensuring that information is clear and consistent, making it easier to compare offers and switch services or providers.”
“The CRTC is concerned with recent trends, which suggest that Canadians may not be benefiting from the full protections of our codes,” he said.
“We will continue to monitor developments and will take further action if our codes are not being followed.”
French said any initiative to boost transparency is a step in the right direction.
“I can’t say we are perfect across the board, but what I can say is we are absolutely taking it under consideration and trying to be the best at communicating with our customers,” he said.
“I think everyone looking in the mirror would say there’s room for improvement.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 8, 2024.
Companies in this story: (TSX:T)
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.
Companies in this story: (TSX:TRP)
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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.
Companies in this story: (TSX:BCE)
The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.
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