How lowering costs for developers could save you money on your next home
Ontario wants to change the rules around development charges, but will it help Toronto's housing crisis? CBC's Chris Glover digs into the data — and speaks to developers and officials to find out.
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CTV News
an hour ago
- CTV News
‘To say that our American sales fell off a cliff would not be an exaggeration:' Calgary wine store owner
Andrew Ferguson, the owner of the Kensington Wine Market, said sales of U.S. liquor have 'fallen off a cliff'. Sales of American booze have 'fallen off a cliff' for one Calgary wine store owner, but luckily for the Kensington Wine Market, it's a pretty shallow cliff. After it was confirmed that Alberta Gaming, Liquor, and Cannabis (AGLC) will resume selling American liquor products after a three-month pause, Kensington Wine Market owner Andrew Ferguson said that they never actually went away. "They are bringing it back but they're bringing it back with a tariff on it,' he said. 'I think it might surprise people in Alberta, but stores and restaurants have not been prevented from buying American products for the past three months -- but I think like most, we've seen a massive decrease in demand for it." On Friday, the AGLC announced it will 'resume accepting liquor products from the United States, effective immediately,' at the direction of the provincial government. This will affect all liquor products registered with the AGLC and declared to Canada Border Services Agency. Products that were shipped from the U.S. after March 4 will continue to be subject to a surtax of 25 per cent of the invoice price, the AGLC added. 'I think when it all went down, I think a lot of people thought, 'oh, you're going to just stop selling this stuff immediately,'' Ferguson said, 'but they don't realize that before a bottle of bourbon or wine or Canadian whiskey or whatever gets delivered to our stores, we have to pay for it. 'So we already own that stuff -- so the idea that we aren't going to sell something that we've already paid for is a bit tough (to swallow),' he said. What really changed, he said, was the appetite among customers for made-in-the-U.S.A. booze. 'It's a big drop in demand,' he said. 'The natural depletion of a case of wine – like maybe we'll sell through in about two or three weeks -- but we've had some where we haven't even sold (through) an American case in three months." Ferguson said U.S. liquor generally amounts to around 10 per cent of his sales, but that has gone down since Trump's tariffs were announced. 'There are still people buying it (U.S. alcohol) and we don't take a place of judgement on it – (but) we've (also) got lots of alternatives for them,' he said. 'I'd say by and large the bigger response has been 'I want a bottle of whiskey for cocktails or I want a bottle of wine. I don't want an American product.'" 'By and large, the disproportionate response has been more the other way,' he added. 'And for those people that want to continue to purchase their favourite American products, we still carry a lot of them but not as many as we might have had three months ago.' Support Canadian producers The initial decision was made to support Canadian producers in the wake of U.S. tariffs, Premier Danielle Smith said in March. 'If the Americans aren't going to buy products from our Canadian companies, we have to,' the premier said. 'That means we should be buying more Canadian beer, more Canadian spirits and more Canadian wine. And so that's the reality of what we're facing.' Ferguson said there was plenty of alternatives to American liquor. 'Whether it's wine or especially beer here in Alberta, or spirits, there's a lot of great alternatives,' he said. 'So if you want an alternative to bourbon, we've got alternatives to bourbon here. 'We've got great wines, not only from Canada but other countries with which we have a fair trading relationship.' Lifting restrictions In a statement Friday night, Minister of Service Alberta and Red Tape Reduction Dale Nally said the government lifting restrictions on the purchase of U.S. alcohol and video lottery terminals signals a 'renewed commitment to open and fair trade with our largest partner.' 'The decision sets the stage for more constructive negotiations ahead of a Canada-United States-Mexico Agreement renewal, potentially leading to increased trade opportunities and economic growth for Alberta,' Nally added. Ferguson said the lack of clarity and unpredictability of the supply chain created by Trump's tariffs is taking a toll on consumer habits. 'Maybe they (the UCP) know something we don't,' he said, 'that there's a trade deal that's coming soon between Canada and the U.S. and this is a way to offer a bit of a carrot. 'What we've seen overall,' he addedm '(is that) consumer demand is down, consumers are worried about their money -- and so the longer this drags on, the harder it's going to be on retail.' For more about the Kensington Wine Market, go here. With files from CTV's Tyler Barrow, Steven Dyer and Kevin Green
Globe and Mail
an hour ago
- Globe and Mail
Is CoreWeave Stock a Buy Now?
Investing in today's stock market can be tricky given the volatile macroeconomic climate, fueled by the Trump administration's ever-shifting tariff policies. But the artificial intelligence sector remains a robust investment opportunity as organizations around the world race to build artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities. Consequently, AI stocks provide the potential for great gains. One example is CoreWeave (NASDAQ: CRWV). The company went public in March at $40 per share. Where to invest $1,000 right now? Our analyst team just revealed what they believe are the 10 best stocks to buy right now. Continue » Since then, CoreWeave stock soared to a 52-week high of $166.63 in June. This hot stock remains more than triple its IPO price at the time of this writing. Can it go higher? Evaluating whether now is the time to grab CoreWeave shares requires digging into the company and unpacking its potential as a good investment for the long haul. Reasons to consider CoreWeave stock CoreWeave delivers cloud computing infrastructure to businesses hungry for more computing capacity for their AI systems. The company operates over 30 data centers housing servers and other hardware used by customers to train their AI and develop inference, which is an AI's ability to apply what it learned in training to real-world situations. AI juggernauts such as Microsoft, IBM, and OpenAI, the owner of ChatGPT, are among its roster of customers. The insatiable appetite for AI computing power propelled CoreWeave's business. The company's first-quarter revenue rose a whopping 420% year over year to $981.6 million. Sales growth shows no sign of slowing down. CoreWeave expects Q2 revenue to reach about $1.1 billion. That would represent a strong year-over-year increase of nearly 170% from the prior year's $395 million. The company signs long-term, committed contracts, and as a result, it has visibility into its future revenue potential. At the end of Q1, CoreWeave had amassed a revenue backlog of $25.9 billion, up 63% year over year thanks to a deal with OpenAI. The company forecasts 2025 full-year revenue to come in between $4.9 billion and $5.1 billion, a substantial jump up from 2024's $1.9 billion. CoreWeave's concerning downsides Although CoreWeave has enjoyed massive sales success, there are some potential pitfalls with the company. For starters, it isn't profitable. Its Q1 operating expenses totaled $1 billion compared to revenue of $981.6 million, resulting in an operating loss of $27.5 million. Even worse, its costs are accelerating faster than sales, which means the company is moving further away from reaching profitability. CoreWeave's $1 billion in operating expenses represented a 487% increase over the prior year, eclipsing its 420% year-over-year revenue growth. Another area of concern is the company's significant debt load. CoreWeave exited Q1 with $18.8 billion in total liabilities on its balance sheet, and $8.7 billion of that was debt. To keep up with customer demand for computing power, CoreWeave has to spend on expanding and upgrading AI-optimized hardware, and that's not cheap. As it adds customers, the company must expand its data centers to keep pace. Debt is one way it's funding these capital expenditures. Among the risks of buying its stock, CoreWeave admitted, "Our substantial indebtedness could materially adversely affect our financial condition" and that the company "may still incur substantially more indebtedness in the future." In fact, its Q1 debt total of $8.7 billion was a 10% increase from the prior quarter's $7.9 billion in debt. To buy or not to buy CoreWeave stock Seeing an increase in both expenses and debt is a concern, but because CoreWeave is a newly public company, there's not much history to know how well it can manage its finances over the long term. Q1 is the only quarter of financial results it's released since its initial public offering. If subsequent quarters reveal a trend toward getting costs and debt under control while continuing to show strong sales growth, CoreWeave stock may prove to be a worthwhile investment over the long run. But for now, only investors with a high risk tolerance should consider buying shares. Even then, another consideration is CoreWeave's stock valuation. This can be assessed by comparing its price-to-sales (P/S) ratio to other AI companies, such as its customer and fellow cloud provider Microsoft and AI leader Nvidia. Data by YCharts. CoreWeave's share price surged over recent weeks, causing its P/S multiple to skyrocket past that of Nvidia and Microsoft. The valuation suggests CoreWeave stock is overpriced at this time. Although CoreWeave's sales are strong, given its pricey stock and shaky financials, the ideal approach is to put CoreWeave on your watch list. See how it performs over the next few quarters, and wait for its high valuation to drop before considering an investment. Should you invest $1,000 in CoreWeave right now? Before you buy stock in CoreWeave, consider this: The Motley Fool Stock Advisor analyst team just identified what they believe are the 10 best stocks for investors to buy now… and CoreWeave wasn't one of them. The 10 stocks that made the cut could produce monster returns in the coming years. Consider when Netflix made this list on December 17, 2004... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you'd have $669,517!* Or when Nvidia made this list on April 15, 2005... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you'd have $868,615!* Now, it's worth noting Stock Advisor 's total average return is792% — a market-crushing outperformance compared to171%for the S&P 500. Don't miss out on the latest top 10 list, available when you join Stock Advisor. See the 10 stocks » *Stock Advisor returns as of June 2, 2025 Robert Izquierdo has positions in International Business Machines, Microsoft, and Nvidia. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends International Business Machines, Microsoft, and Nvidia. The Motley Fool recommends the following options: long January 2026 $395 calls on Microsoft and short January 2026 $405 calls on Microsoft. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
Toronto Star
2 hours ago
- Toronto Star
Why Toronto's streets keep ending up as a battleground — and what the fight should really be about
The big number 25 % the percentage of customers that business owners believed drove to access their stores along Bloor Street, according to a 2017 study. The actual number was less than 10 per cent. Hey, did you hear the story about the group fighting a proposed change to a Toronto street? They're really worked up about it, claiming that the proposal from Toronto city hall will devastate small businesses, bring traffic to a standstill, and maybe even usher in a 'Mad Max'-style apocalypse. 'Wait, which street?' you might be wondering. And the answer is, well, a whole lot of them. I've seen so darn many of these street fights in my decade-plus covering Toronto city hall, with the civic equivalent of knock-down drag-out brawls occurring again and again. And the street fighters just keep coming. Last week, an advocacy group dubbed the Downtown Concerned Citizens Association held a press conference to state its opposition to a bike lane extension planned for the Esplanade, between Yonge and Market Streets. 'Bike lanes restrict road space,' the group declared, according to a report by the CBC. 'Bike lanes have turned streets into parking lots, with residents unable to shop, get their kids to events, and seriously impact emergency services and Wheel-Trans.' Their opposition follows a similar — and at least partly AI-aided — uproar over city hall's plans to install transit-priority lanes on Bathurst Street and Dufferin Street. And a local tiff over a bit of bike infrastructure on North York's Marlee Avenue. And the ongoing fight over keeping bike lanes on Bloor Street, Yonge Street and University Avenue, where even Premier Doug Ford got involved. Go back further and there are more examples. Remember the street fighters who claimed prioritizing the King streetcar would mark the end of King West? Or the 'citizen's revolt' over bike lanes on Woodbine Avenue? Or the ' Save Our St. Clair' group that sued to try to stop the construction of the streetcar right-of-way on St. Clair? Heck, you can even go back to the '90s, when opposition groups along Spadina Avenue warned that removing the angled on-street parking to make way for dedicated streetcar lanes would somehow destroy the vibrancy of the street. They really loved those angled parking spaces. The frustrating thing isn't just the sheer repetition of the street fight stories, but also that the pile of accumulated data from these same fights never seems to change anything. Because when you do look at the record, the record is clear: where these kinds of projects have been allowed to go forward, and where traffic has been given enough time to adjust to the new street layouts, the result has been basically fine. The uproar and opposition inevitably fade away. People get used to the new bike lanes or the new transit lanes. The apocalyptic warnings are forgotten about. The apocalypse never arrives. At this point, with so many fights waged — not just in Toronto, but in other cities, too — you'd think there'd be at least a handful of examples where the dire warnings proved prophetic. Where bike lanes, bus lanes and the removal of some on-street parking led directly to boarded-up storefronts and permanently gridlocked traffic. But I've struggled to find real case studies that document that kind of catastrophic failure in any city anywhere in the world. ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW The repeated claim that transit lanes and bus lanes will destroy businesses deserves a special call-out because it seems to be based on a perception problem. The Centre for Active Transportation, for example, found via a 2017 study that Bloor Street retailers believed that about 25 per cent of their customers arrived via car. The actual percentage? Less than 10 per cent. Part of the issue might be that merchants were about five times more likely to drive to work than their customers. They drive, so they assume their customers do too. Meanwhile, data suggests the transit priority project on King Street and the bike lanes on Bloor Street actually led to increased retail spending. Go figure. None of this should be read as a suggestion that Toronto city hall and its plans are always perfectly on point. The transportation department tends to make change harder than it has to be. On Bloor West, for example, opposition to the bike lanes was likely made more intense by the baffling decision to install the lanes without making adjustments to signal timing at intersections. And the department is generally still not fast enough at addressing clear bottlenecks that could be eased with minor tweaks. Toronto's street fighters would be better served by focusing their energy on getting city hall to address those kinds of specific issues more quickly and efficiently, rather than always trying to land a knockout blow against any kind of change. When your punches are this weak, it's probably time to stop throwing hands.
