Retailers are in trouble and there's more to come: insolvency, restructuring experts
The fall of Hudson's Bay and Saks Fifth Avenue Canada may give the impression that one of the hottest trends this year is the distressed look, but retail and insolvency experts say the company's demise is part of a now-annual pitter-patter they expect to continue.
Since the COVID-19 pandemic, they've seen hundreds of retail businesses reach the brink every year. As a result, some restructured, others reduced their store count — and many closed for good.
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Global News
an hour ago
- Global News
Sub-par Chinese steel delayed B.C.'s Pattullo Bridge replacement, industry advocate claims
An advocacy group for the Canadian steel sector is pinning construction delays on B.C.'s Pattullo Bridge replacement, in part, on the use of steel from China. 'That steel came from Asia and both cost jobs in the Lower Mainland in B.C. and cost time,' Keenan Loomis, president and CEO of the Canadian Institute of Steel Construction, told Global News on Thursday. 'I think that if the decision had gone to Canadian fabricators, that right now there would be cars driving over the Pattullo Bridge.' 1:56 Metro Vancouver transportation megaprojects update The new four-lane Pattullo replacement was originally meant to be complete by 2023, but now has a target date of late 2025. The estimated price tag has also increased from $1.37 billion to $1.64 billion. Story continues below advertisement Loomis first raised the concerns in a presentation to the legislature's select standing committee on finance and government services earlier this week. He told Global News the Chinese bid came in at $20 million under the competing Canadian offer, but said the result is steel that is not always engineered to Canadian standards. That means that when the material arrives on site, 'there's a lot of fixes that are required.' 'In fact, Canadian fabricators are being brought in right now to do all the upgrades that are needed to bring this bridge online,' he said. Get daily National news Get the day's top news, political, economic, and current affairs headlines, delivered to your inbox once a day. Sign up for daily National newsletter Sign Up By providing your email address, you have read and agree to Global News' Terms and Conditions and Privacy Policy 'You also have to look at, overall, the total installed cost … ultimately, we ended up spending a lot more to fix all the defects.' 1:48 Completion dates for Broadway subway, Pattullo Bridge pushed back B.C.'s Ministry of Transportation and Transit called Loomis' claims 'pure speculation.' Story continues below advertisement It said Fraser Crossing Partners, the consortium building the bridge, undertook a competitive bid process to source its materials, and that structural steel fabrication was being overseen by engineers with professional designations in B.C. 'Delays to the construction of the new bridge were a result of major disruptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, which impacted sectors across the global economy including construction,' the ministry said in a statement. 'A full-time quality oversight team at the fabrication site in China maintained a continuous presence on the shop floor throughout production shifts to ensure quality requirements were being met. Both FCP and the Province had full-time quality representatives at the fabrication site.' All steel used in the project also passed chemical and mechanical testing, it said. BC Conservative transportation critic Harman Bhangu said claims of substandard Chinese steel raise serious safety and budgetary concerns. 'We should do a check to see which projects throughout British Columbia are using this steel, and we should have a full investigation into it because public safety should be number one,' he said. Bhangu pointed to Victoria's $105 million Johnson Street Bridge replacement, which opened in 2018, years late and nearly $10 million over budget due to substandard Chinese steel. 'It is unbelievable that it takes us this long to build a bridge; it is actually a shame,' Bhangu said. Story continues below advertisement 'We need to start using some of our own resources, get our steel industry going, get our minerals going, and we need to get that to market and start building right here in B.C. … and it can't always be the cheapest bid, because we know the cheapest bid won't always be at that price or on time.' The controversy comes as B.C.'s NDP government also faces heat over BC Ferries' decision to procure its next four major vessels from a Chinese shipyard, a move it says will save $1.2 billion. 2:05 Canada adjusts steel and aluminum tariffs with the U.S. No Canadian shipyards entered a bid for the job, though B.C. shipbuilding giant Seaspan said it couldn't compete with foreign yards given there were no incentives for local builders in the competition. Earlier Thursday, Prime Minister Mark Carney unveiled new measures to protect and incentivize Canada's steel and aluminum sectors, in the wake of punishing U.S. tariffs and a simmering global trade war. Story continues below advertisement Loomis said it was a good start towards revitalizing the industry. 'Finally, people are waking up to the fact that others are not playing by the trading rules that we seem to be holding ourselves to account to,' he said. 'And so it's a whole new world, but we really need to be mindful of where our dollars are being spent.'
Calgary Herald
2 hours ago
- Calgary Herald
Calgary needs 45 per cent more housing annually: CMHC
Despite a surge in housing construction in the past few years, Calgary needs to increase its annual production by more than 45 per cent to reverse the city's affordability woes ushered in by COVID-19, according to a new report by the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation. Article content The finding is part of a broader examination of the real estate landscape in Canada, which also concludes the country will need to double its housing starts to bring its levels of affordability down to those of 2019. That means an addition of between 430,000 to 480,000 homes. Article content Article content Article content House prices, an important indicator of affordability, have steadily increased in the past few years. In Calgary, the average annual growth in prices between 2004 and 2019 was 4.3 per cent. The average rate between 2019 and 2024 grew to 7.3 per cent, making it harder for average Calgarians to afford a home in the city. Article content Article content The organization deems a housing unit affordable when its owner or renter is paying 30 per cent or less of their gross income towards shelter costs. Homeowners in Calgary, on average, paid 38 per cent of their gross income to housing expenses between 2019 and 2024, a sharp rise from 27 per cent 15 years before. Article content Rent prices, meanwhile, have more than doubled in those time periods, rising from 3.4 per cent between 2004 and 2019 to 7.9 per cent in the last five years. Article content Comparing CMHC's data on home prices and rent is complicated by the fact the organization calculates rent growth based on rates at most purpose-built rental units and not just those available for new tenants at the current market price. Article content Article content Although CMHC says it has started to report on rents when units are turned over to new tenants, reflecting market transactions, 'these are insufficient for modelling.' Article content Article content 'The loss of affordability over the past (two) decades has been large and is becoming larger,' the report stated. Article content Aled ab Iorwerth, deputy chief economist for CMHC, ascribes this problem to the pandemic, when people in cities, mainly Toronto and Vancouver, grew tired of housing costs and long commutes, and eventually moved to other cities. This was made possible by the option to work remotely. Article content As a result, demand rose in other parts of the country, as did prices. However, living costs didn't get any cheaper in Toronto and Vancouver, where demand for housing continued to rise with a higher population. Article content 'You're still seeing population growth and income growth in those cities, so it's just that they still have positive population and income growth, albeit slower than in Alberta,' he added.
Montreal Gazette
2 hours ago
- Montreal Gazette
Quebec exports, imports dropped in April amid trade war
By Quebec's international exports declined 12.5 per cent from to March to April, the largest percentage decline since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, the province's statistics institute said Thursday. The decline, which came during the first full month during which United States import tariffs were in place on Canadian aluminum and steel, followed a 4.5 per cent decline in exports from February to March, according to the Institut de la statistique du Québec. Exports to the United States dropped 26.9 per cent from March to April, with $6.3 billion in exports heading south of the border that month, the lowest level since February 2022. The U.S. imposed and paused across-the-board tariffs on Canadian goods in February and March, before exempting goods that are compliant with the Canada-United States-Mexico Agreement. U.S. tariffs on all aluminum and steel imports — including from Canada — came into effect in March 12 and were doubled in June. Exports to all other countries dropped by 10.7 per cent from March to April, the ISQ said. Despite the month-to-month decline, overall exports were up 2.9 per cent in April when compared to the year before. The province's imports declined 9.2 per cent from March to April, after declining 5.7 per cent the month before, the ISQ said. However, they were up 1.3 per cent from April 2024. The ISQ says export data from the federal government was delayed due to issues with a new computer system used by the Canada Border Services Agency.
