Category: Gradually Then Suddenly

Stiff Upper Elbows, Mates

‘Things are going to get a whole lot worse’

The London region has recorded the highest unemployment rate among Canada’s large cities for April, reaching 9.2 per cent, according to the latest figures released by Statistics Canada.

The month saw a loss of 1,800 jobs in the area, which includes London, St. Thomas and Strathroy.

The statistics paint a challenging economic picture, with experts warning of further declines.

Canada Strong

So grateful they gave us a new Governor to turn the economy around.

A Winnipeg-founded retail chain is seeking a Manitoba court’s approval to liquidate its 128 stores across the country.

Warehouse One announced Wednesday that it had begun proceedings under the Companies’ Creditors Arrangement Act (CCAA) that would allow the denim retailer to begin shutting down.

“After careful consideration of all reasonably available options, the company has made the difficult decision to commence the CCAA proceedings to allow for an orderly wind down of its operations, including all Warehouse One and Bootlegger retail locations,” Warehouse One wrote in a news release.

The company currently operates 128 retail stores under its Warehouse One and Bootlegger banners in Alberta, British Columbia, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Ontario, Newfoundland, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and Yukon.

Going Bust?

About 10 years ago I visited Monette Farms and I was intrigued by their aggressive business model. But now that a lot of their debt has to be refinanced at much higher interest rates, their creditors are knocking at the door. I can’t help but think that they’re not alone.

…company founder Darrel Monette put land up for sale to generate cash. His largest creditor, a syndicate of lenders led by Scotiabank, worked with him time and again to try to keep the Saskatchewan-based farm afloat.

It didn’t work.

Monette didn’t sell enough land, and the syndicate loan, originally $950 million with $830 million outstanding, came due April 15. Monette owes about $905 million in secured debt, and the nearly 500,000-acre operation faces massive restructuring if it hopes to survive.

 

Borrow Some More, Daddy!

Judging by the headline, you’d think that the United States was the only country facing this problem. It would be difficult, in fact, to find a nation that isn’t looking down the barrel of the same gun. Aside from Milei in Argentina, it would be just as difficult to find a government willing to turn down the spending taps in any meaningful way.

As of Tuesday, government debt held by the public is about $31.27 trillion, according to the US Treasury. Meanwhile, the US nominal gross domestic product (GDP) from April 1, 2025, to March 31, 2026, was an estimated $31.22 trillion, according to new Commerce Department data released Thursday.

What’s The Opposite Of Diversity?

Overdue.

Circling The Drain

Two notable takeaways from Newfoundland’s recent budget: this is a record breaking deficit figure from an allegedly conservative government, and health care now eats up nearly half of all spending. We’ll be well on the way to two thirds before long and that will be the case for every province.

The budget forecasts a deficit of $688.5 million and a $20.8 billion net debt by the end of the 2026-27 fiscal year.

The province will spend $5.4 billion on health care — 42 per cent of its entire expenses — including more than $47 million to create 200 new long-term care beds.

Gradually, Then Suddenly

How are them elbows working out for ya?

Rogers Communications is offering voluntary departure packages to roughly half of its employees, in what is believed to be the largest round of buyout offers in Canada’s telecom sector in recent years.

Rogers said about 50 per cent of its roughly 25,000 employees across numerous business divisions will be offered packages, according to the Globe & Mail.

“We are taking steps to adjust our cost structure to reflect the business realities of the current environment. As part of this, some teams have chosen to offer voluntary departure and retirement programs to give some employees the choice to decide whether they’d like to stay with the company or begin a new chapter,” said Rogers spokesperson Zac Carreiro in the report.

New Governor, Same As The Old Governor

All I know about cutting trade ties with the US is how well it worked out for Cuba.

Under Mark Carney, Canada’s posture toward the United States has shifted with surprising speed—less theatrical than Trump’s, but no less consequential. In April 2025, we were promised a renewed economic and security partnership. By the summer, we were told the existing deal was already the best possible outcome. Fast forward to April 2026, and suddenly our reliance on the U.S. is framed as a strategic weakness. All of this, notably, after months without meaningful engagement or negotiation.

That messaging matters. Especially when delivered in a widely viewed address suggesting that CUSMA—the backbone of North American trade—is somehow on life support. It leaves industry asking a basic question: what exactly is the plan?

Circling The Drain

Unaffordable housing creates a lot more problems than declining provincial education funding as families move to cheaper abodes. But then again, the same people bemoaning this problem are likely the same ones who cheered for zero percent interest rates that sparked the housing bubble to begin with.

Families aren’t just moving to a different neighbourhood; they’re leaving the region entirely. Driven by a cost of living that has become unsustainable for many young parents, the “Surrey dream” is being packed into moving trucks and headed further east — out of the valley and, in many cases, out of the province.

Going Bust

For over a decade, Canadian real estate markets and their lenders have acted like the housing price ratchet could only go one way: up. Now they’re finding out that the price ratchet can go the other way too.

The result was a sudden stampede of buyers who triggered an unprecedented run-up that put the average sale price of a traditional, ranch-style, Brantford bungalow close to $900,000 at the market peak in 2022 compared to a mere $300,000 or so in 2016.

Flash forward, and the average home in Brantford in February sold for $625,135, according to the Canadian Real Estate Association, a 30 per cent drop from 2022 that has saddled homeowners there with an unexpected housing crisis that Canadians…are all too familiar with today.

 

Circling The Drain

Nine years to fully end door to door mail delivery? There’s obviously no sense of urgency despite the mounting losses. And no obvious outrage among taxpayers. That’s Canada for you.

Joël Lightbound, minister of Government Transformation, Public Works and Procurement, said last fall that the process to eliminate most door-to-door service would take about nine years, with most of it expected to be completed in the first four.

Canada Post lost $841 million before tax in 2024.

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