Canadian Personal Finance Blog

That is what Stats Canada says, which is not surprising, but the fact that it was only 2.2% amazes me a little. In 2006 the CPI was 2.0% so this is not a large jump in the CPI year over year, however, as I keep saying the impact of sky rocketing energy prices is still to be shaken out of the market.

Housing in 2007 seems mostly to blame for higher prices, but energy started having an effect by the end of the year as well:

Price increases for basic and frequently-purchased commodities, like food, also fuelled consumer prices in 2007. However, price declines for a number of commodities, particularly several of those less frequently purchased, such as new vehicles and computer equipment, mitigated the rise in consumer prices. Faced with higher prices for frequently-purchased commodities and lower prices for those not frequently purchased, consumers might perceive that inflation was increasing at a faster pace than measured by aggregate inflation.

Interesting view on things, wonder how important vehicles are going to be in the future? Will there be a glut coming soon, or will the Asian continent simply pick up the slack?

Very interesting indeed, this year is going to be a very different kettle of fish.

Politeness Wins Out

One of the Mantras that I espouse on this humble site is to be Polite when dealing with Customer Service folks in specific and with most folks in general (remember being Polite to Police is very important). Yesterday another example of speaking to someone who you want to fix something in a polite way helps out again.

My eldest just graduated from High School and we are very proud, however, we noticed she didn’t get an Ontario Scholar “tag” in her graduation. Given her previous marks we were alarmed to think what might have happened to her marks to cause this inability to keep her average at the correct level (80% for 6 Grade 12 courses).

I decided after discussing (calmly) with my daughter that there must have been a mistake, so I called the school and asked in a polite way if someone could look into this for me, and sure enough it was an error on their part and they are rectifying the situation. I was very thankful to the woman who called me back, but it again shows that acting in an aggressive or rude fashion rarely gets you what you want (unless you are a loan shark), but with a little politeness and courteousness you’d be surprised what can happen.

Happy long weekend to my Canadian readers (ok EXTRA long weekend, since you have to take Monday off to really make it a long weekend).

One of the interesting trends I have noticed in my household is that during the summer months spending tends to drop, due to:

• No school fees needed for trips and such
• School lunches are now part of the regular groceries
• Organized sports are mostly complete so very little spending there
• Less running around, so a little less gas money spent.

This gives us a chance to try to catch up before the September onslaught of spending. September to December is the worst spending time for my family, due to start of school, sports and Christmas all piling in together and causing a glut of spending.

Did I mention it’s 6 months and 8 days until Christmas? Have you started planning yet?

Lazy Good For Nothing Canadian Workers

I mean that in a facetious fashion of course, but productivity dropped for another quarter again, according to Stats Canada.

In the first quarter of 2008, the labour productivity of Canadian businesses declined for a second consecutive quarter, in a context of inclement weather, reduced working hours, and a widespread drop in manufacturing output, especially in the motor vehicle industry.

Productivity of Canadian businesses edged down 0.3% in the first quarter of 2008, slowing from the upward revised 0.7% decline in the fourth quarter of 2007. The back-to-back declines followed four quarters of growth.

I think higher gas prices is going to be hitting us and a much stronger Canadian Dollar is going to really hurt manufacturing for a good long while.

BCE Takeover to the Supreme Court

BCE takeover bid takes another step towards wherever it may end up with a Supreme Court hearing being set. This expedited hearing means that BCE’s battle with it’s bondholders might be over soon and the final fate of BCE may be known before my kids go back to school? Maybe a little premature on that, but who knows?

More importantly the BCE board has defferred on whether to declare a second quarter dividend until the end of June, and speculation has it that that money might be used as part of a deal with the bondholders.

The Canadian Press reported Friday that one scenario would see the $294 million that otherwise would be paid as the second-quarter dividend instead used to compensate bondholders.

Hey, that’s my money! I am a shareholder and I hold BCE as a dividend paying asset, and you guys are keeping my money? Hey!

BMO analyst did a survey and even with the Canadian dollar hovering around parity with it’s American cousin, prices of things in Canada are still 18% more expensive than they are in the U.S. . Is this surprising, not to me, price gouging has been going on for Canadians for a good long time, and I don’t expect parity in pricing in the next year if the Canadian Dollar stays at parity. When a CD costs $12.99 in Canada and $9.99 in the US (the same one) you can see that the Canadian market is not that important to the manufacturers. Do I sound bitter? You bet.

Tim Horton’s Savings Plan

Now with companies like Kia and Rogers using the “If you didn’t buy coffee you could buy this” in their advertising (please note I mentioned this first in the Tim Horton’s Savings Plan many years ago), maybe Tim Horton’s should start their own bank, like PC Financial. Offer points for frequent users and then they can introduce the save a nickel with every coffee, which would be their customer lock. Each time a customer buys with their Pre-paid card, 5 cents is deposited in a savings account for them (or their RRSP), Scotiabank already offers something like this as do other financial institutions.

Look for the “Bank of the Big Cajun Man” coming soon!

New Housing Price Increases Still Up

As with last month, this month’s year over year increase was lower at 5.2% and the month over month increase was Zero, which is quite interesting too. Have a look in the attached table for where you live and the new house price increase.

New housing prices increased at their slowest pace in more than two and a half years in April, despite strong markets in Saskatchewan, Newfoundland and Labrador and Nova Scotia.