Canada

The world sorely needs more grains and Canada has a bin-busting harvest this year -- but shippers fear there aren’t enough rail cars to transport it all, Bloomberg News reported. There were almost 2,400 outstanding grain-car orders for the nation’s two major carriers, Canadian National Railway Co. and Canadian Pacific Railway Ltd., according to the latest data from Ag Transport Coalition. “We have to make up these orders,” Wade Sobkowich, executive director of the Winnipeg-based Western Grain Elevator Association, said Tuesday in a phone interview.

Canadian manufacturing activity contracted for a second straight month in September as higher borrowing costs and an uncertain economic outlook contributed to a drop in new orders, but the pace of decline lessened, data showed on Monday, Reuters reported. The S&P Global Canada Manufacturing Purchasing Managers' Index (PMI) rose to a seasonally adjusted 49.8 in September after falling to 48.7 in August, its lowest level since June 2020. A reading below 50 shows contraction in the sector.

Laurentian University plans to ask permission to finally make public letters between LU and the province that were sealed by the courts at the beginning of its insolvency in early 2021, Sudbury.com reported. On Sept. 14, the university’s creditors voted narrowly in favour of Laurentian University’s plan of arrangement, allowing Laurentian to clear a major hurdle to finally being able to exit creditor protection. A plan of arrangement is essentially a plan put forward by an insolvent organization to pay out its creditors, and it must be approved by these creditors.

The Bank of Canada will begin publishing a minutes-like summary of deliberations by officials after each policy decision in an effort to enhance transparency as it faces one of the most severe tests of its credibility, Bloomberg News reported. The move comes in response to a review by the International Monetary Fund, released on Wednesday, of the central bank’s transparency practices. The Bank of Canada said it will produce summaries roughly two weeks after each policy meeting, starting with the Jan. 25 decision.

Inflation is too high in Canada, so the Bank of Canada needs to increase interest rates to slow spending and give the economy time to catch up, Governor Tiff Macklem said on Monday in a video posted by the central bank on Twitter, Reuters reported. "Inflation is too high," Macklem said in a video tagged #AskTheBoC, echoing remarks made earlier this month after the central bank hiked its policy rate by 75-basis points to 3.25%.

Suncor Energy Inc. is pushing ahead with a bond buyback as oil prices near this year’s lows amid recession worries, Bloomberg News reported. Calgary-based Suncor plans to buy up to C$1.75 billion ($1.27 billion) of securities from 10 series of outstanding notes in US and Canadian dollars, the company said in a statement Monday. Cenovus Energy Inc., another large Canadian oil company, did a similar offer earlier this month.

Laurentian University expects to ask for creditor protection to be extended to Nov. 30 at an upcoming hearing, according to court documents filed on Friday, Sudbury.com reported. The “stay of proceedings” protecting the insolvent university from its creditors currently expires Sept. 30. Laurentian University has been undergoing court-supervised restructuring under the Companies’ Creditors Arrangement Act (or CCAA) since declaring insolvency in February 2021.

Inflation in Canada remains "too high" but is headed in the right direction, a Bank of Canada official said on Tuesday, adding that the central bank will do whatever is needed to bring price increases back to target, Reuters reported. Deputy Governor Paul Beaudry, speaking to university students in Waterloo, Ontario, said while some have suggested a recession might be needed to tame climbing prices, the central bank believed it could lower the risk of a hard landing by clearly communicating its intentions. "In August, inflation stood at 7%.

Canada's annual inflation rate eased more than expected in August even as food prices rose at their fastest pace in 41 years, data showed on Tuesday, with economists saying now smaller rate hikes may be best, Reuters reported. The country's annual inflation rate slowed to 7.0% in August, below analyst forecasts of 7.3% and down from 7.6% in July. The deceleration was largely due to lower gasoline prices and slower gains in the shelter index, Statistics Canada said. On the month, the consumer price index fell 0.3%, the largest decline since early in the COVID-19 pandemic.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced C$4.5 billion ($3.43 billion) in measures on Tuesday intended to provide relief from high inflation to low-income families, Reuters reported. The measures include doubling a quarterly tax credit sent to individuals and families with low and modest incomes to offset sales tax, and a C$500, onetime top-up to a housing benefit that is provided to low earners who need help with rent, Trudeau said. Trudeau's Liberal government will also provide up to C$650 per year for dental care to children under 12 who do not have access to dental insurance.