A Nova Scotia home heating fuel company that filed for bankruptcy last week has accused an accounting firm of negligence, saying it was hit with a "crippling shortfall" of nearly $10 million after being led to believe it was making money, CBC.ca reported. Maritime Fuels Ltd. declared bankruptcy last week, leaving in the lurch an unknown number of customers who had prepaid for their winter home heating fuel.
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Canada
Consumer prices in Canada rose at the slowest pace since June, a reassuring sign for central bank policymakers that rates are now high enough to significantly cool inflation pressures, Bloomberg News reported. The consumer price index increased 3.1% in October from a year ago, following a 3.8% increase in September, Statistics Canada reported Tuesday in Ottawa. That matched the median estimate in a Bloomberg survey of economists. The deceleration was largely a result of lower prices for gasoline, while the largest contributors to the increase remain mortgage interest cost, groceries and rent.
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After several years of persistently low commodity prices driving a wave of corporate insolvencies, bankruptcy professionals in Alberta say that it's become increasingly rare to see these companies fail, CBC.ca reported. The financial rebound is providing relief for the province's orphaned-well problem. Fewer companies becoming insolvent means fewer companies abandoning their assets, which can become environmental and safety hazards. When a single company fails, it can result in thousands of oil and gas wells, in addition to hundreds of facilities and pipelines, that no longer have an owner.
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Canada's financial watchdog said on Monday it was seeking feedback on the public disclosure of cryptocurrency assets by federally regulated financial institutions, joining global regulators in ramping up scrutiny on the volatile sector, Reuters reported. The consultation by Canada's Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions (OSFI) comes after the agency in July proposed new guidelines for crypto assets citing a risky environment.
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Monetary policy in Canada wouldn’t be as restrictive if elected officials had restrained their spending in recent years, according to economists at the Bank of Nova Scotia, Bloomberg News reported. Roughly 200 basis points of interest rate tightening stems from the combined program spending and consumption by Canada’s federal and provincial governments since the pandemic, Scotiabank economists Jean-François Perrault and Rene Lalonde wrote in a report to investors.
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Canadian home sales fell in October by the most in 16 months as higher borrowing costs continued to keep buyers on the sidelines, data from the Canadian Real Estate Association (CREA) showed on Wednesday, Reuters reported. Canadian home sales fell 5.6% in October from September, the fourth straight month of declines and the biggest since June 2022. On an annual basis, without adjustment for seasonal variation, sales were up 0.9%. "We're only in November, but it appears many would-be home buyers have already gone into hibernation," Larry Cerqua, Chair of CREA, said in a statement.
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As Canada's economy enters a period of sluggish growth, the big banks are looking to fortify their balance sheets against rising bad debts, but instead of tapping shareholders for funds, the lenders are expected to sell non-core assets and cap dividends, fund managers and analysts said, Reuters reported. With the economy slowing and adding fewer jobs, banks are anticipating more consumers could default on credit-card payments and mortgages, hurting profits.
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A Vancouver music store has fallen victim to an apparent fraud scheme that has put the future of the business at risk, Global News reported. Exile Electronics, located on Main Street, said it was hit by three massive fraudulent transactions after barely squeaking by in recent years. “The (fraudulent) sales happened last October (in 2022) and we found out about them in January,” Chris Young, Exile’s co-owner, said. The customer said a local show needed some specific gear. “They were not things we stocked, but they were things that would be good sales for us,” said Young.
The Canadian dollar weakened against its U.S. counterpart on Monday, pulling back from an almost-three-week high, as financial markets globally consolidated last week's sharp moves, Reuters reported. The loonie was trading 0.2% lower at 1.3680 to the greenback, or 73.10 U.S. cents, after touching its strongest intraday level since Oct. 18 at 1.3630. Last week, the currency posted its biggest weekly gain since March after data showing a slowdown in U.S. job growth bolstered expectations that the Federal Reserve is finished raising interest rates.