John Curtin was congratulated on winning two Golden Sheaf awards at the 60th annual Yorkton Short Film and Video Festival last month for his wonderful documentary on Terry Mosher (Aislin): Dangerous When Provoked His next undertaking is a production for CTV, "To Hell with Manners: the decline of civility". It is profoundly hoped that he will not select Wednesday Night as an illustration.
Foreign acquisition of resource companies
A short clip was played of Michael Enwright's interview with Andrea Mandel-Campbell, author of Why Mexicans Don't Drink Molson(andreamandelcampbell.com/), which generated discussion of the timidity/conservative approach of Canadian investors. Canadians tend to be cautious and conservative when buying, but want top dollar when they sell. We have been investing in foreign countries for years, but now that our resource companies, and corporations such as the quintessentially Canadian Hudson Bay Company are foreign owned, a red flag has gone up.
In the fear and discussion over this issue we appear to be ignoring a more vital threat to our national continued existence, namely water, our most precious resource in great demand and currently in plentiful supply. Canada has 7% of the world's renewable supply of freshwater and 20% of the world's total freshwater resources (including waters captured in glaciers and the polar ice caps ec.gc.ca/WATER backgr).
[We should be mindful that only 1% of the world's water is usable as about 97% is sea (salt) water, and 2% is frozen in glaciers and polar ice caps.]
Some Wednesday Nighters believe that the water issue will ultimately bring us into conflict with our southern neighbours. If this scenario is accurate, we cannot possibly win and would undoubtedly lose our national identity along with our most vital resource.
The rising dollar
An interesting sidelight has been the increasing value placed on the Canadian dollar, undoubtedly linked to increasing foreign acquisition of Canadian companies in Canadian currency. This increase in price, but not value, of our currency has affected our exports, thus having a negative effect on our economy. Former Wednesday Nighter, Stephen Poloz, Vice President of the Export Development Corporation believes that, while "the prices of natural gas, copper, nickel and agricultural goods have also risen significantly in the past six months, adding 1-2 cents to the dollar's intrinsic value…the bigger reason has to do with expectations of global monetary policies" and concludes that " The loonie is looking for a comfortable nest in a familiar neighbourhood. A forward view of the fundamentals, including declines in a number of commodity prices, suggests that it will land somewhere around 83-84 cents later this year."
Stephen S. Poloz VP EDC Economics Weekly Commentary Loonie's Northern Flight - May 16, 2007
NEW: You can now listen to Weekly Commentary each week as an EDC podcast. To hear an audio version, simply click the "Listen" link, or right-click on the link to save the podcast to your computer.
Last year at this time, the loonie made a dash for the US 90-91 cent range, and many forecasters were expecting it to go much higher, even to parity. Oil prices, then over $70 per barrel, were the main driver, and many expected that they, too, would continue to rise. With each increase in oil prices of $10 likely to add 3 cents to the value of the Canadian dollar, the prospect of $100 oil and a loonie flying at parity with the American eagle seemed possible. Past issues | his WN page
Commentary podcast.
The stock market has been on a long, positive, bull run, yielding impressive rewards to investors, inevitably raising the question of the value of financial advisors, gurus and mutual funds, each claiming a reward for their expertise. While some claim that investing in index funds in the present market is more financially rewarding than working with an advisor or mutual funds; others, who follow the thinking of Jeremy Siegel point out that investing in solid companies with good management and reinvesting the dividends, is the way to go in the longer term. The bull market will inevitably reach its apex in the near future and revisiting this discussion will be interesting.
Québec election?
During his term-and-a-bit in office, Jean Charest has inexplicably squandered much of the good will he had when first elected by playing the role of politician rather than that of statesman. Now, faced with the prospect of another election, rather than making acceptable compromises with the parties in opposition, he appears to be playing chicken with them. It is clear that the population of Québec does not want a second election in the space of less than a year and if the Liberal Party cannot bring itself to compromise with the opposition, the Lieutenant Governor should follow the lead of Ontario in a comparable situation with Peterson's Liberals and Bob Rae's NDP, and name Mario Dumont Premier while extracting a commitment from all parties to refrain from an election for a period of eighteen months to two years. While avoiding a costly election, the second within a year, this would also serve the purpose of providing a reasonably stable government while enabling the three parties to replenish their coffers. The Liberals could profit by transforming some of their arrogance into statesmanship, the Parti Québécois would be able to test the strength of its own new leader and the weaknesses of both the leadership and the rank and file of the ADQ, and Mario Dumont would have the opportunity to test his mettle in the National Assembly arena.
The visit of Governor Schwarzenegger to Canada has generated considerable interest, is regarded as having been productive and has also elicited a number of comparisons to the leadership in Canada, with a definite tinge of envy on the part of Canadians for his enthusiastic leadership on environmental issues and his attitude that "it’s possible to take care of our economy at the same time we take care of our planet". This attitude was greeted with some scepticism by some Wednesday Nighters, but ardently championed by others.
The Governor's visit to BC also generated discussion of the Hydrogen Highway planned for the 2010 Olympics
With more evasion than leadership from our federal government, it is virtually certain that our commitments to the Kyoto Protocol will not be met because there are not the carbon-reducing technologies with which to do so. Canada has fallen behind the world, in part perhaps, because we speak of cost rather than investment in becoming more energy efficient. Certainly motor vehicles and farm equipment are more costly than horses, and mechanized equipment more efficient than hand labour, but had the Luddites prevailed, it is doubtful that society could have reached its current level of sophistication. It has been reported that Alberta oil and gas companies are currently supporting Kyoto as the world reacts to Canada’s apparent indifference. We could go back to consuming only local production of food and produce in order to reduce fuel consumption but that would result in inbreeding and protectionism, a retrograde step.
To date, the most realistic solution is nuclear energy released by fast breeder reactors. Unfortunately this initiative would take up to twenty years to develop. However if the past is any indication, the development phase is infectious and new technologies appear and are developed in a parallel fashion, the most efficient normally winning the race until it, too, is superseded by another generation of technology. There are currently twenty-eight nuclear plants being built in twelve countries, a figures that is miniscule in comparison to the 850 coal-fired plants due to come online in China, India and the United States by 2012
What is the fine if Canada doesn't making Kyoto targets, what are the consequences internationally and what is the monetary cost?
It's not the environment at the cost of the economy – it's an opportunity
Our favorite commentator, Rex Murphy , gave a rousing conclusion to the discussion with a particularly vigorous rant on carbon certificates.
Like the report of Mark Twain's death, reports of the death of radio –at least FM – are greatly exaggerated.
Private clinics and Québec healthcare
It is unfortunate that the Québec health care system which is excellent in quality, lacks adequate access. The failure of the government to provide timely access to the system has led to a small but expanding number of private clinics, which, if left unchecked, will ultimately erode the public system. It is to be hoped that the message will become clear to the government and that steps will be taken to provide us with the accessible, quality medical care that we expect, deserve and pay for. It is indispensable that we learn how to harness ideas and practices from the private system to make the public sector work better (something that the McGill Faculty of Management is addressing). Patient-centered collective bargaining would contribute to an efficient system. There is much to be learned from both the British and Australian systems. Medi Care
Note
Wednesday-Night creates charts and follows stocks, including timely related financial news items, in which Wednesday Nighters are interested and in order to demonstrate a service that could eventually be developed and marketed. Wednesday Nighters are invited to participate and help to test the service. see Wednesday-Night.com Flip charts
QUOTES of the EVENING from recent Wednesday Nights
It’s not a Bush problem, it’s an American problem. He is playing double or nothing. He is trying to shift the responsibility from the Coalition to the Iraqis
New York City has more police officers than Iraq has troops
Menu to mitworld.mit.edu/ on-demand videos of significant public events at MIT. in RealPlayer
Ex Thomas L. Friedman. While you were Seeping The World IS Flat Video length is 1:15:04.
Stephen S. Poloz VP EDC Economics Weekly Commentary Canada's Banks Are Exporters too - May 30, 2007
Even those who have heard about the various forays into the global economy by Canadian banks tend to think of them as a domestic business. Well, think again.
Canada's banks are big, at least by Canadian standards - global standards are another thing altogether. Of course, virtually every dollar of Canada's more than $1 trillion in GDP is touched or facilitated by a bank. However, the Canadian banking industry contributes about 3% of total GDP directly, or something in excess of $33 billion annually. Domestically, they employ some 250,000 people, about 1.5% of total employment. Past issues | his WN page
Andy Nulman 
BBC
Stephen S. Poloz
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Wed1316 report 
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