As Eric stated in his blog post “The Real Reason Burger King is Buying Tim Hortons“, burger giant Burger King has recently agreed to take over Canada’s famous Tim Hortons for 11 billion dollars. Coincidentally (or maybe not), if Burger King relocates to Canada, they will pay 14% less tax than they previously paid in the U.S. As the world’s second largest burger giant, Burger King would be saving a large sum of cash with a 14% tax break. This is not the first time that 3G (Burger King’s majority shareholder) has bought a company with plans to expand. As seen in this article, 3G bought Anheuser-Busch for $52 billion in 2008 and quickly used it to nearly take over the market for beer. 

Along with lower taxes, Burger King is about to acquire a Canadian fast-food chain that knows a lot about breakfast. By gaining inside breakfast-knowledge from Tim Hortons, Burger King could earn big profits by hopping on the morning coffee-and-doughnut train.

I agree with Eric that buying Tim Hortons was a smart move on Burger King’s behalf, but it will be interesting to see whether the rest of the world will fall in love with Timmies the way that us Canadians have.

Taseko Mines Ltd. has been approved by the provincial government twice to build a copper-gold mine near Williams Lake, BC (see this article). Both of these approvals, however, were rejected by the federal government. The Tsilhqot’in people of British Columbia plan to include the land on which Taseko will build their mine. If the Tsilhquot’in win this land in court, the mine will not be built. The scheduled unveiling for the “Tribal Park” is October 4th. The park will include 3,120 square kilometres of active habitat and act as a preservation area for fish and other wildlife. The land will be sustainable logged by first nations peoples to provide the first nations community with jobs. This land includes Fish Lake, a fish bearing lake which was the original site for the Taseko mine. The native population fought for the mine site to be moved and won, saving numerous fish, grizzly bears, and other animals in the area.

In 2015, the court will rule whether the copper gold mine move forward at Little Fish Lake or not. This mine will use Little Fish Lake as its tailings pond contaminating more fish habitat, and may also contaminate the upper river leading to Fish Lake. British Columbia’s provincial government believes that making this land into a Tribal Park will help to build a lasting bond with the first peoples of BC.

As stated in this article, Saskatchewan has recently developed old-age technology to solve new-age environmental problems. Saskatchewan has taken an old coal-fired power plant and developed it into a carbon dioxide eliminating machine. This technology can capture up to 1 million tonnes of CO2 per year, significantly reducing Canada’s carbon dioxide footprint if adopted by other provinces. This CO2 reducing technology is not new, the same idea having been shut down by Alberta’s government in 2012, but this is the first time that it has been used on an existing power plant.

The one existing  plant located in southern Saskatchewan cost tax payers $1.4 billion Canadian to create. Neither tax payers nor the federal government are likely to see a financial return on this investment. Electricity costs would have to rise over 80% to cover the costs of these facilities, which is highly unlikely in the near future.

There is little hope of projects such as this one spreading to other parts of Canada. Other provinces such as Alberta have imposed a carbon tax of $15 per ton rather than installing expensive equipment to capture green house gas emissions. In the future, the government may be forced to spend the money on projects like these, but only if they get serious about raising the price of carbon.

As stated in this article, Keurig’s Green Mountain Coffee has recently been sued by Canada’s Club Coffee for 600 million dollars for allegedly engaging in anti-competitive measures to keep their monopoly in the single serve coffee market. Because of Keurig’s monopoly, single serve coffee prices are artificially high.

This is where competitors’ Canada’s Club Coffee and Rogers Family co. come in. Both of these companies offer alternative coffee pods which also fit into Keurig’s machine but market at a significantly lower price. Keurig’s new product, the Keurig 2.0, uses lockout technology which only responds to Keurig licensed k-packs. This new technology excludes competitors from selling their own versions of coffee pods, forcing consumers to pay more for their self serve coffee by purchasing only Keurig brand packs.

If Canada’s Club Coffee loses the lawsuit with Keurig, they will be forced to find an alternative machine to produce their coffee. In efforts to counteract this deficit, an option for Canada’s Club Coffee is to begin producing their own self-serve coffee machine to be sold at a lower price than the Keurig 2.0. A more affordable version of the Keurig would be a better option for low income coffee drinkers, and save competitors from going out of business.