Category: Business

After reading Jericarle221’s post about how Canada is now ranked 4th in the world for best business counties, I have to put my two cents in. It’s nice that Canada is being recognized but the reason is because of the Harmonized Sales Tax (HST) system implemented in Ontario and British Columbia… but wait, didn’t BC revoke that tax?

The answer is yes, they did. BC is switching back to the PST and GST system which makes the ranking irrelevant (and also costs a lot of money to make the switch). According to CBC, the system ranks eleven different factors, such as property rights, innovation, taxes, technology, corruption, freedom, red tape, investor protection and stock market performance. Although tax is just one of eleven factors, the change in BC from HST back to GST and PST will most certainly slide Canada down the list.

Canada announced October 6th that energy drinks aren’t considered natural health products anymore. This isn’t good news for the industry. This puts some regulations on the products that will most defiantly bring down sales. Some speculate that more regulations are on the way.

The regulations as of now, stated by CBC, include a maximum concentration of 100mg of caffeine per 250ml. This doesn’t mean much since most energy drinks already meet this requirement but the kicker is that they’ll have to revise their labelling. Finally people will have a clear conception on how these previous ‘health products’ are so bad for people, especially teens and children – one of the industry’s target markets.

According to Eat Right Ontario, some serious side effects include nausea, vomiting and irregular heartbeat. Not something parents should allow their young children and teens to have.

Health Canada’s panel is working towards stiffer regulations such as not allowing the drinks to be sold to people under 18 years of age.

This change will help protect children from potentially damaging themselves but it will also decrease sales in the Canadian market thus harming the industry drastically.

Lower oil prices are always a good thing, right? Wrong. CBC reports that, On Tuesday, oil reached a new low for 2011. It dropped 32 percent from it’s peak in late April to $75.67 a barrel. This could cause problems for Canada but also benefits others.

Oil below $80 a barrel can become troublesome. The reason is that the majority of companies in Canada that deal with oil harvest it from oil sands. This is more expensive to process and $80 a barrel is close to break even. This can potentially devastate companies and citizens in Alberta who are known for their oil sands. Companies will have to downsize resulting in lost jobs and a less generous economy.

On the positive side. If oil prices hold many will reap the benefits. Lower oil prices results in cheaper gasoline, heating bills, airplane tickets, etc. These benefits might not be worth the struggle.

Goldman predicts that the cost of oil will rise slightly to $109 a barrel for 2012 which was a decrease from its previous prediction of $123.50 a barrel for 2012. Looks like cheaper gasoline prices and less revenue for Albertan oil companies is on the way.