If I had 10 billion dollars: Here are Canada's wealthiest people

Toronto's Thomson family remains the wealthiest in Canada despite a tough year that saw their fortune significantly decline, according to a new list of this country's 100 richest people.

Despite a dip of 8.7 per cent from the previous year, the family behind Thomson Reuters and Woodbridge Co. Ltd. has a net worth of $21.34 billion, according to Canadian Business magazine.

It is the 13th year in a row the Thomson family has been dubbed this country's richest by the magazine, which released its newest ranking Thursday.

In second place was Galen Weston, the businessman behind George Weston Ltd., grocery giant Loblaw Cos. Ltd. and clothing company Holt Renfrew.

Weston's fortune was still a whopping $8 billion, even after losing an estimated 5.8 per cent from 2010.

The highest climber on the Rich 100 is Chip Wilson, who jumped from No. 49 last year to No. 15 this year, thanks to investor interest in his Vancouver-based fitness clothing company, Lululemon. His worth rose this year by 128 per cent to $2.85 billion. In 2009, Wilson ranked in at No. 78.

Kapuskasing, Ont.'s Hollywood darling, producer James Cameron, debuted this year at No. 94, with $650 million.

Nova Scotia's Jodrey family — which has a hand in several industries, including nursing homes, real estate, transportation, pulp and paper mills and frozen foods — squeaked in at No. 100 with a $559-million bankroll.

Top 20 wealthiest Canadians (with percentage change from 2010)

1. Thomson family (Toronto) — $21.34 billion (-8.7)

2. Galen Weston (Toronto) — $8 billion (-5.8)

3. Irving Family (Saint John, N.B.) — $7.8 billion (+4.5)

4. Rogers family (Toronto) — $5.94 billion (-1.3)

5. James Pattison (Vancouver) — $5.73 billion (+3.7)

6. Saputo family (Montreal) — $4.34 billion (+23.5)

7. Paul Desmarais Sr. (Montreal) — $4.27 billion (-0.2)

8. Jeff Skoll (Palo Alto, California) — $3.75 billion (+5.3)

9. Fred and Ron Mannix (Calgary) — $3.44 billion (+8.3)

10. Bernard Sherman (Toronto) — $3.31 billion (-16)

11. Clay Riddell (Calgary) — $3.19 billion (+67.4)

12. Carlo Fidani (Toronto) — $3.18 billion (+10.2)

13. David Azrieli (Montreal) — $3.07 billion (+4.7)

14. Richardson family (Winnipeg) — $3.01 billion (+5.1)

15. Chip Wilson (Vancouver) —$2.85 billion (+128)

16. Harrison McCain family (Florenceville, N.B.) — $2.82 billion (+8.6)

17. Robert Friedland (Singapore) — $2.81 billion (+7.3)

18. Daryl Katz (Edmonton) — $2.8 billion (+8)

19. Frank Stronach (Austria) — $2.7 billion (+38.3)

20. Alan, Clayton and Barry Zekelman (Windsor, Ont.) — $2.62 billion (+1.4)

Source: Canadian Business magazine

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Canada adds 61,000 jobs in September

The Canadian economy added a surprising 61,000 jobs in September, all of it in full-time employment, Statistics Canada reported Friday.

The job growth helped push the country's unemployment rate down to 7.1 per cent, the lowest since December 2008.

Economists had been expecting 15,000 jobs to be added, and for the unemployment rate to remain steady at 7.3 per cent.

The country added 63,800 full-time jobs, but part-time employment slipped by 2,900.

But beyond the eye-popping headline number, the employment details "were much softer and more mixed in the report than the headline suggests on multiple counts," Scotiabank economist Derek Holt noted.

Many of the jobs came from public sector job growth, while the private sector lost almost 15,000 jobs. Self-employment rose by 38,900, "and we always treat this category with skepticism," Holt said. "Many self-employed jobs are vital contributions to a small-business based economy, but the volatility in this component and its tendency to report a pickup in self-reporting during soft spots in the economy make us doubtful that such a heavy role in lifting the headline is with substance."

And despite the job growth, the actual number of hours worked declined by 0.3 per cent. That's a troubling sign for GDP, since it's calculated based on the number of hours worked times the productivity of the labour force, Holt noted.

Statistics Canada said job increases were notable in British Columbia, Saskatchewan, New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island.

The federal agency said job gains were spread across a number of industries, with educational services adding 38,000 positions with the start of the new school year.

The professional, scientific and technical services sector gained 36,000 jobs. Gains were also seen in accommodation and food services, natural resources, and public administration.

Employment fell by 35,000 in the finance, insurance, real estate and leasing sector, while manufacturing employment slipped by 24,000 for the month.

More immigration workers needed: union

There are thousands of people in Canada waiting for their citizenship applications to be completed, and the Canada Employment Immigration Union says more workers are needed to clear the backlog.

Citizenship and Immigration recently contracted 86 temporary workers to help clear a backlog in citizenship applications at the Sydney, N.S. office. All applications from across Canada are processed there.

The average minimum wait is currently 19 months, up from 15 months in May. CIC says it plans to continue using temporary workers to clear the backlog, if it can find the money.

But the union says it is clear there is a need for more permanent workers at the office. Union spokeswoman Theresa MacInnis told CBC News Wednesday this is the third temporary contract some of these workers have been on since being laid off from permanent work a year and a half ago.

"To me it looks like there is a need for additional workers in the workplace," said MacInnis.

"Stabilizing a workforce is always a benefit for continuing work flows and processing."

MacInnis said the uncertainty has some workers looking for other jobs. She isn't sure what the turnover has been, but she said any training of new employees or people new to this processing wastes time and resources.

The latest contract for the 86 additional staff will expire at the end of March.

CIC expects workers will have processed at least 5,000 citizenship applications by that time. It's not known how much of a dent in the backlog that will make.

Ottawa ramps up efforts to lure tourists to Canada

Bruce Campion-SmithOttawa Bureau chief

GATINEAU, QUE.—There’s no new marketing slogan, no new sales pitch to sell Canada to the world.

But tourism insiders say there was something just as important unveiled Thursday in Ottawa’s long-awaited strategy to woo the world — the promise of some coordination.

From setting airline policy to running national parks and writing the immigration rules, Ottawa has vast influence over an industry that pumps $73 billion a year into the economy and generates 594,500 jobs.

The new strategy sends the message that tourism is a priority for the 15 departments and agencies that have a hand in the industry, said Maxime Bernier, the minister of state for small business and tourism.

“It’s a new beginning for the federal government,” Bernier said Thursday after he unveiled the policy at the Canadian Museum of Civilization.

“All the departments that have an influence on tourism, like transport department, Parks Canada . . . (will) now work together to ensure we are aligned with the same objectives,” Bernier said in an interview.

Industry executives applauded the move to put a spotlight on the tourism sector.

“It is an important announcement for us, not because it fits on a bumper sticker but because for the first time we have a thoughtful and deliberate roadmap,” said David Goldstein, president of the Tourism Industry Association of Canada.

He said few other industries can boost investment and employment across the nation.

“It’s just a great job driver. It’s one of the sectors where you can drive private sector jobs in every region of the country — urban centres, rural communities, even Canada’s North,” Goldstein said.

Some of the strategy’s goals seem modest — a new website, an annual report. It also highlights the need to enhance visa services and improve “border experiences” for arriving visitors.

But the promise to make tourism a focus across government departments was applauded as a good first step.

“It’s very important for us that we have a policy environment that is coordinated,” said Michele McKenzie, president of the Canadian Tourism Commission.

“We see countries that we compete against like Australia, New Zealand. They are world-class in terms of taking an all-of-government approach to tourism.”

Canada can have the “most brilliant marketers” but if would-be tourists have trouble getting a visa or a flight to be able to visit, “we’re going to lose those customers,” she said.

“We’re all competing against new and emerging and exotic destinations . . . This is a fiercely competitive world,” McKenzie said.

The move comes as Canada is trying to regain lost ground in the global battle for tourists. Part of the decline in international visitors is the drop-off in cross-border traffic by Americans deterred by a high Canadian dollar and the sagging economy in the United States.

That’s why Canada has set its sights on attracting more travellers from 11 key markets, including Australia, Brazil, India and Japan. An agreement signed with China last year giving Canada “approved destination status” has already boosted visitors by 24 per cent, Bernier said.

“That’s new visitors, new money, new jobs,” Bernier said.

Canada-India free trade gathering steam

By Samson Okalow  | August 31, 2011

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(Photo: Dieter Spannknebel/Getty)

When people think of countries that are tech powerhouses they think primarily of Japan and the U.S. But a free trade agreement currently under negotiation between Canada and India may help the latter get that much closer to joining the club—and expand Canada's economy by at least $6 billion.

It's called the Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA) and grew out of a 2010 Canada-India Joint Study recommending trade liberalization. (In addition to this, there are other, smaller agreements currently under negotiation, such as the Foreign Investment Promotion and Protection Agreement.)

At present, Canada's trade with India is a modest, though not insignificant $5.2 billion. But that trade has been growing quickly, with the merchandise portion (about 80% of total trade) up 73% since 2004. This reflects the reality of the developing world's strong growth in contrast to mature economies which are just muddling along. For comparison, Canada's GDP grew at 3.2% in 2010, while India saw 9%—and that's in the middle of a global economic slump. And until recently, direct investment from India was insignificant but exploded by 2,900% in 2008, almost in concert with the economic implosion in the west. India hasn't looked back since.

Tech and infrastructure businesses are going to benefit the most from liberalized trade, says Rana Sarkar, president and CEO of the Canada-India Business Council at BMO Capital Markets. He singles out clean tech in particular as being "huge." Core infrastructure, resources and services businesses should all do well because of India's need for the basic building blocks of economic development.

Tony Balasubramanian, partner in PricewaterhouseCoopers tech consulting practice, agrees: "Energy is a big issue in India as it is in all the BRIC countries. From an energy and base infrastructure perspective I think there's a great opportunity for Canadian companies in India." He adds that robotics is another industry that should see measurable gains as a result of any deal.

There have so far been five business roundtables—the last was in July—bringing together government and business leaders from both countries. One major participant has been SNC-Lavalin. In a statement, Ronald Denom, president of SNC-Lavalin International, said, "As far as the high-tech industry goes, some of the advantages that free trade with India would bring to Canadian companies include privileged access to a very large and rapidly growing market for their goods and services, additional sources of both financial and human capital, and greater exposure to 'frugal innovation,' which is an interesting characteristic of the Indian high-tech markets and extremely relevant for companies seeking to expand their worldwide sales in emerging markets.”

In the other direction, India's tech sector—characterized by IT and tech consulting firms like Tata and Infosys—could benefit immensely from liberalized trade between the two countries. 
 
However, Sarkar says the opportunity stretches beyond IT. "There's a number of industries where India has strengths—there's a number of engineering companies that are increasingly involved globally, and those are broadly service sector expertise. Indians have a strong interest in making sure that's part of the negotiations as well. But also broadly in terms of investment, Indian companies are fairly aggressive, looking globally, both as kind of a risk hedge on their side to their own domestic growth."

Perhaps already leading the way is Wipro (NYSE: WIT), which, at a market value of US$23B, is now the world's largest third-party engineering services firm. It opened a new office in Mississauga, Ont., in February 2011, characterizing the expansion as part of its "plans to intensify its focus on Canada, as one of the strategic geographies supporting Wipro’s growth."

Trade negotiations on the Canadian side are being headed up by Ed Fast, Minister of International Trade and Minister for the Asia-Pacific Gateway. The feds say an agreement is expected to be reached by 2013 after which it goes to Parliament. (Note that the Canada-U.S. free trade agreement signed in 1987 took effect a year later.)

Satish Thakkar, president of the Indo-Canada Chamber of Commerce, which has been involved in the talks, says the chamber is satisfied with the pace of negotiations. He points to no major stumbling blocks, but cautions that "given the scope of CEPA, negotiations are likely to be protracted."

SNC-Lavalin's Denom says "we are still a long way from a free trade agreement with India."

However, in talking to these folks, the optimism is palpable, and with good reason. There's still a lot to be done in India and that means plenty of opportunity. Yet at the same time, India is more than just another sweatshop outpost—Indian companies are big players and they'll also be setting up shop in Canada and spending investment dollars. And that's quite a bit different from the free trade relationship between, say, Canada and Mexico.

Says Sarkar, "India is being built at the moment so all these things that we do really well in Canada, like soft infrastructure—rules and regulations when you're building a new town, how to set up associations, architectural engineering—all of those things are going to go through an enormous growth curve in India."

Source:   Canada Business