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Big penalties for overpass strikes
The Canadian Press - Mar 12, 2024 - BC Biz

Photo: The Canadian Press

VICTORIA — Penalties for commercial truck crashes into overpasses or other infrastructure in B.C. are set to soar, including fines of up to $100,000 and jail sentences up to 18 months.

The New Democrat government says it’s proposing changes to the Commercial Transport Act that currently prescribes fines for over-height vehicles of $500 to $598, levels that are unchanged for decades.

Transportation Minister Rob Fleming says the proposed changes are in response to 35 crashes involving over-height commercial vehicles since late 2021.

The province last month cancelled the operating licence of B.C. trucking firm Chohan Freight Forwarders after one of its commercial vehicles lodged a steel girder in an overpass over Highway 99 in Delta in December.

Fleming says laws surrounding highway infrastructure crashes in B.C. have not changed since the 1970s, and the proposed maximum penalties for commercial transport violations will exceed those of other provinces and territories.

B.C. Trucking Association president Dave Earle says in a statement the association supports the proposed penalty increases.

$496M trade surplus posted
The Canadian Press - Mar 07, 2024 - BC Biz

Photo: The Canadian Press/ Christinne Muschi
Statistics Canada says the country posted a merchandise trade surplus of $496 million in January as imports fell to their lowest level since February 2022. A shipping container is loaded onto a ship in the Port of Montreal, Tuesday, Sept.19, 2023.

Statistics Canada says the country posted a merchandise trade surplus of $496 million in January as imports fell to their lowest level since February 2022.

The surplus came after a revised trade deficit of $863 million in December compared with an initial report of a $312-million deficit for the final month of 2023.

Statistics Canada says total imports dropped 3.8 per cent in January to $61.8 billion.

The move came as imports of consumer goods fell 7.1 per cent due in large part to a 19.0 per cent plunge in imports of pharmaceutical products. Excluding pharmaceutical products, imports of consumer goods were down 3.8 per cent in January.

Meanwhile, total exports fell 1.7 per cent to $62.3 billion as exports of metal and non-metallic mineral products lost 6.2 per cent. Exports of aircraft and other transportation equipment and parts also dropped 13.9 per cent in January.

In volume terms, total imports fell 4.1 per cent in January, while exports dropped 1.8 per cent.

Apple settles with Canadians
The Canadian Press - Mar 04, 2024 - BC Biz

Photo: The Canadian Press

VANCOUVER — The B.C. Supreme Court has approved a countrywide multimillion-dollar settlement of a class-action lawsuit against Apple over software updates that allegedly slowed down older iPhones.

“We’re pleased with the results,” said K.S. Garcha, a lawyer for the class. “It was a complex matter.”

Garcha said the judge in the case approved the settlement at a hearing Tuesday.

Class members who make claims on the $14.4-million settlement can expect to receive between $17.50 and $150 each, depending on how many people submit a claim for the settlement money, he said.

The agreement covers eligible residents of Canada except those in Quebec, which Garcha said is about nine million people.

The settlement process took a couple of years, with Apple agreeing to a “compromise” without admitting any wrongdoing, Garcha said.

Going to trial rather than settling could’ve taken “a long period of time,” he said.

“The court may not approve some of the claims that you’re making. There’s an issue with regards to how the damages were quantified. There are potential appeals,” he said.

The company “vigorously defended the thing up until the settlement negotiations,” Garcha added.

He said the class-action lawsuit involved novel legal theories about the company putting software on devices without the owners’ consent.

People who owned iPhone models covered by the settlement have six months to make a claim, and the online process requires a person’s name, address and iPhone serial number.

People also have to declare under oath that they downloaded or installed certain software updates on a variety of iPhone 6 and 7 models before Dec. 21, 2017.

They would have also had to have “experienced diminished performance on that device after the relevant iOS version was installed or downloaded.”

The settlement agreement with Apple will see the company pay out between $11,137,500 and $14,427,500 depending on how many claims are made and approved.

The claims website for the “Canadian iPhone Power Management Class Action,” says Quebec residents are excluded from the settlement because there’s a separate, ongoing case before the courts in that province.

The B.C. lawsuit was originally filed in 2018, and Apple settled a similar case in the United States involving so-called throttling of iPhone 6 and 7 models, and Garcha said American class members ended up with US$92 payouts.

At a hearing in Vancouver in late January, Apple’s lawyer Jill Yates told the court the company has never admitted wrongdoing.

“Apple, throughout, has taken a position that it has done nothing wrong here,” she said. “These claims are novel, and they are not ones where Apple agrees that anything was wrongfully done.”

The company did not immediately respond to an emailed request for comment about the settlement approval.

Trans Mountain cost ballooning
The Canadian Press - Feb 27, 2024 - BC Biz

CALGARY — The company building the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion now estimates the project’s costs will come in 10% higher than its May 2023 estimate of $30.9 billion.

That’s according to a regulatory filing Trans Mountain Corp. provided to the Canada Energy Regulator on Monday. It represents the latest in a series of cost increases for the high-profile project, which in 2017 was estimated to cost just $7.4 billion.

In the filing, Trans Mountain Corp., which is a Crown corporation, said the latest tally is subject to the receipt of final costs and expenses once the pipeline project is complete.

The company said it will need approximately three months following the completion of construction before it can provide a final cost estimate.

Trans Mountain Corp. also said in Monday’s filing it continues to work towards an in-service date for the pipeline expansion in the second quarter of this year, with commencement of firm service contracts slated for May 1.

RBC Capital Markets analyst Greg Pardy said in a note to clients that the new date represents a one-month delay from its prior start date.

The Trans Mountain pipeline, which is owned by the federal government, is Canada’s only oil pipeline to the West Coast. Its expansion will increase the pipeline’s capacity to 890,000 barrels per day from 300,000 bpd currently.

The expansion project, for which construction is more than 98% complete, has been underway for more than three years. Canadian oil producers have already begun ramping up production in expectation of the additional export capacity, which is expected to improve the prices Canadian oil companies receive.

BC minimum wage going up
The Canadian Press - Feb 26, 2024 - BC Biz

Photo: The Canadian Press
Workers pull a boom while harvesting cranberries in Pitt Meadows, B.C., last fall.

VICTORIA — Minimum-wage workers in B.C. will get a pay hike of 65 cents an hour to $17.40 starting June 1, a move the government says will help lift more people out of poverty.

The Ministry of Labour says in a statement the 3.9% increase is consistent with the province’s average inflation rate last year.

Labour Minister Harry Bains says the province has gone from having one of the lowest minimum wages in the country to the highest of all provinces, and the change is aimed at preventing more workers from falling behind.

Bains says increases for the lowest wage will be automatic from now on and will be determined by the previous year’s average inflation rate, offering predictability for workers and employers.

The statement says the minimum piece rates for 15 hand-harvested crops will also increase by 3.9 per cent on Dec. 31.

The government says the decision to delay the pay raise for hand-harvested crops is meant to ensure producers will not have to adjust wages in the harvest season.

BC budget family friendly
The Canadian Press - Feb 22, 2024 - BC Biz

Photo: The Canadian Press
BC Finance Minister Katrine Conroy delivers the budget on Thursday.

VICTORIA — B.C. families and small business operators are expected to benefit from an election-year budget that boosts spending while forecasting a ballooning deficit of more than $7.9 billion and economic growth of less than 1%.

The budget also includes a home flipping tax to deter real estate speculators, as well as a commitment to provide one cycle of free in vitro fertilization to anyone who wants to start a family, Finance Minister Katrine Conroy said Thursday.

B.C. is an economic leader in Canada but a slowing economy and increasing housing and grocery costs mean people needed help, she said.

“At the end of the day, people have a lot on their minds right now and they’re feeling stretched,” Conroy said in her budget speech to the legislature.

She said the New Democrat government would not resort to making cuts.

“This would only weaken the services we all rely on and drive up costs with added fees and fares,” Conroy said. “It would leave people at risk to those who take unfair advantage by putting profits ahead of people.”

The budget includes a one-year boost to the B.C. Family Benefit, giving eligible low- and middle-income families an extra $445 over a year on average, as well as a one-time electricity credit that will save households an average $100, she said.

The electricity credits will appear on customer bills starting in April and run to March 2025, Conroy said.

She said the budget includes an increase to the payroll threshold for B.C.’s Employer Health Tax, meaning an estimated 90% of businesses will now be exempt. Small businesses across the province had been lobbying the government to raise the threshold to $1 million from $500,000, and that will be implemented.

“Our number one ask was to see an increase in the Employer Health Tax threshold,” said Bridgitte Anderson, president of the Greater Vancouver Board of Trade. “But we are concerned about the debt and deficit increasing substantially.”

Conroy said the home flipping tax, to be introduced this spring, will fund the construction of housing for middle-income earners.

“To those who just want to make a quick buck by flipping homes, things are about to get more difficult,” she said. “If a home is sold within two years of purchase, the profit will be taxed.”

Conroy also said everyone in B.C. who wants to have a child should have the opportunity to do so. The budget includes a program to fund one cycle of free in vitro fertilization to anyone who wants to start a family.

“No one should be denied the opportunity to have a child because of how much money they make, who they love and whether they have a partner,” she said at a news conference before tabling the budget. “I know this will be welcome news to people who want to start a family.”

Conroy choked up as she talked about her own family when announcing the IVF program. “Darn menopause, sorry,” she said, to laughter in the legislature.

Manitoba, Ontario and Quebec already have similar programs, she said.

The budget forecasts slowing economic growth of 0.8% this year, followed by growth of 2.3% in 2025. B.C.’s debt is forecast to increase to $123 billion this year, up from $103.7 billion.

BC United Opposition Leader Kevin Falcon said the budget presented Thursday was a “foolish” use of taxpayers’ money.

“This is a reckless, inflationary budget that’s going to make things more unaffordable for families,” he said after Conroy’s speech. “When government is spending this recklessly, it drives inflationary pressures, which impacts groceries, it impacts housing, it impacts everything that is already affecting British Columbians.”

Falcon said the ballooning debt would be handed down to future generations and the province’s credit rating was in danger of downgrades due to the spending. He said young people are being driven out of the province because of spiralling living costs.

Provincial taxes staying put
The Canadian Press - Feb 21, 2024 - BC Biz

Photo: The Canadian Press
B.C. Finance Minister Katrine Conroy, left, helps pack groceries for a subscription-based program called Good Food Box in Victoria on Wednesday.

VICTORIA — B.C. Finance Minister Katrine Conroy said the province should prepare for a fiscal deficit in the upcoming budget, but there won’t be cuts that result in a “deficit of services.”

Speaking Wednesday, the day before she tables the 2024 budget in the legislature, Conroy promised to not raise taxes, while protecting services for ordinary residents struggling to make ends meet.

She said the economy is slowing in B.C. and around the world, making it the right time to “support people.”

“It’s not the right time to say to people, Well, we’re going to start cutting the hospital services. We’re going to start cutting schools. It’s just not the right thing to do. We don’t need a deficit of services in this province,” Conroy said.

Conroy held a press conference at a Victoria community centre that serves as a daycare and gives out low-cost food.

She said the budget will address health care, middle-class housing, a clean economy and incentives for small business. It will also touch on discussions about Translink, the transit authority covering Metro Vancouver, as well as transit across the province.

“You will see an investment in a number of initiatives including education. We will continue to support school districts to hire the teachers they need, to hire the teaching assistants they need, because that’s critically important to the kids in this province,” she said.

Conroy said she couldn’t pinpoint the size of the deficit, which was projected to reach $5.6 billion late last year, but the budget’s long-term outlook forecasts deficit declines.

A report issued earlier this month by the Business Council of British Columbia predicts that “lacklustre” growth globally, high interest rates and weak private-sector job and investment numbers will add up to “a drag on prosperity” this year.

The report says B.C.’s economy grew just 0.9% in 2023 and is forecast to grow only 0.7% in 2024.

Timber company hanging tough
The Canadian Press - Feb 15, 2024 - BC Biz

Photo: The Canadian Press

VANCOUVER — West Fraser Timber Co. Ltd. president and CEO Sean McLaren said he expects the company will continue to experience unpredictable challenges such as inflation risks and labour constraints.

However, he told analysts during the company’s earnings conference call that West Fraser is encouraged by lower mortgages rates in the U.S. and the continued easing of inflationary pressures across much of the supply chain.

“While demand markets were challenging in 2023 and there are near-term uncertainties across our business,” said McLaren, the company is optimistic about continued demand growth for the products West Fraser makes.

The company reported its fourth-quarter results yesterday after the bell, posting a loss of US$153 million compared with a US$94 million loss a year earlier.

In the earnings release, McLaren said the fourth quarter saw continued weakness in demand for the company’s North American lumber and European panel products.

In financial documents, the company explained that changes in new home construction in the U.S. are a significant driver of demand for certain products like lumber.

With new housing construction levels beginning to rebound as 2023 drew to a close amid a pause in interest rate hikes, the company said it expects a combination of low home supply and a large cohort of the population entering home-buying age to support demand over the longer term.

McLaren spoke to analysts about the difficulties that lumber companies have faced in recent years.

“We have now been through a 10-year period in which total North American lumber supply has been essentially flat, with shrinking supply in British Columbia, offsetting the gains in the U.S. south. And this has occurred during a number of strong up years for lumber demand and pricing,” he said.

“We’ve spoken about the many constraints the lumber industry faces when it comes to adding capacity, and first and foremost of these as accessibility and availability of economic fibre.”

So far this year, the company has announced the permanent closure of its Fraser Lake sawmill and its sawmill in Maxville, Fla., as well as the indefinite curtailment of its Huttig, Ark., sawmill.

McLaren told investors that the complexity of the operating environment in B.C. continues to take a toll on sawmilling capacity in that province.

“Rapid policy change and uncertainty regarding decision-making on the land base have constrained available timber supply, resulting in a lack of access to economically viable fibre,” he said.

The decision to close Fraser Lake after having reduced its capacity in 2022 reflects these realities, McLaren said, warning of further contraction in the B.C. forest sector without “significant policy change.”

Also causing challenges in Western Canada this winter was unusually warm weather, McLaren said. The weather has hampered logging activities, affecting inventories at some mills, and could constrain West Fraser’s ability to manufacture and ship lumber.

It’s hard to predict what the impact of this will be, he said, but the company is flagging it as a potential risk for the second quarter.

“In our view, challenges to meaningful supply additions in the North American lumber industry will persist for the foreseeable future,” he said. “And as such, we remain optimistic about our portfolio of assets, our capital allocation strategy and our long-term prospects for our lumber business.”

Last year the company announced the sale of three of its pulp mills, one in B.C. and two in Alberta. McLaren said the company expects these sales will help reduce the variability of future earnings and help the company concentrate its resources.

Sales for the quarter ended Dec. 31 were US$1.5 billion, down from US$1.6 billion.

Telus still wants changes
The Canadian Press - Feb 09, 2024 - BC Biz

Photo: The Canadian Press

Telus Corp. has no plans to halt its own fibre network build in response to recent regulatory actions but says the CRTC needs to strike a balance between promoting competition and maintaining incentives for large carriers to invest in their networks.

Chief financial officer Doug French said Friday that the Vancouver-based telecommunications company agrees with some of its rivals that large providers are facing “a significant amount of challenges.”

“You need to have a return on assets at some point,” he said in an interview after the company reported fourth-quarter earnings.

“Giving away or getting access to an asset at discounted rates doesn’t promote you to go and build more.”

A day earlier, the parent company of Bell Canada announced it was slashing 9% of its workforce and warned it could further scale back network spending as it remains at odds with the CRTC over what it calls “predetermined” regulatory direction.

The CRTC announced last November it would temporarily require large telephone companies, namely Bell and Telus, to provide competitors with access to their fibre-to-the-home networks in Ontario and Quebec within six months. The rule doesn’t apply to Canada’s other major carrier, Rogers Communications Inc., which uses a cable network.

The decision was meant to stimulate competition for internet services, as the CRTC said at the time its review could potentially make that direction permanent and apply it to other provinces. The regulator is hold a hearing next week as part of that review.

Bell responded by reducing its network investment plans by $1.1 billion by 2025, including a minimum reduction of $500 million this year. It said Thursday that more cutbacks are possible if further unfavourable decisions are handed down by the regulator.

‘Able to execute very well’

French said Telus would continue as scheduled with its own network investments but it is reviewing “economics and returns” on an ongoing basis.

“Depending on how things roll out over the next little bit, we may make some other choices,” he said. “But at the moment … we’ve been able to execute very well in a dynamic market and we will proceed as planned, unless there are anything that would change how we look at economics and how we look at our ability to build that out on affordability.”

Telus had announced its own 6,000 job cuts last August in order to adapt to a “rapidly transforming industry,” saying at the time that issues such as regulation and competition prompted the need to reduce its payroll. The company said the restructuring would cost $475 million in 2023, but lead to annual savings of more than $325 million.

French said Friday that those cuts were 75% to 80% complete by the end of last year, but some restructuring costs would spill over to the first quarter of 2024.

Telus reported fourth-quarter net income attributable to common shares of $288 million, up from $248 million a year earlier. The company said the profit amounted to 20 cents per share for the quarter ended Dec. 31, up from 17 cents per share in the last three months of 2022.

Operating revenue and other income totalled $5.20 billion, up from $5.06 billion in the same quarter a year earlier. On an adjusted basis, Telus says it earned 24 cents per share for its fourth quarter, the same as its fourth quarter of 2022.

In the fourth quarter, Telus said it had a total of 404,000 net customer additions across its services.

The company’s 126,000 net mobile phone subscriber additions in the quarter was up 13 per cent from the same quarter a year earlier. But Telus’ monthly churn rate for mobile subscribers—a measure of subscribers who cancelled their service—was 1.4%, up from 1.22% during its previous fourth quarter, which it said was largely due to heightened seasonal promotional activity.

Telus’ mobile phone average revenue per user was $58.50, down 19 cents from the fourth quarter of the prior year. The company attributed the decrease to lower overage revenues as customers continue to adopt larger or unlimited data and voice allotments in their rate plans.

French said Telus is “not banking on price increases” for 2024 in light of that decline in revenue per user.

“I don’t expect the competitiveness to slow at all. If anything, it continues to be very intense and it’s very difficult to increase prices in an intense competitive market,” he said.

Trucking companies cry foul
The Canadian Press - Feb 07, 2024 - BC Biz

Photo: The Canadian Press
Overpass collisions have become an issue.

VANCOUVER — Two trucking firms say the B.C. government wrongly concluded they were “one operation” after an overpass crash last December and want a court to let them both back on the province’s road.

B.C.-based Chohan Freight Forwarders Ltd. and Alberta-based Chohan Group Ltd. say in B.C. Supreme Court petitions that they’re separate legal entities but have a family connection.

Chohan Freight says it wants its safety certificate restored after a truck driven by an “owner-operator” hit an overpass on Highway 99 in Delta in December, lodging construction girders into the structure.

The company said the suspension that took its fleet off B.C. roads is unreasonable, costing upwards of $1 million a week, and the independent contractor involved in the crash has admitted fault and been terminated.

Chohan Group meanwhile said the B.C. government wrongfully denied it oversized-load permits after the December crash, and the firm has never been involved in a highway infrastructure crash “in Alberta, British Columbia or otherwise.”

B.C.’s Ministry of Transportation said it was considering a request for an interview about the court petitions.

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