Enjoying the view at Riding Mountain

Riding Mountain is located on the Manitoba Escarpment in south-central Manitoba, near the geographical centre of Canada, a 2978 square kilometre island of forest rising out of a sea of farmland. Plants and animals from three ecological zones are found in the park, all protected from the radical changes wrought [...]

Good news as jobs increased across most of Canada

Employment increased by 43,000 in January, all in part time, pushing the unemployment rate down 0.1 percentage points to 8.3%. January marks the fourth employment gain in six months. Despite the recent increases, employment still remains 280,000 below the level of October 2008.
Employment gains in January were driven by women aged 25 to 54 and youths. This was the [...]

Car sales strong across Atlantic Canada

Global car sales continue to strengthen, with purchases surging 22 per cent year-over-year (y/y) in December, one of the strongest advances on record and the third consecutive double-digit increase, according to Scotia Economics’ latest Global Auto Report.
“Sales across North America also ended 2009 on a strong note, enabling automakers [...]

Canadian investors

Western Canadians were the nation’s most active investors in 2009, but still overwhelmingly failed to take advantage of the market’s dramatic recovery, according to a survey released today by Franklin Templeton Investments Corp.
In Franklin Templeton’s latest survey of Canadian investor sentiment, conducted earlier this month by Angus Reid Public Opinion, 82 per cent [...]

Tall-grass prairie faces extinction

The endless sea of shoulder-high prairie grass that greeted settlers of Manitoba’s Red River valley centuries ago is near extinction and disappearing at an alarming rate, a new study has found. Less than one per cent of Canada’s original 6,000 square kilometres of tall-grass prairies remains — most of it in Manitoba. The [...]

In a massive change since the spring, Canadians are increasingly convinced that inflation is growing across most common and large items purchased, a new Angus Reid Strategies poll has found.
In the online survey of a representative national sample of 1,003 Canadians, more than half of respondents (55%) believe that house prices will rise in [...]

The number of people receiving employment insurance benefits fell by 2.4 per cent in August according to the latest figures from Statistics Canada. The drop of 19,100 people was the second consecutive monthly decrease, following a 3.8 per cent decline in July.
Regionally, the trend was broad-based, with declines coming in almost all provinces. Newfoundland and [...]

Manitoba’s exports slumped, like those in every other jurisdiction over the past year but our province boasted the second highest economic growth rate of all provinces, according to the MB Check-Up, an annual economic analysis of the province as a place to live, work and invest by the Chartered Accountants of Manitoba.
“The past year [...]

Immigration is good for small communities, and small towns have much to offer new Canadians – if immigration is part of a community’s long-term economic development strategy. Employers in small communities must show leadership in using immigration to fill labour shortages, but the entire community needs to work together to welcome and retain new arrivals, [...]

The threat of a federal election is still looming but not much has changed in the minds of Canadian voters, a new Angus Reid Strategies/Toronto Star poll has found.
The Canadian Political Pulse has found that the Conservative Party is up one point since a mid-September poll, to 37 per cent; the Liberals have remained [...]