Jen Drake, CFI, Director of Resource Protection, West 49 Inc. On – Environmental Programs                      The finance department and anyone responsible for your company's social responsibility or sustainability programs should be aware of environmental programs which are mandatory in the Provinces of Ontario, Quebec and Manitoba. Stewardship Ontario, Stewardship Manitoba and EcoEntreprise Quebec require annual submissions which specify how much paper/plastic/glass your company has contributed to the public Blue Box Program. Anything your company puts into the hands of consumers, which ends up in their recycle bin at home, is what you’ll be reporting on & paying fees towards each year. This includes shopping bags, POS receipts, merchandise tickets and hangtags, marketing flyers or catalogues, gift boxes and tissue paper, seriously, the list goes on.

RCMP and Canadian Border officials seize $25 million in counterfeit goods in 14 different raids with more to come.  "Retailers think it's a fantastic day and we commend the RCMP because $25 million worth of counterfeit goods off the market...means retailers can sell legitimate goods, which has a huge impact on the Canadian economy," Anne Kothawala of the Retail Council of Canada.   “The message I would like to get out to consumers and the public [is] beware of counterfeit goods. They are always manufactured with no regard for health and safety." said Todd Gilmore of the RCMP.  (Source citytv.com)

The real winner in the Canadian Push will be the Canadian consumer as Target raises the bar for competitors, according to one real estate executive who participated yesterday on a panel of experts at a Retail Advertising and Marketing Canada luncheon in Toronto.  With Target opening 135 stores by 2013 and with an average Target store doing $35 million, $7 million of which is in apparel, most of those sales are going to come out of other retailers' pockets.  While the Canadian economy is in relatively good shape, there's very little retail sales growth. Most of Target’s sales are going to come at the expense of other retailers, the luncheon heard.  "We saw it 17 years ago when Wal-Mart rolled into Canada. The weaker ones got hurt very badly," Ross said.  On the other hand, Target is such a popular chain it's likely to increase traffic to any mall that has one of its stores, said John Massey, vice-president national leasing Cadillac Fairview, another Target landlord.  "We think there’s going to be a net gain," Massey said.  Regardless, "it's going to force Canada's retailers to be better at what they do."  (Source thestar.com)

According to our sources, Target plans on leading the Asset Protection effort from their corporate offices and may not be naming a function head for some time. 

Canada's Senate is studying the price differences between the States and Canadian prices with the Bank of Canada estimating the price gap between the two countries at 11% in September 2011, compared to 18% in April 2011.  Pricing is complicated, with many factors playing a role including: Taxes. Higher sales and larger markets in the U.S. Labor costs.  Productivity gaps.  And transportation costs, which in Canada include both gas taxes and a vast area to cover.  (Source cbc.ca)

While Lowe's is closing some stores in the U.S., they have plans to hit 100 in Canada.  The U.S. retail giant, which is the second largest home improvement retailer behind U.S.-based The Home Depot, opened its first Canadian store in 2007 and now operates 29 outlets across the country.  "In the States, it's been pretty horrible with the housing situation. Canada doesn't face that, so Canada is relatively attractive."  The expansion bodes well for consumers, who will have more choice. But it will be tougher for smaller local stores.  (Source vancoversun.com)

The real estate crunch is so great that some retailers are now behaving like vultures, eyeing struggling competitors with the hopes of securing their spaces if they fail.  We need space on the market and unfortunately retailers who can no longer compete and who are no longer successful, have become an attractive opportunity for aggressively expanding retailers.  (Source montrealgazette.com)

Quebec forces the restaurant industry to install expensive software called "black box" sales-recording modules (SRMs) that prevents the use of "zappers" – software that enables users to illegally skim cash at the point of sale, reducing the sales figures that appear on official records.  The new SRM receipts include bar codes that can be scanned by a Revenue Quebec inspector.  That industry is infamous for owners pocketing cash and not reporting it for tax reasons.  Looks like Quebec just stopped it.  (Source montrealgazette.com)