CHHMA - EYE ON OUR INDUSTRY
Volume 11, Issue 15, April 21, 2011



Association News

Ontario Golf Tournament Registration Now Open
     
Registration is now open for the 42nd Annual CHHMA Ontario Golf Tournament taking place on Wednesday, May 25 at the Angus Glen Golf Club in Markham, Ontario.

The South Course will be available for those wanting to play their own ball, the North Course for scramble teams.

The cost to attend is $245+HST for CHHMA members and includes breakfast, golf, followed by an executive lunch, awards and prizes. Each golfer will also receive a pair of golf shoes.

The shotgun starting time is 7:45 a.m. and registration and breakfast will start at 6:30 a.m.

Hole Sponsorships are available for $150+HST. Proceeds from the tournament will help support the Ontario Special Olympics.

Click here for further information or to register. 
 

Registration for Western Golf Tournament at Morgan Creek Now Open  

Registration is now open for the 15th Annual CHHMA Western Golf Tournament taking place on Tuesday, June 7 at the Morgan Creek Golf Club in Surrey, B.C.

Tee-off times will be allocated between 11:14 a.m. and 1:17 p.m., followed by dinner and award/prize presentations which will start at 6:30 p.m.

The cost to attend is $230+HST for CHHMA members, $255+HST for non-members and $80+HST for dinner only.

Hole sponsorship opportunities are available for $150+HST. Money raised from the tournament will go towards the CHHMA Scholarship Program which awards scholarships each year to children of CHHMA member employees.

Click here for further information or to register.
     

Register Now for the Quebec Golf Classic at Le Club de golf Le Fontainebleau 

Registration started last week for the 36th Annual CHHMA Quebec Golf Classic taking place at Le Club de golf Le Fontainebleau in Blainville, Quebec on May 17.

The cost to attend is $300 for CHHMA members, $350 for non-members and includes brunch, golf, cart, dinner and wine plus there will be $10,000 worth of prizes and gifts. Hole sponsorships are available for $325 and tickets can also be purchased for dinner only at a cost of $110.

Registration for golf is restricted to 144 players, so sign-up soon.  Click here for more details or to register.  
       

Jean-Luc Meunier Breakfast Seminar on May 31, 2011 
  
The CHHMA is pleased to be presenting Mr. Jean-Luc Meunier, Sr. Vice-President, Affiliate Dealer-Owner Network Development, RONA inc. at an upcoming breakfast seminar in Boucherville, Quebec on Tuesday, May 31.

The breakfast seminar will take place at the Hotel Mortagne, 1228 Rue Nobel, Boucherville, QC J4B 5H1 with registration starting at 7:30 a.m. followed by breakfast at 8:00 a.m. and the presentation from approx. 9:00 a.m. to 10:00 a.m.

The cost to attend is $65 for CHHMA members, $85 for non-members plus 5% taxes.

Registration will commence in the next few days, so please check your email for further notice or the CHHMA website Upcoming Events section.
   

Stewardship News

MHSW Reports Due by April 30, 2011 

Stewardship Ontario would like to remind stewards that Q2 2011 MHSW reports on all nine Phase 1 materials are due by April 30, 2011. The Q2 report includes data from January 1, 2011 to March 31, 2011. Q2 payments are due by May 31, 2011.

Effective August 1, 2011, stewards who fail to report and pay fees by the dates specified in Appendix C of the Rules will be subject to a late-reporting penalty calculated at 10% of the fees due and interest on unpaid fees.

Any steward that has been notified of their MHSW Program obligation and has failed to report is subject to a late-reporting penalty. Penalties are retroactive to the original notification date.

If you have questions, please contact Stewardship Ontario by phone at 1-888-288-3360 or by email at werecycle@stewardshipontario.ca.

Also, for stewards of the Ontario Blue Box and Multi-Material Stewardship Manitoba (MMSM) Programs, 2010 reports were to have been filed by March 31, 2011. First payments are due by April 30, 2011.

If you have any questions regarding these programs, please feel free to contact our CHHMA stewardship consultants: Al Marks at steward@chhma.ca (416-282-0022 ext.24) or Duncan Deans at ddeans@chhma.ca (416-282-0022 ext.22). 
      
Economic News

Inflation Rises to 3.3% in March 

Statistics Canada reported Tuesday that the country's annual inflation rate (Consumer Price Index) accelerated to 3.3% in March after a 2.2% annual increase in February, while core inflation, which factors out volatile items such as energy and food prices, was 1.7%. The CPI reading was the highest since September 2008, and topped economists' expectations. Excluding energy, the CPI rose 2.4% in March, following a 1.4% increase in February.

So far, inflation has been relatively tame in Canada even as it has soared in other parts of the world. This latest report suggests Canada too is now starting to feel the price pressure from rising prices for commodities, such as oil and food.

Prices rose in all major components of the CPI. Overall energy prices climbed 12.8% on an annual basis which included a 18.9% jump in gasoline prices, a 31.3% rise in fuel oil prices and a 4.3% increase in electricity prices. Prices for food from stores jumped 3.7%, the largest annual increase since August 2009. Shelter costs climbed 2.4%, health and personal care products rose 2.6%, prices for household operations, furnishing and equipment advanced 1.9%, transportation prices increased 6.6% and costs for clothes and shoes were up 0.9%. Meanwhile, mortgage interest costs and natural gas prices continued to decline.

The monthly rate of inflation rose 1.1% in March from February, the largest increase since the introduction of the GST in January, 1991.

"The Bank of Canada will get one more CPI report before their next interest rate decision on May 31, to assess whether this was a one-off fluke or the start of a new troubling trend," said Douglas Porter, deputy chief economist with BMO Capital Markets. "Suffice it to say that the Bank won't be comfortable keeping rates on hold beyond the next meeting if this is not a fluke." 
      
Home Resales Steady in March 

The Canadian Real Estate Association (CREA) released its latest monthly data last Friday which showed that national resale housing activity held steady in March compared to February.

Seasonally adjusted national home sales activity in March came in one tenth of a percentage point above levels for the previous month, with stable demand in most large urban centres. With national sales in each of the first three months of 2011 running close to their five or ten year monthly averages, seasonally adjusted national sales activity in the first quarter of 2011 was up 4.5% from levels recorded in the fourth quarter of last year, and reached the highest quarterly level in a year. Most of the quarterly sales activity increase was due to demand in Vancouver and Toronto.

Sellers looking to trade up before changes to mortgage regulations took effect in March made their move early, resulting in a significant rise in newly listed homes in January and February. Seasonally adjusted new residential listings for March dropped 5% from February. Steady sales activity combined with fewer new listings tightened the national resale housing market. The national sales-to-new listings ratio, a measure of the balance between supply and demand, stood at 56.5% in March. This kept the national housing market firmly entrenched in balanced territory, with March marking the firmest reading for national market balance in more than a year. Based on sales-to-new listings ratio, more than half of local markets in Canada could be considered balanced in March, with two-thirds of the remaining markets considered to be as sellers' markets.

Throughout the first quarter of 2011, the national average price was skewed higher by strong activity in a few pricey areas of Greater Vancouver. March 2011 was no exception, with an increase of 8.9% year-over-year. Excluding Vancouver, the national average year-over-year price increase is cut by more than half to 4.3%.

The expected impact on sales activity from the recent changes to mortgage regulations will likely be minor over the near term. Interest rates are widely expected to remain on hold until at least mid-July, which is supportive for resale housing demand, market balance and prices. 
       
Bank of Canada Business Outlook Survey - Spring 2011  

A growing number of Canadian companies are bracing for hotter inflation as energy and food costs increase. The portion of executives who think the inflation rate will rise to 3% or more in the next two years jumped to15% in the Bank of Canada's latest Quarterly Business Survey released earlier in the month.

In some cases, the corporate outlook is already translating into higher prices for consumers. Several companies have made public mention of the impact of rising commodity prices. Most executives still believe the CPI will stay in the central bank's target of between 1-3% in the next two years though, but many more now think inflation will be in the upper half of that range.

Consumer price inflation isn't the only area seen to be heating up in the report; more than half of Canadian companies see input costs rising at a greater rate. Not everyone plans to pass on higher input prices however, as only 46% expect output prices to rise at a higher rate this year, driven by companies in the Prairies that are seeing demand pick up. But that view was tempered by companies in other parts of the country, which said strong competition and earlier input hikes will limit price increases.

Capacity pressures are also mounting, particularly in the Prairie provinces the survey found, where many reported that their workforce is now fully utilized. Intentions to increase employment are positive across sectors and regions, but are significantly more widespread among firms in the Prairies, where many are looking to expand their workforce to meet demand.

Expectations about future sales growth, though still positive, aren't as optimistic as they were in the winter due to the negative implications of high energy and food prices on household spending. Expectations about short-term U.S. economic growth are also improving, but a number of executives are still concerned about the strong Canadian dollar and growing foreign competition.

The balance of opinion on investment in machinery and equipment remains positive, suggesting higher investment spending over the next 12 months. 
    
U.S. Housing Starts Rise 7.2% but Homebuilders' Sentiment Still Negative  

U.S. builders broke ground last month on the most new homes in six months, giving the weak U.S. housing market a slight boost at the start of the spring buying season. Home construction rose 7.2% in March from February to a seasonally adjusted 549,000 units, the Commerce Department said Tuesday. Building permits, an indicator of future construction, rose 11.2% after hitting a five decade low in February. Still, the building pace is far below the 1.2 million units a year that economists consider healthy. And March's improvement came after construction fell in February to its second-lowest level on record.

Millions of foreclosures have forced home prices down. In some cities, prices are half of what they were before the housing market collapsed in 2006 and 2007. And more foreclosures are expected this year. Tight credit has made mortgage loans tough to get. Many would be buyers who could qualify for loans are reluctant to shop, fearing that prices will fall even further.

The National Association of Home Builders said on Monday that its index of industry sentiment for April fell one notch to 16. That followed a one point increase in March and four straight months of 16 readings. Any reading below 50 indicates negative sentiment about the housing market's future and the index hasn't been above that level since April 2006.

Most economists expect U.S. home prices, home sales and construction to slip even further in 2011 before a modest recovery takes hold.
      

 CHHMA Events For 2011

Maple Leaf Night
Tuesday, May 10
The Mirage Hotel & Casino, Las Vegas, Nevada

Quebec Golf Tournament
Tuesday, May 17
Le Fontainebleau Golf Club, Blainville, Quebec

Ontario Golf Tournament
Wednesday, May 25
Angus Glen Golf Club, Markham, Ontario

Jean-Luc Meunier, RONA, Breakfast Seminar
Tuesday, May 31
Hotel Mortagne, Boucherville, Quebec

Western Golf Tournament
Tuesday, June 7
Morgan Creek Golf Club, Surrey, B.C.

Night at the Races
Wednesday, June 15
Woodbine Racetrack, Toronto, Ontario

Industry Memorial Golf Classic
Tuesday, September 27
Blue Springs Golf Club, Acton, Ontario

Industry Cocktail
Tuesday, November 29
Location TBA, Montreal, Quebec

To register for all events visit our website at www.chhma.ca or call Pam Winter at (416) 282-0022 ext.21.

CHHMA Links


Freight Logistics Savings
No Obligation Consultation


Discount Cellular
Phone Rates


Long Distance &
Telecommunications Savings


Discount Gas & Diesel Rates


Logo Apparel &
Promotional Products



Office Product Discounts

 

"Eye On Our Industry" is published by the CHHMA as an information resource for our members. Member input regarding content and format is welcomed. Please contact Michael Jorgenson by email: mjorgenson@chhma.ca, or call at (416) 282-0022, ext. 34. CHHMA is located at 1335 Morningside Ave., Suite 101, Scarborough, ON, M1B 5M4 www.chhma.ca