Posts Tagged ‘economy’

The Royal Bank of Canada polls Canadian consumers regularly. Today, the results for the most recent poll were released. We’ve heard a lot in the news that the economy is getting better, but there’s been debate over whether it actually is improving, or whether people are just being optimistic. According to the Canadian Consumer Outlook, sixty-two percent of Canadians are expecting the economy to improve over the next year.

“Recovery is in sight for the world economy,” said Dawn Desjardins, assistant chief economist, RBC. “We’re off to a slow start but the economy will start to build steam and unemployment will reach its peak early next year and then fall off.”
Source

Sometimes, travel is necessary for your job – especially if you work in sales, or are an executive of a national company with a number of different locations. While travel costs can add up quickly, there are some easy ways to cut back on travel costs, whether you’re just driving to a nearby city for the day or flying a couple of provinces away for a week.

1. Car Pool. Whether it’s the full distance to a meeting, or only part of the drive to the meeting, car pooling can cut back on the gas costs.
2. Drive the Speed Limit. As tempting as it can be to speed your way down the highway, it’s more efficient on gas to drive the speed limit – when gas is as expensive as it has been the past few years, the more gas-efficient our driving is, the less often we actually have to buy gas.
3. Bring a thermos or travel mug of coffee or tea instead of stopping at Timmies or Starbucks. Coffee or tea doesn’t take long to make in the morning – especially if you have a percolator with a timer. You can even get travel mugs that plug into the power adapter in your car to keep your coffee warm during your traveling.
4. Videoconferencing or conference calls. One easy way to cut down on costs when you are on the road is to cut out the traveling altogether. If possible, meet with your clients over the phone or through videoconferencing.
5. Schedule meetings in the same area for the same day. If you have a few clients on the other side of the country and are planning on going out to meet with one of them, why not meet with all of them? It will save having to travel back out to that area of the country at another separate point in time.
6. Book flights in advance. Flights are usually cheaper if you book them about 3 weeks before your travel date. (Of course, they are cheapest if you try to get one last minute and are on standby, but you’re not guaranteed a seat.)
7. Cut unnecessary hotel costs. Room service is extremely expensive, as is anything from the minibar. When possible, go somewhere a little more friendly on the pocketbook.
8. Check out the web for hotel pricing. You can sometimes get discounts through a hotel’s website. As well, this is a quick and easy way to compare pricing between a number of different hotels in the same area and will help you choose the best priced hotel for what you require.
9. Get a good phone plan. If you’re constantly on the road and having to make phone calls back home or to the office, make sure that you have a good phone plan for long distance minutes. One possibility is to use Skype for your long distance phone calls.
10. If you need to rent a car, don’t rent one at the airport. Usually these cars cost more to rent – consider an off-airport location.

The aerospace and defense industry is one of the few sectors in manufacturing that is currently not only surviving but thriving amid the recession, despite the grim predictions  for job losses and bankruptcies among other Canadian manufacturers, plummeting oil prices, and the ever fluctuating CDN dollar. Employment rates and revenue are even continually on the rise.

In the past year, Bombardier Aerospace introduced their much anticipated line of CSeries jets.  Magellan Aerospace and Pratt & Whitney Canada invested big time in their Montreal and Winnipeg operations.

According to the AIAC (Aerospace Industries Association of Canada), based in Ottawa, the aerospace sector directly employed 82,000 Canadians in 2007.  This is a significant increase from the 79,000 employees working in the industry just a year prior.  Aerospace revenue increased by half a billion to $22.7B.

Aircraft parts, components, and planes, jets, etc. account for 55% of  the overall revenues for the aerospace sector, the majority of which is generated by exports, especially to the US and European countries. Military sales increased by $5 billion last year, a rise of 18% from 2006.

Helping to fuel the exponential growth of the aerospace sector (no pun intended) is the increase in commercial air travel. The Current Market Outlook for 2007-2008, released by Boeing, predicted that air passenger travel will increase 5% per year, and cargo travel by 5.8%. The forecast extends these numbers for the next two decades.

Quote for April 22nd, 2009:

“The modern airplane creates a new geographical dimension. A navigable ocean of air blankets the whole surface of the globe. There are no distant places any longer: the world is small, and the world is one.”
- Wendell Willkie