Tausi Insider

On Tuesday, Suncor executives are scheduled to stage their first investor day since reaching an agreement in July with hedge fund Elliott Investment Management LP. Todd Korol/Reuters Suncor Energy Inc. SU-T set clear performance targets this summer in the face of an activist investor campaign. The fate of its Petro-Canada division rests on just how quickly the oil and gas company wants to reach those goals. On Tuesday, Suncor executives are scheduled to stage their first investor day since reaching an agreement in July with hedge fund Elliott Investment Management LP. The settlement saw the company welcome three new board members, pledge to address operational issues and consider selling Petro-Canada and its 1,800 gas stations. Last month, Suncor promised to reveal plans for the division, which analysts estimate could fetch up to $10-billion, at Tuesday’s session. Going into the big reveal on Petro-Canada’s future, Suncor interim chief executive officer Kris Smith has made a number o...

A combination of external and internal factors made RBC's HSBC deal a reality. Duane Cole/Tausi Insider He’ll never want to admit it, but Royal Bank of Canada RY-T chief executive Dave McKay can thank Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, at least in part, for landing Canada’s most coveted bank deal in decades. Like many of his industry peers, Mr. McKay has been frustrated with Ottawa for slapping an additional, permanent tax on bank and life insurance company profits in the most recent federal budget, something Ottawa has attributed to clawing back some of the financial relief it provided during the COVID-19 pandemic. While the federal government can taketh away, it can also provide, and seven months later, another pandemic financial policy has proven to be quite helpful to RBC – even if the assistance is unintended. Because there was so much economic uncertainty when Canada entered its first COVID-19 lockdowns in March, 2020, the federal government and the country’s banking regulator ...

People shop at the Eaton Centre in Toronto on Nov. 22. CARLOS OSORIO/Reuters As disturbing as the past year has been in personal finance, 2023 threatens to be worse. A huge wave of interest rate increases hit this year. Next year, they really sink in. The cumulative impact of higher payments on mortgages, credit lines and floating rate loans will challenge households to maintain their lifestyle without incurring more debt, and slow the entire economy. Stress Test podcast: Recession-beating tips for the job market, housing, investing and cost of life One way to ease your way into 2023 is to keep a firm grip on your holiday season spending. You won’t find the religion of frugality preached here. Ya gotta live, I say. But there are ways to stay in control of your spending so that you don’t spend January regretting December. Here’s a 10-pack of ideas for you: Avoid BNPL Buy now, pay later is an option that many retailers and some credit card issuers offer where you pay for a purchase wit...

After a bumper year of share buybacks and dividends, investors in debt-light Canadian oil and gas producers are set to reward shareholders even more in 2023 as they generate ample cash and show little appetite for acquisitions. Oil companies are facing faltering prices and Canadian firms are also absorbing an unusually punishing discount for their heavy-grade crude. BMO Capital Markets analysts estimate the top 35 companies will generate C$54 billion ($39.7 billion) in free cash flow in 2023, 16% lower than this year. But the portion of cash that flows to shareholders may be higher because companies will spend less on debt repayment, BMO’s managing director of oil and gas equity research Randy Ollenberger said. “We don’t see 2023 as being challenging for the sector given the improvement to balance sheets,” he said. Most large- and mid-size producers expect to be net-debt-free in the second half of 2023, according to BMO. Net debt represents a company’s gross debt minus cash and cash-...

Interest in undeveloped land and the money spent building homes has skyrocketed in B.C. J.P. MOCZULSKI/Tausi Insider There’s a scene that plays out all too often at Gerald Christie’s regional district office: Someone will walk in with high hopes to build their dream home on an undeveloped piece of property they just bought, only to find out the massive financial hurdles they didn’t realize they’ll face. Mr. Christie, manager of development services for the Columbia Shuswap Regional District (CSRD) in Salmon Arm, B.C., said those owners could have saved themselves a lot of grief if they’d done their due diligence. Interest in undeveloped land and the money spent building homes has skyrocketed in that part of the province’s Interior. The CSRD issued 1,187 building and planning permits between 2016 and 2019. That number nearly doubled to 2,177 permits for the period from January, 2020 to November, 2022. In larger regions such as the Greater Toronto Area, undeveloped land remains a fasci...

Former OPSEU boss Warren 'Smokey' Thomas speaks to reporters at Queens Park in Toronto in a file photo on Jan. 21, 2019. Chris Young/The Canadian Press The former president of the Ontario Public Service Employees Union — Warren ‘Smokey’ Thomas — has called the recent allegations of financial improprieties made against him by the union “bogus” and is vowing to defend them. Mr. Thomas released a statement on Tuesday afternoon, just a day after OPSEU filed a lawsuit accusing him and two other former union executives of improperly using millions of dollars in cash and assets for personal enrichment. The statement, issued by Mr. Thomas’s lawyers, said that the lawsuit was riddled with “errors, falsehoods and untrue allegations.” “Mr. Thomas rejects the claims against him and intends to defend his good name,” the statement read. The union alleges that Mr. Thomas, who served as president of OPSEU for 15 years before retiring from the union last April, along with Eduardo Almeida, the...

A look at this week’s available mortgage rates on fixed and variable terms and HELOCs Rich Pedroncelli/The Associated Press HSBC is once again setting the pace for uninsured five-year fixed rates. Its new 5.09-per-cent offer leads all national lenders. Plus it’s forking out up to $5,000 cash back, depending on mortgage size. If you’re dead-set on a five-year fixed and there’s a meaningful chance you’ll break the mortgage early, find a lender with lower prepayment penalties than a bank. Mortgage brokers know who these lenders are. McLister: Does a short-term mortgage still make sense? Mortgages 101: What to know about fixed vs. variable rates in Canada In the one-year fixed market, note the dramatic savings for insured one-year rates versus uninsured rates. That’s largely thanks to much lower funding costs for government-backed insured mortgages where borrowers pay the default insurance premium. QuestMortgage’s 4.64-per-cent insured one-year fixed remains one of the nation’s best valu...