Budgets/Spending/Market Size

Retail sales fell by more than a quarter in April due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but Statistics Canada said Friday that they regained some of the lost ground in May.

New forecasts show dramatically lower expectations for 2020 capital spending in the oil and gas sector both nationally and in Alberta, the province that produces 65% of the country's natural gas and 82% of its oil.

These are challenging times and to a large extent, previous models and economic expectations will have to be revised as our society muscles through this public health crisis.

British Columbia's lowest paid workers got a pay increase Monday with a scheduled minimum wage hike at a crucial time for small businesses as they look for ways to continue operating during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The University of Western Ontario’s Human Environments Analysis Lab (HEAL) has launched a study of employees and owners/managers in the grocery and foodservice sectors to determine COVID-19’s impact on their industry.

Canadian manufacturing sales posted their biggest percentage drop since the financial crisis in March and economists warned sales are expected to continue to fall in April as the COVID-19 pandemic brought the economy to a crawl.Royal Bank senior economist Nathan Janzen said Thursday that the economic data will also likely get significantly worse in April with containment measures in place for the entire month.“Beyond that, we could see some improvement in May already with social/distancing measures easing in spots, but the drop in activity in March and April is still likely to be staggering, and entirely unprecedented in modern measured economic data,'' Janzen wrote in a brief note.Statistics Canada reported Thursday manufacturing sales fell 9.2% to $50.8 billion in March, the lowest level since June 2016, as factories shut down due to the COVID-19 pandemic or faced sharply lower demand.The average estimate by economists was for a drop of 5.7%, according to financial markets data firm Refinitiv.In volumes terms, manufacturing sales fell 8.3%.Sales fell in 17 of 21 industries led by the transportation equipment industry which plunged 26.5% in March as Canadian auto assembly plants and several parts suppliers in North America cut production.

Statistics Canada says retail sales in Canada posted their biggest monthly decline on record in March and warned that the drop for April will eclipse that loss.The agency says retail sales fell 10.0% to $47.1 billion in March as non-essential businesses began to shut their doors mid-month due to the pandemic.The drop was in line with economists' expectations of 10 per cent, according to financial markets data firm Refinitiv.Statistics Canada also says a preliminary estimate for April indicates a 15.6% drop for the first full month of the pandemic.The March decline came as sales plunged at motor vehicle and parts dealers, clothing and clothing accessories stores and gasoline stations, while sales at grocery stores soared.Excluding motor vehicle and parts dealers, retail sales were down 0.4% for the month.

The Calgary-based company says that equalled a loss of 53 cents per diluted share, compared with a profit of 52 cents per share or $77 million a year earlier.