Where Is It Going To Stop

[William Young]

I was just watching the CTV national news and the dollar is at $1.085 against the US dollar today.
Several months ago it was supposed to reach par before Christmas . Then when it reached par it was expected to go to $1.10 by Christmas . Looks like it is nearly there well ahead of time . It is the highest Canadian dollar now in over fifty years.
Will be interesting to see where it levels out for a while before it either goes up or down again .
There sure are long lineups at out little border crossing just six miles away with people going south of the border to shop. I feel sorry for the merchants in these little border towns losing sales this close to Christmas..

Edit.
Take a look at this .

http://www.xe.com/

Look at the inverse scale from USD to CAD . It changes by the minute and of course by the hour and day but last time I looked it was 1.09928

Then I looked again at 10.50 PM and it was 1.10005
W.Y.

[Jediscroller]

The upside of our falling dollar has been a boom for businesses. Our exports are much cheaper meaning larger orders. In the place where I work, we have several customers in Canada who have been boosting orders. So much so that we've had to order 2 new machines and are trying to hire about 4 people. Unfortunately, it's extremely difficult to find folks to hire as we also have record employment levels in the state. It's the first time I've ever been involved with trying to increase capacity in a company.

[Back2Jake]

On the news yesterday there was a reporter talking about how the border guards were giving Canadians crossing to the USA to shop a hard time. I suppose the volume of people crossing the borders are stressing them. Seems the line ups at our local borders take up to 3 hours to cross????? Last time I went to New York, I waited over an hour in the line ... couldn't imagine it being 3 hours!

Then there was another broadcast saying they anticipated the Canadian dollar to drop to $.95 US by the end of the year.

This is definately an interesting time.

Take care
Toni

[Marsha]

I think the rising Canadian $ is great for the US economy, unfortunatley it will do nothing for the Canadian economy. Canadians are already seeing an increase in unemployment levels, and it will only get worse as the Cdn. $ flies out of Canada. Our border retailers are also feeling the heat as consumers spend their money in the US. The trucking industry is starting to suffer as well, with the drop in US sales there's very little to ship. With the low US $, buyers will start spending record amounts of money in the US, although I'm not sure where Cdn. buyers will sell their goods, if we all go to the States to shop.
My suggestion, is to stop shopping in the States, but buy US dollars, put them in a bank account and let them sit until the Cdn. dollar comes back down, and it will come back down, then sell your US currency, you can't help but make money.
When do I think it will come back down? I think the Cdn. $ will start to fall right after the American election next year.
Just my 2¢ worth
Marsha

[William Young]

Marsha.
The rise in the dollar certainly does have its pro's and cons.
I don't know what national news you have been watching

Canadians are already seeing an increase in unemployment levels, and it will only get worse

but
The economy is booming so much in Canada that unemployment is at a record breaking low and it is hard to find help. I hadn't realized that Ontario was not a part of that . Right in the little town of Creston close to where I live there are three restaurants that are no longer serving supper. Just coffe in the morning and light lunches because they can't find help and some of the fast food chains are offering $12.00 an hour to start immediately instead of the normal $8.25 minimum wage. Seems that the people that used to work in such places are finding employment elswhere at double what they were getting .Yes the west has a booming economy at present.
But I agree that the high dollar is going to hurt a lot of retailers in Canada in all phases of sales and production and that even applies to little guys like me that used to sell a ton of fretwork clocks and lathe turnings because I live in a tourist area and most of my sales went south of the border. We used to see as many USA license plates as Canadian ones in my area when the Canadian dollar was weak and now it a rare occurence to see a car from USA.
I am not at all saying that the high dollar here is a good thing . I really don't understand the politics behind it all. I wish it would be the same value year 'round right across North America . But for now it is very nice for us Canadians to be able to get better value for our dollar when shopping south of the border like the Americans have enjoyed for so many years by coming up here in droves shopping in Canada. I was over the border just yesterday to mail a parcel and whille I was there I filled up my truck with gas that is seventeen cents a liter less than in Canada to start with before the dollar difference so the exchange rate just made a nice extra savings.
As far as the long waits at the border, the small one just six miles from me used be a two or three car wait. Now it is upwards to 15 cars which they move though faily quickly. I stay away from the border on weekends though because the lineups are too long at that time . I would hate to live near the big borders where I have seen them talking about three hour waits. A lot have turned to online shopping due to the long border delays.
W.Y.

[Marsha]

Yes Bill, I should've clarified my statement. I do know that the economy is booming out west, however it is not booming in Ont. National Steel Car, here in Hamilton has announced that they will close operations and move to the States, I have a brother in law and a nephew who both lost their jobs with that one. We had a large automotive company in Kitchener close it's doors a week or so ago, they've moved that operation to the states. Stelco, Hamilton's largest employer has announced that they've been purchased by US Steel, will they close their doors, not today, but probably within the next year. I have a nephew who was hauling long distance into the States, he would make 3 round trips a week, now he's lucky if he gets a trip every 10 or 12 days.
So yes I agree things are pretty good out west right now, how long will it remain that way in light of the rising dollar, is anybody's quess.
Marsha

[William Young]

Yes, I understand what you are saying. When our dollar was low the Americans were buying up everthing they could get their hands on in Canada. Even big outfits like the Hudson Bay Company that own Zellers and a few others in that chain of Department stores are now American owned. Maybe that trend will reverse itself now and be better for all by levelling things out somewhat.
Like I said ealier I don't understand the politics of it all and don't pretend to. Just going by what I hear on the news both National and the BC news.
Probably the reason the west is booming more than the east is due to the high price of oil lately and with living in BC we are just next door to oil rich Alberta where they are cranking out millions of barrels of oil with the tar sands up north into full production .
It certainly is a changing world. At the coffee shop this morning a couple guys said that the Canadian dollar now has the strongest value in the world but one guy at our table of 14 today disagreed on that and thought the Euro was stronger ? As for me I don't have any idea . I just listen and learn as much as I can and put in my two cents worth with what I have seen on the news.

I was quite shocked to hear this past summer on the news that the steel plant (Stelco) in Hamilton was bought out by Americans back when the Canadian dollar was weak. I have been past Stelco probably a thousand times when I lived in Burlington and I had relatives working at Stelco back when I lived out east. That was a long time ago. Burlington was just a little town outside of Hamilton at that time back in the 30's and 40's. I went to public scool in a little one room schoolhouse that taught all 8 grades on the corner of the Guelph line and QE highway and then on to high school in downtown Burlington. .
W.Y.

[Mike Crosa]

I think that is interesting. Your manufacturing facitilites are shutting down and moving to the states because of lower costs, ie wages, etc. etc. and our manufacturing facilities are shutting down to move to Mexico or China. Interesting times we are living in. Interesting times.

[Mick Walker]

Bill, you better save all those Canadian dollars as gas has jumped to $3.15 a gallon here. Someone some where is sure getting rich off of us gas users.

[William Young]

Mick.
As far as gas prices go , every time USA gas price goes up in USA the Canadian gas prices go up accordingly except the Canadian prices are about 17 to 20 cents a liter more here at any given time than just over the border from where I live. I am so close to the border that I very seldom ever buy gas here anymore and the stronger dollar is making the inscentive to go across the border much more appealing.
About the only thing that accounts for the difference is the much higher taxes that both the Provincial and Federal goverments slap on it here.
Would be intersting to know how cheap a liter of gas would actually be before taxes.

Hey . . . maybe that is one of the things that has brought the Canadaian economy into the great shape it is in. We pays loads of taxes here . Recently on the news it was reported . . EXCACT words . . . ****The Canadian government is just swimming in excess revenue****. They are lowering our GST tax by 1% again first of Jan/2008 as well as reducing a lot of other taxes inclucding income tax.
W.Y.