FIRE IN MEDICAN CONDO BUILDING – CANVAS

Below is a statement from the Developer which was posted on their Website.

March 18, 2010:

Fire at Canvas at Millrise News Release

Medican Supports Residents Impacted by Fire

Calgary, AB – (March 19, 2010) – Medican says it will offer its support to the residents who lost their homes in a devastating fire Thursday. “This has been a terrible loss for hundreds of people,” says Bob Montgomery, Manager of Wellness Health and Safety for the Medican Group of Companies. “Although it’s been over a year since the condominium board took ownership and responsibility for the development, we’re ready to do what we can to help out.”

The fire started at 23 Millrise Drive at the Canvas at Millrise at about 12:00pm. The fire destroyed about half of the 159 units. The other half, suffered water and smoke damage. The building was about 90% occupied. About 400 people have been directly impacted by the fire.

The cause of the fire has not yet been determined. Investigators are on scene and we are providing our full cooperation. Many of our staff spent the day working with residents, first responders and social service agencies. Other buildings in the complex were not affected by the fire and following a thorough inspection, residents at 11 Millrise Drive were allowed to return home starting at 11:00pm Thursday.

“Despite the terrible damage done to this building, we feel very fortunate that at this time , no serious injuries have been reported,” says Bob Montgomery.

All residents were safely evacuated from the building after the fire broke out. Many residents watched as their home and belongings were destroyed. Regretfully some pets were lost in the fire.

“We at Medican are saddened by this disaster and our hearts go out to all of the residents,” Montgomery says. “We will continue to assist wherever possible.”

For more information:

Bob Montgomery
Manager – Wellness, Health and Safety
Medican Group of Companies
Mobile: 403-660-8421
bobm@medican.com
2March 18, 2010:

Statement with Respect to the Fire at Canvas at Millrise

Members of the Calgary Fire Department and Calgary Police Service are tending to a serious fire at the Canvas at Millrise condominium located at 23 Millrise Drive S.W., Calgary. Our thoughts and prayers are with these first responders and the residents of the building. We will have further comments as the investigation into this fire proceeds.

Hello world

Finally got around to start up a weekly blog on the latest and greatest on the financial front. Visit me over at tdmortgage.wordpress.com and sign up for the weekly news letter that will be fun and informative.

Relief in sight?

The Bank of Canada's record-low interest rates have been in place for almost a year and during that time, consumer complaints about mortgage prepayment penalties have been steadily rising.

A story in the Globe and Mail says the Ombudsman for Banking Services and Investments (OBSI) has opened 301 new consumer complaints in the quarter that ended in January, which is twice the number seen in the same quarter last year and almost triple the number seen in 2008.

Hein Moes, an Invis broker in Victoria, says lenders will not bend on interest rate differential (IRD) penalties when interest rates are so low, causing many clients to opt out of refinancing for a better rate.

"I don't know when we're going to see some release in that department," said Moes. "If you can't save your penalty before the original maturity date of the mortgage, then you really have to have a hard look at whether you want to do it or not. And even if you take the best discounted deal with the same lender, they're going to want to see compensation from that."

In the latest federal budget, Finance Minister Jim Flaherty said he will standardize how prepayment penalties are calculated and disclosed to consumers, but details have not yet been revealed.

Douglas Melville, the head of the OBSI, told the Globe in most cases the lender's disclosure is clear, but there are some instances when the customer's argument has legs.

"At the moment, we have about a dozen case files still open where some form of compensation is likely to result," Melville said. "We believe compensation is warranted due to a lack of clear disclosure by the firm of the prepayment penalty calculation."

103 1143 37 Street SW – FOR SALE

Location, Location, Location!!! This is what you have been looking for… With a great location and a great layout, you don’t have to look too much further. This is a 1 bedroom main level condo that doesn’t face 37 St. For more info or to book your showing please go to http://www.ChamberlainGroup.ca or email us at Sales@tcgroup.ca.

VIEW VIRTUAL TOUR HERE

View Larger Map

Are We Back To The Days of Ralph?

So it looks like we are back to the days of Ralph with the Royalties in Alberta… Here is the original article from the Calgary Herald.  Yesterday Premier Ed passed another revision of his Royalty Review and is now sitting at 36%.  The Article also talks about how the Alberta government will collect in 2013 $400 million more than what was under King Ralph’s reign, however it’s $800 million less then what Premier Ed originally passed.

I would like to hear from all the individuals that are in the oil industry and would like to get your take on this… What have you seen this do to the industry and how will it impact the oil and gas industry in Calgary in the future…

Minimum 10% Down?

Jared Chamberlain video blogs (vlogs) about his experience in a conversation with another realtor in calgary and how they thought that buyers needed to put down minimum 10% for a personal residence. Jared talks about how this is NOT the case and nothing of the sorts has been passed thus far. For any comments or questions or if you don’t care for Jared’s thoughts please email him at jared@tcgroup.ca and visit wwwChamberlainGroup.ca for more info.

Changing the Canadian National Anthem

Calgary Realtor Jared Chamberlain video blogs about how the government has proposed to change the National Canadian Anthem to make it more gender friendly. Take our poll here http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/RZPN265.

If you have any comments you can leave them below or email Jared at jared@tcgroup.ca or visit http://www.chamberlaingroup.ca

The Next Labour Squeeze 2010-2014?

Original Article by Globe and Mail.com

Evan Brewer could soon be the Alberta economy’s salvation – and its worst nightmare.

Near the end of the energy boom, the 24-year-old New Brunswicker worked as a journeyman welder in the oil sands, making close to $5,000 in a good week in Fort McMurray.

Then the bottom fell out of the market and he is back in Fredericton, picking up occasional work that pays $800 a week at best, and waiting for the next bonanza.

“The difference is unreal,” says Mr. Brewer, who is taking courses to add pipefitting to his welding credentials. “There was good money in Alberta – and I’d go back.”

He may get his chance.

The energy industry, particularly on the oil side, is rebounding, and there are concerns that, once again, there will be a burst of new projects and a shortage of tradespeople in the West. That could set off a labour bubble similar to the frenzied 2004-08 period, leading to sky-high wage costs and the mass importing of workers from outside Western Canada.

“We are about to start running into, believe it or not, another labour shortage,” says Brian Vaasjo, president of Capital Power Inc., the big electricity generating company that last year was spun out of the City of Edmonton’s utilities company.

“It is going to be significant again,” he says, adding that the labour squeeze could happen within a matter of months. “I don’t know how to deal with that.”

That scenario would be just fine for Mr. Brewer – another high-paying job in Alberta – but disastrous for many employers, particularly in non-energy sectors, which actually benefited from one aspect of the energy slowdown: the cooling effect on labour markets.

The problem is the market typically overcorrects on both the upside and downside. When the energy market is strong, there is a mad scramble for new projects and skilled labour, with wages heading out of sight. When things cool down, jobs are slashed, and itinerant tradespeople go home to the Maritimes, to Mexico, or to their farms in Alberta and Saskatchewan.

The sense that things have turned around again is partly spurred by once-delayed projects being pulled off the shelf, such as ConocoPhillips and Total’s plan to quadruple the capacity of their Surmont oil sands facility south of Fort McMurray. But the most telling signals are in the drilling sector, which suffered a deep plunge in activity over the previous 18 months, but is now showing signs of life.

Drilling firms, many in their peak winter activity period, have been calling back laid-off workers and advertising for employees in traditional labour pools such as Canada’s East Coast.

“The hiring activity is at a dull roar right now,” said Wilf Gobert, a former Calgary investment analyst who is a senior fellow in energy studies at the Fraser Institute. “It reflects a need when you start advertising for people,” But he adds the volumes are not huge and they are concentrated in certain skill levels.

Capital Power expects that the bulk of its major capital projects should be well advanced by the time the trades shortage becomes dire, but Mr. Vaasjo has concerns about future maintenance shutdowns, when he must bring in hundreds of people.

In the boom years, Alberta’s labour unions and employers agreed the province could import many out-of-province workers. That transfer slowed during the downturn, but the next time around, it could be more difficult to turn on the taps.

For one thing, a number of resource megaprojects are gearing up in Newfoundland and Labrador, which will pull in East Coast labour, creating more competition. Also, there are new energy hot spots in northeastern British Columbia and southern Saskatchewan.

These concerns are played down by Greg Stringham, vice-president of oil sands and markets for the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers, who points out that, while oil is showing some life, natural gas markets are still relatively depressed.

He said the industry will deal with the Alberta labour problem better this time around by finding supply sources elsewhere. Western oil and gas companies are more prepared to get supply chains of equipment and materials filled by manufacturers in Central and Eastern Canada dealing with excess capacity. “We seem to learn lessons as we go through these cycles of ups and downs, and one of the big lessons is to nurture these relationships,” Mr. Stringham said.

The market is coming back, he said, but very gradually. “We were going at speeds of 100 kilometres an hour, and we slowed down last year to 10 kilometres an hour.” With the oil market rebounding but gas still soft, “we are up to around 30 to 40 kilometres.”

He adds that “we don’t see the [labour] pressure building yet and hopefully we won’t see it happening again.”

The current Alberta unemployment rate, at 6.6 per cent, does not suggest a lack of ready workers. It sits at twice the level of three years ago, when all kinds of jobs, from labourers to skilled trades, were in short supply.

But balancing the peaks and valleys is a constant challenge for Mel Svendsen, whose Calgary company Standen’s Ltd., produces vehicle springs for the automobile and farm equipment industry.

During the boom, there was a dire shortage of people with specialized metal-forging skills, so he brought in as many as 70 tradespeople from countries such as Romania and Mexico. The idea was that these new workers would spend enough time in Canada to train local workers in the critical metal-working skills.

But in the current economy, “we are having a hell of a time getting their permits renewed,” he said. “The government attitude seems to be that, ‘well, there are lots of people out there looking for work, so hire them.’”

But in his case, local workers don’t have all the needed skills yet, he said.

The skills gap is a long-term problem with long-term solutions, said Mr. Svendsen, who sits on the board of an Alberta foundation with public-private involvement, called Careers: the Next Generation. The driving force behind this education and awareness group is Eric Newell, who grappled with skills imbalances when he ran oil sands giant Syncrude Canada Ltd., from 1989 to 2003.

In the 1980s, young people looked at trades as a career of last resort, and there has been progress, Mr. Newell said. “We now have 10 times the number of apprentices as in 1989.” But despite his group’s work in connecting students and employers, “we were still short of skilled tradespeople when all the projects were going.”

He added that there is growing recognition in Alberta that high-demand trades provide a good livelihood. But even among parents who are tradespeople themselves, there are worries that their children, by going into these jobs, will have to ride the boom-and-bust cycles.

Those gyrations are a way of life now for Mr. Brewer who, as reported in The Globe and Mail in December, 2008, went West determined to make enough money to buy a house and escape his parents’ basement. He did very well for several months, was told there was plenty of work in the oil sands, went home on leave to New Brunswick and bought a house.

Returning to Fort McMurray, Mr. Brewer spent six days on the job in early 2009 when he was laid off as a subcontractor on Suncor’s oil sands site. Back in Fredericton, he had to rent out the house, and returned to his parents’ basement.

He keeps scouring the Web for labour call-ups, but he is not so keen now on Fort McMurray. “Nobody actually lives in Fort Mac. They are just there for the paycheque and then they get the hell out.”

But, he added, he would be back in a flash if that were his best option. “You go where the demand is.”

New Interactive Pathway and Bike Map

If your one to be biking around Calgary, this is a great interactive tool that you can use to find out maps and open pathways.  You can go to the layered map to get a full taste of what it does…  There is over 1,000 km’s to navigate through… Have fun and remember to wear your helmet!

March 2010 Real Estate Market Update

Jared Chamberlain video blogs about the market over the past couple of months. The median price for both single family homes and condos has increased over January 2010. If you have any comments or don’t care for Jared’s thoughts, please email him at jared@tcgroup.ca or visit http://www.ChamberlainGroup.ca

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