Category: Canada

Economic uncertainty stirred up by whipsaw U.S. tariff threats prompted BRP Inc. to push back its financial forecast for the coming year, with the trade limbo exacerbating weak consumer demand that drove the Ski-Doo maker to an earnings loss last quarter.

“There’s still the uncertainty around what’s going to happen on April 2nd, and I think that is influencing consumer behaviour,” said chief financial officer Sébastien Martel, referring to U.S. President Donald Trump’s pledge to impose 25 per cent tariffs on trade partners next week.

The U.S. has already hit Canada and Mexico with 25 per cent levies on goods that are not compliant with the North American free trade pact. The reprieve Trump granted on March 6 for items that do comply — a climbdown from blanket tariffs rolled out two days earlier — is also set to expire in one week.

Canada has hit back with its own duties on about $60 billion worth of American goods, and threatened tariffs on billions more if the U.S. does not back down.

“It’s difficult to call. It’s been choppy, and obviously with the uncertainty created by all of this, the consumers are holding back,” Martel told analysts on a conference call Wednesday.

“That uncertainty is a bigger overhang than the potential opportunity of buying a product with no tariffs today. It says a lot about the how the consumer is feeling.”

BRP swung to a loss of $44.5 million in the fourth quarter, down from a $302.8-million profit a year earlier.

As consumers and dealers bought less, North American retail sales at BRP dropped 21 per cent year-over-year in the quarter ended Jan. 31, largely due to lower demand for snowmobiles and market share loss in off-road vehicles. Its three-wheeled motorcycles saw retail sales fall about 30 per cent.

A continental trade war bodes ill for a company with factories in all three countries — the direct result of free trade agreements dating back decades. Some 60 per cent of BRP’s revenue stems from the U.S. Most of the inventory sold there is made in Mexico — 70 per cent of total production happens south of the Rio Grande — or Canada, where Ski-Doos and some of its Can-Am three-wheelers roll off the line.

“It could have a sizable impact if tariffs were imposed on all goods crossing the border,” said Martel.

Nonetheless, BRP beat earnings expectations in its latest quarter, triggering an eight per cent jump in its share price to $54.77 in late-morning trading on the Toronto Stock Exchange.

On a normalized basis, the company’s diluted earnings hit 98 cents per share in the fourth quarter versus $2.78 per share the year before. Analysts had expected 88 cents per share, according to financial markets firm LSEG Data & Analytics.

“All things considered, could have been much worse,” said Desjardins analyst Benoit Poirier in a note to investors.

Revenue for the three-month period fell 20 per cent to $2.1 billion from $2.6 billion in the same period a year earlier.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 26, 2025.

Companies in this story: (TSX:DOO)

Christopher Reynolds, The Canadian Press

As the U.S. trade war heat ups and increases pressure on an already battered loonie, some Canadians are wondering if this is a good time to exchange large amounts of Canadian dollars into greenbacks, or vice versa.

You may have some U.S. dollars and want to convert them to Canadian currency at today’s favourable rate. Others may be diversifying part of their portfolios to be denominated in U.S. currency as part of their investment strategy.

Whatever the reason, here’s how to exchange large amounts as efficiently as possible.

When you look up an exchange rate, the first quote you’ll likely see is known as the spot rate. This is the rate that big institutions like banks get when they trade large sums of cash with each other.

However, that’s not the rate that you get when you walk into a bank branch. Every currency has two prices: a buy price and a sell price. This is known as the “forex spread” of that currency. It’s also how your bank makes money – they buy currency at a lower price than the spot rate, then resell it at a higher one.

Let’s see how this works in practice. At the time of this writing, the CAD/USD spot rate is 69.85 US cents per Canadian dollar. I walked into a bank branch and tried to purchase U.S. dollars. The price they quoted was only 68.16 US cents. This represents a 2.5-per-cent forex spread.

Now, this might not be a big deal if you’re only exchanging $100. That spread only costs you $2.50. But if you’re exchanging $1,000, then the cost rises to $25. The more you exchange, the more you pay.

Fortunately, there’s a strategy to exchange large sums of cash without this spread using your trading account. It’s called Norbert’s Gambit. Here’s how it works.

There’s an ETF with the symbol DLR. This is the Global X US Dollar Currency ETF, which is a fund that holds cash in USD. What’s special about DLR is that it’s listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange in two different currencies: DLR (CAD) and DLR.U (USD).

Because the free market, rather than your bank, determines the price of these two securities, DLR and DLR.U trade at the actual exchange rate without a forex spread. So, these funds can be used to exchange any amount of CAD and USD at that better rate.

Let’s say you had $10,000 of CAD that you wanted to exchange for USD. At the spot rate you would get US$6,985, but the bank only gives you US$6,816, meaning you lose US$169 to the forex spread.

Now let’s see what happens with Norbert’s Gambit. As of this writing, DLR is trading for $14.62 per share in Canadian currency. At that price, $10,000 buys you 684 shares.

Now you contact your bank or brokerage and submit a “journaling” request, which transfers your shares of DLR to the USD version, DLR.U. Some banks allow you to submit this request online, others require you to call into customer support. Journaling can take two to four business days to complete.

After your journaling completes, you now have 684 shares of DLR.U sitting in your trading account. At DLR.U’s current price of US$10.21, selling these shares would net you US$6,983.64. This is now only $1.36 off from the spot price, and represents a forex spread of only 0.02 per cent, which is nothing compared with the 2.33 per cent the bank charges.

A few caveats you should know before doing this.

First, it requires your bank or brokerage to support journaling shares. Most, but not all, brokerages support this.

Second, it requires your bank or brokerage to support multicurrency trading accounts. The Big Six Canadian banks all allow this, though you may need to contact customer service to enable it.

Third, there may be a small fee to buy or sell the shares, or to process the journaling request. Questrade, for example, will start charging $9.95 per journaling request starting in April. However, these fees are flat and so don’t change depending on how much you convert. That’s why it makes more sense to use this strategy to convert larger sums.

And finally, journaling takes three to four business days to complete. Your exchange rate is determined when you buy or sell the Canadian-denominated DLR, so if you’re converting CAD to USD, the conversion rate is set immediately when you buy DLR. However, if you’re converting USD to CAD, the rate is determined after the journal completes, so the exchange rate may fluctuate during that time – leaving yourself exposed to the downside if CAD rises during those few days. (On the plus side, you could end up with an even better deal if the greenback goes up.) If you need the money right away, you may have to just suck it up and pay the forex spread.

Even with all these caveats, if you find yourself exchanging large amounts of CAD for USD, learning how to use Norbert’s Gambit could save you hundreds or thousands of dollars in foreign exchange fees over time. And any money saved in fees is money that can be put to better use elsewhere.

Kristy Shen and Bryce Leung retired in their 30s and are authors of the bestselling book Quit Like a Millionaire.

Canada-based biotech firm Willow Biosciences (TSX: WLLW) (OTCQB: CANSF) this week reported a net loss of C$6.1 million despite posting a roughly threefold increase in revenue in 2024. The company also appears poised to close down entirely, with operations slated to cease as soon as the sale of a subsidiary goes through.

Willow said in a press release that CEO Dr. Chris Savile and Senior Vice President of Research and Development Dr. Trish Choudhary will be terminated as soon as the company’s sale of Epimeron USA  closes, “as the Company will no longer be carrying on active operations.”

Willow announced the sale of the subsidiary to an unnamed buyer in the United Kingdom for US$3.3 million. That’s expected to improve Willow’s cash on hand from C$333,000 at the end of 2024 to C$1.1 million, the company forecast, while most of the proceeds from the sale will be used to pay off debts.

Even the sale, should it close, won’t be enough to keep Willow listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange, the company said in a press release, and shared that it expects to be suspended from the exchange.

The sale is expected to close by the end of April.

According to the company’s quarterly financial filing, Willow’s revenues increased substantially year-over-year to C$4.6 million from C$1.1 million, and it cut its annual losses by more than half, to C$6.1 million from C$13 million.

As of Dec. 31, Willow had C$2.4 million in total assets, including C$333,000 in cash, against C$2.9 million in total liabilities and a whopping C$127.8 million deficit.

Canada’s main stock index rose on Tuesday, building on the previous day’s gains as optimism about narrower-than-feared tariffs kept investor hopes high.

Toronto Stock Exchange’s S&P/TSX composite index was up 0.41% at 25,408.87 — near the three-week high reached in the previous session.

U.S. President Donald Trump on Monday suggested that not all proposed levies would be enforced by April 2, with some countries potentially receiving exemptions.

“Yesterday everything went higher up based on what the market perceived as positive news out of the White House on tariffs,” said Allan Small, senior investment advisor at Allan Small Financial Group with iA Private Wealth.

“I think today is just a little bit carried forward from the previous session”.

On TSX, the materials and energy led the sectoral gains, rising 1.4% and 0.6%, respectively.

Gold prices rose on demand for safe-haven amid uncertainty over Trump’s tariff plans for next week that could potentially boost inflation.

Copper prices also gained as traders kept up speculative buying based on expected tariffs.

Meanwhile, oil prices rose for the fifth consecutive day on expectations that global supply may tighten after the U.S. announced tariffs on countries buying Venezuelan crude.

South of the border, a conference board report showed that an index tracking consumer confidence dropped to 92.9 in March, at a time when worries persist that a global trade war could fan inflation and slow the economy. Economists were expecting a reading of 94.

ShoreOne, a provider of insurance solutions for coastal homeowners, has teamed up with Trisura Specialty Insurance Company.  

This collaboration is said to enhance ShoreOne’s capacity to serve homeowners in select coastal regions, leveraging Trisura’s financial strength. 

It adds a third carrier partner to ShoreOne’s portfolio.  

Independent agents are anticipated to benefit from the partnership through improved underwriting capabilities.  

Set up in 2019, ShoreOne offers one policy that includes both traditional homeowners’ perils and flood coverage.  

ShoreOne chief operating officer and president Cameron Rhodes stated: “We take our role as stewards of insurance and reinsurance capital quite seriously and look forward to continue building on the track record we have established to date. The professional team at Trisura have been an absolute delight to work with and we are grateful to share this coastal homeowners programme (including flood) with them.” 

Trisura US Programmes CEO Michael Beasley said: “We have been very selective in our approach to homeowners business over the last few years, and we are very excited about our new partnership with ShoreOne. We find them to be a very talented team who understands their business model very well and has a demonstrated track record of success in this space. We look forward to a long and successful partnership with the ShoreOne Team.” 

Trisura Group, listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange, operates in surety, risk solutions, corporate insurance and fronting.  

The group has investments in subsidiaries conducting insurance and reinsurance operations, mainly in Canada and the US. 

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