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The article offers news briefs related to economics in Canada. Tembec Inc. announced the closure of several lumber and paper mills in Quebec, while Louisiana-Pacific stopped operations indefinitely at its board mill and Norampac Inc. shut its linerboard mill in Ontario. Work began in a $1 billion expansion of power generation at Niagara Falls, Ontario.

The article focuses on the renewal of Canada’s manufacturing base from 1961-1999. This paper indicates that job turnover in manufacturing has a substantial long-term component. Moreover, it quantifies the size of this process decade by decade. Over a decade, almost 40% of jobs are renewed. Using a 20-year time frame, over 65% of the economy is renewed, over a 30 year period, renewal amounts to just over 75%; and by 40 years, just over 85% of jobs are new. The rates of renewal are closely related to growth.

The article presents a paper that informs the trend in the use of imported inputs (IIs) by industries in Canada. It notes that industries had reduced their use of IIs in the late 1990s due to IIs's slow performance. It likewise mentions some firms that increase their use of IIs in 2003, particularly in the manufacturing sector. Further, it informs that import use in the country rose in 2004 for the first time since 1998.

This paper examines whether cross-border shopping has taken flight with the loonie. It fi nds that measured by the number of trips to the US, the average spent per trip or even online purchases, the recent increase in crossborder shopping has been minimal, especially outside of Ontario. More notable is the drop in US visitors to Canada. Meanwhile, overseas travel in and out of Canada continues to grow rapidly. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article reprints the article "Emerging Patterns in the Labour Market: A Reversal from the 1990s," by P. Cross, which was published in the March 2005 issue of "Canadian Economic Observer." The paper examined whether the labor market trends reversed since 2000 continued in 2005. Notable developments include the resurgence of construction and resource jobs, the disappearance of factory jobs, notably high technology and automotive jobs. Computer services flattened out while public services were restores after reductions in the 1990s. The resurgence of multinational resource companies and government also favored job growth in large establishments. Meanwhile older workers supplied the increasing demand for labor.

The article presents a list of papers that appeared in previous issues of the journal "Canadian Economic Observer." The papers include "Provincial income disparities through an urban-rural lens," that appeared in the August 2005 issue, "Canada's trade and investment with China," that appeared in the June 2005 issue, "The output gap between Canada and the US: The role of productivity 1994-2002," that appeared in the January 2005 issue, "Canada's imports by country," that appeared in the September 2004 issue, and "Canada's Trade with China," that appeared in the June 2004 issue.

The terms of international trade have a major effect on Canada's economic performance. They directly affect the nominal trade balance, which reflects not only the volume of trade flows but also their prices. Indirectly, changes in the terms of trade also influence the composition of domestic demand through their impact on prices and profits in different sectors. This paper looks at the reasons for the recent sharp shift in Canada's terms of trade and its impact on different sectors of the economy. It also looks to the recent American experience with a sharply rising dollar as a guide to how different sectors of the economy could gain or lose from these changes. The focus of this article is not on the overall net effect, which is likely to be small, but on the distributional effects, which have already been considerable.

The article presents a National Accounts perspective on the recent financial events in Canada. It says that since the onset of global financial crisis after August 2007, interest in financial and economic developments in Canada has grown. The spread between interest rates for government and corporate debt hit a high, as investors abandoned corporate debt and put a premium on the lower risk associated with sovereign debt. The article also presents several charts of statistical economic data.

The article provides information on the economic trends including the increase in commodity prices and the exchange rate in Canada. The world trade goods' inflation has generated a resource boom in the country, which has been attached relatively to the Canadian-U.S. exchange rate. The case stemmed from the integration of China which affected the productivity growth in the global manufacturing sector. Other structural shifts in the Canadian economy are also explored.

This article presents a list of papers that have featured in the previous issues of the periodical "Canadian Economic Observer." Some of the articles are: "Canada's Trade and Investment With China," "Canada's Natural Resource Exports," "Federal Personal Income Tax: Slicing the Pie," "Canada's Economic Growth in Review," "Recent Changes in the Labour Market," "Canada's Textile and Clothing Industries," "The Output Gap Between Canada and the US: The Role of Productivity 1994-2002" and "Social Assistance by Province, 1993-2003."