From a triple-shot espresso to a slow roast, drip coffee made from beans cultivated high up in the Colombian mountains, a social culture surrounding coffee has emerged.
And with that, an increase of coffee imports.
From 2011 to 2015, coffee imports into Canada have gone up nine per cent to nearly $1.6 billion, according to the government of Canada’s trade data.
Dylan Gordon, an organic food advocate and PhD candidate at the University of Toronto, said that although population increase accounts for a portion of the nine per cent, it is not all of it.
A “boutique” experience
Gordon said people are no longer drinking coffee simply out of necessity; rather for a gourmet, “boutique” experience. People are interested in what they are drinking and where it is coming from, which can explain the rise in coffee imports.
For Gordon, chains like Starbucks continue to “increase penetration” into the gourmet coffee market by adding more outlets to the suburbs and rural markets.
In theory, adding a minimum price to Fair Trade coffee sold reduces the risk to farmers in developing countries, where a majority of beans are farmed. But, certifying and producing a product does not guarantee that buyers will purchase it as Fair Trade and provide the benefits, including minimum purchase price.
Another explanation, he added, is with the desire for quality, fresh product, there is a faster turnover of inventory. And in order to keep up with this upscale coffee trend, waste output has increased, raising the overall demand for cultivated beans.
Coffee education
Pietro Comino, operations manager at Francesco’s Coffee Company in Ottawa, said there has been a “massive consumer education on a wholesale level” when it comes to what coffee consumers are drinking.
“Big chains like Starbucks have come in and reshaped the landscape for coffee in North America,” said Comino. “Now everyone drinks espresso.”
“Not roasted, not decaffeinated” coffee is the most common type of coffee imported into Canada. By importing this type of product, buyers allows roasteries across Canada to roast and brew their own blends of coffee.
The biggest amount came from Colombia, while the country with the largest percent increase was the Democratic Republic of the Congo, at nearly 200,000 per cent.
Comino buys a lot of his coffee beans from Burundi, a country that showed a 69 per cent increase over the same five-year time period. He said the coffee he buys from Burundi is not Fair Trade.
What is Fair Trade?
For many consumers, a big component in the gourmet coffee experience is drinking product that is labelled organic, or Fair Trade.
According to Comino, Fair Trade plantations are often bigger, more complex operations because it takes more money and effort to certify the product and the plantation. This means Fair Trade coffee will not only sell at a higher price – explaining the increase in coffee imports – but Fair Trade farms will put small farms out of business, which can have negative effects on local communities.
The small, family-run plantations – micro lots – that farm quality product aren’t always certified Fair Trade, said Comino. “But to not purchase from them” because they are not Fair Trade “means you are harming them.”
Fair Trade is in place to improve the lives of workers in developing countries. Some of the requirements in place for Fair Trade certification include "Environment", meaning there can be no harsh chemicals and GMOs used in the farming process. The other five requirements are detailed in this document.
For Comino, the most important aspect of the coffee trade is to ensure the product you are buying and selling is actually what it claims to be. Accurately presenting your product is a necessary social commitment that gives the consumer the choice to engage as well, he added.
“That is a big deal,” said Comino. And that way, “the money does go back to the farmers, and it does make a difference.”
Comino said the shift in the coffee industry is “interesting” because with more Fair Trade coffee sold there are more people caring about better coffee.
“Fifteen or 20 years ago, Maxwell House was king,” said Comino. “You just see less and less of that.”
When Canadians think about Canada’s military history there are many examples that come to mind: Vimy Ridge, Juno Beach, Afghanistan, and peacekeeping missions around the world.
But rarely, if at all, do people talk about the men and women who served during the Gulf War according to those who served. For some veterans like Sylvia Vickers, who served for 11 years as a naval combat information operator, they believe that The Gulf War is a “forgotten war.” But 25 years later it looks like things might change.
This weekend marks the 25th anniversary of the Gulf War and events are taking place across the country to honour veterans and their families. After originally not having plans to commemorate the anniversary in 2015, Veterans Affairs Canada announced in August it would recognize the ending of the Gulf War.
Approximately 4,000 members of the Canadian Forces served overseas in the Persian Gulf between August 1990 and February 1991 to help liberate Kuwait from invading Iraq. It was the first time that Canada sent the military into a war since The Korean War. The navy deployed three ships: HMCS Terra Nova, HMCS Athabaskan, and HMCS Protecteur.
It’s an anniversary that veterans no longer have to celebrate themselves and feel neglected.
When Vickers first heard the announcement, she remembered the warm response the military received when they went overseas to the Persian Gulf. Where at times, she says they felt spoiled as famous news anchors and hockey stars would visit them. The announcement “made us feel the way felt when we were in the Gulf,” Vickers said.
Last year Canadian Gulf War veterans began celebrating the anniversary of the war amongst themselves. For Vickers and other veterans it’s been a different kind of battle just to get the recognition.
“As soon I complained a little bit to the media that they weren’t commemorating the Gulf War we got the same overwhelming warm response,the legion phone rang off the hook,” said Vickers.
But for Vickers, her overseas experience doesn’t always conjure warm memories. She says there were times on the Protecteur where “I remember praying that I would be brave when the time came” to protect the people around her as she monitored radar for enemy missiles.
Vickers remembers telling her worried family, “it’s OK, I’m happy that I’m doing this and don’t feel bad if I die,” she said. Vickers volunteered to work on the Protecteur when she was on the HMCS Nipigon because, as she jests, “my lucky horseshoe was being in danger.”
Stephane Tremblay served on the Athabaskan as an electrician and spent 24 years in the navy. He volunteered to join the ship from the HMCS Algonquin when there was a need for extra electricians.
On the Athabaskan he rarely paid attention to any news concerning the war and instead focused on his job. Tremblay stayed focused because he noticed that the people following regular news became stressed about the war. “The best thing was to just go on, and like your own ship just go with the flow,” he said.
For Tremblay, commemorations for any conflict need to be done sooner rather than later in order to recognize veterans before they pass away.
Harold Davis spent 31 years with the air force straight out of high school in 1978. He served on the Athabaskan and is now the president of the Persian Gulf Veterans of Canada advocacy group, which helps members with their medical conditions.
For Davis the anniversary is significant because “for 25 years nobody even remembered us,” he said after returning to Halifax Harbour after the war. But he does understand that “it took 50 years for the Korean veterans to get recognized. I think we’re doing pretty good at 25.”
Davis hopes that the anniversary can help create a better relationship with Veterans Affairs Canada. He hopes that it’s the beginning step to help meet the needs of Gulf War veterans, in particular medical treatment.
But like the anniversary it seems only time will tell.
It has been 25 years since the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples was introduced in Canada, but despite years of consultations and research, the federal government has yet to accomplish most of the recommendations outlined in the report.
Established in 1991, the Royal Commission was created to help repair broken relationships between indigenous and non-indigenous communities.
To create the report, the federal government completed hundreds of studies and gathered testimony from over 2000 individuals to see how indigenous communities were hindered by Canada’s social, political and economic climates. The Commission’s results were revealed in 1996 through a report which made over 440 recommendations to be implemented over a 20-year period.
A portion of Volume 5 of the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples annotated in DocumentCloud:
(Click inside the annotation to see the entire document and other annotations)
The main conclusion of the report was that Canada needed to overhaul its relationship with indigenous people in order to show respect for their history, culture and right to self-determination.
“In the final report, it made sense to recommend that the government establish a nation-to-nation relationship,” said Paul Chartrand, one of the commissioners for the Royal Commission.
The “nation-to-nation” relationship would allow indigenous communities to govern under their traditional structures and work alongside the Canadian government to improve access to things like education, infrastructure and healthcare.
The nation-to-nation concept had not been employed by previous governments in power , but in December 2015, Justin Trudeau announced that they would be forming this relationship with indigenous communities.
“The Trudeau government from early on has identified Aboriginal issues as a priority,” said Linc Kesler, an associate professor at the University of British Colombia that specializes in indigenous studies.
“They also have at least begun discussions about the inquiry into missing and murdered Aboriginal women, so I think a lot of people were happy to see that.”
The government’s announcement was promising for some, but Chartrand remains skeptical of the Liberal government in terms of what its specific plans are.
“At the moment, it’s pure rhetoric. We now have a government that says it will have a nation-to-nation relationship. Well you should be looking at Royal Commission for inspiration on what that might mean. But nobody’s mentioning it,” said Chartrand.
“The government can do anything in the first year, and by the third year, no one remembers. Public amnesia is a constant feature of our country.”
Looking back at the actions of previous governments, Kesler agrees that political leaders continue to make the same promises, but fail to provide indigenous communities with tangible results.
“What people have shared with me is that they have not seen movement on the recommendations in the Royal Commission,” said Kesler.
“If you were to look at the recommendations that the [Truth and Reconciliation Commission] included in the final report, you would see many of the same items identified as in the Royal Commission.”
The Truth and Reconciliation Commission is the latest government initiative which attempts to repair damage caused to indigenous communities, but according to Chartrand, it is not entirely comprehensive.
“The merits of the Truth and Reconciliation report stand on its own, but you cannot replace the foundation that was set by the Royal Commission’s broader mandate,” said Chartrand.
If the government’s past actions are an indication of future behaviour, Kesler believes it’s appropriate for indigenous people to be “cautiously optimistic” about Trudeau’s enthusiasm for indigenous issues.
“I think people have not seen the kind of actions on the whole that they had really been hoping would be the result of Royal Commission,” said Kesler.
“That’s not however, to say that there hasn’t been change, but it’s not the kind of change that the Royal Commission called for.”
Volume 5 of the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples
The Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples is the main document which I reflect on in my story. I found Volume 5 of the commission to be particularly relevant to the ideas discussed in my article because it outlines the main objectives of the report which were supposed to be implemented over a twenty year period. I found a PDF version of the document through Queen’s University online library catalogue and converted the sections of the report using DocumentCloud.
Summary of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission Report
Since the Truth and Reconciliation Commission is one of the most recent initiatives completed by the federal government which deals with indigenous relations, I thought it was important to include this document in my research as a tool for comparison. Both of my interview subjects made comparisons between the Royal Commission and the Truth and Reconciliation Commission so I included a hyperlink to this document so that readers could compare the two documents side-by-side if they wished. Looking at the Truth and Reconciliation Commission report provided evidence for my argument that the newer report essentially repeats made of the recommendations made previously in the Royal Commission. This helped to illustrate the point that these commissions are heavy on rhetoric, but light on concrete results. I found a PDF version of a summary of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission by visiting the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s website.
Rogers Communications is reinvesting in its cable sector, according to their most recent financial statement.
Despite losing four per cent of their television subscribers from 2014 to 2015, Canada’s largest telecommunications company saw an increase in their cable sector, according to their third quarter financial statement.
Echoing a national trend in technology, in the cable sector, the television and telephone networks are slowing while the wireless network shows an increase in profit. Yet Rogers Communications is continuing to put resources into their television stream, which begs the question: are they pouring good money after bad?
Pier Morgan, a senior financial analyst, said because Rogers has since increased their Free Cash Flow- that is, the money they have left to spend after paying off their expenditures- by 20 per cent, they are well positioned as an organisation and “can run very easily.”
He said since “they won’t go broke any time soon,” Rogers can afford to take more risks in terms of where they put their resources. With a larger cash flow, they can reinvest back into their company and produce opportunities that will in turn increase the shareholder value.
A reinvestment
One of the ways Rogers is using some of their cash flow in 2016 is with the launch of the new Rogers 4K TV Plan, the highest quality streaming service currently available to viewers. Simply put, it is a high definition streaming service with a slightly higher pixel rate, which, according to Rogers, will increase the image quality and improve the viewers’ watching experience.
But Morgan says that television and home phones are a dying breed, being propped up by cell phones and the internet. He adds that although the company has increased its revenue over the last quarter from its TV advertising, “less people are using Rogers TV, so how long can that continue to be the case?”
Indeed, since this time last year, Rogers has lost six per cent of their television subscribers and four per cent of their telephone users.
Dave Barnard, an accountant and portfolio manager with RBC Dominion Securities Inc., said since Rogers has been around for a long time, there are “lots of things making money for them, and a lot of big things they can sell.”
But he questions whether or not they have made the right decision.
“They are not always going to get it right,” he says.
Is it sustainable?
Barnard likens the current Rogers business plan to eating out at a restaurant. “You want a high value for your meal, but a 30, 40, 50 dollar plate means more profit for the restaurant,” he says.
A large company like Rogers, he adds, is in a better position to absorb some of the initial consumer costs that go along with a launching a program, which helps in ensuring its long term success rate.
Jack Carr is an economics professor at the University of Toronto who said even though things are more uncertain in this economy, Rogers will likely be fine.
“It’s hard to live in the city and not use some of their services,” he says.
Rogers currently operates more than 50 radio stations, publishes over 40 well-known magazines, and owns the Toronto Blue Jays Baseball Club and Rogers Centre, among many other significant holdings.
“There are lots of things making money for them,” Carr said. “A lot of big things they can sell.”
Although they were unable to be reached for comment, in a recent media release, Rogers said they are hoping to strengthen their cable proposition and “re-accelerate growth in a sustainable way.”
The fourth quarter numbers will be released early next month.
Whole Foods’ stocks shot up nearly eight points on NASDAQ after the expansion announcement in November 2014.
Marion Chan, a Toronto-based business strategy consultant specializes in the Canadian grocery market. Chan warns that this expansion should not be taken without caution, nor should investments be made in haste.
Marion Chan Trendspotter Business strategy consultant. // PHOTO: LinkedIn ProfileWhole Foods Stock Chart six-month glance. // PHOTO: NASDAQ Screen Capture
Whole Foods has experienced massive success in Canada since its flagship store opened in 2002. The Landsdowne Park location in Ottawa is the most recent Canadian store, bringing the total up to ten.
“We love Canada,” said Allison Phelps a Whole Foods Public Relations Specialist.
“You guys are more concerned with what goes into your foods and are more aware of environmental practice and tend to really value products that take those things into consideration when creating them.”
Whole Foods has been successful in its initial growth into Canada, but Chan warns that the company should not bit off more than they can chew.
“I don’t know if such an aggressive expansion is going to be that fruitful for them,” said Chan. She explained that competition for the Canadian grocery dollar is intense.
“They’re going up against the conventional grocery stores in Canada which are the Metro’s, the Loblaws’ and the Sobeys’,” said Chan. “The promise for 30 stores may be too bullish.”
Whole Foods’ ready made products PHOTO: Evelyn Harford
Against the current competition, Whole Foods does have an important quality going for it– exclusivity. Chan said that Whole Foods would bring new products the Canadian grocery consumer is yearning for, but with exclusivity, comes an increased cost at the check-out.
Chan worries that, “Whole Foods has priced itself out of the mainstream.”
Inside the Whole Foods Landsdowne location. // PHOTO: Evelyn Harford
Whole Foods will not be immune to distribution hick-ups upon expansion in Canada. The company admits that distribution will remain a difficult since, to date, there are no distribution centres in Canada.
“We do rely heavily on our local producers to fill the shelves,” said Phelps.
Distribution mismanagement was one factor that led to Target’s demise in Canada–so Whole Foods knows this hurdle is not to be taken lightly.
Store locations will be carefully considered right along distribution concerns. Phelps said that location will be everything. Whole Foods uses the goldilocks approach to picking location.
“We are very meticulous and methodical with our expansion. We want to make sure that everything is just right,” said Phelps.
Emphasis on location is especially important for Whole Foods. Chan doesn’t think the store will be a destination for people just yet.The store is not as mainstream and well known outside of Ontario and British Columbia–the only two provinces with open locations.
This is echoed by Irene Thornton, a self-proclaimed loyal Whole Foods customer. Thornton says she is happy to have a location so close to her at Landsdowne in Ottawa.
Thornton admits though, “To go out of my way? I don’t.”
So, while Thornton is lucky to have a location close to her, many Canadians will be waiting a while for Whole Foods to come to them. As of yet, the only store confirmed to open in 2015 is the Leaside location in downtown Toronto.
