B2 RED DEER ADVOCATE Wednesday, Dec. 11, 2013
Employment How we can overcome change outlook expected to stabilize The latest survey by Manpower Inc. found that Canadian employers expect hiring practices in the first quarter of 2014 to remain stable compared to a year ago, although many in the Red Deer area anticipate staffing increases. The national survey found that the net employment outlook for the quarter is 12 per cent, two per cent higher than the previous quarter, and about the same as the first quarter of 2013. It found that 13 per cent of respondents expect to add employees in the January-March quarter, while eight per cent said they plan on scaling back their payrolls. Seventy-eight per cent said they anticipate their current staffing levels to remain the same. Manpower found that hiring prospects were most favourable in Western Canada, with employers in the construction sector reporting the highest net employment look at 16 per cent. In the case of Red Deer-area employers, the survey indicated that 34 per cent plan to hire for the upcoming quarter and none anticipated cutbacks. Sixty-six per cent planned to maintain their staffing levels. “With seasonal variations removed from the data, Red Deer’s first quarter net employment outlook of 37 per cent is a significant increase of 20 percentage points when compared to the previous quarterly outlook,” said Randy Upright, CEO of Manpower’s Alberta region. “It is also a 29 percentage point increase from the outlook reported during the same time last year, indicating a brisk hiring pace for the upcoming months.” The natiounal survey was based on interviews with more than 1,900 employers. “Overall, a respectable national hiring climate is projected in the coming quarter,” said Byrne Luft, vice-president of operations for Manpower Canada. “Employers in the construction industry are again anticipating the strongest payroll gains, however most new jobs in the sector are expected in Western Canada and Ontario. Nationally, though job creation continues at a steady pace, many of the gains are expected to occur in lower-paying sectors.”
Air Canada picks Air Georgian for additional regional routes BY THE CANADIAN PRESS MONTREAL — Air Canada is expanding its relationship with Air Georgian as it looks to reduce costs and protect its turf from WestJet’s growing regional Encore service. The national carrier said Tuesday that Torontobased Air Georgian will operate additional routes in Canada and the United States in mid-2014. The charter and commercial aircraft company was selected following a request for proposals. Air Canada (TSX:AC.B) said the regional airline, which became a partner in 2000 and flies under the brand Air Canada Express, will service the new routes using Canadair aircraft. However, it declined to provide any details about how many routes and which destinations will be serviced by Air Georgian or whether there will be an impact on its other regional partners, including Chorus Aviation’s (TSX:CHR.B) Jazz. “We are pleased to expand our long-standing commercial relationship with Air Georgian that will allow Air Canada to introduce more cost-competitive operations in a number of our key regional markets,” said Kevin Howlett, Air Canada’s senior vice-president, regional markets. Air Georgian was selected over several Canadian and U.S. regional operators based on operational safety, efficiency, cost and service, Howlett said. “The award of additional flying to Air Georgian is an important step in our regional airline diversification strategy and ongoing cost transformation program,” he said. Air Georgian president Eric Edmondson said the company was excited to be getting the new business. “The selection of Air Georgian for this expanded role is based on our proven ability to offer seamless connections and service for Air Canada customers that is of mutual benefit for both airlines,” he said in a news release. Air Canada currently has capacity purchase agreements with four regional airline partners that operate under the Air Canada Express banner: Jazz, Sky Regional, Air Georgian and EVAS. Air Georgian currently carries more than 350,000 passengers a year for Air Canada from airports in Toronto, Montreal, Halifax and Calgary to 19 Canadian and U.S. destinations. It has a fleet of 16 Beechcraft 1900 planes.
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MARKETING: Positive response Bulls will typically be kept in quarantine for 60 to 90 days, depending on the testing requirements of the countries their semen is destined for. “There may be anywhere from 500 to 20,000 doses of semen drawn off your average beef bull, depending on his value and what interest there is out there in the marketplace,” said Katchuik. Canadian Beef Sires will also market semen for its clients, if requested, with sales staff, a catalogue and website dedicated to this function. Katchuik said the response from clients has been positive. “At least three or four times a week we’re getting interest from other people around Western Canada. “We have bulls right now lined up in Manitoba; we have bulls lined up on Vancouver Island.” hrichards@reddeeradvocate.com
has got to be greater than Resistance to change. Before a person can change, they must have a high level of dissatisfaction with their current situation. A clear vision, knowing that something new and different is possible, fuels these levels. If a person’s dissatisfaction level is high but they don’t have a clear vision of what success looks like, or if they have a great vision but are fairly satisfied with the current situation, it is not likely that change will happen. A clear sense of both factors must be in play. Once you can identify your issues and your vision of what the future could be, then you need to take the first steps. The fact is, without action, nothing will happen. And, all of these three factors must be greater than your resistance to, or fear of, change. One of the first exercises my clients must undertake is to complete a business alignment questionnaire. This process helps the business owner to identify the things he/she knows isn’t working. The things that need to change must be greater than their resistance to do what needs to be done in order the achieve success. Try using this formula to help you understand and qualify your dissatisfaction level, and to build your vision for what you want to achieve. Finally, plan the first steps to move towards your goals. You can truly become an agent of change in your life as well as the lives of others. ActionCoach is written by John MacKenzie of ActionCoach, which helps small- to medium-sized businesses and other organizations. He can be contacted at johnmackenzie@ actioncoach.com or by phone at 403340-0880.
Anguished Madoff wept as he revealed fraud, former right-hand man testifies THE ASSOCIATED PRESS NEW YORK — The former right-hand man of disgraced financier Bernard Madoff told a jury Tuesday that a crying Madoff revealed to him his financial empire was a gigantic fraud just before the rest of the world learned the truth nearly five years ago. Frank DiPascali, Madoff’s former lieutenant and the government’s star witness at the trial of five former Madoff employees, said Madoff called him into his Manhattan office and told him to close the door behind him on a day Madoff, a former Nasdaq chairman, had spent staring out his window. “Crying, he said: ’I’m at the end of my rope. I have no more money,”’ DiPascali told jurors in federal court on the eve of the five-year anniversary of Madoff’s arrest. He said he asked his boss what he meant. “I don’t have any more goddamned money! Don’t you get it?” DiPascali said Madoff responded. As DiPascali testified, his voice rose and accelerated so fast that the judge directed him to slow down and speak more softly. DiPascali said he continued challenging Madoff, asking what he was talking about and telling him the firm could meet the redemption demands of investors. “That’s when he just said: ‘The whole goddamn thing is a fraud. I don’t have any money. Don’t you understand what I’m talking about to you? Don’t you get it?”’ DiPascali recalled, saying his own knees were buckling at the time. He said he spent several hours listening to a delirious, incoherent and rambling Madoff recount a detailed plan to reveal the true nature of a private investment business that had blown nearly $20 billion entrusted to him by thousands of investors, including charities, Hollywood actors and producers and the owners of the New York Mets. DiPascali said Madoff asked repeatedly if DiPascali’s wife had money and would be OK and said his own wife, Ruth Madoff, had money from her family that was untainted by the business. Madoff predicted that his brother Peter Madoff, a lawyer, “is probably going to get disbarred, but, hey, I’m not going to worry about that.” Peter Madoff pleaded
File photo by THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Victims of Bernie Madoff’s massive Ponzi scheme, Morton Chalek, 91, standing, a WWII vet, and his friend Fran Reiss, 79, a retired educator, pose in the apartment they share, in New York. Chalek and Reiss are among a legion of former investors still struggling to move on after seeing their life savings go up in flames. guilty last year to falsifying documents and lying to regulators as part of the Ponzi scheme and is serving a 10-year prison sentence. Bernard Madoff, just days after sending out
statements implying the money he managed had more than tripled since he began investing decades earlier, revealed his biggest worry amid his description of “a little game plan” to reveal
his house of cards, the witness testified. “One of the last things I want is to go out of this office in handcuffs in front of all of the employees,” DiPascali said Madoff told him. “I can’t let that happen. I want to do this on my terms.” DiPascali said Madoff’s revelations hit him hard and they realized “the whole shootin’ match is going right down the toilet ... and we’re all going to get arrested.” DiPascali, 57, has been testifying for the past week about his role in fabricating trades he said began after the stock market crashed in 1987. He’s co-operating with the government, hoping he wins a major reduction in any prison sentence. Among those being tried are Madoff’s former longtime secretary, his director of operations, an account manager and two computer programmers. On Dec. 11, 2008, Madoff was arrested at his apartment by FBI agents. An FBI agent wrote in a criminal complaint lodged against Madoff: “After I stated, ’We’re here to find out if there’s an innocent explanation,’ Madoff stated, ‘There is no innocent explanation.”’ Several months later, Madoff pleaded guilty to fraud charges, maintained he had acted alone and was sentenced to 150 years in prison. Madoff, 75, is imprisoned in North Carolina.
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Do you know someone who’s change. And fear is the single bigalways going through some kind of gest obstacle to change. massive change? I’ve coached business owners Those people appear to thrive who came from impoverished on uncertainty; they don’t mind backgrounds, had little formal feeling insecure or the disruption education, but whose vision for that change can bring. success was so much greater than On the other end of the spec- their resistance to change that trum are people who they didn’t let fear get aren’t interested in the best of them. Overchanging because coming their fears emthey’re content with powered them to achieve their current situatheir vision. tion. Then there are those Even people who that go through life virare overweight or untually paralyzed behealthy are not likely cause they’re afraid to to change their habits try something new or if they are satisfied different. Fear keeps with their lives. Ofthem stuck, and they’re ten it takes a health resistant to breaking out scare before they feel of the current cycle. JOHN forced to change. People in leadership MACKENZIE I think it’s safe to roles often resist or fear say that the majority ACTION COACH change as much as folof us are somewhere lowers do. This can pose in the middle: resisa huge problem in this tant to change but willing to try world of rapid transition and consomething different when we need stant flux. As John Maxwell wrote to. in his book, Developing the Leader Changing our patterns and ad- Within You, “Unchanged leaders justing our behaviours takes us equals unchanged organizations.” out of our comfort zone. It can FEAR really stands for False be really hard to accept change Expectations Appearing Real. if it affects an idea, position or According to psychologist Denpractice that we’ve held on to for nis O’Grady, there is a combinayears. tion of five fears that impact an Even though we may not be sat- individual’s ability to adapt to isfied, we have confidence in the change: fear of the unknown; fear way things are. of failure; fear of commitment; Fear is an innate response to fear of disapproval; and fear of serious physical and emotional success. danger. Past experiences can trigSo what tips the scale to overger a fear response, even though come our fear of change? there is no life-or-death threat. There is a simple formula to For many of us, fear makes us explain the change process. This avoid things for no good reason. formula applies to both individuThis prevents us from making als and businesses, and explains changes and achieving success in why some prosper and grow while life. others remain at the same or lowFacing our fears is the best way er level of performance. to move past them. (D x V) + F > R, or DissatisfacThe truth is that life is all about tion times Vision plus First steps