BUSINESS
C6
THURSDAY, DEC. 24, 2015
Repo firms working flat out LOW PRICE OF OIL MEANS MORE BAD DEBTS BY THE CANADIAN PRESS CALGARY — While the crash in oil prices idles drilling rigs and empties out downtown Calgary offices, Steven Low’s company can barely keep up with the deluge of work. Low is CEO of Consolidated Recovery Group, an agency in Western Canada that works with lenders and the courts to recover bad debts — by repossessing a car or carrying out an eviction, for example. It’s been a busy year for the company and the work has only picked up as the crude doldrums linger, squeezing the finances of the many Albertans who rely on oil and gas to make a living — either directly, or through its economic spinoffs. Low says bailiffs at his firm are working around the clock and he’s even had to hire more staff to get all the work done. According to the Alberta Sheriff’s Office, civil enforcement industry activity grew by more than a quarter between April and October of this year. Low says even though his industry is booming right now, he and his staff don’t relish profiting off of people’s misfortunes. “We don’t gloat or feel terribly excited about the economic conditions right now. We approach every single repo and seizure as an opportunity to help respect the dignity of the debtor,” he said.
FILE photo by THE CANADIAN PRESS
The downtown core is seen from the air in Calgary. While the crash in oil prices idles drilling rigs and empties out downtown Calgary offices, Steven Low’s company can barely keep up with the deluge of work. Low is CEO of Consolidated Recovery Group, an agency in Western Canada that works with lenders and the courts to recover bad debts -- by repossessing a car or carrying out an eviction, for example. “We’ll even go out of our way to seize a vehicle around the corner or allow the person to bring it out of their place of work so that co-workers don’t see their vehicle being towed away. Anything we can do to help a debtor,
who’s co-operative of course, to save face is something that we seek to do.” John Shortridge, who runs Allied Shortridge Civil Enforcement, figures he’s twice as busy now as in the spring. Shortridge is a veteran of the busi-
ness — first with the Alberta Sheriff’s Office and then on his own after civil enforcement functions were privatized in the province in 1996. He already has the sense this oil price bust is going to be worse than the one brought on by the Great Recession in 2008 and 2009, which was followed by a relatively speedy recovery. “This reminds me more of ‘82 and ‘83. It was bad and it was long… My view is this is going to be a long haul,” Shortridge said. “In some ways, every recession is the same in that the first thing that goes are the toys — so the motorcycles, the fifth-wheel trailer, the campers, the cottage,” he said. “All the extras go first. And then people work their way down to more basic things — the house and the car being the last two payments that they would default on.” Shortridge said he doesn’t think the full impact has hit yet, as many laid off employees are still able to make ends meet thanks to severance packages. Once those run out, he expects to be even busier. Shortridge said he looks to hire bailiffs who have a mixture of “thick skin and compassion” to conduct tasks that are often emotionally fraught. “When the bailiff goes to the door, you can’t yell at the economy, but here’s somebody you can yell at,” he said.
Trudeau faces looming ‘stranded assets’ debate tive subject for Canadians who spent the past decade being told the country was on the path to becoming a global OTTAWA — When star NDP can- energy super power. didate Linda McQuaig mused during Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, in a the opening days of the federal elec- year-end interview with The Canadian tion campaign that some of Alberta’s Press, sounded the requisite progresoil wealth would have to “stay in the sive notes when asked about the imground” in order to meet Canada’s cli- pact of the Paris climate agreement on mate change targets, the remark was Canada’s resource sector. treated as a scandalous revelation by “We know, and with Paris it’s very her political opponents. clear, where the world is going,” said Yet McQuaig, known for her some- Trudeau, whose Liberals won power times polarizing and provocative in October promising to make Canada views, arguably was simply stating a responsible player on the interna2015’s middle-of-the-road orthodoxy. tional climate front after 10 years of From the governor of the Bank of Conservative ambivalence. England, to the U.S. president and the “We’re going towards a zero carbon investment arms of the planet’s biggest economy. The question is, does Canabanks, 2015 was the year that “strand- da want to drag its feet on it or do we ed assets” stopped being some mythi- want to be part of it?” cal bedtime story told by tree huggers But Trudeau also maintains new oil to spook oil workers and landed in the pipelines to spur oil sands developmainstream. ment are compatible with this low-carMark Carney, the Canadian head bon future. He argues the transition of the Bank of England, attracted in- requires investment and innovation, ternational attention with a Sept. 29 which is dependent on a robust econspeech at venerable Lloyd’s of London omy. It sounds a bit like having your cautioning against the grave risks to cake and eating it too not so different the financial system posed by a chang- from the Conservative government’s ing climate. mantra of balancing the environment Carney cited estimates by the In- and the economy. Trudeau pushed tergovernmental Panel on Climate back hard at the analogy. Change that only between a fifth and “You square that by making sure a third of proven oil reserves can be that Albertans, who have been innovaburned if humanity is to avoid cata- tive in the energy sector for decades, strophic climate impacts. are part of that disruption, are part of “If that estimate is even approxi- moving beyond the fossil fuel resourcmately correct it would render the vast es we have,” he said. “Leverage the majority of reserves ‘stranded’ — oil, fossil fuel resources we have now — gas and coal that will and are needed now be literally unburn— into solutions for to“ALL YOU HAVE TO DO morrow.” able without expensive carbon capture For Canadian polIS TALK TO CEOS OF technology, which iticy makers, that’s a MAJOR CORPORATIONS very tricky needle to self alters fossil fuel economics,” said the Former prime AND THEY’LL TELL YOU, thread. central bank governor. minister Stephen President Barack BILLIONS AND BILLIONS Harper agreed last Obama, making the to a G7 goal to OF DOLLARS HAVE LEFT April case for his rejecdecarbonize the econtion of the Keystone omy by the end of the ALBERTA AND WILL XL pipeline barely century, a timeline NEVER COME BACK.” a month later, made long enough to delay much the same point. hard choices in the — INTERIM CONSERVATIVE LEADER RONA AMBROSE short term. But under “Ultimately, if we’re going to prevent large the new Liberal govparts of this Earth ernment, Canada was from becoming not onamong those at COP21 ly inhospitable but uninhabitable in who helped push for a goal of limiting our lifetimes, we’re going to have to global warming to around 1.5 degrees keep some fossil fuels in the ground Celsius above pre-industrial levels, an rather than burn them and release ambitious target that demands swift more dangerous pollution into the policy action. sky,” he said. Interim Conservative Leader Rona Investment houses are also issuing Ambrose says Canada needs policies cautions. Last April, HSBC Global Re- to deal with the fall-out of stranded search reported that: “Fossil fuel com- assets. panies, or some of their assets, may “All you have to do is talk to CEOs become non-viable or ‘unburnable,”’ of major corporations and they’ll tell under conditions of increased climate you, billions and billions of dollars regulation and depressed prices. have left Alberta and will never come And following this month’s UN back,” Ambrose said in an interview. COP21 climate agreement in Paris, “So if the Liberal government is Citigroup Research Equities Australia talking about going even farther than was warning investors that, “whatever the targets that we had already prothe fine print, high emissions indus- posed to go to Paris with as a Consertries will face substantial change in vative government, they need to look coming decades.” very closely at what the implementaIt remains, however, a highly sensi- tion of that looks like.” BY THE CANADIAN PRESS
Photo by THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Amazon Prime employees push carts with bags loaded with goods for delivery to customers at the company’s urban fulfillment facility, Tuesday.
Netflix and Amazon are 2015’s biggest gainers ENERGY COMPANIES CROWD LIST OF BIGGEST LOSERS BY THE ASSOCIATED PRESS NEW YORK — In a flat year overall for stocks, there was still plenty of excitement to be enjoyed — or endured — by 2015’s biggest winners and losers. It was a year to make old guard companies shudder. New media companies like Netflix, which rose 140 per cent to notch the biggest gain in the S&P 500, overtook established media companies like CBS. Amazon eviscerated traditional retailers like Macy’s and Walmart. And energy and materials companies were flattened by weak demand at a time of abundant supplies. The biggest loser was Chesapeake Energy, down almost 80 per cent in 2015. The Dow Jones industrial average, dominated by long-established companies in traditional industries, is down 2 per cent for the year through midday Wednesday. The Nasdaq composite, with its heavy concentration of technology companies, is up a respectable 6 per cent. Here are the stories behind some of the stock markets biggest winners and losers for 2015. ANOTHER STAR TURN FOR NETFLIX Netflix has enjoyed top billing before: it was the biggest gainer in the S&P 500 in 2010 and 2013, and it more than tripled in value both years. But another big year in 2015 pushed the company’s value past established media rivals like CBS and made it about the same size as Time Warner. The streaming entertainment service had 69 million subscribers at the end of the third quarter, and almost a quarter of those signed up in the last year. Netflix also continued to win fans for shows like Orange is the New Black and Narcos. The company says its
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service will be available in 200 countries by the end of the year. AMAZONIAN PROPORTIONS E-commerce giant Amazon celebrated its 20th anniversary with results that sent investors into a buying frenzy. Amazon was the second biggest gainer in the S&P 500 for the year, up 112 per cent through Wednesday. The company is on track to report more than $100 billion in revenue in 2015 and it has started to turn higher profits more frequently despite a loss in the first quarter. Its stock surge pushed the company’s market value past that of longtime competitor Wal-Mart. Wal-Mart stock fell 29 per cent in 2015, which made this Wal-Mart’s worst year since 1974, when it had fewer than 100 stores. WalMart was the Dow’s biggest loser. “This year seemed to mark an inflection point for Amazon,” wrote Christine Short, an analyst at Estimize, who said Amazon was “almost solely responsible for the downfall of big box giant Wal-Mart.” Macy’s and Staples also were among the 20 biggest losers as fewer shoppers trekked to stores and bought more goods online instead. Amazon is now in a battle with the other high-flying stock of 2015: Amazon and Netflix are now rivals in creating original entertainment for subscribers. This year the two snagged almost 50 Primetime Emmy nominations between them. Netflix shows received far more nominations but Amazon’s shows won five Emmys to Netflix’s four. WARCRAFT GETS A CANDY CRUSH The third biggest gainer in the S&P 500 was Activision Blizzard, the video game maker behind “Call of Duty” and “World of Warcraft.”
Please see WINNERS on Page C7
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