Business

Pockets of opportunity exist for local manufacturers to sell into foreign markets, despite a world-wide recession.

IBM Canada Ltd. is cutting an unspecified number of jobs across the country, according to a spokesman for the computer and software company.

Canada’s economy has deteriorated so badly since the federal government introduced its budget that more jobs have already vanished than the $40-billion stimulus was intended to create, the parliamentary budget officer says. Kevin Page told the House of Commons finance committee Wednesday it was not his place to recommend more stimulus spending, but did urge that the stimulus already announced be implemented quickly.

MONTREAL — Rona Inc. (TSX:RON), Canada’s largest home renovations company, says government home tax credits and its own incentive program are showing early signs of stimulating business before an expected economic recovery in mid 2010.

Jean-Pierre Maheu of All Season Painting sands a wooden bannister on the second floor of Abbey Master Builder’s new headquarters in Burnt Lake Business Park on Tuesday.

VANCOUVER — West Fraser Timber Co. Ltd (TSX:WFT) is now the largest producer of softwood lumber in Canada, replacing a position Canfor Corp. (TSX:WFT) held for the past decade, a report released Wednesday shows.

The chairman of Servus Credit Union Ltd.’s board of directors is defending a multimillion-dollar payment to the CEO of the newly formed credit union.

TORONTO — The spectacular fall of two of Canada’s highest-flying theatre impresarios ended with an emphatic thud Wednesday as Livent Inc. co-founders Garth Drabinsky and Myron Gottlieb were found guilty of cooking their company’s books and defrauding investors of millions.

CALGARY — With Suncor Energy Inc. (TSX:SU) set to add Petro-Canada’s (TSX:PCA) oilsands assets into its already formidable arsenal, international energy supermajors are likely looking at other Canadian oilpatch companies to bulk up their reserves.

OTTAWA — Canada will fare better but may take longer to emerge from the longest and deepest global recession since the Second World War, says a new analysis from one of the world’s leading forecasting firms.