TORONTO (Reuters) – The two giant jars on Randolph Taylor’s windowsill are filled with shards of credit cards, chopped up by the clients whose staggering indebtedness drove them to the front line of Canada’s household debt crisis.

“I used to cut them up myself, but then I saw that having them do it themselves was a huge symbolic act,” Taylor said, pulling out a pair of scissors from his desk drawer in the Toronto headquarters of debt counseling agency Credit Canada.

TORONTO, Jan 30 (Reuters) – The two giant jars on
Randolph Taylor’s windowsill are filled with shards of credit
cards, chopped up by the clients whose staggering indebtedness
drove them to the front line of Canada’s household debt crisis.

“I used to cut them up myself, but then I saw that having
them do it themselves was a huge symbolic act,” Taylor said,
pulling out a pair of scissors from his desk drawer in the
Toronto headquarters of debt counselling agency Credit Canada.

TORONTO, Jan 12 (Reuters) – Deep in the financial
crisis, a Canadian pension fund entrusted with the nest eggs of
17 million workers bet a chunk of that money on Internet phone
service Skype, venturing well outside its tradition of
long-term, conservative investing.

The investment, made by Canada Pension Plan Investment
Board(CPPIB) in partnership with private equity, more than
tripled in less than two years and marks the clearest sign to
date that Canada’s once-staid pension funds have become a huge
new force in a globalized market.

TORONTO (Reuters) – Deep in the financial crisis, a Canadian pension fund entrusted with the nest eggs of 17 million workers bet a chunk of that money on Internet phone service Skype, venturing well outside its tradition of long-term, conservative investing.

The investment, made by Canada Pension Plan Investment Board(CPPIB) in partnership with private equity, more than tripled in less than two years and marks the clearest sign to date that Canada’s once-staid pension funds have become a huge new force in a globalized market.

TORONTO, Oct 31 (Reuters) – Canada’s economic outlook is
good, but growth is slowing and risks are tilted to the
downside, with any external shock likely to be amplified by
high consumer debt and house prices, the International Monetary
Fund said on Monday.

The multinational agency said it expects growth in Canada’s
gross domestic product to slow to about 2.0 percent in 2011 and
2012, a slightly downgrade from its September forecast and in
line with the Bank of Canada’s outlook released last week.

TORONTO, Oct 26 (Reuters) – Canadian home resale prices hit
a record high in August, their ninth consecutive monthly gain,
but consumer confidence fell for the fifth time in six months,
highlighting Canada’s two-speed economy and cloudy outlook.

The Teranet-National Bank Composite House Price Index,
which measures price changes for repeat sales of single-family
homes in six metropolitan areas, showed overall prices were up
0.9 percent in August from July.

TORONTO, Oct 19 (Reuters) – Canada’s sale of two-year
government bonds met with softer but still healthy demand on
Wednesday as ample supply kept buyers in check and progress on
the European debt crisis boosted risk appetite.

The C$3.5 billion ($3.47 billion) auction of bonds produced
an average yield of 1.097 percent, up from 0.954 percent at the
last two-year bond auction in August, in line with market rates
and back above the Bank of Canada’s overnight interest rate
target of 1 percent.

TORONTO, Oct 17 (Reuters) – Sales of existing homes in
Canada picked up in September after three months of stable
activity, led by strong sales in Toronto, the Canadian Real
Estate Association (CREA) said on Monday.

The industry group said sales rose 2.7 percent from August
and were up 11 percent from September 2010, a period of
relatively weak activity.

TORONTO, Oct 5 (Reuters) – Canada’s sale of 10-year
government bonds saw strong demand on Wednesday, as fears about
Europe’s debt crisis and possible global recession fueled
investor hunger for safe-haven assets.

The C$2.5 billion ($2.4 billion) auction of bonds produced
an average yield of 2.254 percent, down from 2.994 percent at
the last 10-year bond auction in July.

TORONTO, Sept 19 (Reuters) – Global policymakers need to
push through with contentious new bank regulations to prevent
another 2008-style crisis, a senior Bank of Canada official
said on Monday.

“The current bout of turbulence, like the financial crisis
of three years ago, serves as a reminder of why it is
fundamentally important to have a resilient financial system,”
Timothy Lane, deputy governor at the Bank of Canada, said in a
speech.