OTTAWA/TORONTO, May 25 (Reuters) – Canada will boost the threshold at which it will review proposed foreign takeovers of Canadian companies, the industry minister said on Friday, but he stopped short of fulfilling a government pledge to clarify the criteria for approving them.

Sharpening its focus on the biggest deals, the government will gradually raise the threshold for mandatory reviews to proposed acquisitions with at least C$1 billion in enterprise value. The current threshold is C$330 million ($320 million) in asset value.

“I think C$1 billion is a reasonable number,” said Thomas Caldwell, an outspoken investor who is chairman of Caldwell Financial. “We want to have some kind of number that doesn’t create an administrative nightmare.”

Industry Minister Christian Paradis said enterprise value -the price offered for the equity adjusted for the assumption of liabilities and cash assets – is a better measure of a deal’s worth than the book value alone.

“Enterprise value better reflects the value of a business as a going concern and the increasing importance of service and knowledge-based industries,” Paridis said in the statement.

Paradis said the Conservative government was following recommendations of a policy review panel that concluded in 2008 that the current way of reviewing proposed foreign investments needed to be changed.

PRESSURE AFTER POTASH

OTTAWA, May 10 (Reuters) – The value of Canada’s imports and exports both dipped in March on weaker energy prices, but analysts said growing export volumes meant the outlook for trade was brighter than it looked.

Statistics Canada said on Thursday the trade surplus rose to C$351 million ($351 million) from $273 million in February as imports declined at a faster rate than exports.

The surplus was smaller than the C$500 million forecast by market analysts.

Exports fell by 0.4 percent, the third consecutive monthly decline, as energy shipments decreased by 8.9 percent on an 8.0 percent drop in prices. Imports were down 0.6 percent, also on weaker energy prices.

Exports are particularly important for Canada, accounting for about 31 percent of gross domestic product in 2011.

Analysts said the drop in energy prices was obscuring the larger picture and noted the volume of exports climbed 1.0 percent from February, while imports were up by 0.6 percent.

“Some softening in resource prices masked a decent trade performance overall for Canada in both March and for all of the first quarter,” said Douglas Porter, deputy chief economist at BMO Capital markets.

OTTAWA, May 8 (Reuters) – Canada is acting too slowly to combat climate change and has little chance of achieving its modest 2020 target for cuts in greenhouse gas emissions, Parliament’s environmental watchdog said on Tuesday.

The report by Environment Commissioner Scott Vaughan is awkward for the right-of-center Conservative government, which green activists say is more interested in industrial development than in protecting the environment.

The government, which pulled Canada out of the Kyoto Protocol on climate change last year, is promising to reduce emissions by 17 percent below 2005 levels by 2020.

Vaughan said the government is not moving quickly enough to introduce the necessary regulations and noted that an official forecast in July 2011 showed emissions in 2020 would in fact be 7.4 percent above the 2005 level.

“Although the federal government has begun to lower greenhouse gas emissions, right now the reductions are not happening fast enough to meet the 2020 target,” he wrote.

Vaughan said the federal environment ministry has no plan to show how various departments and agencies would cooperate and has not provided estimates of how various sectors of the economy should cut emissions.

In response to Vaughan’s report, Environment Minister Peter Kent said the government was making “significant progress” on meeting its 2020 target.

OTTAWA (Reuters) – FIFA president Sepp Blatter has expressed concern about the slow pace of preparations for the 2014 World Cup in Brazil and said he wanted the delays to be made up as soon as possible.

But Blatter – who is meeting top Brazilian officials next week to discuss progress – was also confident Brazil would be ready to host the 32-team tournament despite the challenges.

Brazil is struggling to build the infrastructure needed for the World Cup and the eight-team 2013 Confederations Cup curtain raiser. In March, FIFA’s general secretary said Brazil needed a “kick up the backside” to speed up the work.

Blatter apologised for the remarks by Jerome Valcke but still has some concerns about the pace of construction.

“Somewhere there are some delays and what we are doing now is to make sure that what has not been (done) in the past will be done as soon as possible and not later,” Blatter told reporters, speaking in English.

“For the time being we are a little bit concerned about some constructions. But you know, constructions, if you push them and to put a lot of energy behind, then you can be ready on time,” he said after an Ottawa event to mark the 2015 women’s soccer World Cup, which Canada is hosting.

Next week Blatter will hold two days of meetings in Zurich with Brazilian Sports Minister Aldo Rebelo and the local organizing committee.

OTTAWA, May 4 (Reuters) – FIFA president Sepp Blatter has expressed concern about the slow pace of preparations for the 2014 World Cup in Brazil and said he wanted the delays to be made up as soon as possible.

But Blatter – who is meeting top Brazilian officials next week to discuss progress – was also confident Brazil would be ready to host the 32-team tournament despite the challenges.

Brazil is struggling to build the infrastructure needed for the World Cup and the eight-team 2013 Confederations Cup curtain raiser. In March, FIFA’s general secretary said Brazil needed a “kick up the backside” to speed up the work.

Blatter apologised for the remarks by Jerome Valcke but still has some concerns about the pace of construction.

“Somewhere there are some delays and what we are doing now is to make sure that what has not been (done) in the past will be done as soon as possible and not later,” Blatter told reporters, speaking in English.

“For the time being we are a little bit concerned about some constructions. But you know, constructions, if you push them and to put a lot of energy behind, then you can be ready on time,” he said after an Ottawa event to mark the 2015 women’s soccer World Cup, which Canada is hosting.

Next week Blatter will hold two days of meetings in Zurich with Brazilian Sports Minister Aldo Rebelo and the local organizing committee.

OTTAWA, May 1 (Reuters) – Canada still wants to buy F-35 fighter jets made by Lockheed Martin, the head of the air force said on Tuesday, despite an official report that blasted the way military officials selected the plane.

Canada announced in July 2010 it would buy 65 of the Joint Strike Fighters, which have been hit by a string of cost overruns and delays. Ottawa did not hold an open competition.

Last month, the government’s spending watchdog said the decision to buy the jets was based on bad data from military officials who deliberately downplayed the costs and risks.

Critics say the defense ministry needs to start again and look at other planes, which could include Boeing Co’s F-18 Super Hornet. But the air force commander, Lieutenant-General Andre Deschamps, made it clear that this is not an option.

“The F-35 is the aircraft that we assessed in 2010 as the platform that met our needs, all our requirements,” he told the House of Commons public accounts committee as officials testified on the watchdog’s report.

Asked whether this meant he was looking at other options, he replied: “Currently, from an air force perspective, we are focused on delivering the transition to the F-35.”

Canada wants the new jets to replace its aging fleet of CF-18 fighters. The government last month responded to the watchdog’s report by stripping the defense ministry of responsibility for the project.

OTTAWA, April 30 (Reuters) – Canada’s economy unexpectedly shrank in February, disappointing markets and cooling talk that the Bank of Canada could start raising interest rates in the near future.

Statistics Canada said gross domestic product dropped by 0.2 percent in February from January, surprising analysts who had been expecting a 0.2 percent increase.

Statscan cited factors such as temporary closures in the mining and other goods-producing industries. Year-on-year growth was an uninspiring 1.6 percent, the weakest since the 1.2 percent recorded in January 2010.

Analysts said the data would provide food for thought at the Bank of Canada, which has warned recently that higher interest rates may be necessary to deal with a recovering economy and higher inflationary pressures.

“The Canadian economy disappointed in a big way in February … While much of the weakness looks temporary, it drives home the point that the underlying growth rate is sluggish at best,” said Douglas Porter, deputy chief economist at BMO Capital markets.

“The pullback in output will dampen some of the most hawkish views on the Bank of Canada and take some steam out of the Canadian dollar.”

Porter said first-quarter growth now would be lucky to hit 2 percent, let alone the 2.5 percent that the Bank of Canada is projecting.

OTTAWA, April 24 (Reuters) – Bank of Canada Governor Mark Carney repeated on Tuesday that the central bank might have to increase interest rates and he continued to fret about the high levels of debt that Canadians are taking on.

Carney used an appearance at the House of Commons finance committee to stress the central bank’s recent message that rates could have to go up despite global economic uncertainty.

“We have noted that given the state of the (Canadian) economy, the amount of slack, firmer underlying inflation, that it may become appropriate to withdraw some of the considerable monetary policy stimulus,” Carney told the committee.

“But any such decision would be taken with care and careful consideration of domestic and global risks. There’s a few clear messages there.”

The central bank, which has kept rates at a near-record low of 1 percent since September 2010, surprised markets last week when it explicitly mentioned that a rate increase might be needed because of a stronger economy and underlying inflationary pressures.

The cheap money has encouraged Canadians to borrow more heavily, particularly against the equity in their homes, prompting repeated alerts from the bank about po ssible calamitous consequences onc e rates start to rise.

Carney – who says Canadians cannot keep borrowing so heavily against the value of their homes – said financial authorities were looking closely at levels of household debt and ways to contain the problem. He also made it clear that too tight a clampdown could hurt economic growth.

OTTAWA (Reuters) – Al Qaeda’s new focus on “lone wolf” tactics is making it tough for Western intelligence agencies to prevent terror attacks, the head of Canada’s spy service said on Monday.

In a rare admission that al Qaeda’s switch to “individual jihad” was posing problems, the head of Canada’s spy service said lone wolves are tough to detect because they do not belong to a larger network that might attract attention.

“When you have an individual who doesn’t talk to anyone, you either need good luck – which happens sometimes – or for them to make a little mistake here and there,” Richard Fadden, head of the Canadian Security Intelligence Service, told the Canadian Senate’s anti-terrorism committee.

He said al Qaeda had decided to urge solo campaigns because it was too difficult to launch major operations such as the 9/11 terror attacks in the United States.

Canada, along with spy agencies in the United States, France, Germany and Australia, is trying to develop a greater understanding of what motivates solo attackers.

“It’s not easy … because these individuals seem to be a mix of terrorists and people who simply have very big personal problems. So it becomes very difficult to try to develop a doctrine, a series of operational capabilities, to deal with them. So to be honest, yes, it worries us,” said the top spy.

Fadden said one example of a lone wolf was Mohamed Merah, who killed seven people in France last month. Merah, who died in a gunfight with police, said he had been inspired by al Qaeda.

OTTAWA, April 20 (Reuters) – A drop in Canada’s year-on-year inflation rate to an 18-month low in March will not delay interest rate hikes by the Bank of Canada, which is paying closer attention to economic growth, analysts said on Friday.

Statistics Canada said the annual inflation rate fell to 1.9 percent in March from 2.6 percent in February, the lowest level since the 1.9 percent recorded in September 2010. Analysts had forecast a rate of 2.0 percent.

The Bank of Canada, which targets a 2.0 percent inflation rate, this week made it clear it might have to start raising rates from near-historical lows because of reduced slack in the economy and increased underlying inflationary pressures.

The central bank has kept rates unchanged since September 2010.

“We now see the bank firmly in a data dependent mode as it considers when and how much of the considerable monetary stimulus currently in place will need to be withdrawn,” said TD Securities strategist David Tulk. “There is nothing in this report in our view that will influence the outlook for monetary policy.”

A Reuters survey of primary market dealers this week showed the median forecast for the timing of the next rate increase had moved to the first quarter of 2013 from the third quarter of 2013.

Statscan said the cost of energy was up 5.1 percent in the 12 months to March, versus a 7.2 percent year-over-year rise in February. Food prices were up by 2.2 percent in the year to March, lower than the 4.1 percent comparable jump in February.