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Target Corp. is getting a tax break, and its workers are reportedly getting a pay hike.
Target Canada is in bankruptcy protection, and its workers will probably be getting EI.
From launch to liquidation, the American discount retailer has had quite an impact in its short time here, first on consumer prices and, soon, on unemployment.
Two years ago, there was the "Target effect," as some called it, referring to the impact on inflation as retailers scrambled to meet the U.S. company's first foreign foray with lower prices and fierce competition.
Two years on, the "Target effect" may well be the impact on unemployment over the next few months.
As The Globe and Mail's Dave Parkinson writes, Target's Canadian shutdown will play out in the jobs market in April, May and, possibly, June.
Some stores are shutting down now, while others are actually busy amid their liquidation sales.
"When the store fully closes its doors in the spring, then we will see the effect," chief economist Douglas Porter of BMO Nesbitt Burns said recently.
"Even then, it may be blunted if some of the workers are picked up by others - though the size and scope of the layoff (over 17,000) will be tough to digest quickly," added Mr. Porter, who expects the fuller impact to show up in the May or June employment reports from Statistics Canada.
Target's fast departure from Canada has also left a sour taste among some creditors here. As The Globe and Mail's Marina Strauss reports, they would dearly love some of the $1.6-billion (U.S.) tax break the parent company is getting in its home country because of the stumble in Canada.
No doubt the Canadian workers, too, are bitter as they lose their jobs, just as their American counterparts get a pay raise.
According to reports, Target is taking a page from its U.S. competitors and hiking wages to at least $9 an hour as of next month.
(Who knows what would have happened in Canada had Target stayed? Minimum wages are different in Canada, and, indeed, across the provinces. Just this week, British Columbia said it will raise its minimum wage by 20 cents to $10.45 an hour in September, while Ontario's climbs to $11.25 a month later.)
Target already topped the $7.25 U.S. minimum, and is matching earlier wage hikes by Wal-Mart Stores Inc. and TJX Cos.
It hasn't publicly announced the pay raise, but the move has been reported by several news organization. Target hasn't yet answered my query, either.
Maybe because I'm Canadian, and we don't matter much anymore?
(By the way, Target has also just announced an "extended one-year return policy." That means customers can return 32 brands, not that they're coming back any time soon.)
- Marina Strauss: Target Canada considered winding down operations as early as September
- Marina Strauss: Target lands $1.6-billion tax break as creditors fight for payback
- David Parkinson: Snapshot of monthly job numbers misses big picture
- The quest for a 'living wage' gathers steam
- B.C. to raise minimum wage to $10.45/hour, ending three-year freeze
The week's top business videos
- The Bottom Line: Outlook for olive oil: The pits
- Sherrill Sutherland: Understanding shale oil and the controversial practice of 'fracking'
- Paul Waldie and Luke Kawa: The Fed removes 'patient' from the discussion
- Carrick Talks Money: The best investments for your TFSA
- Winners and losers in CRTC's unbundling of cable TV channels
The week in Business Briefing
- The 78-cent loonie and the U.S. dollar 'bubble'
- Who's winning and who's losing (big) in Canada's housing markets
- Slower-paced Fed sends Canadian dollar soaring
- U.S. dollar rebounds, loonie slides after Fed's 'good-cop-bad-cop' act
- Summer on the patio (and many other things) soon to cost more
The week in Streetwise (for subscribers)
- Jacqueline Nelson: Valeant's Salix deal sees pharma M&A soar ever higher
- Tim Kiladze: Regulators must be bold with mutual fund fee review
- Luke Kawa: Why TD and BMO mortgage rate cuts are late in coming
- Niall McGee: Medical marijuana and independent brokers: a beautiful friendship?
- Tim Kiladze: BMO takes energy investment bankers poached by UBS to court
The week in Inside the Market (for subscribers)
- Scott Barlow: Cheap loonie, more exports? It's a myth
- Rob Carrick: Choose your investment firm wisely or you'll pay the price
- Gillian Livingston: Q&A: Economist Sherry Cooper on housing, markets and the loonie
- Luke Kawa: The TSX isn't expensive - but energy stocks are
- Scott Barlow: A good reason why oil has fallen faster than equities
The week in ROB Insight (for subscribers)
- Ian McGugan: The slow demise of a 'patient' Fed and historically low rates
- Carl Mortished: Canada should hold its nose and sign up for China's development bank
- Kevin Carmichael: Why Yellen is a more attentive guardian
- Ian McGugan: Why we may not want many new homeowners
- Sean Silcoff: It takes chutzpah for Potash to protest new tax regime
The week's top news
- Clare O'Hara: New players expected to climb aboard ETF bandwagon
- Tamsin McMahon: Battle of the bank rates kicks off heated spring housing market
- Jeffrey Jones: Oil heading for new lows despite industry concessions
- Luke Kawa: Note of caution from Federal Reserve as U.S. moves to raising rates
- James Bradshaw: CRTC promises pick-and-pay TV channels, slimmer basic bundle
The week's must-reads
- Tamsin McMahon: Canada's rental unit landscape witnessing a resurgence
- Joanna Slater: Germany's female executive quota aims to shift corporate culture
- Colin Freeze and Christine Dobby: NSA trying to map Rogers, RBC communications traffic, leak shows
- Nathan VanderKlippe: Chinese scientists look to Canadian Arctic for research outpost
- Tamsin McMahon: Mortgage breakers ignore posted rates at their own peril