MarketsandMarkets, a U.S.-based global market research and consulting company, says the global gluten-free market is projected to reach US$6.2 billion in five years.

The report is called Gluten-Free Products Market By Type (Bakery & Confectionery, Snacks, Breakfast Cereals, Baking Mixes & Flour, Meat & Poultry Products), Sales Channel (Natural & Conventional) & Geography — Global Trends & Forecasts To 2018.

MarketsandMarkets says the report defines and segments the global gluten-free product market with analysis and forecasting of the global revenue and volume for gluten-free products.

The report also identifies the driving and restraining factors for the global gluten-free product market. The market is segmented and revenue is forecasted on the basis of major regions such as North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, and Rest of the World (ROW).

The largest volume share in the sector are gluten-free bakery and confectionery products, which accounted for about 46 per cent, followed by gluten-free snacks that contributed about 20 per cent in the gluten-free market.

North America contributed to about 59 per cent share in the global gluten-free product market.

The highest consumption of gluten-free product in the global market was through conventional sales channels. Chain stores have become a preferred retail channel for gluten-free products, and there has been growth in the sales and assortment carried by the supermarkets and mass merchandisers.

The demand for new products and a variety of gluten-free products is increasing in the market. The existing companies are actively introducing new products with different ingredients and flavours, demonstrating that they are attuned to the needs of their consumers.

Developments in the global gluten-free products market have been growing globally, but it has been growing at a higher pace in North America and Europe. Companies such as Hain Celestial Inc. (U.S.), General Mills Inc. (U.S.), Dr. Schar (Italy), Amys Kitchen Inc. (U.S.), and Boulders Brand Inc. (U.S), are involved in market dynamics.

Celiac disease

Celiac disease is an autoimmune disorder triggered by the consumption of gluten that leads to extensive damage in the small intestine of genetically susceptible people. There is no medication available except a gluten-free diet for this disorder.

The increasing number of celiac patients, gluten intolerance and health-conscious consumers has increased the demand for gluten-free products. The gluten-free products market is experiencing a double-digit growth.

The most important factor behind buying more gluten-free food products is that consumers consider them healthier than conventional products.

Other important factors are growing retail presence and continual improvements in new gluten-free products development.

One of the major restraints of the gluten-free products market is a lack of awareness. Many consumers do not know the difference between an allergy and intolerance. Furthermore, many consumers are either misdiagnosed or undiagnosed entirely for celiac disease.

Mike Doherty, a partner at Cambridge, Ontario-based Demand Clarity Inc, and André Martin, vice-president of flowcasting for JDA Software Group Inc in Scottsdale, Arizona, presented those figures at a technology session held during the 2013 Supply Chain Canada conference.

The pair told the audience in Mississauga, Ontario that although the out-of-stock figure hasn’t changed in decades, there is no reason for that situation to continue. They believe that by using the flowcasting methodology, the out-of-stock number can be reduced to zero (or near zero).

Flowcasting collects data at the retail point-of-sale (POS) and uses it exclusively as the sole source information throughout the entire supply chain. Rather than having multiple forecasts (one compiled by the retailer, one by the distributor, one by the manufacturer, etc), the flowcasting process sends one POS forecast throughout the entire supply chain.

Doherty and Martin provide a more complete explanation of flowcasting, and discuss the advantages it brings and the challenges it presents in the video below.

To see more MM&D original videos click here for the full list.

In addition to the flowcasting session, delegates to the conference had the opportunity to listen to a wide variety of industry experts including:

• Robert Vallender, head of physical logistics CO-Supply Chain, at Nestec Ltd, who spoke about the some of the security challenges Nestlé has faced—including having thieves using fake documents to pick up loads from the company’s DCs and steal them—the need to alter recipes in order to adapt each product to the tastes of the geographical market, and how today’s VUCA (volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous) world market keeps adding demands onto supply chains.
• Derrick Lio, operations manager for Lexmark Canada Inc, who explained how the printer manufacturer stopped dealing with over 20 different carriers and consolidated all of its transportation needs with one company —Ryder Canada—and now benefits from simplified, standardized reporting, and improved capacity.
• Bryan Tremblay, vice-president of supply chain and logistics at The Source, whose presentation focused on how the electronics retailer incorporates its bricks-and mortar store into its e-commerce distribution network, and how the company manages to serve both its retail and online customers out of one common, centralized distribution centre.
• Doug Harrison, chief operating officer at Day & Ross Transportation Group, who told the audience how the transportation company is evolving its corporate culure and its approach to business with the help of coaches and industrial psychologists. He also explained how the company has moved away from the RFP processes and now prefers to use RFIs (requests for information) when negotiating new contracts.
• Aaron Hutcherson, vice-president of global supply chain planning and procurement at McCain Foods Ltd, who shared with the audience the lessons his company learned when McCain’s supply chain couldn’t support the surprisingly successful launch of a new food product overseas, and how subsequent launches into new markets now take the supply chain into greater consideration.

For more Supply Chain Canada coverage, see the May-June issue of MM&D magazine.

The Fair Labour Association says Apple’s largest supplier, Foxconn, has made all recommended improvements to working conditions that were due by the end of December.

The group says there have been “notable increases” in workers’ participation in union committees. Foxconn has reduced working hours, though not enough to comply with the Chinese legal limit of 49 hours per week. Foxconn is scheduled to do that by July.

Foxconn is also known as Hon Hai Precision Industry Co. Apple joined the Fair Labor Association in January 2012.

©The Associated Press

As part of the 15th annual Gas Tax Honesty Day, the federation encourages citizens to lobby against charging tax-on-tax for gasoline and diesel.

Alberta director Derek Fildebrandt says even without a provincial sales tax, residents of the province pay roughly $80 million a year or $15 per fill-up.

Fildebrandt says citizens must also keep things from getting worse by keeping provinces and municipalities from continually looking to new or higher gas taxes as a quick fix for pet projects.

Check out the report here.

©The Canadian Press

The agency says in volume terms, wholesale sales were up 0.1% in March.

In March, four of seven subsectors reported gains, accounting for about two-thirds of wholesale sales.

Sales in the motor vehicle and parts subsector rose 2% to $8.5 billion in March, its second consecutive increase.

Wholesale sales rose in Ontario, Saskatchewan and BC.

The gains, though, were offset by drops in the other provinces, including a 3.5% sales decline in Alberta.

©The Canadian Press

The Montreal-based company recently lost a hotly contested bid to supply a training system for the US air force’s new KC-46 tanker.

CAE chief executive Marc Parent said the tanker contract, which was awarded to FlightSafety, also attracted bids from L-3, Lockheed Martin and Boeing.

“Clearly everybody wants to win in the military. So, it does become at some point, as it was in KC-46, a price shootout, but I feel very good about our ability to win,” Parent said after reporting better-than-expected quarterly results.

He said CAE has about $2.1 billion of outstanding contract bids that should allow it to sustain its business.

“I don’t think we’re going to shoot the lights out, but neither do I think we’re going to go down that much,” he told analysts.

CAE said it earned $43.8 million for the period ended March 31, down from $53.2 million a year ago.

However, excluding $10.1 million of restructuring, integration and acquisition costs, it earned $53.9 million.

Revenue in what was the company’s fourth quarter grew to $587.9 million from $506.7 million last year.

Parent said US defence budget cuts have created more uncertainty, but it doesn’t change the company’s long-term outlook for its business.

For the financial year ended March 31, it earned $139.4 million or 54 cents per share on $2.1 billion in revenue, compared with $180.3 million or 70 cents per share on $1.8 billion in revenue the previous year.

Adjusted income was $190.7 million or 74 cents per share, four cents above analyst forecasts and the results a year ago.

Its order backlog reached a record $4.1 billion.

CAE sold 10 full-flight simulators in the fourth quarter and met its outlook by selling 35 full flight civil simulators last year. It expects strong demand for civil full-flight simulators again in the coming year.

© 2013 The Canadian Press

The company said the job cuts will be made through retirements and attrition at the smelter, which currently has about 1,400 employees.

One of the potlines had been expected to be shut down later this year and the second in 2015. Instead, they will both be closed by August.

The closure, which is expected to lead to an after-tax restructuring charge of $135 million to $155 million, will leave the smelter with two operating potlines—the long rows of high-voltage reduction pots where aluminum is smelted.

The aluminum giant said the decision will remove 105,000 tonnes of annual capacity, leaving the facility with the capability of producing 282,000 tonnes of metal annually.

The announcement came a couple of weeks after Alcoa announced a 15-month review to cut worldwide production by 460,000 tonnes or 11 per cent of its global output.

The company said the review was in response to a more than 33 per cent drop in the price of aluminum since 2011.

It has already idled 568,000 tonnes of production capacity, or 13 per cent of its global network.

Alcoa said the Soderberg potlines to be closed are among its highest-cost smelting capacity.

Alcoa is the largest employer in the north shore community, where the plant has operated under various owners since 1957.

Market conditions have forced the company to delay a new potline at the smelter until 2019 instead of 2016. Ultimately, the new line will have the capacity to more efficiently produce 160,000 tonnes of aluminum annually.

The company said it will begin preparations for the upgrade by investing $100 million in the smelter over the next three years, including $30 million to upgrade the plant’s casthouse facilities.

The investment is in addition to $75 million to rebuild port facilities to better meet the future needs of a modernized plant.

Martin Briere, president of Alcoa Canada Primary Products, said the Quebec government was “very open” to reviewing the construction schedule because of the importance for Alcoa to adapt to market realities and make the project as cost-effective as possible.

“These efforts will help move our Baie-Comeau plant down the global aluminum cost curve and continue to provide important economic benefits to the region.”

The Quebec government has given both Alcoa and Rio Tinto Alcan more time to honour their investment commitments in the province because of the weak aluminum market.

Alcoa plans to spend $1.2 billion to modernize the Baie-Comeau plant.

The government also gave the same flexibility to Rio Tinto Alcan for its planned $2.1-billion investment in the Saguenay-Lac-Saintt-Jean region, a move that could preserve hundreds of jobs by granting a 24-month extension to the life of Rio Tinto Alcan’s Arvida smelter to January 2017.

Economic development continues
Alcoa said the delay in its upgrade won’t affect its commitment to provide $50 million over 25 years to the province’s economic development fund. It will also continue to contribute $10 million over the same period to the local community.

Alcoa employs 3,100 workers in Canada, including those at Quebec smelters in Baie-Comeau, Becancour and Deschambault. They are among 61,000 Alcoa employees in 30 countries around the world.

“This was yet another accident involving a small commercial operator,” said Wendy Tadros, chair of the TSB. “In Canada, 91 percent of commercial aircraft accidents in the last 10 years involved these operators, and together, these accidents accounted for 93 percent of commercial aviation fatalities. We need to look at new ways of bringing these numbers down.”

The turbine-powered DHC-3 Otter, operated by Black Sheep Aviation and Cattle Co. Ltd, was flying from Mayo to the Rackla Airstrip in the Yukon, a 94-mile flight, says the TSB. About 19 minutes after departure, an emergency locator transmitter signal was received and a search and rescue helicopter was dispatched. A few hours later the wreckage was located on a hillside northeast of Mayo. The aircraft broke up in flight and the pilot, who was the sole occupant, died.

“Without recorded information, we were not able to determine why this aircraft broke up in-flight,” added Tadros. “Data from lightweight flight recorders will certainly help the TSB investigate after an accident, but more than that, it will give Canada’s smaller carriers information they can use to prevent accidents. We see it as a win-win and ask Transport Canada to get the ball rolling as soon as possible.”

The program also ensures the delivery of veterinary services in all regions of Quebec. Currently there are 460 veterinarians servicing more than 12,000 Quebec farmers.

The program means the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food (MAPAQ) will devote $1 million over the next three years to collecting data on the use of veterinary drugs, through an electronic transfer, and implementing new monitoring activities.

MAPAQ says $2.4 million will go toward special measures for the next generation of animals in remote areas for the three years of the program.

Also, $1.84 million will go to the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine at the University of Montreal to help support educational activities.

The companies were selected based on their performance in 2012, said Spirit AeroSystems, and the award took into consideration quality, on-time delivery, commitment to cost reductions and willingness to partner with Spirit for overall improvement in value delivered to Spirit and subsequently to Spirit’s customers. The platinum suppliers were honored at Spirit’s Annual Platinum Supplier Recognition Event.

“In today’s aerospace environment, it is increasingly important to seek suppliers that provide the best total value for cost, quality and delivery,” said Rob Mattinson, Spirit vice-president, corporate supply chain management & global strategy. “Our 2012 Platinum Suppliers were committed to providing best total value through cost reduction initiatives while maintaining quality and delivery standards contributing to Spirit’s competitive global cost structure.”

The list of the Spirit 2012 Platinum Suppliers is as follows:

• All Metal Services Ltd—London, England;
• Dynamic NC—Udall, KS USA;
• Globe Engineering Company, Inc—Wichita, KS. USA;
• Labinal Services—Wichita Office—Wichita, KS. USA;
• Logistics Resources, Inc—Wichita, KS. USA;
• M.Torre—Pamplona, Spain; and
• ZTM Inc—Wichita, KS USA.

The paper, part of the institution’s quarterly Bank of Canada Review, says the evidence so far is that slashing interest rates and flooding markets with money through quantitative easing and other extraordinary measures appear to have worked.

The global Great Recession was stopped in its tracks and economies and financial markets have mostly stabilized.

But as central banks start pulling back their stimulative measures, as the U.S. is currently contemplating, the damage left behind in some sectors might become more apparent, the paper says.

And there is a danger central banks won’t be able to manage the exit properly, leading to losses in their balance books, loss of confidence and high inflation.

The paper makes clear that most of the risk lies in jurisdictions where central banks have gone to extraordinary lengths to rescue their economies, such as Europe, Japan and the United States.

But some of the challenges also apply to Canada. While Bank of Canada never introduced quantitative easing, it did take interest rates to historic lows and continues to keep them there, a policy that punishes savers and rewards borrowers.

A C.D. Howe Institute report Wednesday also looked at the low interest rate policy in Canada and concluded that it has led to economic distortions, including high household debt and home prices, while wrecking havoc on savers, pension funds and insurance companies.

The C.D. Howe paper urged the Bank of Canada to start hiking rates immediately.

Speaking to the Council on Foreign Relations, Harper is expected to stress that Canada is halfway towards meeting its greenhouse gas emissions target. Many people in both countries, however, are wondering about the other half.

As the Obama administration ponders the TransCanada Corp. proposal to build the Keystone XL pipeline to link the oil sands to Gulf Coast refineries, Harper’s government is trumpeting the steps it has taken to ensure pipeline safety, cut emissions and monitor oil sands pollution.

In advance of the prime minister’s Q-and-A with the council, the federal government took out ads in major US publications and fired up a new website to promote its sector-by-sector regulatory approach to reducing emissions.

“With these and other means, Canada is honouring its United Nations commitment under the Copenhagen Accord to a 17% reduction in emissions from 2005 levels by 2020,” the website says.

“We estimate that as a result of our collective actions taken to date, Canada is already halfway toward closing the gap between what our emissions had originally been projected to be in 2020, and where we need to be to meet our Copenhagen target.”

But critics, including Environmental Defence Canada, Equiterre, Forest Ethics Advocacy, Greenpeace Canada and the US Natural Resources Defence Council, have set up their own internet soapbox.

They say TarSandsRealityCheck.com “presents peer-reviewed, easy to understand facts about the devastating impacts of the tar sands on climate, economy, human rights, land and species, air and water.”

The trouble with Harper’s “halfway” claim is that it lumps together all the measures both provincial and federal governments have taken and the cumulative effect they will have on emissions by 2020.

Numerous analyses suggest that closing the rest of the gap will take a near miracle, or some kind of national carbon pricing program.

The federal Conservatives reject carbon pricing, although many provinces have already headed in that direction, either on their own or to comply with federal regulations.
Something will have to give.

Oil and gas are the largest source of emissions growth. Federal, provincial and industry officials have been negotiating for months to produce a plan that would curb emissions at a cost that does not disadvantage the industry.

But none of the scenarios will take Canada anywhere near meeting its 2020 target, analysts say.

Environment Minister Peter Kent, meanwhile, is looking at the handful of sectors not yet regulated. Commercial and residential buildings are key, he said in a recent interview, adding that he’s also hoping for international action in the aviation sector.

Canada, he also noted, is now getting credit for reforestation efforts. But none of those this will give Canada more than a few megatonnes of carbon reductions each by 2020, well short of the needed 100 megatonnes.

Canada could buy emissions credits from cash-short developing countries, but the government isn’t keen on that option.

The Conservatives have also rejected suggestions that they limit emissions by freezing oil sands development and pipeline construction.

The International Energy Association said it expects oil sands production to increase by 1.3 million barrels a day by 2018, to a total of about 5 million a day.

© 2013 The Canadian Press

But, observers say the odds for Northern Gateway and the Trans Mountain expansion moving ahead are still rather slim.

Warren Mabee, a professor at Queen’s University, says the Liberals’ support for pipelines is highly conditional and doesn’t amount to a “green light.”

He says, to his knowledge, B.C. Premier Christy Clark’s five conditions have not been met by Enbridge Inc., the company planning to build Northern Gateway.

And Mabee says disagreements between Clark and her Alberta counterpart, Alison Redford, over sharing the economic benefits of the pipelines remain unresolved.

Eric Swanson with anti-pipeline group the Dogwood Initiative says the B.C. government is just one player in the pipeline debate, and with First Nations and municipal governments remaining staunchly opposed, the projects still face an uphill battle.

TORONTO — There are almost 300,000 unfilled private sector jobs out there and manufacturing is among the sectors with the highest number of vacancies, according to data compiled by the Canadian Federation of Independent Business (CFIB).

The Toronto-based CFIB, which represents small and medium-sized businesses, reports the percentage of unfilled jobs remained steady at 2.5% in the first quarter of the year, representing approximately 295,000 full- and part-time positions.

“As the economy has improved and unemployment has come down, companies, particularly smaller companies, have struggled to fill open jobs,” says Ted Mallett, CFIB’s chief economist and vice-president. “While unfilled jobs may seem harmless, they represent missed opportunity for business and the economy.”

The highest vacancy rate occurs in businesses with fewer than 19 employees, while those with 500 or more employees had the lowest (1.6%).

The highest numbers of actual jobs available are in manufacturing, hospitality, retail, and construction with 30,000 to 40,000 job openings across the country.

The construction industry has the highest vacancy rate (3.6%), although that rate is dropping.

Declines are noted in oil and gas (2.4%), information arts and recreation (2.2%), retail (2%) and hospitality (2.6%). There have been modest increases in agriculture (2.9%), transportation (2.5%) and social services (2.2%).

Saskatchewan has the highest vacancy rate (3.9%), followed by Alberta (3.7%) and Newfoundland and Labrador (2.9%). BC and Quebec fall within the national average (2.5%), while while Manitoba (2.3%), Ontario (2.1%) Nova Scotia and New Brunswick (1.9%) and PEI (1.5%) fall short.

The CFIB noted the federal government’s planned changes to the Temporary Foreign Worker (TFW) program could make it even harder for smaller firms to find needed staff.

“Smaller businesses structurally have higher vacancy rates,” says Mallett. “The TFW program has been one way for these businesses to fill openings that they could not fill otherwise. Ironically, it was problems at larger firms that prompted changes to the program, yet it is smaller companies with legitimate challenges that will bear the brunt of the impacts.”

First quarter findings are based on 2,909 responses, collected from a stratified random sample of CFIB members, to a controlled-access web survey.

Click here to read Help Wanted: Private sector job vacancies in Canada Q1 2013.

The bill would prohibit drilling, hydraulic fracturing—also known as fracking—as well as injection tests.

Environment Minister Yves-Francois Blanchet tabled the legislation in the national assembly on Wednesday.

The moratorium would last for five years or until new regulations on shale gas exploration are in place.

In February, Blanchet announced he had ordered the provincial agency on environmental public hearings to look into the impact of the shale-gas industry.

He says the bill makes the moratorium official.

Although fracking is carried out by companies in the Gaspe and on Anticosti Island, Blanchet said the decision to limit the moratorium to the St. Lawrence lowland came because of opposition by residents to the exploration process.

The minority Parti Quebecois government will have to get the support of one of the other parties in the legislature for the bill to pass.

Liberal Leader Philippe Couillard said the government should wait for the results of the public hearings.

He accused the government of “managing by moratorium.”

Coalition Leader Francois Legault said the government is trying to please its supporters with a position based more on ideology than science.

In the first three months of this year, the number of sales that closed jumped 56 per cent from the same time in 2012, according to BizBuySell.com, an online marketplace for small businesses. Retirement was the top contributor to business sales in the fourth quarter of last year and the first quarter of 2013, according to a survey by Pepperdine University and two trade groups, the International Business Brokers Association and M&A Source.

“It was almost like a light switch went on in January,” says Michael Schuster, a broker with World Business Brokers in Miami. “We started getting a lot of activity with sellers who said, ‘I don’t want to go through another downturn or tough time. I want to see if I could sell my business.’”

Sales are so strong in Florida that Schuster’s brokerage is opening two more offices in the state. Three-quarters of the sellers or potential sellers that his company sees are baby boomers, most of whom don’t have family members willing to take over their businesses. Some of these owners want to sell just part of their firms, essentially taking on a partner, because they don’t want to keep carrying all the risk themselves.

In California, the pace of sales is more of a “slow pickup, not a huge spike,” says Dave Richards, owner of Keystone Business Advisors, a brokerage in Westlake Village, Calif.

“Baby boomers are where we’re really seeing the growth. It’s pent-up demand,” Richards says.

And these sellers are going to keep the market for small businesses thriving for years to come.

“Trillions of dollars of business value are going to change hands in the next 10 to 20 years,” says Bob Balaban, managing director at Headwaters MB, an investment bank based in Denver. He believes so-called ‘strategic acquisitions’—purchases by companies looking to expand—will be a key factor in that trend. In a tight economy, companies looking to grow feel that it would take years to build up their businesses.

“They have to do acquisitions to continue to grow and grow quickly,” Balaban says.

Buyers appear to be ready to step up and are looking for a good fit with their existing operations. Health-care related businesses like medical billing firms, pharmacies and even medical and dental practices are particularly in demand, says Keystone’s Richards. He’s seeing less interest in restaurants and retailers, industries where profit margins are thinner and where many companies are still struggling. Schuster, the Miami broker, sees people who were waiting for the economy to pick up, and they’ve decided that business is good enough for them to take the plunge.

Sellers are benefiting from this trend because buyers are willing to pay more money if a deal will quickly get them into the markets they want to serve, says Mike Carter, CEO of BizEquity, a company that helps businesses calculate their sales price.

“For a growth company, we’re seeing them getting almost 15 per cent more than what they were getting four years ago (during the recession),” he says.

“If you have a happy customer that’s coming into your store and he’s leaving satisfied it helps to get him to come back,” Robert Sawyer, a former food retailing executive, said after speaking to shareholders for the first time.

He said lessons he learned in the highly competitive grocery business are just as useful in the home renovation industry.

Sawyer said his predecessors didn’t do a bad job but were unable to digest years of acquisitions once the recession hit.

“So I have to get back to basics, to look at merchandising, procurement, supply chain and marketing to see how we’re going to address to our consumers all over every region in Canada,” he told reporters.

That could mean producing regional flyers that cater to varying consumer demands instead of offering uniform specials across the country.

Sawyer said he plans to unveil his strategy next quarter, but the chain has decided not to sell its network of big box stores outside Quebec even as it focuses on smaller, proximity stores.

“We have all the ingredients for success. Now we need to optimize the recipe to achieve the full potential of this magnificent organization,” he told shareholders.

Prior to his arrival five weeks ago, the Quebec-based company said it was taking “a hard look” at either selling or reducing the size of its 30 big box retail stores outside Quebec that generate about $750 million of annual sales but together are losing money.

But Sawyer said most of the stores are profitable and selling them would have a big impact on the company’s distribution network.

Rona chairman Robert Chevrier said the stores are part of a network of stores of varying size that provide a competitive advantage over US-based rivals such as Home Depot and Lowe’s.

Selling the stores would diminish the value of the remaining network and tarnish how people perceive the brand, he said.

Chevrier conceded that the company’s new leadership is under pressure to turn things around.

“It’s obvious that if collectively, the people up here, Robert’s team, does a bad job I think we deserve to be kicked out,” he said.

Rona will announce in a few weeks whether it will sell its commercial and professional division that has about $500 million of annual sales.

Its current strategic plan calls for the closure of 10 underperforming big box stores and reducing the size of 13 others. Five stores have been closed so far.

In Quebec, the company has also started to reposition its Reno-Depot banner as a warehouse by reducing the number of products, but offering bigger quantities at better prices.

Rona said it has achieved $17 million of savings, or about 40 per cent of the up to $45-million target from administrative job cuts and the renegotiation of major service agreements.]

Revenues were $929.4 million, down $4.6 million from a year ago. Same-store sales fell 0.8 per cent, or three per cent in the retail division as cold weather caused a 28 per cent drop in the sale of seasonal items.

The company’s distribution segment experienced higher sales but that was offset by lower revenue from Rona’s retail and commercial segments.

Rona attributed the weaker results to disruptions in its operations due to changes at its Reno-Depot and Totem banners, increased costs of building materials, difficult market conditions and a late spring.

“We expect that fiscal 2013 will be another demanding year, because of the repositioning that will temporarily disrupt our operations,” said chief financial officer Dominique Boies.

He said the outlook for 2014 is better as Canadian housing starts are expected to increase and Rona will fully benefit from cost reductions.

Irene Nattel of RBC Capital Markets said that with a new CEO and chief commercial officer, 2013 “is best viewed as a transitional year.”

“Weaker than expected first-quarter results underscore the macro headwinds and operating challenges,” she wrote in a report.

After repeatedly rebuffing calls for an apology for the Liberals’ decisions to cancel the gas plants to save seats in the 2011 election, Wynne finally went further than saying she regrets the government didn’t pick the right spots for the energy projects.

“I’m sorry about the decisions that were made,” Wynne told reporters at Queen’s Park.

“I’m sorry about the mistakes that the government made in locating the gas plants in the places that we did in the first place, and I’m sorry that it cost so much money, so many public dollars, to relocate them.”

However, the Progressive Conservatives and New Democrats were not impressed with Wynne’s mea culpa, which they said should have come much sooner.

“You’re sorry you got caught,” PC energy critic Vic Fedeli said to Wynne in the legislature.

“Premier, Ontarians want more than a hollow apology. They want a refund. Will you order the Liberal party to pay the money back?”

NDP leader Andrea Horwath was also critical of the premier’s apology.

“It is a day late and a buck short,” Horwath told Wynne.

“The money has already been wasted and the scandal has already happened, and now we need to make sure that it never happens again.”

It’s surprising that Wynne didn’t offer the apology in the legislature, added Horwath.

“I think it would have gone a lot further had she actually done that here in the chamber with the MPPs, (apologized) to the people of Ontario in their house,” she said.

Wynne couldn’t say what finally triggered her decision to apologize, but said she realized people wanted to hear her take responsibility for the gas plant decisions.

“I was hearing that there still needed to be my voice taking that extra piece of responsibility to apologize for the mistakes that we made, because we had said that there were mistakes that had been made,” she said.

“I was hearing that call for an apology.”

The opposition parties accuse the Liberals of intentionally misleading the public about the true cost of cancelling the gas plants.

In addition to demanding a judicial inquiry into the gas plants, the Conservatives’ are also trying to get the legislature to debate a non-confidence motion in the minority Liberal government.

Unlike most jurisdictions, the government can block opposition non-confidence motions in Ontario, so the Tories moved another motion asking the legislature to call their “want of confidence” motion for a debate.

The NDP have been just as critical of the Liberals for cancelling the gas plants, and should support the Tory motion, said PC house leader Jim Wilson.

“I hope that the NDP will vote in favour of our motion to schedule a vote of confidence in the Ontario legislature,” said Wilson.

“(The) vote will signal whether the NDP intends to prop up this scandal-ridden government once again.”

Wynne told the legislature the upcoming vote on the budget will be the best opportunity to express confidence, or a lack of it, in her government.

“Clearly the members opposite want to have the opportunity to vote on a confidence motion,” she said.

“The budget is the confidence motion that I believe is extremely relevant to the lives of people in Ontario.”

The deal with TC Pipelines LP, one-third owned by TransCanada, involves the Bison and GTN pipelines.

The sale is expected to close in July.

The Bison pipeline connects gas from the US Rocky Mountain region to TransCanada’s Northern Border system in North Dakota.

GTN moves Western Canadian and Rocky Mountain gas to the Western US.

TransCanada CEO Russ Girling says the proceeds from the sale will help fund TransCanada’s capital program, which includes $26 billion in commercially secured projects.

“The transaction demonstrates one of the many funding options available to TransCanada to finance our current capital commitments,” he said.

©The Canadian Press