Latest News from the Toronto SUN: 'Tis the season for sales

Weary Canadian consumers bracing for the financial burden of the holiday season will be getting a helping hand. Beginning this weekend, several major retailers plan to slash their prices by as much as 20 per cent. It's hoped that jumpstarting holiday deals will stimulate spending and boost the stagnant economy.

While retailers hope to ring in holiday sales, Ottawa is curtailing its spending spree. During a speech to the Empire Club this afternoon, Federal finance minister Jim Flaherty says the government has no new or major spending plans for the spring budget. They will focus instead on getting already announced initiatives 'out the door and into the economy.'

Flaherty says Ottawa will not raise taxes or eliminate transfer payments to the provinces. Instead, the $61 billion stimulus plan announced in January will continue in an effort to preserve and create jobs.

With personal bankruptcies soaring, up 43 per cent from the same month last year, massive consumer spending this Christmas is unlikely. In a recent poll by TNS – one of North America’s largest market research firms, 2009 would be the lowest spending holiday season in five years. Roughly 30 percent of Canadians intend to spend less this year while only eight percent say they will spend more. That could leave many retailers seeing red.

People on the street told us that they would be looking for sales, being more aware of what they were buying and trying to keep to a set budget.

We had Dr. Michael Antecol, Vice-President of TNS, speak to us tonight about more of the findings of his company's poll. He said he felt that the move of the part of the stores was unusual, but a good one. "They need to get people into the stores," he said.

Retailers have found themselves in the 'perfect economic storm' Antecol told us. Between the bad economy, high Canadian dollar and low American prices, it will be hard for retailers to keep shoppers from going across the border.

It is because of this that Antecol predicts 'prices will fall a lot more.' Or at least they will have to if retailers want Canadians to part with their money in Canada.

Antecol said that the poll almost surprised him because it found people were less likely to make big ticket purchases for themselves now to. Prior to this poll, Antecol said, most have found the buy-index to be high. It appears it is now dropping, and that could spell more economic trouble.

Weary Canadian consumers bracing for the financial burden of the holiday season will be getting a helping hand. Beginning this weekend, several major retailers plan to slash their prices by as much as 20 per cent. It's hoped that jumpstarting holiday deals will stimulate spending and boost the stagnant economy.

With personal bankruptcies soaring, up 43 percent from the same month last year, massive consumer spending this Christmas is unlikely. According to a TNS poll roughly 30 percent of Canadians intend to spend less this year while only eight percent say they will spend more. That could leave many retailers seeing red.

Dr. Michael Antecol, Vice-President of TNS Canadian Facts, will speak to us tonight and try to break down the issue for us.

And don’t miss our week in review panel as they tackle the biggest stories of the last seven days. Watch SUN TV at 5:30 for this and more!

As part of the pomp and ceremony of his inauguration, Afghan President Karzai inspected the troops while vowing to make the country safe from the Taliban insurgency. Today a suicide bomber blew himself up at a public market killing ten civilians, including two young boys. Two American service members also died in another bomb attack in a war the US contends is just.

Canada's participation in the Afghan conflict has changed our military's traditional role from peacekeepers to a combat force. That force is under fire for reportedly handing over captives to Afghan authorities who then tortured the prisoners. Critics contend this has tarnished our reputation as a champion of human rights. Canadians are split as whether fighting in Afghanistan is morally the right thing to do.

In the Second World War, Canadians for the most part believed the war with the Nazis was just and moral. But in the so-called war on terrorism –the 'reason' for sending NATO troops to battle the Taliban is stirring debate in this country, calling into question every Canadians' personal sense of morality.

We went to the streets and asked everyday people what they thinking about the moral issue of Afghanistan. Unsurprisingly we got response across the sepctrum; everything from 'no war is moral' to 'Canada is more morally righteous than other countries.'

We were Joined in studio By Sun Media feature writer Thane Burnett who will have a five-part series on morality appearing in the Toronto SUN next week. He told us that with Canada's involvement into Afghanistan coming into question, now was the perfect time to conduct a poll on Canadian morality.

He told us that during the course of doing the series he spoke to an expert who told him that young people see the morality issue much differently. Rather than seeing a situation and saying, 'whose fault is this?' they ask, 'how did we get here and how do we fix it?'

The series starting next week tackles issue as diverse as Afghanistan, marriage and the economy. Burnett says its not all heavy though, they did ask humourous questions like, 'What would you do if you knocked your spouse toothbrush in the toilet?' and 'Would you sell one night with your spouse for $1 million?'

How did a gas repair crew working at street level manage to bring part of the subway line to a grinding halt? It's a question being asked by investigators and many of the 300-thousand commuters left stranded during yesterday's evening rush. What was the TTC's contingency plan and did it work?

According to a recent Environics poll, transportation and traffic congestion are the biggest issues facing GTA residents. And the city has become worse off in the past five years as a result. Twenty four percent of urban Canadians rated commuting including public transit as one of the biggest challenges followed by crime at fifteen percent and cost of living and taxes at thirteen percent.

Sun media's Don Peat has been working on this story and he joins us now.

For more analysis, we're joined in studio by Murtaza Haider, associate professor of supply chain and logistics management at Ryerson University. He also specializes in public transportation.

Peat said that as soon as the TTC realized they began pulling buses off other lines to accommodate the overflow of people. He said it will take TTC awhile to determine exactly how much money this has cost them. Peat said there still has to be further investigation to exactly what happened.

Haider said people have to realize that this transit problem is not a new one and that one of the reasons we have such congestion is because of the vibrancy of the city.

Haider added that the TTC could have possibly added on other shuttle buses from other stations like Union, to help alleviate all of the congestion at the Bloor-Yonge station. He added that the TTC does need to work on other ways to be prepared in these kinds of situations.

How did a gas repair crew working at street level manage to bring part of the subway line to a grinding halt? It's a question being asked by investigators and many of the 300 thousand commuters left stranded during yesterday's evening rush.

One day after learning about a fare increase, thousands of TTC commuters got another slap in the face –a partial subway shutdown. A contractor working for Enbridge gas mistakenly cut a trench that pierced the subway tunnel below. Officials say riders were never in danger, but service was halted as a precaution.70 shuttle buses were dispatched to collect thousands of commuters left stranded.

We will speak to Murtaza Heider, associate professor of supply chain and logistics management at Ryerson University, about what went wrong, what went right and how to avoid this in the future.

Watch SUN TV at 5:30!