City of Edmonton begins
rebate program for washing machines
$75 rebates
offered on Energy Star-rated appliances
EDMONTON - The city is helping to clean up the environment with a new $75
rebate for people who buy energy-efficient washing machines.
The $115,000 scheme will provide money to the first 1,500 applicants who
purchase Energy Star-rated machines for Edmonton homes between July 1 and the
end of the year, Coun. Don Iveson told a news conference Tuesday.
On average, such washers use up to half the water and energy of older models,
saving the typical household $150 annually and cutting their carbon dioxide
emissions by up to one tonne, he said.
Read full article here
Canada's oil-sands
companies get boost from BP's Gulf gusher
Suncor Energy Inc. and Canadian Natural Resources Ltd., two of the largest
oil-sands producers, rank among the biggest winners as a U.S. halt on new Gulf
of Mexico drilling leads investors to alternative crude sources.
Canadian energy stocks are drawing the highest premium since 2005. Standard
& Poor's/TSX Energy Index of Canadian stocks now trades for 32.1 times
reported profit from the past year, more than twice as much as fuel producers
in the MSCI World Index, the benchmark for equities in 24 developed markets.
Oil-sands miners, which strip crude from tar-soaked earth, have been reviled by
environmental groups such as the Pembina Institute over toxic waste and carbon
emissions from oil processing that contribute to global warming. The projects
now don't look as harmful compared with deepwater drilling, after BP Plc's
spill tarred about 550 miles of shoreline from Texas to Florida, said Don Coxe,
a strategy adviser to Bank of Montreal's BMO Capital Markets unit.
Read full article here
Edmonton's
small-town mayor
Stephen Mandel went from retired businessman to city councillor to Mayor of
Edmonton during the last decade. Able to boast of a dropping crime rate and the
well-received renovation of the Art Gallery of Alberta (which fit his famous
architectural edict of "our tolerance for crap must be zero"), he
recently announced he would seek a third term this fall. Why? Let's just say
there are other arenas to conquer. As our series of interviews with Canada's
mayors and premiers continues, Adam McDowell talks with Mr. Mandel.
---
On seeking a third term " It's a difficult decision, to be frank. It's a
lot of hours, it's a lot of commitment. But we have a really good council and I
felt there's things we haven't finished that we needed to do. You start some
stuff, you want to finish it."
On the alternatives to mayoring "'I'm not a hobby guy. I like to volunteer
when I'm not doing this job, but right now this is busy and I don't. So I don't
have a hobby, but I wish I did, you know. I wish I was a woodworker. I think
when I retire I'm going to try to learn how to cook. I like to cook. I'm not
any good at it."
On his support for a new arena for the Edmonton Oilers "People can't get
confused. It's not an arena. It's a catalyst. That's really important. My
loyalty is to the city of Edmonton. It's my belief that we need a catalyst to
rejuvenate, to have more life downtown. A new arena with the ancillary developments
around it -- entertainment and hotels and some office buildings -- would be a
catalyst for a part of the city that's sat dormant for the last -- well, I
think since as long as I can remember.
Read the full article here.
Real estate investor bets on Edmonton
Most of Don Campbell's properties are here
By Bill Mah, Edmonton Journal April 10, 2010
Rising interest rates, tighter mortgage rules and worries of another housing bubble make it a bad time to invest in real estate, right?
Not so, says Don Campbell, president of the Real Estate Investment Network and bestselling author, who's just released his fourth book on property investment.
"If you're buying a mutual fund or a stock, you have no control," Campbell said.
"With real estate, you can buy it and add value. You can live in it, you can rent it out and most importantly, right now, for every one dollar you put into the market of your own you're going to be playing with four or five dollars because of the banks, and as long as you've purchased a positive-cash-flow property -- it takes care of itself.
"Your mortgage slowly gets paid down. Rent puts income into your pocket and you're leveraged."
He calls Edmonton an especially promising place to invest and puts his money where his mouth is -- most of his own investment properties are in the city.
In Campbell's eyes, it was even a good time to invest in real estate during last year's recession/housing correction because of less competition for deals.
"During these past 18 months, those of us who have been around a long time saw it as a raining-gold opportunity because suddenly a lot of people who weren't actually studying the market were scared out of it," Campbell said.
Not even rising interest rates deter Campbell from recommending investors buy revenue-generating real estate if you have at least a five-year window.
Campbell likes the slow and steady growth of the market in Edmonton these days compared with the real estate boom.
"It was so superheated. Everybody decided real estate markets have to go up 20 or 25 per cent or it's no good, but anybody who's been through the cycles knows that's impossible.
"If we get a market that goes up three to five per cent a year, everybody should be smiling. There's no inflation and everything's doing what it's supposed to do."
On the other side, he says Edmonton will be one of the fastest-growing economies and populations in Canada over the next decade, "so it's going to be pretty difficult to keep a cap on it."
In Edmonton, he suggests leveraging government money by looking for areas where the LRT or the Anthony Henday ring road is being expanded, where neighbourhoods are planned for revitalization or where a new downtown arena is proposed.
Campbell was in Edmonton this week to promote his fourth book, 81 Financial and Tax Tips for the Canadian Real Estate Investor -- a guide for using Canada Revenue Agency rules to best advantage.
"It's not how much you make in this game. It's how much you keep in your pocket, and unfortunately a lot of people who are doing it incorrectly are paying 50 or 60 per cent too much in tax."
Campbell says he donates his author royalties to Habitat for Humanity.
bmah@thejournal.canwest.com
© Copyright (c) The Edmonton Journal
Read more: http://www.edmontonjournal.com/business/Real+estate+investor+bets+Edmonton/2786260/story.html#ixzz0nBAJ2TUb
Freestyle Investments
Spruce Grove, AB
Phone: 780-571-2224
Fax: 780-571-2223
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