Toronto has been enjoying the lowest gas prices since 2003. While the prices have dipped to a low of 65.5 cents/per litre in the last few days, prices exactly one year ago were $1.05/litre. Check Toronto Gas Prices for the cheapest gas in your area.

Nothing makes sense anymore and the explanations offered to explain the fast and dramatic dip in gas prices is nothing more than nonsense. The pundits are attributing the drop in gas prices to a decreasing demand for energy as a result of the uncertain economic climate. People are driving less. In response OPEC, which controls about 40% of world petroleum production, announced a production cut of 2.2 million barrels per day and since the price slide has begun, OPEC has said it will further cut its output by four million barrels per day. As a rule a shortened supply leads to higher prices, not lower prices. So why has the price at the pumps dipped? No one is offering any explanations that make sense.

Michael Ervin, president of a Calgary-based consulting firm, predicts that gas prices will likely remain steady for the foreseeable future. MP Dan McTeague says that prices could still be lower if there was any competition in the industry. Low gas prices literally drove Torontonians to the pumps, causing gas shortages at several stations on Christmas Day. However, according to Jane Savage of the Canadian Independent Petroleum Marketers Association, most of the affected stations were Esso, supplied by Imperial Oil. The cause of the problem has to do with a 36-hour outage at the Imperial Oil terminal.

Long may the cheap gas prices continue!

Image courtesy Flickr.com - it was never that low, just a chance photo

How many times have you purchased a ticket for a show and were shocked at the service charges tacked onto already high prices? The last time that I bought tickets online I landed up paying $8.00 extra per ticket. Now, I make every effort to get down to the box office in order to avoid this lunacy. There is a new kid in town ready to take on Ticketmaster and they are called Live Nation. In January 2009 they will be ready to rock and roll in the U.S. while in Canada we will have to wait until 2010. Competition is great for the consumer and Ticketmaster has been riding the gravy train alone for far too long.

Ticketmaster must be running scared that consumer backlash will turn business away from them and right to Live Nation because they announced that they are experimenting with selling tickets with no extra fees for consumers who print out their tickets at home. There are those who say that this is all smoke and mirrors and that Ticketmaster will merely add the service charges to the price of the tickets and hope that the consumer is too stupid to realize that he is still paying exorbitant services charges. The only difference is that they will not show as service charges. Ticketmaster believes that as long as the service charges are invisible that the consumer won’t complain.

It will be interesting to see if Live Nation will put a dent in the stranglehold that Ticketmaster has in the business. And, if they do, will they be any better or really charge less additional fees, or is bundling service charges into to ticket prices as a way to fool the consumer the way of the future?

Air Canada should take lessons in customer service from WestJet. Since Christmas Eve a consumer advocate group, the Consumer’s Association of Canada, has been receiving about 50 complaints a day about Air Canada. Although bad weather caused flight delays and cancellations, Air Canada managed to make a bad situation worse for beleaguered holiday travelers. According to the group’s president, the complaints were all related to the poor treatment that travelers were subjected to by Air Canada.

In case you believe that these travelers were cry-babies and should expect delays and cancellations when traveling in the winter, how would you like to be trapped in an airplane on the tarmac for 12 hours? That is precisely what happened to passengers aboard Air Canada flight 156 at the Vancouver International Airport. That should be illegal! Air Canada had no decent excuse – weather, fuel, crew issues - for holding those passengers for 12 hours in a plane going nowhere. They have since offered those passengers a $500 voucher. That may be the only reason why any of those passengers would consider flying Air Canada again.

In sharp contrast callers were praising WestJet, whose personnel not only helped out their own passengers but offered assistance to Air Canada’s passengers who were ignored. Bruce Cran, president of the Consumer’s Association of Canada suggests that travelers contact their members of Parliament about their poor treatment at the hands of Air Canada. It’s about time that Air Canada was held accountable instead of being able to operate with impunity. They are a third class airline supported by our tax dollars.

Image courtesy Flickr.com

The reality is that Canada had no choice but to pony up with an aid package for the automakers after the U.S. announced its $17.4 billion in loans. The federal and Ontario governments have pledged $4 billion in emergency loans – $3 billion to GM and $1 billion to Chrysler – to be paid out in installments over the next two months. Ford was not included in the deal because they don’t need the cash right now. The terms and conditions imposed on GM and Chrysler are that they:

•    accept limits on executive compensation
•    pay money owed to Canadian parts suppliers
•    provide weekly reports on their finances
•    report any business transaction worth more than $125 million

How do Canadians across Canada feel about the loans to General Motors and Chrysler? According to the Canadian Press Harris-Decima survey:

•    56% of respondents supported the notion of “proportional, repayable loans”
•    Ontario showed the most support, with 62% in favour of the aid package
•    60% in Atlantic Canada were in favour
•    48% in Manitoba and Saskatchewan supported the aid package
•    44% in British Columbia were in favour

Of the $4 billion in loans to General Motors and Chrysler, the federal government is contributing $2.7 billion, while the provincial government is contributing $1.3 billion. In addition the federal government is extending additional account-receivable insurance coverage for automotive suppliers through the Export Development Corporation and creating a new facility to support access to credit for consumers. It is estimated that 400,000 people in Ontario make their living in the auto industry.

Image courtesy Flickr.com

Although there have been all sorts of interesting stories about people camping outside stores to get the best Boxing Day sales, an Ipsos-Reid survey, commissioned by PayPal Canada, found that 34% of online Canadian shoppers will not be going to the malls this year. They are planning to do all of their shopping online instead. This represents a significant change in how Canadians are shopping - up 40% from the number of people shopping online two years ago.

According to the survey the top pet peeves for consumers are:

•    Crowds and long lineups - 68%
•    Wanted item is sold out - 11%
•    Looking for a parking spot - 5%
•    Rude or unhelpful sales staff - 3%

Never the less, thousands of Torontonians braved the elements in the hopes of snagging a great deal, particularly on electronics. Best Buy and Future Shop opened at 6:00 AM on Boxing Day, but some intrepid (or very foolish) souls formed a line the evening before for LCD televisions and laptop computers. But, this lunacy was not exclusive to electronics. In Toronto’s Eaton Centre, more than 300 people were lined up outside Abercrombie & Fitch for its Boxing Day sale. The store was only letting 50 people in at a time. At Coach, in the Yorkdale Shopping Centre, lineups which began in the wee hours of the morning stretched across the mall.

Christmas shopping wasn’t as brisk as was hoped but many assumed that shoppers were holding back in the hopes of getting a bigger bang for their buck on Boxing Day. Hopefully this shopping madness will save the season for Toronto’s retailers. Holiday sales typically account for 30% - 50% of their annual total.

Making New Year’s resolutions is not a new fangled modern invention. The tradition actually began in ancient Babylonia approximately 4,000 years ago, according to an article on the Kansas City Public Library website. Babylonians celebrated the New Year on March 23 and one of their most popular resolutions was to return something borrowed from a friend during the previous year. The ancient Romans also made New Year’s resolutions and one of their most common resolutions was quite sensible - they asked forgiveness from enemies of the past year. The ancient Chinese made the most practical New Year’s resolutions - housecleaning.

Every year many of us make New Year’s resolution, although personally I gave it up years ago. The 10 most common New Year’s resolutions listed below are as a result of a survey conducted by 10millionresultions.com, which tabulated over 300,000 responses worldwide.

1. Lose Weight and Get in Better Physical Shape
2. Stick to a Budget
3. Debt Reduction
4. Enjoy More Quality Time with Family & Friends
5. Find My Soul Mate
6. Quit Smoking
7. Find a Better Job
8. Learn Something New
9. Volunteer and Help Others
10. Get Organized

If you are like most people, you land up making the same resolutions year after year. You start off like gangbusters and then slowly but surely you land up right back where you started. According to a University of Washington study the difference between success and failure are a few simple steps.

•    Have a strong initial commitment to make a change.
•    Have coping strategies to deal with problems that will come up.
•    Keep track of your progress. The more monitoring you do and feedback you get, the better you will do.

If so, you’re in luck. With the amount of snow that we’ve gotten in the last few days and the predictions for the days to come, it’s pretty much a done deal. After we got hammered on Friday, it was fortunate indeed that Sunday’s predicted storm never materialized. Friday’s blizzard virtually paralyzed Pearson International Airport, canceling hundreds of flights and stranding unhappy travelers trying to head out for Christmas holidays. Offices closed early so that commuters could make their way home before the worst of it hit. GO Trains were canceled along the Lakeshore East and West lines during afternoon rush hour. And, the highways and city streets were utterly chaotic and littered with accidents.

Although we missed another blizzard you have nothing to worry about. Environment Canada’s weather forecast for Toronto for the next few days definitely includes a white Christmas.

•    Monday - A mix of sun and cloud. 30 % chance of flurries in the morning and afternoon. Wind northwest 40 km/h gusting to 60 becoming light in the afternoon. Wind becoming west 30 in the evening. High minus 6.
•    Tuesday - Cloudy with 60 % chance of snow. Low minus 10. High minus 3.
•    Wednesday - Snow at times mixed with rain. Low minus 4. High plus 3.
•    Thursday - Sunny. Low zero. High zero.

For current weather and the latest predications check the Environment Canada website or the Weather Network.

If you are planning to travel by air check the status of your flight with Pearson International Airport.

Have a safe and happy holiday season!

You will now be able to enjoy a beer of a glass of wine in a movie theatre thanks to a special license obtained by Cineplex Entertainment. Toronto’s Varsity Cinema located at 55 Bloor Street West is now serving beer and wine in one of four specially designated VIP theatres. This is a one-year pilot project after which time the success or failure of the venture will be evaluated. Movie tickets in the specially designated theatres carry a $5.00 surcharge.

Drinks will only be served before the movie starts. Servers will deliver the drink directly to your seat, and there is a 2-drink maximum which will be strictly enforced. Alcohol prices are surprisingly reasonable.

• Domestic bottled beer - $4.50
• House wine by the glass - $4.99
• A half litre of wine in the lounge - $16.20
• A bottle of wine in the lounge - $22.18

When I first heard that alcohol was going to be served in the cinema I couldn’t even fathom what prices they were going to charge given what the prices are for popcorn, pop, or water. I was absolutely shocked to see prices that are not only reasonable, they are downright cheap.

We are not the first province to serve alcohol in the cinema. Alberta has several licensed cinemas. And, it expected that there will be other licensed cinemas in Ontario.

Check out the movie listings at the Varsity VIP theatres if you are interested in having a beer or a glass of wine while watching a film.

Image courtesy Flickr.com

How often have you been waiting for a bus or streetcar for what seems like an eternity? More and more people join you in wait and still there is no transit vehicle in site. Has something gone amiss? Should you stay or should you look for an alternate route. You have no idea, so you wait. The TTC is going to change all of this.

By 2010 the TTC will be providing next vehicle arrival information on streetcar and bus platforms thanks to a new $5.2 million GPS-based screen system. Inside stations LCD displays will post the times that the next vehicles are due to arrive in addition to showing a map pinpointing the locations of the other streetcars and buses on the route. LED screens will be utilized to publish next vehicle arrival information on platforms.

Towards the end of 2009 LED screens at approximately 350 outdoor transit shelters will be displaying next vehicle arrival times. Although 6,000 TTC surface stops have transit shelters, new shelters that are wired with LED signs will have to be installed. The locations of the new shelters have not yet been made public although it is expected that the shelters at high traffic major intersections will be selected. There is no word yet on how many transit shelters will be wired for LED displays after the initial 350 are completed.

Until there is system wide access to next vehicle arrival information on platforms and on transit shelters, in 2009 riders will be able to receive this information for more than 10,000 bus and streetcar stops in the city via text messaging. There will be a number posted at each stop that riders can use to access next vehicle arrival information. The TTC is also planning to launch new service that will help riders map and time a route anywhere in the system. There are also plans to upgrade the TTC website and make all of the information available online.

Image courtesy Flickr.com

While you’re racing around finishing up your Christmas shopping, take a moment to consider the possibility of making a charitable donation and sharing your good fortune with others. There are many worthy causes. Here are a few for your consideration.

•    The Toronto Star Santa Claus Fund provides gift boxes to 45,000 needy children.
•    The Scott Mission provides shelter for 45 men each night, serves meals daily, provides free clothing for the needy, serves 40,000 each year through their food bank, and provides free toys for children.
•    CP24/CHUM Christmas Wish supports individuals and families with your financial donations and new unwrapped toys.
•    Variety, The Children’s Charity in Ontario works with young people with disabilities providing integrated sports and life skills programs, and applied research and learning programs.
•    World Vision Canada allows you to purchase the basic necessities for children in need from their online catalogue - a sheep costs $150, an HIV and AIDS care kit costs $60.
•    UNICEF Canada supports the neediest children around the world.
•    Daily Bread Food Bank provides food relief programs, such as food banks and meal programs, in addition to advocacy support in resolving issues that may accompany hunger like access to social benefits, housing, immigration, and employment.
•    North York Harvest Food Bank encourages you to donate financially or drop off a non-perishable food donation to any fire hall, Loblaws, Real Canadian Superstore, or Fortinos in northern Toronto.
•    The Salvation Army serves nutritious meals to seniors, shelters homeless families, helps men and women overcome addictions, provides after-school programs, and sends inner-city children to summer camp.
•    Canadian Red Cross helps Canadians and people around the world affected by disasters.
•    Goodwill helps fund job training and other career services that help people become successful at work. In 2007, Goodwill was able to serve 1.1 million people.