We are now into the last quarter of another memorable year. We had a very good summer this year which included a fantastic Annual Conference in Niagara Falls. Natalie was able to join me for the conference this time. That was tougher to do when the girls were younger, but now that they’ve grown up so much, it’s a lot easier for us to leave town. Patrycja, Natalie and I all had a chance to catch up with other Portfolio Strategies Advisors from across the country. We had great speakers at the conference and got to hear from some Portfolio Managers. We find these events to be very informative and a good chance to hear insights from a lot of different people.
2026 has been another year with a lot of ups and downs. The War in Iran (on top of other conflicts in Europe, the Middle East and Africa) has led to a lot of disruption. While higher Energy Prices are good for Canada and Alberta and Saskatchewan in particular, they’ve also led to higher prices(1). Inflation in a lot of countries has been running higher than we’d like to see. In the United States, the Federal Reserve has raised Interest Rates(2). This time last year, we were talking about Rate Cuts. Oh, how a year (and a war) can change things. Inflation has remained at the top of the Bank of Canada’s target range of 3%. That’s higher than where we were before February. Hopefully, we won’t trend higher than where we are now so that we won’t have to raise rates here at home(3).
We’ll go hard until the Holidays and like in past years, match up our Christmas Holidays with the school schedule. We plan to be out of the office from December 19th to January 3rd. We typically stay in Calgary for Christmas. That being said, we’ll want to get lots of time in with the kids and won’t be booking any meetings during that time. Just let us know if you need anything before the Holidays.
On behalf of Patrycja, Natalie and myself, we wish you all a Very Happy Halloween this year!!!
Bryce A. Borden
[1] (1) Yahoo! Finance Canada: https://ca.finance.yahoo.com/news/now-historic-highs-diesel-prices-155016001.html
[2] BBC: https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cw4gmlyvj422o
[3] Bank of Canada: https://www.bankofcanada.ca/rates/indicators/key-variables/inflation-control-target/
