Grandparent scam: London, Ont., senior beats fraudsters not once, but twice
It was a typical Tuesday for Mabel Beharrell, 84, until she got the call that would turn her world upside down. Her teenaged grandson was in trouble and needed her help.
The cost to put food on the table and gasoline in the car pushed up the cost of living in September, lifting the annual pace of price increases to a near two-decade high with no clear end in sight to the elevated readings.
Overall, headline inflation last month was 4.4 per cent - the fastest annual pace since February 2003. Statistics Canada said the annual inflation rate would have been 3.5 per cent had it excluded gasoline prices from its calculation.
Economists warned Wednesday that inflation readings could hover around four per cent until the end of the year.
Driving much of the overall rise in the consumer price index were prices at the pumps, as consumers paid 32.8 per cent more last month for gasoline than in September 2020.
Food prices overall rose 3.9 per cent year-over-year, compared to the 2.7 per cent recorded in August, mostly because of higher prices for food at stores.
Meat prices rose at their fastest annual pace since April 2015, pushed higher by double-digit increases in chicken and beef. Bacon prices were up 20 per cent.
Even the smallest creatures had an outsized effect: prices for shrimp and prawns lifted seafood prices because of supply chain issues among major exporters.
Garima Talwar Kapoor, director of policy and research at Maytree, an anti-poverty think-tank, said people with higher disposable income may simply forgo some restaurant outings if inflation remains high.
The choices would be more severe for those with low or fixed incomes whose earnings have stayed stagnant, she said, meaning their purchasing power is diminished as prices rise faster than wages.
“Their ability to be able to manage their disposable income becomes tighter and tighter, and you're not foregoing a nice dinner out, but you're actually forgoing a meal, you're foregoing prescription medication and necessities like that,” Talwar Kapoor said.
September marked the sixth consecutive month that headline inflation has clocked in above the Bank of Canada's target range of between one- and three-per-cent, something that hasn't happened since a six-month stretch that ended in March 2003.
CIBC senior economist Royce Mendes said a silver lining is that consumers collectively are sitting on piles of savings that should help them and businesses weather the inflationary storm.
“That's the only bit of good news that we can say about the inflation this time around is that the economy might be able to handle it a little bit better than it would have in previous decades,” he said.
Boosting prices has been global supply-chain bottlenecks that have driven up transport costs, which are being passed on to buyers.
Bank of Canada governor Tiff Macklem said last week bottlenecks have proven more persistent than first believed, but recent inflation readings are “transitory,” or a temporary issue.
BMO chief economist Douglas Porter said he expects inflation to average 3.3 per cent this year and next because of the broad nature of price pressures, such as for new vehicles or new homes.
“Suffice it to say,” he wrote, “that strains the definition of transitory.”
Statistics Canada said the average of the three measures for core inflation, which are considered better gauges of underlying price pressures and closely tracked by the Bank of Canada, was 2.67 per cent for September, up from 2.6 per cent in August. September's average was the highest since December 2008.
Mackelm has said the bank would act if the current bout of price increases looks to become more than one-off pressure points.
Measures it could take include raising the key interest rate or further rollbacks in its stimulus-measure bond purchases. Higher rates would push up interest rates on mortgages, car and business loans, which usually cools consumer demand.
The Bank of Canada is scheduled to make its next interest-rate announcement on Oct. 27.
Macklem has said a rate hike wouldn't happen until later next year, but there are growing expectations the central bank won't wait that long, said TD senior economist James Marple.
“Lift off may not come as early as markets are currently pricing, but the risks are certainly moving to sooner rather than later,” Marple wrote.
Here's what happened in the provinces (previous month in brackets):
The agency also released rates for major cities, but cautioned that figures may have fluctuated widely because they are based on small statistical samples (previous month in brackets):
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 20, 2021
It was a typical Tuesday for Mabel Beharrell, 84, until she got the call that would turn her world upside down. Her teenaged grandson was in trouble and needed her help.
The deaths of four people on a farm near the Saskatchewan village of Neudorf have been confirmed a murder-suicide.
The Canada Revenue Agency announced Thursday it will not require 'bare trust' reporting from Canadians that it introduced for the 2024 tax season, just four days before the April 2 deadline.
The Parole Board of Canada has granted full parole to one of three men convicted in the brutal murders of three McDonald's restaurant workers in Cape Breton more than 30 years ago.
Nearly 20 hours after a man climbed and remained perched on top of the Reconciliation Bridge in downtown Calgary, the situation came to a peaceful resolution.
Ontario released its annual sunshine list Thursday afternoon, noting that the largest year-over-year increases were in hospitals, municipalities, and post-secondary sectors.
Genetic analysis has shed light on a long-standing mystery surrounding the fates of U.S. President George Washington's younger brother Samuel and his kin.
A spokesman for a regional Muslim advocacy group says Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre's stance on the Israel-Hamas war could complicate his party's relationship with Muslim Canadians.
Former U.S. President Donald Trump is officially selling a copy of the Bible themed to Lee Greenwood’s famous song, 'God Bless the USA.' But the concept of a Bible covered in the American flag has raised concern among religious circles.
B.C. conservation officers recently seized a nine-foot-long Burmese python from a home in Chilliwack.
A New Brunswicker will go to bed Thursday night much richer than he was Wednesday after collecting on a winning lottery ticket he let sit on his bedroom dresser for nearly a year.
The Ontario government is introducing changes to auto-insurance, but some experts say the move is ill-advised.
A Toronto restaurant introduced a surprising new rule that reduced the cost of a meal and raised the salaries of staff.
Newfoundland’s unique version of the Pine Marten has grown out of its threatened designation.
A Toronto man is out $12,000 after falling victim to a deepfake cryptocurrency scam that appeared to involve Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.
It started small with a little pop tab collection to simply raise some money for charity and help someone — but it didn’t take long for word to get out that 10-year-old Jace Weber from Mildmay, Ont. was quickly building up a large supply of aluminum pop tabs.
There’s a group of people in Saskatoon that proudly call themselves dumpster divers, and they’re turning the city’s trash into treasure.
Ontario is facing a larger than anticipated deficit but the Doug Ford government still plans to balance its books before the next provincial election.