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Canada ranks 2nd among 10 countries for cost competitiveness, says KPMG THE CANADIAN PRESS 03.29.2016 TORONTO - Accounting giant KPMG says Canada has proven to be second most competitive market in a comparison test of 10 leading industrial countries. In its report, KPMG says Canada lags only behind Mexico when it comes to how little businesses have to pay for labour, facilities, transportation and taxes. The report, which compared the competitiveness of a number of western countries along with Australia and Japan, found that a high U.S. dollar has helped Canada stay affordable despite rising office real estate costs and lower federal tax credits. When it comes to corporate income taxes, it found that Canada, the U.K. and the Netherlands had the lowest rates overall due to tax incentives to support high-tech and research and development. KPMG also looked at the competitiveness of more than 100 cities worldwide. It ranked Fredericton, N.B., as the most cost-effective city in Canada due to low labour costs and continued low costs for property leases. Montreal topped the list among 34 major cities in North America, followed by Toronto and Vancouver. The three Canadian cities beat out all U.S. cities. Although there have been concerns over the impact of a weakening loonie on the economy, having a low Canadian dollar has actually been "a driver in improving Canada's competitiveness and overall cost advantage," KPMG said. As a result, that has made it more attractive for businesses to set up shop north of the border than in the U.S., it said. http://www.montrealgazette.com/business/canada+ranks+among+countries+cost+competitiveness+says+kpmg/11817781/story.html

New York City at top of the list for this year according to Economist's FDI magazine. Toronto at no.5, Montréal at no 9 for major American cities. Source: http://www.fdiintelligence.com

Selons U.S. News and World Report http://www.montrealgazette.com/travel/RitzCarlton+Montreal+tops+list+luxury+Canadian+hotels+second+time/10764461/story.html Ritz-Carlton in Montreal tops list of luxury Canadian hotels for second time The Canadian Press | 01.26.2015​ U.S. News and World Report has ranked Montreal's Ritz-Carlton for the second year in a row as the best hotel in Canada, citing its stylish decor and amenities including a greenhouse and a French restaurant from celebrity chef Daniel Boulud. Rosewood Hotel Georgia in Vancouver, which features an indoor saltwater pool and multiple dining options, was ranked No. 2, followed by the Trump International Hotel and Tower, 65 storeys high, in downtown Toronto. Properties in Vancouver, Toronto and Montreal took eight of the 10 spots in the American publication's 2015 list of top Canadian luxury hotels. Included in the ranking were Fairmont Pacific Rim and Loden Hotel, both in Vancouver; Four Seasons Hotel and Ritz-Carlton, both in Toronto; and Hotel Le St-James in Montreal. Outside the three big cities, Auberge Saint-Antoine in Quebec City and Sonora Resort on B.C.'s Sonora Island also made the cut. U.S. News and World Report said the 10 hotels "persistently wow travellers" with upscale amenities, top-notch service and "a sense of individuality." Visitor reviews and expert opinions were among factors used to compile the list, it said.

http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2014/11/28/cities-best-reputation-vancouver-montreal-toronto_n_6234654.html

http://www.montrealgazette.com/business/Realtor+lose+Montreal+listings/9285009/story.html Realtor.ca to lose Montreal listings BY ALLISON LAMPERT, GAZETTE REAL ESTATE REPORTER DECEMBER 13, 2013 7:10 PM Starting Jan. 1, Montreal brokers will only be able to list homes for sale on Centris.ca, a real estate website unique to Quebec. Photograph by: DAVE SIDAWAY , The Gazette MONTREAL — The Canadian Real Estate Association’s popular Realtor.ca website — widely known as the MLS — will no longer list Montreal homes for sale. The Greater Montreal Real Estate Board said Friday its brokers have voted in favour of separating from CREA. Starting Jan. 1, Montreal brokers will only be able to list homes for sale on Centris.ca, a real estate website unique to Quebec. Real estate brokers who favoured separating from CREA won by 66 votes out of 3,826 votes cast. Montreal’s 9,700 brokers will no longer be able to list homes for sale on Realtor.ca — also known as the Multiple Listing Service — or on CREA’s ICX.ca, which features commercial properties. “We were disappointed when we saw the decision,” said CREA spokesperson Pierre Leduc. Leduc could not say how many listings were generated by CREA’s Montreal membership. Quebec’s 17,000 brokers currently generate 80,000 listings on Realtor.ca. Brokers from four real estate boards located in Montreal, Quebec City, Granby and Drummondville have voted to leave CREA, while brokers from the Saguenay and the Laurentians will make a choice on whether to separate next week. The votes follow a lengthy dispute over rising fees for members, duplication of services like the Realtor and Centris websites, along with a brewing turf war over the listing of Quebec homes for a flat fee by out-of-province brokers. The Montreal board has objected to instances of brokers from Ontario — who are not subject to Quebec’s strict professional rules — listing a home in the Belle Province for a flat fee. CREA said it cannot stop its members from Ontario, or other provinces, from listing homes for sale in Quebec. Citing October data, the Montreal board said Centris was the fourth most popular real estate website geared at buying or renting a residential property in Quebec, with Realtor.ca ranked ninth. The most popular site was Kijiji. However, several Montreal brokers told The Gazette they were concerned about the decline in visibility that comes with losing access to Realtor.ca at a time of a softening Montreal real estate market. Leduc said Montreal-area brokers who are unhappy with the “yes vote” can join one of Quebec’s eight boards that are still members of CREA. He said he’s also heard of a “partitionist” movement among brokers who want to set up a separate Montreal real estate board that would remain part of CREA. “CREA will support these endeavours.” alampert@montrealgazette.com Twitter: RealDealMtl

(Courtesy of Monocle Magazine) 1. Munich 2. Copenhagen 3. Zurich 4. Tokyo 5. Vienna 6. Helsinki 7. Sydney 8. Stockholm 9. Honolulu 10. Madrid 11. Melbourne 12. Montreal 13. Barcelona 14. Kyoto 15. Vancouver 16. Auckland 17. Singapore 18. Hamburg 19. Paris 20. Geneva --- It is an interesting list of cities. I am happy that Honolulu beat out New York. Though New York has been growing on me. One thing certain cities I did not expect to see on this list especially: Vienna.

MONTREAL - A downtown Montreal hotel boasting an art collection featuring the likes of Andy Warhol, Roy Lichtenstein and Marc Chagall has topped Expedia's annual list of the best Canadian hotels. LHotel, located on Rue Saint-Jacques near the Palais des congress, scored highest in 2011 in Expedia customer reviews, says the online travel agency. The hotel, which opened in 2001, occupies an 1870 building that first served as the head office of the Montreal City and District Savings Bank. Artworks are displayed in public areas and guest rooms of the property. Other top-rated Canadian hotels on the Expedia.ca list: Pan Pacific Whistler Village Centre, Whistler-Blackcomb, B.C.; Four Seasons Vancouver; Prince George Hotel, Halifax; and Pinnacle Hotel at the Pier, North Vancouver, B.C. The No. 1 hotel in the world, according to Expedia, was Marrol's Boutique Hotel in Bratislava, Slovakia. In the world ranking, LHotel placed 59th. The global list identifies the top hotels available on Expedia based on quality and value scores. http://travel.ca.msn.com/montreal-hotel-tops-expedia-list-in-canada

Montreal hotel tops Expedia list in Canada based on customer reviews. MONTREAL - A Old Montreal hotel boasting an art collection featuring works by Andy Warhol, Roy Lichtenstein and Marc Chagall has topped Expedia's annual list of the best Canadian hotels. LHotel, on St. Jacques St. near the Palais des congrès, scored highest in 2011 in Expedia customer reviews, the online travel agency says. The hotel, which opened in 2001, occupies an 1870 building that first served as the head office of the Montreal City and District Savings Bank. Artworks are displayed in public areas and guest rooms of the property. Other top-rated Canadian hotels on the Expedia.ca list: Pan Pacific Whistler Village Centre, Whistler-Blackcomb, B.C.; Four Seasons Vancouver; Prince George Hotel, Halifax; and Pinnacle Hotel at the Pier, North Vancouver, B.C. The No. 1 hotel in the world, according to Expedia, was Marrol's Boutique Hotel in Bratislava, Slovakia. In the world ranking, LHotel placed 59th. The global list identifies the top hotels available on Expedia based on quality and value scores. http://www.montrealgazette.com/travel/Montreal+hotel+tops+Expedia+list+Canada+based+customer/6887262/story.html

World's 10 most loved cities - CNNGO 8. Montreal, Canada Montreal is a frontrunner in at least one “World’s Most Livable Cities” list, was named “Canada’s Cultural Capital” by Monocle Magazine and has recently been granted UNESCO “City of Design” status. Stuffy acknowledgements aside, what makes Canada’s original “sin city” such a draw not just for style mavens, 18-year-olds without fake ID and New Englanders seeking a quick, cheap Europe-ish fix, but for 7.5 million annual tourists of all stripes is the city’s certifiably festive attitude -- the kind that assures visitors they’re going to have more fun, stay up later and cure hangovers with tastier 4 a.m. poutine and smoked meat sandwiches here than wherever they’ve come from. Summer draws the biggest crowds to Montreal with its lineup of legendary festivals and street fairs, including its International Jazz Festival (June 28-July 7) and Just for Laughs (July 12-29), featuring one of the world’s largest congregations of comics. The real test: even when it’s 800 below zero in February, people still really dig this city. La list: 10. Barcelona, Spain 9. Cape Town, South Africa 8. Montreal, Canada 7. New York City, United States 6. Paris, France 5. Petra, Jordan 4. San Francisco, United States 3. Santiago, Chile 2. Shanghai, China 1. Tokyo, Japan http://www.cnngo.com/explorations/life/10-most-loved-cities-068149?page=0,1

Source: Bored Panda Via: Journal Métro Strangebuildings.com has a wonderful collection of the world’s most unusual architecture and together with Bored Panda presents you an incredible list of 33 strangest buildings in the world, and best of all, it’s not just another random list, but it is based on 4.520 unique visitor votes. 1. Mind House (Barcelona, Spain) ... 13. Habitat 67 (Montreal, Canada) 15. Olympic Stadium (Montreal, Canada) 28. Montreal Biosphere (Canada)

(Courtesy of the Financial Post) Congrats to the National Bank of Canada. Singapore supposedly like the new Switzerland.

Since everyone here loves Maclean's http://www2.macleans.ca/2010/10/14/the-good-bad-and-ugly/ What the hell is going on in BC? (and secondarily, Alberta, Red Deer? Seriously?!) I liked one of the comments:

Women: Montreal (Courtesy of MSN Travel) There is more to the list, if you click on the link above.

Ste. Catherine St. has top lease rates Tied with Bloor St. in Toronto. Most expensive retail corridors in Canada By LYNN MOORE, The Gazette June 8, 2010 Toronto's Bloor St. and Montreal's Ste. Catherine St. are Canada's most expensive retail corridors, according to Colliers International's 2010 Global Retail Report, released yesterday. Ste. Catherine St. is tied in 32nd position with Toronto's Bloor St. on the global list of shopping hot spots. Merchants in the two most popular Canadian shopping areas pay an average lease rate of $300 per square foot, according to the report. The 2010 Winter Olympic festivities in Vancouver were not enough for the city's marquee retail stroll -Robson St., with its average rate of $200 per square foot -to overtake Toronto and Montreal's premier retail streets on the list. Jim Smerdon, director of retail and strategic planning with Colliers, said the retailers themselves set the lease rates according to the importance of the location. "The hallmark of strong retail streets is a blend of the size of the market, things like accessibility and parking, and a host of intangibles such as the history of the street as a commercial destination," he said. Even though Toronto is larger than Montreal and the commercial capital of Canada with more head offices and wealthy residents, it's not surprising that Ste. Catherine St.'s shops can command the same rent, Smerdon said. Ste. Catherine St., which is often thick with pedestrians night and day, is an experience, he acknowledged. "Montreal is more of a destination for shoppers than Toronto is ... and Ste. Catherine is more of a lifestyle experience," he said. In 31st spot on the Colliers list was Honolulu's Kalakaua Ave. and 33rd spot was occupied by Amsterdam's Kalverstraat. The report shows that Canada's most exclusive streets are a bargain compared with the world's priciest, in such places as Paris, New York, Hong Kong and London, where rates per square foot exceed $1,000. Topping the list was the Champs Elysees in Paris, with an average lease rate of about $1,256. All figures in the report are in U.S. dollars. The information comes from surveys and material supplied by Colliers staff in 61 countries, Smerdon said. lmoore@thegazette.canwest.com © Copyright © The Montreal Gazette Read more: http://www.montrealgazette.com/business/Catherine+lease+rates/3125235/story.html#ixzz0qXanL7Xi

Renewable energy dominates this year's Top 100 Projects list - with little help from the Stimulus Fund

$14B in projects ready to go: Municipalities BY MIKE DE SOUZA, CANWEST NEWS SERVICE JANUARY 14, 2009 12:21 PM OTTAWA - More than 1,000 municipal infrastructure projects worth nearly $14 billion are “shovel ready” for job creation from coast to coast, according to a new list unveiled Wednesday by the Federation of Canadian Municipalities. The list represents an inventory of projects that are awaiting funds to start and was compiled following weeks of extensive consultations by the federation and its members. The federation says many municipalities have put these projects on the backburner, but could launch them this year and create thousands of jobs if money was available from the different levels of government. “The municipal world is ready to co-operate with the provinces, territories and the Canadian government to (tackle) the economic problems of Canada,” said Sherbrooke, Que., Mayor Jean Perrault, the president of the federation, during a media conference call. “The construction phase of an infrastructure project creates most of the jobs and getting projects underway this spring is crucial to offsetting the economic slowdown.” The projects include new investments in roads and bridges, waste management, buildings, public housing, water and waste water treatment facilities as well as public transit for cities and communities that are home to more than 19 million people across the country. The federation has been urging the Harper government to fast-track transfer payments from a new infrastructure program so that municipalities can get started on the projects and begin putting people to work as part of a stimulus package for the economy. Municipal officials have complained that there is too much red tape and administrative delays in getting the money flowing into their communities, but federal Transport, Infrastructure and Communities Minister John Baird has pledged to speed up the process by reducing red tape. Perrault said the funding should be modelled after the federal gas tax transfer which provides federal money for cities based on the size of their population. He also argued in favour of reducing double environmental assessments of new projects by both the federal and provincial governments explaining that many of the projects on hold in their list would not put Canada’s environment in jeopardy. “The environment is important. There are mechanisms and rules that we must follow,” said Perrault, “but what we told Prime Minister (Stephen) Harper and John Baird to reduce the red tape and that if there were environmental studies that overlap, why not have just one and ensure that it’s propitious.” Conservation groups and the NDP have both criticized the federal government for musing about reducing federal environmental assessments in favour of a single review of some of the smaller infrastructure projects. Baird said on Tuesday that the gas tax transfer program worked well since it did not require federal environmental assessments to operate. © Copyright © Canwest News Service Voici la liste des projets : http://www.fcm.ca//CMFiles/FCM%20Shovel%20Ready%20report_list%20En1KDL-1142009-4963.pdf

LIST :: http://www.financialpost.com/magazine/fp500/list.html The beat goes on The right numbers are up. But momentum? That’s another thing Cooper Langford, Financial Post Business Published: Tuesday, June 03, 2008 Related Topics Story tools presented by Good stories start in the middle of the action, so let's do that - specifically at the No. 162 spot on the 2008 edition of the Financial Post 500, our annual ranking of Canada's largest companies by revenue. In that position: Martinrea International Inc., a Vaughan, Ont.-based auto-parts maker that's put the pedal to the metal in pursuit of growth. In a year when the loonie hit par with the U.S. buck and belt-tightening at Detroit's Big Three throttled the auto sector, Martinrea did a surprising thing: It more than doubled its revenue to $2 billion. In the process, it also jumped 168 places, making it one of the highest-climbing firms on our list. That an upstart underdog in a declining sector can deliver such a positive outcome says a lot about the stories, themes and companies that define this year's FP500. Some firms have had great years, but for many others it was just the opposite. And in a lot of cases, one company's good fortune comes at the expense of others. Martinrea, for example, made its big leap because it was able to acquire a major rival at depressed market prices. Likewise, factors such as the price of oil - which rose to within a hair's breadth of US$100 per barrel in 2007 - boosted most oil producers while hammering other companies that were directly or indirectly hurt by the high cost of fuel. Martinrea's success is revealing in one other way as well. With total revenue of all the FP500 companies increasing by just $44 billion in 2007 - to $1.583 trillion from $1.539 trillion - the little parts maker's $1.1-billion revenue gain represents fully 2.5% of the entire increase. When you're counting on a company that represents a meagre 0.1% of the total FP500 revenue to do that much heavy lifting, you have to wonder about the strength of the underlying economy and the prospects for the year ahead. Meanwhile, the theme of surprise extended to some of the largest companies on the FP500, too. Start with Royal Bank of Canada, which returns as No. 1 overall. No one doubted that it would retain its crown as Canada's largest corporation, but how many thought it would also lead our list of top revenue gainers? After all, the financial sector was hammered last year by fallout from the subprime mortgage crisis and the choked credit markets that followed. Yet RBC - thanks to its well-diversified base of revenue streams - shone through with a year-over-year increase of more than $5 billion. And then there's EnCana Corp. (No. 13), Canada's largest energy company and one of its most profitable firms. Many people will no doubt be surprised to find that it tops our list of biggest profit decliners. Granted, it still earned $4.3 billion, but that's off $2.1 billion from 2006, despite a 24% increase in revenue to $23 billion. Blame a steep mid-year dip in the price of natural gas, the erosion of margins due to the rising dollar and ever-escalating costs that resulted from shortages of materials and skilled labour. (A complete series of "Top 5" breakout lists and profiles accompanies this story.) ANYONE LOOKING for more predict-able outcomes can still hang their hat on the global commodity boom. While price increases didn't match those of 2006, there was still enough steam in the market for it to have a major impact on the list - powering up some of 2007's largest percentage revenue gains. Yamana Gold Inc. (No. 340), for example, leapt onto the FP500 with a 318% increase, to $800 million, following its $3.5-billion acquisition in September of Meridian Gold Inc. Soaring oil prices continued to stoke more than a few bottom lines across the energy sector - average revenue growth there came in at 18.8%. Leading the way was Calgary-based Harvest Energy Trust (No. 94) with a revenue increase of 193.2%, to $4 billion. This gain was due, in part, to its mid-2006 acquisition of North Atlantic Refining Ltd. in Come By Chance, N.L., a groundbreaking $1.6-billion deal that turned Harvest into Canada's first vertically integrated oil and gas royalty trust. At the same time, however, energy costs - coupled with the strong dollar - weighed heavily on central Canada. They wreaked havoc particularly on forestry companies already reeling from the collapse of the U.S. housing market. Indeed, of the 19 forestry firms on our ranking, only four avoided outright revenue declines. Nine of the remaining firms saw a double-digit fall in their income. Weyerhaeuser Canada Ltd. turned in the worst performance, stumbling to the No. 384 position from No. 231 as its revenue fell to $648 million - a 50% decrease, which earned it the dubious distinction of this year's "Worst Fall." The picture looks only a little brighter in the beleaguered manufacturing sector, where half of the 28 ranked firms posted revenue declines. In broad terms, though, the economy absorbed the worst of these impacts. Much like corporate revenue and profit (which climbed 4.4% for the FP500 as a whole, compared to a 34% rise in 2006), GDP growth held steady, clocking in at 2.7%, the same as 2006, but down from 2.9% in 2005. Unemployment, meanwhile, fell to 6%, its lowest level in 33 years. These kinds of numbers, it seems, were good enough to keep consumers in stores with their wallets open, as a look at some of the newcomers to the FP500 suggests. For evidence, look no further than the No. 288 position, occupied this year by consumer electronics manufacturer LG Electronics Canada, with revenue of $1 billion. A few ranks further down, at No. 311, you'll find Kia Canada Inc., a subsidiary of Korean auto maker Kia Motors, with revenue of almost $900 million. Equally intriguing - given fears for the future of the music and video retail business - is the arrival on the FP500 of HMV Canada Inc. at No. 500, with revenue of $407 million. Granted, HMV's revenue is actually down 0.6%, yet it still made the jump from No. 510 last year on the Next 300 list. DEALING WITH volatility and a rapidly changing economic landscape may have been the biggest theme in corporate Canada during 2007, but it wasn't the only one: Foreign takeovers also swept the market. The headlines were bigger in 2006, when iconic Canadian firms such as Hudson's Bay Co., Inco Ltd. and Dofasco fell into foreign hands. But it wasn't until last year that the number and value of takeover deals hit truly astonishing levels. In the first six months of 2007, the value of foreign M&A activity in Canada soared to $153 billion, according to investment banking firm Crosbie & Co. Inc., eclipsing the total of $102 billion for all of 2006. By the end of the year, the value of deals reached a record-setting $186.8 billion, with international miner Rio Tinto plc's $44.9-billion acquisition of Alcan Inc. (No. 7) leading the way. Other deals included Houston-based Marathon Oil Corp.'s $7.1-billion bid for Western Oil Sands Inc. (No. 296), Abu Dhabi National Energy Co.'s $5-billion takeout of PrimeWest Energy Trust (No. 398) and IBM Corp.'s $4.4-billion acquisition of software maker Cognos Inc. (No. 261). With those kinds of names and numbers in the air, it's no surprise that the flurry of activity reignited the age-old debate about the "hollowing" of corporate Canada. Dominic D'Alessandro, who recently announced he'll retire next year as CEO of Manulife Financial Corp. (No. 2), weighed in during his annual address to shareholders in May 2007, saying: "I sometimes worry that we may all wake up and find that, as a nation, we have lost control of our affairs." Others wondered what all the fuss was about. In a March 2007 report, the Institute for Competitiveness & Prosperity argued that Canada's ability to produce companies that are global leaders far outweighs the losses it has witnessed due to foreign takeovers. Among the examples it used to make its case were Research in Motion Ltd. (No. 65), North American convenience-store giant Alimentation Couche-Tard Inc. (No. 24) and ATS Automation Tooling Systems Inc. (No. 367), a manufacturing-solutions firm active in the international health-care, electronics and automotive sectors. We'll keep our opinions to ourselves, but here's one notable fact: According to Crosbie & Co., Canadian firms made twice as many acquisitions abroad as foreign firms did here. At $93 billion, however, the total value of those deals was only half the value of foreign takeovers in Canada. GIVEN ALL that acquisition activity in 2007, it's almost inevitable that some companies now on our list will have disappeared when it comes time to compile the FP500 for 2008. Others may fall off because their revenue stumbles to levels where they no longer make the cut-off. But the FP500 is a renewable resource; for every firm that leaves, there's another that takes its place. A scan of the Next 300, which follows our main ranking, offers hints. Companies that stand out include The Data Group Income Fund, which rose more than 100 positions to No. 507 and was just $10 million shy of making the big chart, as well as rising food manufacturer Lassonde Industries Inc. at No. 505, up from No. 545 in 2006. The biggest wild card for next year's ranking, however - one that affects nearly every company on both the FP500 and the Next 300 - has to do with where the economy will take them. The FP500 as a whole hasn't had a year of revenue decline since 2004 (and the drop was a miniscule $2 billion), but it looks like a distinct possibility if current GDP forecasts prove accurate. In late April, the Bank of Canada called for GDP growth of just 1.4% in 2008, with most private-sector forecasts in the same ballpark. While Canada's domestic markets should do okay, a weak U.S. economy will drag us down. Results like that, at least a full percentage point lower than 2007's 2.7%, would make it hard for FP500 revenue totals to stay out of the red. If so, spunky companies like Martinrea may be fewer and farther between when we do this again next year.

Je pense que ça va vous faire plaisir... LORI MCLEOD Globe and Mail Update April 16, 2008 at 1:43 PM EDT Montreal has edged ahead of midtown Manhattan to create an all-Canadian list of the top five office rental markets in North America in the first quarter of 2008, according to a study released Wednesday by real estate brokerage Cushman Wakefield & LePage. Canada's five largest cities had the lowest office vacancy rates of the 15 major leasing markets in North America in the first three months of the year, according to Cushman Wakefield's data. Downtown Montreal took fifth spot on the list with a vacancy rate of 5.8 per cent, but posted the largest year-over-year drop at 3.5 percentage points due to strong demand and a lack of new supply. This caused it to squeak by midtown Manhattan, the strongest market in the United States, with an office vacancy rate of 6 per cent. “Montreal has experienced years of virtual stagnation in the office leasing market. But slow and steady economic growth and a lack of new development over the past decade have transitioned Montreal from a tenant market to a landlord market,” Colum Bastable, president and chief executive officer of Cushman & Wakefield, said in a statement. At a vacancy rate of just 2.6 per cent, Vancouver had the tightest downtown office rental market of the 15 cities included in the study. This was followed by Calgary at 3.6 per cent, Toronto at 3.9 per cent, Ottawa at 4.1 per cent and Montreal at 5.8 per cent. The city with the highest downtown office vacancy rate was Dallas at 28.7 per cent, far greater than the next on the list, Los Angeles, at 13.5 per cent. The sharpest rise in vacancy rate occurred in Calgary, growing to 4.5 per cent in the first quarter from a low of 1.4 per cent in the same period of 2007. Vacancies remained tight in Class A downtown buildings in the city at a rate of just 1.8 per cent. Despite a weakening provincial economy and three new office towers under construction, Toronto's vacancy rates continue to decline, Mr. Bastable said. The study also measured vacancy rates in suburban areas, where Canada's market was again tighter than that of the U.S. Toronto's suburbs had the lowest vacancy rate of these markets in the first quarter at 7.2 per cent, followed by those of Calgary at 7.4 per cent, Ottawa at 7.5 per cent, Vancouver at 9.3 per cent and Montreal at 11.2 per cent. The suburbs of Dallas had the highest vacancy rate at 21.5 per cent, followed by those of central New Jersey at 20.3 per cent and Chicago at 19 per cent. “All of Canada's major markets are well positioned to weather an economic downturn. Years of conservative and prudent development, along with low interest rates, will work to keep supply and demand in relative equilibrium even as the economy and demand slacken,” Mr. Bastable said. source: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servl...tory/Business/