Have you noticed a lightened in your pocket lately, a almost relieving feeling that there is less weight holding you down these days as you go back and forth to work and play, then your not alone, many Canadians are noticing they have less money in their pockets each month.

The cost of gasoline is high and is expected to soar into the stratosphere in the future as world crude oil prices reach for new levels daily on the world markets, which experts expect to approach $1.40 this summer and as high as $225 by 2012. The price of everything made with flour is going to go up according to Bruce Cran, President of the Consumer Association of Canada, and he has suggested that many Canadians may start buying on the basis of choosing goods that are produced near to home. This announcement came almost at the same time as Canada’s largest bread maker Canada Bread Company, warned Canadians can expect to pay more for many flour based products after the company recorded a 32 percent drop in first quarter profits, due to increasing wheat prices.
Combine this with the recent bleak quarterly economic assessment released by the Bank of Canada, warning Canadians to pull up their belts because Canadian exports, especially from central Canadian manufacturers, will be taking a few rights and lefts from the slump in the United States and the cost of borrowing money in the credit markets.

The Bank of Canada gave Canadians a real indication of the weight of the situation on Tuesday, when they cut their key interest rate by half a percentage point to three percent. This comes after their earlier prediction in January that an upturn would begin in this quarter of 2008, now they say indicators point to the Canadian economy hitting a flat spot on the road, with growth during this quarter of 2008 barely rising above recession levels of 0.3 percent annualized rate, and they don’t see a recovery on the horizon until at least 2010.

Will we be forced to change our thinking about the foods we eat because of cost? The increased price of certain products in particular regions of the country will certainly limit the food choices of many Canadian families if prices increase for certain foods, their budgets just won’t stomach the increase in cost.
Canada is a strong country with a diversified economy and the people are resilient, we aren’t on an island by ourselves, and we will weather the brewing hurricane in the United States and abroad.

Expect job losses, though, this is just a matter of fact as the economy slows down as Canada’s battered and bruised manufacturing sector struggles to find ways to cope and survive the effects of the economic hurricane brewing.
Time as Canadians to hunker down in the cellar beneath our beautiful little land and ride out the hurricanes force, then we can pick everything up and start again, something we as humans can learn to be very good at.