Steel Plus Network

Learn How SDS/2 Integrates with Revit Structure!

The SDS/2 Connect add-in for Autodesk® Revit® Structure allows Revit users to design and apply steel connections in the native Revit environment. But it also allows steel detailers using SDS/2 Detailing to get a better model from Revit Structure. This seminar will focus on various workflows from round-tripping a Revit model with an SDS/2 Detailing model for approval and fabrication purposes, to getting general contractors a head start on site planning by transferring a Revit model to SDS/2 Erector Plus.

Learn More and Earn More
Design Data will also be awarding current customers $250 in Steelbucks for each engineering company or general contractor they bring along with them to attend the seminar. To earn your Steelbucks, we’ll need a card from the engineer or GC — we’ll write your company name on the back and you’ll receive notification of the Steelbucks you’ve earned within a week of the seminar.

In addition, all attendees will earn a free PDH that will be mailed out after attending the seminar. SDS/2 Connnect is an additional tool that detailers have to improve their deliverable as well as the experience that engineers have working with SDS/2 detailers. Current SDS/2 users will benefit by becoming educated on what can be accomplished between Revit Structure and SDS/2 Detailing when engineers use the SDS/2 Connect add-in.

You can learn more about the detailer’s role when it comes to working with information coming from SDS/2 Connect for Revit Structure by attending one of these FREE seminars.

Benefits

• All attendees are eligible for 1 PDH
• Meet engineers, detailers and general contractors interested in utilizing Revit model data for fabrication
• Gain an understanding of connection design in Revit Structure
• Learn how to build higher LOD models in Revit Structure
• Understand how Revit Structure models can be transferred downstream for fabrication.

Seminar Dates and Locations
Boston, Massachusetts – June 17, 2013
Autodesk
1560 Trapelo Road
Waltham, MA 02451

If you have any questions about these seminars, please contact Michelle McCarthy.

Consider cyber liability and climate change when you evaluate your insurance needs.

As the world of business changes so does the insurance required to protect your business. Generally, a renewal meeting with your broker will cover time-honoured topics such as property values and business interruption coverage. However, the conversation with your broker should now include discussion on increasingly hot issues such as cyber-attacks and climate change.

Cyber Liability

Alberta is presently the only province that requires mandatory breach notification for private sector companies (federal legislation and provincial regulations require public sector organizations and health care institutions to automatically report loss of confidential data). Cyber liability policies are gaining more attention and importance as prominent corporations and even government agencies have faced newsworthy data breaches. Local businesses are starting to realize their exposure after seeing public breaches at banks, tech titans, government departments and other major organizations.

No matter how good your IT department is your business is susceptible to a breach if you electronically store any customer data. In the event of a “cyber-attack”, businesses need to de4termine whether personally identifiable information was actually lost or compromised, ensure that you adhere to all laws and regulations governing the handling of the breach, notify affected customers and protect them against fraud or other misuse of their personal data. Privacy aside, cyber insurance also may impact your intellectual property, social media liability and business interruption.

Typically the coverage protects against:

• Civil liability resulting from data breaches and misuse of social media.
• System repair and restoration
• Contractual fines, including credit card company fines, arising from privacy breaches.
• The cost to notify individuals and the cost of steps taken to mitigate larger liability claims.
• Lost revenue arising from system downtime after a computer virus or cyber-attack.

Climate change

In Edmonton we have all experienced first-hand the vast increases in water, hail and wind damage claims across the province. But extreme weather incidents such as flooding, droughts, hurricanes and typhoons in the far reaches of the globe can have a direct impact on the insurance needs of your business here in Edmonton.

For business interruption insurance, your current limits and periods of indemnity may not take into account supply chain interruptions that may trigger a business interruption claim. The interruptions could take the form of raw materials shortages or prolonged delays int eh manufacturing of products and equipment. Overnight, a four-month turnaround could be closer to 12 months. the same is true for production equipment. If your local business has a breakdown of production equipment, it is important to understand how long it would take to reorder the equipment and have your production line back up and running. Your standard policy limits are likely too low and may not accurately reflect the true period of time.

It is evident that , in the next few years, extreme weather will cause property rates to rise and in some situations it will be harder to find willing insurers. The re-insurance market will become more expensive and many insurers will look to “subscription policies” to share the risk with other insurers. It will be necessary to have a strong relationship with an independent broker who has access to multiple markets and options tailored to your business.

By Daniel Robinson. From Commerce News: The Voice of Business in Edmonton, Tuesday April 2, 2013, vol. 35 no 4

As a small business owner, you’ve invested a lot of time and money into making your business a success. Now imagine a disaster wiping out all of your hard work in an instant. It seems unthinkable, yet 30 per cent of small businesses in the U.S. have closed due to a natural disaster, and one in four of them don’t re-open. Disasters such as fire, winter storms, flooding or even power outages can leave your small business facing damages to property and assets or lost revenues because of business interruption. To make sure you’re able to get back on your feet after disaster strikes, prepare yourself using these tips.

Know your insurance

To protect your small business from physical damage, insure the contents of your office space, from computer equipment to inventory, as well as the property itself if you own your building. Business interruption insurance is also a useful tool for small businesses, as it will cover lost revenues in the case that you need to temporarily stop doing business due to a disaster.

Protecting against data loss

The best way to make sure that your business can be up and running quickly after a disaster is to protect your vital records. You should keep copies of any records that will be needed for insurance, legal or tax purposes, or are key to continued business success. These could include customer lists, payroll information and photographs of office equipment for insurance purposes. Keep a hard copy of your vital records in a place other than your office, as well as an electronic copy, either on a USB stick or hosted securely online.

A contingency plan for continuing business

It’s smart to develop a business continuity plan that identifies your most important business functions and how you would continue them if a disaster were to strike. If your business is directly affected by a disaster, but your customers aren’t, it’s important to continue to serve them, or else they could get frustrated and look elsewhere. A list of key customers and their contact information should be included in your vital records. it’s also a good idea to form an agreement with a similar business that can temporarily take over your customers, in case you’re completely unable to supply products or services temporarily

If your small business experiences property damage, the quickest way to get things back up and running may be to relocate. Know where you would move in the case of disaster and how you would get the necessary equipment needed to continue operations from that new site.

If a s disaster occurs in your community, even if your business escapes unscathed, it can affect your suppliers, so it’s good to keep supplier contact information as well as information for alternate suppliers as part of your vital records. A disaster could also leave your employees unable to come to work. Your vital records should include contact information for every staff member and you should also be prepared to maintain payroll continuity and provide additional financial aid to employees should they need it. .

Preparing yourself and your employees

Above all, it’s important to prepare yourself and your staff. At least once a year, update vital records, hold evacuation drills and discuss the disaster plan with staff.

There are some useful resources that can help with planning. The Government of Canada provides a guide with the information needed to create a business continuity plan (find itat www.publicsafety.gc.ca/prg/em/ges-emer-eng.aspz) You can also download the Your Plan app for your iPhone, developed by the Insurance Information Institute, and have all disaster plans, forms and checklists right at your fingertips.

by Alexandria Eldridge, From Commerce News: The Voice of Business in Edmonton Tuesday April 2, 2013 Vol 35 No4

There are many exciting trends in web design today, but perhaps none more so than designing for emotion. Using psychology, personality and fun to design a website makes designing for emotion a power strategy.

In Designing for Emotion, a book by user experience designer Aarron Walter, he explains that it’s about developing sites based on human connections and creating a good user experience that elicits positive emotions.

For the group benefits industry, the positive emotion users to the site should feel is trust. as companies want to establish themselves as reliable and secure. Users should be made to feel that their personal information will be protected and feel comfortable to submit transactions. So how do web designs inspire emotions in their users.

Psychology

Using principles of psychology, web designers can understand their audiences and design accordingly. Walter explains that we are hard wired to make emotional connections to others and to seek emotion in human faces. That is why we enjoy seeing photos of humans and many websites use photos of smiling people to establish that emotional connection.

In her article, Not Just Pretty: Building Emotion Into Your Websites for Smashing Magazine, Sabina Idler explains this [psychological principal further: “By recognizing ourselves in a design, we sense that there is more than just a screen with a bunch of code and images. We perceive human presence, which makes us feel comfortable and connected.”

If audiences can respond so powerfully to the need to feel emotionally connected, web designs that mimic human tendencies can have great success.

Personality

Humans all have unique personalities and it’s a key ingredient in building emotional connections to others. Walter further explains that the goal is to facilitate human to human connection, where the personality rises to the surface and the computer recedes into the background.

According to Designing for Emotion personality has the power to attract and is a powerful tool in web design if the right personality for the site is created. The key is to create a web personality that is authentic and will be the type of person the target audience wants to interact with.

Creating a personality that people can trust is especially important for group benefits websites as the subject matter on the site is very personal. You need to present a very human, caring company with its customers’ best interests at heart to make the personality appealing to this particular audience.

A large part of someone’s personality is a sense of humour.  Idler writes that humour is an effective way to make a human connection as a laugh or a smile will make people feel comfortable. Humour will tell a lot about a site’s personality and inject some fun into the user’s day.

Fun

Adding a layer of fun to a website allows the user to appreciate the site, have a pleasurable experience and keeps them going back for more.

Walters illustrates how a dose of fund can increase your audience’s positive emotions and even help workflow. He uses the example of MailChimp (www.mailchimp.com), which has a chimp on the screen that delivers witty greetings and random jokes. The chimp was added as an element of fun to delight and surprise the user. The unexpected results were that the random jokes actually helped users complete complicated tasks, as the chimp was tempting the user forward with a new joke on the next page.

A sense of fun also builds up goodwill in your audience. this comes in handy if something goes wrong. Walter explains that your audience will be more willing to forgive, overlook temporary shortcomings and maintain trust in your brand. He mentions the example of Flickr, (www.flickr.com) a site that people love for its fun emotional design. when it had a storage failure that brought down the site, it ran a colouring contest. By presenting users with something fun, the negative emotions were tamed and were shifted to positive demonstrating that emotional design is like an insurance policy in maintaining audience trust.

Taken from Manulife Financial – Employee Benefit news – Spring 2013 page 10.

Learn How SDS/2 Integrates with Revit Structure!

The SDS/2 Connect add-in for Autodesk® Revit® Structure allows Revit users to design and apply steel connections in the native Revit environment. But it also allows steel detailers using SDS/2 Detailing to get a better model from Revit Structure. This seminar will focus on various workflows from round-tripping a Revit model with an SDS/2 Detailing model for approval and fabrication purposes, to getting general contractors a head start on site planning by transferring a Revit model to SDS/2 Erector Plus.

Learn More and Earn More
Design Data will also be awarding current customers $250 in Steelbucks for each engineering company or general contractor they bring along with them to attend the seminar. To earn your Steelbucks, we’ll need a card from the engineer or GC — we’ll write your company name on the back and you’ll receive notification of the Steelbucks you’ve earned within a week of the seminar.

In addition, all attendees will earn a free PDH that will be mailed out after attending the seminar. SDS/2 Connnect is an additional tool that detailers have to improve their deliverable as well as the experience that engineers have working with SDS/2 detailers. Current SDS/2 users will benefit by becoming educated on what can be accomplished between Revit Structure and SDS/2 Detailing when engineers use the SDS/2 Connect add-in.

You can learn more about the detailer’s role when it comes to working with information coming from SDS/2 Connect for Revit Structure by attending one of these FREE seminars.

Benefits

• All attendees are eligible for 1 PDH
• Meet engineers, detailers and general contractors interested in utilizing Revit model data for fabrication
• Gain an understanding of connection design in Revit Structure
• Learn how to build higher LOD models in Revit Structure
• Understand how Revit Structure models can be transferred downstream for fabrication.

Seminar Dates and Locations
Dallas/Fort Worth, Texas – May 6, 2013
Hilton Ft. Worth
815 Main Street
Ft. Worth, TX 76102

Austin/San Antonio, Texas – May 7, 2013
Hilton Austin
500 E 4th St.
Austin, TX 78701

If you have any questions about these seminars, please contact Michelle McCarthy.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Telecommuting is the latest buzzword for working from home. Two employees and an employer discuss the pros and cons.

Chaymie Hintz is an environmental project manager at Stantec in Edmonton. She coordinates the cleanup of oilfield spills, makes sure people have the tools and equipment necessary to do their jobs and has travelled extensively around Alberta to visit project sites and ensure proper procedures are being followed. Hintz creates reports, leasdds teams, liases with other Stantec employees across Canada nad works from home.

Say what?

When we hear of work-from-home jobs, transcription, medical billing, Tupperware or Avon are what sping to mind; but more and more corporations are embracing flexible work weeks, reduced summer hours, and the coveted telecommute for their employees.

On the surface, it looks like a good deal. Working from home affords you the chance to stay in your pajamas, skip the commute, spend more time with your family, and choose your own hours… right? As Hintz points out, telecommuting is far more involved than sipping a latte at Starbucks while you casually peck out reports on a sunny patio.

“The only way telecommuting works is if the people in the office know how to deal with the telecommuter,” Hintz pointed out as she multitasked her way through the interview. Despite it being 3 p.m on a Sunday afternoon, her Blackberry – the precious link to the office – was on the counter as she prepped dinner for her family and answered questions. “When I started [telecommuting], it was not a widely accepted practice in the company. Some people thought we [telecommuters] were just goofing off at home.” But as Hintz points out between expertly cutting up an asparagus and dismissing several emails on her phone, “there is no way to hid if you are not doing work. It requires a level of trust amount the team.”

As for those comfy pajamas, Hintz freely admits they make up a good part of her at-home wardrobe. However, elastic waistbands and flannel do not detract from her productivity or professionalism. “It’s actually easier to maintain professionalism and workflow,” she states after pausing to answer a call from Stantec regarding an 8 p.m. conference call schedule for later in the evening. “There is far less water cooler talk when you’re at home. I’ve seen my productivity increase by 20 per cent.” But there is a downside. “It’s not easy to maintain the personal relationships you develop at the office,” she cautions. “It’s harder to get to know your co=workers You can get isolated very quickly. Telecommuting is not something you want to do unless you already have a good support network of coworkers, friends and family.”

For Hintz, the importance of the work/life balance that telecommuting affords cannot be understated. “The kids like it and my husband likes it,” she confirms. “The kids  are much more active and they see me more during the day. After school we go swimming and to the playground. The kids are definitely healtierh and happier.”

“I wouldn’t have it any other way, ” her husband Chris agrees. “It’s nice to know if something happened with the kids, at least one of us is close to the school. Before, life just wasn’t working. She was doing 7.5 hours at work, plus two hours a day commuting. The time you spend in commuting can be spent with friends, family or doing something more productive. Besides, her lifespan as an office worker was over. This way has more flexibility for personal and medical reasons.”

Medical reasons: another reason why telecommuting  works so well for Hintz. Hintz suffers from torticollis, a muscle condition that causes pain similar to arthritis. After years of trying various treatments, she finds relief in several hours of yoga – daily. Skipping yoga sessions results in unbearable stiffness where even turning her head results in agony. Her telecommuting schedule allows her to engage in yoga while still meeting Statntec’s productivity expectations. If time off during the day to do yoga sounds unproductive, contrast that with time off during the day spent unable to work or at endless doctor appointments. Besides, “you;d look pretty funny doing you yoga at your desk, so chances are you won’t do it,” Chris points out. Being able to slip off tot he yoga studio down the street or even go from her desk chair to a yoga mat in home office has made a world of difference for Hintsz’s career.

The Blackberry goes off again and Hintz smiles when she learns her 8 p.m. conference call has been cancelled. “Technology has made it easier to telecommute but harder to achieve work/life balance,” she admits as she puts down the phone. “If you don’t set up boundaries, you will wind up working every hour of the day. It’s hard to make the distinction, especially if you have a Blackberry! Without boundaries, you don’t have a work and life separation.” She freely admits, “The work is part of your home life.”

Regardless, telecommuting works for Hintz, her medical condition, her family and Stantec. “If I wasn’t telecommuting, I’d be unemployed by now. I wouldn’t be able to manage work and my health issues.

Hint’s children, Nadia (8) and Liam (6) were happy to weigh in on the subject of their mom working from home. “I don’t like it when I don’t have stuff to do, but I like it when she gets a break and she plays with me,” said Nadia.

Liam firmly stated, “Things I don’t like is she has to work a lot. The thing I don like is when she works from home, she gets paid lots of money. That’s awesome!”

“We get food for the money and charity for the people,” Nadia solemnly agreed.

There is another aspect to telecommuting that nets “food for the money.” Our neighbors to the south, America, are struggling through a recession. Some have chosen to immigrate or change careers. Others, like Amandalyn Vanover, have chosen to stay put and telecommute across the border. Vanover is a freelance writer whose contracts include writing for a company in Edmonton. “Buying and selling American is encouraged day in and day out, but the choices are not always available,” says Vanover. “I believe more Americans are looking to telecommute because of the wide array of benefits. Many American companies are not flexible enough to offer this yet.”

Canadian companies engaged in cross-border telecommuting must follow mandates put forth by Human Resources Development Canada and other government agencies to ensure compliance with foreign worker regulations. Regardless of the paperwork, Vanover feels telecommuting is mostly a positive experience. “I think that telecommuting is the only way I can work effectively and efficiently for both my family and my business. Before telecommuting became my only way of working, I was always being pulled here and there, and falling up short in many areas. Now that I’m not wasting time and money in traffic, I am definitely more productive in life. The pros are unlimited for me personally, plus the foundation of telecommuting makes location a moot point. The cons are that I cannot jump in the car and go see the people that I work with and for. While telecommuting is awesome, a face to face visit would be a plus from time to time. ”

It is not just employees that support telecommuting. Many employers support it as well. One such company is Avalon Global. Avalon is located in Spruce Grove (Alberta) and provides creative IT solutions and social network marketing strategies for companies of all sizes. “Avalon actively promotes working remotely when it makes sense. There are times when it is far more efficient for both our company and the individual to work form home, but it depends on the person’s role in the company and their individual situation. The other side of this is that depending on their role in the company, there are times when physical proximity and face-to-face contact is important. This applies to staff and contractors,” says Jodie Stafford of the innovative company.

There is however, a downside. “In our company, we employe people that we need to have in-house and that need to be here for internal staff and client meetings, and we contract people that can effectively work remotely,” she continues. “One thing I know for sure is that it is much more difficult to build a cohesive team of people when they aren’t in physical proximity on a regular basis. In our business, our core team is in the office on a regular basis, and there is always a slight disconnect with the people who work remotely. Video conferencing is great, but there’s no replacing the need for human contact and relationships. I would say that one negative effect on the workforce will be that their advancement (within the company they work for) will be much more difficult without the availability for face-to-face contact with owners and upper management.”

Working from home is evolving form something parents do to earn extra money to something anyone can expect progressive employers in Canada to offer. While there are clear benefits to telecommuting, there are also pitfalls to avoid. In the end it comes down to the one thing we all strive to achieve: balance. thanks to advances in technology and forward thinking attitudes in the workforce, telecommuting is making that balance easier to maintain.

Article by Nerissa McNaughton. Published in Business Edmonton, April 2013 edition

The time has come to create a psychologically safe and health workplace.

If there we ever a need for psychologically safe and healthy workplace, it is now. Most new jobs today demand cerebral, not manual skills. This change defines what we call a brain-based economy, where brain-based mental disorders are the leading causes of workplace disability, according to information  from the Global Business and Economic Round Table on Addiction and Mental Health.

The Mental Heath Commission’s statistics on the state of psychological health among Canadian employers support taking immediate action:

- Mental illness cost Canadian businesses more that $6 billion in lost productivity due to absenteeism, presenteeism and turnover in 2011. (Presenteeism is the term used to describe the act of being physically present but mentally disengaged at work, resulting in lost productivity.)

- One in five Canadians experience a mental health concern in any given year compared to one in 25 for heart disease and one in 15 for type 2 diabetes.

- More than 28% of people aged 20 to 29 experience a mental illness in a given year; and by age 40, one in two Canadians will have had or have a mental health condition.

- Mental illness is the leading cause of disability claims in Canada and is expected to grow.

Managing mental health can help reduce productivity losses.

Given this trend and the amount of time Canadians spend at work, it is widely recognized that more effective prevention and early detection of mental health issues are required. Management of psychological health in the workplace can help employers reduce productivity losses while maintaining a more sustainable workforce.

to help employers respond to these challenges, the Mental Health Commission of Canada championed the development and release of the globe’s first voluntary national standard on Psychological health and safety in the workplace – Prevention, promotion and guidance to staged implementation (referred to here as the Standard) the Standard was released in January and is available at no cost on the MHCC website at www.mentalhealthcommission.ca.

The goal of the Standard is to take a complex issue and make it easier to implement.

It outlines the steps necessary to prevent mental injury, reduce psychological risk and promote a healthier workplace. the vision cited in the Standard is “a workplace that promotes workers’ psychological well being and allows no harm to worker mental health in negligent, reckless or intentional ways.” Essentially, employees should be able to go to work and perform their job to the best of their ability and leave the workplace psychologically unharmed.

The true cost involved in adopting the Standard is time.

The Standard follows a plan, do, check, act format requiring commitment and engagement, planning, implementation, evolution/ corrective action and management review and continual improvement.

Secure the benefits of a healthy workplace.

Research shows that engaged employees are more productive employees, which contributes to superior business performance. The culture of a psychologically safe and healthy workplace will have benefits that extend beyond the walls of the workplace, into families, communities and Canadian society.

While adopting the standard will not eliminate mental health disorders, it will help employers reduce the risks in their workplace.

Benefits of a psychologically safe and healthy workplace

A more engaged workforce

Enhanced productivity

Increased retention

Fewer workplace accidents

Reduced absenteeism, presenteeism and turnover

Reduced disability incidence

Appropriate drug plan utilization related to compliance with prescribed medication

Reduced workplace conflicts, grievances

Improved business performance. 

Learn How SDS/2 Integrates with Revit Structure!

The SDS/2 Connect add-in for Autodesk® Revit® Structure allows Revit users to design and apply steel connections in the native Revit environment. But it also allows steel detailers using SDS/2 Detailing to get a better model from Revit Structure. This seminar will focus on various workflows from round-tripping a Revit model with an SDS/2 Detailing model for approval and fabrication purposes, to getting general contractors a head start on site planning by transferring a Revit model to SDS/2 Erector Plus.

Learn More and Earn More
Design Data will also be awarding discounts on SDS/2 Connect or other SDS/2 software products to customers for each engineering company or general contractor they bring along with them to attend the seminar. To earn your discount, we’ll need a card from the engineer or GC — we’ll write your company name on the back and you’ll receive notification of the discounts you’ve earned within a week of the seminar.

In addition, all attendees will earn a free PDH that will be mailed out after attending the seminar. SDS/2 Connnect is an additional tool that detailers have to improve their deliverable as well as the experience that engineers have working with SDS/2 detailers. Current SDS/2 users will benefit by becoming educated on what can be accomplished between Revit Structure and SDS/2 Detailing when engineers use the SDS/2 Connect add-in.

You can learn more about the detailer’s role when it comes to working with information coming from SDS/2 Connect for Revit Structure by attending one of these FREE seminars. Design Data also recommends attending the AISC Shop Model Review and Approval seminar the following day.

Benefits

• All attendees are eligible for 1 PDH
• Meet engineers, detailers and general contractors interested in utilizing Revit model data for fabrication
• Gain an understanding of connection design in Revit Structure
• Learn how to build higher LOD models in Revit Structure
• Understand how Revit Structure models can be transferred downstream for fabrication.

Seminar Dates and Locations
New York, New York – March 11, 2013
Hilton Times Square
234 West 42nd St.
New York, NY 10036

Washington, D.C. – March 13, 2013
Double Tree by Hilton Washington D.C.
1515 Rhode Island Ave, NW Washington D.C.

If you have any questions about these seminars, please contact Michelle McCarthy.

After a lengthy debate, the City of Edmonton and the Katz Group have approved a framework for the design and construction of a new downtown arena. By 2016, when the arena is projected to open, Edmonton’s downtown is going to look very different.

Looking ahead, the transformation of Edmonton’s downtown will be much more than adding the arena. The Edmonton Arena Development Group (Katz Group and WAM Development Group) are planning an additional $2.2 billion of development in the proposed entertainment district surrounding the arena.

there are three proposed residential condos in the area that are already selling units – add on other projects, including First & Jasper; the Royal Alberta Museum; MacEwan University’s expanded campus; the Jasper Avenue revitalization; and Capital Boulevard on 108 Street. Many more projects are planned.

“A new downtown arena built under this framework is a first-rate commitment by the City of Edmonton to our downtown, to the game and tot he team we love,: said Mayer Stephen Mandel.

The City of Edonton is committing $219 million to the arena project, none of which will be generated by increasing taxes. The total cost of the arena project will be $601 million, an increase of $23 million over previous projections. The entire project includes the $480 million arena, plus the Winter Garden, community rink, LRT connection, pedestrian corridor and the land.

“I see tremendous potential in the future of our downtown and our city,” said Mandel. “This arena is a catalyst that is going to change the face of Edmonton forever.”

Further developments on the project will be posted at www.edmonton.ca/downtownarena.

Taken from Commerce News: The Voice of Business in Edmonton – Monday Feb 11, 2013 Vol 35 No.2 Page 3

US Dollar

U.S. stock futures advanced as President Barack Obama and Republicans continued budget talks. Treasuries inched higher in the absence of further progress towards a deal to avert a $600 billion fiscal crunch before year-end. The dollar reversed losses after a report showed U.S. housing starts fell to an annual pace of 861,000 in November.

Expect an upward pressure against the Greenback.

Canadian Dollar

Canada's main stock index is opening higher as signs of progress in resolving the U.S. fiscal cliff budget crisis boosted investor sentiment. Gold gained as a drop to the lowest level in more than three months spurred buying while holdings in exchange-traded funds rose to a record. Crude rose after an industry report showed stockpiles fell the most in more than three months in the U.S. The Canadian dollar declined amid signs lawmakers may find a compromise to avert the fiscal cliff.

Expect a downward pressure against the Loonie.