Month over month, the value of building permits in Canada increased 20.5 percent to $12.8 billion in April, according to new StatCan data. Construction intentions in the residential sector rose by 21 percent to $8.0 billion. The value of single-family permits edged up 2.4 percent to $2.6 billion.

The latest edition of Hardlines Dealer News hits inboxes tomorrow. In this issue, we cover the “sunset” of the Réno-Dépôt brand, how one Home Hardware store took on a Leon’s franchise, and the latest acquisition by GMS.

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CGC Inc. has announced that it has begun construction of its new manufacturing plant in Wheatland County, Alta., east of Calgary. The 220,000-square-foot facility represents a $210 million investment. It will manufacture CGC’s Sheetrock brand of wallboard and create more than 100 permanent, full-time jobs, the company says. “This project underscores our commitment to being the best wallboard manufacturer to do business with, particularly as builders, governments and communities across Alberta and the West work to expand housing starts, accessibility and affordability,” said Chris Griffin, CEO of USG Corporation, CGC’s parent.

Quebec-based retailer Simons is in expansion mode outside its home province, with two new stores coming to Toronto. The chain has pending openings in the Toronto Eaton Centre and in Yorkdale Shopping Centre. The Eaton Centre location in particular has outlived such tenants as Eaton’s, Sears, and Nordstrom, but some analysts think Simons stands a better chance.

“I would not say that … because other department stores have failed in those places, that necessarily means that Simons is going to fail,” Joseph Aversa, who teaches retail management at Toronto Metropolitan University, told CBC News. Since appointing its first CEO from outside the Simons family in 2022, he said, the banner has been “very calculated in terms of their expansions.”

RONA inc. has published its 2023 sustainability report. During the year, the retailer made available some 5,000 ECO-branded products in stores and online. It touts the recovery of 1,980 tonnes of paint, aerosols, batteries, light bulbs, and fluorescent tubes.

The company also said two-thirds of the waste it generated was reused or recycled. It also installed more than 1,000 solar panels at its Milton, Ont., distribution centre and donated $3 million to non-profit organizations through the RONA Foundation. In addition, RONA has supported the FSC wood certification program for the past 15 years.

Marc Gingras has been named chief strategy officer at Luxo Marbre. He brings more than 35 years of experience to the role, including serving as VP merchandising for building products at Lowe’s Canada/RONA, plus stints at Bélanger and Cobra Anchors.

eBay has dropped American Express as a credit card option for its customers. The online retailer is pushing back against the merchant fees charged by Amex. “After careful consideration, eBay has decided to no longer accept American Express globally effective August 17 due to the unacceptably high fees American Express charges for processing credit card transactions,” the online retailer said in a statement. It added that it’s in the process of notifying its customers of the change. Costco dropped Amex in 2016.

Toronto city councillor Jon Burnside made a citizen’s arrest yesterday morning when he visited the Leaside Home Depot and found two men leaving the store with unpaid merchandise. A 10-year Toronto Police Services veteran, Burnside acknowledged that the intervention was risky but said one of the men turned on him when he took out his phone to record the men, who were pushing shopping carts filled with power tools.

“I was only planning on videotaping them but once the guy came at me I knew there was no going back,” Burnside said. Two other men, a contractor and an off-duty firefighter, assisted him as he restrained one of the suspects until police arrived. The other suspect fled the scene.

The Bank of Canada (BOC) yesterday cut its policy rate, its key interest rate, by 0.25 percent to 4.75 percent. “We’ve come a long way in the fight against inflation,” said BOC governor Tiff Macklem. This is the first cut in interest rates by the central bank since March 2020. Macklem said that he is confident the inflation rate will continue to move closer to the BOC’s two percent target.

Throwback Thursday is a weekly feature in which we dip into the archives of the Hardlines Weekly Report.

On June 9, 2014, we brought ran the story of a new report from commercial retail estate firm CBRE. The 2013 report said that, in 2012, Canada “was the number-six destination for new retailers.”

A year later, which was covered by the 2014 report, “neither [Canada] or its cities [made] the ranking.” Target was in the midst of losing $2.1-billion during its disastrous two-year foray into this country. We opined that the effects of Target’s experience were rippling out.