Test your business mettle
From high-stakes mergers to high-tech wheeling and dealing to high-profile flops, test your memory of what happened in 2019 with David Olive’s annual business quiz.
ABOTTOM-FEEDER BOOM
1. Even as China cut back its imports of Canadian soybeans, canola seeds, and pork and beef (a ban that ended early last month), China has more than doubled its imports of this Canadian product, with the Chinese market now about 85 per cent controlled by Canadian product, after Beijing imposed stiff tariffs on imports of this delicacy from the U.S.: a) crab b) oysters c) lobsters
AHOT STOCK OF 2019
2. As of early December, which stock outperformed the others over the previous 12 months, with a gain of 74 per cent? a) Apple Inc., Cupertino, Calif. b) Facebook Inc., Menlo Park, Calif. c) Lululemon Athletica Inc., Vancouver d) Microsoft Corp., Redmond, Wash. e) Berkshire Hathaway Inc., Omaha, Neb.
ANNALS OF CHUTZPAH
3. After driving down the value of its shares by about 68 per cent since 2015 through mismanagement, owners of which firm failed this year to win shareholder approval for their initial lowball offer for the company’s shares in a going-private transaction? a) Dollarama Inc. b) Leon’s Furniture Ltd. c) Hudson’s Bay Co.
AMAZON AND THE GTA
4. In the year since Toronto lost out in its bid for Amazon.com Inc.’s second headquarters, in part because, in contrast to scores of North American cities, it offered the Seattle firm not a dime in subsidies, Amazon has
a) opened a 113,000-square-foot office in downtown Toronto, creating 600 high-paying jobs in software development, cloud computing and artificial intelligence
b) announced a one-million-square-foot fulfilment centre in Scarborough creating another 600 full-time jobs
c) said its Amazon Prime livestreaming service will open a studio on the Toronto waterfront d) a and c e)a and b
5. In November, which premier called for a provincial version of Amazon that would appeal to “nationalist” consumers by selling local products rather than only American goods? a) Brian Pallister of Manitoba b) François Legault of Quebec c) John Horgan of British Columbia
OUCH
6. According to a December report prepared by university researchers in Guelph and Halifax, the average Canadian family will pay how much more for food in 2020, for an annual total of $12,667 in food spending at grocery stores and restaurants? a) $127 b) $487 c) $293
7. The researchers place most of the blame for the food-price hikes — especially for produce — on a) Canada’s above-average reliance on food imports, which could be addressed with more indoor farming (greenhouses in industrial and commercial buildings) b) fads like this year’s celery craze, which caused shortages that drove up prices for alternatives like spinach c) the climate emergency, which is impairing crop yields worldwide with flooding, fresh-water shortages, and increased crop-destroying bacterial outbreaks such as E. coli d) all of the above
8. According to a December report by real estate firm Re/Max, Toronto house prices are expected to rise how much in 2020, to an average sale price of $933,691? a) 1.5 per cent b) 3.7 per cent c) 6 per cent
DERAILED
9. Canadians were reminded how much basic infrastructure like railways still matters when an eight-day strike at CN Rail in November threatened to slash GDP growth by how much, had the work stoppage not ended prior to Dec. 5? a) 7 per cent b) 11 per cent c) 20 per cent