The Retail Council of Canada extends their Loss Prevention conference to a day and a half for the first time ever on Sept. 11 to 12, 2012 in Toronto. This day and a half event brings together all of Canada's senior retail Loss Prevention executives and a number of service providers for educational and informative sessions. If you're a U.S. retailer and just entering the Canadian market it's a great event to attend to get to know all of your Canadian counterparts and to learn how they're approaching issues, dealing with the changing landscape, and just to establish that critical network one needs to be successful. Visit their web site to learn more and of special note is that their Vice President, Operations Stephen O'Keefe is the former VP of Asset Protection for Wal-Mart Canada and has a wealth of information for any executive managing Loss Prevention in Canada. (Source rcclpconference.ca)

Canada's "Lucky Moose Bill" Bill C-26 moves forward and "reinforces the right of business owners to protect their property." Mr. Chen, proprietor of the Lucky Moose, was famously prosecuted for nabbing and confining an inveterate shoplifter, Anthony Bennett, an hour after Mr. Bennett had been caught on tape helping himself to the merchandise. The previous law stipulated that a property-owner "may arrest without warrant a person whom he finds committing a criminal offence on or in relation to that property" — but not, as Mr. Chen did, later. The bill "makes a very modest change: Now a property-owner can arrest a criminal "within a reasonable time after the offence is committed," provided he "believe[s] on reasonable grounds that it is not feasible in the circumstances for a peace officer to make the arrest." The obvious question, then, is: What does "reasonable" mean? Here's a recent blog written by David Hyde that gives greater detail and some clarity to it - blog.firstreference.com (Source privateofficerbreakingnews.com)

Target plans to hire as many as 27,000 people next year alone in Canada Kathleen Wong, an equities analyst at Veritas Investment Research calculates Target will "steal" $855M in sales from Canadian Tire and $397M from Sears Canada. Target told investors last month it expects its Canadian operations to have at least $6-billion in sales and 80 cents a share in profit by 2017. (Source financialpost.com)

Wal-Mart Canada is gearing up for the Target invasion by aggressively expanding their presence as well. This is going to be a battle to watch over the next few years - And they'll be some casualties! Wal-Mart entered the Canadian market in 1994 and now has 330 stores with expansion plans to open dozens of more stores. They just announced this week that they're hiring 4,000 new jobs. By the end of 2013, the company expects to spend some $750-million to open, relocate or remodel 73 stores. They now claim to have 1.1 million customers a day and employ 94,000. (Source reuters.com) (Source financialpost.com)

Dunkin Donuts failed to live up to their commitments to their Quebec franchise locations - under pressure from Tim Horton's - and now the courts say Dunkin owes their franchisees $16.4M in losses You don't see this often but making commitments to your franchisees and failing to live up to it's promise to invest $40M and as the court put it "A successful brand is crucial to the maintenance of franchise. However, when the brand falls out of bed, collapses, so too do those who rely on it," wrote Justice Tingley. Karen Raskopf, Dunkin’ Brands senior vice-president of corporate communications, said in a statement, the company intends to appeal Thursday’s ruling. (Source financialpost.com)

The retail sector is the largest employer in Canada, accounting for 12 percent of all workers The RCC recently held their annual HR conference which focused on; the importance of having a clear, compelling company culture, the challenge of retention in a rapidly expanding market, and how technology is impacting the HR world. (Source giftsandtablewares.ca)



Canadian Security Magazine is looking for it's 2012 Security Director of the Year! Sponsored by Anixter Canada, the award is given each fall to a senior security director or manager who has demonstrated leadership and achievement in the industry. Know someone you want to nominate? Just submit this form or contact Neil Sutton via email or phone (905) 713-4347.