Thursday, April 16, 2026

  

ADF Group reports profit and revenue down in face of U.S. tariffs



Published: 

ADF Group Inc., a Quebec-based maker of steel superstructures, fabricated the steel beams supporting the decks of the Samuel De Champlain Bridge, which opened in 2019, connecting Montreal to the South Shore across the St. Lawrence River. A span of the bridge is seen on Monday, June 17, 2019. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Paul Chiasson

TERREBONNE — ADF Group Inc. reported a profit of $26.3 million for its latest financial year, down from $56.8 million the previous year, as its revenue fell by more than 20 per cent in the face of U.S. tariffs.

The maker of steel superstructures says its profit amounted to 93 cents per diluted share for the year ended Jan. 31, down from $1.84 per diluted share a year earlier.

Revenue totalled $258.7 million for the year, down from $339.6 million the previous year.

The company says the drop in revenue pushed it to implement a work-sharing program at its Terrebonne plant that has allowed it to mitigate the negative impacts of the decrease in fabrication hours, but not entirely.

It says U.S. tariffs also indirectly hurt its margins.


The company’s backlog stood at a record $561.1 million at Jan. 31, 57 per cent of which was made up of Canadian contracts. The backlog was up from $293.1 million a year earlier.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 16, 2026.


BRP Inc. shares crash as Trump tariffs pose half-billion dollar bite



Updated: 


The Can-Am Spyder is assembled at BRP Inc. manufacturing facilities in Valcourt, Que.. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Christinne Muschi

VALCOURT — Revised U.S. tariff rules will take a half-billion-dollar bite out of BRP Inc., the Ski-Doo maker said, sending its share price into a tailspin after the company suspended its financial forecast.

The tougher tariffs mark a drastic change in fortune for the powersports outfit and its new chief executive, who a few weeks ago expressed confidence amid swelling profits and a projected net income of up to $480 million for the fiscal year.

The revision, which came into effect on April 6 after a presidential proclamation, imposes a 25 per cent levy on the full value of products made “substantially” of steel, aluminum or copper. Those products include BRP snowmobiles and most of its off-road vehicles, which are largely made in Canada and Mexico but find their biggest market in the United States.

Previously, BRP paid a 50 per cent tariff on only the metal content within those vehicles, a much cheaper toll.

The change will cost the Valcourt, Que.-based company more than $500 million this year, “before any mitigation measures that could partially offset these impacts,” it said in a statement.


The announcement also triggered a stock sell-off Wednesday that saw BRP’s share price plunge 35 per cent to $70.40 as of midafternoon.

“Like many manufacturers, we are operating in a highly volatile and unpredictable tariff environment that continues to create uncertainty across the market,” said Denis Le Vot, who came on board as CEO on Feb. 1, in a statement.

“Despite the material burden of these tariff changes, we expect that, with our solid balance sheet, the agility of our teams and the strong start of the year, we will be able to manage our business through this challenge and continue to push BRP forward.”

BRP’s financial guidance from late March, a week before U.S. President Donald Trump tweaked the tariff regime to address “national security threats” posed by metal imports, pegged the cost of U.S. levies at about $90 million.

Some 60 per cent of BRP’s revenue stems from the U.S. Most of the inventory sold there is made in Mexico — 70 per cent of total production happens south of the Rio Grande — or Canada, where Ski-Doos and some of its Can-Am three-wheelers roll off the line.

“The size of the cost impact fundamentally changes the profitability profile for BRP and injects a high degree of uncertainty into the outlook,” said National Bank analyst Cameron Doerksen in a note to investors.

While BRP archrival Polaris, which has a large factory in Mexico, will take a hit too, “BRP is especially impacted,” he said.

The difference will be felt most keenly with snowmobiles, which Polaris manufactures on home turf in the U.S. but BRP makes in Quebec.

For now, the company response appears limited.

“Our follow-up with management indicated that while they are considering mitigation options, they are not looking to take any meaningful steps that could impact the longer-term outlook for the business,” said RBC Dominion Securities analyst Sabahat Khan in a note to investors.


“Our read is that the company is likely not looking to implement significant price increases in the immediate term.”

Potential moves to offset the new cost include drawing down current inventory in the U.S. to avoid tariffs at the border and shipping to regions outside America, Khan said.

The tariffs on steel, aluminum and copper could be among the items under discussion when the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement heads into a formal review in July.

“Future changes to the tariff rules are a distinct possibility given that multiple industries have likely been caught up in the rule changes that have resulted in what we view as an unintended consequence — the rule changes were meant to simplify tariff collections, not impose large new tariffs,” wrote Doerksen.

“However, there is no visibility on whether the U.S. administration will make changes.”

For now, BRP’s balance sheet remains solid with about $430 million of cash on hand as of the end of January, on top of a healthy debt ratio, analysts said.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 15, 2026.

Christopher Reynolds, The Canadian Press

Rogers Satellite coverage expands to U.S. through T-Mobile partnership



Updated: 


Rogers offices are shown in Montreal, Thursday, Nov., 26, 2009. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Graham Hughes

Rogers Communications Inc. is expanding its satellite-to-mobile coverage south of the border through a partnership with American provider T-Mobile.

The move will allow customers to make app-based voice calls, send text messages and use certain applications while roaming in the U.S. out of range of a cellular network.

The company first launched its Rogers Satellite text service last July, which initially included text-to-911 capability. It temporarily made the service available to all Canadians regardless of their mobile carrier through a free trial that wrapped up December.

In addition to text messaging, Rogers Satellite now supports apps such as WhatsApp, Messenger, X, Google Maps, AllTrails and AccuWeather. Customers can also make voice and video calls using WhatsApp or Messenger both in Canada and the U.S., with Rogers planning to eventually enable traditional cellphone calls including 911 voice services.

Rogers has touted the technology as a solution for Canadians to stay connected in places where traditional cell coverage is not available, such as the most remote parts of Canada and along rural highways.

In September, the Toronto-based company expanded coverage across some bodies of water and along waterways off the Canadian coastline, meaning users could have service on a ferry ride or remote fishing trip.

Both Rogers Satellite and T-Satellite, the satellite-to-mobile offering also launched last July by T-Mobile, rely on the technology of Elon Musk’s Starlink, which uses low-earth orbit satellites to connect cellphones in dead zones.

Rogers said T-Satellite provides 1.3 million square kilometres of satellite-to-mobile coverage in the U.S.

“Canadians want to stay connected wherever they are, even when they’re travelling,” Rogers chief technology officer Mark Kennedy said in a news release.

“By expanding satellite-to-mobile technology, our customers can get more coverage and roam effortlessly throughout the U.S.”

For Rogers customers, satellite-to-mobile roaming in the U.S. is included with its Ultimate and Popular plans with U.S. coverage, Roam Like Home, and select travel passes at no extra cost.

Telus Corp. and Bell Canada have both said they plan to bring their own satellite-powered services to customers sometime this year through partnerships with U.S.-based AST SpaceMobile.

As part of the Telus deal, announced last month, the Vancouver-based firm will invest in ground-based satellite infrastructure and become a shareholder of AST.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 16, 2026.

Sammy Hudes, The Canadian Press

BNN Bloomberg, CTV News and CP24 are owned by Bell Media, which is a division of BCE.

 

Here’s what the CREA now estimates the average Canadian home will sell for




Updated: 


Cherry blossom trees line a residential street in Vancouver, on Tuesday, April 4, 2023. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Darryl Dyck

The Canadian Real Estate Association has downgraded its forecast for home sales activity in 2026, while the number of homes across the country sold in March fell 2.3 per cent from a year earlier.

CREA is now expecting a total of 474,972 residential properties to be sold throughout the year, which would be one per cent more than 2025. But that’s down from its previous forecast in January of 5.1 per cent growth year-over-year.

The national average home price is forecast to rise 1.5 per cent on an annual basis to $688,955 in 2026, which would be around $10,000 lower than predicted in January.

In March, the national average sale price fell 0.8 per cent compared with a year earlier to $673,084.

CREA’s own home price index, which aims to represent the sale of typical homes, edged 0.4 per cent lower between February and March and dropped 4.7 per cent on a year-over-year basis.

That marked the 14th consecutive monthly decline in the national benchmark house price, leaving it down 20 per cent from the early-2022 peak, noted Oxford Economics senior economist Michael Davenport.

“We expect house prices to continue drifting lower before finding a bottom around mid-year, thanks to a resumption of modest job growth, improved affordability, and fiscal stimulus that will increasingly support demand,” said Davenport in a note.

However, he said that’s conditional on “a relatively short-lived U.S./Israel-Iran war” and a favourable renegotiation of the Canada-United States-Mexico Agreement.

“There’s a material risk that Canada’s housing slump could persist for longer and lead to a deeper correction in prices,” he said.

CREA said rising global economic uncertainty “piled on to an already shaky economic start to the year” in March.

It said its forecast was dampened by higher inflation tied to a spike in oil prices. That has raised the odds of a Bank of Canada rate hike later this year, prompting higher bond yields and resulting in a jump in fixed mortgage rates.

The association said it expects higher mortgage rates to curtail activity on their own, but the potential for the oil shock to be short lived will likely also cause many buyers to wait for rates to fall before making their move.

“2026 is still expected to see a modest amount of upward momentum in sales and a stabilization in prices as some pent-up first-time buyer demand enters the market, but the forecast for the year has had to be revised downward,” said CREA senior economist Shaun Cathcart in a press release.

“The timing of higher mortgage rates, along with the perception they may be temporary, could keep would-be buyers away at the most active time of year — April, May, and June — as they wait for rates to come back down.”

National home sales were virtually unchanged in March on a seasonally adjusted month-over-month basis.

The number of newly listed properties ticked 0.2 per cent lower month-over-month. A total of 167,524 properties were listed for sale by the end of the month, up one per cent from a year earlier and 10.6 per cent below the long-term average for this time of the year.

“Canada’s resale housing market is stuck in a rut, and it doesn’t look likely to break out of it any time soon,” said Davenport, adding activity moved lower for the fifth consecutive month in March.

Looking ahead to 2027, CREA said it now forecasts national home sales to improve by 2.1 per cent to 485,071. But it cautioned that number could rise above the 500,000 mark if higher interest rates prove unnecessary to fight inflation.

The national average home price is expected to edge up 0.9 per cent from 2026 to $695,094 next year, subject to an upward revision if the current oil shock and associated inflation end up being short lived.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 16, 2026.

Sammy Hudes, The Canadian Press