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10 Business Links, Tuesday, October 19, 2010 MARK THIS DATE Saturday, November 20, 2010 10 a.m. - 4 p.m. United Way of Halton Hills By Cor Baarda, CMA, Knowledge Management Enterprises Recipient of the 10th Halton Hills Chamber of Commerce Award as Volunteer of the Year in memory of Marg Tanas Holiday House Tour C Tour, Lunch & Demonstrations Tickets $30 Available at: Art of Flowers & More Bergsma's Paint & Wallpaper Curves: Acton & Georgetown Emerald Isle Silvercreek Espresso Bar Vanderburgh Flowers & Gifts United Way Office Contact United Way of Halton Hills at unitedwayhh@bellnet.ca or 905.877.3066 aren Walker and her husband Jim moved to Georgetown in 1980. Their four children have all grown up here and Caren has been volunteering her time and talents since they were young. Before they were even in school, Caren volunteered at the Toy Lending Library as membership coordinator and later as chair. At Harrison Public School, Caren co-chaired the Parent Council for two years and served as class volunteer for eight years. As her children grew, so did Caren's volunteer involvement with school activities: at St. George's Church as Sunday School coordinator, as the coach's assistant on her son's soccer team, as a "volunteer in staff" at Centennial School for nine years, and as a member of the Parent Advisory Group for three years at GDHS. With her children getting older, Caren decided in 1998 to combine her love of creating unique clothing and designs with her love of interacting with people by forming her own business, Creative Embroidery Works. Her company promotes and advertises for schools and businesses by taking their logos or mascots, changing them from an art format to an embroidery, silk-screen or sublimation format, and then designing staff and student wear. This seems totally appropriate for a woman who spent so many years volunteering at schools ­ now she works primarily with them to help promote their activities. Since joining the Chamber in 2001, Caren has continued her volunteering ways. She and Caren Walker, Creative Embroidery Works, is presented with the Marg Tanas award by Helen MacCormack. the late Val Pakkala of WVP Consulting Inc. approached Sue Walker with the idea of a Chamber sponsored "Women in Business" networking event. After receiving responses to a notice indicating that both the need and the interest were there (almost 40 women showed up for the first meeting in July 2002!), the Halton Hills Women in Business networking luncheon was born, becoming one of the most successful of the Chamber's ongoing events, continuing to the present. In addition to her role on this committee as chair, Caren served on committees promoting Halton community events. Caren continues to volunteer in various capacities at St. George's, with the B to C group as a means of giving back to the community, and with the Big Daddy Festival as the "beer providers ­ Steamwhistle Beer" to raise funds for that event. Though Creative Embroidery Works is getting busier and Jim is now underfoot (he's a big help!), it is clear that Caren has no intention of going into "snail mode." Congratulations again! Costs will continue to rise By Laurie Turnbull CITT, P.MM - www.cole.ca he past 24 months have proved to be a roller coaster ride for Canadian importers and, despite the apparent economic recovery currently underway, it isn't over yet. Transportation services in particular have gone through a classic "supply and demand" economic cycle. Over the past several years, ocean carriers and airline companies responded to increases in world-trade growth by steadily adding new and larger vessels to container fleets and more aircraft on international trade lanes. So much so that when the economy started to slow down in 2008, transportation companies suddenly found themselves in a position of over-capacity: too many container ships, too many airplanes and not enough cargo. And as cargo volumes quickly evaporated, transportation companies found themselves subjected to intense competitive pressures to maintain dwindling revenues. As a result, Canadian importers were among those who enjoyed lower ocean transportation costs last year by as much as 60 per cent on Atlantic trade lanes and 50 per cent on Pacific trade lanes. However, with the current economic recovery underway, all that is about to change. Many transportation firms were forced to put cargo ships and airplanes out of service T last year for lack of cargo, so much so that importers are now faced with under-capacity as the economy quickly recovers. Canadian importers are now experiencing the reverse trend: transportation rates are increasing rapidly as the buyer's market suddenly becomes a seller's market. And although importers have seen multiple rate increases in freight costs this year, carriers maintain that rates are still at 2008 levels. A common problem in this area is that shippers/importers frequently over-estimate their volumes when negotiating service requirements, while carriers tend to under-estimate; the truth usually ends up somewhere in the middle. That "middle ground" can be expensive for carriers in terms of equipment costs. Carriers are putting cargo ships and airplanes back into service to handle the surge in traffic, but cautiously, as they try to avoid last year's over-capacity scenario. Transportation companies will be watching trade flows closely this year, especially since world trade is forecast to grow only marginally above three per cent in 2010 and 2011. Available cargo capacity will improve, but importers should also prepare for increasing costs as the economy continues to recover.