With summer officially behind us and the fall season in full swing, many Canadians are looking for new ways to entertain and enjoy themselves. Packing away the rollerblades and swimsuits, people from over Canada are now gearing up for what some consider their favourite time of year – hockey season.

With the 2009/2010 NHL season kicking off last week, many Canadians are happily back on their couches to turn on the television in time for their favourite team's first games of the season. For some, the idea of staying in and watching the game is a welcome thought considering the tough economic situation facing the nation.

For others, heading out to the arena to watch their team in action live is simply a must. But how has the economy affected the hockey fan's decision? For some Canadians, the decision to go to a game is easy. For others, shelling out the big bucks to see their heroes on ice is a difficult choice.

As The Toronto Star's sports reporter, Chris Young writes today, fans of the Toronto Maple Leafs have it the toughest among all NHL fans. According to his article, Toronto fans pay more than double the league average for a ticket to their home team's games.

Bases on a Chicago-based Team Marketing Report's annual survey that was released earlier this week, Toronto Maple Leafs games at the Air Canada Centre carry an average ticket of $117.49 U.S. this season. The league standard is $51.41.

Not only that, but of the 11 NHL teams raising ticket prices this season, the Leafs' 10 per cent increase is the highest in the entire league. Fans of the Montreal Canadiens pay an average of $72.18 a ticket to see their home team play at the Bell Centre in Montreal. It's the second highest price paid in the league.

For those of you who don't follow hockey (are you sure you're Canadian?), the Toronto Maple Leafs have not even earned a playoff berth since the 2004-2005 NHL season was cancelled. Many Torontonians cannot figure out why the price of a Leafs ticket is so high and only continues to increase.

“Absolutely disgusting,” one reader of The Toronto Star posted online, “How they can justify high ticket prices is beyond me given their performance.”

Will the current economic climate coupled with the inflated prices for Leafs tickets affect the box office at Air Canada Centre this season? Chances are ticket sales will remain very successful. The Toronto Maple Leafs themselves, on the other hand…

One month ago, almost to the day, the Synergy Merchant Services Blog reported that the Canadian loonie was quickly approaching the U.S. dollar in terms of value. Today, Julian Beltrame of The Canadian Press reports that Canada's dollar has gained three cents on its American counterpart and currently sits at 95 cents U.S.

Statistics Canada reports that a number of factors are involved in this happening. Among them is the fact that 5,000 net jobs were created in September. While this is a considerably modest number, it marks the nation's second consecutive month of employment gain.

The U.S., on the other hand, is experiencing quite the opposite situation in that hundreds of jobs continue to be lost on a monthly basis. The United States, notes Beltrame, has not had any rise in its employment rate in nearly two years.

Shane Enright, a currency stategist with CIBC believes that the loonie is gaining strength based on the world's renewed optimism about the economy, encouraging a higher demands for such things as oil.

“The market has a renewed risk appetite, very similar to what we saw through the early part of 2007,” says Enright.

Douglas Porter, a Bank of Montreal economist, predicts that the loonie will be on par with the U.S. “single” in as early as five months.

One other factor, pointed out by Beltrame, that contributes to the notion that one dollar Canadian will soon equal one dollar American, is the Australian national banks have recently increased their interest rates. This has lead to speculation that the Bank of Canada will follow suit.

Evidently, Canada is showing greater signs of economic recovery than the United States, at this point. 95 cents U.S. is the highest value of the Canadian dollar in quite some time. A month ago, economists were predicting the loonie's growth to parity when it hit just over 92 cents U.S.

Will it continue to appreciate? Or is this one of those situations where supposed good news ends up falling flat?

As if, almost on cue, construction will be taking place on one of Toronto's busiest roadways this weekend. Just a day after the Synergy Merchant Services Blog highlighted the “clogged arteries” that are Toronto's highways and streets, news came today of the Gardiner Expressway being shut down this Saturday for “road resurfacing and maintenance work”.

Could our blog have had something to do with this? You're welcome, Toronto.

Unless, of course, you had plans to do some commuting this weekend that involved the Gardiner Expressway, which connects downtown Toronto with the city's western suburbs, this comes as good news for the Toronto's drivers.

For the record, the Frederick G. Gardiner Expressway (how many of you knew that was was its full name?) “will be closed from Carlaw Avenue to the Humber River from 2 a.m. to noon on Saturday” according to 680News' website.

“All southbound traffic on the Don Valley Parkway will be forced to exit at Lake Shore Boulevard and all eastbound traffic on the Gardiner Expressway will be forced to exit onto Lake Shore Boulevard at the Humber River,” they report.

For those of you who may be considering this a major inconvenience, there is a bright side to this story. It appears as if the City of Toronto is doing its part in attempting to improve this roadway before the winter season is upon us.

Among the maintenance expected to be completed this weekend is Closed Circuit Television (CCTV) camera maintenance, road surface repair, guide rail and centre median repair, pavement markings and sign maintenance, lighting work, catch basin cleaning, asphalt grinding and paving as well as expressway sweeping operations and litter removal.

If these renovations don't please Toronto drivers, then hopefully the following information will. 680News also reports that gas prices are set to drop by 1.7 cents tonight. According to gas price watcher, Dan McTeague (who knew there was such a job?), prices are expected to drop to 91.2 cents a litre.

Happy travels!

Toronto is Canada's largest city and the fifth largest in North America. So it should come as no surprise that commuting in Toronto is becoming an increasingly time-consuming venture. The traffic in the city, especially during rush hour, can often force a commuter to take upwards of an hour to get home from work for a trip that generally takes less than 20 minutes.

Sun Media's Jenny Yuen likens Toronto's traffic situation to “clogged arteries” in an article from last month, highlighting the bumper-to-bumper traffic that is commonplace in the city. She writes that while the number of car owners in T.O. continue to increase, the streets themselves are not keeping up with the appropriate expansion.

“Toronto drivers spend roughly two work weeks per year stuck in traffic on the city's congested streets and highways,” writes Yuen. Interviewing CFRB's traffic reporter, Guy Valentine, Yuen notes that in 15 years, not much has changed on Toronto's gridlocked roads.

Says Valentine: “Even when I used to help out my parents at the bakery, we used to have clients that were down on the Danforth and there were days when you just dreaded driving down the Don Valley because it was a crapshoot.”

Valentine, who has been reporting traffic for 20 years, remarks how The Don Valley Parkway – Toronto's highway connecting the downtown core with the northern parts of the city – is more like a parking lot. His experience covering the DVP has taught him that there is no real way to “beat” the traffic while one is driving on it. In fact, it has gotten to the point where it doesn't even matter what time of day it is, the Don Valley Parkway remains a busy roadway.

Ministry of transportation spokesman, Will MacKenzie agrees that rush hour in Toronto these days doesn't start at the assumed 5 p.m.. Instead, it lasts from approximately 3 p.m. to 8 p.m.

The trend, apprarently, is set to continue well into the future. Says John Howe, Metrolinx investment strategy vice-president: “In about five years, we'll start to see the first new projects with the first signs of congestion relief in York Region and parts of the City of Toronto.”

Howe also revealed that the average commute in Toronto these days is an hour and 22 minutes, which will jump to an hour and 49 minutes if the proposed transit plans to do not come to pass.

Perhaps retired University of Toronto traffic engineer VF Hurdle offers the most sound advice to the city's drivers. And that is, to simply get comfortable in your car.

At Synergy Merchant Services, we live by the adage that everyone could use more money. Reasonable enough concept, right? Who couldn't use extra money at any given time?

And while we feel that this is especially true for the many business owners across Canada who participate in our merchant cash advance program, it is also true for our dedicated staff as well. At Synergy, we believe highly in having our team work in a friendly and energetic environment. Of course, everyone shows up to work for a paycheque. Again, who doesn't want to be paid for their work?

But, at Synergy, we recognize that compensation is only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to keeping our employees satisfied. It is important to get to know what motivates our team to show up to the office every morning. We feel that we have developed a culture at Synergy that promotes teamwork, passion and believe it or not, fun!

According to Mike Lee of AutoInc. – the official magazine of the Automotive Service Association (ASA) – money is not the only thing that employees are after. “Good people are also looking for a group to be part of,” says Lee in his 2001 article entitled “Keeping Employees Happy”. “They want to know that their work is contributing to something of importance. Many people also want stability; a well-organized, high-morale working environment and growth potential.”

Acknowledgement seems to be a key factor in maintaining an employee's happiness. No matter what field of work one is in, many of us have had experiences with being reprimanded for something that was done incorrectly. But what about all of those times you did something great?

Even something as simple as a “job well done” or some other small form of appreciation can help to maintain a positive vibe throughout the workplace on a permanent basis.

Lee offers a suggestion for how companies can accomplish this: “Make sure you have a system for tracking and monitoring production, and graph and post these statistics weekly. Your best employees will feel acknowledged and, hopefully, the worst will feel the need to improve.”

Providing customers with the best possible value begins with making your employees feel valued themselves. As Synergy continues to work towards helping businesses throughout Canada prosper and gain greater success, we remain aware that our most important clients are ourselves.

Things are good around Synergy Merchant Services. So good, in fact, that our Vice President of Marketing (and resident gentle giant), John Meloche has proposed to his beautiful girlfriend, Kathryn Papadacos! And although this may surprise some members of the team around the office, Kathryn said “yes”!

We, of course, would like to take this opportunity to invite you all to join us in congratulating both John and Kathryn on their impending nuptials which will take place September 25th, 2010.

Although John actually went ahead and popped the big question at their favourite restaurant, The David Duncan House this past Valentine's Day, his excitement has picked up as of late knowing that the date of his wedding is now under a year away. John admits to not having even considered marriage before meeting Kathryn, and is now more confident than ever that he has secured the woman of his dreams.

“In my mind the engagement definitely started long before the proposal,” says John, “Since day one of knowing Kathryn I have felt more secure in life, in love, in family and in health. Kathryn has a character that has been un-matched by anyone I have ever met in my life.”

While some may regard this couple as an odd pairing – 6 foot 7 John towers over his fianc

Canadians are getting used to hearing about the ups and downs of the current recession. As soon as good news is reported, bad news seems to come out of nowhere and ruin the party. On some days, it appears as if the recession is ending. While on others, it seems like it is only getting worse.

The “recession roller coaster” is a constant and wild ride between good and bad news. So what type of news do we have in store for us today?

Neither.

According to The Canadian Press, the Canadian economic recovery showed zero growth in the month of July. The 0.1 per cent increase in economic growth that was found in June encouraged hopes of the recession's demise. Economists predicted a July rebound between 0.5 and 0.7 per cent. So it appears as if it is bad news after all.

The economy did not appear to get any worse in July, but it didn't get any better either. There was literally no growth at all. So what does this mean?

Economist Douglas Porter of BMO Capital Markets considers this a “shocker”. “We're not talking about a shot across the bow of the optimists,” he said, “this is more like a torpedo through the hull.”

It is now assumed that Canada will experience a very long and drawn-out period of slow economic growth.

Says labour economist Erin Weir of the United Steelworkers union: “The figures provide a sobering reminder that the technical end of a recession may not imply a rapid recovery. Whatever path output takes, the labour market will be even slower to recover.”

Merrill Lynch chief economist Sheryl King was a bit more optimistic, predicting that August and September will display more promising results. She cites Toronto's city worker strike as a factor in the economic growth standstill of July.

According to The Canadian Press, however, “the biggest shocker may have been the big increase in manufacturing sales in July was not matched by production. After nine monthly declines, it advanced only 0.8%.”