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Canadian Currency Posts its Biggest Weekly Loss Since 1971 By Cordell Eddings Aug. 8 (Bloomberg) -- Canada's dollar posted its biggest weekly loss since at least 1971 as a report showed employers unexpectedly shed jobs for a second month, raising speculation that the central bank may cut borrowing costs. The currency weakened 3.9 percent this week as an index measuring its U.S. counterpart against six major trading partners reached the highest since February. The Canadian dollar dropped 1.4 percent against the U.S. dollar today, the biggest daily decline since March 19. Employers reduced payrolls by 55,200 positions, Statistics Canada said in Ottawa. The currency fell to C$1.0672 per U.S. dollar at 2:32 p.m. in Toronto, from $1.0530 yesterday. It touched C$1.0696, the lowest since last August. One Canadian dollar buys 93.69 U.S. cents. ``This is very worrisome,'' said Michael Gregory, a senior economist in Toronto at the Bank of Montréal. ``The expected slowdown in the Canadian economy is happening, and maybe happening a little more steeply even than the Bank of Canada was expecting.'' After gaining 17 percent in 2007, the Canadian dollar is down 6.4 percent in 2008 amid a shrinking economy and a drop in oil prices. The currency has declined for seven straight days. The Bank of Canada Commodity Price Index declined for a fifth week to 274.32 on Aug. 6, from a record of 318.34 on July 2. `Oil Prices Weak' ``On top of the jobs report that came in so negative, in the background the U.S. dollar keeps appreciating, and you have oil prices remaining weak,'' said Maria Jones, currency strategist at TD Securities in Toronto, a unit of Canada's third-largest bank. ``These three things are conspiring against the Canadian dollar.'' Oil dipped to as low as $115.61 a barrel. It reached a record $147.27 on July 11. ``These numbers are certainly weak and complement the U.S. dollar recovery story going on that we have seen all week,'' said Stewart Hall, a market strategist at HSBC Securities Canada in Toronto. Economists had forecast the addition of 5,000 new jobs in July, according to the median of 22 estimates in a Bloomberg survey. Investors raised bets the Bank of Canada will cut its benchmark lending rate by the end of the year. The yield on the bankers' acceptances futures contract due in December fell 4 basis points, or 0.04 percentage point, to 2.76 percent. `Cut Rates' ``A weak number like this is a lot more than what people were thinking,'' Gregory said. ``It adds weight to the evidence that the Bank could cut rates before the end of the year.'' The economy has been struggling as factories try to sell products south of the border because of low U.S. consumer confidence and a Canadian currency that's appreciated about 14 percent in the past three years. The Bank of Canada signaled last month that interest rates will stay at 3 percent for the foreseeable future, with growth virtually stalled and inflation beyond the upper limit of policy makers' target range. The yield on the two-year government bond fell 4 basis points today to 2.73 percent. Earlier it touched 2.61 percent, the lowest since March 31. The price of the 3.75 percent security due in June 2010 rose 6 cents to C$101.79. The 10-year bond's yield declined 2 basis points to 3.62 percent. To contact the reporter on this story: Cordell Eddings in New York at ceddings@bloomberg.net

If any one wants to join up for a trip in the next several weeks shoot me a pm. Date is still open and flexible.

Dont know what im doing wrong but keep getting an error message in Mapsource that it cannot open file. It seemed to install ok but indicates it is not a valid mapsource file?

Thanks Andyman

Does any one know if the diesel fuel in Quebec is ULSD 15 ppm sulfur or LSD diesel 500 ppm? I'm only able to run ULSD in my truck and planning on heading up next week so I'm a bit concerned as to what fuel I will be able to find. Thanks in advance

That one is simple at least for my setup which is a Garmin legend cx if you install Garmins program map source that comes with the gps. or City Navigator which may or may not come with it. That depends on what you get included when you purchase the unit. With city navigator installed you then have a lot of neat features such as auto routing with turn by turn directions as you proceed down the trail as well as features such as closest gas, food, lodging, banks etc. etc. along with a very detailed auto road maps for all of Canada and the US. Obviously this package is about $100.00 more that the basic package but in my mind its well worth it. With the basic map source software that comes with it you have a map that works real time but no auto routing or find features, you also only get very basic auto road map with just a few major roads that show up. The link to the snowmobile trail maps I posted above will work with either package but the same thing apply Basic (Map Source) no auto trail routing. With the City Navigator software already installed All the auto routing features as well as find features work with the sled trail maps. I personally will not ride without one any longer. It has saved my bacon several times already. To answer you question, once you get the software installed in your pc the rest is pretty straight froward. My experience is due to all the security stuff such as key codes if you think you want the auto routing feature get it as pre packaged purchase and not at a later time. Installation is much easier, all the codes and serial numbers work together without having to do a lot of trying to figure it out stuff. There are other brands out there which I have no idea of how they work, Im only speaking of what I know based on what I have. Hope that clears things up for you PS. With that unit It has a removable memory card. I immediately purchased a 1 GB memory card because all the information in the City Navigator program takes a lot of memory capacity to hold all the information that it contains. The unit I have Garmin Legend CX only comes with a 64 mb removable memory card and it takes nothing to max that out with that City navigator program.

Just a suggestion. If you have a gps bring it especially if your new to the area. Some times it can be really confusing especially early season, when signs may not be up. http://www.gpsquebec.ca/produits/detail.ph...&Lang=en_ca This is software that works with most GPS's . It contains all of Quebec trails and a lot of local stuff as well. It has saved my butt a lot and have found new trails even in areas I thought I knew pretty well. Just a suggestion for you

One product I have found that really seems to work well for cleaning face shields is called CAT CRAP http://www.ems.com/catalog/product_detail_...t+crap+anti+fog One thing I have noticed in using this is that the first time that you apply it, there seems to be a film on the inside of the shield that may be applied during manufacturing. That film seems to catch all kinds of dirt and degrades the optical clarity of the shield in short order. When you use the cat crap for cleaning the first time it seems to get absorbed into that film and dries fast making it hard to get off. It takes a lot of rubbing to get that dried up film off the first time with a very soft tissue. However after the first treatment any further cleanings are a breeze, leaving the treated surface silky smooth. The difference in optical clarity afterwards is like night and day and fogging seems to be reduced a lot if you continue using the product. Hope that helps

I second that, I do have that software for my garmin and believe me it really works well, got us out of numerous jams especially when intersections were not marked along with all the offshoot trails were you had no idea which way to go due to the lack of sign age. They also show a lot of logging roads that are also traveled by the locals along with nearest gas food lodging etc ( If you have auto routing software installed such as Garmin City Navigator, you also then get the auto routing feature for the sled trails with turn by turn directions ). I too would not ride without it, actually I keep a spare, I feel it could be a life saver. I talked with the developer a few months back and a new issue will be out I believe in January, however for liability reasons the actual trail map is the exact one you find on the fcmq site listed above even tho I have seen errors in some of the mapping due to trail rerouting. However even with that draw back it is still a very useful tool that has opened up a lot of new trails for us as well as shortcuts that you don't find on the paper trail map. I think the price now has gone up some approx. $110 or so but its still well worth the expense.

Doesn't really matter to us how long it takes usually we are good for 250=300 miles a day or so. I'm trying to pick a route now with places to stay along with CONTACT INFORMATION, and the approx cost of the lodging. (we had a bad experience last year at one place, almost $400.00 dollars for 3 people in one room for one night. This particular establishment was a very plane Jane type of place in a fairly remote area so I guess they figured they had us. Now I'm checking costs first as I feel that one was kinda stiff in comparison to most places we usually stay at which usually run less half that amount) I'm open to suggestions for a route and a good launch point. We would probably prefer starting out most any place between say Montreal and Quebec but would tend to favor closer to the Montreal area. We would like to probably cover the Lac St. Jean area and more than likely get up to the Chibougimu sp? area and loop around to complete the tour. We usually prefer the more remote areas as night life is not a concern for us but high traffic on the trails is. I'm new to bag trips, only have done 1 so far for one night . Most of my knowledge so far consists of the area centered around the St. Michel area extending out to about a 75 to 100 mile radius from there. We have decided to explore new areas this coming season, but trying to avoid getting raked over the coals again. Any help or advice would be much appreciated. Tom

I use a 4 monitor system each one set to different resolutions so I just place the page I'm viewing on the screen that looks the best and use it there. I's really works well.