While the Union did table a new deal (admittedly one they probably knew Canada Post would not accept) to stop a potential work stoppage yesterday, it looks like we will see a disruption in the mail as early as Friday.

Canada Post Corporation has issued 72 hour notice of a lockout.  While this does not guarantee mail disruption, both sides can still negotiate, it is likely that we will have no mail starting on Friday morning.  So you may want to double check how companies are mailing items if ordering online and pick up any parcels waiting for you at Canada Post locations.

Both sides have said their latest offers are final so it could be some time before they come to agreement, especially with the government wary of getting involved after the last back to work legislation was found unconstitutional.

They did come to an agreement that there would be up to two days delivery per month to ensure that pension and government assistance was delivered, but this does not include many government payments so you may want to check to see if you will receive payments on time should the lockout go ahead this week.

The Home Depot Canada has a new list of workshops that are going on this month! The Home Depot Canada July 2016 FREE workshop include:

• Build an Ice Age Bowling Game, Saturday, July 9, 2016 10am – 12pm
• Install a Ceiling Fan (excluding Quebec), Wednesday, July 13, 2016 – 7pm – 8pm
• How to Tile Floors and Walls Quebec only, Wednesday, July 13, 2016 – 7pm – 8pm
• Build a Garden Pond, Saturday, July 16, 2016 – 10am – 11am
• Build a Wood Fence, Sunday, July 24, 2016 – 1pm – 2pm

To book your slot at a workshop, contact your local Home Depot location.

Click here to read more about these workshops at The Home Depot Canada.

Click here to get all Home Depot Canada online offers.

Good morning 🙂 Happy Canada Day!

As you have likely heard, July 2, 2016 is the official last day before the Canadian postal workers can stop working and enter into a lock-out or strike. So, if you have any last minute items that need to be mailed, you must do so by today, June 29, 2016! This is to ensure delivery by tomorrow, June 30, 2016. Today is the absolute last day to send anything and if you’re sending it anywhere other than locally, you will need to pay for the priority option.

• Expedited Parcel (Local)
• Xpresspost (Local)
• Priority (National, Regional & Local)

Click here to read more details via Canada Post.

Ikea Canada has issued another recall but this time the recalled items are the best-selling MALM dressers and chests! Approximately 6 million of these recalled furniture pieces have been sold in Canada since 2002. The recall was issued because many of the MALM-style dressers don’t meet the voluntary North America ASTM standard requirements on free-standing stability. Ikea issued a wall attachment last year to prevent furniture top-overs but clearly they’re either not being used or aren’t installed correctly.

“Ikea Canada takes its role as a responsible retailer very seriously and we want to raise the awareness of the hazard of furniture tip-over in Canadians’ homes,” said Stefan Sjöstrand, the Ikea Canada President.

Since 1989, six children in the US were killed by toppling dressers and drawers so clearly this recall is the best action that Ikea can take. If you have a recalled dresser you can bring it back to any Ikea location and get a refund; however, if you want to continue using it, you can get a free wall anchoring kit from any Ikea store.

Here is a full list of recalled chest of drawers:

• BRIMNES chest/2 drw 50×77 (all colours)
• BRIMNES chest/3 drw 78×95 (all colours)
• BRIMNES chest/4 drw 39×124 (all colours)
• BRIMNES chest/4 drw 78×124 (all colours)
• ASKVOLL chest/6 drawers 45×109 (all colours)
• BRUSALI chest of 3 drawers 80×93 (all colours)
• BRUSALI chest/4 drw 51×134 (all colours)
• BUSUNGE chest/2 drw 80×75 (all colours)
• BRUSALI chest of 6/drawers 80×117 (all colours)
• HEMNES chest/3 drw 108×95 (all colours)
• HURDAL chest/3 drw 109×93 (all colours)
• HEMNES chest/5 drw 57×130 (all colours)
• HURDAL chest/5 drw 56×137 (all colours)
• HEMNES chest/6 drw 108×130 (all colours, *except painted white*)
• IKEA PS 2012 chst 5 drwrs/1 dr 130x48x86 pine
• KOPPANG chest/3 drw 90×82 white
• KULLEN N chest/5 drw 70×112 black-brown
• MALM chest/3 drw 80×78 (all colours)
• MALM chest/4 drw 80×100 (all colours)
• MALM chest/5 drw 40×123 (all colours)
• MALM chest/6 drw 40×123 (all colours)
• MALM chest/6 drw 80×123 (all colours)
• MALM chest/6 drw 160×78 (all colours)
• NORNÄS chest 4 drwrs/2 comp 108×88 pine/grey
• STOCKHOLM chest/4 drw 49×107 walnut veneer
• STUVA frame 60x50x128 white
• STUVA frame 60x50x64 white
• SUNDVIK N chng tbl/chst of drwrs (all colours)
• TARVA chest of 4 drawers, 79×92 pine
• TARVA chest of 5 drawers, 39×127 pine
• TARVA chest of 5 drawers, 79×127 pine
• TARVA chest of 6 drawers, 155×92 pine
• TROGEN chest of drawers 100×108 light grey
• TRYSIL chest of 3 drawers, 75×77 dark brown/black
• TYSSEDAL chest/4 drw 67×102 white
• TYSSEDAL chest/4 drw 87×76 white
• TYSSEDAL chest/6 drw 127×89 white
• UNDREDAL chest of 4 drawers, 87×101 black
• UNDREDAL chest of 5 drawers, 67×122 black

Click here to read more details about this Ikea Canada recall.

Click here to view all the recalled chests and drawers from Ikea Canada.

Real Canadian Superstore Canada has an awesome 1-Day promotion available today only! TheReal Canadian Superstore Canada promotion includes:

• NO Tax on purchase of garden centre, home, electronics, toys, Joe Fresh apparel

The Real Canadian Superstore Canada offer is valid today only, Saturday, June 25, 2016.

Click here to view Real Canadian Superstore Canada weekly flyers.

IKEA Canada is recalling its PATRULL Safety Gates due to a safety hazard. The company received reports of the gates opening unexpectedly and children falling down the stairs causing injury. The products being recalled are the PATRULL safety gate, PATRULL FAST and PATRULL KLÄMMA.

Although there have been no reports of injury in Canada, if you have this item in your home, immediately stop using it and bring it back to your local IKEA store or call IKEA Customer Service toll-free, 1-800-661-9807 for a full refund. Don’t worry about the refund because a receipt isn’t required.

Click here to read about this IKEA Canada recall.

Bolthouse Farms Canada is voluntarily recalling 6 different protein beverages and a variety of butters due to a possible spoilage! The spoilage may affect the drinks by giving them a lumpy appearance along with unpleasant tastes and odours. There have been no reported illnesses associated with the consumption of these drinks; however, if you bought them, you’re advised to return it for a refund.

The products affected are listed above, which includes the protein drinks and butters. The recall affects Protein PLUS Chocolate, Vanilla Bean, Blended Coffee, Strawberry, Coconut and Banana Honey Almond Butter varieties with best by dates between June 20, 2016 and September 18, 2016.

Click here to read about this Bolthouse Farms Canada recall.

With both sides far from agreement on the latest round of talks, it is looking more and more likely that there may be a disruption to the postal service as early as July 2nd so you may want to rethink some of those online orders from outside of Canada or retailers who can be slow to ship packages within Canada.

Major customers were sent a notice of the possibility some time ago, so both sides have been ready for the possibility with Manitoba even making alternative arrangements to get essential and government mail (like welfare cheques, health cards and more) delivered to pickup points starting on Monday.

Agreements have been reached between the two side ahead of previous potential work stoppages to deliver government payments to seniors and people with low incomes but so far, this is not the case this time although they have said they will start segregating any live animals and other perishable packages ahead of the potential work stoppage to ensure they are delivered.

While the talks are mainly confidential, it seems that guaranteed pensions and the future of Canada Post are the major issues.   Unlike some previous potential disruptions, this one will impact both urban and rural customers.

Unconfirmed rumours include Purolator asking their employees to not take holidays starting on July 2nd and some Canada Post facilities not accepting mail even earlier than this to ensure all mail is delivered and not stuck in warehouses.  According to letters sent to businesses

• Regular letter mail should be delivered to Canada Post before June 23 but there are no service guarantees – so if you are a coupon trader, get those sent out ASAP
• Regular parcels should be accepted at a postal office already for national service, by June 22 for delivery within province and June 27 for local service.
• Xpresspost and Priority parcels have until June 28 or 29 to be picked up or dropped off to Canada Post.
• Any letters or parcels within the system during a potential work stoppage will be secured and delivered as soon as possible once work resumes.

If you have a Shoppers Drug Mart branded account or credit card with RBC, be sure to read the letter they just sent or insert in your statements as they are ending their partnership this year.

The move is not a surprise, since Loblaws took over Shoppers Drug Mart, the move to PC Banking was probably going to happen at some point.  But RBC holds the accounts, and unless you tell them otherwise, will convert them to regular RBC accounts later this year.  If you have a banking account, it will be converted to a no-limit banking account while the Shoppers Drug Mart branded credit card will be converted to a cash-back card.  Fees for these accounts may differ from your Optimum banking accounts, so be sure to check to see if that is an account you still want  without the bonus of more Optimum points.

You can continue to use your cards until the end of September and points will be transferred to your Optimum accounts as usual.  They will not contact you to ask if you want to transfer your account to their regular ones, it is up to you to contact them and say you do not want the new card.  But they do have a bonus on the cash-back credit card if you switch.

It will be interesting to see if PC offer an Optimum branded card after the September 30th deadline or if they will offer the regular PC accounts to Shoppers Drug Mart customers which may signal a move to PC Plus at Shoppers.

The 17th annual British Columbia Family Fishing Weekend starts Friday, June 17, 2016 until Sunday, June 19, 2017. The Family Fishing Society of BC encourages British Columbians to go fishing, learn a great new pastime and have fun with family and friends!

Click here to read about the British Columbia Family Fishing Weekend.

Walmart is making a bold move in their fight against what they see as unacceptably high costs associated with using Visa cards and will stop accepting them in-stores across Canada this year.

We will see the change start in Thunder Bay stores in a month with the policy change rolling out across the country after that.  Since stores like to roll policy changes into one date, watch for those long rumoured price-match and coupon policy changes happening this summer too.

Walmart claims that it spends $100 million in credit card fees per year.  Considering that Visa is a bit more popular in Canada, that is a large portion of people who will have to use debit, cash or an alternative credit card at Walmart.  The fees will also be a large loss to Visa so it will be interesting to see if they give into Walmart’s demand for a lower rate which can be quite high for reward cards.

Will this change how often you shop with Walmart?  Many Canadians are used to this policy with No Frills also refusing Visa cards, but it seems easier to accept it from them when they claim they get lower costs by offering a Mastercard and only accepting it.  Walmart also offers online shopping which does not give you the choice to pay with cash or many debit cards, an issue No Frills does not have to worry about.

Tim Hortons Canada has announced its newest coffee: Three Peaks Colombian Coffee! Available for a limited time only, you can try a small size for free! This new Three Peaks coffee comes from Cauca, Colombia and has a smooth and distinctive taste. It’s a medium roast with hints of caramel that will be sure to wake up your taste buds in the morning!

All you have to do is visit the link below and register for a coupon. Based on the list of participating restaurants, it looks like most of them are in New Brunswick. This coupon expires on June 30, 2016.

Click here to get this Tim Hortons Canada deal.

You may remember the post that was written yesterday about the items containing sunflower seeds, which were recalled due to a possible Listeria monocytogenes contamination; another product, Atkins Day Break Bars containing sunflower seeds are also being recalled. Take note that this recall was listed on the Canadian Food Inspection Agency website on June 5, 2016 but has since been updated with a different expiry date as noted in the photo below in bold with an asterisk.

• Atkins Day Break, Chocolaty Hazelnut Bar
• Atkins Day Break, Cranberry Almond
• Atkins Day Break, Chocolaty Chip Granola Bar

Although your food may look and smell OK to eat, it may still be contaminated with Listeria monocytogenes. If you have any of the products mentioned above, you’re advised to throw them out or return them to where they were purchased. If you’re experiencing any symptoms such as vomiting, nausea, persistent fever, muscle aches, severe headache or neck stiffness after eating these Atkins Day Break bars, visit your doctor as soon as possible.

Click here to read about this Atkins Canada recall.

The 17th annual British Columbia Family Fishing Weekend is almost here! This weekend, The Family Fishing Society of BC encourages British Columbians to go fishing, learn a great new pastime and have fun with family and friends! There are three different opportunities are available to the public through the program:

• Go fishing license-free this weekend within the rules anywhere in B.C.! Enjoy time with family and learn a new sport!
• There will also be numerous free community fishing events!
• Plus, if you want to learn even more about fishing in B.C. visit the educational website below.

Click here to read about the British Columbia Family Fishing Weekend.