A year of recovery

This year showed signs of recovery from the depths of recession in 2008, powered in part by massive government stimulus worldwide.

But that caused trillions of dollars in government borrowing and made investors buy gold as a hedge against expected inflation. Gold soared from around $850 US an ounce to more than $1,215 by early December, and the American dollar fell eight per cent against six other currencies.

The Toronto stock exchange's benchmark index, with its many gold mining stocks, gained about a third over the year.

Ottawa's deficit ballooned and some homeowners piled on the debt, too. The signs for next year point to recovery but the proof of that will come once the effects of government stimulus spending wears off.

This was also a year of struggle for some iconic names in Canadian business. Nortel, Chrysler, General Motors, AbitibiBowater and Canwest entered court protection from creditors.

Here's a timeline:

• Jan. 14:  Nortel Networks files for bankruptcy protection. It's plan to auction off many of its assets throughout the year left its retirees worrying that they would lose a large part of their pensions if the company were to cease operations.
• Jan. 25: Media networks CTVglobemedia and CanWest Global demand the federal broadcast regulator, the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission introduce fee-for-carriage, which would require cable and satellite companies to pay networks for the right to carry their over-the-air signals. That triggers opposing advertising campaigns by both the networks and the distributors.
• Jan. 27:  The federal government introduces a budget which calls for tax cuts, billions in stimulus spending and predicts a deficit of $33.7 billion for 2009, which now is expected to reach $56.2 billion.
• Feb. 6: Statistics Canada reports Canada lost 129,000 jobs in January, pushing the unemployment rate to 7.2 per cent. It would reach 8.6 per cent by October.
• March 23: Suncor Energy Inc. and Petro-Canada announce a merger that would create the country's largest energy company. 

• April 17: Montreal-based forestry giant AbitibiBowater files for bankruptcy protection in Canada, a day after it does the same in the U.S., as the forest industry across Canada continues to struggle, losing 50,000 jobs and shutting down more than 250  mills over the previous two years. 
• April 21: The Bank of Canada cuts its overnight rate to 0.25 per cent, where it stays for the rest of the year. It is not expected to rise again until the middle of 2010.
• April 30: The first of two big U.S. automakers, Chrysler, enters bankruptcy protection with General Motors following June 1, capping months of concern about the future of the industry here in Canada. Chrysler emerges in June, after Italian automaker Fiat takes control, and GM comes out in July. Both receive billions in government aid, and cut jobs and dealerships.
• May 19: The Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation predicts new housing starts would fall by 33 per cent in 2009 to 141,000 because of the faltering economy. In fact, low interest rates ended up spurring construction, and by November housing starts had reached 158,500, still down 25 per cent from 2008.
• July 23: The Bank of Canada declares the recession over, saying the Canadian economy would grow by an annualized rate of 1.3 per cent in the current quarter.

• July 27: Missing financial adviser Earl Jones turns himself in to Quebec provincial police, weeks after provincial securities regulators said he was suspected of bilking clients out of as much as $50 million.
• Aug. 20:  Natural gas prices on the New York Mercantile Exchange dip below $3 US for the first time in seven years.
• Sept. 10: Canada's Magna International Inc. wins a drawn-out auction for General Motors Co.'s Opel unit in Europe but GM's board kills the deal on Nov. 3, saying the business environment had improved.

• Oct. 6: Winnipeg-based media giant Canwest Global Communications Corp. announces that part of its empire, including Canwest Media Inc, which holds the National Post newspaper and Global Television, had been granted court protection from creditors.
• Oct. 29: Hydro-Québec announces it is paying $4.8 billion to purchase NB Power's nuclear and hydro generating stations, transmission system and other assets.
• Oct. 29: The CRTC turns down Globalive's bid to become Canada's fourth national cellphone company, saying it does not meet Canadian ownership and control requirements. The federal cabinet overrules the decision on Dec. 11 and the company launches its Wind Mobile service Dec. 16.
• Nov. 26: An internal corporate document obtained by CBC News shows management at Nortel Networks Corp., already under fire for handing out executive bonuses, had approved a plan to give another round of raises to top managers.
• Dec. 11: The Bank of Canada warns rising government and household debt risk derailing Canada's economic recovery. Four days later, The Canadian Real Estate Association says sales of existing homes were up 73 per cent in November compared to the same month the previous year.