2008 Woodie Awards
Canadian exchange rate may affect PSUC
Benjamin Pomerance
Issue date: 10/19/07 Section: News
Originally published: 10/18/07 at 6:12 PM EST
Last update: 10/19/07 at 1:51 AM EST
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A 31-year era for Plattsburgh State students is about to come to a close.
Since 1976, PSUC pupils have reveled in their close proximity to the Canadian border and the city of Montreal, a pleasure compounded by the relatively weak value of the Canadian dollar. Visitors to Canada could purchase a product for $1 Canadian and pay as little as 60 cents in U.S. currency.
This meant cheaper tickets for concerts and sporting events. Cheaper lodgings. Cheaper restaurants. Cheaper bars. Cheaper everything.
Now, those days appear to be over.
About one month ago, the world market value of the Canadian dollar surpassed the value of the American dollar for the first time in 31 years, one of many recent financial changes in an economic turnaround that has seen the worth of American money weaken around the world.
The rising value of the Canadian dollar, combined with the falling rate of exchange for its southern neighbors, has sent shockwaves through the global marketplace.
Prices for imported Canadian goods and services are rising. Prices for exported American goods and services are in a decline.
More Canadians are starting to cross the border in the United States to do their shopping, just as Americans headed north in droves to buy products with the favorable exchange rate throughout the last three decades. Oh - and those inexpensive voyages across the border? PSUC Marketing and Entrepreneurship Chair Nancy Church said PSUC students can kiss those days goodbye.
"SUNY Plattsburgh students who visit Canada for class trips, field trips, concerts and athletic events are going to find it is more expensive to do things in Canada than it used to be when the U.S. dollar was stronger," Church said. "Students going to Montreal on 'beer runs' will also find that the beer is more expensive. That's just how things are going to be while the exchange rate is this way."
Canadian students, on the other hand, will probably find the new exchange rate to be very beneficial, Church said.
Since 1976, PSUC pupils have reveled in their close proximity to the Canadian border and the city of Montreal, a pleasure compounded by the relatively weak value of the Canadian dollar. Visitors to Canada could purchase a product for $1 Canadian and pay as little as 60 cents in U.S. currency.
This meant cheaper tickets for concerts and sporting events. Cheaper lodgings. Cheaper restaurants. Cheaper bars. Cheaper everything.
Now, those days appear to be over.
About one month ago, the world market value of the Canadian dollar surpassed the value of the American dollar for the first time in 31 years, one of many recent financial changes in an economic turnaround that has seen the worth of American money weaken around the world.
The rising value of the Canadian dollar, combined with the falling rate of exchange for its southern neighbors, has sent shockwaves through the global marketplace.
Prices for imported Canadian goods and services are rising. Prices for exported American goods and services are in a decline.
More Canadians are starting to cross the border in the United States to do their shopping, just as Americans headed north in droves to buy products with the favorable exchange rate throughout the last three decades. Oh - and those inexpensive voyages across the border? PSUC Marketing and Entrepreneurship Chair Nancy Church said PSUC students can kiss those days goodbye.
"SUNY Plattsburgh students who visit Canada for class trips, field trips, concerts and athletic events are going to find it is more expensive to do things in Canada than it used to be when the U.S. dollar was stronger," Church said. "Students going to Montreal on 'beer runs' will also find that the beer is more expensive. That's just how things are going to be while the exchange rate is this way."
Canadian students, on the other hand, will probably find the new exchange rate to be very beneficial, Church said.
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