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Energy. Previously OPEC had reduced the supply so that there was no inventory and that stoked the price up. However, there was always lots of oil around, lots of excess capacity. Now with Saudi Arabia saying that it was going to produce everything that it can, by definition that means there is no capacity, but it is all inventory which makes the market more volatile. The commodity can sit at $45, but the stock market will start discounting where the commodity can be 6 months from now. In connection with the Fort Mac situation, the first one that gets hit is the insurance company. $9-$10 billion of something has to get sold to pay for it. That money is being stored in assets, and assets have to be liquidated to cover bills. The one thing he is more concerned about is how much it would affect the smaller businesses, as opposed to the big Suncor (SU-T) and Canadian Natural Resources (CNQ-T).

We are still not out of the oil environment, and all things could happen. When the commodity is low he likes to buy something, and as clean a company as possible. This one has a great team and great producing assets in Western Canada. They’ve done a great job and brought down costs. If oil stays down longer and lower, it kind of gets in trouble on obscure things that normally wouldn’t matter. This has a bunch of old producing assets and they are going to reinvigorate the plays. Has a massive amount of environmental abandonment liability, which might never be an issue, but it is out there, so he goes for companies that are a little bigger.

The LNG landscape has changed so much in the last 6 months, and it is what you can sell your product for on the international market, so you start putting yellow flags beside some names. This company is in limbo in that category of investment, so he prefers Altagas (ALA-T), which cancelled their LNG project. Veresen is on Jordan Cove, and he can’t figure out if this is a good or bad idea economically. Also, have many environmental issues as to how to get the gas there. Too many question marks about their business plan.

Aecon (ARE-T) or Stantec (STN-T)? A great Canadian stable company. He uses it as a dampening mechanism in his portfolios. There is a lot of infrastructure to be done. A great, consistent business. Every time he has made an assessment of these 2, he has gone with this one. The stock is now at the higher level of his valuation, so he owns the bonds.

Aecon (ARE-T) or Stantec (STN-T)? Every time he has made an assessment of these 2, he has gone with Aecon.

Forestry? His go to name in this sector is always this one. When he looked at it this winter, it wasn’t cheap enough. It’s all right on Fair Market Value and will make lots of money over the next couple of years when the US housing market recovers.

Had probably been the single best company in Canada 15 years ago in terms of monopoly franchise and what they did. Then they bought other diversified businesses which collapsed and had to restructure. It has now been cleaned up and is on his list of companies that he would probably like at the right price. However, a lot of the move will probably be geared to the construction market in the US, which might or might not happen. This is being fixed, but you still have this propane monopoly. The 16% dividend really looks secure.

(A Top Pick July 28/15. Up 25.83%.) These picks were based on survivability, not a growth. Sold his holdings.

(A Top Pick July 28/15. Up 2.38%.) These picks were based on survivability, not a growth. Sold his holdings last fall. This is a high-quality company and a great time to own it, plus you get the dividend.

(A Top Pick July 28/15. Up 5.82%.) These picks were based on survivability, not a growth. He still likes this and thinks it is really making money and reinvesting at a great rate of return. 3.4% dividend yield.

On uranium, once you get to a $100 million market cap, you had better have a mine. As a speculator in exploration plays, you’d like it to have a $10-$20 million market cap. To take on that amount of risk, you have to double or triple your money.

Had owned the 8% bonds for very specific reasons. Cuba is essentially a ringed fence and so is the Manitoba smelter. There was $600 million in debt, and he thought the coal assets in Western Canada were worth $1-$1.5 billion. Bond agencies wouldn’t rate this because they didn’t know how to rate the Cuban risk. He didn’t care about that risk because it was offset by the Western Canadian coal. On the hint the company was going to sell the coal, he got rid of the bonds as fast as he could. You are now exposed to the Cuban issue, which is a wildcard. Madagascar, depending on the nickel price, might never make money.

When a company falls like this one, his experience has been that you just tear the Band-Aid off. You have to ask yourself what is the energy environment today and what are the companies that are doing well. This is pure heavy oil in Western Canada. Depending on the new normal commodity price, heavy oil might just come out too low.

Used to own this. When valuations got a little excessive, he sold it and that was a mistake. This is high margin, because they sell a light oil product. They make more money than any other company in Western Canada, basically on the margin side. They are doing an incredible job, and don’t seem to be running out of things to do them.

Potential nickel and chromium in Northern Ontario. Chromium is a lesser metal in a really small market. The oil market is enormous, copper market is huge, and once you start getting into these other things, it can become obscure really quickly. This one is really all about infrastructure, and it all makes sense, but nothing seems to be happening.