Five things to watch for in the Canadian business world in the coming week

TORONTO – Here are five things to look for in Canadian business this week:

Earnings, earnings and more earnings: Any Canadian with money invested in the stock market has reason to keep an eye on the slew of earnings reports and annual meetings this week. Companies ranging from WestJet to Sun Life Financial, Telus and Magna International are telling shareholders how they fared in the first quarter of 2015, a period of stagnant economic growth in large part due to the global slump of oil prices. And speaking of oil prices …

The oilpatch: On deck with earnings reports are Husky Energy Inc. (TSX:HSE), which has recently started up its Sunrise oilsands project and a huge natural gas platform in the South China Sea, as well as Canadian Natural Resources Ltd. (TSX:CNQ), one of Canada’s biggest energy companies with a huge oilsands presence. Pipeline giant Enbridge Inc. holds its annual meeting in Toronto. Past Enbridge AGMs have been dominated by B.C. First Nations groups and environmental organizations speaking out against the proposed Northern Gateway pipeline.

Alberta election: Albertans go to the polls on Tuesday, and energy policy has emerged as a key issue during the final stretch of the election campaign. The governing Progressive Conservatives had been expected to win handily, but polls are suggesting the party is in a tight three-way race with the Wildrose party and the New Democrats. The PCs, in power for more than four decades, have been trying to paint the New Democrats as unfriendly to business and a threat to the oilpatch during a period of weak oil prices. NDP Rachel Notley has said it’s worth examining whether Albertans are getting their fair share of the province’s resource riches through a royalty review. The NDP would also raise corporate taxes to 12 from 10 per cent and Notley has said she’d expend fewer resources stumping for new oil pipelines than her predecessors.

Jobs report: Statistics Canada releases the jobs report for April early Friday morning. The March numbers showed a gain of 29,000 jobs, driven by gains in part-time work. The report will provide the first glimpse of how the economy is faring in the second quarter after a difficult first three months of the year.

Housing: Two key measures looking at how the Canadian housing market is performing are also released this week. Statistics Canada reports the value of building permits for March on Thursday, while the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. releases April housing starts in Canada on Friday. Economists will be looking to see how the spring home construction season kicked off.