The Financial Post reports in its Wednesday, Sept. 3, edition that Labour Day often marks a new beginning and this year was no different. The Post's Barry Critchley writes that bankers are officially back at work presumably getting a new batch of corporate and government issuers ready to raise capital. Mr. Critchley reports that $1.3-billion of equity deals were announced on Tuesday. Mr. Critchley says the first eight months of 2014 have been a busy period with more equity deals and more capital raised than in the comparable period of 2013. The Post says fundraising this year is ahead of last year by 40 per cent. Four big transactions have boosted the 2014 numbers: the $2.6-billion secondary offering by Bank of Nova Scotia of most of its interest in CI Financial; the sale of $1.8-billion of convertible debentures by Fortis done by way of instalment receipts; the $1.67-billion secondary offering by EnCana of part of its interest in PrairieSky Royalty, the year's largest initial public offering; and, the $1.42-billion raised by Element Financial via the sale of subscription receipts, convertible debentures and preferred shares. Equity financings this year are up by 46 per cent.