Posts By: Brent White

That’s a Big Fraud Doc!

Posted by & filed under Fraud.

Description: An Alberta physician, Dr. Yifei Shi, has been convicted in what has been called the largest doctor billing fraud in the province’s history. In addition to a four-year prison term, Dr. Shi will have to repay $827,077 to the province. Dr. Shi will also face scrutiny from the College of Physicians and Surgeons of… Read more »

Insolvencies Up

Posted by & filed under Accounting Principles, Student life.

Description: Insolvencies in Canada were up 22.5% over the same quarter last year. Statistics Canada said this was the largest year-over-year increase in 13 years. During the pandemic, a number of government programs seemed to have helped businesses and consumers to avoid this level of financial difficulty. But the rise of inflation, increasing interest rates,… Read more »

Silence at Sobeys

Posted by & filed under Accounting Careers, Accounting Principles.

Description: Sobeys has gone virtually silent in the face of an apparent data breach last week. Customers at Sobeys and other related Empire Company stores, found themselves unable to process transactions normally. Problems included filling prescriptions at the pharmacy. Another food company, Canada Packers, also had similar problems last week, but it took a different… Read more »

No Gold Here

Posted by & filed under Accounting Careers, Financial Reporting and Analysis.

Description: Did you know that the Bank of Canada, unlike central banks in a number of other nations, does not hold any gold reserves? About twenty years ago the Bank sold off all of its gold holdings, claiming the cost of holding gold and the higher returns available from foreign bonds made gold a bad… Read more »

A Good Month for Jobs

Posted by & filed under Auditing, Canadian Economy, Student life.

Description: October was a good month for the Canadian economy with 108,000 new jobs added, exceeding projections by a factor of ten. Because more Canadians were actually looking for work last month, the unemployment rate remained steady at 5.2%. Despite the good news on the employment front, a higher number of Canadians report having trouble… Read more »

Tax on Stock Buybacks

Posted by & filed under Financial Reporting and Analysis, Student life.

Description: The federal government is set to introduce a 2% tax on stock buybacks. The government hopes this move will encourage companies to reinvest their profits in order to grow and benefit the Canadian economy, rather than buying back shares with excess cash. Kim Forrest of Bokeh Capital Partners does not believe the 2% penalty… Read more »

Private Equity Firm Buying Rona

Posted by & filed under Financial Accounting.

Description: Sycamore Partners, a private equity firm located in New York, is buying retailer Rona, along with several related parties, from Lowes. Lowes said it is making the sale in a move to simplify its business model. Sycamore is paying $400 million for the deal along with additional compensation that will depend upon performance. Date:… Read more »

Health Benefits Bring Workers

Posted by & filed under Accounting Careers, Marketing & Strategy.

Description: Restaurant employees have long been used to working without employer sponsored health benefit plans. But in this time of staff shortages, restaurateurs, such as Calgary’s Antonio Migliarese, are seeing health and dental benefits as way to attract and retain a quality staffers. As line cook Maddy Vine states, in “an industry that’s all about… Read more »

Phoenix Problems Persist

Posted by & filed under Auditing, Canadian Government.

Description: Well, the good news is that only 28% of federal government employees had an error in their pay during the fiscal year ended 31 March 2022. According to the federal auditor general, that is down from 47% in the prior year, indicating that, although results have improved, the maligned Phoenix pay system is far… Read more »