Not Our Fault; Blame Maple Leaf

Posted by & filed under Ethics, Managerial Accounting, Student life.

Description: Canada Bread has responded to a class action lawsuit centred on alleged price-fixing in the bakery business by essentially saying, “blame it on our former parent company, Maple Leaf Foods.” Michael McCain, a former Maple Leaf CEO, was having no part of this in his statement, saying, “We continue to believe that the pricing… Read more »

A Pricey Dram!

Posted by & filed under Accounting Principles, Student life.

Description: A few years back, when Adrian Ma visited his uncle in Hong Kong, he was gifted with a bottle of Glenlivet, Special Jubilee Reserve, a 25 year old whisky bottled in 1977 to honour Queen Elizabeth’s Silver Jubilee. At the time of the gift, Adrian’s uncle told him “I don’t have a reason to… Read more »

The Lipstick Index

Posted by & filed under Canadian Economy, Student life.

Description: The Lipstick Index is perhaps one of the most unusual measures of economic performance you may have encountered. Essentially, this measure says that when times are tough, consumers will still avail themselves of smaller luxuries like skin care and perfumes in the face of cut backs on larger purchases. Leonard Lauder, the former CEO… Read more »

News Deal with Google

Posted by & filed under Accounting Careers, Canadian Government.

Description: The government of Canada and online giant Google have finally reached a deal regarding use of Canadian news on the web. The deal comes three weeks before the federal government’s Bill C-18, the Online News Act, comes into effect. Google has agreed to pay $100 million a year to Canadian news organizations for use… Read more »

Crunch Time for Ontario Universities

Posted by & filed under Accounting Careers, Canadian governments.

Description: Universities in Ontario are banding together to try and find cost savings through efforts like joint procurement and combining course offerings, all in the shadow of provincial government pressures to find efficiencies before they will be allowed to increase tuition fees. But the Council of Ontario Universities stated the fiscal situation is becoming “increasingly… Read more »

Our Tax Dollars; Korean Jobs?

Posted by & filed under Accounting Careers, Accounting Principles.

Description: The governments of Canada and Ontario are taking some heat after revelations that 1,600 workers from South Korea will be arriving in Windsor, Ontario to install equipment at the NextStar battery plant. Canadians may be rightly concerned, as the provincial and federal governments have contributed billions to bring the battery plant and the related… Read more »

Is Self-checkout in Trouble?

Posted by & filed under Fraud, Internal control, Student life.

Description: The self-checkout may be in a bit of trouble as some retailers are reconsidering the future of this mode. Increased losses due to shoplifting is certainly a factor for retailers to consider. Adrian Beck of the University of Leicester has studied self-checkouts for over ten years, and he notes they may account for one… Read more »

New Limits on RESPs

Posted by & filed under Accounting Careers, Student life.

Description: If you are post-secondary education student benefiting from of a Registered Education Savings Plan (RESP), you may have some good news for your finances. The federal government has upped the amount full-time students can withdraw from the education assistance payments (EAP) portion for their first 13 weeks of study from $5,000 to $8,000. The… Read more »