Posts By: Brent White

Head West for the Summer!

Posted by & filed under Marketing & Strategy, Student life.

Description: If you ever thought of heading west for a summer job in tourist locations like Banff, Canmore or Lake Louise, this might be the year for you. Worker shortages have employers scrambling to meet their staff needs in the hospitality industry in these Rocky Mountain resort areas. Wages are heading up to help attract… Read more »

Air Miles Takeover

Posted by & filed under Accounting Principles, Student life.

Description: The Air Miles customer rewards program has been purchased by Bank of Montreal, following financial problems that resulted in Air Miles parent company, LoyaltyOne, entering creditor protection. Losing the Sobeys grocery chain as a program participant in 2022 was a major blow to Air Miles. But a few years earlier, in 2016, Air Miles… Read more »

CRA Employees to Strike?

Posted by & filed under Canadian Government, Personal Tax.

Description: Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) employees and the Government of Canada are currently at a collective-bargaining impasse. Strike votes are taking place between now and April 7, right in the heart of tax season, when individuals and businesses are normally flooding the CRA call centres with taxation questions. Union President Marc Brière has noted that… Read more »

“Beyond Frustrating”

Posted by & filed under Accounting Careers, Canadian Government.

Description: The Government of Canada is scrambling to collect payroll over-payments from thousands of its employees before it runs out of time. These over-payments were generated by the much-maligned Phoenix payroll system, and, the statute of limitations to recover these amounts expires after six years. Phoenix went live in 2016 and problems with pay were… Read more »

Nordstrom Out: Familiar Story

Posted by & filed under Marketing & Strategy.

Description: American high-end retailer Nordstrom is pulling out of Canada. The chain started Canadian operations in 2014, but it has not been making any money here, reporting losses of $72 million in 2022. The Retail Strategy Group’s Liza Amlani was not surprised by Nordstrom’s move, noting that it had made the same classic mistake as… Read more »

Tip Amounts Rising?

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

Description: Are tip amounts in Canada rising? Some customers are perhaps experiencing sticker shock when their servers hand them a payment unit with tip option buttons of 20%, 25%, or even 30% after tax, when the traditional standard has been 15% pre-taxes. In the face of this ‘tip fatigue,” some restaurants, such as Folke’s in… Read more »

A Big Covid Relief Fraud

Posted by & filed under Canadian governments, Fraud.

Description: A Florida man has been sentenced to over 7 years in prison for a $2.6 million fraud on 3 different U.S. federal Covid-19 relief programs. Daniel Joseph Tisone provided false information to support a variety of applications for loans designed to assist business in the SARS-Cov-2 crisis. While the programs were intended to support… Read more »

Google Test-Blocks Canadians

Posted by & filed under Canadian Economy, Canadian Government.

Description: In an apparent response to the federal government’s Online News Act, Google has blocked some Canadians from their news feeds. Google has called this a test, noting the company runs thousands of tests like this in any given year. The Act will force platforms like Google and Facebook to begin compensating media publishers for… Read more »