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 »

Pharmacare Would Cost – and Save?

Posted by & filed under Accounting Careers, Canadian governments, Student life.

Description: According to the Parliamentary Budget Officer (PBO), a national pharmacare program with one single public sector payer would cost taxpayers an additional $11 billion in its first year. Currently, prescription drugs are paid through a variety of government, employer, and citizen contributions, with the total governments’ share at 46% and private insurance companies picking… Read more »

Corporate Welfare Billions

Posted by & filed under Canadian governments, Financial Reporting and Analysis.

Description: Several media reported this week on a recent Fraser Institute study on the extent of corporate welfare in Canada. The various business subsidies “come with huge costs to government budgets and taxpayers while doing little if anything to stimulate economic growth,” according to Tegan Hill, a co-author of the report. From 2007 through 2019,… 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 »

Kill the Junk Fees

Posted by & filed under Canadian governments, Student life.

Description: When Joe Biden took to the podium this past week for his State of the Union address, listeners could be excused for being surprised when they heard him declare war on junk fees. Biden is proposing legislation to ban those annoying fees on things like airline bookings and hotel rooms; those extra charges for… Read more »

Rich Get Richer

Posted by & filed under Canadian governments, Ethics, Taxation.

Description: Development organization Oxfam has reported that the “1%” – the richest people in the world – have acquired 2/3 of the new wealth created since the pandemic. While the upper echelon is adding $2.7 billion to its wealth total each day – yes that does say billion with a “b” – people in less… Read more »

Less Than Nothing?

Posted by & filed under Accounting Careers, Canadian governments, Cost Accounting.

Description: Less than nothing? That was how the CBC described the situation where the government of New Brunswick seems to be paying forestry companies to harvest pulpwood on Crown lands in the province. The new government rate charges harvesters $3.40 per cubic metre of certain softwoods. But the government then pays the forestry companies $3.90… Read more »

We’re Picking up the Tab

Posted by & filed under Canadian governments.

Description: Toronto Star columnist Armine Yalnizyan argues that a lot of Canadians will be picking up the tab for the truckers protest that surrounded Parliament Hill for over three weeks. Just one shopping location, the Rideau Centre, has been estimated to have lost $3 million a day in retail sales. With the federal government offering… Read more »

The Texas Cold Crisis

Posted by & filed under Canadian governments, Corporate Strategy.

Description: In an extraordinary week of cold weather, Texas has been dealing with a crisis. Power failures left many Texans in the cold, then freezing water pipes and crippled water treatment plants created a shortage of clean drinking water. This crisis may prompt governments and utilities in North America to consider just how resilient our… Read more »