Posts Categorized: Canadian governments

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 »

AIMCo’s Risky Investments

Posted by & filed under Canadian governments.

Description: The Alberta Investment Management Corp. (AIMCo) – the organization that manages the public sector pension funds in the western province – is coming under criticism for investing over $1 billion in the Alberta oil patch. A number of these investments have lost money, with one company collapsing despite a $60 million investment by AIMCo…. Read more »

Hidden in Tax Expenditures

Posted by & filed under Accounting Principles, Canadian governments.

Description: If a government plans to spend money through grants or other expenditures, it is normally clearly disclosed as part of the budget process. But there is another class of “hidden” expenditures known as tax expenditures, a combination of various measures that don’t show up in the financial statements. This week the New Brunswick government… Read more »