Description: Canadians are anticipating some personal income tax changes following Justin Trudeau’s election victory on October 19. The Prime Minister designate campaigned on a platform of tax breaks for the middle class while stating his intention to raise the rates of the highest income earners. All this has prompted New Brunswick’s Finance Minister, Roger Melanson,… Read more »
Posts Categorized: Canadian governments
Tax changes coming?
Description: Canadians are anticipating some personal income tax changes following Justin Trudeau’s election victory on October 19. The Prime Minister designate campaigned on a platform of tax breaks for the middle class while stating his intention to raise the rates of the highest income earners. All this has prompted New Brunswick’s Finance Minister, Roger Melanson,… Read more »
Down, but is it out?
Description: Last week Globe and Mail political writer Jeffrey Simpson had a tersely worded warning for one Canadian province: “New Brunswick is flat on its fiscal back.” The article noted that New Brunswick is “the worst case in Canada” in terms of fiscal problems. One issue seems to be a reluctance to raise the harmonized… Read more »
The Atcon affair
Description: In most Canadian jurisdictions, citizens would be upset if their government lost $70 million of hard-earned taxpayers’ dollars. But in a small jurisdiction like New Brunswick, the pain is magnified. On March 24, Auditor General Kim MacPherson, released a report on the NB government’s loss of $70 million for various financial arrangements it had… Read more »
Long-form problems
Description: Since the Canadian government cancelled the long-form census in 2010, we have heard a number of criticisms of the move. Now business leaders and economists are coming forward to add that the cancellation of the long-form census has robbed them of decision-making capacity. Without the information the census would have generated, businesses lack important… Read more »
Protecting public assets
Description: On January 22, New Brunswick’s Auditor General, Kim MacPherson, released her report for 2014. Two issues which grabbed a lot of attention were the Province’s increasing public debt and NB Power’s refurbishment of the Point Lepreau nuclear generating station. Another important issue raised was the deteriorating state of the Province’s public assets, and the… Read more »
Uber valuation soars
Description: Have you ever hitched a ride using Uber? The operations of this ride sharing service are proving disruptive to traditional taxi operations in major cities in over 50 countries. Now, Uber has raised an additional $1.2 billion in capital to fuel foreign expansion. This latest round of investment values Uber at over $40 billion…. Read more »
University budget questions
Description: In August, 2014, the Ontario government signed goal-setting agreements with the province’s 44 post-secondary institutions. This process was supposed to be step number one in changing the way the institutions are funded. Concerns are being expressed on how demographics and changes to funding may impact individual universities. Source: Globe and Mail.com Date: October 11,… Read more »
Not the fantasy world we were dreaming of
Description: When I was much younger, futurists dreamed of a day when the work week would be much shorter. What would we do with our high standard of living and all this leisure time? Well, according to Saturday’s Globe and Mail, many have reached the 15 hour work week. But that is a problem –… Read more »
Should we be recounting?
Description: The recent New Brunswick election not only produced a new government; it also produced a rather intriguing situation when the vote counting machines malfunctioned, causing concerns about the process. Elections NB blamed the problem on a software malfunction. Meanwhile, a number of political officials have been calling for hand counts of the ballots. Source:… Read more »