4570 replies to this topic

[exc911ence]

The wording is different but this exactly the same as the CERB. You will get $26K for doing nothing and you can earn up to $1,000 a month working before it starts to get clawed back. Perhaps a few people will view the $1,000 a month as being significant enough that they want to pick up a few shifts a week but that doesn't help small business owners that want to try and revive their business. 

 

As many of us have been saying for months, this is what UBI looks like. 8.5M Canadians (40% of workforce) sitting at home collecting money because it is preferable to working. Universal pharmacare will now be added to even further disincent people from taking a full time job. Exactly what the Liberals and NDP want, an entire generation of people completely reliant on Government largess.

 

The longer this goes on the more and more dependent people will be as their skills become dated and their resume shows a large gap. No way the support will ever be rolled back. Only question will be how long the Feds can run up $350B+ annuals deficits before investors pull the plug.

 

The other question is: How can the Feds afford to keep people at home on a UBI if doing that means that there's no income tax being collected?

 

Obviously some people will still work but if the desired ending is for everyone to be suckling the government teat, where will the money come from then?

[spanky123]

^ Well income tax will be levied when an individual files their tax return but as we all know many people won't have saved anything so I am sure the Feds will wind up waiving that. Having said that, I believe with the CRB income tax will be deducted before payment (CERB was no tax deducted at all). 

 

Hard to make the argument that paying people $26K a year and collecting a couple grand back in tax makes economic sense. I know the argument is that these folks will spend the money in the economy and some tax will be recovered there but that assumes it gets spent and not invested/ saved and that it gets spent on things were tax is collected (ie not Netflix, Amazon, etc).

[LJ]

My understanding is that the new benefit is contingent upon you actively seeking work. I'm not sure how they would police that though.

[spanky123]

My understanding is that the new benefit is contingent upon you actively seeking work. I'm not sure how they would police that though.

I think the requirement is to be available for work.

[VIResident]

Taxes.

 

Mentioned many times in these pages - municipal, provincial, federal.taxes are going to choke residents.   

Rumors abound Ottawa may hike capital gains tax. 

 

Capital question

 

SEPTEMBER 25, 2020

MARK GOODMAN & CYNTHIA JAGGER:  https://theorca.ca/v...pital-question/

[Mike K.]

The most important piece of the puzzle wasn’t considered in that article, and that’s an increase in real-estate values by offsetting higher capital gains through a higher sale price.

This is another way the Trudeau government will make it tougher to be a homeowner in this country.

[Victoria Watcher]

The Walt Disney Company's Chairman of Parks, Experiences and Products, Josh D'Amaro, has announced Tuesday evening that approximately 28,000 cast members will be laid off at its theme parks due to the ongoing impact of the coronavirus pandemic.

[Victoria Watcher]

Troubled pandemic rent subsidy program expires today — and there's no replacement ready

Social Sharing

 

Canada Emergency Commercial Rent Assistance lowered rent for small businesses but program was seen as 'flawed'

 

https://www.cbc.ca/n...tance-1.5744006

[spanky123]

Troubled pandemic rent subsidy program expires today — and there's no replacement ready

 

The rent subsidy was a boondoggle from the start. Having said that, there should be few retail or hospitality businesses that don't have enough other programs available that they are not stuffing their pockets full of cash.

 

The owners I have been talking to have figured out that if they cut their hours and staffing to just the highest traffic periods, they can cut costs more than enough to offset the revenue reduction and then collect the 75%-85% wage subsidy on top. If you change shifts such that staff make $3,000 a month or less (new CRB guidelines), then staff can collect the CRB as well and will be more than happy with the arrangement.

[Matt R.]

Your sales need to be way, way down to get the 85%. This month I think it’s a factor of 1 times your revenue decline, next month .9 etc. Beyond that we don’t know.

I am happy to learn today that WorkSafe is waiving premiums for furloughed employees who received the CEWS, retroactive to March 15. Now, if we could get the province to do the same with the EHT...

Matt.

[spanky123]

Your sales need to be way, way down to get the 85%. This month I think it’s a factor of 1 times your revenue decline, next month .9 etc. Beyond that we don’t know.

I am happy to learn today that WorkSafe is waiving premiums for furloughed employees who received the CEWS, retroactive to March 15. Now, if we could get the province to do the same with the EHT...

Matt.

 

Not saying that you would do it but you could certainly manage your hours and revenue to meet the 75% wage subsidy and be far better off financially then you were before covid.

Edited by spanky123, 30 September 2020 - 12:10 PM.

[VIResident]

Shortage of COVID-19 tests grinds B.C. film industry to a halt — and Alberta sees an opening

 

Alberta’s Jobs Minister tagged the Twitter accounts of major studios and said, 'We just completed over 30,000 COVID-19 tests for the NHL Hub in Edmonton. We're open to opportunities in Alberta to get these productions moving'

 

Author of the article:

https://nationalpost...-covid-19-tests

 

What?! some neighbour!  I would have thought the first thing they'd do is offer to loan BC film industry some! pfffffttttt! Shame on Alberta's Jobs Minister! 

Edited by VIResident, 02 October 2020 - 05:34 AM.

[Victoria Watcher]

The Canadian economy added 378,200 jobs in September, more than double the estimate for 150,000. The unemployment rate fell to 9 per cent from 10.2 per cent in August, beating expectations for 9.8 per cent. 

 

-  news 1130

[Victoria Watcher]

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and a handful of his cabinet minister and public health officials will unveil a number of announcements today, including supports for businesses, as cases of COVID-19 surge in parts of the country, according to the Prime Minister's Office. 

Trudeau will be joined by Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland, Agriculture and Agri-Food Minister Marie-Claude Bibeau, Intergovernmental Affairs Minister Dominic LeBlanc, Health Minister Patty Hajdu, Chief Public Health Officer Dr. Theresa Tam and Deputy Chief Public Health Officer Dr. Howard Njoo from Ottawa at noon ET. 

 

CBC will carry the news conference live online. 

 

https://www.cbc.ca/n...iness-1.5756621

[exc911ence]

So nice to have a government in place with a credit card with no limit.

 

Charge!

[A Girl is No one]

So nice to have a government in place with a credit card with no limit.

Charge!

He’s using it more like a stolen credit card IMO

[dasmo]

The Question is who will we owe at the end of this?

 

The Bank of Canada was established in 1934 under private ownership but in 1938 the government nationalized the bank and, since then, it has been publicly owned. It was mandated to lend not only to the federal government but to the provinces as well. To help bring Canada out of the Great Depression, debt-free money was injected into various infrastructure projects. With the outbreak of the Second World War, it was the Bank of Canada that financed the enormously costly war effort—Canada created the world’s third largest navy and ranked fourth in production of allied war materiel. Afterwards, the Bank financed programs to assist veterans with vocational and university training and subsidized farmland.....

 

The critical point is that between 1939 and 1974 the federal government borrowed extensively from its own central bank. That made its debt effectively interest-free, since the government owned the bank and got the benefit of any interest. As such Canada emerged from the Second World War and from all the extensive infrastructure and other expenditures with very little debt. But following 1974 came a dramatic change.....

 

In 1974 the Bank for International Settlements (the bank of central bankers) formed the Basel Committee to ostensibly establish global monetary and financial stability. Canada, i.e., the Pierre Trudeau Liberals, joined in the deliberations. The Basel Committee’s solution to the “stagflation” problem of that time was to encourage governments to borrow from private banks, that charged interest, and end the practice of borrowing interest-free from their own publicly owned banks. Their argument was that publicly owned banks inflate the money supply and prices, whereas chartered banks supposedly only recycle pre-existing money. What they purposefully suppressed was that private banks create the money they lend just as public banks do. And as banking specialist Ellen Brown states:

The difference is simply that a publicly-owned bank returns the interest to the government and the community, while a privately-owned bank siphons the interest into its capital account, to be reinvested at further interest, progressively drawing money out of the productive economy.

The effect of such a change would remove a powerful economic tool from the hands of democratic governments and give such control to a cabal of foreign bankers. 

 

https://canadiandime...ndated-purposes

[Mike K.]

Yesterday I went into town for a Thanksgiving dinner with the family. There were eight of us there, at two close-by tables.

This was the first proper sit down meal I have had downtown since March, other than a quick lunch in the summer.

What I observed:
- staff universally wore masks
- seating was just barely separated by six feet in most cases, but alright in that patrons from different tables respected each other
- but the red flag was while in the bathroom, two people walked out without washing their hands. One just did the two second tap on-/off, the other walked out

The environment felt relatively crowded and there was no social distancing at all in bathrooms, as in urinals not blocked off, no signage reminding patrons to wash their hands, etc.

And this wasn’t a fly by night place, but a respected, established restaurant.

Outside, the first thing we saw when parking the vehicle was a water container for syringes on the sidewalk. Lovely. As for downtown, it was completely void of human activity as we walked out at 7:30PM. It had stopped raining by then and the temperature was actually pleasant, but downtown was a ghost town.

[Mike K.]

Oh, and to add to that, two of the five light standard bulbs were smashed to smithereens next to where I parked (very top one, and another on the sidewalk side). Not a good look.

[dasmo]

But if you were worried about the plague what were you doing eating out at a public restaurant? :-p