Photo from www.draplin.com

Seemingly lost amidst the Olympic shuffle last week was an announcement by the Harper government on reaching an agreement with the United States that allowed for Canadian exceptions to the highly contentious “Buy American” regulations. The regulations, imposed last-year by the U.S. government, blocked Canadian manufacturers from bidding on almost $800-billion worth of contracts tied to stimulus spending by the U.S. government.

Given the high-profile nature of the spat and the political capital such an agreement should generate, it seems strange that the Harper government would downplay the announcement by burying it amidst Olympic fever. A closer look at the details of the agreement, however, indicate why this might be the case.
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Finance Minister Jim Flaherty
Photo Credit: CBC

Let’s get straight to the point. The deficit is an economic problem, but it is not as serious as many make it out to be. What may surprise many people is the fact that many business leaders and almost all neo-conservative politicians secretly agree. Don’t be fooled by Finance Minister Jim Flaherty’s recent rumblings about the deficit. His main concern is tax cuts and smaller government, not the deficit. In fact, a large deficit plays right into his plans for smaller government.

Let’s rewind our discussion back to the events in Ontario during the early 1990s when there was a severe recession and Mike Harris, who worked closely with Flaherty, was not quite yet Premier. Ontario was actually deficit-free for several years just before the recession of 1990. Recessions usually cause deficits, because the unemployment levels significantly reduce government revenue and because of the large costs of helping the unemployed. Based on the ideas of Keynesian macroeconomics, some governments try to end recessions by simulating growth through spending, further increasing the deficit. Ontario Premier Bob Rae, the leader of a socialist NDP government, tried this and so have most governments, including Mr. Harper’s, during this most recent global recession. Bob Rae eventually stopped spending and started reducing the deficit when he started receiving a lot of flak for the increased deficit. When Neo-conservative Mike Harris came to office, the deficit was already significantly way down. Mr. Harris and Mr. Flaherty continued the policy of deficit reduction, but not at a rate faster than Rae and that of other Canadian governments. The economy improved, not because of Harris tax cuts or deficit reduction, but because of low U.S. interest rates that created a large market for Ontario exports.
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It’s finally the end of the Copenhagen climate change summit. I don’t know about anyone else, but I had my hopes up. After almost two weeks of high-level collaborative teamwork you’d expect something more to show for it than the sooty remains of a huge carbon footprint. To be fair, our world leaders have come up with an insight that is staggering in its implications (see #2… no pun intended): “Deep cuts in global emissions are required.” I thought we already figured that part out. Oh snap! But wait, there’s more! The U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon tells us that, “although the accord may not be what everyone had hoped for, it is a beginning.” Apparently Kyoto is now passé; in 1997, I thought it was a beginning. In spite of my disappointment at the outcome of the conference, however, I can rest easy because Canada’s Minister of the Environment, Jim Prentice, assures me that this not legally binding accord is “an excellent agreement.” With Canada’s record of escalating carbon emissions each year since the Kyoto Accord was signed – a 27% increase from 1990 benchmark levels – how can I not feel good about this?
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What will it take for Canadians to rebel against the mismanagement of their hard-earned tax dollars?
Photo Credit: DoobyBrain.com

If you can’t tell right off the bat, I’m blatantly plagiarizing the not-yet-late and great Bob Dylan. But whereas Bob was talking about peace and love, I’m talking about pure old cash. That’s right. The evil force that makes our world go round (second most powerful force after gravity). You see, I’m getting exasperated folks. Unemployment rates are sky-rocketing while many individuals and businesses have been forced into bankruptcy because their money-making niche has flat-out disappeared. Governments are cutting back on social programs, dipping their hands into public coffers while denying the public of much needed community programs. Everyone’s running in the red. What is going on, we wonder. It’s a recession, we’re told. You and I both know that if I were to join the crusade of investigative journalism, all I would have to report are useless and senseless facts and figures which even the most uneducated person in Canada with a wit of common sense would disparagingly shake their head at. Not to mention a bunch of “did not return my call” and “refused to comment”. In the face of so much adversity, how can we possibly get at the truth?
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Premier Gordon Campbell with a bad case of Olympic fever.

A friend of mine recently used her Facebook status to pose the following question: Can some one please explain the harmonized sales tax in layman’s terms? The first comment she attracted was a sincere attempt to explain the details of BC’s newest tax structure without any criticism of the hike. My irritated brain immediately commanded my fingers to type – “Everyone in BC starts to pay 12 percent tax on everything. The government gives themselves raises with the extra money and the rest of it gets mismanaged on things like useless projects that lines the pockets of their friends who own big development companies.” There, I thought to myself after posting my contribution, that should incense a few people, perhaps prompting some serious discussion on the topic and awareness of how little taxpayers know of what is actually going on with their money behind the proverbial closed doors. My self-satisfaction lasted as long as it took for two more comments to appear after my own. The first one read “I like glitter and bunnies.” The second? “I like glitter and bunnies too!”
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For decades the growth of temporary employment agencies has had a real impact on how rural job markets are taking shape. A 2006 study highlights a consistent rise in part time, low wage jobs over the last several years. It claims that 11 percent of all rural workers hold temporary jobs. These jobs are often found through local temping agencies, which are thriving even in these difficult economic times. A recent piece of legislation, Bill 139, is long overdue. This bill includes new regulations for temping agencies, but it will not prevent all the abuses that take place, especially in rural areas.

I’ve found temping agencies can lend a hand in the short term. Some agencies do provide useful training to unskilled workers. However, abuses can occur with temping agencies that focus on providing unskilled labour to manufacturing facilities in rural areas.
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Do you have a bad roommate stereotype? For me, The Bad Roommate is constantly in a bathrobe that I’m sure belongs to me, has just, without even enjoying it, finished off the leftovers I was counting on, and isn’t sure what they did today, yet certainly created an unfathomable mess in the kitchen. Among other things, the worst part about my Bad Roommate is that they defiantly occupy an essential space in the house and aerate bad vibes while doing so.

Put another way, the Bad Roommate is a kind of angry, bathrobed, vacuum, that ironically doesn’t clean. (My apologies to any roommates, current, or fondly and formerly, who think I’m writing about them. In any case, I kid because I love).

I conjured up this image while reading reports that Atomic Energy of Canada Limited (AECL), Canada’s federally-owned and beleaguered nuclear technology company, is set to receive a $200 million bailout from the Harper government. The bailout, disclosed in the Conservative’s supplementary budget estimate, is the second the Crown-Corporation has received this year and makes the grand total of taxpayer subsidies doled out to AECL in 2009 $651 million. According to the document, this additional funding “will be used to address a cash shortfall caused by unexpected technical challenges on CANDU reactor refurbishment contracts.”
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Nortel Pensioners

Saving money for one’s golden years, when working is no longer possible or desirable, is a goal rightfully pursued by many Canadians. One does not expect to be working their entire lives just to survive. Nobody wishes to become an imposed burden on their family or friends during their later years. Yet, a flawed system seems to point at this possibility. An eight hour work day, with one or two hours commuting time, and the recommended eight hours of sleep, plus an hour to cook and eat, leaves only five hours of downtime during a work week (excluding weekends). Continuing such a pattern until death does not reflect an ideal image for a first world country. Those preparing for the rewards of retirement, set aside funds in the hopes of realizing this dream but recent events have forced the reality of such hopes into question.

Many expect this will be accomplished through the use of pension plans in addition to the usual government savings programs, which are described to be insufficient independently, when calculating the cost of retirement. In principle, pension plans are a great way of insuring a comfortable future, however, when a plan is self insured by the company offering the plan, the invested funds are protected primarily by a promise rather than any guarantee of receiving the expected funds should the company go bankrupt. The recent discussions on Oct 26, 2009, available on CPAC, regarding National Pensions and Retirement Income Security, demonstrated the difficult situation many Nortel employees are finding themselves in where large portions of their investments were lost. The fact of the matter is that during bankruptcy, the banks receive preferred creditor status over employees contributing portions of their salaries and years of service to a company.
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HST: How It Works

Two days ago, if anyone had asked me what I thought about the proposed HST in British Columbia, I would have told them that Gordo, the little weasel, had screwed over British Columbians once again. But that was before I actually took the time to learn everything I could about the new Harmonized Sales Tax.

With the recession and promises of no taxes by the BC Liberals, it isn’t a wonder many people in this province, low-income families and small businesses alike, were weary about the HST. Any mention of taxes, save for tax cuts, is bound to stir up outrage, in a recession, no less. But I have to admit the HST is not a bad idea.

Before you go calling me a Liberal patsy or any other such unflattering names, let me state for the record that I am a social democrat at heart and have voted for the NDP since I turned eighteen. But this isn’t about partisan politics. This is about what’s good for the province and the people of this province. Rest assured, I have many qualms about the BC Liberals but the HST may be the one thing we agree on.

Instead of shooting the new HST down, let’s look at the numbers. The current GST in BC is 5 percent while the PST is 7 percent, for a total of 12 percent. The PST is non-refundable, whereas the HST, also at 12 percent, will be. Goods that are currently exempt from the GST will be exempt from the HST. This means that groceries and rent costs will not be taxed with the new HST.
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It’s an oil rich area in Alberta, and apparently a cause for concern. Oil development in the region has had a huge impact for the people who live there – the Lubicon Cree.

To make a long story short: it’s disputed land, and statistically, the Lubicon Cree’s quality of life has decreased since the oil production began, now it resembles that of a third world country. Federal social service payments went from the primary income source of 10 percent of the population to 90 percent. There is a severe lack of running water and sanitation and health conditions are abnormally high as a result.

Traditionally, trapping was a source of income for a majority of the populace, but after the first year of oil development, wildlife all but disappeared.
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