It is time for tax reductions to help consumers weather food inflation
Did you know that there is a global food security index? The well-known magazine The Economist has just published its 11th edition. The Global Food Security Index comprises a set of indices from more than 120 different countries. Since 2012, the index has been based on four main pillars: food access, safety, sustainable development, and…
And learn first-hand where the necessities of life come from
The old saying goes, “No news is good news.” But in the 21st-century smartphone/internet era, it should read, “Good news is no news.” Driven by today’s ultra-competitive media, headlines have increasingly become what has been coined “click bait” – capture eyeballs with something awful happening to somebody somewhere. That’s why you’ll never see “7.9 Billion…
All students deserve a learning environment that is free of political indoctrination
If you’ve been around for a while, you probably remember the phrase “politically correct.” Being called politically correct was not a compliment. Instead, it meant that you had an unhealthy obsession with not offending anyone, even if you had to say some rather silly things in the process. For example, instead of saying husband or…
Almost 24 per cent now cutting back on food purchases, almost 70 per cent of whom are women
While inflation is showing signs of dissipating, food inflation appears to be on a totally different path. Food inflation has outpaced our general inflation rate for over 12 months now. Statistics Canada just announced that the food inflation rate for retail was 10.8 per cent and 7.4 per cent in food service. Canada ranks third…
Tens of billions of dollars in wages, contracts and own source revenues are at risk
On July 18, the federal government announced a plan to reduce emissions from the oil and gas sector by 42 per cent in just eight years. To meet such targets, this policy would effectively stop all new projects in the oil and gas sector, as well as curtail existing ones. This would dramatically affect global…
Both sectors face inflationary pressures but are being dealt with very differently
As anyone who has ever spent time in the kitchen knows, when a pot is boiling over, you do not put a lid on it. You lower the heat. Adding a cover does nothing to reduce the cause of all the excess bubbles and steam. In fact, increasing the pressure within the vessel generates an…
No. The need to broaden access and expand government contributions is urgent
The risk of recession is now in clear sight. But as the Bank of Canada pursues a course of aggressive interest rate hikes designed to wrestle inflation to the ground, the potential cost is hundreds of thousands of jobs. The August labour force survey is already revealing a worrying increase in the unemployment rate. At…
Canadian workers will pay the price of this silly political posturing
Hundreds of people who pull wrenches for a living have a unique point of view on Ottawa’s new luxury tax. Most of us might not be too bothered by a tax on super cars and private jets, and even the rich might not lose much sleep over paying a bit more for a yacht or…
Increases to the Marginal Effective Tax Rate taking even more of your hard-earned money
New Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre is correct when he says governments discourage work with taxes and clawbacks. The Marginal Effective Tax Rate (METR) measures what government takes from each new dollar earned in taxes and clawbacks of income-related government benefits. In his leadership acceptance speech and an August 19 video called “Make work pay,” Poilievre…
Many won’t survive
After a slew of confinements and closures, restaurants are still not out of the woods. Far from it. Over the past year in Canada, restaurant closures outpaced openings by a whopping 43 per cent. The industry is still shrinking. Inflation-adjusted food service sales will be around 11 per cent below 2019 levels by the time…