Canadian Personal Finance Blog

Archive for February, 2007

So the CRTC in Canada (the governing communications body), is bringing in a bunch of new rules, which you can read about here, however the most important one, is the fact that if you change your wireless company you can keep your phone number. I quote from the web site:

By March 14, 2007 Bell Mobility, Rogers Wireless and the mobility division of TELUS Communications Inc. will be required to provide WNP to their customers in British Columbia, Alberta, Ontario and Québec. This means that customers in any of these provinces will be able to switch to any service provider in that province (wireline or wireless) and keep their phone number.

Now this does seem to only hold for the MAJOR operators, but still, you can threaten Bell or Rogers with leaving them and still get to keep your phone number. It’s amazing what happens when you threaten to leave a wireless company, suddenly you get free phones, better deals, it’s like you have to threaten to get a better deal (sounds like a good theory of life). Remember however, a threat is only as good as your willingness to follow through on it!

I really have a bone to pick with my employer. I realize that they don’t legally have to get me my T4 (receipt of employment income) before February “the last” (i.e. the last day of February), but it would be nice to have it before then, so I might be able to top up my RRSPs or whatever if I felt like it (I don’t, but that is not the point). I realize my employer is very busy, and I am grateful of their timely payments of my pay cheque, but I really would like to have a T4 some time real soon (like yesterday)!

This happens every year, where I have all of my receipts by the middle of February but I cannot file my return (or my wife’s return) until I get my T4. I can usually estimate on the basis of my final pay cheque, but inevitably, I miss some benefit that kills the HUGE tax refund I am expecting. Let’s hope it shows up in my mail box some time soon?

No, I don’t think that really, but it does make for a catchy headline doesn’t it? I read somewhere you need a real catchy headline to capture the reader’s interest, and then really grab them with the first paragraph. OK, so 1 out of 2 isn’t bad on this story.

Our amigos at Stats Canada are saying that Canadian Labour “Quality” declined last year. Out of most of the stats, I did find one very useful question that is asked:

The major question at the moment is not whether a slowdown in output relative to employment is occurring, but whether this slowdown is transitory due to temporary factors (related to events such as weather, other production disruptions, or the sudden shift of resources to new industries and regions), or represents the beginning of a longer-term slump in productivity due to labour shortages, an ageing labour force or structural changes in the economy.

That’s a really good question, and I really don’t have an answer, but again it’s one of those questions to remember and ask yourself the next time you see data in this type of area. I find a lot of the data from Stats Canada causes me to ask more questions rather than answer the questions I already have, but that is ok by me. The more questions you ask, the more you might learn.

So far in the roll up the rim world, I am up 2 free coffees, but they now make you fill in a form for each of your free coffees? WTF? I think Tim Horton’s had a brain fart on that one!

The Free Geek has an interesting article about 12 Little Known Facts Cardholders (in the U.S.) should Know , worth a read just to get more questions in your mind.

Stats Canada has put out an interesting set of numbers that makes me wonder what “Conservatism” actually means in Canada. My thumbnail sketch would mean smaller government lower taxes (although in Canada that is all relative, I am sure my views border on Communism if I lived in the U.S.). The numbers put out suggest that governments at all levels are still a “growing concern”.

Now the numbers do bounce around a little at the Federal level, but still the Federal government is larger than it was last year at that time, so it is getting bigger. This might explain why there are so many NEW housing developments here in Ottawa.

A more interesting question is what about the aging Civil Service? A great many of them are close to retirement, and the Civil Service Pension Plan is very nice. This begs the question, what happens when all of these folk retire? Will there jobs simply disappear (might be the case in some areas), or will their work be dumped on existing folks (likely too), OR will we suddenly have another “hiring binge” in Ottawa (also possible)? Stay tuned folks. –C8j

Yes folks, it’s that time of the year, where the lines at Tim Horton’s gets longer because all those Starbucks snobs try to WIN with their morning coffee in the infamous Roll Up The Rim to Win Contest. For some of us this is either our bonus program for the year, or our one chance at winning a lottery (since I don’t buy lottery tickets, but I buy enough coffee to compensate).As some of my more regular readers know this is a yearly thing for me to rant about this contest and it’s fine print (remember this one from last year), so my apologies for those in the states who wonder what exactly I am ranting about.

For the benefit of those who don’t want to go to the web page, here is your chances of winning by region:

Regions:

<!–[if !supportLists]–>1. <!–[endif]–>British Columbia

<!–[if !supportLists]–>2. <!–[endif]–>Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Northwest Territories & Yukon

<!–[if !supportLists]–>3. <!–[endif]–>Ontario

<!–[if !supportLists]–>4. <!–[endif]–>Quebec (excludes Bas St.-Laurent, Gaspésie & Iles-de-la-Madeleine) & Labrador

<!–[if !supportLists]–>5. <!–[endif]–>Atlantic Provinces (excludes Labrador) & Quebec region of Bas St.-Laurent, Gaspésie & Iles-de-la-Madeleine

<!–[if !supportLists]–>6. <!–[endif]–>USA (New York, Ohio, Michigan, Maine, Kentucky, West Virginia, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Massachusetts and Pennsylvania)

This is my retyping in from the web site, so check it out yourself on the links above, don’t go suing me because my information is incorrect. There is also a break down by cup size as well, which is well worth reading.

And from our friends at Stats Canada we have the following good news as well:

In December, the average weekly earnings of payroll employees (seasonally adjusted) increased 0.1% to $757.27 from November. This leaves the year-to-date growth in earnings at 3.0%. This rate of change is obtained by comparing the 12-month average for 2006 with that of 2005, and is subject to revision for next month’s release.

So you have a little more cash in your pocket to buy your coffee, unless of course you gave that up for Lent, then you are in trouble! Remember your Sundays off!