Canadian Personal Finance Blog

Archive for February 26th, 2007

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!