Canadian Personal Finance Blog

Archive for the ‘Provincial’ Category

Were you alive in October 1970? I was, and I lived through the October Crisis, and actually remember it, and since it is October, let’s remember this important time in Canadian and Quebec history. Given that Mr. Cross was Trade Commissioner this has a little bit to do with Finances, however, no this isn’t really topical, but still an important piece of Canadian history.

I remember this because I remember a school chum’s Dad was a Member of the Legislature and when I went to a birthday party at their house, there was a machine gun on his front lawn and some large soldiers there as well.

No LCBO Strike

The LCBO and their union decided not to turn off the liquor spigot, and thus the mad rush on Tuesday simply meant that the shelves on Wednesday needed a lot of restocking (and lots of profits for the LCBO as well). For those who rushed out, guess you can have a BIG party for Canada Day, or you can keep your stockpile, for another holiday? There is a tentative deal in place and now we can all look forward to a boozy summer (whoo hoo!).

Unfortunately for Toronto their strike continues on and their garbage continues to stack up. With the heat this week, might make for some very aromatic issues in Toronto.

U.S. Interest Rates Stay the Same

Interest rates in the U.S. will stay the same for now, said the Federal Reserve on Wednesday.

The prices of energy and other commodities have risen of late. However, substantial resource slack is likely to dampen cost pressures, and the Committee expects that inflation will remain subdued for some time.

Good to hear, but energy prices going back up is going to whiplash on food prices as well, so inflation being low may be wishful thinking on their part.

This week seems to have been a week where I figured advice was a good theme, not sure where it all came from, but it was an interesting bit of writing to cover some of the “rules” and ideas that have shaped myself. Good advice should never be discounted in value, and bad advice cannot be blamed more for bad choices. This means you should be careful giving out advice, because sometimes you can’t tell whether you are giving good or bad advice.

Advice and Best of The Week

• Canadian Tax resource points out that Ontario’s brand spanking new Harmonized Sales Tax could mean higher costs for all Canadians, due to charges on Mutual Funds.
• Wise Bread points out that for First Time Home Buyers: Learn to Trust is an interesting piece of advice, but remember to hire trustworthy folks first too (as is pointed out).
• No Debt Plan has some good advice about Why Companies Want You to Receive Your Bills Electronically, which has some very good points in it.
• Money Smart Life talks advises about Emergency Funds In Case You Lose Your Job, which is topical and good advice.
• Ellen Roseman wants to hear about your Telecom Complaints, as she is in the same boat right now. 
• The Canadian Capitalist also writes about the Cost of Harmonization, looks like a new cash grab by Ontario.
• Michael James did some serious number crunching and may have a system where you might not lose as much when you buy lottery tickets with the teasing title Winning the Lottery.
• Gail Vaz Oxlade has some good advice about Mortgages in Blending and Extending. 

Watch for the videos this weekend, went back to Financial and enlisted a great Canadian satirist to help out. Unless I win the lottery, see you on Monday.

Mixed Tax Budget?

The McGuinty Liberals bring down yet another budget Thursday for the Province of Ontario with promises of large deficits to help with the Financial Apocalypse and such. 

There is also talk of harmonizing both the PST and GST (for Ontario), which makes sense for small businesses (easier to collect and such), but concerns have been brought forward about things that are exempt from the Provincial Sales Tax increasing in price with the new merged tax (hopefully that is simply an accounting issue, and not an issue with unscrupulous vendors attempting to gouge consumers).

Other areas have worries (subsidized child care and such) about losing funding, but again this is a wait and see type of budget.

Cuts, Cuts, Cuts

The CBC is cutting 800 jobs across Canada (will Ottawa lose yet another dinner time news cast?), the City of Ottawa laid off 44 managers Wednesday and various companies are announcing further cuts as well (IBM saying a very large number, but given they are looking to buy SUN Microsystems it might not be exactly what everyone thinks).

With EI benefit claims being much higher in January up 4.4% from December, according to Stats Canada. The graph showing this is quite dramatic.

EI Claimants by Month

For those of you who have not read “The Sweater” by Roch Carrier (or the original version “Le Chandail de Hockey”) it is a staple for Quebecois and Quebecers, and even my kids love the story as well.

What does this have to do with Personal Finance? See how the Mother in the story orders clothing in urban Quebec at the time, the Eaton’s Catalog, of course! When I grew up we waited for the catalog to come (especially the Christmas catalog), and now that kind of shopping has returned, except now we use the Internet (and it shows up in 2 days not 2 months).

The other truth was that when I was a kid, in Montreal, if you wore a Leafs sweater, you didn’t go outside much!