Economy
Cabinet seeks to break a month-long filibuster that has tied up Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland’s omnibus budget bill in the Commons finance committee. One Liberal MP called it “arbitrary filibustering” to upset cabinet’s calendar.
“What happens when you filibuster needlessly? Not for any real point,” said Liberal MP Terry Beech (Burnaby North-Seymour, B.C.), parliamentary secretary for finance. “The point is quite clear. The point is to obstruct the bill and to prevent it from passing or at least to delay it as long as possible.”
“All the Conservatives are doing by continuing this filibuster is proving the fact they intend to do nothing except obstruct for obstruction’s sake,” said MP Beech. He served notice of a motion that the finance committee limit Conservatives to a maximum 15 additional minutes of debate on Bill C-47 the Budget Implementation Act.
Conservative MP Rick Perkins (South Shore-St. Margarets, N.S.) denied gamesmanship and called C-47 a far-reaching and costly bill that must be thoroughly studied. Minister Freeland “built up a level of distrust in this committee and in the House,” said Perkins.
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Read Moreollapse of the legal pot trade has seen two thirds of marijuana dealers fall behind in tax payments, says a federal report. Dealers owe the Canada Revenue Agency millions.
“The total amount of unpaid cannabis excise duties has continuously been rising since legalization,” said a report by the Competition Bureau. “Sixty-six percent of licensees required to remit excise duties had an outstanding debt with the Canada Revenue Agency.”
Unpaid taxes last year totaled $52.4 million. The value of delinquent payments was projected to nearly double to $97.5 million this year, said the report Planting The Seeds For Competition.
Parliament on legalizing marijuana in 2018 taxed it at $1 per gram plus GST. “With the average price per gram for dried cannabis falling since legalization, excise duties now take up a more significant portion of cannabis producers’ revenues,” up to 30 percent or more, wrote the Competition Bureau
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Read MorePredictions of if and when Canada will slip into a recession are as precarious as predicting the weather (although forecasters of the latter seem to have improved of late).
A recession is “a significant, widespread, and prolonged downturn in economic activity. A common rule of thumb is that two consecutive quarters of negative gross domestic product (GDP) growth mean recession.”
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Read MoreThe Canadian Taxpayers Federation (CTF) says Alberta’s debt is the elephant in the room.
The Alberta Director for the Canadian Taxpayers Federation Kris Sims recalled the Simpsons episode where the peanut factory manager is vindicated for his repeated safety drills when Stampy storms through the door? What’s Alberta’s debt situation?
“The United Conservative government posted a $10.3-billion surplus in this February’s budget,” said Sims
“Alberta is still about $79 billion in debt. That costs us about $2.8 billion in annual interest charges.”
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Read MoreThe Canadian Taxpayers Federation (CTF) is happy that the Mission Cultural Fund has been cancelled. This fund, part of Global Affairs, used taxpayers’ money wastefully, such as on a sex toy show in Germany and a photography exhibit for a rock star.
“This is a big win for taxpayers and it’s long overdue,” said Franco Terrazzano, federal director of the CTF.
“Paying for a sex toy show in Germany and flying chefs around the world was a huge waste of taxpayers’ money and Global Affairs should have shut this down years ago.”
The federal government released a statement without much attention stating that the Mission Cultural Fund had “expired on March 31, 2023.”
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Read MoreKEY POINTS
Target lost $10 billion over the last 10 days after launching its Pride-themed clothing line
Target’s stock price sank to $138.93, the lowest in nearly three years
Texas GOP Sen. Ted Cruz didn’t believe the boycott vs. Target would be impactful
Target, one of the largest U.S. retailers, has been targeted by a boycott over its LGBTQ-friendly kids’ clothing, wiping out billions of dollars worth of stocks.
New York Post reported that Target lost $10 billion in market valuation over the last 10 days due to the backlash it received from its LGBTQ-themed kids’ clothing line.
Last Wednesday, Target’s stock value was at $160.96 a share, but its value sank and closed Friday at $138.93 a share — the retailer’s lowest stock price in nearly three years.
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Read MoreTalk about biting the hand that feeds.
Norway’s sovereign wealth fund — the world’s largest — is set to support climate resolutions at the shareholders meetings of Exxon and Chevron even as its state oil company expands oil and gas exploration in what climate activists describe as giving “the middle finger” to the Paris Accord.
Government Pension Fund Global — the Norwegian equivalent of the CPP — told London’s Financial Times, it will support resolutions to introduce Scope 3 emissions targets at AGMs in Irving, TX and San Ramon, CA next week.
It comes even as the Norwegian energy ministry announced this month it would step up oil exploration in the Barents Sea to improve Europe’s energy security in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Last year the country overtook Russia to become the EUs largest supplier of oil and gas.
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Read MoreFossil gas, marketed as “natural gas” and its liquefied form used for long-distance maritime transport, “liquefied natural gas” (LNG), have been proposed as a middle ground between more carbon-intensive fossil fuels and renewable energy.
This report covers the science on the climate impacts of gas, the necessary reductions in gas supply and demand under the Paris Agreement and how this disqualifies Canadian LNG as a climate solution. Possible incremental reductions in global GHG emissions resulting from Canadian LNG are not enough to be part of a Paris-aligned energy transition. Canadian energy would be better directed at promoting a direct transition to renewable energy at home and abroad.
Exporting B.C. LNG makes the climate crisis worse, not better. It’s time for the province to pull the plug on any further LNG expansion and to cease providing public financing, infrastructure support or preferential treatment for the sector.
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