Economy
Prices for all of us have gone way up since COVID-19, and $100 now buys about $65 worth of groceries compared to five years ago. This puts a huge bite on working families because we spend most of our income every month — as much as 90% — on food and other necessities. So when prices rise, we hurt the most.
Big corporations tell us that policies and supply chains are to blame for rising costs, but there’s a big part of the story they don’t want you to know: These giant corporations are themselves largely responsible for higher prices.
According to a new report by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), the largest grocery retailers — including Walmart, Kroger and Amazon, which owns Whole Foods — used the pandemic as an excuse to raise prices across the board.
These giant companies wrote themselves a blank check during COVID-19, which they now expect us to pay for.
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Read MoreThe recent closures of Gateway Medical Clinic on Calgary Trail and 38th Avenue in south Edmonton, affecting over 7000 patients, are two such locations, as doctors claim they “can’t afford the rent on the building.”
“There’s not enough family doctors in order to meet the demand of Albertans, and then on top of that, costs have been rising much faster than reimbursement has,” said Wayne Samuels, the general manager of Medicentres Canada.
Family clinics function like small businesses, where the pr
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Read MorePrime Minister Justin Trudeau, who’s been in power since 2015, said he’s confident that in just a couple more years people will start to benefit from his policies.
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Read MoreCanadian families and individuals with incomes between $30,000 and $60,000 are often shouldering the heaviest tax burden, finds a new study by the Fraser Institute.
These low- to middle-income earners face marginal effective tax rates (METRs) that approach or exceed 50%, reducing the incentive to earn additional income and complicating their financial stability.
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Read Morehe Toronto Star published an opinion piece Monday from a group of “wealth and class privileged” socialists who are unsatisfied with the amount they will be taxed after the 2024 federal budget was announced.
The collectively written article entitled, “We are rich Canadians and we support higher capital gains taxes,” starts by saying “Ottawa wants to raise taxes for Canada’s ultra rich. Rich people like us want that too.”
The authors of the piece support the recent capital gains tax hike which tech CEOs and other Canadian business leaders have oppose
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Read MoreCompanies like Amazon are tacking on new fees and surcharges on top of the regular subscription fees they already charge.
Why it matters: Subscription fatigue is real and growing, testing the limits of consumer appetites for convenience.
Driving the news: Amazon announced the launch of a $9.99 a month unlimited grocery delivery subscription benefit Tuesday that is available in more than 3,500 cities and towns across the U.S.
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Read Morehis report provides a cross-provincial analysis of the marginal effective tax rates (METRs) faced by working families across Canada, highlighting the significant impact these rates have on low- to middle-income earners.
Individuals and families with modest incomes, particularly those earning between $30,000 and $60,000, face the highest METRs. In Quebec, for example, the METR for a representative family within this income range is as high as 53%.
The structure of METRs across provinces results in very low net-of-tax returns for earnings in the low- to middle-income range for Canadians. This creates a disincentive for earning additional income, as the financial benefits are significantly offset by increased taxes and reduced transfer benefits.
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Read MoreMonieya Jess has to constantly watch over her shoulder to make sure she’s not on the radar of immigration enforcement authorities.
On Wednesday, the Jamaican woman overcame her fear and spoke at a rally in Toronto, pleading with the Trudeau government for a long called-for regularization plan to give permanent status to the tens of thousands of non-status residents like her who live in the shadows in Canada.
“I am afraid, but I’m not afraid,” said the 35-year-old, who left her job as a migrant farm worker after suffering from work-related pain and lost her legal status in Canada in 2021.
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Read MoreCanadians are not impressed with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s latest budget and if he was expecting a bounce in public support, he’s not getting it, according to an Ipsos poll released Tuesday.
Although 28 percent of those surveyed had no opinion at all about the budget, of those who did, 40 percent gave Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland’s budget of $52.9 million in new spending a “thumbs down.”
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Read MoreCanadians’ prosperity will be harmed unless the federal government manages to raise productivity, former Bank of Canada governor Mark Carney has warned.
“When we’re debating over our priorities, what we value, what we should be doing as Canadians, we should first acknowledge that we have less to spend because we have become less productive,” Mr. Carney said during a keynote address at Canada 2020’s Economic Lookahead dinner in Toronto on April 22.
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