It's Just Money

The government truly hates inherited wealth (unless you are one of the Laurentian elite):

With a TFSA, your designated beneficiaries would only have to pay tax on any income earned by your investments after the time of your death. The rest can be paid out tax-free.

And even in a non-registered account, you can significantly reduce your final tax bill by choosing investments that receive preferential tax treatment, Gillespie noted.

In theory, one way to avoid your RRSP or RRIF balance ending up on your tax return is to transfer the account to financially dependent children or grandchildren. But your descendants would still have to pay tax when the money comes out of the fund. Gillespie argues there are better ways to pass on your wealth.

If the government refuses to connect money laundering with mass immigration, then it is not doing its job and this inquiry is one of the many wastes of time and money Canada is so adept at:

B.C.’s forthcoming public inquiry into money laundering is not intended to be any sort of examination or exposé of our immigration system, but it seems inevitable that there will be some overlap.

The inquiry was officially announced on Wednesday and is aimed at getting to the bottom of the scope of the money laundering problem and how it has affected the housing market, the luxury car market and casinos. The problem is clearly an enormous one; a report done for the B.C. government estimates that a whopping $5 billion last year alone was laundered through real estate.

As one might imagine, all of this money laundering is largely linked to some large and powerful organized crime groups — groups with extensive links to mainland China. Australian officials have coined the term “Vancouver model” as a way of referring to the extent to which these Chinese gangs have infiltrated the Canadian economy.

Also:

Johal challenged B.C.’s health minister, the former provincial NDP leader Adrian Dix, on birth tourism in a legislature committee this week. Dix did not give the natural New Democrat answer that jus soli citizenship is sacred. He said he was concerned about the tourism issue, that he doesn’t support or favour birth tourism, and that only Ottawa can do something about it — “if they want to act.”

Justin caved in and, in so doing, risks the wrath of his Chinese bosses. This is not a win for him but one for Trump.

But I repeat myself ... :

The tariffs were imposed on Trudeau’s watch, and he and Freeland failed to get them removed as a condition of signing the new NAFTA deal.

Then, the Trump Administration just recently decided to end the tariffs.


Both the initial tariff imposition and the end of the tariffs were unilateral moves by the Trump Administration, and both were related to China.

The original concern in the United States is that China dumps steel into countries like Canada, and then gets that steel into the United States by having it be considered ‘Canadian’ steel.


That hurts the US Steel Industry, which is a national security concern for the States since in the case of a significant war, the ability to produce vast amounts of steel is essential to building a strong military force.

Canada should also be concerned about China trying to wipe out our own steel industry, but few Canadian leaders have the guts to address that.

So, with the US concern with China being a key issue the tariffs were imposed, then it also needs to be said that US concerns with China are behind the end of the tariffs on Canada.

It’s no coincidence that Trump ended the tariffs on Canada just as the trade war between the US and China heats up.

The US is focusing their attention on the fight with China, which means wrapping up trade disputes with their allies like Canada.

And this is why Justin Trudeau and Chrystia Freeland look like such fools for trying to spin the end of the US tariffs on Canada as some sort of personal ‘win’ or achievement.


They had nothing to do with it. And they can’t somehow take credit for ending the tariffs when they took no responsibility for the tariffs not being removed in the past year.

Premier Kenney wants to be Alberta's friend. Justin, not so:

The Alberta legislature will return with a throne speech on Wednesday, and Premier Jason Kenney has vowed to put an end to the carbon tax by the end of the month.

However, that probably won’t be the end of it. The federal government has the power to put in place its own “backstop” carbon pricing on provinces without a tax of their own, as it has done already in Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Ontario and New Brunswick. But it’s unclear, as yet, how long it will take Ottawa to impose that tax on Alberta.

“If a decision is taken to implement the federal system, we will move as quickly as possible in order to minimize a gap in coverage,” said Sabrina Kim, an environment ministry spokesperson. ...

Gasoline prices are likely to drop immediately — a potential political boon for the Alberta Conservatives heading into the summer, when ATVs and boats need gassing up, and vehicles and campers get filled for road trips and vacations.

The Alberta carbon tax accounts for more than six cents per litre of gasoline. So, on May 31, gas should be 6.7 cents cheaper than it was the day before. As of May 16, a litre of gas cost an average $1.16 per litre, which means that even without a carbon tax, prices won’t fall to the lows within Albertans’ recent memory. The drop may be more or less pronounced, though, depending on other factors affecting gas prices at the time.

“All else equal, eliminating the carbon tax will lower energy prices. But, of course, countless other unforeseen developments could occur at the same time to either lower energy prices further or increase them,” Trevor Tombe, a University of Calgary economist, said in an email. “But we shouldn’t confound the policy decision with these external events.”

As for natural gas, prices are expected to drop by roughly $1.50 per gigajoule, reducing home heating costs in Alberta, Tombe said.

Russia is the biggest country on the planet.  It has eleven time zones, 123,121,820 hectares of arable land and inhabited areas in some of the most inhospitable climates.

Yet it has some of the lowest prices for food.

And Nunavut can't get its act together because ...?:

Federal government subsidies designed to make food more affordable in Canada’s Arctic have not only failed, but instead coincided with a massive increase in food insecurity in northern communities, according to new research.

Rather than making it easier and cheaper for people to access good nutrition in Nunavut, where much of the food supply needs to come by plane, Canada’s scheme of subsidizing northern retailers and southern suppliers appears to have in fact made it much worse. Since the program was launched in 2011, replacing an earlier mail subsidy program, rates of food insecurity have increased more than 13 per cent across the 10 largest communities in Nunavut. Before that, food insecurity had been on a downward trend.

One could build roads or encourage hydroponic gardens or fish processing plants but why do that?

If Justin does let Russia take over the Arctic, perhaps they can show everyone how people feed themselves.