Tuesday, September 19, 2023

Your Idiot Government and You

The situation in India isn't all that this government is buggering up:

Statistics Canada reports that inflation rose again in August hitting 4% with gas, rent, mortgages and food leading the way.

Basically, all the essential elements of the Canadian lifestyle are costing more.

“I do think that today is a milestone moment,” Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland said on July 18 when StatsCan announced a 2.8% inflation rate for June.

“Canada’s plan to bring down inflation is working,” Freeland wrote in a post to social media.

On Tuesday morning, StatsCan’s latest release of the Consumer Price Index showed inflation was 43% higher than when Freeland had declared victory.

“Faster growth in shelter prices was led by the rent index, which rose 6.5% year over year nationally, after a 5.5% gain in July. Among other factors, a higher interest rate environment, which may create barriers to homeownership, put upward pressure on the index,” StatsCan said.

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“Politicians keep repeating slogans about tackling affordability by densifying and creating more housing supply, but it doesn’t make housing more affordable for locals or immigrants with moderate incomes,” says former developer and planner Arny Wise.

“The dirty work, to make home prices fall, is left to the ‘non-political’ Bank of Canada’s relentless mission to tame inflation … particularly in the super-inflated housing market. Higher interest rates are having the desired effect of lowering home prices slowly, by curbing excessive demand and increasing the financing costs of investors.”

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Tax evasion is “prevalent” in high priced real estate markets, says in-house research by the Canada Revenue Agency. An Agency report concluded tax cheating was commonplace and deliberate: “Non-compliance in real estate is prevalent throughout Canada and is likely more widespread than many are aware of.”

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But this is a problem that YOU caused

Canadians without adequate housing should call City Hall, Housing Minister Sean Fraser said yesterday. Fraser acknowledged it will take years to build enough homes to meet demand nationwide: “What people who are sleeping rough today need to do is contact local authorities.”
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When all else fails:

 

Also:

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Although the pace of increase has come down ever so slightly, the price of rental accommodation in Canada continues to go up, with the average new tenant now being asked to pay $2,117 a month.

That's according to a new report from Rentals.ca and real estate consulting and data firm Urbanation, which tabulates the data every month from their database of the largest single group of rental listings across the country.

The $2,117 figure is an increase of 9.6 per cent from the average rent in August of last year. That's down from an all-time high of 12 per cent recorded from August 2021 until August 2022, but still the highest-ever figure in dollar terms.

The ongoing tumult in the housing market has garnered numerous headlines of late, as the Bank of Canada's campaign to tame inflation has caused mortgage rates to skyrocket.

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Repeal of the GST on new apartment construction will cost about a third of a billion a year, according to the Parliamentary Budget Office. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau yesterday revived a 2015 campaign promise for a sales tax holiday on new, purpose-built apartments: “How many new buildings?”

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Cabinet yesterday signaled it will extend a soon-to-expire $595 million temporary bailout for newspapers. Press lobbyist Bob Cox, who won subsidies on a promise “you can’t give them forever,” was appointed to a bailout review panel that will now run into 2025: “I don’t like the idea of a long-term subsidy for newspapers that becomes permanent.”

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Governor General Mary Simon logged thousands of kilometres by government jet to live in Nova Scotia rather than the 175-room Rideau Hall mansion in Ottawa. Simon yesterday disclosed she decided to make Nova Scotia her home “during the pandemic.”

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Cabinet is hiking Employment Insurance premiums by $1.4 billion despite a promise by Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland that rates would be “holding steady.” Freeland in her March 28 budget promised “more money in Canadians’ pockets after a hard day’s work.”

 

 

Winter is coming:

Ottawa is urging a U.S. appeals court to reverse a Wisconsin judge’s order that threatens to shut down the Line 5 cross-border pipeline by June 2026.
Forcing a shutdown would violate Canada’s treaty rights, government lawyers argue in an amicus brief filed today with the U.S. Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals.
A Wisconsin court ruling in June gave Calgary-based Enbridge Inc. an ultimatum: reroute the pipeline around an Indigenous reserve within three years or shut it down.

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Trans Mountain Pipeline operators must consider increasing tolls to limit mounting taxpayer losses on the project, the Commons natural resources committee said yesterday. MPs in a report said a huge loss appeared unavoidable: “The pipeline operator may be unable to charge high enough tolls to cover the costs.”

 

This Trans Mountain pipeline

The Stk’emlúpsemc te Secwépemc, a First Nation in the Interior of B.C., near Kamloops, is disputing a proposed change by Trans Mountain to the pipeline route through an area known as Pípsell.

The Nation, known by its acronym SSN, says the change in construction methodology and routing of the pipeline will severely jeopardize what it considers a “cultural keystone place.”

The pipeline project’s cost has already soared from an initial purchase price of $4.7 billion by the federal government in 2018, to a whopping $30.9 billion – and it is still not complete. This latest hurdle poses yet another potential cost overrun, and delay, for Trans Mountain, whose debt is backstopped by the federal government and could very well be borne by Canadian taxpayers.

Canada’s energy regulator has agreed to listen to SSN’s case against Trans Mountain’s 11th-hour change in plans. Those hearings will begin on Monday in Calgary. If the regulator rules against Trans Mountain, the pipeline giant may very well have to dig deep into its pocketbooks and find millions of dollars of extra cash to complete the line according to the construction method it had initially agreed to.

 

 

The "green" scam:

Industry Minister François-Philippe Champagne yesterday dismissed Budget Office figures showing he misled taxpayers on recovery of green technology subsidies. Billions for electric car makers remain “good deals for Canadians,” said Champagne: “We’re in the big leagues.”

 

More like - "make us look good or else":

The heads of Canada's five largest grocery chains have "agreed to work with" the federal government to stabilize food prices, Industry Minister François-Philippe Champagne said Monday.

Champagne and Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland met with the heads of Loblaw, Sobeys, Metro, Costco and Walmart in Ottawa on Monday. Freeland stayed only for the first few minutes of the two-hour meeting.

 

 Welcome to Soviet-style stores where the government tells you what you want, when and how much.


Also

The price of food purchased from grocery stores in August increased 6.9 per cent annually, a slower year-over-year pace compared to the 8.5 per cent rise recorded in July, but still above headline inflation. The Consumer Price Index (CPI) increased 4 per cent annually in August.

The food price data come a day after top executives from Canada's biggest grocery retailers met with federal officials, including Industry Minister François-Philippe Champagne, in Ottawa to discuss stabilizing food prices.

Executives from Loblaw, Metro, Empire, Walmart and Costco met with Champagne, who said after the meeting that the CEOs "have agreed to support the government of Canada in our effort to stabilize food prices in Canada." Details about how that will be achieved were not disclosed.



Why does all of this sound familiar?:



Quebec is special:

Justin Trudeau had no qualms about throwing English-speaking Quebecers under the bus in the Official Languages Act update. Now he's doing the same to Anthony Housefather

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Quebec politicians on Wednesday railed against a Quebec City junior college's decision to host a weeklong event promoting English, suggesting the initiative undermines efforts to protect French.

The ongoing "English Week 2023" is a five-day event at French-language Cégep Garneau to encourage students and teachers to practise the language.

"The Language Department invites the entire Cégep Garneau community to speak English," the event description on the college's online news page reads. "The important thing is to have fun … in English!"

 

Also special, the angry man: 

Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault yesterday had no comment after agreeing to a $20,000 free speech settlement with Rebel News Network. Guilbeault blocked the news outlet and its publisher Ezra Levant on his official Twitter account: “Guilbeault hates Rebel News because he can’t control us.”

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Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault has settled a five-figure debt for unpaid taxes. Guilbeault as a member of cabinet is paid $287,400 a year plus a $2,000 car allowance: ““I no longer have arrears due Revenu Québec.”



Well, obviously:

The majority of Canadian voters believe the federal government doesn't care what they think, according to a survey by Elections Canada (EC).

“In March 2023, two-thirds of electors (65%) said they do not think the government cares much what people like them think,” said the poll report, published on March 31, and first covered by Blacklock’s Reporter.

A breakdown of the figure shows that 26 percent of the respondents “strongly agreed” while 39 percent “somewhat agreed.”



A stolen idea can still work

The House of Commons has unanimously agreed to adopt the Liberal government’s bail-reform bill at all stages and send it to the Senate for review.

The decision came on MPs’ first day back in Ottawa after a summer break.

The proposed legislation would make it harder for some repeat, violent offenders to be granted bail.

Canada’s justice system currently requires prosecutors to prove why someone should stay behind bars, but the legislation would instead put the onus on some offenders to prove why it would be safe for them to be let out of prison.

 

Rather, don't allow bail. 

How much more damage to criminals have to inflict?



"Give US a break!" they all cry:

Atlantic Liberal MPs say they want an additional rural carve-out on the carbon tax to ease cost-of-living pressures specific to Canadians living outside of major urban centres.

MP Ken McDonald, who represents the riding of Avalon in Newfoundland and Labrador, said many of his constituents feel abandoned by the federal government.

He brought their concerns to the attention of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau during the national Liberal caucus meetings this week in London, Ont.

"I told him exactly as it is," McDonald said. "We're punishing the rural areas of our country and the most vulnerable people in our society."

McDonald is pushing for a special policy for rural Canadians that would include carbon tax rebates higher than those the backstop program currently offers.


You put that worthless son-of-a-b!#ch Trudeau into office, you can starve.


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