The finance department paid a newspaper columnist thousands of dollars for help in discussing its austerity budget, documents show. Brian Lee Crowley, a contributor to the Ottawa Citizen and Globe and Mail, received $7,781 to host three budget roundtable meetings sponsored by the Department of Finance, according to a finance official and accounts tabled in the Commons.
Consumer complaints of telemarketing calls have increased 58 percent in the past three years, according to records. Formal protests by phone owners who registered with the National Do Not Call List totaled 106,089 last year, compared to 67,340 in 2009.
The Canadian Booksellers Association, a trade group that championed independent dealers since 1953, is no more.The association served notice with Industry Canada it is surrendering its charter: “Everybody wants to stay alive.”
A tax ruling expected to raise the price of thousands of everyday goods has been delayed till 2015 amid demands from industry and Parliament that Canada develop a “coherent” policy on tariffs. New taxes on imports will raise prices $1 billion, by government estimate: “Do we have a method here?”
Canada’s phone regulator is reviewing a request to waive restrictions on automatic dialing machines. Marketers want to relax the rules that limit use of so-called ADADs, or Automatic Dialing-Announcing Devices: “It has real consumer benefits.”
The department of finance has taken no steps to tax simplification despite appeals from chartered accountants, and a precedent from the U.K. The main 2013 budget document ran to 433 pages of text and commentary, excluding thousands of pages of regulations still required to pass it into law: “They have not made a real commitment to tax simplification.”
Changes to tax law intended to assist new farmers are “one step forward and two back,” says the Canadian Federation of Agriculture. The finance department proposes to double claims for losses by new growers with off-farm income.
An earlier opening to the billion-dollar lobster season by the Department of Fisheries is being welcomed by industry groups. Warmer waters have meant earlier molting times: “You don’t harvest tomatoes on a certain day of the year if they aren’t ripe.”
Newly generous Canadians will qualify for “super” tax credits– up to 54 percent — in an attempt to reverse declining trends in charitable giving. The initiative follows a House committee report that Ottawa try new credits to encourage more taxpayers to donate to charities.
Ottawa is criminalizing “zapper” accounting software that distorts reporting of business revenue. And regulators are warning all Canadian companies must be rid of the computer program within nine months or face fines and imprisonment.
Pacific Salmon conservation will be given increased funding with a British Columbia-based foundation expected to receive $1 million per year to improve salmon habitat: “A drop in the bucket.”
The federal treasury will extend long-sought public works subsidies, says Finance Minister Jim Flaherty. In a move praised by municipalities as a “significant gain,” Flaherty said financing of a Building Canada plan, set to expire in 2014, will be renewed.
Parliament is extending tax benefits for business, big and small, including a $1,000 Employment Insurance hiring credit for mom ‘n pop companies, and a $1.4 billion tax benefit for Canadian manufacturers and processors: “We lobbied hard for these initiatives.”
Cabinet proposes more, new and creative user fees in its drive to eliminate the $26 billion federal deficit, and hints that Cabinet will “look at options to improve the financial viability” of all Crown agencies: “Why wouldn’t they?”
The finance department is declaring war on tax deductions, credits and “loopholes,” proposing to raise billions of dollars with obscure regulations on everything from parking spots to safety deposit boxes. The finance minister says the measures would “help ensure everyone pays their fair share.”
