While most Canadian finance ministers are struggling to keep a lid on deficits, Quebec’s Liberal government will boost spending and cut taxes on the strength of a healthy economy, growing revenue and a third consecutive balanced budget.

With one more budget to go before the 2018 provincial election, Finance Minister Carlos Leitao has already started handing out modest pre-campaign goodies. He announced about $1-billion in income-tax cuts and opened the wallet to boost spending by 4.1 per cent, mainly on health care and education.

Mr. Leitao cracked jokes and needled reporters Tuesday in an upbeat financial exercise that contrasted with dismal recent budgets in Alberta, Saskatchewan and Ottawa. In the Prairies, governments are struggling to keep massive deficits under control while Justin Trudeau’s government is letting red ink spill, hoping to spur economic growth. Ontario is expected to bring its budget into balance next month, but it won’t be easy.

read more at theglobeandmail.com

OTTAWA — The Trudeau government is still wrestling with how to tax recreational pot, even as it indicates it’s poised to introduce long-awaited legalization legislation next month in advance of April 20 — the “Weed Day” popularly known as 4/20.

Finance Minister Bill Morneau said Monday that the feds “haven’t made enough progress” in terms of taxing marijuana and several other issues related to legalizing the drug.

The focus has instead been on making sure weed stays out of the hands of children and criminals, Morneau said during a news conference in Calgary.
read more at huffingtonpost.ca

There are lessons to learn from British Columbia’s carbon tax, and the biggest one is for the leader of Ontario’s official Opposition, Patrick Brown.

The lesson is a simple one. Revenue neutrality doesn’t happen.

Politicians sold a carbon tax to British Columbians on the promise of revenue neutrality – the idea that the overall tax burden on the public remains the same because the carbon tax is offset by tax reductions in other areas.

But a recent study by the Fraser Institute has found that British Columbians are on track to experience a $599 million net tax hike from 2013–14 to 2016–17 as a result of a carbon tax that politicians sold to them as “revenue neutral.”

read more at business.financialpost.com

The government will present its second budget on March 22, Finance Minister Bill Morneau announced earlier this week. So what could Ottawa have in store for your wallet?

The contents of the budget are tightly guarded, so it’s impossible to tell for sure what will be in it ahead of time. But keen Ottawa watchers have become adept at reading the budget tea leaves and making fairly accurate guesses about some of the provisions the government is about to table.

Here’s a look at some of measures that could be coming down the pike and might have a direct impact on your finances:

Tying Old Age Security and Guaranteed Income Supplement payments to a new measure of living costs

OAS and GIS payments already rise in tandem with inflation, but the Liberals noted that, according to a Statistics Canada study, the price of most things seniors buy tends to rise faster. In its 2015 elections platform, the party proposed developing a Seniors Price Index that would supplement the general Consumer Price Index to which OAS and GIS are currently indexed.

read more at globalnews.ca

It’s time for the Alberta government to lift the burden on Albertans. Between punishing new taxes and a mounting debt load, the government has been putting off difficult decisions of its own and instead is making people’s lives more difficult.

The provincial government is now wasting $1 billion annually on debt interest payments. That’s money that will be handed over to the banks because the government can’t get its spending under control. Incredibly, that number will double to $2 billion per year by 2018-19.

Alberta’s $28.4-billion debt is rolling in at a rate of over $355 every second. Some proponents of increased government spending like to argue that the debt load is nothing compared to that of the monstrously high debt in Ontario (the world’s most indebted sub-national borrower) but consider that Alberta eliminated its debt as recently as 2004.

read more at business.financialpost.com

n a major announcement last year, the Trudeau government imposed a policy that will require all provinces to put a price on carbon emissions by 2018. As governments in Canada and elsewhere pursue carbon pricing, British Columbia’s carbon tax has received global praise as the gold standard.

Both the United Nations and the World Bank have declared B.C.’s “revenue neutral” carbon tax the model to follow. The OECD called it a “text book” example of how to implement carbon pricing. Commentators in Canada and the U.S have similarly hyped B.C.’s carbon tax, arguing it’s proof that governments can get carbon policy right.

Source: How B.C.’s formerly ‘revenue neutral’ carbon tax turned into another government cash grab | Financial Post

MONTREAL—An ex-Liberal organizer convicted of fraud related to the federal sponsorship scandal was given a four-year prison term Wednesday.

Jacques Corriveau, who was previously described as the ”central figure” in the scandal, will also have 10 years to pay a fine of $1.4 million.

A jury found Corriveau guilty of three charges in November: fraud against the government, forgery and laundering proceeds of crime.

Corriveau, 83, was handcuffed and placed in the prisoner’s box after the sentence was read out.

Source: Ex-Liberal organizer Jacques Corriveau gets four-year prison term for sponsorship fraud | Toronto Star

OTTAWA— Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said his government will close tax loopholes for the rich in the upcoming federal budget, hinting at measures to target tax havens that shelter money for wealthy Canadians.

On the first day of a road trip meant to re-connect him with Canadians and under fire for a swish Christmas vacation on a private island in the Bahamas, Trudeau ate humble pie.

He admitted his government missed warning signs that a new computerized federal pay system was buckling, acknowledged his government has not yet met its promise to restore lifelong disability pensions to injured veterans, and he conceded his preferred option on electoral reform was a ranked ballot, not the proportional representation system recommended by a committee.

Source: Liberals to close tax loopholes for the rich, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says | Toronto Star

VANCOUVER (NEWS 1130) – For years, we have been hearing about the entitled nature of millennials. The story goes that those born in the ’80s and ’90s grew up on participation awards and inflated self-esteem.

They were told that the world was their oyster and that they should follow their passion. The cautionary tale, of course, is that this set of values came at the expense of building the grit and work ethic that their elders had. Whenever someone in the younger generation complains of accessing affordable housing, or poor economic prospects, the comments section blasts their entitlement, lack of work ethic and realism, and points disapprovingly to the fact they can afford a flat-screen television and an iPhone.

Source: BC’s housing market pitting one generation against the other – NEWS 1130