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Bringing about a higher level of transparency and accountability in provincial and federal governments to help protect taxpayers from abuse

Bringing about a higher level of transparency and accountability in provincial and federal governments to help protect taxpayers from abuse.

Canada spending twice as much on wining and dining in the U.S. under Trudeau: documents

OTTAWA — As worries about the Trump administration loom over the Canada-United States relationship, the Trudeau government is spending more than double what the Harper government was on wining and dining south of the border.

An analysis of information obtained with access-to-information requests, supplemented with data provided by Global Affairs Canada officials, shows the Liberal government has substantially shifted its diplomatic focus to the U.S. It also shows an increase in spending at Canadian missions to multilateral institutions such as the United Nations.

Read more at National Post

Surrey man convicted in 1986 B.C. terrorist shooting poses with Trudeau’s wife, cabinet minister in India

A Surrey businessman convicted in a 1986 terrorist shooting in B.C. posed with Sophie Gregoire Trudeau and a Canadian cabinet minister during the prime minister’s trip to India.

Jaspal Atwal, a one-time member of the now-banned International Sikh Youth Federation, had also been invited to a dinner with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau at the Canadian High Commission in Delhi on Thursday night.

Read more at Vancouver Sun

Canada Just Can’t Quit Its Most Abusive Mining Company

Will the Canadian government continue to support Barrick Gold’s exploitation of mineral resources in Tanzania no matter what abuses the company commits?

Would the Trudeau government stop backing the Toronto-based firm if it bilked the impoverished nation out of $10 billion? Or, what if one thousand people were raped and seriously injured by Barrick security? Would Ottawa withdraw its support if one hundred Tanzanians were killed at its mines?

Read more at Huffington Post

It’s not a carbon tax, it’s a ‘behaviour-changing measure’: government officials

The Liberal government today released the carbon-pricing scheme it will impose on any province or territory that, by spring 2018, doesn’t have its own comparable scheme in place.

As of today, 97 per cent of Canadians live in provinces that either already have a price on carbon pollution, or are planning and working toward it, Environment Minister Catherine McKenna said Thursday.

The three per cent of Canadians left out of that equation are in Saskatchewan – the one province that continues to hold out on signing on to the Trudeau government’s climate change plan.

read more at globalnews.ca

Don’t be duped by Trudeau’s carbon pricing plan

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s carbon pricing plan released Thursday by Climate Change Minister Catherine McKenna is a political fraud.

It will not achieve the government’s promised industrial greenhouse gas emission reduction targets for 2020 or 2030.

It will increase the cost of living for Canadians, adding hundreds of dollars to their annual household bills, year after year.

The plan says that by 2022, we will be paying an estimated 11.6 cents more per litre of gas alone, solely due to carbon pricing.

read more at torontosun.com

Legal marijuana could raise federal cash — but not right away, PBO says

While Canadians are expected to spend billions on legal marijuana, governments won’t see a huge boost in tax revenues right out of the gate, warns Canada’s Parliamentary Budget Officer (PBO).

In a report released today studying the fiscal considerations of legalizing marijuana, Jean-Denis Fréchette suggests initial revenue for governments from taxation could be in the hundreds of millions of dollars, rather than billions.

But as the market matures, those revenues are likely to grow, according to the analysis. Fréchette expects production costs for the industry will decline and suggests governments could collect a portion of the cost savings.

There are many variables that affect revenue projections, from quantity consumed to price and competition from legal and illicit markets. The report estimates sales tax revenues could be $618 million at the outset of legalization, but that number will grow.

“As the legal cannabis market matures, the potential for government to capture fiscal revenues will grow,” it reads.

Source: http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/marijuana-parliamentary-budget-officer-revenues-1.3830593

Carbon tax divides nation: Trudeau announcement sparks walkouts, ultimatums

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau took to his feet in the House of Commons earlier this week to announce a national carbon tax that will force provinces to put a minimum price on carbon or set up a cap and trade system to tax emissions.

Designed to address climate change and ensure all regions of the country are paying for their greenhouse gas emissions, the announcement sparked walkouts from a climate meeting in Montreal, demands for pipeline quid pro quo, as well as a number of endorsements and shows of support.

The federal plan calls for a $10-per-tonne floor price starting in 2018, eventually rising to $50 a tonne in 2022—two-thirds higher than what Alberta’s price will be in 2018. Trudeau said the federal government will implement a price in any province or territory that doesn’t have either a carbon price or a cap-and-trade system in place by 2018.

Immediately after the announcement, which Saskatchewan Premier Brad Wall called a “betrayal,” the prairie province, Newfoundland and Labrador, Nova Scotia and Alberta had all but joined the opposing camp.

Source: http://www.canadianmanufacturing.com/regulation/carbon-tax-divides-nation-trudeau-announcement-sparks-applause-walkouts-and-ultimatums-176805/