bananas

Wednesday March 29, 2017

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Wednesday March 29, 2017

Housing affordability measures will be in spring budget: Ontario Finance Minister

Ontario Finance Minister Charles Sousa confirmed Monday he plans to include housing affordability measures in his upcoming budget.

Premier Kathleen Wynne has said her government is working on a “comprehensive set of plans,” to deal with rising home prices in the Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area (GTHA), as well as rising rental rates.

Sousa said he’d like to include those plans in the spring budget.

There is a “suite of options” available to Ontario, but the province must be careful to avoid “unintended consequences” from those measures, he said.

Sousa also spoke about pressures on both the supply and demand side of the GTHA housing market.

“Demand is high for a number of factors,” he said. “Could be speculators, could be people from outside the country, it could very well be the many who are now moving into Ontario creating that demand.”

“The degree of supply is in question and how to expedite that is also something we’re trying to address,” he added.

The housing package in the budget will concern the red-hot housing market in the GTHA, while taking into account different circumstances in the rest of the province, Sousa said. (Source: Globe & Mail) 

 

Wednesday, February 5, 2014

Wednesday, February 5, 2014

By Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Wednesday, February 5, 2014

Patrick Brazeau, Mac Harb charged by RCMP

Suspended Senator Patrick Brazeau and retired senator Mac Harb have been formally charged by the RCMP with one count each of fraud and breach of trust related to inappropriate Senate expense claims.

RCMP Assistant Commissioner Gilles Michaud announced the charges at a news conference at about 11:10 am ET Tuesday.

“The RCMP has proceeded to charge Mr. Brazeau and Mr. Harb with one count each of breach of trust and fraud under sections 122 and 380 of the Criminal Code, ” Michaud said. “Both  Mr. Brazeau and Mr. Harb will be appearing in court at a later date.”

The Mounties allege Brazeau and Harb defrauded taxpayers by claiming travel and living expenses to which they were not entitled.

Brazeau was suspended from the Senate in October along with onetime fellow Conservative Senators Mike Duffy and Pamela Wallin. The three former Conservatives were suspended without pay following an outside audit of their expenses.

Harb, who was a Liberal senator until his spending came under scrutiny through an external audit, retired in August after paying back $231,000.

Both Brazeau and Harb, along with Mike Duffy and Pamela Wallin, were subject to a lengthy Senate investigation of their expenses claims and living allowances.

A Senate committee determined each of the four had claimed tens of thousands of dollars in expenses that they were not entitled to.
The Senate then passed its files to the RCMP.

The charges expected Tuesday against Brazeau and Harb are the first to flow from the RCMP’s own lengthy investigation of the spending scandal, underway since May 2013. (Source: CBC News)

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