Budget

Wednesday March 8, 2017

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Wednesday March 8, 2017

Trump administration proposes 97 per cent cut to Great Lakes restoration initiative

Alarm bells are ringing over potentially drastic cuts to the protection of the Great Lakes.

August 25, 2016

U-S President Donald Trump’s administration is proposing to slash the budget to the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative by 97 percent.

Scientists say these cuts would be devastating to the efforts by Canada and the U-S to restore the precious resource.

The Great Lakes represent 20 percent of the world’s surface fresh water, and provides drinking water for 45 million people.

The Executive Director of the Great Lakes Institute for Environmental Research can’t believe the news.

“When I first heard it, I thought it was a joke,” says Daniel Heath.

Internal US budget documents obtained by CTV News suggest the Trump government plans to cut nearly two dozen EPA programs. Funding for the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative would drop from $300-million a year to $10-million.

June 23, 2016

The funding for the Initiative helps fight invasive species, curbs nutrient fueled algae blooms, cleans up toxic messes and restores the sensitive fish and wildlife habitat.

Derek Coronado of the Citizens Environment Alliance suggests this is a “public health issue” and a “human security issue.”

“It’s not good for fisheries in Lake Erie, and tourism. Who wants to go to a beach with toxic material,” adds Coronado.

Heath adds the cuts would undermine all of the protection efforts currently underway.

“It may save some money, but it would put back Great Lakes conservation by decades,” adds Heath.

Scientists are urging residents on both sides of the border to speak to their elected officials about the potential cuts.(CTV News) 

 

Wednesday February 15, 2017

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Wednesday February 15, 2017

Mission accomplished?: Trump’s NAFTA ‘tweak’ aside, Trudeau’s U.S. visit reassures markets

As Justin Trudeau praised U.S. ties in his debut remarks at Donald Trump’s White House, the Canadian prime minister’s top diplomat nodded along in the front row with barely a glance at her boss.

March 27, 2015

Instead, Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland’s eyes were fixed squarely on Trump, as if imploring him to let each of Trudeau’s words sink in: common goals, bilateral trade, middle-class jobs. The president soon caught her eye and nodded.

Trudeau left Washington Monday with as much as he could hope for. Trump pledged publicly to only “tweak” Canada’s side of the North American Free Trade Agreement and ease the flow of goods along the northern border, while saying he’d focus instead on the “unfair” U.S. commercial relationship with Mexico to the south.

In private, the president gave no indication of how he’d proceed on NAFTA talks or whether he’d press ahead with a border tax, according to a senior Canadian government official who spoke after the meeting on condition they not be identified. It was the clearest signal yet that Canada — and the US$541 billion in bilateral trade of which it’s a part — isn’t in U.S. Crosshairs.

September 26, 2001

“Trudeau did very well today,” Christopher Sands, director of the Center for Canadian Studies at Johns Hopkins University, told Bloomberg TV Canada Monday. “Trump made some important distinctions between Canada and Mexico. That’s reassuring for markets.”

The whirlwind visit lasted roughly nine hours. The two leaders spent four together before the prime minister’s meetings with House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wisconsin, and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Kentucky. Trudeau’s ministers also met with Vice President Mike Pence, and the prime minister’s senior aides met with their counterparts in Trump’s office, including Stephen Bannon and Jared Kushner.

Trudeau headed into the meeting biting his tongue on issues like refugee rights to instead focus almost exclusively on trade. Canada’s relationship with the superpower to its south largely consists of selling resources to Americans and buying goods in return. According to a report this month from the Bank of Nova Scotia, Canada ran a $303 billion deficit in manufactured goods with the U.S. between 2009 and 2015, and a surplus of $453 billion in energy and resource products. Mexico runs surpluses in both categories. (Source: Financial Post) 

Trudeau’s chief of staff Katie Telford, his principal secretary Gerald Butts, Canada’s ambassador to Washington David MacNaughton, Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland, and Brian Clow — who heads the recently established “war room” in the prime minister’s office devoted to co-ordinating all Canada-U.S. issues — travelled to Washington, D.C., and New York City to meet Trump officials last week. (Source: Huffington Post) 

 

Friday January 27, 2017

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Friday January 27, 2017

Hamilton’s rat problem 5th worst in Ontario

Ranking based on rodent calls to pest control company Orkin Canada

Why President Trump might not be the worst for Canada

March 12, 2015

Hamilton is known for a lot of things, and its rat population is starting to become one of them.

To be sure, we’re not in the big leagues. New York and London, England are definitely the places to go if you want to see furry vermin.

But a recent rodent ranking by a pest control company suggests we are becoming a contender.

Orkin Canada says Hamilton is the fifth “rattiest city” in Ontario. Cities were ranked by the number of rodent (rat and mice) treatments the company performed from January 1, 2016 through December 31, 2016. The ranking was based on both residential and commercial calls.

Toronto was number one in the province followed by Ottawa. An Orkin spokesperson said the results were “not weighed for population size.” So the top five “rattiest cities” list resembles closely the top five municipalities by population in Ontario.

“In theory it is probably correct to see a correlation (between population and rodent treatments) but some cities, Brampton (10), Windsor, (7) and London (12) for example, do not follow this pattern,” a spokesperson for Orkin said. (Source: Hamilton Spectator) 

 

Wednesday January 18, 2017

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Wednesday January 18, 2017

Funds must double to keep Hamilton roads at ‘C’ level: report

The city needs to double asphalt repair spending over the next decade just to keep increasingly rutted roads in fair shape, a new analysis shows.

As it is, municipal road conditions — particularly neighbourhood streets and urban collectors — are deteriorating steadily because the city budget isn’t keeping up with needed repairs, says public works head Dan McKinnon.

“We’re not sustainable … We know the overall condition rating is going to decline,” McKinnon said during a presentation to councillors on the city’s latest road condition analysis.

That report suggests Hamilton must spend about $521 million on repairs and reconstruction over the next 10 years just to hold the line on existing road conditions. We’re on track to spend only half that amount, with about $25.5-million slated to be directed to such repairs in 2017.

The city actually spends closer to $80 million a year on all things roads-related — but that includes bridges, sidewalks and street lights, traffic engineering, technical studies and construction related to new development. 

The city bases its latest dire prediction on a roads condition index calculated with the help of a consultant who used ground-penetrating laser technology and visual inspections to evaluate all municipal roads block by block.

Based on the latest study, the city has awarded itself a “C” grade for roads — defined as “fair with some deterioration or defects evident” — or an average condition index of 62.

The “optimum” target condition index for roads is 81. While the city’s two parkways are close to that target level of driveability, residential streets and urban collectors have an average condition index closer to 58.

The latest public report doesn’t finger particularly bad roads or neighbourhoods, but a photo presentation to councillors used a spiderweb-cracked section of Chapple Street in Stoney Creek to illustrate a road in need of a rebuild. (Source: Hamilton Spectator) 

Doubled Published – Oopsie.

Published in the Western Star, Corner Brook, Newfoundland – January 

Published in the Western Star, Corner Brook, Newfoundland – January 20, 2017

 

Tuesday, November 15, 2016

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator Ð Tuesday, November 15, 2016 Finance Minister Charles Sousa delivers fall economic statement The Ontario government is moving to double the maximum tax rebate offered to first-time homebuyers while boosting the land-transfer tax on house purchases above $2 million. Finance Minister Charles Sousa made the announcements in his fall economic statement, delivered in the provincial legislature on Monday afternoon. The changes are to take effect on Jan.1, 2017. "Purchasing your very first home is one of the most exciting decisions in a young person's life, but many are worried about how they will be able to afford their first condo or house," he told the Legislature Monday. "Improving housing affordability will help more Ontarians to participate [in the housing market].Ó Sousa said first-time buyers won't pay any land transfer tax on the first $368,000 of a purchase price, and they will become eligible for a rebate of up to $4,000 in provincial land transfer tax, levied on the purchase of every house and condominium. Meanwhile, the land-transfer tax rate on the amount of a purchase above $2 million will rise to 2.5 per cent, from the current rate of 2 per cent. Government officials say the tax increase on luxury homes will bring in about $105 million annually, and that will fund the increased rebate. New Democrat finance critic Catherine Fife called the fall economic statement "a distraction" from the top issue facing Ontarians Ñ soaring electricity rates Ñ and said Premier Kathleen Wynne had downplayed expectations of help for first-time homebuyers. "Quite honestly, she was right to lower the expectations because what we see in this statement is neither new or profound or progressive," Fife told the legislature. (Source: CBC News) http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/ontario-fall-economic-statement-charles-sousa-1.3849873 Ontario, economy, economic, statement, Kathleen Wynne, Charles Sousa, budget, finan

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Tuesday, November 15, 2016

Finance Minister Charles Sousa delivers fall economic statement

The Ontario government is moving to double the maximum tax rebate offered to first-time homebuyers while boosting the land-transfer tax on house purchases above $2 million.

Finance Minister Charles Sousa made the announcements in his fall economic statement, delivered in the provincial legislature on Monday afternoon. The changes are to take effect on Jan.1, 2017.

“Purchasing your very first home is one of the most exciting decisions in a young person’s life, but many are worried about how they will be able to afford their first condo or house,” he told the Legislature Monday. “Improving housing affordability will help more Ontarians to participate [in the housing market].”

November 8, 2013

November 8, 2013

Sousa said first-time buyers won’t pay any land transfer tax on the first $368,000 of a purchase price, and they will become eligible for a rebate of up to $4,000 in provincial land transfer tax, levied on the purchase of every house and condominium. Meanwhile, the land-transfer tax rate on the amount of a purchase above $2 million will rise to 2.5 per cent, from the current rate of 2 per cent.

Government officials say the tax increase on luxury homes will bring in about $105 million annually, and that will fund the increased rebate.

New Democrat finance critic Catherine Fife called the fall economic statement “a distraction” from the top issue facing Ontarians — soaring electricity rates — and said Premier Kathleen Wynne had downplayed expectations of help for first-time homebuyers.

“Quite honestly, she was right to lower the expectations because what we see in this statement is neither new or profound or progressive,” Fife told the legislature. (Source: CBC News)