Finance – mackaycartoons

Friday January 26, 2024

January 26, 2024 by Graeme MacKay

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Friday January 26, 2024

Ontario’s Double Whammy: Ailing Healthcare and Struggling Universities

August 3, 2022

In a strange dance of financial distress, Ontario finds itself caught between the ailing health care system and struggling universities, both desperately seeking a remedy for their budgetary ailments.

Joanna Frketich’s recent report in The Hamilton Spectator paints a grim picture of Ontario hospitals grappling with deficits in the tens of millions. Hamilton Health Sciences (HHS), Brantford Community Health System (BCHS), and Burlington’s Joseph Brant Hospital are all resorting to loans and lines of credit to cover shortfalls. As Doris Grinspun, CEO of the Registered Nurses’ Association of Ontario, aptly puts it, “Efficiency has become deficiency.”

News: Area hospitals using loans, lines of credit to pay for care

August 30, 2023

Simultaneously, Kristin Rushowy’s report for the Toronto Star reveals that almost half of Ontario’s universities are drowning in deficits. (Hamilton’s McMaster University is for now bucking the trend.) Steve Orsini, head of the Council of Ontario Universities, warns that student services are on the chopping block unless the government steps in. It’s a financial tug-of-war between two pillars of society, both left teetering on the edge.

The situation in both sectors is no laughing matter, but one can’t help but wonder if the province’s decision-makers are secretly moonlighting as scriptwriters for a tragicomedy. Picture this: hospital CEOs and university administrators engaging in a bizarre game of financial limbo, each trying to outdo the other in how low they can go in their budgetary dance.

News: Almost half of Ontario universities are running deficits, putting student services at risk, council says

March 1, 2023

In this precarious ballet, hospitals and universities are forced to tap into lines of credit and loans just to keep their operations afloat. As the deficits mount, it seems like the only growth industry in Ontario is the debt market. The irony is glaring – a province known for its robust healthcare and education systems now forced to juggle financial burdens that threaten the very foundations of these institutions.

The Ontario Hospital Association (OHA) suggests that the province has chosen not to enforce accountability agreements mandating balanced budgets for hospitals. On the other side of the stage, universities are pleading for a boost in funding and the leeway to increase tuition fees. The government, it seems, holds the purse strings to a performance that impacts the well-being of both patients and students.

September 11, 2015

In this unfortunate duet, the people of Ontario are left as spectators, watching their essential services spiral into uncertainty. It’s time for the government to rewrite the script, providing the necessary financial support to ensure the stability of healthcare and education. The province’s future depends on it, and the citizens of Ontario deserve more than a front-row seat to a financial tragedy.

Thursday November 22, 2018

November 29, 2018 by Graeme MacKay

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Thursday November 22, 2018

Fiscal update to lay out competitiveness plan, close loop on some Liberal vows

The federal government will release a fall economic update Wednesday that will seek to close the loop on some of its outstanding mandate commitments, leaving the door open for the Liberals to use next year’s budget as their 2019 election platform.

March, 1, 2018

The document will also include Finance Minister Bill Morneau’s long-awaited plan to help Canada compete for investment dollars, which many warn has become increasingly difficult following major tax and regulatory changes in the United States.

Morneau has faced pressure to lower Canada’s corporate rate, but the government has signalled it will focus on targeted measures to accelerate investment rather than across-the-board tax cuts.

The document will likely be the Liberal government’s second-last opportunity — besides the spring budget — to deliver major policy announcements and its political pitch in package form before the October 2019 election.

February 12, 2016

As for fiscal responsibility, the official said the fall statement will show that Canada’s annual projections for the federal deficit and the debt burden will continue to slide downward on trajectories similar to those outlined in the 2018 budget.

The Liberals have faced regular criticism from the Opposition Conservatives for abandoning their 2015 vow to run only modest annual shortfalls of no more than $10 billion and to eliminate the deficit by 2019.

Instead, the Liberals have posted deficits of more than $18 billion in each of the last two years.

As its guiding principle on fiscal responsibility, the government has focused on lowering the country’s debt burden — as measured by net debt-to-GDP — rather than balancing the books.

The debt-to-GDP ratio fell to 31.3 per cent in 2017-18 from 32 per cent in 2016-17. The government has predicted the ratio to fall to 30.1 per cent in 2018-19 and continue sliding each year until it reaches 28.4 per cent in 2022-23. (Source: CTV News)

Saturday November 17, 2018

November 26, 2018 by Graeme MacKay

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Saturday November 17, 2018

Ford government’s 1st fiscal update shows Ontario cut deficit to $14.5B

Ontario’s Progressive Conservative government says it has cut the province’s deficit by $500 million, bringing the figure down to $14.5 billion in its first few months in office.

June 25, 2018

The change is announced in the government’s Fall Economic Statement for 2018-2019, its first major fiscal update since winning the spring election.

“The fiscal hole is deep,” Finance Minister Vic Fedeli said in presenting the document to the legislature on Thursday afternoon. “The road ahead is not an easy one and will require difficult decisions. Everyone across the province will be required to make sacrifices, without exception.”

The government said it has made progress on cutting the deficit by finding $3.2 billion in efficiencies in operations, including a hiring freeze across the public service.

The belt-tightening measures laid out also include rolling the positions of three independent officers — the environmental commissioner, the child and youth advocate and the French language services commissioner — into the offices of the auditor general or the provincial ombudsman.

Government staff could not say what will happen to those working in the eliminated offices, but Premier Doug Ford has consistently promised that no jobs would be lost as a result of his cost-cutting.

Plans for a French-language university have also been cancelled, though the government could not immediately say how much money the move would save.

Though it is spending less, the government said it is also taking in $2.7 billion less in revenue in the fiscal year — including $1.5 billion attributed to the cancellation of cap and trade.

More than $300,000 in lost revenue is attributed to cancelling planned tax increases, including one that would have raised taxes for small businesses, the document says.

The Tories had said the previous Liberal government left a $15 billion deficit, a figure disputed by critics, who said it includes spending promised by the Liberals but cancelled by the current regime.

While the document mentions returning the province’s budget to balance, it does not spell out how long it will take to achieve that goal. (Source: CTV News)

Thursday January 18, 2018

January 17, 2018 by Graeme MacKay

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Thursday January 18, 2018

Bank of Canada raises key interest rate to 1.25% despite NAFTA worries

The Bank of Canada raised its key lending rate by a quarter percentage point to 1.25 per cent Wednesday, the third time it has moved its benchmark rate from once-record lows last summer.

The bank’s rate has an impact on rates that Canadians get from retail banks for things like mortgages, savings accounts and GICs. The move means borrowers can expect to pay more, but savers can expect to earn more, too.

After the central bank moved in the morning, the Royal Bank of Canada and Toronto-Dominion Bank each hiked their prime lending rates by the same amount, 25 points, in the afternoon. The new rates of 3.45 per cent will be in effect as of Thursday, Jan. 18. Canada’s other big banks are expected to follow suit.

The Bank of Canada was widely expected to raise its key rate after economic data in recent months showed gross domestic product growing, the job market healthy and the cost of living ticking higher.

The bank’s benchmark rate is now at its highest level since 2009.

In the MPR, the bank nudged up its expectations for how the economy will perform this year and next. The bank now expects Canada’s economy to expand by 2.2 per cent this year and 1.6 per cent in 2019. Previously the bank was anticipating 2.1 and 1.5 per cent growth.

But while broadly positive about the economy’s prospects, the bank cited “uncertainty about the future of NAFTA” as a reason for concern moving forward. (Source: CBC)

Thursday December 8, 2016

December 7, 2016 by Graeme MacKay

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Thursday December 8, 2016

Families could pay up to $420 more for food in 2017, report finds

The average Canadian family may need to dish out as much as $420 more for food next year — and consumers could have president-elect Donald Trump to thank for part of the price bump, the lead author of a new report says.

December 11, 2015

Canada’s Food Price Report, published by researchers at Dalhousie University in Halifax, was released Monday evening.

The annual report, which looks ahead to 2017, cites weather disruptions caused by La Nina, energy-related costs — including the potential effect of carbon pricing on the agricultural sector — and a weak Canadian dollar as factors in the expected price hikes.

Economists forecast the loonie could fall as low as 70 cents US in 2017, and a weaker dollar would reduce the buying power of importers.

“Everything we actually import from everywhere will increase in price,” says Sylvain Charlebois, lead author of the report.

But Charlebois, who works with the faculties of management and agriculture at Dalhousie, suggests there’s one more major factor that could contribute to the increase in food prices: the incoming U.S. President.

“We are expecting Canadian shoppers to be Trumped at the grocery store,” said Sylvain Charlebois, lead author of the report.

April 6, 2016

The annual report, which has come from the University of Guelph in years past, says the “proverbial sweet spot for food inflation” is between one and two per cent each year. At that rate, the increases are manageable for restaurateurs, grocery stores and consumers, the authors say.

The latest report looks forward to 2017 and finds that food prices could increase between three per cent and five per cent — with meat, vegetables, fish and other seafood projected to jump by as much as four to six per cent. Regionally, Ontario and British Columbia are expected to see most of the increases. (Source: CBC)