savings – mackaycartoons

Saturday March 4, 2023

March 4, 2023 by Graeme MacKay

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Saturday March 4, 2023

Interest rates have skyrocketed. So why hasn’t the rate on your savings account budged?

As anyone with a mortgage can attest, the cost to borrow money has gotten a lot more expensive this year. Banks were swift to pass on the rate hikes the Bank of Canada implemented as part of its aggressive campaign to tame inflation.

May 2, 2020

Variable rate home loans routinely top five per cent right now, more than twice what they were a year ago.

But the same can’t be said of savings accounts, which are not paying out much more today than they were a year ago, when the Bank of Canada’s lending rate was 0.25 per cent — its lowest level on record.

Canada’s five biggest banks offer a basic savings account with a rate paying between 0.01 and 0.035 per cent at the moment. So, if you are saving $1,000 for a year, you could earn a grand total of 10 to 35 cents in interest.

Even their so-called high-interest savings accounts that come with minimum balances and other stipulations all pay less than two per cent on an annualized basis.

CBC News reached out to Royal Bank, TD Bank, CIBC, Scotiabank and the Bank of Montreal this week, asking for an explanation as to why savings account rates seem to be slow to rise while lending rates do not, and all the responses were versions of a similar theme: that their rates are based on a variety of funding costs, and while rates on savings accounts are competitive, customers can often get higher rates with products such as GICs that lock in their money for a longer term.

May 13, 2010

Natasha Macmillan, director of everyday banking with rate comparison website Ratehub.ca, says consumers are keenly aware of that gap between what’s happening to the rates on what they owe versus what they have to save.

“As soon as the Bank of Canada raises their interest rate, we see that being translated immediately on the borrowing side,” she told CBC News in an interview. “But it does take a little bit slower for it to be translated to the high-interest saving side — not quite as quickly [and] not quite at the same rate.”

Natasha Macmillan, director of everyday banking with rate comparison website Ratehub.ca, says consumers are keenly aware of that gap between what’s happening to the rates on what they owe versus what they have to save.

“As soon as the Bank of Canada raises their interest rate, we see that being translated immediately on the borrowing side,” she told CBC News in an interview. “But it does take a little bit slower for it to be translated to the high-interest saving side — not quite as quickly [and] not quite at the same rate.”

That’s not happening today, and there are a few reasons why… (Continued: CBC)

Tuesday June 22, 2021

June 29, 2021 by Graeme MacKay

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Tuesday June 22, 2021

After a year of pandemic prudence, Canadians likely eager to spend the billions saved

If there is one silver lining to the COVID-19 pandemic for Grayham Havens, it was celebrating his two-year anniversary with his wife by purchasing a house last month.

January 18, 2018

All the government restrictions during the pandemic helped him drastically reduce his spending over the last year and begin socking away cash every month. After clearing leftover debt, the couple saved enough for a down payment.

Now, at the age of 40, Havens is a first-time home owner.

“We’re so fortunate, very fortunate, to get something like this,” he said about their grey bungalow in southeast Calgary, complete with a large deck, fire pit and pond in the backyard.

Havens isn’t alone. Canadians have saved a record amount of money during the pandemic, resulting from the combined impact of reduced spending and collecting more money from government support programs.

Havens and his wife were both able to collect Alberta’s critical worker benefit, as he was working in the grocery sector and she was involved in health care.

At the same time, their discretionary expenses — spending at places like restaurants and movie theatres — dropped sharply.

“We started saving thousands every month,” he said. “It started making me realize just how bad we were budgeting our own money in the first place. I mean, money was leaking left and right.”

Not everyone has extra money in the bank — but many do.

In fact, Canadians amassed $212 billion last year, versus $18 billion in 2019, according to Statistics Canada. That works out to $5,574 per Canadian on average in 2020, compared to $479 in the previous year.

The average savings rate jumped from 1.3 per cent of disposable income in 2019, to 14.9 per cent in 2020. In April, May and June of 2020, the savings rate peaked at about 27 per cent.

As a result, credit card balances are down, fewer people are behind on payments and credit scores are up, according to credit rating agency Equifax Canada.

The situation varies greatly from household to household, as there continues to be a deep division between the financial situation of many Canadians. In short, if you were able to keep your job and stay healthy, you were likely to see your finances improve during the pandemic.

“It was easy to save. It was not very forced. I can’t go get my nails done, get my hair done, going to the pubs a lot less,” said Karen Jacobs, who also purchased her first house, with her husband, in February.

They are now renovating the home from top to bottom after saving nearly $1,000 a month during the pandemic, including through lower phone and insurance bills.

The record level of savings is not the only reason behind Canada’s rising home prices, but it could provide a significant level of economic stimulus across the country. (CBC)

Friday January 8, 2016

January 7, 2016 by Graeme MacKay

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Friday January 8, 2016

Ultra-low-cost carrier planning flights from Hamilton airport

Canada’s latest airline will unveil its plans for flights out of Hamilton airport on Wednesday.

That’s when Dean Dacko, chief commercial officer of NewLeaf Travel, the country’s new ultra-low-cost air carrier, will unveil the company’s plans for making Hamilton one of its hubs.

Details of the announcement remain a closely guarded secret, but in a news release airport officials promise “NewLeaf plans to revolutionize the Canadian travel market.”

NewLeaf’s bare-bones website promises its service will feature “No more extra costs for things you don’t want” and “You pay for your seat and the rest is up to you.”

Wednesday’s announcement will include details on non-stop routes, pricing and booking.

NewLeaf announced its interest in the city in June, saying it would make its headquarters in Winnipeg with bases in Hamilton and Kelowna.

2005

Ultra-low-cost carriers — also called no-frills or budget airlines — offer lower fares, making up for lower ticket prices by charging for extras such as food, priority boarding and baggage. The largest such operator is United States-based Southwest Airlines.

Aircraft and crews for the NewLeaf flights will be supplied by Kelowna-based Flair Airlines.

Ultra-low-cost carriers are new to Canada’s aviation industry and Hamilton airport executives have been keen to get at least one located here as a boost to their long-cherished dream of turning the John C. Munro Hamilton International Airport into a passenger destination.

While they have long argued that 2 million people live within an hour’s drive of the airport, its passenger history has been one of soaring hopes followed by bitter disappointment as more than 20 airlines have come and gone through the facility.

2003

Passenger traffic peaked in 2003 at about 1 million when the airport was the eastern hub for WestJet, before the airline moved the hub to Toronto’s Lester B. Pearson International Airport. In 2014 it handled 332,000 passengers.

The only year-round scheduled service from Hamilton now is a single daily WestJet return flight to Calgary. That’s in addition to seasonal service to vacation spots.

NewLeaf is headed by Jim Young, a former vice-president and chief marketing officer at Denver-based Frontier Airlines who also served for six months as president of upstart Canada Jetlines Ltd.(Source: Hamilton Spectator)

Published in the Saskatoon Star Phoenix, Saturday, January 9, 2016

Thursday October 15, 2015

October 14, 2015 by Graeme MacKay

By Graeme MacKay, Editorial Cartoonist, The Hamilton Spectator – Thursday October 15, 2015

Trudeau win could cancel need for Ontario pension, Wynne says

A majority win for Justin Trudeau’s Liberals next Monday could “absolutely” negate the need for an Ontario pension plan, says Premier Kathleen Wynne.

That’s because Trudeau has promised to enrich the existing Canada Pension Plan, possibly making the proposed complementary Ontario Retirement Pension Plan redundant.

“If we have a partner in Justin Trudeau to sit down and work out what they’re looking at as an enhancement to CPP that was always my starting point,” Wynne said Tuesday as she campaigned in four ridings in Toronto, Oakville, and Burlington to help the federal Liberals.

“That was the solution. A couple of years ago, that’s what we were looking at. We were looking at finance ministers across the country who agreed that they’re needed to be a change to the Canada Pension Plan,” she said.

She noted two-thirds of Ontarians have no workplace pension.

Wynne’s provincial Liberals introduced the ORPP, which takes effect in 2017, after Conservative Leader Stephen Harper refused to improve CPP benefits, which pay out a maximum of about $12,000 annually.

Under the scheme, workers without a plan would have to contribute 1.9 per cent of their pay, which would be matched by their employers.

On the eve of launching the 11-week election campaign, Harper said Ottawa would not aid Queen’s Park by administering the new provincial plan, which he views as a “payroll tax.”

“Kathleen Wynne is mad that I won’t help her do that,” he said in August. “You’re bloody right. The Conservative government is not going to help bring in that kind of tax hike.”

But Trudeau, who is leading in most opinion polls, has repeatedly pledged to boost CPP and work with Wynne to bolster retirement security. (Source: Toronto Star)

Saturday November 3, 2012

November 3, 2012 by Graeme MacKay

By Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator, Saturday November 3, 2012

End of Daylight Saving Time fills insomniacs with dread

The end of Daylight Saving Time this weekend mostly brings an extra hour’s sleep to a sleep-deprived society — but actually hurts the people who need sleep most.

This is the night when people with insomnia suffer even more than usual, then have to listen to their friends and family talk about how refreshing it is to catch up on sleep.

This paradox comes from the fall ritual of turning back the clock one hour. At 2 a.m. Sunday we officially move back to 1 a.m., adding one hour to the night.

In effect, we create a single 25-hour day, to be balanced out by a 23-hour day next spring.

For a society that tends to stay up too late at night, this is a bonus: just this once you can fall asleep at midnight, get up at 7 a.m., and still get eight hours’ sleep.

But for an insomniac, it’s the same poor-quality sleep as usual, followed by a day with an extra hour of being awake. In addition, it upsets their “circadian rhythm,” the mental cycle of day and night that tends to operate poorly to begin with in people with insomnia.

“Where people are normally getting an extra hour of sleep or sleep opportunity, for someone with insomnia this could actually be worse,” says Dr. Elliott Lee, a sleep expert at the Royal Ottawa Mental Health Centre. (Source: Ottawa Citizen)