PM Justin Trudeau's Canada

[Admiral Beez]

If Trudeau trounces Poilievre and wrestles majority control out of Singh I’d say Trudeau will then hand over the reigns to Freeland and hit the lecture circuit. Go out on a high if you can.

 

[Northern Light]

Federal Budget consultations for 2023 have begun.

There is a questionnaire asking you to identify priorities from a list (there are a few such questions with most involving picking a top three or five); most questions also offer a write-in option.

Let's Talk Budget 2023

After nearly three years of historic turmoil, Canada is navigating a changing global economy—one that is presenting both challenges and opportunities for Canadians and Canadian businesses. The federal government is focused on building a resilient economy that works for

www.letstalkbudget2023.ca

There are also a couple of write-in only questions where you can articulate a top priority for the budget in general and for your community in particular.

On the latter, I chose to mention getting CMHC to prioritize providing favourable financing terms for all of the Housing Now projects in Toronto.

****

One should not overweight the value of these things, which often include amorphous priorities for which the government may have specific ideas in mind, but which they aren't sharing.

I suspect the leading value in these from a government perspective is to cherry-pick results to suggest an idea the government already had has support.

Be that as it may; you never know, sometimes, especially with write-in answers, someone may read them and really latch on to an idea. I would encourage everyone to take the time to fill it out, its only about five minutes.

 

[W. K. Lis]

'Money on the table': Those who don't file tax returns miss benefits delivered by CRA​

From link.

Canadians who don't file their tax returns are sometimes shocked to find out how much money they're owed by the government for years of missed benefits, says the head of a non-profit organization working to build financial literacy among low-income people.

Prosper Canada CEO Elizabeth Mulholland says her organization collaborates with other community partners to deliver financial services and literacy programs, including tax-filing programs that help Canadians who might otherwise not file their returns.

She says some people seeking out such services find that they're owed as much as tens of thousands of dollars in benefits they haven't collected.

That newfound cash can open the door to a conversation about money and financial planning, she said, recalling that one family was able to put a down payment on a condominium after receiving the money they were owed.

“Often, the first question is: 'well, what am I going to do with all that money?”' Mulholland said.

The federal government is increasingly relying on the Canada Revenue Agency to deliver income-tested benefits to individuals, including the recent top-up to the Canada Housing Benefit and the temporary doubling of the GST tax credit.

However, some vulnerable Canadians are missing out on payments because they don't file their returns.

Taxpayers' Ombudsperson Francois Boileau raised that issue in his latest annual report, published this week. During a news conference on Tuesday, Boileau said he's planning to provide the CRA with recommendations on how to address the issue.

“We're still trying to fully understand the problem and actually propose concrete solutions, so that's why there's no recommendations this year. But you bet there will be at another point,” he said.

Jennifer Robson, an associate professor of management at Carleton University, has been looking at the problem of non-filers in the tax system and its implications on the delivery of income-tested benefits.

In a paper published in 2020, Robson and co-author Saul Schwartz found that about 10 to 12 per cent of Canadians don't file their tax returns.

In total, the researchers estimated the benefits lost to working-age non-filers was approximately $1.7 billion in 2015.

Why don't people file their tax returns? It's somewhat of an academic mystery, Robson said.

“We don't yet have a good, full understanding of why people don't file the return,” she said. “Why would people not file a return if it means they're leaving money on the table?”

According to her paper, non-filers are more likely to be male, young and single. And although there were non-filers across all income groups, they were most heavily concentrated in lower income brackets.

“It's a real problem in terms of people missing out on some of those cash benefits,” Robson said.

It also has implications for the integrity of programs, she said, given that many programs use tax filings to verify eligibility.

Based on her experience working with low-income people who haven't filed their taxes, Mulholland said there's a whole host of reasons why, including language barriers, cognitive issues and even just a lack of awareness.

In 2015, newly elected Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's mandate letter to the national revenue minister asked that the CRA proactively reach out to Canadians who are entitled to, but not receiving, tax benefits.

It also said the CRA should offer to do the work to complete tax returns for some Canadians, particularly those with lower incomes.

A CRA spokesperson said in an email that each year, the agency helps more than 600,000 people with modest incomes file their taxes by supporting free tax clinics. The agency is also working with Statistics Canada to better understand the take-up of benefits.

Robson said there's no “silver bullet” to address the issue of non-filers, but a starting point would be to have the CRA pre-complete tax returns for Canadians whose information is already with the agency.

“Think, for example, about people who are on social assistance. That's a lot of people. The CRA knows what their income was,” Robson said.

Mulholland said she'd like to see more co-ordination across federal and provincial government departments and agencies, as well as community groups, to get to Canadians who may be missing out on benefits because they aren't filing their taxes.

“As long as the money just lapses in Ottawa, we're failing, and that failure has really harsh consequences for low-income people who are the intended beneficiaries of that money,” she said.

 

[Northern Light]

Well, clearly our government (Federal) has no idea the country has a housing crisis or is actively working to make it worse. Our effective immigration this year (which means permanent and non-permanent residents, as both need housing!) is hitting 50 year highs in percentage terms; and absolute highs in real numbers.

Most here have heard the headline number of just over 400,000 as this year's target; but that is for permanent residents/citizens; when you add foreign students and Temporary Foreign Workers, you get the actual total.

Immigration Propels Canada’s Population Growth to Fresh Annual Record - BNN Bloomberg

Canada’s population growth hit its fastest pace in five decades thanks to record immigration.

www.bnnbloomberg.ca

From the above:

Look at that spike; can't wait to see how housing starts and completions look when overlaid w/this.

 

[Richard White]

Well, clearly our government (Federal) has no idea the country has a housing crisis or is actively working to make it worse. Our effective immigration this year (which means permanent and non-permanent residents, as both need housing!) is hitting 50 year highs in percentage terms; and absolute highs in real numbers.

Most here have heard the headline number of just over 400,000 as this year's target; but that is for permanent residents/citizens; when you add foreign students and Temporary Foreign Workers, you get the actual total.

Immigration Propels Canada’s Population Growth to Fresh Annual Record - BNN Bloomberg

Canada’s population growth hit its fastest pace in five decades thanks to record immigration.

www.bnnbloomberg.ca

From the above:

View attachment 446769
View attachment 446770

Look at that spike; can't wait to see how housing starts and completions look when overlaid w/this.

It is pretty sad when someone like myself, a 35 year old Torontonian feels pressure to move away from home (and possibly out of the country) because of affordability issues.

I hate to say it but the Conservatives may actually win the next election and all it will take is a pledge to stop immigration or tighten existing rules. While I do understand the charter related issues, there has to be incentive for people to move outside Toronto and Vancouver otherwise things are only going to get worse.

 

[kEiThZ]

I absolutely detest the fake education industry that has sprung up because of these policies.

 

[afransen]

I absolutely detest the fake education industry that has sprung up because of these policies.

It is a gigantic waste of resources. There are thousands of people attending colleges in the GTA for pointless diplomas as a way of getting a work visa and path to permanent residency.

 

[Richard White]

It is a gigantic waste of resources. There are thousands of people attending colleges in the GTA for pointless diplomas as a way of getting a work visa and path to permanent residency.

My ex did that.

She is from Colombia and came to Humber College to study Travel and Tourism. The diploma itself is pointless as it only allows her to prepare documents for travel companies but it got her PR.

Currently, she has an application in progress but I have a weird feeling it may be denied given how she has been acting recently.

 

[kEiThZ]

There are thousands of people attending colleges in the GTA for pointless diplomas as a way of getting a work visa and path to permanent residency.

It's not just the GTA. It's nationwide. I wouldn't even mind as much, if most of them were going through proper accredited institutions in quality programs. But instead we have the crappy private diploma mills and now the community colleges are dropping their standards to compete. It's gross.

It is a gigantic waste of resources.

Not to those profiting off this ridiculous system. Run a fly by night diploma mill and use your harem of students to work for sub minimum wage cash jobs in ethnic restaurants and shops. We're literally creating the kind of underclass you see in the US with undocumented latinos. Only this time with poor students from Africa and India.

 

[afransen]

I'd rather we eliminated the kabuki of the study component and granted more work visas. As it is, we're forcing immigrants to pay a head tax to come here in the form of junk diploma tuition. And a lot of those programs are utilizing post-secondary capacity that was subsidized with tax money for both capital and operating costs.

 

[DSC]

It's not just the GTA. It's nationwide. I wouldn't even mind as much, if most of them were going through proper accredited institutions in quality programs. But instead we have the crappy private diploma mills and now the community colleges are dropping their standards to compete. It's gross.



Not to those profiting off this ridiculous system. Run a fly by night diploma mill and use your harem of students to work for sub minimum wage cash jobs in ethnic restaurants and shops. We're literally creating the kind of underclass you see in the US with undocumented latinos. Only this time with poor students from Africa and India.

These 'career colleges' are not only a Canadian thing - they exist in UK, US, Australia and ......

 

[kEiThZ]

These 'career colleges' are not only a Canadian thing - they exist in UK, US, Australia and ......

Sure. But they don't represent nearly as large (relatively) an intake of immigrants as in Canada. Also, those things existing elsewhere is not an excuse at all. I don't want Canada adding to the abuse.

 

[Northern Light]

I'd rather we eliminated the kabuki of the study component and granted more work visas. As it is, we're forcing immigrants to pay a head tax to come here in the form of junk diploma tuition. And a lot of those programs are utilizing post-secondary capacity that was subsidized with tax money for both capital and operating costs.

I'm all for transparency and agree w/the bulk of your argument, but I would say, whether one comes in a skilled worker, or a comparatively unskilled (if hardworking) TFW (doing anything from Tim Hortons, to Security to Agriculture etc etc.) Canada hands out an awful lot of foreign work permissions here.

I have zero trouble w/that at the high-skill, high-wage level; am somewhat dubious towards in the middle categories; but utterly opposed to it in every low skill, low-wage category except agriculture; and even there, I don't like it at all and would like to see less of it; but we do have issues around competitiveness of exports there, given its prevalence in other countries.

 

[Northern Light]

These 'career colleges' are not only a Canadian thing - they exist in UK, US, Australia and ......

@kEiThZ is on point here. Its not just the private diploma mills; its the Seneca's, Centennial's, GBs of the world etc.

Putting aside the problems with the exploitative tuitions, just for a moment, even ignore, at your peril weakening academic standards for some programs that weren't brilliant to begin with....... but then to add that we help finance this mess through OSAP; we exacerbate a pre-existing housing crisis which affects both those students and the broader population; we allow schools to take in literally thousands of students (if not tens of thousands) without providing anywhere close to enough on-campus housing to make that work for the students or the broader society.......

And we're not getting, for the most part, high-wage, high-skill entrepreneurs in exchange, we're getting a structural underclass.

I'm 100% for foreign students in legitimate programs; and where sufficient on-campus housing is being provided; and those students aren't being wooed under false pretenses and don't face exorbitant housing/tuition costs that leave them needing to work full-time while supposedly trying to take their studies seriously.

There's an entirely legit version of this idea to be had; but it almost certainly involves cutting the numbers we're seeing now by at least 1/2, and it means cracking down on diploma mills, clamping down on Community Colleges; but also funding the latter properly so that they can provide quality programs for reasonable rates to both domestic and foreign students.

 

[kEiThZ]

I'd rather we eliminated the kabuki of the study component and granted more work visas. As it is, we're forcing immigrants to pay a head tax to come here in the form of junk diploma tuition. And a lot of those programs are utilizing post-secondary capacity that was subsidized with tax money for both capital and operating costs.

You know what would be great? More tradespeople to help tackle that backlog of housing requirements we have.

Also, no more McJobs. Kids used to get part-time jobs at McDonald's and Tim's. Now they run on international students. This is bad for wage growth for lower income workers. This bad for opportunity for our own young people. And it's exploitive of immigrants. I personally don't care if we end up with fewer locations to get a double-double. Time for these businesses to go back to paying enough and attracting locals. Or even automate and improve productivity.