1 Canadian dollar = 0.813008 U.S. dollars
Ontario will rack up a record $14.1-billion deficit in 2009
Ontario will rack up a record $14.1-billion deficit in 2009 as it commits billions to infrastructure projects and job retraining aimed at pulling the province out of a recession, provincial Finance Minister Dwight Duncan revealed on Thursday in the tabling of his $108.9-billion budget.
The fiscal plan also proposes corporate tax cuts to ease costs for struggling businesses and stimulate investment in Ontario’s sagging economy, which has shed hundreds of thousands of jobs in recent years.
The budget forecasts a deficit of $3.9 billion in the 2008-2009 fiscal year, followed by a deficit of $14.1 billion in 2009-2010. It anticipates Ontario will run deficits for the next seven years, with a proposed return to balanced books no later than the 2015-2016 fiscal year.
The province and the federal government have also agreed to harmonize the provincial sales tax and GST into a single 13 per cent sales tax by July 1, 2010, which Duncan called the “next essential step” in growing the province’s economy and improving competitiveness.
It also allocates a $3.4-billion contingency fund, from which an unspecified amount can be directed toward a bailout package for the province’s beleaguered auto industry once negotiations with automakers are completed.
You know what alarms me about Ontario’s fiscal situation? Just last summer the Canadian dollar was worth more than the American. For the first time ever we spent more to vacation in Ontario at the cottage that in my entire life! And I was completely happy to do so. Happy for Canada, happy for Ontario. But in less than nine months time the Canadian dollar has plummeted to be worth roughly 80 cents on the American buck! Call me fiscally naive but that seems really out of whack. What the heck happened?! And so quickly.
Here in the States we are up a creek with no paddle but this has been building for many years. I have to think that the Canadian economy was in a fix 9 months ago but something was over-inflated and it appeared you all were fine. Best of luck. We’ve got a long slog too so at least you are not alone. Hate to consider this but I’ve been told that as the US goes so goes Canada about 6 months later and darned if it’s not happening.
Second point. What is with the word “harmonize” when describing the fusing of the provincial sales tax and GST into a single 13 per cent sales tax? Harmonize? Really? The politicians really know how to spin.
And 13%? Oi! Even with socialized medicine as a benefit and that silly baby supplement that families get– a 13% tax? We have the highest sales tax in the United States and it’s 10.25%. Honestly, when I really start comparing the two countries I have to believe that Canada is not better off than the States. What’s next? Your infant mortality rates going up and life expectancy going down? Do you really want to follow the muddy path that the States has followed– or is it too late? I hope not. On both counts.
When then-U.S. President George W. Bush took office in 2001, he chose Mexico instead of Canada for his first foreign visit, and relations with Canada suffered throughout his presidency. To blame the decline of Canada-U.S. relations entirely on his choice to go to Mexico rather than Canada is overly simplistic. In my opinion it was just an early symptom and harbinger of a a serious chill in relations between the two largest trading partners in the world.
Today, the newly- elected U.S. President Barack Obama is preparing for his first trip outside of the United States and he’s going to Ottawa, Canada. This particular visit will be quite short–just 8 hours– but hopefully it can begin to set the tone for much warmer relations between the two countries which are often characterized as similar to members of the same family with the last eight years being akin to a family feud.
On the agenda is a visit to Ottawa, a meeting visit with Prime Minister Stephen Harper and select parliamentarians, a press conference, a brief meeting with U.S. Embassy staff, and then back to Washington in the evening.
It’s a bare-bones whistle-stop visit, but his administration is counting on it being enough to lift the tenor of relations between two strong and interdependent neighbors.
“Canada is a vitally important ally,” said Obama spokesman Robert Gibbs when he confirmed the trip late last month. “The President looks forward to the opportunity to speak with Prime Minister Harper and visit our neighbor to the north.”
The Bush Years
Over the years, there had been exceptions to the “first-stop-Canada” rule, but the enmity between Bush and then-Prime Minister Jean Chretien — a strong supporter of multinationalism who enjoyed excellent relations with Bill Clinton and Al Gore — gave Bush’s move the air of a deliberate slight.
In truth, many presidents have visited other countries ahead of Canada. Indeed, some never ventured north at all during their tenures in the Oval Office. But in the modern era — given the massive trade partnership between the two countries, as well as their energy interdependence and the mutual commitment to NATO — Bush’s decision raised hackles. What started perhaps as benign neglect or a minor diplomatic snub took hold like a prairie fire with a series of successive gaffes.
In his address to Congress following the 9/11 terrorist attacks, Bush thanked more than 20 countries for their messages of support but failed to acknowledge Canadians for their response, which included providing safe harbor to passengers on more than 200 transcontinental flights who were left stranded when the U.S. closed its airspace. Bush never publicly refuted false claims made by members of his own administration and conservative pundits that some of the terrorists had entered the U.S. from Canada. And he repeatedly referred to Britain as the U.S.’s closest ally.
In April 2002, Bush showed little remorse after four Canadian soldiers on a nighttime training exercise in Afghanistan were killed by a bomb dropped from a U.S. F-16, the pilot of which claimed that the Canadians fired at his plane.
In the run-up to the Iraq war, the Bush administration used an unprecedented diplomatic full-court press to pressure Canada, already a key partner in the war in Afghanistan, to join in the invasion of Iraq.
Bush did ultimately did reach out to Canada, visiting in late 2004 after securing his second term He even went to Halifax to thank those Canadian communities that welcomed the diverted passengers in the days after 9/11. But Canadians saw it as too little, far too late. To make matters worse, Bush’s reelection had many moderate and secular Canadians questioning whether they still had much in common with their American friends and business partners. Source
Enter Obama
While President Obama’s visit is largely symbolic, there is some real business to be discussed. Topping the list will be the future of the North American economy, especially the financial sector, manufacturing industries, energy security and trade. The latter is suddenly a hot topic for many Canadians after U.S. congressional leaders earlier this month tried to include “buy American” provisions on federal spending related to the stimulus package, a clear violation of the spirit of the North American Free Trade Agreement.
The White House cautiously denounced the protectionist measures and the provisions were tamped down some, but Canadian business leaders remain unnerved by the prospect of the costly legal battles these measures would ignite.
The two leaders are also likely to discuss integrated security, Obama’s commitment to devoting greater military attention to Afghanistan and the closing of the Guantanamo Bay detention center.
Both sides are clearly aware of all that is at stake in restoring the health of the North American economy, and will use the meeting to heal wounds and rebuild a friendship between good neighbors.
Read more from GlobalPost.com.
OTTAWA — Barack Obama’s highly anticipated visit to Canada will result in a virtual lockdown around Parliament Hill and restrictions on airspace around the national capital region as the U.S. president makes his first official stop on foreign soil.
The trip is scheduled to last only a few hours on Thursday, but it has already sparked a massive police and security operation that will restrict everything from pedestrians, guided tours and cars to the movement of members of Parliament in and around the House of Commons.
Hard to believe but now being half-way through the month of February, it’s time to put in requests for vacation time. I of course, don’t get a vacation break because silly me, I work for myself (most of the time I prefer it that way).
Spouse however has a traditional full-time career job and they are getting antsy about when he plans to abandon them to drive northeast to our cottage.
So. Last night we sat at the dining room table with calendars, both work and home, the summer school schedule for our son who has no room for non-AP classes during the school year (and that’s with taking just half a lunch period!) and the vacation table from my husband’s company. We hammered everything out pretty quickly. Spouse is champing at the bit to get up to Maple Lake. I cannot believe how utterly in love with it he is–but he is. In the short term, he will go up in May to assess what winter brought and to open the cottage.
Summer school and my not wanting to leave my son alone every day for weeks while his father works 7 days per, will again affect deeply my schedule of being up there but I just cannot stay away when I know I can work whilst up there due to having a great satellite Internet connection.
I wish my neighbours on Maple Lake would get the hook up. It’s lonely being the only ones–maybe someone joined up over winter?<hopeful>
It’s really hard to read this type of news. I realize that all the choices are tough but I’m disheartened to see that Canada truly has morphed again–back into a 10X smaller (in population) version of the United States.
Last I spoke with my favourite aunt on the topic of the US and Canada she said, “as the United States goes, so goes Canada six months later.” This was just last summer and according to news reports then the Canadian housing market was still strong. Now, it’s in free-fall like here the US. Yesterday, I saw that the Canadian government had voted to bail out their automobile industry with millions of Canadian tax dollars–exactly as is been debated (and all but finalized) by the US federal government.
Now this. Canada actually got worse grades at the United Nations Climate Conference than did the United States. I have to agree that is indeed a mark of shame.
Mark of Shame for Canada
The UN climate conference in Poznan, Poland, was a “mark of shame” for Canada, Green Party Leader Elizabeth May said on Saturday.
Delegates from poorer nations were angry at Canada for not meeting its commitments under the Kyoto protocol, as well as all industrialized countries for stalling on reducing greenhouse gas emissions, May told CBC News.
During the conference, which began Dec. 1, Canada won several Fossil of the Day Awards, announced by Climate Action Network International, a group that includes more than 400 non-governmental organizations.
“It was embarrassing being a Canadian at these meetings,” May said.
“Canada, unfortunately, was about the worst performer here, and that’s saying a lot. That means worse than the United States with the lame-duck Bush administration, still doing what it can to obstruct.
“But in the negotiations, Canada, I say, won. It’s really a mark of shame,” she said.
The Secret Service hardly make a secret of their Now the weather. 