statism watch

As global leaders continue attempts to legislate financial governance systems from the top down, the integration of economic regulations and taxation regimes is simultaneously pushed from the bottom up via the piecemeal regional implementation of new standards pressed on nations by policy mandarins. From the article:

Experts compare the HST implementation process to the GST experience in 1991. In 10 years, Dunn says, not only will people be accustomed to paying the tax, rates could be even higher.

Consumption taxes around the world range between 20 and 25 per cent in many countries.

The HST is genetically related to Europe’s VAT, China’s VAT, and indeed now this tax has been adopted by most jurisdictions throughout the world. Why? Control. Wikipedia gives us a useful sketch:

…if sales taxes exceed 10%, people start engaging in widespread tax evading activity (like buying over the Internet, pretending to be a business, buying at wholesale, buying products through an employer etc.) On the other hand, total VAT rates can rise above 10% without widespread evasion because of the novel collection mechanism.

The ‘novel’ mechanism?  Assessing tax at every point of the supply chain and thus building in an incentive for all business to act as little tax agencies for the Federal Government. It’s been described as a ‘money machine’, and with good reason. The upshot? Mulroney wins. The VAT he always wanted to press on the nation has finally been implemented via a decades-long detour. Happy Canada Day.

Related: Anti-HST petition could change B.C.’s political landscape | B.C. anti-HST petition meets legal benchmark | Liberals admit HST will cost families up to $480 a year | Underground economy emerges in Ontario in response to HST | B.C. anti-HST petition hits target weeks ahead of schedule | Protesters worked up over HST levy on fitness | Anti-HST petition nears goal in B.C. | HST rage puts B.C. Liberals in a spot | Harmonized tax could cost Ontarians $5.9B a year | HST will cost families, McGuinty finally admits | HST begins taxing Ontario on Saturday | First Nations protest against HST | Canadian taxes fastest-growing expense: Report | BC Govt, Anti-HST Campaigners Dispute Legality of Pro-HST Leaflet | Electricity rates surge in Ontario | Up to 50,000 protest Charest’s tax hikes | Paul Volcker: VAT, Carbon taxes may be necessary | Nova Scotia budget hikes HST rate | Thousands protest Quebec budget | HST legislation introduced in B.C. | Facing years of deficits, Ontario freezes wages | Former premier Bill Vander Zalm rallies against the HST in BC | Ontario tax collectors get $45K severance, keep jobs in HST federalization deal | Athens erupts as Greek austerity plan passes | HST ad campaign debuts in Ontario | Ont. deficit could linger for years: McGuinty | HST bill passes, 13% tax starts July 1 | Poll: HST equals Hated Sales Tax | Anti-HST protest at Ontario legislature spills onto Toronto streets | Tories, Liberals, Bloc approve HST for Ontario and B.C.

The Canadian Press
June 28, 2010

In two of Canada’s most populous provinces residents are bracing, preparing and bemoaning Thursday’s arrival of the harmonized sales tax.

Heidi Graw has decided that after years of feeling helpless as the cost of living climbs in British Columbia, she has had enough: she won’t pay another tax.

As of July 1, when the new HST takes effect in B.C. and Ontario, Graw will boycott purchases of anything beyond the basics.

“We won’t be going out to the restaurants, we won’t be going to the movies, we won’t be going to the rec centre, or all these other little frills,” says the Mission, B.C., resident.

“That’s the only way I can take control over how much tax I’m prepared to pay.”

The HST merges the five per cent federal goods and service tax with provincial sales taxes of seven per cent in B.C. and eight per cent in Ontario. That means consumers will pay more for a variety of things, depending on the province.

(more…)

President Obama wishes to create a protocol for dismantling troubled financial firms. The more skeptical among us may envision a wood chipper pointed straight into the ‘blood funnel’ of Goldman-Sachs. But don’t pay attention to the fact globalists are looting your country, look! People kicking a ball on TV!

Update (2010/06/29): Spoiler alert: The G20 version of Obama’s legislation didn’t happen. Not this time. Flaherty and Harper held off the EU and stuck to their guns. Maybe in France G20 2011, we hear Sarkozy’s a big fan. In the meantime, wait and see if Obama gets to sign this in as national legislation on July 4, a particularly obscene gesture.

Related: Obama celebrates banking bill’s passage in Senate | Goldman Sachs concedes case for restraining the big banks | US prepares to push for global capital rules | The Obama Banking Regulation: Big Banks Are Too Politically Connected to Fail | Obama scolds Wall Street for fighting reform, pushes new regulation package | Obama urges Senate to hand total oversight of financial sector to Federal Reserve, eliminate ‘Reserve’ part | Bernanke Pushes to Keep Regulation Power as Some Senators Waver | The Federal Reserve as Giant Counterfeiter | Bankers unite against Barack Obama and Gordon Brown in call for world regulation | Banks find gaping loophole in Obama financial reforms | Obama talking tough with banks | Wall Street’s leading bankers admit: we made mistakes | Obama ponders bank transaction levy to recoup bailout shortfalls | Explosive Leaked Emails Expose Treasury Secretary Geithner’s Deception in ‘Backdoor Bailout’ | US Bankers Get $4 Trillion Gift From Barney Frank | Financial reform bill passes U.S. House | Taibbi: Obama’s sellout to Wall Street creates ‘permanent bailout’ | Americans Deserve a Transparent Federal Reserve | Bernanke continues pressing for sweeping new powers for Fed | Federal Reserve Appeals Order to Disclose Emergency Bank Loans | Judge Orders Federal Reserve To Disclose Who Received Bailout Trillions | Geithner lambastes US economic watchdogs resistant to planned transfer of powers to Federal Reserve | Obama Regulatory Reform Plan Officially Establishes Banking Dictatorship In United States | Obama unveils overhaul of financial system oversight | Federal Reserve To Be Given Sweeping New Powers | Top Senate Democrat: bankers “own” the U.S. Congress | Wall Street’s Big Takeover | Geithner Said to Have Prevailed on the Bailout | Banks won’t say where U.S. bailout money going | Paulson, Bernanke defend change of plan: $700-billion now to be given directly to banks | Congress Accuses Federal Reserve Bagman Of Bailout “Bait and Switch” During Angry Hearing | U.S. government won’t use bailout fund to buy troubled assets | Behind the panic: Financial warfare over the future of global bank power | Goldman-Sachs Alumni Hold Reins of Financial System | Treasury’s Plan Would Give Fed Wide New Power | Financial ’super cop’ role for Fed

Caren Bohan, Mario Di Simine, Reuters
June 26, 2010

President Barack Obama, fresh from a win on a sweeping overhaul of Wall Street regulations, on Saturday urged Congress to take up his proposal for a $90 billion, 10-year tax on banks as the next step in reform.

Obama wants to slap a 0.15 percent tax on the liabilities of the biggest U.S. financial institutions to recoup the costs to taxpayers of the financial bailout.

“We need to impose a fee on the banks that were the biggest beneficiaries of taxpayer assistance at the height of our financial crisis — so we can recover every dime of taxpayer money,” Obama said in his weekly radio and Internet address. [Ed. Note: Presumably not the government-connected banks, they paid their loans off in record time. It's their next biggest competitors that are targeted by this legislation.]

Obama, who is in Canada to attend gatherings with leaders of the world’s biggest economies, also used the address to welcome a deal by congressional negotiators on a historic rewriting of U.S. financial regulations.

Obama hopes to tout the changes as a model for other countries at the Group of 20 summit on Saturday and Sunday.

“I hope we can build on the progress we made at last year’s G20 summits by coordinating our global financial reform efforts to make sure a crisis like the one from which we are still recovering never happens again,” he said.

(more…)

Got to stophst.com to participate in the BC and Ontario petitions.

Related: B.C. anti-HST petition meets legal benchmark | Liberals admit HST will cost families up to $480 a year | Underground economy emerges in Ontario in response to HST | B.C. anti-HST petition hits target weeks ahead of schedule | Protesters worked up over HST levy on fitness | Anti-HST petition nears goal in B.C. | HST rage puts B.C. Liberals in a spot | Harmonized tax could cost Ontarians $5.9B a year | HST will cost families, McGuinty finally admits | HST begins taxing Ontario on Saturday | First Nations protest against HST | Canadian taxes fastest-growing expense: Report | BC Govt, Anti-HST Campaigners Dispute Legality of Pro-HST Leaflet | Electricity rates surge in Ontario | Up to 50,000 protest Charest’s tax hikes | Paul Volcker: VAT, Carbon taxes may be necessary | Nova Scotia budget hikes HST rate | Thousands protest Quebec budget | HST legislation introduced in B.C. | Facing years of deficits, Ontario freezes wages | Former premier Bill Vander Zalm rallies against the HST in BC | Ontario tax collectors get $45K severance, keep jobs in HST federalization deal | Athens erupts as Greek austerity plan passes | HST ad campaign debuts in Ontario | Ont. deficit could linger for years: McGuinty | HST bill passes, 13% tax starts July 1 | Poll: HST equals Hated Sales Tax | Anti-HST protest at Ontario legislature spills onto Toronto streets | Tories, Liberals, Bloc approve HST for Ontario and B.C.

Justine Hunter, The Globe and Mail
June 25, 2010

Alliance behind anti-tax campaign could lead to creation of new party to challenge B.C. Liberals

The war room of the Fight HST campaign is found at the end of a long asphalt driveway, lined with neatly clipped Portuguese laurels, next to a formal French garden. Inside an old coach house off to the side of the manor, the three senior strategists gather around a massive oak dining table.

Former premier Bill Vander Zalm sits at the head of the table. He is the proponent of the anti-HST petition, the face of the campaign, and the host. He’s flanked on his left by Chris Delaney and on his right by Bill Tieleman — a mixed-up seating arrangement, given their personal politics.

There is little here that resembles a traditional political operations room — there are no maps, no ringing phones or discarded pizza boxes. Instead, there is antique furniture, oil paintings of old Holland, a large portrait of Rembrandt in a heavy frame. From this quiet and tidy room in Ladner, B.C., they are plotting a political maelstrom.

Together they represent the broadest spectrum of right and left politics in B.C., yet the three veteran strategists have been meeting for months to organize the anti-HST petition drive that ends this weekend.

They have built a political machine, with over 6,500 canvassers spread out in every riding of the province. They have an identifiable brand and they expect to have an unprecedented victory when the petition signatures have been counted and verified by Elections BC later this summer.

(more…)

It is not, primarily, the economic cost that is too high though that is deplorable. The untold story of this summit is the globalizing, militarizing influence of the G20 summit on every city this dark imperial eagle chooses to perch upon. Look at what’s happened to the TPS – provided hundreds of millions to purchase new equipment, body armour, black uniforms, and weapons. Integration and information sharing with federal police and the military. Integration of private security forces into the new hierarchy. That’s what the money is being spent on, it should be no great mystery. That and contracts to favoured corporations, eg; SNC-Lavalin. The police are organizing to protect world leaders, the state, and global banks. That is who they serve. Are the people organizing to protect themselves from the police? This is about tyranny versus liberty. It’s not about ‘right and left’. A pox on both your houses. Wake the hell up.

Related: G20 security prepared for any threat, at any cost | G8/G20 Police Fusion Centres Unmasked in Barrie, North Toronto | No legislation, no precedent to limit G20 police powers | Hospitals, medics prepare for G20 injuries and tear gas | Torontanamo Bay: Life inside the G20 ‘security zone’ | G20 traffic fence can be closed at ‘a moment’s notice,’ police say | Police add water cannon to G20 arsenal | Toronto G20 police arsenal includes plastic bullets | Ban G20 summit agents provocateurs: activist groups to PM | Rights group files for injunction against G20 ‘sound cannon’ | Toronto G20 weekend: Private security fast-tracked, traffic jams, heavy police presence, but no sonic weapons | G20 activists accuse CSIS of intimidation | G8/G20: Cell phones to be jammed as motorcades move through Huntsville, Toronto | G20: Eastern Avenue Protest Jail | G20 Security unbridled: Cops bring out artillery as civil rights observers preach vigilance | Construction begins on Toronto G20 security barrier | Toronto police show off G20 summit security | Mounties shun ‘sound cannons’ in urban settings ahead of G20 | 1,100 private security guards to work G8-G20 summits | Police detail G20 security zone | Toronto police buy four ’sound cannons’ for G20 | Toronto and Muskoka G8/20 Summit security costs hit $1.1B | The Toronto G20 Police State Crackdown | Toronto streets get 77 more surveillance cameras for G20 | Fighter jets buzz Toronto, Muskoka in G20 test runs | Downtown Toronto To Be Transformed Into Locked-Down Police State This Summer | Police State Canada 2010 and the G20 Summit | Militarized police integrate with private security for G20 Toronto concourse drill | Small army to protect Toronto during G20 summit | Toronto G20 summit security to be ‘massive’ | RCMP needs 5,500 rooms during G20 summit | Downtown Toronto to become a fortress for G20 summit | G20 security could strangle downtown | For more, see the G20 Coverage page feature

Oakland Ross, Toronto Star
June 24, 2010

Police in riot gear are seen following protestors across a bridge in Pittsburgh at the G20 summit last September.

It’s a good thing for British newspaper reader Reuben Camara that he doesn’t pay taxes in Canada.

The Lancashire resident was outraged last year at the price-tag for an April summit that brought the G20 leaders to London for two days. Billed in some quarters as the “budget” summit, the meeting cost an estimated $30 million.

“I’d hate to think what a full-blown summit would cost,” Camara complained on the website of the London Daily Standard.

Come to Canada, Ruben – and don’t forget your cheque book.

Ottawa initially allocated $179 million for the G8 and G20 summits – three days of talks that are now expected to set taxpayers back at least $1.1 billion. Most of the money, about $930 million, is for security.

Last September, Pittsburgh hosted a G20 summit that resulted in no great breaches of public order but whose security-related costs totaled only about $12.2 million (U.S.) – less than 1.5 per cent of the projected costs of the summits in Toronto and Huntsville.

(more…)

This is the Copenhagen ‘launch fund’ pushed by Gordon Brown, whereby poor countries will be paid to shut down their developing industries. It will be interesting to see if this is rolled into the IMF climate slush fund that is being pushed in parallel with the global bank tax as these new taxation systems integrate to form the expected ‘green’ new world order, exposed in leaked UN documents in February of this year. Really, it’s just part of the agenda to swell international banking institutions, but believe what you want.

Related: Britain pushes for new climate talks; IMF and global taxes to figure into wealth redistribution scheme | IMF chief calls for quota-based global warming slush fund | EU considers general carbon tax | Leaked UN Documents Reveal Plan For “Green World Order” By 2012 | Davos: Global climate fund threatens aid to developing world, campaigner warns | Davos 2010: George Soros warns gold is now the ‘ultimate bubble’, calls for IMF to handle climate fund | Copenhagen Accord Establishes Global Government Framework | Canada part of Copenhagen climate deal | Final Copenhagen Text Includes Global Transaction Tax | World leaders push for climate deal | UN Chief: We Will Impose Global Governance | Copenhagen climate summit releases draft final text | IMF could fund climate adaptation: Soros | Copenhagen climate summit in disarray after ‘Danish text’ leak | Bombshell UN Climate Documents Reveal Planned “End Run” Around National Sovereignty | Canada agrees to contribute to $10-billion climate change fund | UK: Brown proposes global fund to kick-start Copenhagen climate change process | Leaked G20 Documents Shed Light on Global Carbon Tax | Everyone in Britain could be given a personal ‘carbon allowance’ | Czech President: Copenhagen to be ‘Largest tax increase in world history’ | Friends of the Earth attacks carbon trading as banker scam | Oil Companies Support Global Warming Alarmists, Not Skeptics | Al Gore’s Inconvenient Truth sequel stresses spiritual argument on climate, downgrades CO2 threat | EU agrees to pay developing countries ‘climate aid’ to pass Copenhagen | Copenhagen’s Plans for a New ‘Government’ are Scary | Copenhagen, carbon, and the global corporate agenda | Lord Nicholas Stern: The world’s future is being decided this weekend | Thatcher science adviser: Copenhagen goal is world government | German Scientists Call for ‘World Climate Bank’ | G8 Summit: Rich nations to pay green tab | US Congress Passes the 1,200-page Climate Bill that it was not allowed to read | Climate Cops To Fine “Wasteful” Homeowners & Businesses | Obama targets US public with call for climate action | Obama to stake reputation on fast-tracked climate bill | The great carbon credit con: Why are we paying the Third World to poison its environment? | Ontario unveils cap-and-trade legislation | Economic stabilization may rely on carbon economy, economist says | Climate panel presses for federal cap-and-trade system | NRTEE Carbon Market Panel is ‘Round Table on Socialist Planning’ | Obama, Gore, tied to Chicago carbon exchange | U.N. ‘Climate Change’ Plan Would Likely Shift Trillions to Form New World Economy | U.N. Environment Head Wants Global Warming Tax | Time to emulate Roosevelt’s New Deal and create green jobs | EU calls for global carbon trading system to fight climate change

Allan Woods, Toronto Star
June 23, 2010

OTTAWA–Canada has set up a $400 million fund to help developing countries cope with climate change, a move that has earned the country a rare cheer from environmentalists.

The fund is Canada’s contribution to an annual $30 billion global pot that rich countries agreed to establish through at a climate gathering last December in Copenhagen. The financial commitment, good through 2012, was one of the few concrete outcomes of the meeting, which had planned to broker a global deal to cut greenhouse gas emissions between 2012 and 2020.

Environment Minister Jim Prentice said Canada is responsible for 2 per cent of the world’s emissions but is contributing 4 per cent of the fund.

“This contribution is consistent with our traditional share of developed country donor pledges in the context of multilateral international assistance efforts,” Prentice said Wednesday. “It will help developing countries reduce emissions and support adaptation and capacity building.”

(more…)

That’s what the economy needs to give it a shot in the arm. Spending like the proverbial drunken sailor on more jails, massive globalist summits, new police hardware and new squadrons of high-tech fighter jets. What kind of new economy is it we’re building, exactly? A Globe and Mail editorial reads:

“If the government didn’t know what the new law would cost, its managerial incompetence is inexcusable. If, as is more likely, it knew but didn’t say, its stealth is unjustifiable. Why would Prime Minister Stephen Harper, who has been promoting government-wide restraint in the name of deficit control, allow jail budgets to go wild? Why would the government not tell the truth about the Truth in Sentencing Act?”

Related: Canada’s inhumane prison plan | The prison spending boom | Planned random DUI checkpoints a violation of rights | An American Detention Bill You Ought to Read More Carefully | You Commit Three Felonies a Day | Tory plans for U.S.-style prisons slammed in report | US Supreme Court rules police can initiate suspect’s questioning if right to counsel waived | Tories propose law allowing fingerprinting before charges are laid | Serious offences declined before Tories: study | Entrapment becoming standard procedure for police | Ontario to place prosecutors in police stations | ‘Mens rea’ intention test questioned prior to Toronto 18 terror verdict | Federal parolees to wear tracking anklets in pilot project | Tory ‘Guilty before proven innocent’ law to make debut in court | U.K. Develops Plan to Begin Microchipping Prisoners | CBC Radio Broadcasts Expose of North American Police State | Prisoners ‘to be chipped like dogs’ | You Are a Suspect

Janice Tibbetts, Canwest News Service
June 22, 2010

OTTAWA – A new prison-sentencing law will cost the federal government an extra $5-billion over five years and the provincial governments even more, Canada’s spending watchdog estimated Tuesday in a report that predicts 13 new prisons will be needed to incarcerate 4,000 new offenders.

Kevin Page cautioned that his cost analysis is not an exact science, but rather a “high-level estimation” because he says he was stonewalled by the government in his efforts to secure the needed data.

“I knew incarceration was expensive, but when we actually did the calculation . . . you get big numbers in a hurry,” said Mr. Page, the parliamentary budget officer.

“It is a lot of money in a period of time when we’re generating deficits.”

Mr. Page, at the request of the Opposition Liberals, analyzed the cost of one piece of crime-and-punishment legislation, which came into force in February.

The new Truth in Sentencing Act ends a practice of judges handing offenders time credits, on a two-for-one basis, to compensate for time spent in pre-sentence remand.

The analysis estimates additional federal costs of $1-billion annually over five years, with two-thirds going toward extra operating and maintenance costs to house new prisoners and the remaining one-third being used for 13 new penitentiaries that would be needed to handle the prisoner influx.

(more…)

The Guardian reports that the new UK budget introduces a number of ‘austerity measures‘: The chancellor said the “unavoidable budget” required a VAT rise from 17.5% to 20% next January, higher capital gains tax, a levy on banks, a two-year public sector pay freeze and less generous benefits, but insisted the package was needed to prevent the financial markets from turning on Britain.

In case you’re under the impression a bank tax would be a good thing, consider: Qui bono? Not the populace, which will be expected to absorb the costs. Not the regional banks, many of whom are guiltless of causing the economic crisis, and which will be put under further stress to consolidate and merge with – the mega banks, which blew out the economy with fraudulent derivative instruments and are tied into governments and international central banking institutions. It’s here that we must look, to the expanding global central banks, to really understand who would benefit from such a move.

Related: EU to push for global bank tax at G20 | Tucker Bilderberg 2010 Wrapup: Attack on Iran discussed, World Treasury Dept delayed | G20 to delay tough bank tax regulations | Canada, EU at loggerheads over bank tax | European Central Bank chief: Bank of International Settlements to Rule the Global Economy | Harper calls for global economic governance, lauds G20 as ruling forum | US prepares to push for global capital rules | Flaherty wins delay in decision on global bank tax at interim G20 meeting | Bankers Prepare To Assault Americans With VAT, Transaction Taxes | Global bank tax urged by IMF | Flaherty stands firm against new bank tax | G20 sounds warning over lack of progress on global regulation | Banking reforms urgent, Harper says at G20 sherpas’ meeting | G20 ’sherpas’ meet with IMF, World Bank on Ottawa | Tories hand out $75 billion worth of ’spending restraint’ | Gordon Brown’s plan for global bank tax ‘a step closer’ | Global Bank Insurance Levy Wins Support over Transaction Tax at Davos | Harper urges G20 to follow economic accords | Bankers unite against Barack Obama and Gordon Brown in call for world regulation | IMF warns against retreat from stimulus spending | Banks find gaping loophole in Obama financial reforms | Obama talking tough with banks | EU urged to adopt bank supertax | Obama ponders bank transaction levy to recoup bailout shortfalls | No new stimulus, economy ’stabilized’: Harper | Explosive Leaked Emails Expose Treasury Secretary Geithner’s Deception in ‘Backdoor Bailout’ | Final Copenhagen Text Includes Global Transaction Tax | EU calls for tax on bank transactions | UK: Brown takes campaign for Tobin tax to Commonwealth | UK: Brown proposes global fund to kick-start Copenhagen climate change process | Flaherty, USA say no to global financial tax, yes to continued ’stimulus’ at G20 | Bernanke continues pressing for sweeping new powers for Fed | IMF chief wants global bank tax | G20 nations meet as protests flare on issue of international banking regulation | IMF approves $13bn gold sale to boost lending fund | China Set to Buy $50 Billion in IMF Notes | China calls anew for super-sovereign currency | No one talking about dumping dollar: China minister | China explores buying $50bn in IMF bonds | Chinese economists deem huge holding of US bonds “risky” as Geithner visits | A Bigger, Bolder Role Is Imagined For the IMF | UK PM reveals G20 plan to boost IMF by $1 trillion, hails new world order (again) | UN & IMF Back Agenda For Global Financial Dictatorship | IMF poised to print billions of dollars in ‘global quantitative easing’ | Gordon Brown seeks sweeping reforms to give IMF global ’surveillance role’ | IMF may need to “print money”, act as “world’s central bank” as crisis spreads | Globalists Exploit Financial Meltdown In Move Towards One World Currency | World needs new Bretton Woods, says Brown | IMF prescribes state regulation of ‘global financial order’ | Bilderberg Seeks Bank Centralization Agenda | Banks face “new world order,” consolidation: report

Eric Reguly, The Globe and Mail
June 22, 2010

In an attempt to take a bite out of ballooning deficits, Britain, France and Germany announce new levies on their banks

Three of Europe’s biggest economies have thrust the bank levy debate back on to the global agenda despite Canada’s best efforts to kill it, a move that threatens a showdown at the Group of 20 summit.

The effort to slap an additional tax on banks picked up momentum on Tuesday when the British government’s emergency budget announced its intention to proceed with such a move — worth £2-billion ($3-billion) a year — and France and Germany announced similar proposals.

The issue promises to be a divisive one at the summit this week given the European alliance and the heated opposition to such a levy by countries such as Canada. The idea for such a tax was believed dead after G20 finance ministers met in South Korea earlier and backed away from such a proposal.

It’s yet another challenge for the summit, which will also be grappling with a plea by the United States that world leaders not put the global recovery at risk through widespread cutbacks. European governments are in the midst of such austerity measures to bring their finances under control, while Canada, the host country, has also urged deficit targets.

British Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne’s decision to tax total bank liabilities at 0.04 per cent beginning in January, rising to 0.07 per cent a year later, did not rattle investors, who had expected a higher figure. But it was dismissed by some tax accountants as political pandering and by bankers as harmful to an industry that is only just recovering from a crisis that nearly destroyed it.

(more…)

Minister Clement puts pork on your fork. The Star is also reporting that G8/G20 summit delegates will no longer be flying into the North Bay airport, despite $10 million worth of upgrades to that facility.

Related: Security unit shows off G8 plans for Huntsville | G20 media centre with fake lake to cost $1.9M | Clement blasted for G8 riding spending, Baird drags out 9/11 trope | Budget watchdog probing G8/G20 summits’ $1-billion price tag | Toronto Police to take up to $100-million of G20 security funds | Toronto and Muskoka G8/20 Summit security costs hit $1.1B | For more, see the G20 Coverage page feature

Les Whittington, Toronto Star
June 17, 2010

Well before the summit motherlode, Industry Minister delivered the goods

OTTAWA–In the wilderness cottage country north of Parry Sound, where a two-lane road peters out in the middle of nowhere, motorists can keep going through the bush on a winding roller-coaster of paved track called the Bunny Trail. Thanks to the Harper government, this little-travelled side road is now slated for improvement–at a cost to Canadian taxpayers of nearly half a million dollars.

“Reconstruction of Bunny Trail”–as the project near the town of Dunchurch is described in federal government records–will cost $463,061. But that’s just a drop in the bucket compared with the nearly $100 million the Conservatives have poured into the riding of Parry Sound-Muskoka in the past couple of years since former Tory MPP Tony Clement took over as federal industry minister.

Under Clement, who originally won the former Liberal-held riding by only 28 votes in 2006, Ottawa has tapped every funding program available to shower the 90,000 residents with cash.

The largely rural riding is not poor–its average family income of $73,000 is in line with the average for the whole country. But the residents of Parry Sound-Muskoka have still been major benefactors of government generosity.

For a G8 summit which lasts for mere hours over June 25-26, taxpayers are on the hook for nearly $50 million to spruce up the riding.

(more…)

It’s an overnight sensation! Austerity! – all the cool central bank heads and heads of state are pushing it, from Greece’s finance minister (ex-Goldman Sachs, like Mark Carney) to Angela Merkel’s advisors. Get on the bandwagon, President Obama, PM Harper, it’s the wave of the future, tax us into serfdom. Less is more, y’all, unless of course you happen to be one of the creditors. If you’re a reader of this journal, all we can suggest – and this is strictly non-professional advice, so take it with a large grain of salt and a slug of free thought – is that you move into secure commodities (gold, silver, copper, oil if you can stomach it or find an ethical exploration company) to avoid future currency fluctuations and protect what value you may presently hold. The major gold advocates can still see a doubling in value over current levels. Protect yourself, as far as you’re able, from the state’s funny money.

Related: Europe embraces the cult of austerity — but at what cost? | British face big spending cuts as coalition shows unity on austerity

CBC News
June 16, 2010

The world is entering an “age of austerity” that could take about $7 trillion US out of global output by 2015 and restrain economic growth, Bank of Canada governor Mark Carney said Wednesday.

In a noon-hour speech to a business audience in Charlottetown, Carney said Canada will lead the Group of Seven industrialized economies over the next two years, but that may not be saying much.

He said Canada’s economy has recovered nicely from recession, but growth is slowing, and the global outlook is getting worse.

Carney left open how the Bank of Canada will approach future monetary policy after raising interest rates by a quarter point on June 1.

“Given the ongoing uncertainty surrounding the outlook, any further reduction of monetary stimulus would have to be weighed carefully against domestic and global developments,” he said.

(more…)

The government wishes, perhaps, to avoid a repeat of what happened during last year’s expenses scandal of British labour PM Gordon Brown. It’s just too bad she can’t audit the fake lake, symbol of conservative extravagance. (?) But this is to be a non-partisan effort of course – it’s just too bad Sheila Fraser won’t be able to name names since all four major parties are swindling us.

Related: MPs shouldn’t fear expenses audit: AG | Prime Minister’s Office tells Tory MPs not to answer Citizen reporter’s questions on expenses | MPs reject request to audit expenses | MPs from all four parties ink secret deal on cash | Lax rules on political financing No. 1 global corruption threat: report | Author wins award for work identifying categories of state corruption | Tories admit to using regional funds for federal campaign last election | Another Conservative candidate attacks ‘in-out’ ad scheme | Donations of money, property and services continue to corrupt Canadian politics

CBC News
June 15, 2010

Federal Auditor General Sheila Fraser will be permitted to conduct a performance audit of how parliamentarians control their budgets, but won’t audit the individual spending of all MPs.

Fraser joined Conservative House leader Jay Hill and Liberal MP Marcel Proulx in Ottawa on Tuesday to announce the terms of a deal reached with the Board of Internal Economy, an all-party body that oversees Parliament’s expenditures.

The secretive board initially rejected Fraser’s request to examine $533 million in annual spending by the House of Commons and the Senate, saying the proposed audit “would go beyond the scope of the auditor general’s mandate.”

But board members agreed to meet with Fraser and hear her intentions following a fierce public backlash and calls from other MPs for the decision to be reversed. Similar audits of politicians’ expenses in Britain and Nova Scotia sparked scandals and police investigations.

Fraser said performance audits only examine existing management practices, controls and reporting systems. She stressed that her office’s audit would not be looking at the management of individual member’s offices or the merits of their transactions.

(more…)