Peter St. Onge- Canada is headed for its worst decline in 40 years as economy fails to recover from the pandemic. Under Trudeau, incomes are West Virginia level, house prices are Los Angeles level, and a middle class family might pay *half* their income in taxes. 7 in 10 Canadians now think that “Canada is broken” — rising to 8 in 10 of the young. Almost half of Canadians are considering moving to another country.
Where’s My Stuff?
Blacklocks- Freight Costs Way Up: Report
“the average end to end container transit time as measured from Shanghai through the Port of Vancouver to Chicago increased from an average of 25.4 days in 2019 to 29.1 days in 2020 and 33.8 days in 2021.” All customers paid,
“The price of maritime container shipping rose 385 percent or more than fourfold from November 2020 to September 2021,” wrote the department. “Delays at ports mean that goods must wait on ships longer which causes prices to increase but also reduces availability of shipping
Canada Is Back, Baby!
BBC- How Canada became a car theft capital of the world
Early this summer, Interpol listed Canada among the top 10 worst countries for car thefts out of 137 in its database – a “remarkable” feat, said a spokesperson, considering the country only began integrating their data with the international police organisation in February.
Authorities say once these cars are stolen, they are either used to carry out other violent crimes, sold domestically to other unsuspecting Canadians, or shipped overseas to be resold.
Interpol says it has detected more than 1,500 cars around the world that have been stolen from Canada since February, and around 200 more continue to be identified each week, usually at ports in other countries.
Jobs, Jobs, Jobs
We Need Another Lockdown
Longer and harder this time. And more taxes. And more regulations…
Calgary Herald- Canada’s ‘productivity emergency’ called the most widespread in history outside the pandemic
Outside of Quebec and Ontario, gross domestic product per person is not only lower than before the pandemic, it is lower than the peak in 2014-15.
“That means many people outside our two biggest provinces feel worse off today than they did 10 years ago,” he said.
First World Problems
Calgary Herald- ‘Catastrophic’ water main break cripples Calgary
In a live update Thursday morning, the city said that the cause of the water main break is unknown, but it is large and complicated. The city says its priorities are containing the problem and protecting public health in Bowness.
Update: Fire ban in effect
Open fires, Fire pits, Gas or propane fire pits, Outdoor chimeneas, Recreational solid fuel barbecues and stoves (charcoal briquettes or wood), Tiki torches, Patio heaters (propane, catalytic or infrared/radiant), Ceremonial events with an approved CFD permit – cancelled, All fireworks permits cancelled, Indoor open-air flame fires with an approved CFD permit – cancelled
BoC Rate Cut
Ron Butler- Bank of Canada CUTS RATE: Tiff Macklem Faces The Stark Reality Of A Canadian Economy Headed For The Crapper. The BoC Governor made the expected move & cut the bank’s key Lending Rate by 25 bps. More here
It’s Probably Nothing
Paul Vieira- According to World Bank data on Canada, net outflows of foreign direct investment, at 4% of GDP, outstrip net inflows of FDI, at 2.2% of GDP.
World Bank- Foreign Direct Investment, Net Outflows (% of GDP) Canada
Fairness For Every Generation
Alex Pierson– Blacklocks Reporter,” An astonishing figure because it’s double what debt ceiling was just 3 years ago. It’s almost equivalent to entire economic production of Canada in one year.”
Francisco- What does that mean?
“Whatever your children’s tragedies and triumphs will be 30 or 40 years from now, they’re not gonna have the money. You can tell them it’s because of what was buried on page 638 of a Notice of Ways & Means tabled in the house of commons.”
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Circling The Drain
National Post- The decline and fall of Canada
Poll after poll suggests Canadians are bearing witness to their relative decline. In a Postmedia-Leger survey released last month, 70 per cent of respondents agreed with the statement that “Canada is broken.”
Sunny Ways…
Sun- Trudeau’s budget is a debt bomb
The Trudeau government’s 2024 budget is a tax-and-spend debt bomb financed by borrowed money and high taxation that is going to get worse year after year until the Liberals are booted from office.
Caught off guard by high interest rates, Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland delivered a budget on Tuesday awash in a sea of red ink, keeping the Liberals’ dubious record intact of failing to deliver a single balanced budget since they came to power in 2015, with no plan to balance the budget, ever.
Render Unto Caesar…
Fraser Institute- Canada’s Rising Personal Tax Rates and Falling Tax Competitiveness, 2024
Comparing the provinces with 51 US jurisdictions (includes all states and Washington DC) shows nine Canadian provinces occupying the list of the top 10 jurisdictions with the highest top combined marginal income tax rates, and all provinces are in the top 15.
Canadian provinces are similarly uncompetitive with US jurisdictions when comparing personal income tax rates at the CA$300,000, CA$150,000, CA$75,000, and CA$50,000 income thresholds.
Canada’s top combined statutory income tax rate is also uncompetitive compared to other industrialized countries. Out of 38 OECD countries, Canada’s top combined income tax rate ranks 5th highest.
The Trend is Not Your Friend
The Food Professor- Food Sales Are Telling Us Canada Is Getting Poorer At An Alarming Rate
The gap in GDP per capita between Canada and the United States has widened by 106% since 2015, and this trend shows no signs of reversing. In other words, despite our growing population, Canada is becoming poorer, not richer.
The Migrant Pipeline
From China to South America to Texas.
GB News- Darién Gap difficulty | Mass migration through one of ‘the most IMPENETRABLE jungles in the world’
DW News- Record half-million migrants crossed the Darien Gap jungle between Colombia and Panama
There’s a Salt Monopoly?
Windsor Star- Inside the worker strike that has left Calgarians with a shortage of salt
The shortage is the result of a bitter workplace dispute in eastern Canada that’s entering its seventh month. In mid-February, 250 unionized workers at Windsor Salt, one of the largest salt producers and distributors in Canada, walked off the job after bargaining talks collapsed.
The Zimbabwe solution
Judging by the popularity of the concept of expropriation without compensation in South Africa, I suspect that the Zimbabwe experience is just around the corner for them, keeping in mind that the idiot tweeting this is actually a member of their parliament. Other than the collapse of industrial agriculture and widespread starvation, what could possibly go wrong?
National cohesion depends on equitable and just resolution of the land question.
Most of the land was robbed from the Africans in the 1600s, 1700s, and 1800s.
It's not clear why Expropriation Without Compensation is an issue when the land in question was actually stolen. pic.twitter.com/GxcQ0TwJOI— Mzwanele Manyi (@MzwaneleManyi) July 24, 2023
Tax me harder
Rather than reconsider the usefulness of skyrocketing borrowing for Covid stimulus, overpriced pipelines, battery plant subsidies and a war in the Ukraine, among many other programs, the federal government seems intent on making sure that productive individuals pay far more tax than they already do.
If these measures don’t trigger a recession, nothing will.
If enacted, this could bring the top combined marginal tax rate, once provincial tax is factored in, to approximately 56 per cent in British Columbia, Ontario, Quebec and Nova Scotia, and to 57 per cent in Newfoundland and Labrador.
A gusher of losses
If an oil company can’t make money in a period when oil prices skyrocket, it’s probably safe to say that there’s no hope for them. The darling of Mexican socialism seems to have fallen into that rut. How long until the defaults start and the country becomes another Venezuela?
The Mexican state oil company said Monday it had a fourth-quarter net loss of 172.4 billion pesos ($9.4 billion) compared with a net loss of 52 billion pesos in the third quarter, once again foregoing profits at a time when many major oil companies are raking in record billions.
Pemex is struggling to pay down debts that have risen to the highest of any oil major in the world. It must find the means to pay for about $8 billion in maturing debt this year.
Power struggle
So your main political party spent decades promoting plans to “nationalize the mines, banks and monopoly industry”? How’s that working out for you these days?
South Africa has reached an unprecedented level of rotational power cuts.
According to Mantshantsha, South Africa’s total demand at 19:25 on Tuesday evening was 30,480MW, while the available generation capacity was 23,289MW.
Virtual Energy and Power director Clyde Mallinson noted that only 40% of Eskom’s coal fleet is currently operational. Based on current performance, he said there could be stage 7 power cuts in February and stage 11 by June or July.
A nation run by “comrades” whose main concern seems to be the fate of the Lumpenproletariat.
Confiscation Without Conviction
They don’t need no stinking due process. They don’t need a justice system at all
A civil liberty group is sounding the alarm after British Columbia’s New Democratic Party (NDP) Premier David Eby announced a forthcoming new law that would permit the government to take away one’s property or goods prior to being charged with a crime.
The soon-to-be introduced “unexplained wealth order” (UWO) was announced by Eby on Sunday as part of a broader “public safety plan.” The government says the law is intended to target gangs and criminals who “profit on misery,” but experts warn that such a law would be a severe “infringement” on one’s constitutional rights as defined in the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. […]
While the full details of the UWO won’t be released until next year when it is formally presented to the province’s legislature, the NDP government has already attempted to justify the proposal by saying that the law would help deal with “young people [who] are attracted to gang life by images of fast cars, fancy homes and luxury goods.”
“By seizing this property from high-level, predatory criminal organizations and individuals, the province can take away this incentive and send a clear message to organized crime,” the government added.
This isn’t new. It’s an expansion of the BC government’s lucrative Theft Under $75K Program.
h/t Jim