CSI Blog & Newsroom

“Even as they await the coming of spring, the students at Middle River Consolidated School on Cape Breton Island, N.S., are already looking forward to autumn. That’s when they plan to set up a market on school grounds and sell the produce from their vegetable garden. ‘We’ve sold our produce before, at the market in town and to a local restaurant that bought three-quarters of our harvest last year,’says Donna Anton-Mulley, a teacher at Middle River, which has 24 students aged five to 12 years who are in mixed-grade classes. ‘This year our plan is have a market at our school in October after we harvest and have the public come to us.’ While Ms. Anton-Mulley oversees the school’s garden program, she says it was the students who hatched the plan for this year’s market.” Wrote Marjo Johne for a special to the Globe and Mail. Johne continued, “They’ll be running the show, doing everything from making flyers to counting the cash at the end of the sale. To help, the school has been giving them lessons on such topics as how to start and run a business, manage money, and work as a team. ‘We’ve brought in guest speakers who talked to the kids about what’s involved in running a business,’ says Ms. Anton-Mulley. ‘And we let the kids just run the market business by themselves – they work together, they decide who’s doing which job, and they decide what to do with the money.’ It’s a long way from the lemonade stand that has given many generations their first taste of entrepreneurship. But for today’s young Canadians, the fundamental lesson is the same whether they’re selling citrus beverages in front of their house or kale at a farmer’s market: entrepreneurship is essential.” Read the full article here. | Raymond Matt, CFP, CLU, TEP, CHS  

“Though it’s often said the only certainties in life are death and taxes, some people were, until recently, pretty good at avoiding the latter. It wasn’t hard. All it took was a source of income that wasn’t entirely on the radar of the Canada Revenue Agency — tips earned from waiting tables, for instance, or selling used cars on Craigslist. Maybe they did day labour on construction sites, or flipped houses, or drove trucks or, ahem, wrote a few freelance articles.Whatever the case, all that unreported income has contributed to Canada’s underground economy — which, according to Statistics Canada, was worth about $35 billion in 2008, the most recent year for which numbers were available. In recent years, however, the Canada Revenue Agency has decided to try to rein in some of that undocumented economic activity.” Sean Davidson wrote for the CBC News. Davidson continued, “The taxman put in a lot of overtime — in the wilds of B.C., on the construction sites of the Prairies and in the restaurants of southern Ontario — searching for unaccounted-for cash in sectors where the bookkeeping is less than precise In Winnipeg, Regina and Saskatoon, the CRA found $339,000 in unpaid taxes among sub-contractors who did home renovation work in association with big retail stores.” Read the full article here. | Raymond Matt, CFP, CLU, TEP, CHS  

“Canada’s economy has been performing ever so slightly above its weight, providing, for now, a glimmer of hope that sustainable growth may finally be taking hold. But there could still be storm clouds gathering in Europe, emerging markets and, more recently, Ukraine that pose major threats to our growth and, possibly, to our financial stability. The biggest unknown, according to a major Canadian think-tank, is whether the recent eurozone recovery will have legs or be cut down by another ‘perfect storm'”, writes Gordon Isfeld for the Financial Post. Isfeld continues,”‘The eurozone area is not out of the woods yet,’ the C.D. Howe Institute said in a report Wednesday. In fact, the report’s author, Pierre Siklos, argues that ‘an economic downturn or financial shock there cannot be ruled out.’ ‘The effect of setbacks in the eurozone on Canada’s economy could be significant,’ warns Mr. Siklos, a professor at Wilfrid Laurier University’s School of Business and Economics. ‘Clearly, U.S. shocks dominate, but eurozone shocks cannot be ignored. Under eurozone worst-case scenarios, such as a credit-related shock on the scale of the Greek experience, Canada’s economy would suffer a substantial drop of almost 8% in real GDP after two and a half years.'” Read the full article here. | Raymond Matt, CFP, CLU, TEP, CHS  

“As the federal government attempts to widen its net on foreign tax cheats, it faces pushback from inside and outside Canada over concerns that efforts to capture more revenue could cause greater harm than good — especially to direct investment in Canada. Even critics in Canada’s biggest trading partner are urging Ottawa not to take unilateral action against so-called ‘treaty shopping’ by out-of-country companies and individuals.” Gordon Isfeld wrote for a Financial Post article. Isfeld continues “instead, one of the largest business groups in the United States, along with legal and tax experts in this country, say a coordinated global approach — such as the one now being formulated by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development — would avoid what the OECD warns would lead to ‘global tax chaos.’ Finance Minister Jim Flaherty is pushing ahead with plans, announced in last year’s federal budget, to crack down on foreign tax abusers — although the government admits the financial impact of treaty shopping is difficult, if not impossible, to put a value on. ‘Arrangements involving treaty shopping, like other forms of aggressive tax planning, are often not disclosed by taxpayers and, as such, their impact is difficult to measure,’ a Finance Department official told the Financial Post.” Read the full article here. | Raymond Matt, CFP, CLU, TEP, CHS  

“Three years, five months and counting: That’s how long the Bank of Canada has kept its key interest rate fixed at a rock-bottom 1 per cent.And the rate isn’t likely to change Wednesday when central bank Governor Stephen Poloz makes his second monetary policy announcement of 2014. But with evidence that inflation is perking up a bit, the odds that Mr. Poloz’s next move is a rate increase, rather than a cut, are overwhelming.”Barrie McKenna writes in an article for the March 2, 2014 issue of Globe and Mail. McKenna continues, “combined with a cheaper Canadian dollar and better-than-expected fourth-quarter growth, the building blocks of an improving economy are starting to fall into place for Mr. Poloz, making a rate cut increasingly unwarranted. In a series of interviews at the recent G20 meeting of finance ministers and central bankers in Sydney, Australia, Mr. Poloz called the slide in the Canadian dollar a ‘welcome development’ because it means the U.S. dollar is getting stronger alongside the U.S. economy. He also said he’s feeling ‘a little more comfortable’ about disinflation risks. There was a hint of higher inflation in January. The consumer price index rose at a higher-than-expected 1.5-per-cent annual pace in January – the fastest pace in 19 months.” Read the full article here. | Raymond Matt, CFP, CLU, TEP, CHS  

“When it comes to retirement, the Europeans prove once again that they know something the United States doesn’t, according to the recently released Natixis Global Retirement Index. For the second year in a row, the U.S. barely made it into the top 20 in its capacity to meet retirees’ financial needs and expectations. European nations, meanwhile, took eight of the top 10 spots. The index, now in its second year, is put together by Natixis Global Asset Management and CoreData, and measures the ability of 150 countries to care for their retirees”,  according to the February 27, 2014 article on the Financial Post website. Read the full article here. | Raymond Matt, CFP, CLU, TEP, CH  

“Statistics Canada says the country’s current account deficit widened to $16 billion in the fourth quarter of 2013, as exports lagged and foreign investment fled Canada.

In figures released this morning, the agency said the deficit on international trade in goods widened $1.4 billion to $2.7 billion in the fourth quarter” according to a cbcnews.ca article. “Exports declined led by a downturn in exports of crude oil, metals and mineral products. For 2013 as a whole, with the current account deficit totals $60.7 billion, a $1.5 billion improvement from 2012. The current account has remained in a deficit position since the fourth quarter of 2008. The fourth quarter current account deficit also reflects the flight of foreign investors from money market instruments. After the U.S. Fed began the process of tapering, announcing in December it would reduce its monthly bond-buying program to $75 billion US  in January, money began moving out of Canadian Treasury bills toward U.S. instruments.” Read the full article here. | Raymond Matt, CFP, CLU, TEP, CH  

“After the gold medals had all been awarded, after the players had posed for the obligatory centre-ice photograph, Jonathan Toews accepted a Canadian flag from one of their supporters in the Bolshoy arena and circled the ice – briefly – waving it back and forth. It was about as wild as the on-ice celebration ever got, the Canadians handling the aftermath of Sunday’s gold medal-winning performance over Sweden with the same quiet efficiency they used to handle all six opponents they faced en route to defending the gold medal they won back in 2010 in Vancouver.” writes Eric Duhatschek for The Globe and Mail. “Now that was a party – at home, in overtime, playing in front of a crowd that erupted when Sidney Crosby scored the winning goal. But Canada was so much in control of Sunday’s 3-0 victory over Sweden that the final period involved mostly clock-watching. It was that methodical. It was that dominating. ‘You had to do something to try and engage the fans a little bit there,’ Toews explained. ‘I’m not really the flashy guy who does those sorts of things, but I was pretty excited out there.’ History is rarely on the minds of players when they win something as significant as an Olympic gold medal. The experience is too fresh, too new and really just too much fun in the here-and-now to think about its significance or long-term impact. Ultimately, each of the most recent men’s hockey golds resonate in their own unique way.” Read the full article here. | Raymond Matt, CFP, CLU, TEP, CH    

“It may have been the strangest women’s hockey game ever played. It may well have been the most exciting. It most certainly had to be the happiest and unhappiest for the two countries involved – happy for Canada, winning a fourth consecutive gold medal in women’s Olympic hockey, unhappy for the United States, which outplayed and outscored Canada until, with only 3:26 left in the game, their seemingly sure dream turned into the worst imaginable nightmare.” writes Roy Macgregor in a Feb.20th article for the Globe and Mail.

Macgregor continues ” Marie-Philip Poulin scored with 55 seconds left to play in regulation, then put away the winner 8:10 into overtime as Canada edged the United States 3-2 to capture the gold medal in Sochi.

Four years ago in Vancouver, some fools in the media went after Poulin for drinking beer under age. This time, an entire country is toasting the fabulous 22-year-old star – even if they do so in a bit of a state of disbelief. ‘She’s the best player in the world,’ longtime Canadian team veteran Jayna Hefford said of the player teammates all call ‘Pou’.”

Read the full article here. | Raymond Matt, CFP, CLU, TEP, CH

“Financial advisers who give advice about securities, mutual funds and insurance should be regulated to protect Canadian consumers from unethical operators, according to a voluntary group that represents financial advisers. Advocis, The Financial Advisors Association of Canada, is supporting a private member’s bill introduced in the Ontario legislature by Liberal MPP Rick Bartolucci that would regulate both who can practice as an adviser and the quality of the advice. Currently, anyone can hold themselves out as a financial adviser in the province without any professional designation. Advocis has been calling for consumer protection in the sector for decades, says its president and CEO Greg Pollock according to CBC news website. ‘We would like to see financial advisers properly regulated and the Canadian public knowing just who they are dealing with,’ he said in an interview with CBC’s Lang & O’Leary Exchange. Currently insurance and securities are regulated by different entities, with a focus on the products sold, rather than who sells them.” Read the full article here. | Raymond Matt, CFP, CLU, TEP, CHS