Federal budget offers first-time home buyers a break with $1.25 billion in mortgage relief
Potential home buyers in cities with white-hot real estate markets got some relief in Tuesday’s federal budget with an incentive program that could lower mortgage payments for households making less than $120,000 per year.
The government unveiled a multi-pronged approach to housing affordability that centres on the incentive plan, but beefs up an existing initiative that allows buyers to withdraw money from their RRSPs, and a variety of measures to boost the supply of homes on the Canadian market.
https://nationalpost.com/news/canada/federal-budget-2019-offers-first-time-home-buyers-a-break-with-1-25-billion-in-mortgage-relief
Export Development Canada playing loose with loan risks: Auditor-General report
Export Development Canada is mishandling loan risks and keeping board members in the dark about key financing arrangements, according to a scathing report by federal Auditor-General Michael Ferguson.
“The audit found a number of weaknesses in risk management that, when combined, amount to a significant deficiency,” the Auditor-General said in a statement Monday.
Mr. Ferguson faulted the Ottawa-based export lender for not adequately tracking potentially risky loans, failing to keep up with industry norms, being slow to fill vacancies on its board of directors and keeping information from directors that they need to “fully understand” the risks facing the agency.
The audit uncovered many of the same problems identified in an earlier 2009 audit, he pointed out.
https://www.theglobeandmail.com/politics/article-export-development-canada-playing-loose-with-loan-risks-auditor/
Silly season hits House of Commons as Scheer and Trudeau clash over SNC-Lavalin, racism
It was a classic made-for-TV question period — chock full of combat, revealing almost nothing new, containing several dad jokes and managing to deeply offend
A week before Easter, the temperature in Ottawa was finally above zero and spring, or at least spring fever, seemed to have reached the House of Commons chamber.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Conservative leader Andrew Scheer wore rosy ties for the International Day of Pink, and a sea of MPs behind them sported yellow daffodil pins in support of cancer research. But they couldn’t agree on much else Wednesday. The annual frenzy colloquially referred to as “silly season,” always hotter in an election year, seemed to have begun in earnest.
https://nationalpost.com/news/politics/silly-season-hits-house-of-commons-as-scheer-and-trudeau-clash-over-snc-lavalin-racism
For Rachel Notley and the Alberta NDP, the dial isn't moving fast enough
The gap between Alberta's United Conservatives and New Democrats might be closing by inches, but Rachel Notley needs the polls to move by miles in order to have a good shot at re-election on Apr. 16.
That isn't happening — and the first post-debate polls indicate that last week's verbal sparring is unlikely to move the dial in a big way.
The CBC's Alberta Poll Tracker suggests that the UCP continues to hold a wide lead over the NDP and would secure a healthy majority government if the election were held today. (Please note this article has been updated to reflect new polls published by ThinkHQ and Ipsos/Global News on Tuesday.)
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/grenier-alberta-polls-1.5088895
NDP destroying Alberta
By Letter to the Editor Apr 6, 2017
Barbara Kohn’s recent letter to the editor shows just how far Alberta’s socialists are out of touch with economic reality. Alberta cannot, must not, continue the current spending spree that will do nothing but drive the deficit from 10.3 to more than $70 billion by 2020!
The oil price collapse notwithstanding, the Notley government’s policies of increased taxes, a refusal to reduce or at least freeze public service hiring and wage increases, the increase in the minimum wage (that did nothing but force many businesses to lay employees off), and the absolutely unnecessary introduction of an ineffective carbon tax, have cost Alberta thousands of jobs, hundreds of business closures and caused major international corporations to pull up stakes and leave the province taking any future capital investment with them.
https://www.cochraneeagle.com/article/ndp-destroying-alberta-20170406
