Inflation inches higher to 3.2%

The new “eco fees” having taken place causing mayhem throughout Ontario. These “eco fees” were placed on many house-hold items and were placed with very little public knowledge on the subject. Most citi-zens of Ontario have displayed their aggri-vation towards these new fees no matter their political party or economic level. More details regarding this matter are to be re-leased later this month.

‘On the edge of what’s a fee and

a tax’

OC News ONtariO, CaNada

Now that we are entering the cold season water parks are closing and amus-ment parks are in full swing. Get a thrill from one of the many roller coasters at Canada's Wonderland's or if you are looking for a family experience you can go to Bingermans and play in a giant in-door playground. Love racecars? Then go to Playdium and drive your own. Amusmennt parks are wonderful places to take the family or spend the weekend with a few friends and there are so many to choose from everyone is happy.

Leisure in Ontario

Canadian Football LeagueScores for Friday, October 21, 2011

Team 1 2 3 4 Total Edomonton 1 18 12 0 31Toronto 3 0 0 21 24

Leaders Edmonton TorontoPassing Ri. Ray 347 St. Jyles 285Rushing Je. Messam 115 Co. Boyd 132Recieveing Fr. Stamps 129 Ch. Owens 97

Niagara Falls Light Showto start November 5

Every night, Niagara Falls are illuminated in all the colours of the rainbow, and it’s a mesmerising spectacle. But for almost three months in winter, a whole swathe of Niagara Parks becomes a twinkling winter wonderland, lit by more than three million multi-coloured lights.

The CAA Winter Festival of Lights draws more than a million visitors to Niagara Falls each year and this winter will take place from November 5, 2011 to January 31, 2012.

In all, there are 125 animated lightshows, including the famous Enchantment of Disney displays, featuring favourite characters from such classics as Fantasia, The Little Mermaid and The Lion King.

Other illuminations celebrate the country’s history and include the world’s largest illuminated Canadian-American flag.

A thrilling fireworks display lights up the sky over the falls every Friday night, as well as on the opening day of the festival and on New Year’s Eve. It’s worth arriving early to take up position in the best spectating spot — Table Rock, right at the brink of the Horseshoe Falls.

The national infla-tion rate climbed 3.2 percent. Gasoline and food have helped con-tribute to this situa-tion. Food prices have risen 4.3 percent in the past 12 months. If food and gasoline are taken out of the pic-ture, the inflation rate would be 1.9. The central bank uses the Bank of Canada's core ind`/3ex to make interest rate deci-sions. The Bank's index rose 2.2 percent and is the largest gain in three years. The bank wants a target under 2 percent and since Feb-ruary 2010, the rate has not exceeded that target. Scotiabank economist Derek Holt expects the central bank is not going to lower or raise rates for the next 12 months.

Local Politics

20 July, 2010 Government of Ontario Press Release: Today, public service employers and labour leaders were brought together to begin a discussion about managing respon-sibly through upcoming compensation negotiations. The McGuinty government is working with its partners to manage compensation expenses in order to protect key public services Ontarians rely on, such as health care and our schools.The 2010 Budget outlined the Ontario government’s plan for reducing and eliminating the deficit over eight years. Managing compensation costs is a key part of that plan. Compensation represents the single largest expenditure of the Ontario government.“Any plan to address the deficit while preserving ser-vices and jobs must address compensation, which is the largest expenditure of the Ontario government. It doesn’t matter whether contracts expire next month, next year or the year after that – Ontarians expect everyone paid by tax dollars to work together and do their part,” said Dwight Duncan, Minister of Finance.The government will respect all current collective agreements, but when these agreements expire and new contracts are negotiated, transfer payment part-ners and bargaining agents are expected to seek agree-ments lasting at least two years with no net increase in compensation.The government is also asking its partners to agree to pause ongoing labor negotiations and interest arbitra-tion’s, in order to allow more detailed consultations on compensation.

20 July, 2010,Government of Ontario News Release: The eco fees on consumer products that came into effect on July 1st have now been eliminated as the McGuinty government stepped in today and took action. While the Orange Drop program will continue, consumers will not pay fees that retailers have been adding to their bills. Orange Drop locations and municipal collection depots will continue to accept these household hazardous materials for proper disposal.On July 1, Stewardship Ontario expanded the Municipal Hazardous or Special Waste program (Orange Drop) to include more waste, such as household cleaners, unused prescription drugs, and light bulbs. This important pro-gram is good for our environment, but consumers and retailers were not well informed about how the program works or the fees some retailers charged.The McGuinty government has listened to consumers concerns about eco fees. As a result, it will work with businesses and Stewardship Ontario over the next 90 days to develop a new system that works for consum-ers and works to protect our landfills and waterways from dangerous materials.“I want to thank Ontarians for doing their part every day by recycling and composting. We all have a role to play in keeping dangerous materials out of our envi-ronment by diverting waste – but not at the expense of consumers’ trust. That is why we are taking action now to address fees, increase consumer protection and completely review the program,” said John Gerretsen, Minister of the EnvironmentIn addition to eliminating these eco fees, the province will use a consumer-protection hotline effective tomor-row that Ontarians can call (1-800-889-9768 or TTY: 416-229-6086 or 1-877-666-6545) to report unfair fees.The government will also seek consumer input on the design of a new program.

18 July, 2010Government of Ontario Press Release: Ontario’s high-tech sector is poised to benefit from the Ontario’s Tax Plan for Jobs and Growth. High-tech businesses like software and IT companies have seen a reduction in their expenses since July 1. They are now receiving 13 per cent input tax credits (ITCs) for the HST they pay on things like computer hardware and software, stor-age equipment, servers and other business purchases. With business costs down, companies are better able to expand and innovate in this important sector which ultimately creates more jobs and boost the economy.“Ontario’s high-tech sector is a dynamic force in our economy. It is a magnet for highly skilled and highly educated workers. And it improves all of Ontario’s busi-nesses by getting them plugged-in to the global econ-omy. Our government’s Tax Plan for Jobs and Growth allows the high-tech sector to be even more energetic and creative in the future,” said John Wilkinson, Minis-ter of Revenue.Similarly, many businesses dependent on the high-tech sector now also receive ITCs on their software pur-chases, helping this sector to grow. And like 83 per cent of goods and services in Ontario, there will be no new taxes on high-tech goods, such as smartphones, laptops and GPS systems, for Ontario consumers with the implementation of the HST.“The HST resolves a major barrier to investing in the kinds of things that will make Ontario business more competitive, attract more investment, and grow faster,” added Bernard Courtois, President & CEO, Information & Technology Association of Canada.Cuts to Corporate Income Tax (CIT) rates are also creating conditions for a flourishing high-tech sector in Ontario. A key component of the five-year Open On-tario plan, this tax package gives high-tech companies in Ontario strong incentives to grow and contribute to the province’s economy.

Province Takes Action on Eco Fees HST Will Spark High-Tech

Growth

Consultations Begin On

Public Sector Compensation

National Politics

Free trade will help the economy more than a Buy American rule, International Trade Minister Ed Fast told the U.S. government Tuesday. Fast released a statement Tuesday afternoon to counter comments by U.S. Ambassador David Jacobson that argued Canada will benefit from a U.S. stimulus bill, even if it does have Buy American clauses that make it harder for Cana-dian exporters to get U.S. contracts. Fast said Jacobson's comments reflect a view that concerns him. "History has shown that in times of severe eco-nomic challenge, the global economy is revived by lowering trade barriers, and that raising them will have the opposite effect," Fast said in the statement. "The Obama Administration has in the past recognized that deepened trade is a win-win for both our countries. In particular Canada was de-liberately provided an exemption in 2010 to the 'Buy American' provisions that were proposed at that time. Trade-restrictive measures between our two countries were recognized as wrong then, and they remain wrong now.

'Buy American' less helpful than free trade, Fast says

"In these challenging times, there is simply no better American job creator than trade with Canada. And vice versa. And the best way to do that is through free and open trade," he said. Jacobson defended the Buy American clause earlier in the day, arguing a boost to the U.S. economy via a stimulus bill would be good for Canada's economy. The stimulus bill U.S. President Barack Obama was fighting to pass said no government money can go to infrastructure projects unless "all of the iron, steel, and manufactured goods used in the project are produced in the United States." That bill was defeated in the Senate last week, but Obama could resurrect parts of it in future attempts to boost the American economy.

'Good for Canada'In an interview on CBC News Network Tues-day, Jacobson said the most important thing the U.S. can do for the Canadian economy, is stimu-late the U.S. economy. "When you compare and contrast that with the, quite frankly, very small economic impact, even if there were a Buy America provision, on bal-ance, this bill as the president originally pro-posed it, is good – very good – for Canada," he told host Evan Solomon on CBC-TV's Power & Politics."Nobody has made any determinations that Canada will or won't or might be exempt or not exempt. My point today was that if and when this bill were passed, that Canadians ought to be very supportive of that." In a lunchtime speech to a business crowd in Ottawa, Jacobson indicated his government is holding firm, despite Canadian objections to the clause. "[President Obama] had to make a tough call. He had to introduce a bill that had some chance of passing. Hence the Buy America provision." But Jacobson also downplayed the significance of the clause, saying most of the $445-billion package deals with tax cuts, unemployment ben-efits and other measures that don't affect Cana-dian companies. "When you contrast the consequences of the Buy American provision on Canadian commerce ... with the benefits to the Canadian economy of the bill as a whole, I suspect the vast majority of economists in Canada would say they'd take the

Emerging ports dispute a new strain on Canada-U.S. trade

Canada's new international trade minister had his first meeting Monday with his American counterpart, but Ed Fast provided few details about what was discussed despite new trade hostilities percolating between the world's two biggest trading partners. Fast said he had an "excellent" discussion with U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk and planned to meet with additional American offi-cials on Tuesday. He wouldn't say who. "We discussed a broad range of issues," Fast said several times when asked what he and Kirk discussed, "all of which impact upon our trading relationship." He wouldn't say whether TransCanada's Key-stone XL pipeline was among the topics of discussion. The $7-billion pipeline has become a political hot potato for the Obama administra-tion as environmental groups pitch a heated, high-profile battle to convince the U.S. State Department to block the project. The tight-lipped Fast opened the vault slightly when it came to a recently announced U.S. in-quiry into allegations that the Canadian ports of Vancouver and Prince Rupert are unfairly swip-ing lucrative cargo traffic from American West Coast ports. The five-member Federal Maritime Commis-sion is holding the inquiry following complaints from American ports that Canada is unfairly subsidizing the diversion of cargo ships away from its U.S. competitors. The agency will deliver its findings to U.S. Congress after it completes the inquiry amid concerns that American lawmakers are mull-ing over a US$143-per-container levy on cargo entering the United States from B.C. ports as a retaliatory measure. "Canadian and Mexican ports are free to com-pete with U.S. ports for U.S. cargo, but they should do so on a playing field that is not artifi-cially tilted by governments' policies," Richard Lidinsky, chairman of the commission, said recently. Fast said he wasn't meeting with Lidinsky dur-ing his D.C. visit, but added he'd been in recent contact with him, including sending a letter that expressed Canadian concerns. He suggested the U.S. might rethink the har-bour tax it charges that makes Canadian West Coast ports a cheaper destination than American ports. "We do not charge a harbour tax as Americans do; they will obviously have to look at that care-fully as they do their inquiry," he said. "But we will be standing up for Canadians, we will be standing up for Canadian businesses, and we will certainly be standing up for our ports." Prospects of a cargo levy is just the latest bit of alarming news on the Canada-U.S. trade front. Protectionist Buy American provisions have been resurrected in U.S. President Barack Obama's $447 billion jobs legislation even as Canada and the U.S. prepare to officially an-nounce a sweeping agreement on border co-op-eration that will see Canada spend $1 billion for new border facilities and programs. Senate Democrats are currently attempting to advance the bill piece-by-piece in order to get around congressional Republicans who have vowed to block the legislation. "It's disappointing to see when new trade barri-ers are erected," Fast said Monday. "At the same time, we need to place those in perspective and understand that it's absolutely critical for us as a federal government ... to focus on removing trade barriers."

U.S. Ambassador to Canada David Jacobson

Upcoming meetings with Kirk, Fast said, will be used to "impress upon him time and time again, that these measures that they're trying to implement are not helpful in our trade relation-ship. In fact they'll hurt both economies." Fast wouldn't say whether Kirk agreed with him, but suggested signs were positive. "We generally agreed that removal of trade bar-riers is a good thing for Canada and the U.S.," he said. "We may from time to time disagree about what's the best way of achieving that, but as long as we are still talking, we still have discus-sions and dialogue on these issues, I'm confident that in a year, five years or 10 years from now, the U.S. is still going to be our best trading part-ner."

Will immigrants save the French language in Quebec, or hasten its demise?If, as one of Quebec’s own websites proclaims, the province is on the hunt for “willing, dynamic people” to immigrate to its shores, then Jessica Rosales almost certainly fits the bill. The col-lege-trained Rosales and her husband, Roberto Belmar Torres, a design engineer, wanted to emigrate from their native Chile and, spurred by a string of cheery, unsolicited emails from Que-bec’s Immigration Department, the pair chose to settle in Montreal in March 2010. “We decided on Quebec for the French culture,” the 37-year-old Rosales says. “We chose it even though we knew it would be harder.” It certainly was. Because neither could speak the language, they each took a 10-month French course. Save for the occasional nervous break-down (“I got burned out, I couldn’t stop crying,” says Rosales of one episode) that even prompted the purchase of a pair of one-way tickets to Toronto that they never used, the pair is quite happy with their lives here. They even found jobs in their new-found language. Jessica is an administrative assistant at a refugee resource centre, while Belmar Torres works at a large Montreal engineering firm. They work almost entirely in French. Yet increasingly, language advocates are turning this apparent success story into a narrative of decline of the French language in Quebec. The reason: though the pair conduct much of their public lives in French, they speak their native Spanish in the confines of their home. Earlier this year, the governing Liberals announced plans to cut the yearly number of immigrants allowed into the province by 4,000, to 50,000, by 2012, while the the right-of-centre Action démocratique du Québec has called for a fur-ther clawback to 46,000. The Parti Québécois believe “immigration should be set at the ability to Frenchify new arrivals,” says PQ spokesper-son Éric Gamache, and popular former Péquiste minister François Legault, who is flirting with the idea of running for premier, has called for the number to be capped at 40,000.

Others are even more strident. “We must be-come our own country, period,” militant sover-eignist Gérald Larose told La Presse in the wake of a report detailing a decrease in the percentage of Quebec-born francophones. His argument: an independent Quebec would have absolute power over its immigration policy. On the face of it, so-called “allophones” (immi-grants whose native language is neither French nor English) would seem an odd target, and not only because, unlike the Canada-born English population living in Quebec, they are required by law to attend primary and secondary school in French. Like nearly every other province in the country, Quebec is faced with a loom-ing demographic problem brought on by lower birth rates—a void often filled by immigrants. Ontario, for example, took in roughly 104,000 non-refugee immigrants in 2010 alone. And even with 54,000 new arrivals a year, Quebec is falling behind. According to demog-rapher Jacques Henripin, the province needs between 70,000 and 80,000 immigrants a year to compensate for its lower birth rate—people like Rosales and Belmar Torres. To Rosales, the idea that Quebec would cut down on the number of immigrants allowed into the province is absurd. “I’m a taxpayer,” she says. “Who needs who?” The feeling is often mutual. By and large, Que-becers have long cast a beady eye at Canada’s official policy of multiculturalism; a recent An-gus Reid poll noted that 66 per cent of franco-phones in the province believe multiculturalism is a threat to the French language. Practically every major demographic report released in the province over the last two decades has sparked debate and uproar about the survival of the lan-guage. But does the decline of francophones neces-sarily mean the decline of French, when those immigrants arriving here must by law attend school in la langue de René Lévesque? Marc Termote thinks so. The demographer authored a recent report illustrating the demographic decline of Quebec-born francophones in the province; he says they will be overtaken as a majority by immigrants by 2031. And while he makes pains to say he isn’t a Larose-style sovereignist—“We don’t need independence to ensure the survival of a language,” he says—he believes the sheer numbers, coupled with the creeping bilingualism of Montreal, is detrimen-tal to the language. “I am one of those people who says that the government should have no say whatsoever over what language is used at home,” Termote says. However, “the problem is that the language used at home becomes the language of the children.” This wouldn’t be a problem in, say, the over-whelmingly francophone city of Saguenay. But roughly 75 per cent of Quebec’s immigrants settle in the 500 sq. km of Montreal where, says Termote, “there is free choice in what language you work in.” (Montreal is home to roughly 48,000 businesses with less than 50 employees

that don’t fall under the province’s language provisions.) “The problem is Montreal. In the regions there are no problems. You will only speak French in Chicoutimi.” “It’s not up to immigrants to resolve the prob-lems of French in Quebec,” Termote adds. “We tell immigrants to have children, because we don’t want to have any. We tell them to go out to the regions, because we don’t want to, we tell them to learn French in a hurry, because French is declining. I can’t accept that the future of the French in Quebec is the responsibility of immi-grants.” Still others see no problem at all with the immi-grant influx into Quebec. Jean-Benoît Nadeau, author of the book The Story of French, recently published a column decrying the accepted defi-nition of the term “francophone” in the prov-ince. “French is no longer the language of one ethnic group, but one for all ethnic groups,” Nadeau writes. “Only in Quebec do we tolerate such a restrictive definition. Why not include the woven sash or ketchup tortière in the defi-nition of francophone while we’re at it? It’s a disgrace.” Jessica Rosales agrees. After being courted by the Quebec government (and spending an esti-mated $13,000 in fees and plane tickets) to get here, then spending nearly a year studying the language, she knows quite well that she can still vote with her feet. “I like Quebec, I like Mon-treal, but I can live somewhere else.”

bad with the good." Because of the North American Free Trade Agreement, the Buy American rule doesn't apply to projects funded directly by the U.S. govern-ment — but the vast majority of infrastructure is paid for by states and municipalities not covered by NAFTA. In the 2009 U.S. stimulus bill, Canada and the U.S. negotiated a side deal to exempt Canada from Buy American restrictions for those "sub-national" governments. But that deal has expired, and Jacobson is indi-cating efforts to revive it are going nowhere. "If the bill doesn't pass, the U.S. economy — and the Canadian economy with it — continue to suffer."

No plans for port traffic tariff

Jacobson also said Canadian fears over possible tariffs on goods being shipped from Canada to U.S. ports are misplaced. Quoting a statement from the U.S. Federal Mar-itime Commission chairman, Jacobson said the commission was studying the issue of a harbour maintenance fee in Seattle. "I called him. I asked, was he contemplating imposing fees, or tariffs, or taxes on goods en-tering the U.S. from Canada? The commissioner assured me categorically that he was not. Nor was anyone else," Jacobson said. Jacobson said the FMC has no authority to im-pose duties, or taxes, or fees on goods entering the United States from Canada. "So I'm here to give all of you – and all Cana-dians – comfort. We don't plan to divert traffic to Seattle from Vancouver by imposing tariffs or taxes or fees on goods crossing into the United States from Canada. "If that somehow changes, I promise that I'll personally come back here ... with egg on my face – and explain how I got it wrong."

Business and Economy

The Ottawa startup, which helps people to sell stuff online, has doubled its staff levels in the past year, doubled sales for its customers, is moving into offices almost three times bigger than its current digs and now is announcing an additional $15 million in investment from top tier venture capitalists. The money is on top of the $7 million in financ-ing the company announced in December. “We were very fortunate that a lot of people wanted to invest in our company,” said Harley Finkelstein, chief platform officer at Shopify. “We all love what we’re doing. We believe we can be the market leader.” Shopify offers pre-made templates that allow people to quickly and easily set up an online store without needing to know how to code a website. The company’s instant online stores have become massively popular with individu-als and also big businesses, recording artists and organizations that don’t want the hassle of having to code a large online retailing site them-selves. In recent months Shopify has added the band LMFAO, General Electric and even Rovio Entertainment Ltd., the Finnish firm behind the smash hit video game Angry Birds, to its list of vendors. Rovio sells more than two million Angry Bird plush toys monthly. The Ottawa company has more than 16,000 stores running on its software. Around 1,200 are started every month. Shopify stores brought in more than $140 mil-lion in sales in 2010. Finkelstein said vendors using his company’s products will more than double that amount by the end of the year. The company makes its money either through subscription fees or by billing stores that use its services based on a share of sales that can be as little as two per cent. Finkelstein said in the United States, e-com-merce represents nine per cent of all consumer spending. In Canada, e-commerce only repre-sents five per cent. The gap is closing fast as more retailers realize the cost efficiencies asso-ciated with e-commerce, which include reduced staffing and logistical costs, and consumers increasingly turn to e-commerce to sniff out bet-ter deals. “The overwhelming majority of businesses are not yet selling online because the tools available have historically been complex and expensive,” said Trevor Oelschig, a senior associate with Bessemer Venture Partners, one of Shopify’s investors. “Shopify is working to change this by building beautiful products that are easy to use.” Shopify started out in 2006 as a division of Ot-tawa’s Jaded Pixel with four employees situated in a tiny apartment on Elgin Street. In December the company had 35 employees and had just moved into a 6,000-square-foot office on the second storey of a building in the ByWard Mar-ket. The company now has more than 80. The new investment is aimed at expanding the company further. According to company chief executive Tobias Lütke, the popularity of the Shopify e-commerce services is attracting ap-plications from software and application (app) developers from around the world. The firm has been picking and choosing from among the best software developers and adding them to its staff. The company is also looking to acquire other businesses that may help Shopify better compete in the online retail space. The company will also set up a $1 million fund to encourage independent developers to write apps for Shopify stores. Apps could include book keeping software, package tracking or

Things continue to boom for Shopify

customer feedback logs, or anything that the company hasn’t included in the basic Shopify store template. Approved apps would be made available to Shopify customers to add to their stores. Lead investors in Shopify’s latest round of financing include Bessemer Venture Partners, FirstMark Capital, Felicis Ventures and Geor-gian Partners.

Harley Finkelstein, director of business development of Shopify an Ottawa company that offers online software to allow people to set up an internet based store. The company is based in the Byward Market.

Comics

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Winter Jumping Beans

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