Happy Friday everyone, have a great weekend…………………………. and……………………….please drive to the road conditions.
metalman.

I watched the news last night..they where talking about the bank interest rate.. They said the banks refusing to lower the mortgage rates(even raising them) so they still make thier billions. The bank of Canada is lending them cheap money and they are screwing us with our own takes.. Since 82ish when they got rid of the gold standard banks can do anything they want..and they are.. Anything to,make profit.

Keep right except to pass and for Pete’s sake, turn your damn lights on! And what’s with these people who blow through stop signs just to get in front of a line of cars then proceed to drive slower then the people they just cut in front of?

And please signal when you’re leaving the roundabout It’s not difficult to do.

Before I forget, clean the snow off your vehicle before you hit the road. I was behind an “N” driver coming up Foothills whose back window was completely covered by snow. Not that she used her rear views anyways, when I pulled up beside her to pass she was hunched over the steering wheel, eyes fixed straight ahead and a death grip at 10 and 2.

Have a nice weekend 250!

It sure takes a lot of piling on of debt by governments (all levels), businesses and households in this country to keep our way of life going.

The following numbers are taken from the Statistics Canada website:

At the end of September, 2015 the total debt outstanding in Canada (bottom line of the credit market summary data table) was $6.70 trillion.

At the end of September, 2014 the total debt outstanding was $6.17 trillion. In the one year period from the end of September, 2014 to the end of September, 2015 it increased by $530 billion. This is an increase of 8.5%.

The approximate beginning of the global financial crisis was June, 2007. At the end of June, 2007 the total debt outstanding was $3.99 trillion. In the last 8-1/4 years it has increased by $2.71 trillion. This is an increase of 67.9%.

Looking at the total debt outstanding in Canada of domestic non-financial sectors (17th line up from the bottom of the credit market summary data table):

At the end of September, 2015 the total debt outstanding of domestic non-financial sectors was $4.86 trillion.

At the end of September, 2014 the total debt outstanding of domestic non-financial sectors was $4.54 trillion. In the one year period from the end of September, 2014 to the end of September, 2015 it increased by $323 billion. This is an increase of 7.1%.

At the end of June, 2007 the total debt outstanding of domestic non-financial sectors was $2.84 trillion. In the last 8-1/4 years it has increased by $2.02 trillion. This is an increase of 70.9%.

If anyone is interested in seeing the credit market summary data table where the above numbers are taken from they can go to the Statistics Canada website and enter the following into the search box:

“credit market summary table at book value”

The start date of this Statistics Canada data table can be changed by clicking on the “add/remove data” tab at the top of the page.

I read an article this week about the film industry, and how they are still getting Gov’t subsidies, even though our dollar is now way below par. Our tax dollars pay well over 50% of film crew labour costs. Here’s some examples.

$5 million was paid in wages to work on the Smurfs movie. $2.86 million of that paid by subsidies (BC taxpayers).

$13.1 million was paid in wages to work on the Spider-Man 2. $7.7 million of that paid by subsidies (BC taxpayers).

2010-2014 Sony Pictures spent $65.6 million on film crew wages, but we paid them back $38.3 million.

In total, over the past fives years, the BC Gov’t has cut a cheque for $1.5 billion to the film industry to cover half of the labour costs. Not to be outdone, the Federal Gov’t gave the film industry $1.73 billion nationwide.

I think it’s high time this corporate welfare ended.

Good point, Brother Gecko. Government subsidies are supposed to help fledgling industries get off the ground. The film industry has been in existence for a century. Why should it receive subsidies?

B G—Yes I don’t think many people know how many of our tax dollars a are being paid out in subsidies. Huge amount is also given too energy. Think what we could do with that money.

Any thoughts on as to why the School Board has changed the name of the Teachers Professional Development Day to Non Instructional Day?

“Any thoughts on as to why the School Board has changed the name of the Teachers Professional Development Day to Non Instructional Day?”

They prefer to party? :)

watch the four horseman movie, available on you tube

Charles

Then consider that 40% of citizens have no personal or corporate debt!

PVal wrote:-” Since 82ish when they got rid of the gold standard banks can do anything they want..and they are.. Anything to,make profit. ”
————————————————————————-

The ‘gold standard’ ended long before ’82ish’, PVal. For all intents and purposes it really ended when World War One was about to break out in the late summer of 1914, and there was a run on the British banks as people sought to exchange paper currency pound notes for gold sovereigns. The banks couldn’t pay, there wasn’t even a tenth of the amount of gold in their possession to cover the paper currency in existence, let alone the far larger amount of loans outstanding. The paper currency said on its face, “Will pay to the bearer on demand”, (just as ours did for many years). But it never said just WHAT would be paid. Because in most countries paper currency and gold and silver coins were interchangeable with one another at par, while gold bullion was priced slightly higher (because coinage couldn’t be made out of 24 karat gold, it was always alloyed with a more durable metal), the assumption was there would always be enough gold to redeem the paper. This was never really the case. In Britain at that time the banks closed, and when they re-opened and people rushed in to exchange their pound notes again, they were given ANOTHER pound note. Only it was only printed on one side. They were called ‘Bradburys’, named after the guy who devised a way to get out of that little exchange crisis. The USA went off the gold standard internally when FDR was President, and externally when Nixon finally ended the farce it had always been in the early 1970’s.

As a further aside, PVal, when Mulroney was PM he revised the Bank Act, (which comes up for revision every ten years), and removed the need for the banks to have a ratio between customer deposits and the amount of loans they can write. Generally that ratio was around 10 per cent. Which meant that a bank could issue in loans up to ten times the amount of its customers savings deposits, which are classed as its ‘reserves’.
The revision allowed banks to instead loan up to ten times, (or thereabouts) the amount of their ‘capital’, (which included these ‘reserves’). Other countries, the USA in particular, still limit bank lending to the amount they can attract in customer savings deposits as ‘reserves’.

And one more thing, going back on the ‘gold standard’, (which was phoney standard to begin with, and can’t work long term), would either usher in a Depression greater than the one we went through in the 1930’s, or it would greatly enrich those who hold the gold. Eagleone’s favorite family, the Rothschilds, have about 5% of the world’s supply in bullion in their vaults under the City of London. While a look at just who controls most of the world’s largest gold miners might give you a clue who the main beneficiaries of any such move might be.

“Government subsidies are supposed to help fledgling industries get off the ground. The film industry has been in existence for a century. Why should it receive subsidies?”

Good point! The automobile manufacturing industry is even older, yet in order to attract an assembly plant of any one of them to a state, province or country the usual minimum subsidy from taxpayers is around 1 billion dollars (US), whether the maker needs it or not!

They put out the word and wait for offers. Then they watch the governments fight for the opportunity to give away incentives of money, free infrastructure (road, rail, power etc) and tax free status for a number of years!

Regarding the movie industry, are these subsidies actually money handouts or just a tax breaks? The industry creates a lot of jobs where people get paid and pay taxes. It also puts people in hotels and such and they pay taxes.

Any update on the bus crash injured?

With all the pipeline issues happening its time for Trudeau to get out of the toybox and pull his big boy boots on. If he can find any to fit his delicate feet.

Terracestandard.com …… Now there are two proposed refineries for the dubose property half way between terrace and kitimat but no enbrige pipeline .

Of the 2,290,600 total employed in BC last year, 110,300 were in Information, culture and recreation [51, 71].
So the total in this NAICS classification was 0.048% of all employed.

How much of that was actually in movie making?

How significant could this be? I believe it to be token pittance.

RE: Film Sector Labour Subsidies via Production Services Tax Credit

It’s all directly related to labour costs. Here’s the breakdown…

The Production Services Tax Credit (PSTC) is a labour based tax incentive that provides refundable tax credits to international or Canadian film and television production corporations that have incurred costs in British Columbia. The PSTC is not subject to any Canadian content requirements.

PSTC basic film and television tax credit: 33% of qualifying B.C. labour costs

Regional tax credit: 6% of qualifying B.C. labour costs

Distant location regional tax credit: an additional 6% of qualifying B.C. labour costs

Digital animation or visual effects (DAVE) tax credit: 17.5% of qualifying B.C. labour costs.

As a note, Nova Scotia killed their subsidy program. Quebec reduced their program already, and Ontario is considering to do the same. Numerous US states (Alaska, Washington and Michigan to name three) have also ceased their film industry tax credits for labour.

Kudos to Neil Godbout and his editorial in the PG Citizen this morning. I was so happy to read about some of the good news that comes with a lower valued Canadian dollar. So many media outlets only report on the negative. Life is a balance of positive and negative and it would do the human race a lot of good to remember that on a daily basis.

Also kudos to 250news for not only reporting on the negative events. I really like that 250news inlcudes good news stories.

Loki it’s not just the numbers of people in BC employed, it’s the wages paid to those in the industry, and we’re helping pay for them with our tax dollars.

Here’s a few wage examples of base pay in BC:

Principal performer (an actor who speaks six or more lines): $81.72 per hour or $653.78 per day

Actor (who speaks five lines or fewer): $55 per hour or $439.99 per day

Production manager: $1,006 per day or $4,023 per week for feature films worth more than $20-million; $881 per day or $3,522 per week for television and films under $20-million

Art director: $45.23 per hour for film, $43.06 per hour for TV

Key grip: $36.63 per hour for film, $34.88 for TV

Key makeup artist: $36.63 per hour for film, $34.88 for TV

Visual effects artist: Between $1,238.78 and $1,623.94 per week

Wild animal trainer: $37.23 per hour for film, $36.17 for TV

The latest Ryan Reynolds movie “Deadpool” employed 1100 people. This is a good thing, but should we be helping them pay for wages when the dollar is so low?

Billions are poured into into native issues and problems but the band leaders never seem to be held accountable. When there is a move to hold them accountable the racist thing pops up.

It seems to always be send more and more money but don’t dare hold us accountable. When the government tries to hold the leaders accountable then the cry goes out to call in money bloated corrupt UN and ignorant grossly over paid movie stars.

Have there been issues, yes, are there issues yes but many, mainly the majority of natives have moved on. We need to hear from those people.

I don’t think people know what a tax credit is or the value of a tax credit.

Here for simplicity sake:

Say you can deduct 33% of the vehicle as a tax credit. You buy a 10,000.00 vehicle, this does not mean you get back 3,333 in taxes. You get a 3,333.33 tax credit.

Now say you make 60,000.00 for the year. Your basic personal exemption is 20,000.00 so you pay taxes on 40,000.00, you can apply your tax credit to this amount and pay taxes on 36,666.67.

If you are in the 20 percent tax bracket you would have paid 8,000.00 in tax but the tax credit of 33% means you will pay 7,333.34 in taxes saving you 666.66 dollars in tax that you do not have to pay or a savings of 8.3% on your taxes.

These are made up numbers but just because you get a credit of 33% does not mean you get back 33% of the total.

If your tax credits give you a refund you must carry these forward to the next tax year. The government is not giving you money back, they are allowing you to “write off” some expenses towards your overall tax bill. These “subsidies” mean you do the work here and employ our people and you will get a break on the taxes you have to pay. If you do not come here you pay zero in taxes here. Which is better?

Brother Gecko, are we paying them in Canadian or American dollars?
Cheers

Good afternoon to all my friends in George and others. Cloudy da y here in Cow Pie City. Nice temperature tho at 5c was at 8c yesterday.

I’m just sort of at loose ends to day. I did notice last Friday thatgopg2015 was not keeping up with current events. And for once I have to agree with our friend Pal when he told us that Site C would generate enough power for 46000 homes when complete. This figure has been quoted many times by those that want Site C to go ahead.

I see the natives got a boost today when the supreme court ruled that they had not been adequately consulted by the environmental revue board in the approval of the Northern Gateway pipeline. This will open another barrel of worms when the rulings come in for the Site C project.

Its unbelievable how our politicians are giving away our natural resources to any corporation for profit. How will our grand kids survive when reality sets in.

Well thats about it for today. Have a great weekend everyone.
Cheers

Retired you are living on native land, give it up.

Next time you hear a little ditty before the next hockey game . Listen and pay special attention to the words ” our home and native land ” .

Retired… the wages I posted as examples are in Canadian funds.

OMG Ataloss, puuulllleeeease!

Native Land, definition from the freedictionary.com

native land – the country where you were born

country of origin, fatherland, homeland, mother country, motherland

country, land, state – the territory occupied by a nation; “he returned to the land of his birth”; “he visited several European countries”

old country – the country of origin of an immigrant

Pretendian :
Your white buddy with a 1/3 native 2/3 European and a dream catcher hanging from his mirror complaining how white guys took his land.

Congrats seamutt you’ve got the bigotry going again . Happy now?

Blaming seamutt for your lack of understanding Ataloss? Sorry, you will probably take that observation as a personal attack… This is my home and native land too

Down town today passed the Fire Pit on 3rd , there was a huge line up of people , either they serve good food or the Homeless in P.G. has increased , we don’t have to bring Homeless people here from other Countries we have lots of our own to look after.

Ataloss… when I sing that little ditty I intentionally change the words to “Our home ON native land…”

With all the overapping land claims, and hearing politicians thanking the aboriginal… err.. First Nations… err… indigenous ( whatever warm and fuzzy feel good kumbaya name the left wingers want to call them this week to make them stamp out that white guilt… ) but I digress.

At every public event they start the speeches with thanking the local FN’s for “allowing” us to be there.

Then I watch the Twerp ( Trudeau) trot out throat singers, and some kind of dancing dude with feathers and a drum, before the newly elected government of Canada could even walk into the room.

And then I watch the government of Canada, before the swearing in ceremony, thank the local FN’s for ALLOWING the government of Canada assemble in our nation’s capital to have that swearing in ceremony.

The political correctness has gone nuts.

They do realize FN’s only account for what… 4% of the population?

There are 34 million of us other people that live here.

Ataloss…..I always sing it….”our home on native land”

Good for you bcgrog it’s good to be grounded . I too have deeds to my properties and know where it came from . As for pomp and ceremony , a little native stuff beats the heck out of a long winded bagpiper . I do wish the native drummers had a few crashes on the cymbals once in a while . I’ll have to be frank too , I do too.

Anyone willing to admit that Trudeau and the Liberal Government are in over theirs heads, and will end up being a total disaster as a Government, or do you wish to wait a little longer.

C-51 Alive and well.
TPP Going forward without any changes
EU Trade Agreement on time and on budget (Harpers trade agreement)
The rushed refugee situation a complete and total disaster.

Actual plans for the future going forward. Deficit financing, and infrastructure spending. Duhhhhhhh?

Perhaps after a sunny holiday in the Caribbean things will start to pick up. Somehow I doubt it.

How much longer will it be before we will be unable to find anyone who will admit that they voted for this bunch amateur politicians.

Bigotry, ya sure Ataloss. All I did was make a factual observation. Must have hit a nerve for some for my plus 14 and your minus 8. CBC doesn’t allow comments on native issues, even this site does not allow comments when the title is a native issue. It is not PC correct these days to have a differing opinion on native issues, the issues seem to have morphed into an industry that resists any criticism by bringing out the racism card. You tell me where all the billions are going? Hows your imaginary solar system?

Having said that I do agree some comments do get a way out there, but is that just an excuse for the liberal left media to silence dissent.

This is all one big ball of matter traveling through space, us little pieces of insignificant carbon matter only occupy terra firma for a very brief moment in time. There are no firsts of anything (Think Nations) on this space ship earth..make the most of your brief stay here..

Seriously Palopu, time to get over the fact your Conservative wet dream is over for the time being. How long will it take for you to admit you lost the election? Get over it. Move on.

Proudtobepg > Earth is a first ….. for now. We are still looking for something like it.

Therein could lie the mistake. We think that our biological makeup is necessary to come up with beings that are self-determining with seemingly endless options to choose from.

We cannot imagine that another entity could possibly have such characteristics whether at a lesser or a greater scale.

“It is not PC correct these days to have a differing opinion on native issues,”

I doubt that is the reason why comments are not allowed. It is the derogatory, inflaming words used in expressing those different opinions that is the problem.

In other words, one Donald Trump on this continent is enough. :-)

The reason Canada voted for this bunch amateur politicians is because the last bunch of amateur politicians were not even politicians. Nor were they business people. If they had been, we would not be in a situation where too many eggs kept being put in the same basket of oil money.

At least Norway has a cool $trillion or so stored for the rainy day which is coming down now in streams on most of us newcomers in the oil game. We have zilch ….. not because of Trudeau, but because of the blue-eyed Sheik Harper who could not see it coming so did not prepare us for it.

Oh right, we did not want to have a national energy policy. We wanted to let the international oil barons play in the oil sands and leave nothing for the country the way Norway managed to do it. And they do not even have a dictatorship, we did.

Its even more profound than that proudtobepg.

We at this point in time are nearly 14 billion years in the making. Whole stars have lived their live cycles, collapsed into oblivion, and seeded the universe that gave us the elements for our world. Life formed through chance and the convergence of a billion billion different possibilities leading to the world of multi celled organisms only a half billion years ago… ever since evolution finding new ways to exploit nature through a pathway of evolution that allows for life as we know it.

At one point there was 26 hominoid species competing with our own; and as recently as the last ice age there were more great apes than there were our ancestors.

Humans of all types have come and gone from this world through a great many chance hap-stance, and everything that has come before us all culminates into each moment where we reach an inflection point… and inflection point where each individual chooses to use one’s own inner ethic to make a self aware determination of the direction we would like to lead into the future; inheriting all that has come prior in the lottery of life… a convergence of everything in the universe to create that one moment to endow upon one the privileged of the here and now with participation in the kind of world (unique and one of a kind in a universe more massive then eternity) the kind of world we will be passing along to those that will in turn inherit the world we make… whole, and complete with the decisions, and the kind of people that we are.

If one sits and really thinks about it this whole experiment called humanity on planet Earth is quite profound. Humanities biggest threat is humanity itself when greed and base motives dominate; but when organized through universal freedom and mutual dignity respecting rule of law, then humanity has the potential with genuine insight, reason, and deliberation to inherit the entire universe and shape it in our image through the dreams we have today that lead to the motivations that make up its many pieces.

They say patience is a virtue, but so too is having guiding principles. I don’t have a lot of patience (unlike the ‘first nations’)… I see patience as an often insidious tool used by those that don’t play fair but are the often first to preach patience, so I don’t see it as a bad thing when one takes the perception of trying to define the principles that are guiding their decisions as their motivating goals.

Natives it seems to me are more in touch with their place in this universe, and have been schooled in the art of bad short term decisions; so its no wonder most are skeptical of any resolution type offers that have a short term perspective that doesn’t fully respect the convergence of history to this inflection point that these decisions represent… where no deal is often better than a bad deal that is often based on the blind ignorance of partisan politics.

Future reconciliation with first nations history needs to be one that is inclusive of universal rights and the rule of law IMO. It has to be a win-win scenario that takes the high road and based on mutual respect of mutual interests that is gear towards future stability. If it takes a while to get it right, then so be it…. It will take leaders that see the big picture and are motivated with ethical guiding principles. I think we as a society have passed the point where the longer we ignore facing this reality the long the divide becomes more unsustainable for all involved.

After all, we all do have a common shared history with this lone rock floating through space we call Earth. So getting it right should be everyone’s motivation.

Most decisions for the hear and now have a short self life in the grand scheme of things. Its those that can plan well for the future that can become immortalized through their legacy. The great thing about life is to each their own.

Gopg2015, I disagree with you. I think the more and more we learn about DNA, and the conditions that allow it to work, and govern how life works, we find out more and more that DNA itself has a Goldilocks zone for not only life, but for intelligent life like our own….

gopg2015. Give it a break.

Norway is amongst the highest taxed people in the world. They are starting to feel the crunch from the drop in oil prices the same as any other oil producing countries in the world. Furthermore they are starting to shed jobs,.

A trillion stored away for a rainy day, while your being taxed to the hilt is not exactly a smart policy. Perhaps they should lighten the load on the taxpayers. Keeping this money in the bank helps no one. Canadian business has 600 billion stored away, which helps no one. In fact some would say if this money was invested it would produce jobs and improve the economy.

It was (and is) easy to blame all your problems on Harper, however you can only use that excuse for so long, then you have to take a serious look at those that are now in power.

Constantly referring to Harper and the Conservatives as a dictatorship, is only repeating garbage that has been spewed by the lovely left for the past 9 years.

Remember that you reap what you sow, so sit back and enjoy the ride.

Harper surrounded himself with criminals, so we will see how Trudeau fairs on that account….

Saudi Arabia is running a $260 Billion dollar fiscal deficit this year. Equivalent to something like 20% of their GDP. It will be interesting to see how they collapse as surely they will. Its to late to pull out of this for them even if they did cut oil production Iran will just make up for it.

How would Saudi Arabia be able to stop their war they started with Yemen and pull back from their funding of Sunni jihadist’s in Iraq and Syria, and do this all within the next year before the bond markets tart the death spiral of the Saudi state? It ain’t going to happen.

How with the Saudi’s be able to pay for the $15 billion in personnel carriers Canada is selling them when the country is in civil war and has no cash flow to cover the expense… maybe Trudeau will ask for the ownership of the Canada Wheat Board back from them in kind… reversing one of Harper governments more treasonous political decisions on our economy.

Time Will Tell