The Destruction Of Ontario Part 1: The Job Market
by Terry Wilson
Canadian Awareness Network
Jan 31, 2014
Ontario, the once “economic powerhouse” of the nation is facing some of the biggest economic woes that one could imagine!
Since the signing of NAFTA (North American Trade Agreement) in 1993, Ontario’s manufacturing base has been devastated! As seen in the below chart.
Now the current provincial government headed by Dalton McGuinty and Now Kathleen Wynne has been working extremely hard to change Ontario’s energy production under the long-term energy plan. Which includes a move towards “green energy”. That has sent hydro prices through the roof! Costing the province a loss of an estimated 300,000 manufacturing jobs since 2010.
Sadly this trend is just beginning. As highlighted in this article from Barrie Ont. for December 2013.
“Kevin McCaughen’s business pays an average of $325,000 per month for electricity and he’s preparing to see that number increase.
McCaughen, plant manager at Sigma Stretch Film, said news that Ontario’s hydro costs are going to continue to grow by an anticipated 42 per cent over the next five years could be seen as the death blow for manufacturers in the province.
The Ontario Liberals released their Long Term Energy Plan Tuesday with a projected outlook of hydro costs continuing to balloon in the coming years.
That balloon may pop and leave Ontario’s manufacturers deflated.
“I’ve looked at hydro rates and the actual cost of hydro hasn’t really gone up that much, it’s the new Liberal green initiatives,” said McCaughen. “We use about $60,000 worth of hydro and our bill can be as high as $325,000 a month. You get all those fees on there and the adjustments and it’s just going to kill industry.””
intelligencer.ca
The massive losses in the industrial sector will mean (and have already shown) a large demand increase for service sector employment. Lets take a look at what is happening in the service sector.
Since the vast majority of the service sector is made up of low paying minimum wage positions. Many people who previously held higher paying industrial jobs, are struggling to get by on minimum wage. The provincial government is not responding to this logically by creating a plan to save industrial jobs or heaven forbid create new industrial opportunities. Their solution is to raise the minimum wage levels to $11 an hour, and an minimum wage increase every year on Oct. 1st based on inflation rates.
The main problem with this plan is summed up pretty well by Karl Littler, a vice-president at the Retail Council of Canada.
“The Ontario decision could lead to some job losses and reduced hours of work as retailers struggle in a hyper-competitive climate, warned Karl Littler, a vice-president at the Retail Council of Canada. Already some retailers are feeling the squeeze: Best Buy Canada, with increasingly savvy online and discount rivals, announced on Thursday it is cutting 950 jobs at its namesake and Future Shop stores. The previous day, Sears Canada Inc. sliced 624 jobs on top of thousands last year.”
Source
The plan to increase minimum wage will result in job losses and reduction in hours for the employed. Not creation of new jobs to cover the losses in the industrial industry. Or for students getting out of school, unable to find employment in their fields and turning to the service sector just to get by.
A second new initiative from the Liberal government is the Ontario pension plan. It is being billed as a way to help correct the short comings of the Canadian pension plan.
“Premier Kathleen Wynne on Tuesday appointed a panel of academics, finance experts and pension advocates to recommend the specifics of the fund, which will be unveiled in the budget this spring and could become a top issue in a snap election.
And for the first time, she revealed some details on what the plan will look like. For instance, it will oblige both employees and companies to pay in.
“We need to set up a structure so that people can save their own money and they can make an investment, along with their employers, in their future,” she said. “There needs to be a mandatory aspect to this to have the number of people involved that makes this a viable plan.””
Source
On top of the wage increase, companies will be “obliged” to pay into their employees pension plans.
This is a recipe for disaster! But it is not by chance or by accident. It is planned. Stayed tuned for part 2 to see how.
VIDEO — The True Cost of the Minimum Wage – Stefan Molyneux Hosts the Peter Schiff Radio Show
Stefan Molyneux
Jan 31, 2014
Stefan Molyneux, host of Freedomain Radio, takes the helm of the Peter Schiff radio show to talk about minimum wage, government spying, the dangers of smart phones – and why you should be afraid of birds!
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Ontario To Raise Minimum Wage
by Terry Wilson
Canadian Awareness Network
January 28, 2014
am980.ca
Ontario’s lowest paid workers will likely get a raise this year when the $10.25 an hour minimum wage is hiked for the first time in four years.
Sources say a special panel set up to look at ways of adjusting the minimum wage will recommend it be tied to the inflation rate, and that businesses get four months warning of any increases.
The panel did not say what the new rate should be, but sources say the minimum wage will be increased retroactively back to 2010 based on the rate of inflation since then.
Business groups warn a hike in the minimum wage will only hurt the very people it’s supposed to help by driving up costs, resulting in fewer jobs. However, the Ontario Chamber of Commerce last year called for future changes in the minimum wage to be tied to the rate of inflation.
Premier Kathleen Wynne says businesses and individuals should be pleased at having a more predictable system in place.
Continue Reading
Raising the minimum wage in Ontario has been a top priority amongst the political “left” for the last few years and has been heavily scrutinized by economists and business owners. Below is an example of why they oppose the move. (it is an American video but does highlight the issues of raising minimum wages)
The move is more likely to hurt the workforce in Ontario rather than helping workers. In fact many see that this move will only encourage businesses to replace workers with computerized stations.
This move is also coming on the heels of a huge spike in hydro costs for the province. Media has been reporting a 46% increase on hydro prices over the next five years, and the Ontario NDP is stating the increase will be in the 74% range.
A move that is driving the remains of Ontario’s manufacturing base out of the province. Why would a manufacturer set up shop in Ontario, when they can do so in another province or country while having less power charges?
It seems that every move this provincial government makes is just another nail in the Ontario job market’s coffin.
Why Are Banking Executives In London Killing Themselves?
by Michael Snyder
Activist Post
Jan 29, 2014
Bankers committing suicide by jumping from the rooftops of their own banks is something that we think of when we think of the Great Depression. Well, it just happened in London, England. A vice president at JPMorgan’s European headquarters in London plunged to his death after jumping from the top of the 33rd floor. He fell more than 500 feet, and it is being reported by an eyewitness that “there was quite a lot of blood“. This comes on the heels of news that a former Deutsche Bank executive was found hanged in his home in London on Sunday. So why is this happening?
Yes, the markets have gone down a little bit recently but they certainly have not crashed yet. Could there be more to these deaths than meets the eye? You never know. And as I will discuss below, there have been a lot of other really strange things happening around the world lately as well.
But before we get to any of that, let’s take a closer look at some of these banker deaths. The JPMorgan executive that jumped to his death on Tuesday was named Gabriel Magee. He was 39 years old, and his suicide has the city of London in shock…
A bank executive who died after jumping 500ft from the top of JP Morgan’s European headquarters in London this morning has been named as Gabriel Magee.
The American senior manager, 39, fell from the 33-story skyscraper and was found on the ninth floor roof, which surrounds the Canary Wharf skyscraper.
He was a vice president in the corporate and investment bank technology department having joined in 2004, moving to Britain from the United States in 2007.
What would cause a man in his prime working years who is making huge amounts of money to do something like that?
The death on Sunday of former Deutsche Bank executive Bill Broeksmit is also a mystery.
According to the Daily Mail, police consider his death to be “non-suspicious”, which means that they believe that it was a suicide and not a murder…
A former Deutsche Bank executive has been found dead at a house in London, it emerged today.
The body of William ‘Bill’ Broeksmit, 58, was discovered at his home in South Kensington on Sunday shortly after midday by police, who had been called to reports of a man found hanging at a house.
Mr Broeksmit – who retired last February – was a former senior manager with close ties to co-chief executive Anshu Jain. Metropolitan Police officers said his death was declared as non-suspicious.
On top of that, Business Insider is reporting that a communications director at another bank in London was found dead last week…
Last week, a U.K.-based communications director at Swiss Re AG died last week. The cause of death has not been made public.
Perhaps it is just a coincidence that these deaths have all come so close to one another. After all, people die all the time.
And London is rather dreary this time of the year. It is easy for people to get depressed if they are not accustomed to endless gloomy weather.
If the stock market was already crashing, it would be easy to blame the suicides on that. The world certainly remembers what happened during the crash of 1929…
Historically, bankers have been stereotyped as the most likely to commit suicide. This has a lot to do with the famous 1929 stock market crash, which resulted in 1,616 banks failing and more than 20,000 businesses going bankrupt. The number of bankers committing suicide directly after the crash is thought to have been only around 20, with another 100 people connected to the financial industry dying at their own hand within the year.
But the market isn’t crashing just yet. We definitely appear to be at a “turning point“, but things are still at least somewhat stable.
So why are bankers killing themselves?
That is a good question.
As I mentioned above, there have also been quite a few other strange things that have happened lately that seem to be “out of place”.
For example, Matt Drudge of the Drudge Report posted the following cryptic message on Twitter the other day…
What in the world does he mean by that?
Maybe that is just a case of Drudge being Drudge.
Then again, maybe not.
And on Tuesday we learned that a prominent Russian Bank has banned all cash withdrawals until next week…
Bloomberg reports that ‘My Bank’ – one of Russia’s top 200 lenders by assets – has introduced a complete ban on cash withdrawals until next week. While the Ruble has been losing ground rapidly recently, we suspect few have been expecting bank runs in Russia.
Yes, we have heard some reports of people having difficulty getting money out of their banks around the world lately, but this news out of Russia really surprised me.
Yet another story that seemed rather odd was a report in the Wall Street Journal earlier this week that stated that Germany’s central bank is advocating “a one-time wealth tax” for European nations that need a bailout…
Germany’s central bank Monday proposed a one-time wealth tax as an option for euro-zone countries facing bankruptcy, reviving a idea that has circled for years in Europe but has so far gained little traction.
Why would they be suggesting such a thing if “economic recovery” was just around the corner?
According to that same article, the IMF has recommended a similar thing…
The International Monetary Fund in October also floated the idea of a one-time “capital levy,” amid a sharp deterioration of public finances in many countries. A 10% tax would bring the debt levels of a sample of 15 euro-zone member countries back to pre-crisis levels of 2007, the IMF said.
So what does all of this mean?
I am not exactly sure, but I have got a bad feeling about this – especially considering the financial chaos that we are witnessing in emerging markets all over the globe right now.
So what do you think? Please feel free to share your thoughts by posting a comment below…
This article first appeared here at the Economic Collapse Blog. Michael Snyder is a writer, speaker and activist who writes and edits his own blogs The American Dream and Economic Collapse Blog. Follow him on Twitter here.
NAFTA and the Next Phase of North American Integration
BE YOUR OWN LEADER
Jan 27, 2014
By Dana Gabriel
In preparation for the upcoming North American Leaders Summit which will be held in Toluca, Mexico on February 19, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry recently held a meeting with his Canadian and Mexican counterparts. Over the last number of years, not as much attention has been given to the trilateral relationship. Instead, the U.S. has essentially pursued a dual-bilateral approach with both Canada and Mexico on key issues including border and continental perimeter security, as well as regulatory and energy cooperation. On the heels of its 20th anniversary, there once again appears to be renewed interest in broadening and deepening the NAFTA partnership as part of the next phase of North American integration.
On January 17, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry hosted the North American Ministerial with Canadian Foreign Minister John Baird and Mexican Foreign Secretary Jose Antonio Meade. The discussions centered around topics such as regulatory, energy and trade relations, along with border infrastructure and management. The meeting was used to lay the groundwork for next month’s North American Leaders Summit which will include the participation of U.S. President Barack Obama, Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper and Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto. During a press conference, a reporter asked about reopening NAFTA in order to update it. Secretary Kerry answered, “the TPP, is a very critical component of sort of moving to the next tier, post-NAFTA. So I don’t think you have to open up NAFTA, per se, in order to achieve what we’re trying to achieve.” Minister Baird added, “we believe that NAFTA’s been an unqualified success, the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade negotiations, which all three of us are in, offer us the opportunity to strengthen the trilateral partnership.” Secretary Meade also chimed in, “We do not think it is necessary to reopen NAFTA, but we think we have to build on it to construct and revitalize the idea of a dynamic North America.”
In December 2013, the Miami Herald reported that the Obama administration, “is exploring a regional trade plan for the Americas that would be the most ambitious hemispheric initiative in years.” It went on to say that Secretary of State John Kerry, “would like to first seek an agreement to deepen the existing North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) with Mexico and Canada, and to expand it afterward to the rest of Latin America.” According to some of Kerry’s top aides, “the plan to relaunch NAFTA could come as early as February, when President Barack Obama is scheduled to meet with his Mexican and Canadian counterparts at a North American Leaders’ Summit in Mexico.” The recent article, U.S. lays out goals for NAFTA cautioned that, “the shared goal of a NAFTA 2.0 that wins fresh, sustainable gains for Canada, Mexico and the U.S., the Americans warn, is unlikely to come in a single, dramatic and easily digestible sound byte.” It further noted that, “Instead, the Americans are urging a more realistic approach aimed at reviving trilateral momentum, with a dogged diplomatic effort that aggressively fine-tunes, streamlines and expands the trade pact.”
Last year, business leaders from across North America released a set of policy recommendations designed to increase continental economic integration and competitiveness. In a letter issued to President Barack Obama, Prime Minister Stephen Harper and President Enrique Pena Nieto, the Business Roundtable, the Canadian Council of Chief Executives and the Consejo Mexicano de Hombres de Negocios called for greater trilateral government action in the areas of intelligent border systems, regulatory standards and practices, as well as North American energy security and sustainability. The business organizations explained that, “More can and should be done to promote regulatory cooperation between our three countries, to facilitate the legitimate movement of people, goods and services.” They emphasized that the time to act was now and that their specific proposals would, “help deepen our economic ties, strengthen the international competitiveness of Canadian, Mexican, and U.S. companies and their workers, and realize North American energy self-reliance.” Their goal is to create a seamless North American market.
VIDEO — Bursting Bubbles – Dan Dicks interviews Peter Schiff
Press For Truth
Jan 28, 2014
While attending the Resource Investment Conference in Vancouver Dan Dicks of Press For Truth interviewed Peter Schiff of Euro Pacific about the Canadian housing bubble as well as the current state of the US economy and how it may effect Canadians in the very near future!
Support Press For Truth and help us to continue by contributing at https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr…
Banks Remain Cautious, Washington Pot Entrepreneurs Turn To Cash, Bitcoin
Credit Flickr Photo/401(K) 2012
Marijuana business owners say they frequently lose their bank accounts or operate entirely with cash.
by Amy Radil
KUOW News and Information
Jan 27, 2014
Attorney General Eric Holder recently said that legal marijuana businesses need access to bank accounts as a public safety issue. Bankers and pot entrepreneurs hailed those comments as an important step. But they said it will take a change in federal law to make banks truly open their doors.
Although recreational marijuana has been legal in Washington for more than a year, federal law still prohibits banks from dealing with those businesses. Holder said he’s working with the Treasury Department to try to facilitate access to bank accounts.
A Justice Department spokesman said the changes may not take the form of a change in law or new regulations, but instead as “guidance” for prosecutors and law enforcement. Jim Pishue, president of the Washington Bankers Association, said it’s not clear how much protection the new federal guidance will provide banks.
“It depends, I think, on two things,” Pishue said. “One is how strong the guidance is, and the second is, banks will then have to decide individually whether they feel the guidance provides them enough safe harbor for them to enter into banking this business.”
This month the New York Times wrote a front-page feature on marijuana business owners in Seattle paying state taxes with mountains of cash.
[…CONTINUE READING THIS ARTICLE]
[h/t: ActivistPost]
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