News
As allies visit Ukraine's capital, Canada's absence is being noticed – CBC News
In the month since Russia’s retreat from Ukraine’s north, the capital Kyiv has seen a frenzy of high-profile visitors: 11 prime ministers, Austria’s chancellor, the U.S. secretaries of state and defence, its House speaker, the UN secretary-general — even Hollywood star Angelina Jolie.
Canada has not sent even a cabinet minister.
Ukraine has noticed.
“When you physically see a friend, an ally … present in the capital, that would mean a lot,” said Andriy Shevchenko, who was until recently Ukraine’s ambassador to Canada.
It’s not just the question of a visit.
Twenty seven nations have reopened diplomatic posts in Kyiv — but Canada’s embassy in Kyiv remains locked up, vacated prior to the start of the war.
“Canada was one of the first countries to move the embassy out. We do not want Canada to be the last one to return,” said Shevchenko.
Foreign Minister Mélanie Joly has said plans are in the works to reopen.
“We need to make sure the security situation on the ground allows for it,” her office said in a statement.
Others have moved faster. Poland and Georgia never left. Italy and The Netherlands reopened their mission, as did the United Kingdom.
Kyiv is “the right place to be,” Britain’s ambassador told The Guardian newspaper.
With the largest Ukrainian diaspora outside former Soviet states, Canada has claimed to be one of Kyiv’s biggest supporters, making the absence of a high profile visit and an open embassy all the more puzzling for some.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s office did not directly respond to a question about a possible visit, but said in a statement that he and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky “remain in frequent contact, in addition to regular contact across the federal government with their Ukrainian counterparts.”
Why a visit is important
Many VIP visits to Ukraine’s capital include stops north of the city where Russia left a trail of destruction in its aborted northern front.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres visited Bucha, scene of mass graves, and Irpin, a leafy suburb outside the capital where half the buildings were razed in Russia’s initial invasion.
At a joint news conference concluding that visit, Zelensky said leaders “have to be here and I am grateful to the secretary-general for coming to Kyiv.”
Bulgarian Prime Minister Kiril Petkov visited the smoldering ruins of Irpin, and told a CBC News crew it is imperative that world leaders visit because “it’s very different when you make public statements from the comfort of your office. It’s very different to see it first hand.”
Canada’s contributions to Ukraine
Since the outbreak of the latest chapter in nearly a decade of on-and-off conflict between Russia and Ukraine, the federal government has pledged support. That process went into overdrive after February’s invasion.
But some countries have been far more generous, relative to the size of their economies.
Poland, for instance, is approaching 1 per cent of its total GDP in contributions of both financial and military support.
Canada did not rank in the top 12 of donors in a tracker established by Kiel University in Germany at the end of March.
Since then, Canada has committed an additional $500 million in support.
The Biden Administration has requested an additional $33 billion US in aid for Ukraine, the majority for purchases or transfers of military equipment.
American and Canadian soldiers are training Ukrainian soldiers — outside Ukraine — on the use of sophisticated M777 howitzers, which have a range of 30 kilometres. When equipped with high precision Excalibur shells, they are accurate to within 10 meters.
“We greatly appreciate all the Canadian help, the weapons and the military training and the financial support,” said former ambassador Shevchenko.
Canada gave Ukraine four of these big guns. Australia, with a smaller population, offered six. The U.S. transferred 90.
European nations have also purchased or dispatched military equipment from their own stocks, though they are more at risk of Russian retaliation.
Many remain reliant on Russian gas to power their economies. Poland and Bulgaria were cut off last week. Others may follow. Canada, however, does not depend on Russian gas and, by virtue of its geography, is less vulnerable to Russia’s orbit.
News
Canada Child Benefit payment on Friday | CTV News – CTV News Toronto
More money will land in the pockets of Canadian families on Friday for the latest Canada Child Benefit (CCB) installment.
The federal government program helps low and middle-income families struggling with the soaring cost of raising a child.
Canadian citizens, permanent residents, or refugees who are the primary caregivers for children under 18 years old are eligible for the program, introduced in 2016.
The non-taxable monthly payments are based on a family’s net income and how many children they have. Families that have an adjusted net income under $34,863 will receive the maximum amount per child.
For a child under six years old, an applicant can annually receive up to $7,437 per child, and up to $6,275 per child for kids between the ages of six through 17.
That translates to up to $619.75 per month for the younger cohort and $522.91 per month for the older group.
The benefit is recalculated every July and most recently increased 6.3 per cent in order to adjust to the rate of inflation, and cost of living.
To apply, an applicant can submit through a child’s birth registration, complete an online form or mail in an application to a tax centre.
The next payment date will take place on May 17.
News
Capital gains tax change draws ire from some Canadian entrepreneurs worried it will worsen brain drain – CBC.ca
A chorus of Canadian entrepreneurs and investors is blasting the federal government’s budget for expanding a tax on the rich. They say it will lead to brain drain and further degrade Canada’s already poor productivity.
In the 2024 budget unveiled Tuesday, Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland said the government would increase the inclusion rate of the capital gains tax from 50 per cent to 67 per cent for businesses and trusts, generating an estimated $19 billion in new revenue.
Capital gains are the profits that individuals or businesses make from selling an asset — like a stock or a second home. Individuals are subject to the new changes on any profits over $250,000.
The government estimates that the changes would impact 40,000 individuals (or 0.13 per cent of Canadians in any given year) and 307,000 companies in Canada.
However, some members of the business community say that expanding the taxable amount will devastate productivity, investment and entrepreneurship in Canada, and might even compel some of the country’s talent and startups to take their business elsewhere.
Benjamin Bergen, president of the Council of Canadian Innovators (CCI), said the capital gains tax has overshadowed parts of the federal budget that the business community would otherwise be excited about.
“There were definitely some other stars in the budget that were interesting,” he said. “However, the … capital gains piece really is the sun, and it’s daylight. So this is really the only thing that innovators can see.”
The CCI has written and is circulating an open letter signed by more than 1,000 people in the Canadian business community to Trudeau’s government asking it to scrap the tax change.
Shopify CEO Tobi Lütke and president Harley Finkelstein also weighed in on the proposed hike on X, formerly known as Twitter.
We need to be doing everything we can to turn Canada into the best place for entrepreneurs to build 🇨🇦<br><br>What’s proposed in the federal budget will do the complete opposite. Innovators and entrepreneurs will suffer and their success will be penalized — this is not a wealth tax,…
—@harleyf
Former finance minister Bill Morneau said his successor’s budget disincentivizes businesses from investing in the country’s innovation sector: “It’s probably very troubling for many investors.”
Canada’s productivity — a measure that compares economic output to hours worked — has been relatively poor for decades. It underperforms against the OECD average and against several other G7 countries, including the U.S., Germany, U.K. and Japan, on the measure.
Bank of Canada senior deputy governor Carolyn Rogers sounded the alarm on Canada’s lagging productivity in a speech last month, saying the country’s need to increase the rate had reached emergency levels, following one of the weakest years for the economy in recent memory.
The government said it was proposing the tax change to make life more affordable for younger generations and fund efforts to boost housing supply — and that it would support productivity growth.
A challenge for investors, founders and workers
The change could have a chilling effect for several reasons, with companies already struggling to access funding in a high interest rate environment, said Bergen.
He questioned whether investors will want to fund Canadian companies if the government’s taxation policies make it difficult for those firms to grow — and whether founders might just pack up.
The expanded inclusion rate “is just one of the other potential concerns that firms are going to have as they’re looking to grow their companies.”
He said the rejigged tax is also an affront to high-skilled workers from low-innovation sectors who might have taken the risk of joining a startup for the opportunity, even taking a lower wage on the chance that a firm’s stock options grow in value.
But Lindsay Tedds, an associate economics professor at the University of Calgary, said the tax change is one of the most misunderstood parts of the federal budget — and that its impact on the country’s talent has been overstated.
“This is not a major innovation-biting tax change treatment,” Tedds said. “In fact, when you talk to real grassroots entrepreneurs that are setting up businesses, tax rates do not come into their decision.”
As for productivity, Tedds said Canadians might see improvements in the long run “to the degree that some of our productivity problems are driven by stresses like housing affordability, access to child care, things like that.”
‘One foot on the gas, one foot on the brake’
Some say the government is sending mixed messages to entrepreneurs by touting tailored tax breaks — like the Canada Entrepreneurs’ Incentive, which reduces the capital gains inclusion rate to 33 per cent on a lifetime maximum of $2 million — while introducing measures they say would dampen investment and innovation.
“They seem to have one foot on the gas, one foot on the brake on the very same file,” said Dan Kelly, president of the Canadian Federation of Independent Business.
A founder may be able to sell their successful company with a lower capital gains treatment than otherwise possible, he said.
“At the same time, though, big chunks of it may be subject to a higher rate of capital gains inclusion.”
Selling a company can fund an individual’s retirement, he said, which is why it’s one of the first things founders consider when they think about capital gains.
Mainstreet NS7:03Ottawa is proposing a hike to capital gains tax. What does that mean?
Dennis Darby, president and CEO of Canadian Manufacturers & Exporters, says he was disappointed by the change — and that it sends the wrong message to Canadian industries like his own.
He wants to see the government commit to more tax credit proposals like the Canada Carbon Rebate for Small Businesses, which he said would incentivize business owners to stay and help make Canada competitive with the U.S.
“We’ve had a lot of difficulties attracting investment over the years. I don’t think this will make it any better.”
Tech titan says change will only impact richest of the rich
Toronto tech entrepreneur Ali Asaria will be one of those subject to the expanded capital gains inclusion rate — but he says it’s only fair.
“It’s going to really affect the richest of the rich people,” Asaria, CEO of open source platform Transformer Lab and founder of well.ca, told CBC News.
“The capital gains exemption is probably the largest tax break that I’ve ever received in my life,” he said. “So I know a lot about what that benefit can look like, but I’ve also always felt like it was probably one of the most unfair parts of the tax code today.”
While Asaria said Canada needs to continue encouraging talent to take risks and build companies in the country, taxation policies aren’t the most major problem.
“I think that the biggest central issue to the reason why people will leave Canada is bigger issues, like housing,” he said.
“How do we make it easier to live in Canada so that we can all invest in ourselves and invest in our companies? That’s a more important question than, ‘How do we help the top 0.13 per cent of Canadians make more money?'”
News
Canada Child Benefit payment on Friday | CTV News – CTV News Toronto
More money will land in the pockets of Canadian families on Friday for the latest Canada Child Benefit (CCB) installment.
The federal government program helps low and middle-income families struggling with the soaring cost of raising a child.
Canadian citizens, permanent residents, or refugees who are the primary caregivers for children under 18 years old are eligible for the program, introduced in 2016.
The non-taxable monthly payments are based on a family’s net income and how many children they have. Families that have an adjusted net income under $34,863 will receive the maximum amount per child.
For a child under six years old, an applicant can annually receive up to $7,437 per child, and up to $6,275 per child for kids between the ages of six through 17.
That translates to up to $619.75 per month for the younger cohort and $522.91 per month for the older group.
The benefit is recalculated every July and most recently increased 6.3 per cent in order to adjust to the rate of inflation, and cost of living.
To apply, an applicant can submit through a child’s birth registration, complete an online form or mail in an application to a tax centre.
The next payment date will take place on May 17.
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