Workers with the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) have voted overwhelmingly in favour of taking strike action, should a strike be determined necessary, after a two-month-long voting process.
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Canada Revenue Agency workers vote in favour of taking strike action
The union and the CRA previously agreed to resume negotiations with talks scheduled for April 17-20
The deadline for members to submit their votes was noon on Friday.
“We’re getting a strong strike mandate and it was fully expected, so I’m happy to see that our members have supported their bargaining team and our union,” said UTE National President Marc Brière in an interview with this newspaper. “It’s getting more expensive out there and people are having a hard time, and they have obligations to meet and they deserve to have a contract.”
PSAC and UTE launched nationwide strike votes for over 35,000 workers at the CRA in January after talks broke down with the government over wages and remote work, with the union declaring an impasse last September after eight months of negotiations. Union members, according to Brière, have been without a contract for almost a year and a half.
Tax collectors and auditors used to work alongside border services workers inside the Canada Customs and Revenue Agency, but that agency was split into two separate agencies in 2003.
Since then, Brière said in a previous interview with this newspaper, CBSA employees enforcing the Excise Act have opened a nine per cent wage gap with CRA employees who administer the Income Tax Act.
The CRA has in the past rejected that job comparison.
“We’ve been at the bargaining table with CRA for a little over a year now and things in that year haven’t gone well,” said PSAC National President Chris Aylward in an interview, stating that the government has yet to put a wage offer on the table. “The workers at CRA have sent a powerful message to the employer that they’re ready to take a stand and show the government that we’re prepared to fight for a decent contract for workers.”
Aylward could not share the exact results of the vote for and against strike action, but noted that more than half of the 35,000 CRA members took part in the process.
Last week, it was announced that PSAC-UTE and the CRA agreed to resume negotiations with the assistance of a third-party mediator to reach a fair contract for workers, with talks scheduled for April 17-20. While PSAC-UTE had asked the CRA to resume negotiations as early as April 11, the agency wanted to meet with the assistance of a mediator, who was unavailable until the following week.
Brière said the union is still open to going back to the table earlier, noting that the strike vote announcement should serve as a notice to both the CRA and the Treasury Board, which dictates the CRA’s bargaining mandate.
The earliest CRA members could go on strike is next Friday, according to Aylward, 30 days after the signing of an essential services agreement. That means that a strike could technically begin before negotiations resume.
Brière said he will have a “watchful eye” on another set of negotiations between the Treasury Board and PSAC that will continue to take place next week, as he said they will likely provide insights on how negotiations will go with CRA members. Strike votes for over 120,000 Treasury Board members end on April 11.
“If (negotiations) go really badly, nothing’s preventing us from going out on the Friday,” he said. “It’s possible but right now, it’s far from being sure, we’re looking to go back to the table.”
The agency is confident both sides can find “many areas of potential compromise and trade-off, requiring honest discussions and concessions by both sides.”
The deadline for most Canadians to file their taxes is on April 30. Aylward said going on strike is not the union’s first choice, though they will be leveraging the time of year in hopes of coming to an agreement with the federal government.
“We’re on the verge of having an unprecedented number of people with a strike mandate at the same time, especially during the tax season,” Brière said. “If they don’t want to deal with these issues and aren’t willing to work with us to hammer out a deal then we’re going to have to flex our muscles.”
With files from Andrew Duffy
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As sports betting addiction takes hold in Brazil, the government moves to crack down
SAO PAULO (AP) — “King” doesn’t disclose his real name. Even clients of his Sao Paulo newsstand have to call him by his moniker. The Brazilian online sports gambling addict lowered his profile after a loan shark threatened to put bullets in his head if he didn’t pay up.
Broke and embarrassed, King sought treatment and support earlier this year.
“I was once addicted to slot machines, but then sports betting was so easy that I changed. I got carried away all the time,” he told The Associated Press.
King’s story is that of many vulnerable Brazilians in recent years. The country has become the third-biggest market in the world for sports betting, following the U.S. and the U.K., a report by data analysis company Comscore said last year. But unlike those countries, rampant advertising and sponsorship have been coupled with an unregulated market. The government is now — belatedly, some say — striving to get a handle on the epidemic.
On a recent evening, King’s Gamblers Anonymous meeting took place in an improvised classroom inside a church, with coffee and cookies to keep everyone awake, and supportive messages scrawled onto the blackboard. One that’s become ubiquitous in Brazil and beyond: “Only for today I will avoid the first bet.”
King and other attendees, all Christian, started a prayer and the meeting began.
King said his financial problems arose from his addiction to online sports betting, chiefly on soccer.
“I miss the adrenaline rush when I don’t bet,” he said before the gathering. “I have managed to stop for a couple of months, but I know that if I do it once again, even a small bet, it will all come back.”
Driven by the pandemic
The COVID-19 pandemic was a key driver for Brazilians embracing sports betting. King said he transformed almost every sale during that time into a bet. His hook was the non-stop advertising on TV, radio, social media as well as sponsorship of local soccer teams’ jerseys. He asked for bank loans to pay his gambling debts and then, to cover those, went to the moneylender. His total debt now amounts to 85,000 reais ($15,000) — impossible to pay off with his monthly income of 8,000 reais.
Digging oneself out of debt in Brazil is especially daunting with its sky-high interest rates. Loans from Brazilian banks could add interest of almost 8% per month to the borrowed sum, and from loan sharks could be even more.
Four Gamblers Anonymous meetings attended by the AP in October featured discussions about difficulties paying down debts, forcing working-class members to postpone housing payments and cancel family vacations.
Some members of impoverished Brazilian families have used welfare money for betting instead of paying for groceries and housing, official data suggests. In August, beneficiaries of Brazil’s flagship program Bolsa Familia spent 3 billion reais ($530 million) on sports betting, according to a report from the central bank. That was more than 20% of the program’s total outlay in the month.
A host of gambling related problems
Sports betting was made legal in 2018 in a bill signed by former President Michel Temer. The subsequent turmoil has recently been setting off alarm bells, with addicts venting on social media and media reports of people losing huge sums.
On Oct. 1, the economy ministry prevented more than 2,000 betting companies from operating in Brazil for having failed to provide all the required documents. Soccer-loving President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva said in an interview on Oct. 17 that he will shut down the entire market in Brazil if his administration’s new regulations — presented at the end of July— fail to work. And Brazil’s Senate on Oct. 25 opened an investigation into betting companies, focusing on crime and addiction.
“There’s tax evasion, money laundering of organized crime, the use of influencers to trick people into betting. These companies need to be audited,” Sen. Soraya Thronicke, who proposed the inquiry, told journalists in Brasilia.
Sérgio Peixoto, a ride-sharing app driver in Rio, is one of many lower-middle-income Brazilians who have reduced their spending due to sports betting debt. Peixoto’s debt currently amounts to 25,000 reais ($4,400). His monthly income is four times less than that.
“It stopped being a game, it wasn’t fun. I just wanted to get the money back, so I lost even more,” said Peixoto, 26. “I could have invested that money. It would surely have given me more benefits.
Pressure to bet
Pressure on people to gamble is everywhere. Current and former soccer players, including Vinicius Júnior, Ronaldo Nazário and Roberto Rivellino, are among the poster boys for local and foreign brands. All but one of the top-tier soccer clubs have betting companies among their main sponsors, with their name and logo emblazoned on their kits. There have been cases of kids and teenagers setting up accounts using their parents’ personal information and money, multiple local media outlets have reported.
Brazil’s economy ministry estimates that Brazil’s sports betting market had $21 billion in transactions last year, a 71% increase compared with the first year of the pandemic, 2020.
The ministry’s newly presented regulations include facial recognition systems for gamblers to bet, the identification of a single bank account for transactions involving sports betting, new protections against hackers and the government-authorized domain, bet.br, which will host all betting sites that are legal in Brazil. Once they are in place, come January, between 100 and 150 betting companies will continue to operate in the South American nation.
The changes in Brazil have prompted some companies to take preemptive action. A report by Yield Sec, a technical intelligence platform for online marketplaces, said several betting companies voluntarily restricted their operations in different places after the latest editions of the European Championships and Copa America in the hopes of presenting “the best possible license application face to the Brazilian authorities.”
Magnho José Santos de Sousa, the president of the Legal Gambling Institute, a betting think tank, said Brazil is currently “invaded by illegal websites that have licenses in Malta, Curação, Gibraltar and the United Kingdom.”
De Sousa expressed hope that the new regulations for advertising, responsible gambling and qualification of sports betting companies will transform the country’s deregulated arena into a more serious one that doesn’t exploit the vulnerable.
“The whole operation could turn from water into wine,” he said.
Gamblers Anonymous in high demand
Meantime, the demand for Gamblers Anonymous meetings in Sao Paulo has grown so much in recent years that the weekly gathering, in place since the 1990s, was no longer enough. Many groups have added a second day in the week to help new people recover, mostly sports bettors.
Earlier in October, a group on Sao Paulo’s northern edge admitted a man who was struggling with sports betting and card games. The 13 other people in the room stressed that he wasn’t alone.
“Welcome,” one long-time attendee said, in a greeting that has become a regular for the group. “Today, you are the most important person here.”
___
Dumphreys reported from Rio de Janeiro.
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Saskatchewan’s Jason Ackerman improves to 6-0 at mixed curling nationals
SAINT CATHARINES, Ont. – Saskatchewan’s Jason Ackerman remained undefeated on Wednesday with a 7-4 win over Newfoundland and Labrador’s Trent Skanes at the Canadian mixed curling championship.
After going down 3-1 through four ends, Ackerman (6-0) outscored Skanes (3-3) 6-1 the rest of the way, including three points in the seventh end.
Alberta’s Kurt Alan Balderston also earned a win, defeating New Brunswick’s Charlie Sullivan 9-2 in another matchup in the final draw.
The win improved Balderston’s record to 4-2 and sits in third in Pool B.
The top four teams from each pool will play four more games against the survivors from the other pool. The remaining three teams from the pool will play three more seeding games to help set the rankings for next year’s event.
The championship final is scheduled for Saturday.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 6, 2024.
The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.
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Oilers fall 4-2 to Golden Knights in McDavid’s return from injury
EDMONTON – Noah Hanifin had a pair of goals as the Vegas Golden Knights won their first road game of the season, coming from behind to shock the Edmonton Oilers 4-2 on Wednesday.
Jack Eichel had a goal and two assists and Mark Stone also scored for the Golden Knights (9-3-1), who have won two in a row and six of their last seven. The Knights entered the game 0-3-1 on the road this year.
Brett Kulak and Zach Hyman replied for the Oilers (6-7-1), who have lost two straight despite getting captain Connor McDavid back from injury earlier than expected for the game.
Adin Hill made 27 saves for Vegas, while Stuart Skinner managed 31 stops for Edmonton.
Takeaways
Golden Knights: With an assist on the Knights’ second goal, William Karlsson has recorded at least a point in all five games he has played this season (two goals, four assists).
Oilers: McDavid was a surprise starter for the Oilers, coming back just nine days after suffering an ankle injury in Columbus and initially being expected to miss two to three weeks. The star forward came into the contest with 11 points (three goals, eight assists) during a six-game point streak versus the Golden Knights, but was held pointless on the night.
Key moment
With just 48.4 seconds left to play, the Golden Knights won a race to the corner and Ivan Barbashev was able to send it out to a hard-charging Hanifin, who sent a shot glove-side that beat Skinner for his second goal of the third period and third of the season.
Key stat
It was Hyman’s third goal in the last four games after the veteran forward went scoreless in his first 10 games this season following a 54-goal campaign last year. Hyman now has five goals in his last six games against Vegas.
Up next
Golden Knights: Head to Seattle to face the Kraken on Friday.
Oilers: Travel to Vancouver on a quick one-game trip to clash with the Canucks on Saturday.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 6, 2024.
The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.
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