It’s almost perverse to suggest that there’s a silver lining to the COVID-19 pandemic, but one thing that there has been is a fundamental change for businesses, employees and entrepreneurs: with people working from home, and from decentralized workplaces of all kinds, geography suddenly doesn’t play as much of a role in where you have to be to do your job.
If you’re working at a computer terminal in Toronto, you can just as easily be working at a home office in Renews, N.L. — or in Margaree Forks, Cape Breton, or Morell, P.E.I.
There is, however, one important caveat: just the way you need basic infrastructure like electricity, drinking water and some sort of physical location, in the wired world, you absolutely, positively have to be wired.
Fully wired: effectively wired. In other words, you have to have the kind of internet service that allows for you to productively download, work on and share information worldwide, without service bottlenecks that make anything from data transfer to effective video conferencing untenable.
For years, there has been a steady and regular stream of news releases on internet broadband improvements in this region, both from internet suppliers and from provincial governments who are supplying seed money. The federal government has also promised highspeed internet for 98 per cent of Canadians by 2026, and all Canadians by 2030.
But despite all those regular missives, that effort often seems to be patchwork and incomplete, with long lead-times stretching years out into the future.
As a SaltWire Network business story pointed out earlier this week, right across the Atlantic provinces, there are areas where internet services are still painful slow — and a clear disincentive to decentralized business growth in the modern world.
It would be a terrible irony if the Atlantic region became a beacon of the possibilities of having safe, COVID-free dispersed workforces during a pandemic, but, outside of well-served (and more profitable to internet giants) urban areas, those same possibilities were dashed by poor or spotty internet service.
Consider this, from the story: “Recent data from the Canadian Internet Registration Authority brings into focus the gap that still exists between urban and rural areas when it comes to internet speeds. In August, CIRA reported that median download speeds for Canadians in rural communities for the month of July were roughly 10 times slower than in urban settings. Furthermore, from March to July, download speeds for urban internet users increased on average by 25 megabytes per second. At the same time, rural internet speeds stayed put.”
To put it in old-time Hollywood terms, when the big players come looking, we have to be ready for our close-up.
FREDERICTON – New Brunswick‘s finance minister says the province recorded a surplus of $500.8 million for the fiscal year that ended in March.
Ernie Steeves says the amount — more than 10 times higher than the province’s original $40.3-million budget projection for the 2023-24 fiscal year — was largely the result of a strong economy and population growth.
The report of a big surplus comes as the province prepares for an election campaign, which will officially start on Thursday and end with a vote on Oct. 21.
Steeves says growth of the surplus was fed by revenue from the Harmonized Sales Tax and federal money, especially for health-care funding.
Progressive Conservative Premier Blaine Higgs has promised to reduce the HST by two percentage points to 13 per cent if the party is elected to govern next month.
Meanwhile, the province’s net debt, according to the audited consolidated financial statements, has dropped from $12.3 billion in 2022-23 to $11.8 billion in the most recent fiscal year.
Liberal critic René Legacy says having a stronger balance sheet does not eliminate issues in health care, housing and education.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 16, 2024.
OTTAWA – Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland says the government is making some changes to mortgage rules to help more Canadians to purchase their first home.
She says the changes will come into force in December and better reflect the housing market.
The price cap for insured mortgages will be boosted for the first time since 2012, moving to $1.5 million from $1 million, to allow more people to qualify for a mortgage with less than a 20 per cent down payment.
The government will also expand its 30-year mortgage amortization to include first-time homebuyers buying any type of home, as well as anybody buying a newly built home.
On Aug. 1 eligibility for the 30-year amortization was changed to include first-time buyers purchasing a newly-built home.
Justice Minister Arif Virani is also releasing drafts for a bill of rights for renters as well as one for homebuyers, both of which the government promised five months ago.
Virani says the government intends to work with provinces to prevent practices like renovictions, where landowners evict tenants and make minimal renovations and then seek higher rents.
The government touts today’s announced measures as the “boldest mortgage reforms in decades,” and it comes after a year of criticism over high housing costs.
The Liberals have been slumping in the polls for months, including among younger adults who say not being able to afford a house is one of their key concerns.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 16, 2024.
OTTAWA – Statistics Canada says manufacturing sales rose 1.4 per cent to $71 billion in July, helped by higher sales in the petroleum and coal and chemical product subsectors.
The increase followed a 1.7 per cent decrease in June.
The agency says sales in the petroleum and coal product subsector gained 6.7 per cent to total $8.6 billion in July as most refineries sold more, helped by higher prices and demand.
Chemical product sales rose 5.3 per cent to $5.6 billion in July, boosted by increased sales of pharmaceutical and medicine products.
Sales of wood products fell 4.8 per cent for the month to $2.9 billion, the lowest level since May 2023.
In constant dollar terms, overall manufacturing sales rose 0.9 per cent in July.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 16, 2024.
