News
The latest on the coronavirus outbreak for March 2 – CBC.ca
- First of what may be multiple interest rate hikes in 2022 initiated by Bank of Canada.
- Nerve damage found in majority of long COVID participants in U.S. study.
- World roundup: WHO mobilizes aid for Ukraine, New Zealand police move in forcefully after 3 weeks of protests near Parliament.
- Explore: Pandemic legal docket: Ontario judge dismisses challenge by churches against COVID-19 rules, judge rules wife in separated couple can’t be compelled to vaccinate pre-teen kids…. CBC Ideas: ‘Liminal space’ photography captures pandemic isolation in public spaces.
Bank of Canada hikes key interest rate to 0.5%
The Bank of Canada raised its benchmark interest rate to 0.5 per cent on Wednesday, a move that’s expected to be the first of a series of small rate hikes this year in an attempt to tame inflation that has risen to its highest point in decades.
It’s the first time the bank has raised its rate since 2018, let alone during the pandemic. Before the pandemic, the bank’s rate was 1.75 per cent, before it quickly slashed the rate down to 0.25 per cent to help the economy.
The bank, which had telegraphed the move in recent weeks, cited a new report indicating that Canada’s economy grew at a 6.7 per cent annual pace in the last quarter of 2021.
“This is stronger than the bank’s projection and confirms its view that economic slack has been absorbed,” the bank said.
Investors think there could be as many as five more small rate hikes before the year 2022 is out.
Adam Brown with BDO Canada told CBC News in an interview that there’s “no need to panic” but Wednesday’s move shows that rates are finally going to start inching higher. “Clearly there’s more rate increases, and there’s potential [for them] to be faster than we expected,” he said.
The Bank of Canada’s rate affects the rates that Canadian consumers get on things like mortgages, lines of credit and savings accounts at their own banks. Lenders are already starting to move in reaction to the central bank’s hike, with Royal Bank raising its prime lending rate to 2.7 per cent starting Thursday, up from 2.45 per cent.
In the U.S., Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell said Wednesday that he supports a traditional quarter-point increase in the reserve’s benchmark short-term interest rate when the Fed meets later this month, rather than a larger increase that some of its policymakers have proposed.
Economists have forecast that the Fed will implement five to seven quarter-point hikes this year. This month’s increase would be the first since 2018.
“I think that this inflation is substantially higher than anything we’ve seen since I was in college 50 years ago,” he said in testimony to a House financial services committee. “This is strong, high inflation and it’s very important that we get on top of it, and that’s exactly what we’re going to do.”
Both the Bank of Canada and Powell cautioned that the economic consequences of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and the resulting sanctions by the U.S., Canada and Europe, could lead to additional price challenges in 2022.
From CBC News
The relaxing of COVID-19 restrictions is a big concern for some people who are immunocompromised or otherwise at high risk. 2:07
Nerve damage may explain some cases of long COVID, U.S. study suggests
A small study of patients suffering from persistent symptoms long after a bout of COVID-19 found that nearly 60 per cent had nerve damage possibly caused by a defective immune response, a finding that could point to new treatments, researchers have found.
The new U.S. study involved in-depth exams of 17 people with so-called long COVID, a condition that arises within three months of a COVID-19 infection and lasts at least two months.
“I think what’s going on here is that the nerves that control things like our breathing, blood vessels and our digestion in some cases are damaged in these long COVID patients,” said Dr. Anne Louise Oaklander, a neurologist at Massachusetts General Hospital and a lead author of the study published in the journal Neurology: Neuroimmunology & Neuroinflammation.
Oaklander and colleagues focused on patients with symptoms consistent with a type of nerve damage known as peripheral neuropathy. All but one had had mild cases of COVID-19, and none had nerve damage prior to their infections.
After ruling out other possible explanations for the patients’ complaints, the researchers ran a series of tests to identify whether the nerves were involved.
“We looked with every single major objective diagnostic test,” Oaklander said.
The vast majority had small fibre neuropathy, meaning damage to small nerve fibres that detect sensations and regulate involuntary bodily functions such as the cardiovascular system and breathing. Eleven of the 17 patients were treated with either steroids or intravenous immunoglobulin (IVIG), with some improving, although none were rid totally of their symptoms.
The findings are consistent with a July study by Dr. Rayaz Malik of Weill Cornell Medicine Qatar that found an association between nerve fibre damage in the cornea and a diagnosis of long COVID.
Meanwhile, a new pilot program spearheaded by the Winnipeg Regional Health Authority aims to help educate Manitobans with long COVID about symptoms and treatment and give them an opportunity to connect with each other.
“These are people that went from one health status one day to a completely different health status the next, and that’s terrifying,” said Dana Kliewer, a physiotherapist in the pulmonary rehabilitation program at Deer Lodge Centre.
The virtual sessions focus on topics such as fatigue management, breathing and the nervous system, brain fog after COVID-19, managing anxiety and guilt, and medications.
Initially the plan was to start the pilot program with a group of 10 people with long COVID, but the registration list now sits at more than 40, Kliewer said.
The World Health Organization has defined long COVID as a condition that arises within three months of a COVID-19 infection and lasts at least two months. Symptoms can include fatigue, rapid heartbeat, shortness of breath, cognitive difficulties, chronic pain, sensory abnormalities and muscle weakness.
World roundup: COVID-related developments in Ukraine, New Zealand and Hong Kong
A first shipment of medical aid for Ukraine will arrive in Poland on Thursday, the World Health Organization (WHO) said, as the UN agency warned of an escalating health crisis in the country following Russia’s invasion.
The delivery includes six tonnes of trauma care and emergency surgery supplies to help 150,000 people, but how to get them to Ukrainians in need remains unclear, WHO Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told a media briefing in Geneva on Wednesday.
The kits being sent to Ukraine include sutures and skin grafts, as well as equipment for amputations and other major trauma operations. WHO said it was also prioritizing COVID-19 therapeutics, including the new antiviral pills, to Ukraine over the last 72 hours to mitigate a potential surge.
While the COVID-19 case level is not of the highest priority in the country right now, and according to tracking appears substantially down from an Omicron variant peak a month ago, as of last week only about 35 per cent of the population is fully vaccinated.
In New Zealand, police in riot gear and sometimes using pepper spray retook control of the Parliament grounds in the capital Wellington after hundreds of protesters had amassed there over the past three weeks, demonstrating against coronavirus vaccine mandates. It was the most significant use of force yet by authorities against the protesters.
The operation began at dawn, when police started telling people over loudspeakers they were trespassing and needed to leave, while officers tore down tents in peripheral areas and a police helicopter circled overhead. Some protesters confronted police and used milk to try and clear their eyes from pepper spray, while others set fire to tents, mattresses and chairs.
Police also began towing some of the 300 or so cars, vans and trucks that protesters have used to block streets in the area. The convoy demonstration was inspired by similar protests in Canada and has sparked other protests around New Zealand.
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said she was “both angry and also deeply saddened” over the hostility police encountered in the operation. A group representing some of the protesters countered that the vast majority of demonstrators had been well-behaved and had chosen to camp as a last resort after other options for dialogue were quashed.
About 78 per cent of the eligible population is fully vaccinated.
In Hong Kong, chief executive Carrie Lam said on Wednesday that people’s movements may be restricted during mandatory testing this month of the entire population for the coronavirus, as health officials reported a record 55,353 daily infections and more than 100 deaths.
Lam said authorities are still refining the plan, but that there would be no “complete” lockdown that would prevent entry and exit from the city.
“The extent of it must take into account Hong Kong’s circumstances and people’s needs,” she told reporters.
Hong Kong is planning to test its more than seven million residents as it grapples with soaring numbers of COVID-19 cases in its worst outbreak of the pandemic, linked largely to the Omicron variant.
Officials on Wednesday reported 117 deaths, taking the total number above 1,000. About 80 per cent of the deaths have occurred since late December.
Most of the deaths involved elderly patients who were not fully vaccinated. In contrast to many parts of the world, the working-age population is much more vaccinated than seniors; before the recent testing blitz, less than half of those older than 80 in Hong Kong had been fully vaccinated.
Today’s graphic
Hospitalizations due to COVID-19 in B.C.
COVID-related hospitalization down 24% in the province from a week earlier
Find out more about COVID-19
For full coverage of how your province or territory is responding to COVID-19, visit your local CBC News site.
To get this newsletter daily as an email, subscribe here.
See the answers to COVID-19 questions asked by CBC viewers and readers.
Still looking for more information on the pandemic? Reach out to us at covid@cbc.ca if you have any questions.
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.
Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland unveiled the government’s 2024 federal budget, with spending targeted at young voters and a plan to raise capital gains taxes for some of the wealthiest Canadians.
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.
Some business groups are worried that new capital gains tax changes could hurt economic growth. But according to Small Business Minister Rechie Valdez, most Canadians won’t be impacted by that change — and it’s a move to create fairness.
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?
Tuesday’s federal budget includes nearly $53 billion in new spending over the next five years with a clear focus on affordability and housing. To help pay for some of that new spending, Ottawa is proposing a hike to the capital gains tax. Moshe Lander, an economics lecturer at Concordia University, joins host Jeff Douglas to explain.
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?'”
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.
NHL Playoffs 2024: Picks for every first-round series, predicting the Stanley Cup winner – CBS Sports
BWXT announces $80M investment for plant in Cambridge – CityNews Kitchener
Bobby Kennedy And The Ownership Economy – Forbes
Silver investment demand jumped 12% in 2019
12 Bizarre Things People Did Just To Make Social Media Content
Global Media Markets, 2015-2020, 2020-2025F, 2030F – TV and Radio Broadcasting, Film and Music, Information Services, Web Content, Search Portals And Social Media, Print Media, & Cable – GlobeNewswire
-
Media17 hours ago
DJT Stock Rises. Trump Media CEO Alleges Potential Market Manipulation. – Barron's
-
Media19 hours ago
Trump Media alerts Nasdaq to potential market manipulation from 'naked' short selling of DJT stock – CNBC
-
Investment18 hours agoPrivate equity gears up for potential National Football League investments – Financial Times
-
Sports22 hours ago
2024 Stanley Cup Playoffs 1st-round schedule – NHL.com
-
News16 hours ago
Canada Child Benefit payment on Friday | CTV News – CTV News Toronto
-
Real eState10 hours ago
Botched home sale costs Winnipeg man his right to sell real estate in Manitoba – CBC.ca
-
Business18 hours ago
Gas prices see 'largest single-day jump since early 2022': En-Pro International – Yahoo Canada Finance
-
Art21 hours ago
Enter the uncanny valley: New exhibition mixes AI and art photography – Euronews
