Alberta Politics Thread v2

[CaptainCrunch]

Bankruptcies way up in Alberta


https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calga...-gas-1.4968432

[White Out 403]

Man. I don't know how were going to sell our house, but we're going to try.

[Lubicon]

Originally Posted by CaptainCrunch

Bankruptcies way up in Alberta


https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calga...-gas-1.4968432

This may be the tip of the iceberg. It's been a few years now and there is no end in sight to the energy crisis. People have run out of their severance packages, their EI is finished and their saving are now likely gone.

[Ozy_Flame]

Regarding bankruptcies: that article suggests it's not the mortgage debt that is causing bankruptcies, but unsecured debt (e.g. consumer debt). Alberta already had the highest rates of consumer debt in the country, so that, combined with a crap economy, makes this not a surprising scenario.

I can imagine there are still Albertans out there who's spending habits didn't change with the new economy and retained debt they couldn't manage. And as the recession wears on, the piper is more likely to come calling for those debts.

[OMG!WTF!]

Commercial property tax in Calgary will kill a bunch of businesses in 2019 too which will add to bankrupt claims. It's a huge failing of our current city council.

[Ozy_Flame]

I should mention stories like the $10,000 tax bill for a fried chicken franchise is what really worries me way more.

“All this is going to do is hollow out 17th Avenue southwest and hollow out Fourth Street. They are killing, just absolutely killing, businesses,” he said.

“Calgary is business unfriendly.”

According to a study released last fall by real estate research firm Altus Group, Calgary commercial property owners pay civic taxes roughly three times that of a similarly-valued residential property.

That really hits in the gut.

[Weitz]

I would think a revenue generating business would be paying more tax than someone who owns a home...

[OMG!WTF!]

Originally Posted by Weitz

I would think a revenue generating business would be paying more tax than someone who owns a home...

Should a revenue generating business be charged a commercial rate based on the highest and best use of the land it sits on? I'm sure the Popeye's on 17th ave SW would generate more money if it were a high rise building housing dozens of condos or offices. But it's not. But it's being taxed as if it were. That doesn't make sense. It would be like you paying property tax based on the most expensive property in your neighborhood.

[CaptainCrunch]

Originally Posted by White Out 403

Man. I don't know how were going to sell our house, but we're going to try.

There was an article that I saw when I read that one that showed home sales in Calgary were down about 15% and sliding. I assume that a lot of people are looking at selling their houses and are either going to take a loss to survive or sit on it and buckle in.

[White Out 403]

Originally Posted by CaptainCrunch

There was an article that I saw when I read that one that showed home sales in Calgary were down about 15% and sliding. I assume that a lot of people are looking at selling their houses and are either going to take a loss to survive or sit on it and buckle in.

We're upsizing to a larger home in the south from Skyview. So at the end of the day if we have to take a bath on our house it's not the end of the world cuz we'll just get a good deal down in the south.

We do have some good things going for us in that our house is more "complete" than others in the area, ie: basement, garage and deck. It's only 5 years old. Apparently 15 homes like ours didn't sell last year and went off market, and 29 did sell. So it's not a slam dunk but we're going to be willing to move on the price. It actually kept me up last night thinking about it. We don't have to move... we can be fine where we are but prefer the south for various reasons. But the uncertainty is awful.

[Weitz]

Depends on the area. We just bought a house and homes in our area we’re still selling as long as they were priced properly. It seemed many people had listed homes with the thinking I should get an X% bump just because without actually taking the market into consideration.

[White Out 403]

Originally Posted by Weitz

Depends on the area. We just bought a house and homes in our area we’re still selling as long as they were priced properly. It seemed many people had listed homes with the thinking I should get an X% bump just because without actually taking the market into consideration.

Yeah. a lot of big expensive homes in the city aren't moving. I feel awful for my Dad. He was going to sell 2 years ago after my Mom passed. He's in Tuscany it's a larger home that prob could have sold in the 500s. He's going to get murdered on his house now.

The realtor we're with said that if we stage well, price well, and can move we shouldn't have an issue. but I imagine that for some people moving away to a diff market where it isn't a buyers market that isn't an option.

I was reading on the Skyview FB page some people bought recently and owe more on the mortage than what they can sell their home for. What a nightmare.

[CliffFletcher]

Originally Posted by White Out 403

We're upsizing to a larger home in the south from Skyview. So at the end of the day if we have to take a bath on our house it's not the end of the world cuz we'll just get a good deal down in the south.

Selling when prices are falling when you're buying in the same market isn't necessarily a bad thing. If you're upsizing and both the home you're selling and the one you're buying drop in price by 10 per cent, the difference between the two has decreased and you're actually saving money.

The problem with selling in a market like this (we sold in 2011) is you get way more tire-kickers than you do in a strong market. We showed our place 30 times over 4 months before we had a buyer. Tough to keep your home spotless for months on end when you have a couple toddlers running around.

[Locke]

Originally Posted by OMG!WTF!

Commercial property tax in Calgary will kill a bunch of businesses in 2019 too which will add to bankrupt claims. It's a huge failing of our current city council.

Yeah, not looking forward to that. Businesses that are scraping by are going to get pushed over the cliff.

This is just kicking people when they're down.

[MoneyGuy]

It’s no surprise that bankrupties are up. People keep living it up in the good times thinking they’ll last forever. When things turn they’re in trouble. It happens all the time.

[redforever]

Originally Posted by Ozy_Flame

I should mention stories like the $10,000 tax bill for a fried chicken franchise is what really worries me way more.

“All this is going to do is hollow out 17th Avenue southwest and hollow out Fourth Street. They are killing, just absolutely killing, businesses,” he said.

“Calgary is business unfriendly.”

According to a study released last fall by real estate research firm Altus Group, Calgary commercial property owners pay civic taxes roughly three times that of a similarly-valued residential property.

That really hits in the gut.

That is $10,000 per month.

[redforever]

Originally Posted by GGG

He doesn’t deny that this funding is occurring. He saying Krauses conclusions of the motivation and affect of the money are incorrect.

So it’s not quite correct to say he thinks Krause is off the mark it’s more correct to say he believes that the funding uncovered is not the cause of today’s situation and that victim hood will not help move Alberta forward.

Apparently TIDES CANADA has been audited by the CRA but won't divulge what the results were.

The Tides Canada Foundation Exchange Fund is also referred to as an "international donation matching system." At the end of 2016, this fund was closed. According to Mark Blumberg, Tides Canada charged a 10 percent fee on funds that it processed via its "international donation matching system," i.e. $100,000 on a $1 million donation. The question is, why was the Exchange Fund closed? Why would Tides Canada Foundation close such a lucrative operation if it did not run afoul of the law?

Was Tides Canada required to close its Exchange Fund as part of a Compliance Agreement with the Canada Revenue Agency because the operation of this fund involved acting as a conduit to ineligible organizations? If so, why was the charitable status of Tides Canada Foundation NOT revoked - as it has been for more than 50 other charities who committed some of the same or similar violations of the Income Tax Act? These are fair questions.

In summary, given the influence of Tides-funded organizations as well as their close relationship with both Vancouver’s mayor and Gerald Butts, the Principal Secretary to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, it is not too much to ask Tides Canada to divulge the results of its audit by the CRA. If Tides Canada got an ‘all-clear’ from the CRA, Tides Canada should have no hesitation to say so – or, come clean.

https://nationalpost.com/news/politi...report-alleges

[Locke]

Originally Posted by MoneyGuy

It’s no surprise that bankrupties are up. People keep living it up in the good times thinking they’ll last forever. When things turn they’re in trouble. It happens all the time.

While true at its core, its not entirely genuine within the context of the current downturn.

I dont know many walks of life or careers that people can survive when their industry essentially grinds to a halt for 3+ years.

This economic downturn isnt something that individuals can realistically 'save their way out of.'

Who has 3-5 years of liquid capital available to them during their working years to just weather an economic storm of this magnitude?

You can say that people were careless, or frivolous and just spent too much and you'd be right, that is still accurate, but even if they had been staunchly prudent, and some have, its still unlikely anyone could have enough cash to just 'not work' for this long of a period of time.

At some point no degree of austerity is going to see people through a collapse of an industry like this.

[CaptainCrunch]

They'd have to sell 1000 meals a month just to pay that bill or 32 a day before they could even look at rent, utilities, supplies and salaries.

[CaptainCrunch]

Originally Posted by redforever

Apparently TIDES CANADA has been audited by the CRA but won't divulge what the results were.




https://nationalpost.com/news/politi...report-alleges

A look at Lead Now the group that ran a very effective Anti-Harper campaign in the last election and their funding including money from Tides US.


We talk about Russian interference in elections, but our friendly neighbours from the south spent a bunch of money in the last election.


https://fairquestions.typepad.com/re...-leadnow-.html

Initially, Leadnow had a policy that prohibited “international funding.” At some point before the spring of 2012, that policy was re-written, records show, and the ban on international funding was discontinued.


Leadnow has received funding from The Tides Foundation in San Francisco, both directly and indirectly through the Sisu Institute, based in Sointula B.C. Neither Leadnow nor Sisu will disclose exactly how much of Leadnow’s revenue it receives via Sisu and Tides. For 2015, The Sisu Institute reported total revenue of $1.7 million. Of that, roughly $1 million (nearly 60%) was from the U.S. via Tides in San Francisco. In 2016, Leadnow and the Sisu Institute received US$59,041 and US$201,848, respectively, from Tides.