10
highlights of the federal budget
Here are 10 highlights from the 2014 federal budget
released in the middle of last month:
By: Bruce Campion-Smith, Ottawa Bureau,
Toronto Star - Published on Tue Feb. 11, 2014
· $1.5 billion over 10 years to support
research and innovation at post-secondary institutions in areas that “create
long-term economic advantages for Canada.”
· $305 million over five years to expand and
upgrade broadband service in rural and northern areas. The investment is
expected to bring better service to 280,000 households.
· $323.4 million over two years to continue to
improve First Nations water and wastewater.
· $25 million over five years to continue
efforts to reduce violence against aboriginal woman and girls.
· boosting the adoption expense tax credit to
$15,000 to recognize the costs of adopting a child. The new limit, up from
$11,774, would apply to adoptions finalized after 2013.
· A tax credit for search and rescue volunteers
who perform at least 200 hours of service a year.
· After a year that saw major floods in Alberta
and the Greater Toronto area, Ottawa is pledging to explore options for
residential flood insurance. “Canada is the only G8 country without residential
flood insurance coverage,” the budget said.
· A hike in the excise duty on tobacco products
will add at least $4 to a carton of 200 cigarettes. The higher tax will pump
$685 million into the federal coffers in 2014-15. As well, Ottawa has earmarked
$91.7 million over five years to enhance the RCMP’s ability to combat
contraband tobacco.
· $11.4 million over four years to expand
vocational training for people with autism spectrum disorders.
· $44.9 million over five years to combat
prescription drug abuse, including a campaign to educate Canadians on the safe
use, storage and disposal of prescription drugs.
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Some highlights from
Finance Minister Jim Flaherty's 2014 federal budget
By The Canadian Press
– 12 Feb 2014
OTTAWA - Some highlights
of the federal budget delivered Tuesday by Finance Minister Jim Flaherty:
— The budget is close to
balance, with a $2.9-billion deficit and a $3-billion contingency fund.
— Flaherty forecasts
revenues of $276.3 billion and expenditures of $279.2 billion.
— The government makes
clear it will balance the budget next year by cutting program spending and
reining in public service compensation costs.
— The budget proposes to
make retired federal public servants pay half the costs of their health-care plan,
up from a quarter now. This would raise annual payments for a retired
individual to $550 from $261.
— Adopting families will
get a bigger tax break for expenses.
— Higher excise taxes on
tobacco will raise the price of a carton of 200 cigarettes by $4 and
essentially end the discount on smokes sold at duty-free stores, by raising
taxes there by $6 a carton. The increase will reap government $685 million in
2014-15.
— Excise taxes on tobacco
will be tied to the Consumer Price Index and automatically adjusted every five
years.
— The government plans to
bring in legislation to deal with unjustified cross-border price discrimination
that sees Canadians pay more for goods.
— Charities will be allowed
to use computers to run their lotteries, offering major administrative savings.
— World-class amateur
athletes will get a break when it comes to calculating their available RRSP
room.
— Search and rescue
volunteers will get a tax credit similar to the one extended to volunteer
firefighters in 2011.
— Taxpayers will no longer have to apply for a GST-HST credit on their
tax return. The Canada Revenue Agency will make the calculation automatically.
=================
http://ca.news.yahoo.com/video/whoknew-unusual-currency-060000640.html
Grandparents are always telling kids to save every
penny. But it also appears kids should think about saving their nutmeg, too.
That’s because nutmeg has been used as a valuable currency throughout history.
Besides flavoring food, many people used the spice as a medicine to treat
everything from upset stomachs to the bubonic plague. During the 1400s, a pound
of nutmeg could be traded for seven oxen in Germany. Later, in the 1600s, the
Dutch and British went to war over control of Indonesia, because at the time
that was the only place where nutmeg was grown. The British eventually gave the
Dutch their land in Indonesia in exchange for an island on the other side of
the world: Manhattan.Cheese can be as valuable as spices. Since 1953, the
Credito Emiliano Bank in Italy has accepted wheels of Parmesan as collateral
for loans. The bank’s vaults can hold around 440,000 wheels of cheese, each
weighing about 80 pounds, and worth about $400. That means the vault can hold around
$180 million worth of cheese. Not all unusual currencies are edible. In ancient
China, the shells from cowries, a type of sea snail, were used as money because
they were easy to carry but difficult to forge, and therefore hard to
counterfeit. And the 21st Century has seen the rise of electronic currencies,
such as Bitcoin, which can only be bought, sold, and stored online. Electronic
currencies can be used worldwide without the exchange rate fees or credit card
fees that accompany traditional money. Several companies, such as Overstock.com
and blogging platform Wordpress, now accept Bitcoin as payment. So maybe soon
we’ll be telling our grandkids to save their Bitcoins for a rainy day.
