To the seasons of life
Sharon McIvor File Photo KDG
Mac D’s, have turned there iconic M upside down for todays international women’s day observance.
Photo: Sharon McIvor a lawyer successful in gaining status for aboriginal women who lost it through marriage and other causes addressed by bill C 31 of the Mulroney era.
This years IWD theme is The Time is Now.
On this Day: March 8th 1917 Women’s suffrage in Russia leads to international women’s day and its adoption by the UN in 1975.
The Nicola Naturalists are having their monthly meeting on Thursday March 15th at 7PM. The meeting is in the NVIT lecture theater, top of the hill on Belshaw avenue in Merritt and features Don Gayton with a presentation Fire Ecology in the Southern Interior.
Don is a well-known ecologist who has worked on the roles that fire (accidental and intentional) has played in shaping our environment over the past centuries. How did Indigenous people work with fire before the arrival of Europeans? Why was 2017 such a bad year for wildfires? Don has explanations for these and many other questions about wildfires in our area. Not to be missed.
On this Day: March 7th 2007
The British House of lords in parliament becomes 100 percent elected.
Welcome Washington state junior hockey players to Merritt. The team is here for two games of BCHL playoff hockey. The guests from Wenatchee have a two game lead in the best of 7 playoff over the local Merritt Centennials.
Game starts at 7PM at the Memorial Arena tonight. there is a game four on Wednesday here and game 5 in Merritt as well, if required on Friday.
1100 fans are expected to be out for the game tonight,15 percent of the population of Merritt BC
Cooking hamburgers, Merritt BCJHL
for hockey
File photo KDG
On this Day March 6th 1834
York becomes the incorporated city of Toronto.
Saturday will be the last day for the Form Figure Faces , February showing at the Court House Gallery in Merritt.
The Gallery will be open Saturday March 3rd noon -6 PM.
On this Day: March 2nd 1995
Yahoo is incorporated.
Pipe for oil field File:Photo KDG
The Trans Mountain Pipeline company is saying that the resource is blocked from the inside out. Referring to the Financial Post and writer Peter Tertzankian’s view on the economics of tar sand oil. ” 70 dollar oil is not peachy” “There are many Sears Canada in the oil patch.”
Too often, billions of dollars of taxes and royalties are unnecessarily forfeited to foreign interests. Despite the fact the Canadian oil and gas industry is setting the pace in carbon policy, environmental compliance, safety standards, Indigenous collaboration, innovation, transparency, corporate governance, social responsibility and business competitiveness too.
In our view market share is an unseen hand that can hinder or promote the sale of resources. Conservation and responsibility while not as attractive as unbridled prosperity, remains a virtue in a world that needs stability.
Remembering the Mackenzie Valley pipeline that was never built is probably the best benchmark against giving away our wealth. Everything in its time, or the destruction by greed which is better?
We liked Sears Canada. They were homey. As homey as Ethanol is to the Midwest of the US.
We like them better at 60 dollars a barrel.
On this Day: March 1st 1919
March 1st movement begins.
Federal Government works, file photo KDG
The 2018 budget was tabled yesterday and shows a deficit of 18.1 billion dollars. The document addresses a number of popular issues. The liberal government will present one more budget in their mandate.
Small Business Tax Rate
- Reduction of the small business tax rate to 10 per cent, effective January 1, 2018, and to 9 per cent, effective January 1, 2019.
Cannabis Taxation
- In December 2017, the federal government reached an agreement with most provincial and territorial governments to establish duties on cannabis as the higher of $1 per gram or 10 per cent of a product price, through a federally administrated coordinated framework.
- This tax room will be shared on a 75/25 basis, with 75 per cent of duties going to provincial and territorial governments and the remaining 25 per cent to the federal government. The federal portion of cannabis excise duty revenue will be capped at $100 million annually for the first two years after legalization.
- Any federal revenue in excess of $100 million will be provided to provinces and territories.
- As part of this arrangement, it is the federal government’s expectation that a substantial portion of the revenues from this tax room provided to provinces and territories will be transferred to municipalities and local communities who are on the front lines of legalization.
Housing:
Rental Construction Financing Initiative
- To encourage a stable supply of affordable rental housing across the country, the Government proposes increasing the amount of loans provided by the Rental Construction Financing Initiative from $2.5 billion to $3.75 billion over the next three years. This new funding is intended to support projects that address the needs of modest- and middle-income households struggling in expensive housing markets. In total, this measure alone is expected to spur the construction of more than 14,000 new rental units across Canada.
Beneficial Ownership
- To improve the availability of beneficial ownership information, the Government proposes to introduce enhanced income tax reporting requirements for certain trusts to provide additional information on an annual basis, applicable for the 2021 and later taxation years.
Community Safety:
Opioid Crisis
- Provide $231.4 million over five years, starting in 2018–19, for additional measures to help address the opioid crisis.
Cybercrime
- Provide $116.0 million over five years, and $23.2 million per year ongoing, to the RCMP to support the creation of the National Cybercrime Coordination Unit. The National Cybercrime Coordination Unit will create a coordination hub for cybercrime investigations in Canada and will work with international partners on cybercrime.
- Provide an additional $236.5 million over five years, and $41.2 million per year ongoing, to further support Canada’s new National Cyber Security Strategy.
Guns and Gangs
- Provide $327.6 million over five years, starting in 2018–19, and $100 million per year ongoing, to Public Safety Canada, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and the Canada Border Services Agency. This initiative will support community-level crime prevention and enforcement efforts, build and leverage unique federal expertise and resources to advance intelligence related to the illegal trafficking of firearms, and invest in border security to interdict illicit goods including guns and drugs.
Environment
Land, Water and Species Protection
- Contribute $500 million from the federal government to create a new $1 billion Nature Fund in partnership with corporate, not-for-profit, provincial, territorial and other partners. The Nature Fund will make it possible to secure private land, support provincial and territorial species protection efforts, and help build Indigenous capacity to conserve lands and species.
Indigenous Relations
Clean Drinking Water on Reserve
- Provide an additional $172.6 million over three years, beginning in 2018–19, to improve access to clean and safe drinking water on reserve. Program objective is to have all boil water advisories lifted by March 2021.
Infrastructure
Small Craft Harbours
- Provide $250 million on a cash basis over two years, starting in 2018–19, to Fisheries and Oceans Canada to renew its network of small craft harbours and work with local governments where investments and divestitures can enhance local communities.
Critical Infrastructure Security
- Provide Public Safety Canada with $1.4 million in 2018–19 to continue operations of the Regional Resilience Assessment Program and the Virtual Risk Analysis Cell. These programs support assessments of critical infrastructure facilities, such as energy grids, information and communication technology networks, and hospitals.
Other:
Gender Equity
- The Government will bring in a legislated proactive pay equity regime in federally regulated sectors, which would apply to approximately 1.2 million employed individuals.
- EI Parental Sharing Benefit where two parent families who agree to share parental leave could receive an additional five weeks of leave.
- The Canada Workers Benefit will allow low-income workers – many of whom are single parent women – to take home more money while they work.
- Source UBCM
The targeted Child Tax benefit was the remedy for Child Care after a universal plan died on the order paper in the senate when an election was called years ago. Licenced spaces are always a concern .The most progressive thing in the budget in our view is the water on Indian reserves. Perhaps it would inspire some of the people served to take up the challenge of clean potable water to the third world.
The 10 percent small business tax is progressive as well hopefully it will inspire some more payroll withholding taxes from more employees.
There is also of note something over 1 and half billon for preservation of waterways and nature.
On this Day: February 28th 1953
The chemical structure of DNA is discovered.
The Glass Castle: March 12th will see the last of the seasons films presented by the Nicola Valley Film Society. Glass Castle will show at 7 PM in the lecture theater, season ticket holders come early to make seating sure.
The Nicola Valley Film society a not for profit, registered society is concluding its 10th year of showing TIFF films in Merritt BC. Cathy Star president.
Free Parking, 5 dollar admission with a 2 dollar membership. No food or drink in the lecture theater.
On this Day: February 27th 425
The University of Constantinople is founded.
File Photo KDG
February saw the Mars rover Opportunity reach its 5000th day of operation. It was originally planned to have 90 sol or Martian days. A solar day on Mars is 24 hours and a little under 40 minutes.
We hope this information does something for your sol because:
The rover is investigating a channel called Perseverance Valley, which descends the inboard slope of the western rim of Endeavour Crater. Ray Arvidson of Washington University in St. Louis is Opportunity Deputy Principal Investigator. source: Earth Sky News.
On this Day: February 23rd 1987
Supernova 1987a is observed in the Magellan cloud.
Gary Taylor Handlen December 1 2014 Charged for murder of a local child in 1978. Handlen processed early December 2014 at the end of an election cycle that saw a new mayor elected. Pressure on officials is apparent.
The March for awareness seems to have been coordinated with the provincial budget. In the group is former Merritt Mayor Clara Norgaard , and her Daughter City Councilor Diana Norgaard. Me
On this Day: February 22 1959
Lee Petty wins the Daytona 500 for the first time.
- A new speculation tax for 2018 that targets foreign and domestic speculators who do not pay income tax in BC. It will apply to Metro Vancouver, Fraser Valley, Capital and Nanaimo regional districts, along with Kelowna and West Kelowna.
- The new speculation tax rate will be 0.5% of taxable assessed value for 2018 and 2% thereafter. It will capture satellite families and generally exempt primary residences and long-term rentals.
- Increasing the foreign buyer’s tax from 15% to 20% and extending it to include the Fraser Valley, Capital, Nanaimo and Central Okanagan Regional Districts as of February 21, 2018.
- Increasing the property transfer tax on residential properties over $3 million from 3% to 5% effective February 21, 2018.
- Increasing the school tax on homes assessed over $3 million beginning in 2019.
- Allowing online accommodation providers to apply provincial sales tax and municipal and regional district sales tax.
- Allowing municipalities, regional districts and eligible entities, such as tourism-focussed non-profits, to use revenues from the PST and MRDT to fund affordable housing initiatives.
- Building a database for pre-sale condo assignments and require the collection of new information to stop tax evasion in condo pre-sales assignment.
- Taking action to end hidden ownership, by requiring new information on PPT tax forms and including a new public beneficial ownership registry.
- Strengthening provincial auditing and enforcement powers, and expanding information collection and information sharing with the CRA to prevent tax evasion.
- Moving to close property tax loopholes in the Agricultural Land Reserve to ensure agricultural land is used for farming.
- Creating a permanent multi-agency working group on tax evasion, money laundering and housing.
- Investing $6 billion over 10 years in homes and housing supports including $1.6 billion over three years with:
- $453 million to support 19,000 units of affordable housing
- $308 million for critical maintenance and energy performance upgrades to existing social housing
- $450 million to help finance 5000 new student housing beds at public post secondary institutions
- $178 million for 2500 supportive housing units for the homeless
- $158 million for 1750 units for indigenous peoples
- $141 million for 1500 units for women and children fleeing abuse
- Enhancing rental assistance programs with an increase to the Shelter for Elderly Renters (SAFE) benefit and the Rental Assistance Program for low-income working.
- Creating a ‘Housing Hub’ in BC Housing to engage governments, non-profits the private sector in creating housing solutions. The new Housing Hub will be funded through re-allocated funds following a wind down of the BC Home Owner Mortgage and Equity Partnership Program.
- Provincial mirroring of property tax exemptions under municipal revitalization agreements for qualifying purpose built rentals.
- Committing $5 million over 3 years to help fund need assessments for local governments to help them build capacity to build and retain affordable housing.
- Empower local governments by developing new tools such as rental zoning to accelerate the construction of new homes. Source UBCM
Other proposed provisions include:
The New Yorker is published for the first time.
Canoe quest to north west coast of BC
The British Columbia minority government is presenting a budget today. With the resignation of former Premier Christy Clark and a collation agreement the budget should pass.
The budget is said to contain support for those finding life to expensive.
Its been a long time since there was a government that increased a consumption tax like the PST it will be interesting to see the revenue side of the budget. Fees and revenue from services are difficult if they start to become circular to tax’s. They can only expand into inflation. New revenue sources are at a premium in a competitive world. Good luck.
On this Day: February 20th 1472
Scotland gets the islands of Orkney and Shetland from Norway over a dowry payment.
Tulips breaking soil in Merritt, next to a warm house in a sheltered area.February 17th /15 file Photo KDG
The local garden society in Merritt is having its AGM meeting of the season on March 21 2018, it includes a seed swap.The meeting will be at the Local public library 6PM.
nicolavalleycommunitygarden@gmail.com
On this Day: February 16th 1937
Nylon is patented.
Hey Merit what do you say?
Kevin Griffiths
percypaschal
The Proprietor Review 