🧵Just a friendly reminder that at this time a year ago, social gatherings of more than 10 people were illegal in Alberta. Furthermore, those gathering had to be vaccinated. In other words, even family members couldn't come to your small Christmas party. 1/
A year ago, this was considered a normal way to broadcast a hockey game. 2/
A year ago, showing a vaccine QR code to enter a restaurant was considered normal. Today, asking if someone who recently had a heart attack was vaccinated is not. 3/
A year ago, making people spend up to a week in a quarantine hotel after returning home from a vacation was considered normal, even if they were healthy and had no symptoms.
A year ago, filling a skateboard park with sand to prevent kids from using it was considered normal.
A year ago, Alberta legalized discrimination through its Orwellian double speak program called "The Restriction Exemption Program". Some businesses even got money to promote discrimination.
A year ago in Alberta, the government was handing out $100 gift cards to encourage people to get vaccinated. The government even gave $1 million to a lucky Albertan, a teacher of course.
Don't forget what the politicians did to us. Remember that this was encouraged by senior bureaucrats and supported by an army of middle managers at every level of our governments.
A year ago, Alberta was arresting kids who just wanted to play outdoor hockey. In one instance, they even threatened a kid with a taser and knocked him to the ground with violent force.
We started the question and answer portion, and Danielle is encountering a lot of resistance.
She's acknowledged that more kids are dying in Alberta now, than pre COVID. Her government is still analyzing the data.
She won't pull the mRNA vaccine off the approved list for children. Her excuse is that she doesn't want to interfere in parents' choice to inject their kids. She cites the fact that only 6% of kids are boosted as a reassurance that Albertans are smart.
They're still keeping all the roads in and out of Jasper closed to the general public.
You can't even stay behind to protect you own property without being threatened by the state in this country.
I've been getting texts and emails from locals for the last 3 days, expressing their frustration. I'm also getting a lot of examples of people with skills and equipment, willing and able to help, but getting turned away.
Towns like Hinton, Edson, Drayton Valley, Rocky Mountain House, were built by the oil patch. The people there have incredible skills, tools, knowledge and yet we're flying-in fire fighters from South Africa????
It makes no sense, unless you change your paradigm .
Sample exchange between two heavy equipment operators from nearby Edson.
🧵CCP Investment Inc. is a corporation created 25 years ago to manage the pension money collected by government of Canada. It operates at "arms-length", meaning it's supposed to be independent.
It just released its annual report, and going through it has been a real eye opener. I had no idea just how bad the CPP is.
For starters, this huge organization, bloated with highly paid bureaucrats across all continents, managed to grow our investments by just 8% in 2023. The TSX had the exact same performance in 2023.
I manage my own personal investments through an iTrade account, and I generated 18.58% return in 2023. Any good Exchange Traded Fund offered by most banks with a 0.8% fee would have done equally well.
There are dozens of mutual funds around the world that manage $500 billion dollar portfolio and generate better returns.
Just to put things into perspective, Visa is work $500 billion US. Apple is worth almost $2 trillion.
So why did the government created a separate corporation 25 years ago?
When the CPP was first introduced in 1965, Canada had almost 8 workers for every retiree.
A senior in 1972-1980 was receiving a pension that he/she had barely contributed to.
In those days the money collected through employee/employer contributions in a given year was enough to cover current liabilities, but not future ones.
In other words, workers weren't contributing to their own future pension.
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In the early days of the CPP the government collected money and paid it out in the same year. It wasn't growing a fund for the future, and therefor it didn't need to manage those funds.
But, as the population demographics changed, the government started increasing the contribution rate.
The rate went from 1.8% to 5.95% (blue line) just to account for the fact that we had less workers for every retiree. The government also increased the maximum pensionable earnings (green bars).
At 5.95%, the government was collecting enough to cover the current year's needs, and a little extra for the future. In other words, the government started building a fund for workers. Canadians didn't start funding their own pension until the late 1990.
Most retirees who have received a pension during the last 50 years, did not technically contribute to their own pension.
Live updates on the Alberta NDP leadership debate in Lethbridge.
So far it feels like a meeting of the Assembly of First Nations. We've had the obligatory land acknowledgment and now we're listening to a Blackfoot Elder deliver the opening prayer.
Weirdly, the person introducing him acknowledged that he got paid an honorarium and a few packs of cigarettes).
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Opening statement by Gill McGowan is all about winning over more people to the NDP. We need to be "More Tim Horton and Less Starbuck".
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Sarah Hoffman. I'm big and I'm sassy. I've won 5 times and I'm unapologetic about being a NDP member.
1) She increased this year's property taxes by a whopping 7.8%, when Calgarians can already barely make ends meet, while at the same time giving herself a personal raise.
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2) She promoted 'defunding the police' by reducing the policing budget by $20 million and now crime in Calgary is at an all-time high. People are scared to ride the LRT.
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Her first act after getting elected was to declare a "climate emergency" with an $85 billion taxpayer price tag, even though she never campaigned on that, and Calgary's major industry is energy.
Annual inflation for that time period averaged 2.18% per year. In other words, the 2023 budget of $68.3 billion, outpaced the inflation adjusted budget of $29.1 billion (see table below) by more than 2:1.
Keep in mind that governments in Canada are amongst the biggest contributors to inflation. If our governments kept spending and borrowing under control, inflation could easily be less than 1.5% annually.