After the Holy Week, something Bad and Something Good..

TONY BOCK/TORONTO STAR
A Toronto police robot is used to check a package left behind by a suspected thief at the Royal Bank branch at 5080 Sheppard Ave., March 25, 2008.

A bank robber was shot by Police after leaving the scene of Bank Robbery and leaving a package he threatened bank staff as “bomb”. He was rush to Sunnybrook hospital for life threatening injuries...Robot has been sent inside the bank to check on the “package”.

Earlier today, in midtown, three more Bank robberies suspected to have been carried by the same man wearing disguises, threatening bank employees with gun, but in all cases no gun was drawn...

Police would not say if the robber got shot late today was the same robber who robbed three banks earlier...

To read the details of the crimes after the Holy Week check here


THE CANADIAN PRESS
Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty (left) and Finance Minister Dwight Duncan smile as they wait to deliver the provincial budget in Toronto, Tuesday, March 25, 2008
And for Something Good:

Today the Provincial Government brought down the Annual Budget and in it something good:
$1.5 B for Jobs Training:

Finance Minister Dwight Duncan is targeting the unemployed and the poor in a provincial budget designed to cushion Ontario against an economic slowdown.
In a record $96.2-billion spending plan tabled this afternoon in the Legislature, Duncan unveiled a three-year $1.5 billion Skills to Jobs Action Plan.

“The plan is as sweeping in scope as it is balanced in approach,” the treasurer said of the budget, which did not increase taxes while forecasting a $600-million surplus for 2007-08.

Ignoring federal Conservative Finance Minister Jim Flaherty’s call yesterday for Ontario “to step up in support of our businesses” and slash corporate income taxes, the Liberals instead invested in human capital.

“It is a balanced approach that is prudent and pragmatic,” said Duncan in a shot at Flaherty, who has long insisted that tax cuts pay for themselves by stimulating economic activity.

For related articles of the budget you may check the toronto star

Jimmy the Slasher (tax Cuts) and shootout in Downtown TO

Trick or Treat!!! Finance Minister Jim Flaherty doling out Tax Cuts instead of candies this Halloween.



Jim the Slasher...Finance Minister Jim FlahertySlashes Taxes Left and Right..

Prime Minister Stephen Harper's election-ready minority government has offered most Canadians tax savings of several hundred dollars a year by trimming income taxes and cutting the GST by one percentage point

With the Government projecting a Budget Surplus surpassing last year $13.8 billions, it is getting ever ready for Election by further trimming down the Good and Services Tax another 1% from 6 after another 1% was trimmed last year. Personal Income tax was also lowered .5 (half a percent) point to 15 %.

And here is what the Slasher said about his mini-budget (annual budget would be tabled in Spring):

Canadians deserve a tax cut and all Canadians will get one.

And here are where the taxes are cut:
1. Goods and Services Tax..further 1% from 6% on top of 1% reduction last year, effective January 2008..Cost to Govt. in lower tax revenue $5 billions.

2. Income tax for personal income cut to 15 % from 15.5%, retro-active January 1, 2007.

3. Personal Exemption increase to $9,600 from the current threshold of $ 8,929 (the amount where all Canadians can earn without having to pay Federal Income Tax. And will further increase to $10,500 next year..

Combining 2 and 3 would mean income tax savings next year of $300 on average for a family bringing in between $30,000 to $45,000 a year. A Family earning 15 and 30 thousands would save 180 in 2008.

And while the two income tax measures will benefit all taxpayers, they are of particular value to low-income individuals. As a result, 385,000 people will be removed from the income tax rolls altogether, Flaherty estimated.
Including the latest GST cut, the government yesterday proposed personal tax reductions of $9.4 billion annually.

Flaherty also used his budget surpluses, which would have hit $16 billion this year without the new tax measures, to reduce corporate taxes "much deeper and much faster than ever contemplated before."

(So everyone gets a Treat from Ottawa this Halloween.)

Finance Minister Flaherty had to deliver his mini-budget in National Press Theater across the House of Commons because the opposition NDP (New Democtratic Party) refused his 11th hour request to deliver the Mini in the house.

NDP Leader Jack Layton said he would not co-operate with the Conservative Publicity Gimmick.
(No wonder the NDP ever since its founding could not win a Federal Government, even though its Provincial counterparts have been winning governments most especially in Saskatchewan and Manitoba).

Well the NDP has always been in opposition, so it is getting comfortable with its role, whereas the Liberal and the Conservative have been alternating leading the Government. Forget about the Parti Québécois, it is only running candidates in the Province of Quebec, not Federally all over...

And what the Provincials and Municipal government have to say about the Federal surplus. Nothing much except asking some handouts, instead of putting their own houses in order...

For the mini budget and more, it’s h e r e


GANGSTA CAN’T JUST SHOOT STRAIGHT AND FOR THAT WE THANK THEM...




Betsy Powell
Crime Reporter--Toronto Star
A wounded man was the only victim of a running gun battle between two armed groups who fired at least 40 shots on a downtown Toronto street early yesterday, police said.
The fusillade blew out car windows and left bullet holes in storefronts on Adelaide St. W.

It was 3 am and the rival gangs decided to shoot it out after a night a partying and maybe some ‘praining’.

For eye witnesses accounts and video visit thetoronto star here