The Prime Minister on High Gas Prices...

Canada's Prime Minister Steven Harper

The Prime Minister on High Gas Prices..

PM Harper says Canadians hit hard by High Gas Prices should not look to Ottawa for relief at the Pumps..
Harper says that the ability of the Government to affect the price of gasoline is so small that it is not worth doing at all...

The PM says that the Energy Prices in his belief will continue to rise and you can not fool the Public into thinking otherwise.

In response to a question on Fuel Prices, the PM said that the “ability of the Government to affect the Price of Gasoline per se is so small that it is not worth doing”.

“What you’ve really got to do is lower the costs for consumers generally, rather than try to fight the upward trend in the Price of Gasoline”

The PM also said that overall Tax Cuts, like the two percentage points his government taken off the GST (goods and services tax), from 7% to 5%, are the best way to bring saving s to consumers.

Pump prices have risen 11.6 per cent from last April, while fuel oil and other fuels surged 36.9 per cent...

...ON THE OTHER HAND
Oil Prices have doubled from where they were a year ago, surpassing a record $132 US on commodities market yesterday. Yet the Prices at the Pump while painfully high have not doubled.

According to this week’s survey of pump prices by consulting firm M.J. Ervin, Canadians paid an average $1.27 per litre. Last May, a year ago today, the average was about $1.12 a litre, the difference of average 15 cents...

The Price of the crude oil last May was $66 a barrel and this May $132, the difference of $66..yearly double...

The average increase of 15 cents a litre is Big, but not as Dramatic as that of the Crude oil and why it that so?

There are other costs involved in the processing of fossil fuels into gasoline. You wouldn’t get a match to match increase in prices.

The increasingly very expensive raw product, the Crude is an important part of the equation, but there are other costs, like taxes as well as refining and marketing cost that well determine the final pump price.

Also the Fact that the Canadian Dollar is now in Parity with its US counterpart also keep pump prices relatively lower, since oil is benchmarked in U.S. currency..

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