Tax Fraud and Housing Prices
The Toronto Globe and Mail — a paper I write for — has a shocking weekend story about tax fraud by rich immigrants who come to Canada, buy huge houses and then plead poverty on their tax returns. The shocker is there was a memo 25 years ago by an auditor at the Canada Revenue Agency who said the priciest Vancouver real estate was being snapped up by rich immigrants. The report was kept secret until the Vancouver reporter from the South China Morning Post chased it down in an access to information request. It took five years to get it.
Here is part of what the auditor said in 1996:
“It should be noted that an obvious large discrepancy exists between the average total family incomes for long-term Canadian residents and newer Canadian residents,” said the auditor. “Furthermore, based on lifestyle and average age of these taxpayers, it is likely that many of these new Canadians still have active business activities, but are not reporting all their sources of income.”
Many of the immigrant buyers were claiming $16,000 in total income, so they didn't have to pay any tax. In Canada a person has to declare their worldwide income. It is easy to hide and that appears to be what they are doing.
Vancouver has the highest real estate prices in Canada: the average detached house cost C$1.8-million in July, up 22% on the year. Same price increase for Toronto where a detached house averaged C$1.4-million.
There is a federal election in Canada and all the parties have plans to deal with housing prices, though none talk about money laundering and tax fraud, probably for fear of alienating immigrant voters.
Last week it was truck drivers, this week hamburger flippers
Labour shortages in crummy jobs. In Oregon, McDonalds is advertising for workers as young as 14. One restaurant raised its salary to $15 an hour, but still couldn't find burger flippers. The `official’ minimum wage in Oregon is $12.75 an hour. It seems 14 and 15 year old kids are anxious to work if their parents aren’t.
At a McDonalds in Bromont, Quebec, they are advertising for help at C$17.50 an hour with benefits. The official minimum wage in Quebec is C$10.80 an hour. Many low end workers are getting by on Covid handouts. Maybe $17.50 an hour will tempt them back to work.
Venice discourages day-trippers
First it banned Cruise ships from the centre of the city. No more scences like this:
Then in the last few weeks, the rulers of the once great city state said it wants to discourage hoards of people who come to Venice for the day, and encourage people to stay longer. The centre of Venice has a population of only 55,000, which is often dwarfed by people coming off cruise ships and other day trippers.
Conde Naste Traveler described the new rules in its latest issue.
“On August 21, the local administration of La Serenissima announced that, from the second half of 2022, it will limit the number of visitors to its narrow calli and iconic piazzas. To regulate access, the city will introduce electronic turnstiles at different entry points, a dedicated booking app, and an entrance fee of €3 to €10 (about $3.50 to $11.80) for anyone visiting for the day (costs will vary depending on the season). Residents, students, and commuters will be exempt from the added cost, as will travelers who book stays in local hotels (who already pay a city tax of up to €5 a night).”
Crypto to Zero?
Well you wouldn’t think so in a week where Bitcoin, the most popular cryptocurrency, bounced back to $50,000. But John Paulson, the hedge fund billionaire who shorted (made money predicting a loss) the 2008 housing market says cryptocurrencies will end up worthless.
Paulson told Bloomberg Wealth with David Rubenstein "..that he wouldn't recommend the investment to anyone. He said there is a cryptocurrency bubble that will "eventually prove to be worthless."
"I would describe them as a limited supply of nothing," he said. "So to the extent there’s more demand than the limited supply, the price would go up. But to the extent the demand falls, then the price would go down. There’s no intrinsic value to any of the cryptocurrencies except that there’s a limited amount."
Did your get that? In plain English, he says it’s going to zero.
You can’t get much dumber
People who refuse to take vaccines are taking a horse de-wormer instead. Rolling Stone reporting emergency rooms in hospitals in Oklahoma (vaccination rate 44% vs US average of 55%) are jammed dealing with overdose cases from ivermectin, the de-wormer.
“The ER’s are so backed up that gunshot victims were having hard times getting to facilities where they can get definitive care and be treated,” Dr. Jason McElyea told radio station KFOR.
No vaccine proof, no coffee
On the first day of September I was turned away from a local restaurant because I didn’t have a vaccine passport. I went home and downloaded one.
You’ll note it’s in English. Quebec has done an admirable job of removing any linguistic hurdles when it comes to Covid, though I could have done this in French.
Also I received my shots in Quebec, without question, even though I have an Ontario health card. Will this work when I head into a restaurant in Ontario in a few weeks?
Ontario will require proof of vaccination as of September 22.
What’s a Burpee?
A burpee is a an exercise invented by an exercise pioneer named Royal Burpee.
My friend Kimchan Ramrattan, who does online training with me twice a week, is aiming for a record. He wants to do 850 burpees in an hour going for a Guinness record for his age category. I couldn't do one. Rather than explain what a burpee is, here is Kimchan doing a few.
Kimchan Ramrattan burpee practice
Sunset over Brome Lake
Essay of the Week
This is an obit of someone who worked in the same field as I did, though I never met him. He was a popular news presenter, and I have to say, very Canadian.
Peter Trueman was the anchorman for Global News in the 1970s and 80s. He was more than a talking head. He came to the job with a solid background as a print reporter – he covered the assassination of President John F. Kennedy in 1963 for the old Montreal Star – and he knew television news and documentary production from his years at the CBC.
William Peter Main Trueman was born on Christmas Day, 1934, in Sackville, New Brunswick. His father, Albert Trueman, was a high school teacher and then an academic administrator at the University of New Brunswick (UNB), the University of Manitoba and later the University of Western Ontario and Carleton University. He became a major cultural figure as the first National Director of the Canada Council and posts at the National Film Board and the Bureau of Broadcast Governors, the broadcast regulator before the CRTC.
All those jobs meant young Peter went to school in Sackville, Fredericton, then in Winnipeg. He started university at UNB and transferred to Carleton University in Ottawa when his family moved there. At Carleton, he became obsessed with James Joyce's novel, Ulysses, and never graduated. Instead, he landed a job at the Ottawa Journal as a general gofer in the newsroom when he was about 20. He must have impressed somebody because soon he was a junior reporter.
At the Ottawa Journal, he met Eleanor Wark, who was the managing editor's secretary. By this time, he was working as the overnight police reporter.
"So our courtship took place from five pm, when I finished work, until nine when he started work," recalled Eleanor Trueman. The couple married in Ottawa and then moved to Montreal, where Mr. Trueman started work at the Montreal Star, the largest English language daily in the city. He was just 23 years old when the Star sent him to New York City in 1957. His wife said she thought, "I had died and gone to heaven."
From New York and later Washington D.C., Peter Trueman covered the United States, interviewing celebrities, covering the United Nations and the dramatic 1960 presidential election where John Kennedy defeated vice-president Richard Nixon. But the most dramatic continuous story was civil rights and the marches, murders and violent police actions against demonstrators in the southern US. He saw Birmingham, Alabama, police chief Bull Conor attack demonstrators. He wrote about how police in Birmingham stood aside as locals beat civil rights protestors known as Freedom Riders.
"He was shocked and revolted by what he found in the south," said Mrs. Truman. "That was a story that really mattered to him."
After five years in the United States, Mr. Trueman returned to Canada to work for the Toronto Star. He was there for about three years and worked briefly as National Director of the United Nations Association in Canada. He soon returned to journalism, working at the CBC. An experienced print reporter, he soon learned the techniques of matching words to pictures. After a few years, he was named chief news editor at the CBC. He was in that job during the 1970 October Crisis, when the FLQ (Front de Liberation du Quebec) kidnapped British diplomat James Cross and Quebec cabinet minister Pierre Laporte, who was later killed.
He was impressed with the coverage of the bi-lingual Montreal reporter, Peter Daniel, and in 1971 named him as the CBC's Paris correspondent.
"Peter was really approachable. You could talk to him; it wasn't like he was the boss and you were the underling," said Mr. Daniel.
The pinnacle of Peter Trueman's career was when he became the anchor at Global in 1974, then a new television network. He was hired by Bill Cunningham, who knew him from the CBC.
"I hired after I heard him narrate a program on the CBC. He had a fine voice and was a great writer and excellent broadcaster. He was a good-looking guy and very fit," recalled Mr. Cunningham.
At the end of his newscast, Mr. Trueman would give a short commentary, which always ended with the phrase: "That's not news, but that too is reality." It was a line written by Bill Cunningham, and Mr. Trueman was never that happy with it. His ideal would have been all news, no commentary. In private life, he was modest and found fame uncomfortable. He was embarrassed when on vacation in London, England, with his wife he was riding up on an escalator in Selfridge's Department Store when a Canadian on the down elevator recognized and shouted out his "that too is reality" line. "Peter just cringed at that. He didn't enjoy the celebrity aspect of his job,' said his wife.
One thing that made his commentary popular with the public was that it was even-handed.
"Peter did not have a political point of view. And he gave Global the gravitas it needed. We called him the preacher in the newsroom," said Ray Heard, who succeeded Bill Cunningham as vice-president of news at Global. "Peter had a wonderful way with people. He was never confrontational. And he mentored a lot of younger people in the newsroom."
Global hired a second anchor to work with Mr. Trueman, Jan Tenant, who had been the first woman announcer at the CBC.
"Peter was an absolute gem on the desk. I know he presented himself to the public as a serious man, but he was wonderful to work with," said Ms. Tenant. "I think Peter relaxed in our format. He didn't like the idea there was a performance involved in news. And, of course, there is. You have to do things on cue."
Ray Heard said the two were a ratings success, the first man and woman double anchor team in Canada.
Peter Trueman quit drinking early in life and, for the past 51 years, was a member of Alcoholics Anonymous. Half a century ago, drinking was a regular part of journalistic life and at the CBC, where he was working when he quit. Mr. Trueman used to speak at AA meetings and would go to prisons to talk about alcoholism to inmates, some of whom might have been there because of out-of-control drinking.
When Mr. Trueman left his news-reading job at Global in 1988, he and his wife moved to Amherst Island, a bucolic spot in Lake Ontario connected by ferry to Bath, Ontario, near Kingston.
Mr. Trueman had been retired for about five years when one of the young men he had mentored at Global News came to visit him on Amherst Island. Mitch Azaria worked as a junior in the newsroom.
"At Global, I was at the bottom of the food chain, but Peter was approachable," said Mr. Azaria.
That day on Amherst Island, Mitch Azaria told Peter Trueman that his tiny production company – Azaria and his wife-- had sold the idea of a series on Canada's National Parks to the Discovery Channel, but there was a competition with some big players.
"Peter was in right away. And we won the contest because of what Peter brought to it," said Mr. Azaria. It was the perfect job for him since he loved wildlife and conservation.
The team produced 70 programs named Great Canadian Parks that ran on the Discovery Channel for five years, and for much of that time, it was a top-rated program. Mr. Trueman was the face of the program and the main writer.
"Peter loved it. He figured it was the best job he ever had," said Mrs. Trueman.
One thing he loved about it was travelling to so many remote parts of Canada.
"I bet he's seen more of Canada than any person on the planet," said Mr. Azaria.
Like his signature closings on the Global newscast, Mr. Trueman ended his park pieces with a short homily. Here is the one from Ellesmere Island:
"Most of us will never be in a wilder place than this. Ellesmere Island National Park Reserve is not just north of 60 but north of 80. Flying here is very costly, and visitors must bring with them everything they're going to need during their stay. The nearest store and the nearest doctor is nearly 1000 kilometres away, 3-4 hours by air. But this does not seem to worry visitors unduly. They're too caught up in the power and the mystery of the place."
Mr. Trueman later did some consulting for documentary projects. He was named a member of the Order of Canada in 2001.
All his life, he was a keen photographer. Peter Trueman was tall: he was six foot five. "Apart from home, he never had a bed that fit him," said Mrs. Trueman. A problem for a man who spent so much time on the road.
After 23 years, Peter and Eleanor left Amherst Island a dozen years ago and moved to Toronto to be closer to their children.
NOTE to readers. Some people report having trouble subscribing or renewing subscriptions. The way to do it is click on the Subscribe button and follow the instructions. Thanks.