Spending Patterns in Canada

To read a post on what people are buying and where they are buying it in Canada, please check out a post from February 26, 2008 on the Resources for Small Business blog. It references Statistics Canada's 2006 data in a report called Spending Patterns in Canada. Also included in this post is information on doing business in Alberta (because spending growth is very high there).

The Budget

Time for a budget refresher as today is budget day.
Budgets are tabled usually early in the year. They are generally preceded in the fall by another major statement The Economic and Fiscal Update. Past statements and budgets can be viewed at the Department of Finance website
To find out more about how budgets are tabled in the House of Commons, what happens to budgets after they are tabled, and how they fit into the government’s annual financial cycle click here
To follow the Budget today, you can't do better than go to CBC. Coverage begins at 2 p.m. ET with a pre-budget special on CBC Newsworld, then live federal budget coverage at 4 p.m. ET on CBC Radio, CBC TV & CBC Newsworld and live streaming on CBCNews.ca.

Health Issues

Sometimes it seems that people are turning more and more to libraries and the Internet for health information, and either bypass doctors completely, or go to their doctor with information gleaned from the Internet. Two interesting studies in Health Reports, Feb 2008 tend to confirm this. The first Chronic Pain in Canadian Seniors indicates just how great the problem of chronic pain is in the older population. The second article, Getting a Second Opinion: Health Information on the Internet, bases its findings on a 2005 survey and offers many insights into Canadians' habits in getting health information. Needless to say, the Internet figures prominently.

Questions about tax?

If you have questions about personal or corporate tax in Canada, a lot of information is now freely available on the web. This can be supplemented by print publications in the library.

The Department of Finance and Canada Revenue Agency (CDA) are the two federal government bodies that deal with taxes.

Department of Finance
While CDA collects the taxes, it’s the Dept. of Finance who prepares the policies and legislation that determine who gets taxed, how, and how much. Budget papers from 1994 describe tax changes and how taxes will be spent. Coming tax changes are often first mentioned in Department of Finance News Releases. If you want to receive notification by email of new press releases or the posting of a new budget, you can register here.
If you have a question about tax regulations in general, such as how much tax we pay on alcohol, what tax measures are available to help students or families, or about car deduction rates, go to the excellent and lengthy FAQ page. This also gives useful links to websites that deal with related issues, such as student loans or the CPP.

The Bible of federal income tax is the Income Tax Act. Neither the Canada Revenue Agency nor the Department of Finance publishes the act in print or electronically (it is extremely difficult to maintain due to its length and frequent amendments). Go to the Department of Justice website for the unofficial version of the act. Income and tax regulations are published in the Canada Gazette Part II . Consolidations of the Act are available from commercial publishers. The best place to go to see a print copy is the library, Central Branch. You’ll also find the Canada Gazette Part II there, as well as many other books related to tax. Here is a small sample of what you can find:

Canadian Master Tax Guide
How to Reduce the Tax you pay
Income Splitting
Preparing your Corporate Tax Returns..
The Taxman is Watching
Winning the Tax Game

Canada Revenue Agency

This is a website packed full of information. Here are a few pointers to help guide you, though the site is very easy to navigate. If you are a business owner go straight to the link for business on the sidebar Clickherefor current corporate tax rates.
Click here for current personal tax rates.
You can find tax forms listed by number or tax forms listed by topic.
Access the excellent series of Tax Guides and Pamphlets that CRA produces on a variety of topics, for example Canadian Residents Abroad, Preparing a Tax Return for a Deceased Person, Canadian Residents Going Down South, Using your Home for Day Care.

Additional useful websites with free tax related information:
BDA Dunwoody Tax Publications – excellent electronic bulletins and newsletters, tax rates, tax tips, budget updates.
Tax Facts and Figures for Individuals and Corporations - an annual electronic publication from PricewaterhouseCoopers
Deloitte & Touche’s Quick Tax Facts
Canadian Income tax FAQs for Small Businesses .

For more on Canadian tax see:
Caruso, Agnese. “What a Taxing Day! A Survival Guide for Researching and Answering Canadian Tax Questions.” Feliciter, Issue 1, 2007, p.40.

Ontario Gov. Docs archive now online

Gov. Docs. from the Legislative Library of Ontario are now available on the OurOntario site http://govdocs.ourontario.ca/index.html and searchable by keyword - Advanced search option also available. There's a browsable index by author, title, department, subject, date. Documents are captured from publicly available websites and archived in PDF format. Not all Government of Ontario documents are included, but at the moment there are 14,000 monographs and 900 serials, and the archive will be added to on a monthly basis. This has been in the works for some time so it's great to see it up and working with a good search engine. Try it out using keywords like "Walkerton" or "Ipperwash" or "ontario electricity system" - it brings up good results