Finance Canada: No More Spring Budgets

Finance Canada announced on October 7 that Canada’s federal budgets will be brought down in the fall starting with the November 4, 2025 event; a significant departure from the spring schedule (February, March or April) that has been the cycle for several decades. This is going to affect many other events as we know them, and in the annual government spending approval cycle. There will also be a new budget process for capital vs. operational expenses. Here’s what you need to know:

With the Bank of Canada recently announcing another 100 bps increase in the overnight rate to 2.5%, clients are asking more and more about how this will affect their mortgages, the impact to their cash flow, and ultimately the impact to their overall financial plans.  

Seniors over the age of 74 will have been delighted by the raise they received in their Old Age Security Benefits in July of 2022. The specifics of the new permanent increase, its effect on the clawback of OAS and other new details follow:

Statistics Canada is reporting that a shortage of labor continues to be a significant issue for 35% of businesses in Canada, while skilled labor shortages are an obstacle for close to 28%. Those who responded to Knowledge Bureau’s July Poll agreed:  91.67% said yes, their clients are finding it more difficult to hire skilled people in 2022. 

Can ethical behaviour be regulated? Can we eliminate all of the “Bad Apples’ with regulation or does it take more? Is it possible that ethical behaviour is a byproduct of a “culture of care”? In other words, when it comes from the heart, is ethical behaviour a standard on its own? Organizations must be sure and so, they must back up a culture of care with strategy and processes to ensure consistency.  CEO of CANFIN, Tony Mahabir who will share his inspiring insights on how to accomplish this against the backdrop of increasingly complex and expensive regulation.

It’s not too late to learn to prepare personal income tax returns from your home or office and now you can confidently learn and practice with Knowledge Bureau’s newly released Professional Entry level course. 

After years of historically low interest rates, lending rates have risen dramatically since March 2022 with prime rates rising 2.25% in just over 4 months.  Many clients are now becoming more concerned about the impact rising rates will have on their cash flow and looking for ways to reduce their borrowing costs. One way is to be sure tax deductions for interest costs are maximized. Here’s how: