Alberta
Alberta RCMP Warn Citizens of Spike in COVID-19 Scams
Edmonton, Alta. – Since the beginning of the month, there has been a spike in COVID-19 related scams in Canada. The most common reports are fraudulent merchandise sales and phishing emails.
The fraudulent merchandise sales frequently involve the sale and/or giveaway of health-related products such as facemasks and COVID-19 tests. There are also “free” products being advertised where the victim must pay a fake shipping fee.
The phishing emails impersonate agencies such as the Red Cross, the World Health Organization, the Ministry of Health, Public Health Canada, the Canada Revenue Agency, and more. Typically, individuals are contacted through email or SMS and provided a link which prompts them to fill out personal and banking information. In some cases, the link contains suspected malware.
Other scams that occur involve individuals being advised of fake positive test results, donation campaigns, door-to-door decontamination services, and self-assessment surveys.
Here are some tips to remember if you are contacted:
- Never give out personal or financial details if you didn’t initiate the call.
- If you didn’t initiate the contact, you don’t know who you’re talking to.
- Don’t click on suspicious links or attachments.
- Install anti-virus software.
- Be skeptical of emails even if they look legitimate.
- Check the “from” address by hovering over the name.
- Check the Canadian Anti-Fraud website for a list of reported scams.
We encourage anyone who receives these texts or emails to go online and report them to the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre: https://www.antifraudcentre-centreantifraude.ca/report-signalez-eng.htm
If you have been the victim of a fraud, report it to your local police service and to the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre online at: www.antifraudcentre.ca. You should also contact your bank and credit card company if you believe your personal or financial information has been compromised.
For more stories, visit Todayville Calgary
Alberta
Alberta government should eliminate corporate welfare to generate benefits for Albertans
From the Fraser Institute
By Spencer Gudewill and Tegan Hill
Last November, Premier Danielle Smith announced that her government will give up to $1.8 billion in subsidies to Dow Chemicals, which plans to expand a petrochemical project northeast of Edmonton. In other words, $1.8 billion in corporate welfare.
And this is just one example of corporate welfare paid for by Albertans.
According to a recent study published by the Fraser Institute, from 2007 to 2021, the latest year of available data, the Alberta government spent $31.0 billion (inflation-adjusted) on subsidies (a.k.a. corporate welfare) to select firms and businesses, purportedly to help Albertans. And this number excludes other forms of government handouts such as loan guarantees, direct investment and regulatory or tax privileges for particular firms and industries. So the total cost of corporate welfare in Alberta is likely much higher.
Why should Albertans care?
First off, there’s little evidence that corporate welfare generates widespread economic growth or jobs. In fact, evidence suggests the contrary—that subsidies result in a net loss to the economy by shifting resources to less productive sectors or locations (what economists call the “substitution effect”) and/or by keeping businesses alive that are otherwise economically unviable (i.e. “zombie companies”). This misallocation of resources leads to a less efficient, less productive and less prosperous Alberta.
And there are other costs to corporate welfare.
For example, between 2007 and 2019 (the latest year of pre-COVID data), every year on average the Alberta government spent 35 cents (out of every dollar of business income tax revenue it collected) on corporate welfare. Given that workers bear the burden of more than half of any business income tax indirectly through lower wages, if the government reduced business income taxes rather than spend money on corporate welfare, workers could benefit.
Moreover, Premier Smith failed in last month’s provincial budget to provide promised personal income tax relief and create a lower tax bracket for incomes below $60,000 to provide $760 in annual savings for Albertans (on average). But in 2019, after adjusting for inflation, the Alberta government spent $2.4 billion on corporate welfare—equivalent to $1,034 per tax filer. Clearly, instead of subsidizing select businesses, the Smith government could have kept its promise to lower personal income taxes.
Finally, there’s the Heritage Fund, which the Alberta government created almost 50 years ago to save a share of the province’s resource wealth for the future.
In her 2024 budget, Premier Smith earmarked $2.0 billion for the Heritage Fund this fiscal year—almost the exact amount spent on corporate welfare each year (on average) between 2007 and 2019. Put another way, the Alberta government could save twice as much in the Heritage Fund in 2024/25 if it ended corporate welfare, which would help Premier Smith keep her promise to build up the Heritage Fund to between $250 billion and $400 billion by 2050.
By eliminating corporate welfare, the Smith government can create fiscal room to reduce personal and business income taxes, or save more in the Heritage Fund. Any of these options will benefit Albertans far more than wasteful billion-dollar subsidies to favoured firms.
Authors:
Alberta
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