Business
Panhandling May Not Be So Bad After All

Anyone who’s ever gone through a period of unemployment knows how badly it can play on one’s mental state.
With a 6.9 per cent unemployment rate and mass lay-offs still hovering over Calgary’s picturesque skyline, the thought of becoming a part of that statistic is less than ideal. Whether it be a boot out the door, a lay-off, or an unexpected company closure, it causes a state of panic – a surprise slap across the face by an ROE, or in some cases, a non-existent ROE.
Mia Ostere, a former long-term employee at The UPS Store in Crowfoot Crescent (R.I.P), is currently living this reality. Like any other morning, she arrived at the store on January 1, only to find that a sign had been posted by the owner, stating that they decided to close the store for good.
“I was told the day before to hand in my keys, but I would still have a job.” Said Ostere. “I literally stood there wondering, what now?” Like, Ostere, many Calgarians are finding themselves joining the ranks of the unemployed. Opening the doors to self-sabotaging, negative self fulfilling prophecies, and a mental state so fragile, the slightest thing can cause it to shatter.
With the high volume of job-hungry Calgarians, propelling resumes and cover letters by the dozen through online job boards, desperation begins to take its toll, playing its starring role.
I’ve been applying to as many jobs as possible every single day, but with the economy, it’s really tough.” Said Ostere. Anxiety, depression, suicidal thoughts, and feeling of hopelessness, are just a few of the prime suspects in the case of both long-term and short-term unemployment.
“Honestly, I feel like I’m slipping into a bit of a depression, it’s all too much.” Explained Ostere. Fortunately, there are places to turn when the going is getting a little too tough. Counselling, through organizations such as the Calgary Counselling Centre, employment support, and self-care are all highly recommended options throughout any period of unemployment, to help cope and get back into the workforce.
Apps are also readily available, one in particular called Head space: Meditation & Sleep, which provides support through Mindfulness exercises and guided meditation.
When there is a stack of bills piling up on the kitchen table and Mr. Mortgage is knocking on the front door – it’s incredibly difficult to position oneself in the Full Lotus position, eyes closed, brain slipping into a full-blown state of Zen, while the mind is constantly thinking about how to position itself snuggly under a security blanket, with a steady income wrapped inside.
Perhaps enhancing those transferable skills will have to be put on the back burner for a while. In the meantime, it’s time to dust off the resume, throw on those pair of slacks that have been abandoned in the closet, and slip on those blue, ahem, black suede shoes. As the old saying goes: “If you’re going through hell, keep going.”
Onwards soldiers, onwards.
Business
Potential For Abuse Embedded In Bill C-5

From the National Citizens Coalition
By Peter Coleman
“The Liberal government’s latest economic bill could cut red tape — or entrench central planning and ideological pet projects.”
On the final day of Parliament’s session before its September return, and with Conservative support, the Liberal government rushed through Bill C-5, ambitiously titled “One Canadian Economy: An Act to enact the Free Trade and Labour Mobility in Canada Act and the Building Canada Act.”
Beneath the lofty rhetoric, the bill aims to dismantle interprovincial trade barriers, enhance labour mobility, and streamline infrastructure projects. In principle, these are worthy goals. In a functional economy, free trade between provinces and the ability of workers to move without bureaucratic roadblocks would be standard practice. Yet, in Canada, decades of entrenched Liberal and Liberal-lite interests, along with red tape, have made such basics a pipe dream.
If Bill C-5 is indeed wielded for good, and delivers by cutting through this morass, it could unlock vast, wasted economic potential. For instance, enabling pipelines to bypass endless environmental challenges and the usual hand-out seeking gatekeepers — who often demand their cut to greenlight projects — would be a win. But here’s where optimism wanes, this bill does nothing to fix the deeper rot of Canada’s Laurentian economy: a failing system propped up by central and upper Canadian elitism and cronyism. Rather than addressing these structural flaws of non-competitiveness, Bill C-5 risks becoming a tool for the Liberal government to pick more winners and losers, funneling benefits to pet progressive projects while sidelining the needs of most Canadians, and in particular Canada’s ever-expanding missing middle-class.
Worse, the bill’s broad powers raise alarms about government overreach. Coming from a Liberal government that recently fear-mongered an “elbows up” emergency to conveniently secure an electoral advantage, this is no small concern. The lingering influence of eco-radicals like former Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault, still at the cabinet table, only heightens suspicion. Guilbeault and his allies, who cling to fantasies like eliminating gas-powered cars in a decade, could steer Bill C-5’s powers toward ideological crusades rather than pragmatic economic gains. The potential for emergency powers embedded in this legislation to be misused is chilling, especially from a government with a track record of exploiting crises for political gain – as they also did during Covid.
For Bill C-5 to succeed, it requires more than good intentions. It demands a seismic shift in mindset, and a government willing to grow a spine, confront far-left, de-growth special-interest groups, and prioritize Canada’s resource-driven economy and its future over progressive pipe dreams. The Liberals’ history under former Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, marked by economic mismanagement and job-killing policies, offers little reassurance. The National Citizens Coalition views this bill with caution, and encourages the public to remain vigilant. Any hint of overreach, of again kowtowing to hand-out obsessed interests, or abuse of these emergency-like powers must be met with fierce scrutiny.
Canadians deserve a government that delivers results, not one that manipulates crises or picks favourites. Bill C-5 could be a step toward a freer, stronger economy, but only if it’s wielded with accountability and restraint, something the Liberals have failed at time and time again. We’ll be watching closely. The time for empty promises is over; concrete action is what Canadians demand.
Let’s hope the Liberals don’t squander this chance. And let’s hope that we’re wrong about the potential for disaster.
Peter Coleman is the President of the National Citizens Coalition, Canada’s longest-serving conservative non-profit advocacy group.
Business
Canada should already be an economic superpower. Why is Canada not doing better?

From Resource Works
Tej Parikh of the Financial Times‘s says Canada has the minerals but not the plan
Tej Parikh is the economics editorial writer for The Financial Times, a British daily newspaper. He joins our Stewart Muir for a Power Struggle interview. And we include in the following report some points from a guest column by Parikh in Canada’s National Post, which carried the headline ‘How Canada can unlock its economic superpower potential.’
Parikh begins the Power Struggle interview with this: “There’s an enormous economic potential here, very much the same geographic advantages that have underpinned America’s economic emergence over the last 100 years. . . . Given everything we understand about the advantages that countries need to grow, why is Canada not doing better economically?” He added: “When you break it down and you look at why income per capita in Canada has perhaps not increased as fast as we might expect on the basis of those advantages, it really kind of breaks down to three components. One is investment, so how much capital goes into the country?
The second is labour, and not just the amount, the size of the workforce you have, but how well you utilize the workforce. And then the third component is something that economists like to call a total-factor productivity, which is essentially your innovative ability and your ability to bring together capital and people. “And when you look at Canada as opposed to other large economies . . . you begin to see that actually there are a lot of restrictions in Canada, not just because of its vast geography but because of regulation, that it actually can’t combine its capital and labour as productively as it could.
“It’s about creating those supply chains and critical minerals that the Western world is currently short of. Given it (Canada) has these vast raw material resources, there is a massive scope for it to become even more integrated into Western supply chains in particular and to become a supplier of these things.” From Parikh’s National Post column: “The country is energy independent, with the world’s largest deposits of high-grade uranium and the third-largest proven oil reserves. It is also the fifth-largest producer of natural gas.Canada boasts a huge supply of other commodities too, including the largest potash reserves (used to make fertilizer), over one-third of the world’s certified forests and a fifth of the planet’s surface freshwater. Plus, it has an abundance of cobalt, graphite, lithium and other rare earth elements, which are used in renewable technologies. “But the nation has lacked the visionary leadership and policy framework to capitalize on its advantages.”
Watch the full interview here:
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