“Mayor Fred Eisenberger said Hamilton was prepared to do whatever it could to try to land a team in light of a $212.5-million offer by Research In Motion tycoon Jim Balsillie to buy the bankrupt Phoenix Coyotes if he can move them to southern Ontario.”

The Hamilton Mayor is an idiot!  Why the fuck should Hamilton tax payers kick in dollars to a private NHL team?  Why would the residents of the amalgamated Hamilton care?  You want to revitalize the downtown businesses, then get them to kick in.   The area surrounding the city of Hamilton, formerly part of the Region of Hamilton-Wentworth have had enough of the city’s incompetence and self serving ways.

De-amalgamate and the city of Hamilton will be bankrupt.  See if Balsillie will bail the City of Hamilton out!

Great news published in the Ottawa Business Journal today.

http://www.ottawabusinessjournal.com/294900830890941.php

Two telemarketers are the first to have been served with notices of violation for breaking the rules of the national do-not-call list, the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission said Wednesday.

The commission did not identify the telemarketers in its news release, and said it will not release the violators’ names if the fine is paid within 30 days without being contested.

“Although most telemarketers are abiding by the rules, we will use the enforcement tools at our disposal to promote compliance,” said Leonard Katz, the CRTC’s vice-chairman of telecommunications, in a statement. “The notices of violation we have issued serve as a warning to telemarketers that we will not look the other way if they break the rules and invade the privacy of consumers.”

Companies may be fined up $15,000 for each call to a registrant on the list, which was established in September 2008 to allow consumers to opt out of getting unwanted calls from telemarketers soliciting goods and services.

http://www.thestar.com/article/660243

Reposted from the Star

Robert Benzie

Queen’s Park Bureau Chief

Premier Dalton McGuinty will retreat from some of the more punishing aspects of the harmonized sales tax if enough Ontarians protest, says Progressive Conservative Leader Tim Hudak.

With the new 13 per cent levy less than a year away, Hudak, who won the Tory leadership on Saturday, said taxpayers have to take a stand if they want McGuinty to relent.

“I’m convinced that by putting pressure on Dalton McGuinty we can get him to return to character – he’s a notorious flip-flopper and I’m convinced we can get him to back down,” he said yesterday.

Standing in a midtown park against the backdrop of apartment towers to illustrate that tenants could face higher rents because the HST will raise the cost of heating and services, Hudak urged Ontario voters to rally against the tax by signing an electronic petition at daltonsalestax.com. “We’re going to put 100 per cent of our energies into stopping this tax in the first place. I’m not going to give any quarter to Dalton McGuinty on this,” he said, noting it will be especially difficult for Ontario’s 4 million renters. “The more people hear about it, the angrier they get. It’s crazy to do it in a recession.”

Hudak wouldn’t say if he’d repeal the tax should the Tories topple the Liberals in the 2011 election.

“I’m not convinced it’s actually going to be there in 2011,” he said. “Our game plan (is) … to stop this tax before it even starts.”

Beginning July 1, 2010, the 8 per cent provincial sales tax will be melded with the 5 per cent federal goods and services tax, raising levies on scores of goods and services, including heating fuel, gasoline, newspapers, fast-food value meals and funerals. While the Tory leader heaped scorn on McGuinty’s Liberals, he was careful not to criticize Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s Conservative government, which gave Ontario $4.3 billion to harmonize the taxes.

Revenue Minister John Wilkinson wasn’t available yesterday, but last week he indicated the government has no plans to scrap a tax it sees as essential to helping business in Ontario.

“We need to move to a world where we are taxing income and savings less. To pay for that, we’re going to tax consumption more, but that’s what they do in 130 countries around the world,” Wilkinson said after being sworn in June 24 as McGuinty’s HST point man.

Wilkinson pointed out 93 per cent of Ontarians will get income tax cuts and most people will receive HST rebate cheques of up to $1,000 over the next two years.

NDP Leader Andrea Horwath, who has promised to eliminate the tax if she becomes premier, suggested last week the HST could even be bad for Ontario’s health.

That’s because tax on bicycles and helmets will increase from current 5 per cent GST to 13 per cent HST. “Today, more children than ever are obese, many illnesses can be directly attributed to air pollution and heart disease is a leading cause of death in adults,” she said last week. “The McGuinty Liberals should be encouraging people to get on their bikes, not punishing them.”

Just when we thought Dalton McGuinty couldn’t make things any harder for Ontario families, he is going to hike your taxes again with the HST, the ‘Harmonized Sales Tax.’

The Harmonized Sales Tax means an extra 8% tax on dozens of items. It will hurt Ontario families when they can least afford it.  But what does the HST mean to you, the taxpayers?

It will cost more to fill up your car.

It will cost more to heat your home.

It will cost more for your internet and cell phone.

It will cost more to rent an apartment or buy a new home.

Dalton McGuinty has stuck his hand into the pocket of taxpayers deep enough and his latest tax grab needs to be stopped.  Ontario families deserve a tax break, not a tax hike.

http://www.daltonsalestax.com/petition/

I urge you to sign petitions and have your voices heard.  This is the GST all over again for Ontario, a double whammy.   Mark my words, the Liberal government has a game plan.  They are already prepared to lower the tax rate or make large concessions, but continue with the HST.   This will be there way of increasing taxes and make themselves look like heroes because the caved.   We Ontarians should stop at nothing to reverse the HST before it starts.   If the HST is introduced to Ontario we will all be paying significantly more taxes then anyone else in the country.

Strikes seem to work for the greedy unions in this country.  We should start a strike or protest.  Find a way to refuse pay provincial sales tax on anything.  This means stop buying in Ontario, refuse to pay the PST, or pay cash.

You have not heard the last of me on this subject!

How do companies like Bell, Telus and Rogers continue to justify “System Access Fees”, “System Charges”, “Digital Access Fee”. These fees are purely a way to add gross profit to your services while circumventing any contract you may have that protects your price.

I challenge how you can have Satellite TV service and then suddenly (Jan 1st 2008) add a “Digital Access Fee”. How do you think satellite works, its digital. Always has been. There are actually several undisclosed mandatory fees for Expressvu. On my bill I have Show Magazine for $2.00, a total waste of paper, and the “Digital Service Fee” the latest sham. For some reason I also get a credit for the Show magazine, maybe because my contract or package includes it, not sure.

Then there is hydro and the “Debt retirement charge”. Not only are we paying for a debt that was not our doing, but we are hit with a regulatory charge and GST to boot.

In a world where our cost of living is rising and a unbelievable rate this year, these companies are trying to gain profits by gouging instead of by creating efficiencies, or better yet making their customer happy and gaining more customers.

This is a result of weak marketing skills and short term vision.

September 3, 2008

Starting September 30, residential wireline and consumer wireless customers who want to reduce unsolicited telemarketing calls can register Canadian telephone numbers (home phone, mobile and fax) on a new National Do Not Call List (NDNCL). There is no charge to register on the NDNCL.

People who register on the DNCL can expect to receive a reduced number of unsolicited telemarketing calls. Telemarketers are also required to maintain their own do not call lists, which people must register on separately to reduce or avoid calls.

The NDNCL rules do not apply to a telemarketing calls made to business customers.

You can register your numbers on the NDNCL in one of the following ways:

Numbers registered on the NDNCL will be added within 24 hours but telemarketers will have 31 days to update their telemarketing calling lists. So you could continue to receive telemarketing calls up to a month following registration.

Will customers still receive telemarketing calls after the 31-day period?

Possibly because some calls are exempt from the NDNCL rules, including some calls from:

• Registered charities
• Political parties
• Nomination contestants, leadership contestants or candidates of a political party
• Opinion polling firms or market research firms conducting surveys when the call does not involve the sale of a product or service
• Newspapers calling for the purpose of selling a subscription
• Businesses that have an existing relationship with the customer

Groups exempt from the NDNCL (except for those collecting information for a survey) are required to keep their own do not call lists.

What do customers do if they get calls after they are on the NDNCL?

They can lodge a complaint online or by calling 1-866-580-DNCL (3625), providing:

• Their telephone number
• Name and/or number of the telemarketer
• Date of the telemarketing call
• Nature of the complaint
• If it was a fax, a copy of the fax

The complaint must be filed within 14 days of receiving the telemarketing call. An investigator will follow up and determine if the rules have been broken.

CRTC definitions

• Telemarketing means the use of telecommunications facilities to make unsolicited telecommunications for the purpose of solicitation

• Solicitation means the selling or promoting of a product or service, or the soliciting of money or money’s worth, whether directly or indirectly and whether on behalf of another person. This includes solicitation of donations by or on behalf of charitable organizations