CTV National News: Carney seeking cost-cutting options within government operations
The Liberal cabinet has been directed to embark on a massive cost-cutting mission to help cover the cost of new spending. Rachel Aiello explains.
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Globe and Mail
19 minutes ago
- Globe and Mail
What led this former accountant and teacher to retire and move back to Canada
In Tales from the Golden Age, retirees talk about their spending, savings and whether life after work is what they expected. For more articles in this series, click here. Brian Borgford, 73, Calgary I retired in June, 2014 at age 62 after working for 42 years in accounting, business and teaching. After spending many years as a corporate controller and holding various management positions across Canada, I worked as a business consultant for five years before relocating overseas for the final 12 years to teach business at the post-secondary level. My wife and I have lived in China, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar. We both saved and invested throughout our careers. Once we felt our portfolios had reached an acceptable level, we decided to return to Canada to retire and spend time with our families (my wife and I are both in our second marriage). My children were getting married and starting their own families. Because we were living overseas, the first few weeks of retirement were spent on moving and adjusting to Canadian culture, including basic tasks such as obtaining a driver's licence, updating our addresses and banking information. The rest of the time was spent reconnecting with our kids and grandkids, as well as extended family and friends. We travelled a lot in the early years of our retirement; however, my wife has experienced some health issues that have somewhat slowed those activities. I took up writing as a hobby in the latter part of my career, and that has continued to form a major part of my retirement. I have written and self-published dozens of books, mostly biographies, memoirs and fiction. One of my books details my investment strategies and results. I also write an investment blog, which has a couple of hundred readers. I was an active runner, cyclist and triathlete from my mid-30s through to retirement. I haven't done much racing since retiring, but I do stay active and fit. During my career, I participated in company pension plans, maximized my RRSPs and invested in non-registered accounts. Initially, I invested through an advisor who put me into mutual funds. The returns were pretty good. However, shortly after retiring, I decided to fire my investment advisor because of poor performance and manage my investments myself. In retrospect, I should have divested of him earlier, which would have given me a larger portfolio. Still, I'm happy with my current financial situation. My investment strategy focuses on dividend-growth stocks. These days, I'm living primarily off my dividends. Occasionally, I have minor concerns about financial security in retirement, but I'm confident my investment strategy will continue to provide me with both capital preservation and growth, allowing my wife and me to continue living a comfortable retirement. My advice to others approaching retirement is to ensure you are ready and have a plan for your post-work life. I almost retired a year earlier, but I wasn't entirely sure it was the right move. So, I put in one more year, which proved to be the right decision. Once I retired, I never had to look back. I knew I was done with working. Also, it's easy to become overcommitted in retirement. Having a plan and sticking to it allows you to make informed decisions about what to accept or reject. Remember, retirement is supposed to be fun! As told to Brenda Bouw This interview has been edited and condensed. Are you a Canadian retiree interested in discussing what life is like now that you've stopped working? The Globe is looking for people to participate in its Tales from the Golden Age feature, which examines the personal and financial realities of retirement. If you're interested in being interviewed for this feature and agree to use your full name and have a photo taken, please e-mail us at: goldenageglobe@ Please include a few details about how you saved and invested for retirement and what your life is like now.
CBC
20 minutes ago
- CBC
New report says N.L.'s community housing stock is far below national average
As the cost of living continues to increase while incomes stay the same, housing advocates in Newfoundland and Labrador are calling for more affordable housing units. A report published this month by the Community Foundation of Newfoundland and Labrador (CFNL) and Annex Consulting says only 0.3 per cent of the province's total occupied housing stock represents non-profit units. "Nationwide, community housing accounts for approximately four per cent of the overall housing stock, meaning this province is far below average," said the report, titled Breaking the Bottleneck. According to executive director Nicole Dawe, CFNL stewards funding for communities in need and commissions reports like this one to shed light on where that money should go. Now, the charity is pointing people's pocketbooks to community housing. The report says housing provided by non-profit organizations and co-operatives could be the solution to what it calls a provincewide crisis. "It's gotten considerably worse over the last couple of years," said Dawe. She added that "infinitely accelerating" housing costs and the pressures of the free market are not factors in community housing, making it a worthwhile investment. The only added cost is maintenance. Annex Consulting president and housing advocate Hope Jamieson says community housing needs more help from funding bodies because the non-profit organizations are already stretched thin. "When you think about how the cost of operating anything has increased, you can see how those dollars are certainly not going as far as they used to," they said in an interview. "People are struggling to just maintain the services that they already provide, the housing that they already have. And then when you add the enormous administrative burden of pursuing a housing project, it's a very, very challenging hill to climb," said Jamieson. It's very difficult to access public funding for new projects because of the various different streams and the endless applications, according to Jamieson. They added that there's also no funding available to acquire land or existing buildings. "That on its own is a real challenge, especially for organizations that are new, starting out with no equity. So it comes down to, you know, land, time, capacity, finances," said Jamieson. "I really don't think people know how hard it is." The recommendations laid out in the report aim to jump over those hurdles. Some of the points include offering financial support to early-stage projects, and to bring funders together to streamline applications and funding requirements. Dawe says progress starts at the beginning, at that fabled bottleneck. "We need to figure out how we meet [organizations] where they are with the support and also the funding to make it happen," said Dawe.
Winnipeg Free Press
an hour ago
- Winnipeg Free Press
Parliamentary interpreters sound alarm over coming changes to procurement rules
OTTAWA – Professional interpreters are warning that the federal government's plans to cut its procurement costs could compromise the public's access to parliamentary, Supreme Court and other official proceedings in both official languages. Jeremy Link, a spokesperson for Public Services and Procurement Canada, said the department recently began a process to replace the federal government's existing freelance interpretation contracts. As part of that process, the government is seeking to make several major changes to the procurement of services for Parliament and other institutions like the Supreme Court. The Canadian branch of the International Association of Conference Interpreters, AIIC-Canada, said those changes include eliminating measures to protect interpreters' hearing and adopting a 'lowest bid' approach to replace the 'best fit' model that considers applicants' credentials and experience. 'This change would almost certainly have the effect of pushing the most experienced freelancers off an already short-handed team,' the organization said in a news release. It said that adopting a lowest-bid approach is 'just about the money.' In a letter to Prime Minister Mark Carney this month, AIIC-Canada president Alionka Skup said the proposed new rules would lower the quality of interpretation services and undermine public access to government proceedings in Canada's two official languages. Skup said the changes also ignore the current 'severe shortage' of accredited and qualified suppliers of interpretation services. She said about 100 accredited and qualified freelancers now shoulder about 60 per cent of all parliamentary assignments. Nicole Gagnon, a spokesperson for AIIC-Canada and a career freelance interpreter, said the shortage started before the pandemic but got worse as Parliament went virtual and interpreters like herself sustained injuries. Several Parliament Hill interpreters have experienced hearing damage due to poor sound quality and feedback, and the federal government was forced to adjust the setup in the House of Commons and committee rooms last year. 'With this new standing offer, odds are they'll decide to just hang up their headsets because it's not worth their trouble,' Gagnon said. Gagnon said the government is also planning to start paying interpreters by the hour rather than by the day. 'That's a fundamental change that is totally unacceptable to us,' she said. 'This standing offer goes against our standards of practice. We work by the day, we do not work by the hour. We're not gig workers.' Gagnon said she and other interpreters oppose the lowest-bid model because it doesn't take credentials and experience into account. 'Quite a few of us have more years' experience than others, have other degrees, be it in engineering or law or administration, and so these are additional credentials that should be taken into account when assigning interpreters,' she said. 'You would want to assign an interpreter to the Supreme Court if they have done studies in law or if that's their field of expertise, rather than send someone who has not.' Gagnon said she worries about how MPs who rely on translation services will be affected by a possible decline in quality, noting that most of the interpreters' work is translating English into French. Monday Mornings The latest local business news and a lookahead to the coming week. Link said Public Services and Procurement Canada issued a call for feedback from suppliers and industry on the new procurement approach in June. He said the input gathered will play a 'key role' in shaping and refining the procurement strategy going forward. Gagnon said that when it met with suppliers last week, the government made it clear that it likely wouldn't reconsider adopting the lowest-bid approach. The department is extending current contracts with freelance interpreters until the end of the year as it works to update the procurement process. Once the new process is in place, interpreters will have to decide whether to submit bids to keep working on Parliament Hill. Gagnon said that the hourly pay and lowest-bid proposals are 'non-starters' for her and that if they're introduced, she won't be offering her services again. This report by The Canadian Press was first published July 24, 2025.
