December Community News – Jasraj Singh Hallan, MP

I hope you all had a Merry Christmas and I wish you and yours the best for a Happy and Successful New Year in 2023. I hope you managed to put aside all of our worries and found some time to spend with your families.

As we begin this New Year, I am still working towards making life more affordable for Canadians. Unfortunately, the Trudeau Liberals begin the year by hiking your taxes – multiple payroll taxes, liquor taxes, business taxes and don’t forget the carbon tax going up on April 1 and a second carbon tax being added.

Sadly, the need for more tax revenues is fed by the continually increased spending. PM Trudeau always refuses to answer this fundamental question – How does taking more money from struggling families make life better for them?

When the federal government takes money from you for heating your home or filling up your car to go to work and gives it to a large corporation, how does that improve your life?

These are just some of the questions that I have been hearing from you but if you ever have any other questions or comments, please do not hesitate to call or email my office.

In your service,

Jasraj Singh Hallan
Member of Parliament
Calgary Forest Lawn

Merry Christmas For those who celebrate Christmas on the Julian calendar, we wish you a very Merry Christmas. For those interested, Orthodox Christians celebrate on the Julian calendar which was created by Roman Emperor Julius Caesar and enforced it in all of the lands governed by the Roman Empire in 45 B.C.

Happy Lunar New Year On Jan 21, the Year of the Tiger comes to a close and 2023 brings the Year of the Rabbit.

Lunar astrologers are predicting a calmer year after the tumultuous Tiger. “The rabbit is gentle, quiet, tame, tender and kind, yet it moves quickly and is very clever,” she says, pointing to the Chinese idiom “a crafty rabbit has three burrows.” This implies that the rabbit not only has many ideas but is also good at adapting to the environment and can move very quickly, allowing it to protect itself during times of danger or when the situation is not favorable. (Japan Times)

Let’s hope that part comes true.

No Mystery in Why Food Prices are Rising!
When the NDP-Liberals add and then increase carbon taxes, the price of everything goes up. This is particularly true with our food supply.

Farmers pay carbon taxes to seed, to grow and to harvest. There are grain dryers to dry grains when they come out of the fields. Ag products are then transported by truck and rail to processors. Energy is required to process and finish agricultural products before they are trucked to stores.Most of us then drive to the grocery store to pick up this food.

You paid carbon taxes at every stage of this process.Make any sense to you?Me Either!

More Liberal Ethics Scandals
It gets tiresome to once again write to you about yet another Liberal abuse of power. Minister of International Trade Mary Ng was found guilty of an ethics breach for hiring a friend on a sole-source contract to her ministerial office.

She joins a long list of Liberals that have broken the rules and don’t have the integrity to resign. See the list in this editorial in the National Post. The Liberals have no shame and they do not believe that Canadians care.

Inflation Continues to Run Rampant
And the Liberal-NDP coalition still doesn’t care!

An excerpt from the Financial Post: The economy won’t be able to escape central bankers’ medicine to tame inflation, and BMO predicts Canada will succumb to a mild recession sometime in 2023. The timing isn’t clear thanks to strong consumer spending which helped propped up the economy late into 2022. But, make no mistake, “monetary policy ultimately does work,” the note said.Meanwhile, persistent high interest rates will continue to wallop the housing market. BMO expects home prices to drop a further 12 per cent, sales to fall 15 per cent and homebuilding to crater this year. It will be “impossible” for governments to deliver double the rate of housing starts they’ve promised in the years ahead as the economic situation weighs on the market. (Full article here)

There are no easy solutions any longer but the one thing that would help is allowing the economy to grow. The NDP-Liberals need to end their war on Canada’s resource economy and let people get back to work. Their ‘Just Transition’ is only guaranteed to accomplish two things – more unemployment and more Justinflation.

Gun Theft! It is not an exaggeration to say that the government is planning to steal the guns of law-abiding Canadians. My office receives calls and emails every day from constituents that are being threatened by the NDP-Liberal’s legislation (C-21). One call that stands out was from one of our neighbours that tells about being offered $1500 when his firearm was worth over $4000 (the fact that he could not afford to go hunting last fall is more an inflation story). The NDP-Liberals are consistently more focused on turning law-abiding Canadians into criminals. Conservatives believe that we need stronger penalties for using a firearm during a crime and in strengthening border controls. Recently, on the topic of the gun buyback Regina police chief said that police resources are already stretched thin and “He suggested that another organization, or courier or mail services, be tapped to help people turn in their firearms, allowing police to focus on law-breakers as well as border integrity, smuggling and trafficking.” (Article here) What do you think of that idea?

Grants & Funding
My office fields many calls about whether how to access funding from the federal government. You can find grants and funding by using this handy online tool provided by the Government of Canada. Funding is available in many categories and is continually adjusted as the federal government’s policy priorities change. Click here.

Which Benefits Are You Eligible For?

The Benefits Finder tool allows you to determine what benefits you may be entitled to by answering a few easy questions. After completing the quick multiple-choice questions, your possible benefits are short-listed and additional information is provided. Many federal-provincial programs are also incorporated into the search results. Link here.

Canada Job Bank

If you need help getting back to work, try accessing the jobs being listed on the government website, visit www.jobbank.gc.ca to see the latest opportunities. Hundreds of jobs are listed that are in our community and they offer Canadians with a wide variety of work experiences.

Stay Connected
I regularly provide timely updates and critical information via my social media accounts. I strongly encourage all residents to follow these accounts to receive the latest information. Just click one of the following links to subscribe.