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20 The Canadian Statesman, Bowmanville, Wednesday, May 4,1994 Section Two ■■ BUSINESS and FINANCE College Offers Seminar On Dealing with G.S.T. Durham College is offering an evening program to help small business business owners understand the Goods and Service Tax (GST). Designed and presented by Revenue Canada this course provides a detailed overview overview of the GST as it relates to small business and shows how to complete GST returns. . . This course is of interest to entrepreneurs, entrepreneurs, accountants, bookkeepers, and others who provide GST accounting accounting services to small businesses. Included in the ten hour course is DISCOUNTS FOR DOUBLE PARKING. t 'W Liberty Mutual Insurance Company 68 King St. E., Bowmanville, Ontario L1C 3X2 623-8914 Insure two or more cars with Liberty Mutual and we'll reduce your rates. Call us today for more information. LIBERTY MUTUAL © 1994. Liberty Mutual Insurance Group/Unionville, Ontario IF ITS A QUESTION OF MONEY, WE'VE GOT THE ANSWERS One of my clients told me recently that "Investing that lump sum into her RRSP every February was like giving birth. After the initial pain wore off it was a pleasure to watch it grow." We took the pain out of the process by establishing a monthly $200.00 investment plan. We also reduced the taxes she paid every week by $20.00. WHAT DID THIS COST HER? NOTHING. WHAT CAN REGAL DO FOR YOU? REGAL CAPITAL PLANNERS LTD. Call Steve Scatterty Financial Advisor 623-1936 Fax: 623-3092 © Interac Direct Payment Now Available in Ontario an overview of the GST, recovering the GST paid, completing the GST return, the quick method for small business, and dealing with Revenue Canada. The course runs Tuesdays and Thursdays from June 2 to June 14 6:00 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. at the Durham College Oshawa Campus; and from May 3 to May 12 from 6:30 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. at the Uxbridge campus. The cost for this ten week course is $21.40. For more information or registration call 721-3000. Ontario consumers now can use the same card they use at automated banking machines to pay for goods and services at participating retailers, as the national rollout of the Interac Direct Payment Service continues. Based on electronic funds transfer at the point of sale (EFT/POS) technology, technology, Interac Direct Payment enables enables the amount of a purchase transaction transaction to be transferred electronically from the consumer's account to the merchant's account. The official launch of the service in Ontario took place April 26 at the Toronto Eaton Centre. Information Forums for Retailers will be conducted conducted over the next week at sites across the province to acquaint merchants with the new payment method. "Consumers in Ontario will now have one more payment option," said Ontario Provides $704 Million for Municipal Roads The provincial government is providing providing municipalities with $704.5 million in funding for municipal roads in 1994, the same amount spent last year. "This investment brings enormous economic benefit and creates thousands thousands of needed jobs in communities across the province," said Transportation Transportation Minister Gilles Pouliot. The funding supports both regular activities and supplementary or special, special, one-time projects that the province's province's 882 municipalities and First Nations have planned. The government is also providing an additional $722 million for municipalities municipalities during the next two years through the Canada-Ontario Infrastructure Infrastructure Works program. The $2.1 billion program will help municipalities municipalities make local infrastructure improvements, improvements, creating up to 25,000 jobs provincewide. Pouliot said that the investment in municipal roads would ensure the efficient efficient movement of goods and enhance enhance road safety, as a step towards the government's goal of making Ontario's Ontario's roads the safest in North America. "We are pleased to be able to provide provide this level of support to create and sustain thousands of jobs in the province," said Finance Minister Floyd Laughren. "We recognize that capital spending is one of the best ways to stimulate the economy." Municipal roads transfers represent represent the province's share of the cost of building and maintaining local roads, highways, bridges and other structures, as well as installing traffic signals and control systems for the safe, efficient movement of traffic. Allocations to individual municipalities municipalities will be announced in the next few days. The 1994 allocation is equivalent to last year's commitment, after the Expenditure Control Plan and in-year constraints were completed. Fred Harris, General Manager, Interac Interac Association. Speaking at the news conference, he added, "At a time when people are looking for ways to save time, the convenience of Interac Direct Payment is bound to be appreciated." appreciated." Ontarians currently hold over 7 million banking machine cards that can be used to pay by Interac Direct Payment at participating retailers. By the beginning of April, approximately approximately 16,000 terminals had been installed installed at over 12,000 retail outlets across Ontario. The national rollout of Interac Direct Direct Payment began in September 1992 in B.C., the Territories and Québec, following a pilot test and regional regional launch in Ottawa-Hull. It continued continued in Alberta in spring 1993; then Manitoba, the Thunder Bay region and Saskatchewan in fall 1993. In the entire service area during the period October 1,1992 to March 31, 1994, consumers authorized more than 108 million transactions to pay for goods and services valued at more than $5.6 billion. The membership of Interac Association Association is composed of leading banks, trust companies, caisses populaires and credit unions, as well as regional financial institutions. A total of 14 institutional institutional members are participating in the Interac Direct Payment service. by Brian Costello WHERE DO YOU INVEST NOW? Did you buy stocks and mutual funds in the hot RRSP season rather than GICs or term deposits? Are you now regretting it? Are you unhappy with the yields offered on interest bearing investments even after thé recent yield increases but are reluctant to buy other investments? If so, you probably fit into the group of people who are. questioning what's going on in the financial world right now. Confusion abounds. Most Canadians don't have a clue what to do with their money after the recent volatility in our dollar, pur interest rates and our markets. So, what do we do? Well, the best analogy I can offer is to get you thinking about what you do when you drive your car. Do you watch the car in front of you or do you watch the one several cars ahead? Safe, conservative drivers look down the road so they don't get involved in any nasty surprises. Well, that's also the way you should look at your investments. If you want to speculate look short term, if you want to prosper look long term. After all, few of us are named Hilary. The best thing you can do right now is look globally. That means get as much of your money as possible out of Canada. We aren't abandoning our country. We're making sure we earn a decent rate of return on our money that will be more useful in turning our economy around when we bring the money home. Yes, most of the attack on our dollar is over. Yes, the interest rate thing has been overdone. But, the die is cast. Interest rates may well fall lower, but the long term picture suggests they will eventually rise further. Lets look at our dollar. We might fret when it falls but think about the Americans, our biggest trading partners. If you build Ford cars and trucks in the U.S. and our dollar falls to the sixty five cent level you will be out of work as Americans will find it cheaper to buy Canadian made cars. Our dollar may well fall a bit lower but it wont collapse. There would be so much pressure on the American government that they would buy up every available Canadian dollar. Once the world saw it happen there would be such a rush into our dollar that it would rise so fast that the Bank of Canada would have to lower interest rates to restrict the rise in our dollar. So, dont pay too much attention, in the long run, to our dollar. There will be heat but it will be short lived. However, we have something much more important to consider. The North American stock markets have done well as we left the recession. But, most of Europe is still deeply entrenched in a recession. They are effectively two years behind us. If you want to make some money look back two years or so in Canada to see how Canadian investors made money. Then duplicate it in Europe. While we are worrying about rising interest rates in North America the opposite is happening in Europe. Real interest rates are very high. German inflation, for example, is falling every month and is headed for 2% this fall. Just as we saw interest rates fall to stimulate the economy you can count on many European countries cutting them as well. Their bond markets and stock markets will respond positively. A similar case can be made for investing in Japan. Their economy clearly is in a recession. However, you have to expect that the Yen is in trouble. It should fall substantially compared to the American and Canadian dollars. Investing in Japan, then, can be a problem. There is a way to profit from a recovery in Japan, or any other foreign country without worrying about currency changes. Several mutual funds, especially Global Strategy, invest in foreign countries but protect investors from currency changes by hedging against currency changes. They buy futures contracts on the Canadian dollar. As a result, you don't worry about changes in our dollar or any foreign currency. In fact, you can profit from these fluctuations. If you want to narrow it down you should increase your exposure to foreign investments, especially bond funds. There is little or no question that European interest rates are going to fall. If you buy international bond funds you should earn an above average rate of return in the next few years. If you buy equity based mutual funds that aim their investments at North America you should do well in the next couple of years as profits are going to improve. However, the real action is going to be overseas where they are only now going to catch up to what has already happened here. Without question, some of your money, maybe a large , percentage should be outside Canada. . ■■