Terminal operator announces agreement with proposed Cape Breton harbour facility + MORE Dec 13th

Q: I have a mortgage and pay 3.5 percent and make monthly payments. Mortgage owing is $118,000. I currently have $125,000 in stocks that I can use to pay off this. I get a regular quarterly dividend that rolls right in to buy more stocks. I also understand that I would pay tax on half. This is also a rental property and rent is $1,300 a month.
—Shawn
A: Most Canadians have both debt and investments at any given time. So the question of what to do with incoming cash flow – pay off debt or invest – is common. When you have investments that you can otherwise use to pay off your debt, it’s kind of like borrowing to invest, even if you didn’t borrow the money to make the investments specifically. That is, you could pay off the debt, but choose not to.
Historically, Shawn, borrowing to invest may have paid off. I say may because it depends. Average Canadian 5-year fixed mortgage rates over the past 10, 20 and 30 years for the year ending December 31, 2015, were 4.94%, 5.91% and 7…

Q: My mother passed away recently and her RRSPs were transferred to my father. Can he choose to cash in a portion of mom’s RRSPs this year and have them taxed on her final tax return instead of claiming this withdrawal on his own 2016 tax return?
—Cate Morrissey, Dartmouth, N.S.
A: It is very difficult to put toothpaste back into the tube once you’ve squeezed it out. Unfortunately, the same goes for your ma’s RRSP, now that it has been transferred to your pa. Ron Graham, an Edmonton-based CFP, says that while it may be possible to reverse the transfer, “most RRSP trustees would be hesitant to undo something that has already been done.” I understand why the idea came up. In some cases, it would make sense to pay the tax on the RRSP from the deceased spouse’s final tax return, if the tax rate is lower than for the surviving spouse. Graham advises executors, “to understand that the deceased’s RRSP does not have to be transferred directly to the surviving spouse’s RRSP…

U.S. Federal Reserve chair Janet Yellen. (Susan Walsh/AP)
You probably have read that the president-elect of the United States and the Federal Reserve are headed for a showdown. Donald Trump and his advisers have talked of 4% growth, an aggressive, likely unattainable, rate of expansion. But even coming close to that growth rate would nevertheless force the Fed to raise interest rates to contain inflation. During his campaign, Trump said the Fed’s low-for-longer interest-rate policy had made a mess of the economy and financial markets. But the Globe and Mail’s Ian McGugan thinks higher interest rates would, in fact, irritate the next president. “Mr. Trump, who has been known to interfere in a thing or two, might not take kindly to that arrangement,” McGugan wrote of a central bank that matched faster growth with higher borrowing costs. Edward Luce of the Financial Times made a similar point. “Republicans have a history of decrying loose monetary policy when in opposition but embracing it when in power,” he wrote on December 11…

TORONTO _ North American stock markets were showing moderate gains in late-morning trading.
The S&P/TSX composite index climbed 81.89 points at 15,369.59, after nearly two hours of trading.
In New York, the Dow Jones industrial average gained 69.69 points at 19,866.12 and the S&P 500 rose 10.62 points to 2,267.58. The Nasdaq composite added 54.74 points at 5,467.28.
The Canadian dollar traded for 76.24 cents US, up 0.10 of a U.S. cent from Monday.
The January crude contract slipped five cents to US$52.78 per barrel and January natural gas was little-changed at US$3.51 per mmBtu.
The February gold contract fell $6.30 to US$1,159.50 an ounce and March copper contracts dropped three cents at US$2.59 a pound.
The post Toronto’s main stock index up moderately, loonie higher, crude flat appeared first on Canadian Business – Your Source For Business News.

SYDNEY, N.S. — The biggest terminal operator in North America has signed a deal to work with Sydney harbour to develop and operate a marine container facility proposed for the Cape Breton community.
Ports America says in a news release it would manage and operate the Novaporte terminal for 40 years and provide services such as labour management, and the maintenance and repair of the Sydney Harbour Investment Partners facility.
The news release says work could start within two years if the project succeeds in setting up deals with enough shipping companies.
It says the deep-water marine container facility would be capable of handling the largest container ships in the world.
Peter Ford, chief strategy officer at Ports America, says the Sydney port is well-located for vessels on the Great Circle route between Europe and Asia via the Suez canal.
However, a study prepared for the province of Nova Scotia in June recommended that Ottawa and the province be cautious about supporting the proposed facility in Sydney, questioning its economic viability and raising the possibility it will dilute traffic to existing facilities in Halifax…