If you
or someone you know is one of the 3.8-million Canadians with a
disability, you're being urged to map out a financial plan to ease the
stress on your wallet now and for the future.
A report
by the BMO Wealth Institute says the number of Canadians who will
become disabled is going to grow as the population ages and over
40-percent of us over the age of 75 identify as having some sort of
disability.
It's
recommended that you think about opening an R-D-S-P or a Registered
Disability Savings Plan. However, in order to be eligible you need to
first quality for the Disability Tax Credit, which gives tax relief for
people who have a severe and lengthy physical or mental impairment.
The
Wealth Institute says another of the top tools to improve the financial
situation for those with a disability is a tax-free savings account.
With no
more room for net pens in New Brunswick waters, the future of salmon
farming in the province could be moving to dry land.
An
international conference on land-based, closed containment aquaculture
being held at the Atlantic Salmon Federation in Chamcook, a method that
seems to be gaining traction.
Research
& Environment Director Jonathan Carr tells us diseases
including infectious salmon anemia and sea lice, which is a major
problem in this province, is less of a worry when you farm fish on land.
Carr says if disease ever did break out on land, it's maintained in
your hatchery system and won't spread to other animals.
Carr
says they believe farming fish on land is a more sustainable way for
producing fish in the long run at a time when the global demand for fish
is on an upswing.
This was the second conference on the subject hosted by the A-S-F.
The future for some of New Brunswick's endangered species could be gloomy according to one environmental planner.
The new
forestry plan for the province will see the the amount of protected old
growth forest go down from 30-percent to 23-percent while allowing
20-percent more softwood to be cut on public land annually.
Margo
Sheppard, who has spent more than 30 years in the environmental field,
tells us almost half of those species-at-risk in New Brunswick
are associated with old forests and if those are gone, so are the
animals. She says the forestry plan as its been announced is taking the
province down a path of minimizing areas that are less intact for
wildlife, for erosion control and for habitat.
The Alward Government says the plan will maintain and create jobs, encourage investment and manage forests in a sustainable way.
