July 1st 2010, marked the day the provincial government implemented the new Harmonized Sales Tax. The HST combines Ontario’s PST, eight per cent, with Canada’s GST, five percent. Students should keep in mind that not everything is slapped with the HST tax.

Here is a basic list of commonly purchased goods and services used by students, which may alter your lifestyle choices and spending habits.

For students who enjoy splurging at the mall after, in between, or even during class, there’s now a higher price tag for getting those clothes cleaned. Although most students may not use dry cleaning services, you never know what could happen to that white shirt or new dress.

Students will be happy to know that groceries, except snack foods, will not be affected by the HST. Included in the untaxed category are basic groceries such food as vegetables, bread, and milk.

Living in downtown Toronto during the school year can be pricey enough as it is, that’s why students should be aware that their monthly living expenses may increase slightly. Although cable and cell phone service will remain unchanged (they’re already taxed PST and GST), both internet service and electricity and heating will be affected by the HST. Think twice before you decide to turn up the heat this winter, or leave all the lights on in the house.

Getting around Toronto on busy evenings and weekends will be slightly more expensive for students. The HST will now be applied to taxis, as well as any domestic travelling leaving Ontario including flights, trains, and busses.

Those who enjoy kicking back and reading their monthly magazine subscription will also have to pay a bit more for that perk. Magazines bought in stores are already charged PST and GST, but now monthly subscriptions will have the HST tax.

One of the most talked about HST pitfalls is its effect involving our cars. There aren’t any changes to auto insurance or vehicle parts, but filling up the tank will cost everyone a pretty penny at the pump.Initially taxed only GST, gasoline prices will be taxed the 13 per cent. Now might be a good time to invest in that metro pass.

Throughout the school year, most students try to maintain a healthy and active lifestyle, however students will now have to pay the HST for massage therapy sessions, gym memberships, vitamins, and fitness trainers.

Treating yourself to a new hair cut or a mani-pedi will force many students to think twice about scheduling their next appointment. Services from hair stylists and estheticians will now be charged HST.

If you’re one of the many who smoke, it looks like there’s another hurdle for you to overcome to get that nicotine fix. Stopping by the nearest convenience store to grab a pack of cigarettes will cost you a few more dollars. Maybe this will help kick that bad habit.

“[As] part of the Open Ontario plan, we will be proposing investments that will help 20, 000 more students go to college or university this September,” Finance Minister Dwight Duncan said.

Duncan spoke at Ryerson University the day before the budget was released. Part of the motivation for doing so was to emphasize the Ontario government’s promise to support education.

“We stand in the heart of Ryerson University and I am proud to say that education continues to be the top priority of the McGuinty government,” Duncan said. “As you’ve heard earlier this week, and just from Sheldon [Levy, President of Ryerson University, who introduced Duncan to the press that day], since 2003-2004 our government’s investments in education have helped over 52, 500 more Ontarians earn a high school diploma.”

This aspect of the budget dedicates $310 million to fund the 20,000 spots in post-secondary institutions. Just like Barack Obama’s popularity with young Americans and students helped him win the presidency, this move could be the boost at the polls that the Liberals are looking for. Since student voter turn-out is often significantly lower than other demographics, politicians tend to pay less attention to student issues.

Other efforts to improve the Ontario post-secondary education system include building up resources for a credit-transfer system and promoting our institutions in other countries. For the latter, Duncan referred to the highly-anticipated Student Learning Centre as a landmark for Ryerson. “Upon completion, [the SLC] will help position Ryerson as one of the major schools for new media, documentary media, and cutting edge film and photography research in North America,” he said.

The budget comes at a time when the Canadian economy is looking up, and Duncan talked about his government’s involvement in the improvement. “In response to economic crisis, our government took action and made investments to stimulate the economy to preserve and to create jobs,“ he said. “Despite facing declining revenues our government chose to protect the public services that Ontarians value.”

These public services and funding projects are aimed at answering the demands that Ontarians have put forward in the past. Jobs and growth in Northern Ontario is one part of the budget, and this encompasses reducing energy prices and helping lower-to-middle-income families pay for their energy bills, and the creation of jobs for Aboriginal peoples.

Child care programs are also a new investment, as well as the elementary education system. That includes the Ontario government planning to hire an additional 3,800 teachers and 20,000 early childhood educators to implement full day kindergarten. Infrastructure projects and responsible management to cut the deficit are another aspect of the budget allocation.

As the Ryerson press conference wrapped up, Duncan reflected on what the Ontario government is doing right, and what we want to avoid.

“A few months ago, I had a good chat with Paul Krudman, the Nobel economist,” he said, “and he said to me that the Canadian approach [is to avoid a situation similar to] the state of California and other places where governments by law can’t do the kinds of financing we’ve done, and are being forced to make enormous cuts, not unlike the cuts made in Ontario in the Harris years. And we want to avoid that.”

The bulk of his speech presented optimism and attempted to build interest in the Ontario government’s actions. But after Duncan said goodbye and the media wrapped up, some members of the media seemed unimpressed.

“That was a waste of time,” a camera man said to his co-worker, and others laughed.

On this particular day, the class is discussing the representation of mental illness in the media, a topic Wong personally understands. After discussing the assigned readings, Wong launches in to her own story of how she suffered from depression after being let go from the Globe and Mail, her employer for almost 20 years, for comments she made about the Dawson College shooting in 2006. Quebec residents were asking why three Canadian post-secondary shootings had all occurred in their province. Wong, both a visible ethnic minority and native to Montreal, attempted to answer their question by pointing out that all three shooters had been of a visible minority.

Wong’s reputation in the newsroom was that of “a star.”

“What many outsiders don’t realize is how alienating the decadeslong linguistic struggle has been in the once-cosmopolitan city,” Wong wrote in her feature, titled “Get Under the Desk.” “Elsewhere, to talk of racial ‘purity’ is repugnant. Not in Quebec.”

The first signs of trouble were the letters from the Premier of Quebec and the Prime Minister, denouncing Wong‘s statement as slanderous.

“And that wasn’t the worst part, because being denounced by the Prime Minister is like a badge of honour in our business,” she said in Edmonton at the 74th annual Canadian University Press Conference that took place in January, the audience broke into a roar of laughter and wild applause.

Soon, death threats were being left on her answering machine and feces were sent through the mail to her office. While Wong’s concern grew, the Globe and Mail began untangling themselves from the mess.

“[My editor] didn’t take responsibility, and that was the problem,” she said. “I felt very betrayed because not only did he read it [before it went to print], but then he also wrote a column attacking me.”

For the first time in her career, Wong couldn’t write.

“I couldn’t even write an email,” she recalled.

The writer’s block was a first in her illustrious career. She graduated from McGill University and Columbia’s graduate journalism program, and spent her early years as a foreign correspondent in Beijing and business reporter in North America, writing for the New York Times, the Boston Globe, and the Globe and Mail. Unlike most veterans of any career, Wong maintained the rookie excitement.

“Every day I would try to beat the New York Times,” she said. “My old boss [at the Times] was my competition in Boston… It was fun!”

From 1996 to 2002, she wrote a weekly column profiling various individuals for the Globe and Mail, called “Lunch with Jan Wong.” These candid and sometimes unflattering profiles earned her a reputation for “gratuitous and opportunistic nastiness in the pursuit of copy,” as stated on her Wikipedia page.

“It wasn’t gratuitous,” she said. “It was always for a reason. And I really did try [to be honest], because I was trying to be as sharp as possible… I was trying to make a point.”

The column’s editor and current Ryerson journalism professor Anne McNeilly, was aware of that reputation and debunked it as false.

“At the end of the lunch column, we did a piece where we contacted all her subjects and let them have their say,” McNeilly said. “So I contacted a bunch of people, and she had lunch with high-profile people and normal people. She took a homeless woman to lunch. And nobody had anything bad to say about her. When the column ended we got a lot of feedback from readers who were sad to see it go.”

The Journalism Chair at Ryerson, Paul Knox, was responsible for hiring her as a professor.

“Her strengths are that she’s fearless when she conceives of a story and goes after it,” Knox said.“She’s a very skilled interviewer… She has a way of asking questions that force you to define what it is that you think.”

McNeilly says that Wong’s reputation in the newsroom was that of “a star,” which might have contributed to the souring relationship between her and the Globe editors.

“There’s a lot of personalities… with big egos in news rooms, and I think she got embroiled in all of that because of her fearless reporting. They didn’t support her in the way she deserved to be, so I think it was a failure on the part of the newspaper.”

For now, Wong is content with writing books instead of news.

“It’s very free, I work in my bathrobe and I don’t go out if the weather is bad.”

Perhaps most surprising is Wong’s untarnished opinion of the career that seemed to chew her up and spit her out again.

“I think it’s just life; There are setbacks. I had a pretty charmed existence until this happened.”

For the record, she stands by her controversial comment on Quebec society.

“And I think the backlash proves my point… because the backlash on me was all focused on my ethnicity. I haven’t seen any good argument refuting [my comment]. It’s mainly people calling me stupid, or worse.”

She is unsure if this break from journalism is a turning point in her life or just a hiatus. In Wong’s words, “You are only as good your last story,” and after repeatedly using the words fun and love to describe her work, it may be only a matter of time until you see her name under the newspaper headline again.

As more and more reports of improper customer dealings are cropping up, we want to know if you think that the TTC is doing enough to improve its customer service; if not, what methods would you like to see the TTC adopt to improve its now torn rapport with the customers?

Vote and then tell us your reasons in the comments below!

Along with listing profitable public sector companies, the government has also decided to increase public holding in the listed companies to at least 10 per cent. Until now, the United Progressive Alliance government, in its second term, has listed two energy PSUs—NHPC and Oil India—on the stock exchange.

Government officials have decided to list profitable companies on the stock exchange and give the common man an opportunity to share in the growth of central public sector enterprises by offering the public a chance to invest in at least 10 per cent of the equity.

The unexpected and severe drought posed special challenges in managing the economy in 2009. “My government joined hands with the states to help the farmers in minimizing the impact of this massive adversity,” President Shrimati Pratibha Devisingh Patil said. A sum of more than INR (rupees) 4000 crore (ten million) has so far been allocated from the National Calamity Contingency Fund and the Calamity Relief Fund to be used by the states affected by drought.

A Diesel Subsidy Scheme was introduced the use of diesel-powered water pumps to drive down costs while irrigating drought-affected areas. Funding for Centrally Sponsored Schemes, such as the Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojana and the National Food Security Mission, were used to create agricultural infrastructure for facilitating crop specific strategies  to minimize loss in production due to drought.

An amendment in the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme was made to allow water conservation works in the fields of small and marginal farmers, as well. It was due to these efforts that the decline in food production could be contained to a large extent. Special efforts were made to ensure that the spring harvest was not affected.

“We now look forward confidently to further improvement in our growth performance in 2010-11,” said Patil. “My government will aim at a growth rate above 8% in 2010-11 and seek to achieve 9% growth in 2011-12. We will concentrate on infrastructure development, agriculture and rural development, education and health and ensure that the growth process is adequately sensitive to the concerns and well being of the weaker sections of society. We will work to create an environment which encourages investments, including in Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises.”

Graduates from Ryerson’s business school are making a mark in the business world, using their university experiences as one of their primary tools to succeed in the competitive world of business. David Lyons is one such graduate.

“With Ryerson being a city-university, very practical knowledge is delivered. It gives you the hands-on-experience and the theory, obviously. But with projects and other stuff, it prepares you for what you need,” said Lyons.

Lyons, who graduated from the Ted Rogers School of Management with a Marketing Major in 2007, is the Marketing and Member Development Manager at the Ontario Institute of the Purchasing Managers Association of Canada (PMAC).

Sitting in his office in a high-rise downtown building with a clear view of the CN Tower and Lake Ontario, Lyons took some time out of his busy work schedule to tell us about his experience at Ryerson and his journey afterwards.

While he only got the opportunity to study at the new building of the Ted Rogers School of Management in his final year, he considers that branding the school of business under a separate name is reaping great benefits for the students. “In the long run, it will certainly hold some weight,” he said.

Lyons also praised the Business Careers Program at the Ted Rogers School. “It was actually the Business Careers program that helped me find this position. It’s a great program and I highly recommend it to anybody; it opens doors because the job market is hard. When you’re out there, its high competition, so any niche portal that you can be given puts you a step ahead of anybody else,” he said.

Lyons mentioned that even though Ryerson’s Business Program might not be as highly ranked, it is starting to get its fair bit of recognition among business professionals. “It’s definitely building up steam– It’s going in the right direction,” he said.

Noting that while the recession has been really bad for some professions, he said that in some ways it has benefited the Supply Chain Management field.

“It’s got a lot more attention, a lot more focus,” he said, “A lot of business’ actually turned to their supply chain department to help run a little bit more lean and to turn a profit when revenues are down.”

He also mentioned that after the recent decline in new employment, companies are again looking to rehire and that more jobs are cropping up, especially in the field of supply chain management.

Lyons also had some valuable advice for students going out into the job market. He stressed the importance of continuing education, since it shows how much an individual is committed to his or her field of study, besides being honest in whatever work they do.

“What I would recommend for people going out there is to be honest,” he said, “If you don’t have the infield experience, just say that you want to learn.”

The competition, which was originally designed for MBA students, included more than 40 universities from around the globe, mostly from the United States and Canada. But students from from Hong Kong, Australia and Thailand were also among the participants.

The Ryerson team consisted of four members: Chandan Sharma, Bojan Kostela, Majed Masad, and Greg Krisa. Although the Ryerson team didn’t make it to the finals, Ryerson did place first in the Quantative Outcry portion of the competition. The final score and ranking of each competing team was tabulated after everyone had completed their attempts in all five of the competitions, and the team with the most points was declared the winner.

“Definitely team work and anticipating where the market was going helped us beat everyone else,” said Masad.

Overall, the team was happy with what they accomplished at the competition, but there was one challenge that may have hindered their success.

“Lack of experience in doing models together, it was always hard getting everyone together [for preparation purposes] and other than that, everybody has their own point of view and it’s hard to find the right solution. You have to have nerves of steel, and a connection between members,” said Masad.

The structure of the competition included two days of actual challenges and one day of networking and socializing.

“Thursday night there was a lot of socializing, and also it was a trading pit: bid-ask, bid-ask!” said Kostela.

The trading pit is an area where future exchange professionals compete for stocks; it involves shouting and gesturing as the main means of communication.

“It really woke everyone up, everyone was kind of tired. The wholetrading pit was not part of the competition, it was an ice-breaker,” said Masad.

That day consisted of sales, trading and credit risk analysis, downgrading, and market information. The actual competition began on

Friday Feb. 19, it continued until Saturday. The Ryerson team described their experience as one of the most distinctive moments of their lives.

“Upstairs the analysts were working on a model, reading news, which the traders did not have access to, so when new news would come out, the analysts would input data into an excel model and after give traders either a buy or sell,” added Bojan.

Apart from their newly-gained trading experience, team members had a chance to network and show their skills to participating sponsors. In the end the Ryerson team came up with the unanimous conclusions about their experience.

“Real-life trading is different than what we learn in books and luck is a highly valuable asset in trading.”

The Ryerson Commerce Society organized a trip to the third largest business and law firm’s offices, which included a panel discussion with executive speakers and law associates, and a lunch. The panel included Clint Macham, Director of marketing and business development, Tony Pierro, general manager, and Beatriz Reano, director of finance.

Working in a law firm in marketing department deals with wide range of responsibilities, running things like cocktail receptions.

Marcham, a Ryerson University alumnus with a marketing major and a law minor, described his job. “Working in a law firm in marketing department deals with a wide range of responsibilities, running things like cocktail receptions… and also to promote services.” Since Clint graduated in 1998, he has worked at several other law firms, but says that he truly found himself at Fasken.

“I was interested in law, and at the same time was willing to continue with marketing. Terminology used in law classes is certainly useful if you decide to pursue a career in a law firm,” he said. Some other benefits of working for Fasken, said Clint, are that at a big firm you can get a broad range of career opportunities, hence, creating more chances to move up to different levels.Having multiple departments at a workplace makes it easier to find your true calling instead of being stuck with one particular job that you might not enjoy as much, he expanded.

“If you are not a lawyer, you work on a coast side,” said Tony Pierro, general manager for the Ontario region, about his work experience. It’s evident that he enjoys his work- ing environment as he openly jokes about it. One of Tony’s main responsibilities is coordinating services, mostly acting as an invisible liaison between clients and lawyers.

“Part of my job is to make the assembly line, we actually have lawyers that don’t know how to use technology efficiently, so part of the job is to make sure that services are presented properly,” he said.

Pierro is one of the team members responsible for change at the firm and one of the major questions he faces is “How do you make your work environment more efficient?” It is impossible to suit everybody, said Pierro, but staying amenable to change will make the process smoother. “No matter how we design it, it’s going to be wrong. The key is flexibility,” he said.

Fasken Martineau’s corporate philosophy is all about improvement. For instance, recently they implemented a voice recognition system in their offices that has a 95 per cent accuracy rate, so now lawyers do not have to continuously “exercise” their fingers on the keyboard. Instead, they can dictate to the system and it converts the speakers’ words into a document format.

Also, in July 2010 they plan to move to a location at the Bay and Adelaide streets intersection, with more than 166,000 square feet of office space. “Working at a law firm, I confirmed an idea that accounting is an art indeed,” said    Beatriz    Reano, the closing speaker at the discussion panel and an accounting graduate. Reano believes that accounting can be fun. “We have nine offices, we have offices outside the country and inside the country. In my team we also do accounting for the Johannesburg office,” she said.

The broad spectrum of responsibilities clearly allows Reano little downtime. As a director of finance, she is responsible for management and financial reporting, tax plan- ning, exchange, making estimates and adjustments as well as overall control of flow of finance.

It is not an easy job to be a director of finance of a large law and litigation firm such as Fasken Martineau, but it is possible. Accounting is a very transferable designation, says Reano. Having an accounting major can lead to a wide variety of corporations, especially with finances becoming more and more standardized. For students and aspiring business professionals, this makes it even easier to enter a non-financial sector.

Ranked among the best law firms in the world, Fasken Martineau DuMoulin LLP is a growing and prospering business with professionals who thoroughly understand their product. The law firm continues to improve and rise to new heights, and looks to be a strong place to work regardless of educational background.

Every February, thousands of university students apply for internships all across the province, hoping to land a coveted position. It’s no wonder why; internships provide crucial real-job experience to students who have little to no practice in the field. Internships can be tricky to find however, and many students overlook great opportunities simply because they don’t know where to search. Thankfully, Ryerson’s solution to this problem can be found in the Business Careers Program.

WHAT IT IS
Ryerson’s Business Careers program provides paid internships and graduate placements for Ryerson’s top students. The program was founded about nine years ago by Ryerson in collaboration with Professor Peter Wilson, who, after a seven-year hiatus, has resumed his position as program director. During his time as director, Wilson has garnered an impressive list of employers who work in conjunction with the program to provide placements for Ryerson students.

HOW IT WORKS
The business careers program connects students to some of the foremost leading businesses and firms in Toronto. Through a combination of classroom-style learning, engaging workshops and hands-on work experience, the program is designed to assist Ryerson’s best students.

Students currently in the business careers program must meet a number of academic, interpersonal and communication criteria. Peter Wilson believes that these criteria are instrumental in maintaining Ryerson’s ability to foster new employer partnerships. “New organizations are contacting us because of advice from their peers in other organizations that have hired Business Careers Program members.” Seasoned business career students also have a role in expanding the program. “Placed students that have advanced over the past several years to more responsible positions are recommending the program to others in their organizations” says Wilson.

BENEFITS
Peter Wilson’s efforts on maintaining the quality and integrity of his program has been met with impressive results. Since its inception, the Business Careers program has acquired over 200 employer partnerships, and placed more than 500 students in meaningful internship positions. “The benefits of the program to the members are not simply placements,” says Wilson, “but also the skills provided by the unique business expertise in the program available to students in their own search for experience, and to get their careers started in the right direction.”

Why should you consider the Business Careers program? Firstly, students joining program benefit from a vast number of opportunities that would not be easily available otherwise. Business Careers has managed to secure partnerships with many major companies such as Hydro One, IBM, Xerox, Holt Renfrew and BMW. They also have fostered close relationships with the big four chartered accounting firms: Deloitte and Touche, Ernst and Young, Pricewaterhouse Coopers and KPMG. These companies regularly hold recruitment events where Business Career students are invited to eat, drink and schmooze with Toronto’s finest employers.

Secondly, experience gained at a notable company early in your career provides a crucial advantage; one that is highly valued to prospective future employers.

HOW TO APPLY
1. Make sure that you qualify for the program
Students must maintain at least a 3.0 GPA or higher on all Ryerson courses contributing to their BComm.
2. Ensure that you apply in the right time frame and by the specified deadline
3. Complete the student online application
4. Attend a mandatory Orientation workshop
5. Set up an informal interview with the director
Qualified students will be instructed on how to do this. During the interview, the director will review your cover letter and resume, assess your interpersonal and communication skills, discuss your career goals and objectives, and review the program’s policies and procedures.
6. Prepare an effective resume and cover letter
For more information on Business Careers, visit: http://www.ryerson.ca/businesscareers/

“Since I was president of the Ryerson commerce society in the 2007-2008 academic year, I’ve wanted to see this conference happen. More time, opportunity and resources helped create and implement this successful conference.  The Ted Rogers memorial conference provides value and motivation to delegates while paying tribute to one of the most eminent business leaders in this country, Mr.Ted Rogers” said Abdul Snobar, manager of the Ryerson Commerce Society.

All corporate representatives are from corporations that have been affiliated with Rogers Communications Inc. and they have each worked closely with the late Ted Rogers. They provided students with insights and advice regarding business aspirations, their goals as students and their responsibilities as future business men and women. Students had the privilege of hearing four different opinions and points of view, as each speaker worked in a different industry and played a unique role as a president and CEO.

President Sheldon Levy shows his support for TRMC at the Saturday night’s gala. Courtesy of Amanda Parker

Arzan Bharucha, fourth year business management student and director of corporate relations of the RCS said that this conference helped prepare students for their futures.

“You’re not only learning skill for business, you’re learning skills for everyday life,” said Bharucha.

The panel discussion, which was hosted by CityNews anchor Gord Martineau, was a source of inspiration and motivation for many students who were still deciding their career paths.

The speakers explained the importance of passion, personal value, hard work and the overlap between all three as vital to achieving goals.

“You’ve got to find an industry you’re passionate about,” said Larry Rosen, current CEO of Harry Rosen Inc., who added that his son is pursuing a career in the music industry.

Tim Hockey, CEO of TD Canada Trust, also highlighted the importance of choosing a career that’s compatible and unique to one’s persona

“If you want to work for a large organization, find the culture that you fit with, don’t go for the job,” said Hockey.

The panelists openly spoke about their setbacks, challenges and failures and how they overcame them. Bill Thomas from KPMG said he keeps his very first rejection letter from KPMG as a reminder to stick to his values and work hard to achieve his goals, “I have this letter framed and on my wall,” said Thomas..

The speakers also discussed leadership and the means to becoming good leaders. Nadir Mohamed, CEO and president of Rogers Communications Inc., explained that a company is bettered through the empowerment of others.

“As a wise man once said, show me where my people are, and I will follow them,” said Mohamed

He explained that while working closely with Ted Rogers, he constantly learned from his dedication and persistence to meet and satisfy customer needs.

“I’d get a handful of voicemails from Ted early in the morning asking me to implement improvements to our company immediately. He’d have a casual conversation the night before with a Rogers’ customer and would call me the next morning letting me know whether this person was satisfied with our services or not and what should be done about it,” said Mohamed.

To students and individuals outside of the realm, the business this field may only like strategic money-making, rather than a domain where personal values can be put into use, the speakers and events of the Ted Rogers memorial conference were successful at drawing the bridge between personal and financial growth, and encouraged the practice of values and ethics, both in personal lives and in business.

Arzan Bharucha explained the diverse nature of the business world: “Business is not limited to one aspect, you need to be well-rounded as a business person, and you need values.”

TRMC Day 1