Global Affairs Canada goes on real estate spending spree, taxpayers foot the bill

From the Canadian Taxpayers Federation

Records obtained by the CTF show Clark’s lavish condo is just the tip of the iceberg, with the department dropping taxpayer cash on other luxury properties around the world.

Official residences in other countries: $38 million.

Properties in Afghanistan abandoned to the Taliban: $41 million.

Vacant land in Senegal: $12.5 million.

A chancery in Ukraine: $10.2 million.

Those are some of the holdings in Global Affairs Canada’s real estate portfolio, which has cost taxpayers $186 million in the past 10 years alone.

All told, Global Affairs Canada owns more than 400 properties in more than 70 countries, according to access-to-information records obtained by the Canadian Taxpayers Federation.

“Do we really need the government dropping tens of millions of dollars on official residences half-way around the world?” said Franco Terrazzano, CTF Federal Director. “Better question, does Senegal not have vacant land available for less than eight figures?

“With the government more than $1 trillion in debt, taxpayers need to know why the government is spending so much of our money overseas.”

Global Affairs Canada is embroiled in controversy after it purchased a $9-million luxury condo for New York Consul General Tom Clark amid a housing and cost-of-living crisis.

The records obtained by the CTF show Clark’s lavish condo is just the tip of the iceberg, with the department dropping taxpayer cash on other luxury properties around the world.

Global Affairs Canada has spent $38.4 million on official residences since 2014, including New Zealand ($2.4 million), Barbados ($3.8 million) and Trinidad and Tobago ($2.5 million), among others.

In London, U.K., Global Affairs Canada spent $58 million on 23 properties since 2015, all of which serve as “staff quarters,” according to the records. All told, Global Affairs Canada owns 65 properties in London purchased for $208 million.

In Kabul, Afghanistan, Global Affairs Canada spent $41 million on three properties in late 2018 and 2019, which have since been abandoned to the Taliban.

Prior to the first property in Kabul being purchased, the U.S. had already begun negotiations with the Taliban for an end to the Afghanistan War.

Seven months after Global Affairs Canada purchased the last property in Kabul, the U.S. struck a deal with the Taliban for the withdrawal of American troops from the country.

On Aug. 15, 2021, Canada pulled its presence from Afghanistan.

“We have … been unable to inspect the state of these properties since that date,” Global Affairs Canada told the CTF in a written statement.

In October 2021, the Globe and Mail reported that “Islamist militants now guard the former headquarters of Canada’s diplomatic mission in the Afghan capital.”

“This is a lot of taxpayers’ money to spend on new property in Afghanistan when our ally had already been clear it was preparing to leave,” Terrazzano said. “Canadian taxpayers are out $41 million and the Taliban now has new digs, so is anyone in government going to answer for the decision to purchase these properties?”

In Kyiv, Ukraine, Global Affairs Canada purchased a chancery for $10.2 million in 2017.

In Senegal, a country in West Africa, Global Affairs Canada bought $12.5 million worth of “vacant land” in 2022.

“Global Affairs Canada’s real estate portfolio is bloated and the taxpayer tab is ludicrous,” Terrazzano said. “Someone in government must explain what value taxpayers are supposedly getting for the hundreds of millions of dollars spent on all these lavish properties in far flung countries.

“And if Canadians aren’t getting real value, then it’s time to sell off properties so taxpayers can recoup some of this money.”

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California planning to double film tax credits amid industry decline

Published on April 3, 2025

Todayville

From The Center Square

By Kenneth Schrupp

California legislators have unveiled a bill to follow through with the governor’s plan of more than doubling the state’s film and TV production tax credits to $750 million.

The state’s own analysis warns it’s likely the refundable production credits generate only 20 to 50 cents of state revenue for every dollar the state spends, and the increase could stoke a “race to the bottom” among the 38 states that now have such programs.

Industry insiders say the state’s high production costs are to blame for much of the exodus, and experts say the cost of housing is responsible for a significant share of the higher costs.

The bill creates a special carve-out for shooting in Los Angeles, where productions would be able to claim refundable credits for 35% of the cost of production.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom announced his proposal last year and highlighted his goal of expanding the program at an industry event last week.

“California is the entertainment capital of the world – and we’re committed to ensuring we stay that way,” said Newsom. “Fashion and film go hand in hand, helping to express characters, capture eras in time and reflect cultural movements.”

With most states now offering production credits, economic analysis suggests these programs now produce state revenue well below the cost of the credits themselves.

“A recent study from the Los Angeles County Economic Development Corporation found that each $1 of Program 2.0 credit results in $1.07 in new state and local government revenue. This finding, however, is significantly overstated due to the study’s use of implausible assumptions,” wrote the state’s analysts in a 2023 report. “Most importantly, the study assumes that no productions receiving tax credits would have filmed here in the absence of the credit.”

“This is out of line with economic research discussed above which suggests tax credits influence location decisions of only a portion of recipients,” continued the state analysis. “Two studies that better reflect this research finding suggest that each $1 of film credit results in $0.20 to $0.50 of state revenues.”

“Parks and Recreation” stars Rob Lowe and Adam Scott recently shared on Lowe’s podcast how costs are so high their show likely would have been shot in Europe instead.

“It’s cheaper to bring 100 American people to Ireland than to walk across the lot at Fox past the sound stages and do it and do it there,” said Lowe.

“Do you think if we shot ‘Parks’ right now, we would be in Budapest?” asked Scott, who now stars in “Severance.”

“100%,” replied Lowe. “All those other places are offering 40% — forty percent — and then on top of that there’s other stuff that they do, and then that’s not even talking about the union stuff. That’s just tax economics of it all.”

“It’s criminal what California and LA have let happen. It’s criminal,” continued Lowe. “Everybody should be fired.”

According to the Public Policy Institute of California, housing is the single largest expense for California households.

“Across the income spectrum, 35–44% of household expenditures go to covering rent, mortgages, utilities and home maintenance,” wrote PPIC.

The cost of housing due to supply constraints now makes it nearly impossible for creatives to get their start in LA, said M. Nolan Gray, legislative director at housing regulatory reform organization California YIMBY.

“Hollywood depends on Los Angeles being the place where anybody can show up, take a big risk, and pursue their dreams, and that only works if you have a lot of affordable apartments,” said Gray to The Center Square. “We’ve built a Los Angeles where you have to be fabulously wealthy to have stable and decent housing, and as a result a lot of folks either are not coming, or those who are coming need to paid quite a bit higher to make it worth it, and it’s destroying one of California’s most important industries.”

“Anybody who arrived in Hollywood before the 2010s, their story is always, ‘Yeah, I showed up in LA, and I lived in a really, really dirt-cheap apartment with like $10 in my pocket.’ That just doesn’t exist anymore,” continued Gray. “Does the Walt Disney of 2025 not take the train from Kansas City to LA? Almost certainly not. If he goes anywhere, he goes to Atlanta.”

Business

Trump orders 10% baseline tariff on imports, closes de minimis loophole

Published on April 2, 2025

Todayville

From The Center Square

By Brett Rowland

Reciprocal tariffs higher on many nations

President Donald Trump on Wednesday put the biggest piece of his new trade policy in effect by signing executive orders that place a 10% baseline tariff on all imports and much higher rates on nations that put taxes on U.S. products.

It could be the opening salvo in a global trade war, or, as Trump sees it, the beginning of a “Golden Age” for U.S. trade.

Trump also closed the small value packages loophole that allowed China to avoid taxes on packages valued at less than $800. Companies such as Temu and Shein used the loophole to ship billions of dollars worth of products directly to U.S. consumers and avoid paying the tax, as The Center Square previously reported.

President Trump speaks about tariffs at a Make America Wealthy Again event

White House

Trump’s moves on Wednesday, which he termed “Liberation Day” for U.S. trade, marked the most significant shift in U.S. trade policy since the end of World War II.

In a speech from the White House’s Rose Garden, Trump said foreign nations for decades have stolen American jobs, factories and industries. He said the tariffs would bring in new jobs, factories and industries and return the U.S. to a manufacturing superpower.

“Our country and its taxpayers have been ripped off for more than 50 years,” Trump said. “But it is not going to happen anymore.”

Trump’s supporters praised the trade overhaul. U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene said it was time for foreign nations to pay up.

“If you want to do business in America, you need to play by our rules,” she said. “For too long, American businesses, big and small, have been ripped off by bad trade deals and unfair competition. President Trump is putting a stop to it. He’s standing up for our workers, our companies and our consumers.”

Critics slammed Trump’s trade plans.

“Donald Trump may want to call this ‘Liberation Day,’ but there is nothing liberating for working families who are grappling with the high costs of food, housing, and utilities,” said Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker, a Democrat. “Tariffs are a tax. They are a tax on working families, a tax on groceries, and a tax on other everyday necessities.”

Other countries planned their own responses. The European Union plans to retaliate with its own measures.

“Europe has not started this confrontation,” EU boss Ursula von der Leyen said in a speech. “We do not necessarily want to retaliate but, if it is necessary, we have a strong plan to retaliate and we will use it.”

She said tariffs are taxes “paid by the people.”

“But Europe has everything to protect our people and our prosperity,” she wrote on X. “We will always promote & defend our interests and values. And we will always stand up for Europe.”

China, the world’s second-largest economy, said Monday that it was planning to coordinate its response to U.S. tariffs with Japan and South Korea.

Japan’s Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba said Tuesday that he was willing to fly to the U.S. to meet with Trump to get an exemption for Japanese vehicle makers. He also said the government will take steps to minimize the impact of U.S. tariffs on Japanese industries and jobs.

Trump will impose a 10% tariff on all countries that will take effect April 5, 2025 at 12:01 a.m. EDT. Trump will impose an individualized reciprocal tariff on the countries with which the United States has the largest trade deficits, including China, India and Vietnam, among others. All other countries will continue to be subject to the 10% tariff baseline, according to the White House.

“These tariffs will remain in effect until such a time as President Trump determines that the threat posed by the trade deficit and underlying nonreciprocal treatment is satisfied, resolved, or mitigated,” according to a White House fact sheet.

Trump’s executive order also gives him authority to increase the tariffs

“if trading partners retaliate” or “decrease the tariffs if trading partners take significant steps to remedy non-reciprocal trade arrangements and align with the United States on economic and national security matters,” according to the White House.

“Foreign cheaters have stolen our jobs, ransacked our factories and foreign scavengers have torn apart our once beautiful American dream,” Trump said in the Rose Garden.

For China, the tariff rate will be about 34% on imports from the world’s most populous nation. For European Union countries, it will be 20%. For Japan, the duty will be 24%. Imports from India will get a 26% tariff. Cambodia will get hit with a 49% tariff, among the highest Trump outlined on Wednesday.

For months, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce has warned that tariffs could increase costs for U.S. consumers and hurt businesses. Neil Bradley, the chamber’s chief policy officer, said businesses large and small don’t want tariffs.

“What we have heard from business of all sizes, across all industries, from around the country is that these broad tariffs are a tax increase that will raise prices for American consumers and hurt the economy,” he said.

Last week, Trump announced a 25% tariff on imported automobiles and auto parts, duties that he said would be “permanent.” The White House said it expects the auto tariffs on cars and light-duty trucks will generate up to $100 billion in federal revenue.

Trump said he hopes to bring in $600 billion to $1 trillion in tariff revenue in the next year or two. Trump also said the tariffs would lead to a manufacturing boom in the U.S., with auto companies building new plants, expanding existing plants and adding jobs.