Business Spotlight – JB Music Therapy, Music To Our Ears

Not all of us are musicians, or will ever be, but we all have some deep-rooted love for music. The preferences we choose throughout our life tend to stay with us, and in turn, make us unique. The same way your choice of clothing is your own unique form of self-expression, our music preferences play a significant role in how we view ourselves. With that being said, have you ever considered how music makes you feel, or what role it can play for your mental well being? Listen to the beautiful “Serenade for Strings in E Major, Op. 22, B. 52: II.” composed by Antonín Dvořák and tell me you feel nothing.

Jennifer Buchanan

Jennifer Buchanan, a bright light in the ecosystem of innovative entrepreneurs in Alberta, served her first client in September of 1991.

Her business, JB Music Therapy, 29 years in business, continues to connect music therapists to all walks of life, their youngest client being 2 months old to their oldest of 106 years of age.

Their core value is built on the foundation of connection, whether that be connecting to music, families or simply peer to peer. Over the years, Jennifer has built a team of educated professionals in the field of psychology, mental health and music therapy, to which are all members of the Canadian Association of Music Therapists. Jennifer speaks on moving to Alberta:

“Alberta seemed ready for something different to reach the needs of the people, with some luck on my side because music therapy was new, it really started taking off…I quickly transitioned from a private practice, to somebody that wanted to create more jobs for other music therapists. Today we are a team of 23”

JB Music Therapy offers a wide array of services. Jennifer and her team have strived to offer multiple group programs for all walks of life, to name a few, those with disabilities, care homes, children with learning difficulties and corporate wellness in the workplace. Prior to COVID-19, they were actively visiting over 170 locations a week for in person group and individual sessions. Of course with the cancellation of every group event across the country, Jennifer and her team wanted to ensure they could still offer music therapy to those who could benefit, establishing online resources that can be utilized from home. Jennifer speaks on how pivoting during a pandemic has helped her discover a new avenue to offer support:

“We will now forever offer virtual music therapy so we can continue to reach those most vulnerable, so people can get the support they need… we are running national groups now, we have connected with national organisations to offer our programs online, that is something we are very excited about and never considered outside of a conference or seminar setting”

Award Winning

Jennifer has played a considerable role for music therapy in Canada, serving as president of the Canadian Association of Music Therapy for 5 years, a professional public speaker, multiple nominations by the Calgary Chamber of Commerce for her work in the community and an author of two award winning books, “Wellness Incorporated” and “Tune In”. For new entrepreneurs looking to start a business the right way, or those hoping to attain a higher understanding of music therapy, these books are worth checking out.

The Norma Sharpe Award is the most prestigious award in music therapy in Canada. It is awarded to those who have made historical and outstanding contributions to the field of music therapy. Jennifer is one of the few people in Canada to ever receive this award.

“I hope I have been able to raise the profile of music therapy in some way over my lifetime, and to help create jobs in this field…frankly it was a real honor to receive this award. Norma Sharpe being the founder of music therapy in Canada, I never considered that I would receive this lifetime achievement”

If you would like to learn more about the tremendous work being done by the team at JB Music Therapy, and the programs they currently have available, visit their website here, or social media links below.

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Scott McGinn

www.scottmcginn.ca

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Worst kept secret—red tape strangling Canada’s economy

Published on February 22, 2025

Todayville

From the Fraser Institute

By Matthew Lau

In the past nine years, business investment in Canada has fallen while increasing more than 30 per cent in the U.S. on a real per-person basis. Workers in Canada now receive barely half as much new capital per worker than in the U.S.

According to a new Statistics Canada report, government regulation has grown over the years and it’s hurting Canada’s economy. The report, which uses a regulatory burden measure devised by KPMG and Transport Canada, shows government regulatory requirements increased 2.1 per cent annually from 2006 to 2021, with the effect of reducing the business sector’s GDP, employment, labour productivity and investment.

Specifically, the growth in regulation over these years cut business-sector investment by an estimated nine per cent and “reduced business start-ups and business dynamism,” cut GDP in the business sector by 1.7 percentage points, cut employment growth by 1.3 percentage points, and labour productivity by 0.4 percentage points.

While the report only covered regulatory growth through 2021, in the past four years an avalanche of new regulations has made the already existing problem of overregulation worse.

The Trudeau government in particular has intensified its regulatory assault on the extraction sector with a greenhouse gas emissions cap, new fuel regulations and new methane emissions regulations. In the last few years, federal diktats and expansions of bureaucratic control have swept the auto industry, child care, supermarkets and many other sectors.

Again, the negative results are evident. Over the past nine years, Canada’s cumulative real growth in per-person GDP (an indicator of incomes and living standards) has been a paltry 1.7 per cent and trending downward, compared to 18.6 per cent and trending upward in the United States. Put differently, if the Canadian economy had tracked with the U.S. economy over the past nine years, average incomes in Canada would be much higher today.

Also in the past nine years, business investment in Canada has fallen while increasing more than 30 per cent in the U.S. on a real per-person basis. Workers in Canada now receive barely half as much new capital per worker than in the U.S., and only about two-thirds as much new capital (on average) as workers in other developed countries.

Consequently, Canada is mired in an economic growth crisis—a fact that even the Trudeau government does not deny. “We have more work to do,” said Anita Anand, then-president of the Treasury Board, last August, “to examine the causes of low productivity levels.” The Statistics Canada report, if nothing else, confirms what economists and the business community already knew—the regulatory burden is much of the problem.

Of course, regulation is not the only factor hurting Canada’s economy. Higher federal carbon taxes, higher payroll taxes and higher top marginal income tax rates are also weakening Canada’s productivity, GDP, business investment and entrepreneurship.

Finally, while the Statistics Canada report shows significant economic costs of regulation, the authors note that their estimate of the effect of regulatory accumulation on GDP is “much smaller” than the effect estimated in an American study published several years ago in the Review of Economic Dynamics. In other words, the negative effects of regulation in Canada may be even higher than StatsCan suggests.

Whether Statistics Canada has underestimated the economic costs of regulation or not, one thing is clear: reducing regulation and reversing the policy course of recent years would help get Canada out of its current economic rut. The country is effectively in a recession even if, as a result of rapid population growth fuelled by record levels of immigration, the GDP statistics do not meet the technical definition of a recession.

With dismal GDP and business investment numbers, a turnaround—both in policy and outcomes—can’t come quickly enough for Canadians.

Matthew Lau

Adjunct Scholar, Fraser Institute

Business

‘Out and out fraud’: DOGE questions $2 billion Biden grant to left-wing ‘green energy’ nonprofit`

Published on February 22, 2025

Todayville

From LifeSiteNews

By Calvin Freiburger

The EPA under the Biden administration awarded $2 billion to a ‘green energy’ group that appears to have been little more than a means to enrich left-wing activists.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) under the Biden administration awarded $2 billion to a “green energy” nonprofit that appears to have been little more than a means to enrich left-wing activists such as former Democratic candidate Stacey Abrams.

Founded in 2023 as a coalition of nonprofits, corporations, unions, municipalities, and other groups, Power Forward Communities (PFC) bills itself as “the first national program to finance home energy efficiency upgrades at scale, saving Americans thousands of dollars on their utility bills every year.” It says it “will help homeowners, developers, and renters swap outdated, inefficient appliances with more efficient and modernized options, saving money for years ahead and ensuring our kids can grow up with cleaner, pollutant-free air.”

The organization’s website boasts more than 300 member organizations across 46 states but does not detail actual activities. It does have job postings for three open positions and a form for people to sign up for more information.

The Washington Free Beacon reported that the Trump administration’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) project, along with new EPA administrator Lee Zeldin, are raising questions about the $2 billion grant PFC received from the Biden EPA’s National Clean Investment Fund (NCIF), ostensibly for the “affordable decarbonization of homes and apartments throughout the country, with a particular focus on low-income and disadvantaged communities.”

PFC’s announcement of the grant is the organization’s only press release to date and is alarming given that the organization had somehow reported only $100 in revenue at the end of 2023.

“I made a commitment to members of Congress and to the American people to be a good steward of tax dollars and I’ve wasted no time in keeping my word,” Zeldin said. “When we learned about the Biden administration’s scheme to quickly park $20 billion outside the agency, we suspected that some organizations were created out of thin air just to take advantage of this.” Zeldin previously announced the Biden EPA had deposited the $20 billion in a Citibank account, apparently to make it harder for the next administration to retrieve and review it.

“As we continue to learn more about where some of this money went, it is even more apparent how far-reaching and widely accepted this waste and abuse has been,” he added. “It’s extremely concerning that an organization that reported just $100 in revenue in 2023 was chosen to receive $2 billion. That’s 20 million times the organization’s reported revenue.”

Daniel Turner, executive director of energy advocacy group Power the Future, told the Beacon that in his opinion “for an organization that has no experience in this, that was literally just established, and had $100 in the bank to receive a $2 billion grant — it doesn’t just fly in the face of common sense, it’s out and out fraud.”

Prominent among PFC’s insiders is Abrams, the former Georgia House minority leader best known for persistent false claims about having the state’s gubernatorial election stolen from her in 2018. Abrams founded two of PFC’s partner organizations (Southern Economic Advancement Project and Fair Count) and serves as lead counsel for a third group (Rewiring America) in the coalition. A longtime advocate of left-wing environmental policies, Abrams is also a member of the national advisory board for advocacy group Climate Power.