Last week’s 2010 federal budget announced that the government would pursue legislation to allow credit unions to incorporate federally and operate nationally.

Creating a Federal Framework for Credit Unions

Canada is home to a strong and vibrant credit union industry that provides financial services to millions of Canadian consumers and small businesses. To promote the continued growth and competitiveness of the sector and enhance financial stability, the Government will introduce a legislative framework to enable credit unions to incorporate and continue their operations as federal entities. Allowing credit unions to grow and be competitive on a national scale will broaden choices for consumers by helping credit unions to attract new members and improve services to existing members across provincial borders.
— Busdget 2010: Chapter 3.3: Building on a Strong Economic Foundation

This could be a big deal. Currently banks are governed by the federal Bank Act and credit unions are regulated provincially under provincial acts.

In the past credit unions that wanted to serve members in more than one province would have had to either incorporate in both provinces, which I don’t know any examples because it was probably reulatorily prohibitive, or buy or start a bank.

VanCity used to operate the online Citizens Bank, which was sold to TD. Alterna Savings & Credit Union Ltd. in Ottawa owns CS Alterna Bank as a subsidiary to serve cutsomers across the country.

It will also help the Creative Arts Credit Union which I visited last fall. Their bond of association spanning the creative performing arts and being affiliated with a national organization makes the credit union well-suited to federal incorproation.

In fact, the executive director of ACTRA and former credit union central VP Brian Topp wrote about the issue on his blog at TGAM.

I’m betting that Finance Minister Jim Flaherty spends less time keeping his eye on Twitter than his colleague in the Heritage Department. But he too made at least one helpful commitment during recalibration week. The government committed to modernize banking legislation to permit Canada’s credit unions to operate nationally, across provincial boundaries.

Credit unions are the leading and best financial institutions in much of the country, Ontarian readers might be surprised to learn. The Desjardins credit union system is the market leader in Quebec (like most students in that province’s French-language Catholic school system of the time, I well remember being issued my little gold Desjardins bank book the first week of First Grade – another tiny step towards successfully rolling back the dominance of commercial chartered banks over Quebec’s families and its economy). Credit unions are similarly ubiquitous in British Columbia and Saskatchewan; are highly competitive in Alberta and Manitoba; and are growing nicely in Atlantic Canada.
— Two cheers for the government (no, really) Brian Topp 7 Mar 2010

We’ll have to see what legislation comes out of this and whether it passes, but it very well could improve financial services for Canadian consumers.

I have been putting some more thought into what different functions the Waterloo Banking Project organization would have.

I’d like to have a vision of what things the organization would do before we start creating it, so there is something to reconcile decisions with and stay true to our vision and mission.
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We beat Doon with a key save and a key goal in the final few minutes of our indoor soccer match last night.

Different than usual, our regular goalkeeper wasn’t there and we had more than a couple subs. Ben stepped up to tend goal and we committed to run hard because of our deeper bench. Normally we have to be focused on the whole game as our opponents often have full lines to change.
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The winter term is the time for a lot of Waterloo students to look for rental accommodation and signing leases for the next school year. Landlords often take advantage of these tenants’ inexperience to put egregious clauses in the contracts.

Some friends were considering a place to rent and showed me the lease. It had a few things that were against the law.

The property management company was asking for a deposit of two month’s rent plus a security deposit.

a) $_____ as deposit to be applied as prepaid rent towards the last and first months’ rent of the term of this Lease. Due at signing of this Lease.
[...]
b) $200.00 EACH as a refundable deposit for all keys/furniture/appliances/security deposit. Due at the signing of this lease and made out to [...] (post-dated to the start date of your lease).

It is against the Residential Tenancies Act 105.(1) to charge a deposit of more than the cost of one month’s rent. Nor can landlord require post-dated cheques (108.(a))

The lease also required 255 days notice for termination at the end of the lease.

The tenant may, up until DECEMBER 15, 2010, give written notice to terminate the tenancy as of _AUGUST _ 27th, 2011.

This is also against the act. Notice of termination can only be given under the provisions given in the law (Termination only in accordance with Act 37. (1)). And tenants can, most commonly, terminate a lease at the end of the term of the lease with 60 days notice given on the last day of the month (a href=”http://www.e-laws.gov.on.ca/html/statutes/english/elaws_statutes_06r17_e.htm#BK50″>Period of notice, monthly tenancy 44 (2).).

They also have a clause with false information about the local smoking bylaw.
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Jesse, a friend and fellow former Imprinter, e-mailed the Imprint board and others opposing the proposed policy to pay section editors $2,000.

Imprint president e-mailed Jesse back and then later e-mailed the Imprint mailing list to say that the board had rejected the changes.
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Update: Imprint president e-mail out that night that the board had rejected the changes to the honoraria policy.

The official student newspaper at Waterloo, Imprint, is holding its annual general meeting Monday and is proposing a policy of paying editorial staff large sums of money for “volunteering.”

The honoraria would range from $2,500 per term for the assistant editor and $2,000 for section editors to 500 for positions like photo editor, $250 for their assistants. The policy proposal also suggests $20 per >300 word contributions by senior staff and $10 for junior staff contributions.

I estimate the total cost per year would be about $56,000. I can’t be certain because at least one position isn’t listed and may have been left out in error.

Changing the policy is a worthwhile; the current version of the policy set no levels and left it up to the board of directors of Imprint Publications, Waterloo. Under that version, the board could have set honoraria at high levels with no restriction from the policy. The amounts proposed, however, are far too high.
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We gathered to remember Jeffrey Stephen Aho on Monday.

Friends, brothers, classmates, teachers, and family gathered in the Festival Room on the Waterloo campus for an event that, if it were for merely social reasons, Jeff would have loved.

There were wine, cheese, crackers, fruit, vegetables and hors d’oeuvres, but people didn’t really eat or drink. I estimated about 180 people there.
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I remember all the phone calls I have ever received and learned that a friend or family member had died. When we were told our mother was gone, when my grandma passed, after my uncle had died on my birthday, or my best friend’s sister had died the next day on what would have been my mother’s birthday. Then there were others like when I found out that two close friends had been killed by the trauma of an avalanche.

I got another such phone call last Thursday — actually 0:21 on Friday. I had just gotten back from a late indoor soccer match and was eating some cheese and salamini. Then my mobile phone buzzed. I answered it and my whole perspective changed. Allan told me that Jeff was dead. I was shocked. I didn’t expect to hear that. I told him I would be by the house.

It seemed like the longest drive focused on the road and each light as my mind wandered and wondered how everyone was and what was happening. I got there and there were plenty of people at the Sigma Chi house somber and calling others to give them the news.
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Being aware of behaviour and being able to measure it is necessary to affect or control it. With personal finances it is important to know what you are spending and know what you are earning to be able to spend according to your priorities.

I tracked my spending and matched it against a budget in an Excel spreadsheet years ago, but stopped when my computer failed. Last month I returned to the practice using Google Docs. It worked out great.

I saved more than a thousand dollars and put money away for future capital purchases. It helped that I had three bi-weekly pay cheques in January, but I was paid less because of taking time off at Christmas and I had some irregular expenses that either won’t be there in future months or will be paid from my “capital” account.

I’m not just doing it for my own benefit, but I intend part of the mission of Waterloo Banking Project to be education in financial management, so this is good exploration of the possibilities.

Below is a cropped screenshot of my spreadsheet with obviously fake numbers (click on it to see the full version of my expense tracking and budgeting spreadsheet).

Basically, I estimate my income and regular expenses to set my budget then every time I pay for anything, I enter the data into the spreadsheet.

For each expense, I type in what part of the budget it is applies to and the equation shown adds it up.

I expect I am going to change the different budget accounts to include philanthropy (for charitable donations) and to change the scope of some of the other sections.

I know there are other tools out there for personal finances, but this one is working out okay for now.

Let me know what you think, or give me suggestions.

Waterloo prides itself on its “entrepreneurial culture” that produces numerous innovative ventures. I don’t know whether there were programs to train students in venture creation back in the days of Watcom and Volker-Craig, but there surely are now.

It is interesting to look back at the different programs, which in my experience include: Enterprise Co-op, UW Innovate Inc., Business Start-up Boot Camp, MBET, and VeloCity.

Interestingly VeloCity just announced a ‘bootcamp’ program.

The University of Waterloo is drawing on its widely acknowledged strengths in innovation to this summer launch a new type of collaborative training camp. Some of the most promising young entrepreneurs in Canada will come to learn how to help create the country’s future economy at the VeloCity Entrepreneur Bootcamp.
— Waterloo launches new bootcamp for young tech entrepreneurs UW News Release 26 Jan 2010

It reminded me of a post at UW Opinion by Garret.

Of the twelve start-ups, if they can be called that, that Jesse Rodgers has listed as part of the article I can’t help but feel slight dissatisfaction as the vast majority of these project aren’t what can traditionally be considered ‘innovative’, instead falling squarely into that listless mire known as ‘derivative’.
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Much of the passion that’s traditionally associated with startups is missing from VeloCity. It has become another resume-padding line, without actually pushing people to innovate.
[...]
Since it’s not a monitored system, projects like “fitness application” get cranked out in place of original content.
— VeloCity without acceleration UW Opinion 9 Jan 2010

I thought he was too harsh and lacked some reason, so I responded.

Commenting on “VeloCity without acceleration” by Garret Kelly posted on 9 Jan 2010

It’s premature to make full judgement of the VeloCity projects based on descriptions of few words in the blog post. A decade ago the idea for the BlackBerry might have been described as “a mobile communication device,” which wouldn’t have given us enough information to judge its potential.

To truly judge VeloCity, we would need more knowledge of the program and time to see whether businesses come from it or its alumni.

There is value however in considering the stengths and shortcomings of any program, VeloCity included. Feedback can help them improve or show that efforts may be better directed elsewhere.

Setting up a system to produce innovative businesses is a tall order. For an initiative to be truly disruptive, it requires unusual circumstance to be realized. Given this challenge, there is a danger that VeloCity will be reduced to a program that offers students training in the mechanics of a startup, experience developing an idea and connects them with industry support, rather than being a reliable source for successful businesses.

VeloCity surely is only a piece of Waterloo’s entrepreneurial community and only one of what should be many efforts in fostering venture creation at our university

— RC-W
— More comments on VeloCity UW Opinion 10 Jan 2010

I do think many programs do get a lot of hype and many students are in it for resume padding. Not many have a good basis to judge and I do think some students are earnest innovators from whom we will see big things soon. We have seen it happen before.

• 8 Dec 2009