GM profit sharing: Here's the
record amount UAW members
will get for 2024

Breana Noble
The Detroit News
Jan 29, 2025

General Motors Co. will deliver record profit-sharing payouts of up to $14,500 this year to about 48,000 eligible hourly workers, according to the company's financial results released Tuesday.

The previous record of up to $12,750 for about 42,300 eligible hourly employees was set in 2023. Last year, GM paid roughly 45,000 workers up to $12,250. United Auto Workers Vice President Mike Booth said in a letter to members the payments would be distributed on Feb. 28.

The payouts will amount to $640 million in cost for the company, GM CEO Mary Barra said in a letter to shareholders.

"That’s a record payout of up to $14,500 per person," she wrote, "equal to more than two months of extra pay on average for our UAW-represented team."

For every $1 billion GM makes in North America, the automaker's hourly U.S. employees receive $1,000, according to the Detroit automaker's agreement with the United Auto Workers. GM made about $14.258 billion in North America in 2024, up 18% year-over-year.

"Our membership performed beyond all expectations," Booth wrote. "It is our members' skillfulness that made this profit possible, as they produce the finest products in the world., right here in the U.S.A."

During the UAW talks with the Detroit Three automakers in 2023, the union retained its profit-sharing formula with GM and negotiated profit-sharing payouts for temporary employees. In the 2019 agreement, the parties removed a $12,000 cap on profit sharing, paving the way for higher payments like those for 2025.

Barra's letter also noted global salaried employees will receive "strong performance bonuses" and that investors earned a 50% total return for 2024.

Ford Motor Co. reports its earnings, including profit sharing, after the market closes on Feb. 5. Stellantis NV reports before markets open in Europe on Feb. 26.

You could owe taxes on federal
benefits you got in 2024 —
Here's what you need to know

Story by MTL Blog Staff
Jan 27, 2024

Tax season is creeping up again, and if you received federal benefit payments in 2024 — like the GST/HST Credit, Canada Child Benefit, Employment Insurance and more — you might be wondering how they'll affect your income tax return.

It's important to know that while some government payments are tax-free, others need to be declared on your 2024 tax return — and not knowing the difference could lead to a surprise when it's time to file with the Canada Revenue Agency.

The good news? Some credits might even reduce how much tax you owe or help you snag a refund!

Canadians can officially start filing their 2024 returns online on Monday, February 17 this year, with the deadline for most people set for Wednesday, April 30. This is also the deadline to pay any taxes you owe, so make sure to note the date to avoid facing penalties.

Here's the full breakdown of which federal benefit payments are tax-free and which ones you'll need to claim on your 2024 income tax return.

GST/HST Credit

The GST/HST Credit is like a little bonus that comes every quarter. It's a tax-free payment designed to help individuals and families with low or modest incomes offset the cost of GST or HST. Think of it as a way to ease the pinch from everyday spending.

The good news? You don't need to include this payment on your tax return because it's not taxable. However, if you want to get this credit, you have to file your tax return. The Canada Revenue Agency automatically checks your eligibility when you file, so skipping your taxes means missing out on these payments.

Canada Pension Plan

The Canada Pension Plan (CPP) retirement pension is a monthly benefit that helps replace a portion of your income when you retire. Unlike most government payments, this one is taxable, so you'll need to include it as income when you file your taxes. The CRA will send you a T4 or NR4 tax slip to use when filing your return.

It's important to note that taxes also aren't automatically deducted from your CPP payments. If you'd prefer to avoid a larger tax bill down the line, you can ask to have federal income tax deducted from your monthly payments online in your My Service Canada Account or by mailing in a form. Otherwise, you may have to make quarterly tax payments to the CRA to stay on top of your income tax obligations.

Planning ahead can make it easier to manage the tax side of your retirement income, so it’s worth looking into your options for tax deductions.

Canada Child Benefit

Raising kids isn't cheap, and that's where the Canada Child Benefit (CCB) comes in. This monthly payment is designed to help eligible families cover the costs of raising children under 18.

The best part? CCB payments — including any related Child Disability Benefit amounts in your payment — aren't taxable, so you won't get a tax slip for them and you don't need to include them on your tax return. But here's the catch — to keep those payments coming, you and your partner need to file your tax returns on time every year, even if your income is tax-exempt or you didn't make any money.

Miss the deadline, and your CCB payments could stop until you get things sorted out. So, if this benefit helps cover the cost of little ones in your household, make sure tax time is on your radar!

Old Age Security

The Old Age Security (OAS) pension is a monthly payment available to Canadians aged 65 and older. Eligibility depends on how long you've lived in Canada after turning 18, not on your work history. You can receive OAS even if you have never worked or are still working.

Like with the CPP, OAS payments are considered taxable income, and taxes aren't automatically deducted each month. If you want to avoid a larger tax bill later, you can request federal income tax deductions from your monthly payments through your My Service Canada Account or by sending in a form. Without this, you may need to make quarterly tax payments.

At the beginning of each year, you'll receive a T4 slip (for those living in Canada) or an NR4 slip (for recipients outside of Canada) showing the amount you received the previous year. Be sure to include this slip when you file your income tax return.

Canada Workers Benefit

The Canada Workers Benefit (CWB) is a refundable tax credit that gives a financial boost to individuals and families earning a low income. This means that not only can it reduce the taxes you owe, but if the credit exceeds what you owe, the extra amount is refunded to you.

If you're eligible for a refund through the CWB, you'll get half of your credit when you file your return, and the other half will be split into three advance payments throughout the year through the Advanced Canada Workers Benefit (ACWB).

You don't need to apply for these advance payments, but you do need to file your tax return so the CRA can assess your eligibility.

If you're entitled to the CWB, you'll see it on line 45300 of your tax return. The CRA will handle the rest, ensuring any advanced payments reach you without additional paperwork.

Employment Insurance

If you received Employment Insurance benefits in 2024 — including maternity or parental leave payments — you'll get a T4E tax slip. This slip outlines the total benefits you received, the income tax already deducted and any repayments toward an overpayment, if applicable.

It's important to know that EI benefits count as taxable income for the year they're paid. For instance, if your claim began in late 2023 but payments only came through in 2024, that income is taxable for 2024. Some federal and provincial taxes are deducted at the source, but your final tax owed is calculated when you file your tax return.

If you're concerned about owing taxes at the end of the year, you can request that more tax be deducted from your EI payments by contacting ESDC or visiting a Service Canada Centre.

Feds expand probe into Ford
automated driving tech involved
in two fatal crashes

Grant Schwab
The Detroit News
Jan 23, 2025

Washington — The federal government is expanding an investigation into Ford Motor Co.'s driver assistance technology after two fatal crashes involving BlueCruise-equipped Mustang Mach-E vehicles.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration initially opened its investigation in April 2024 to assess BlueCruise, Ford's partial driving automation system available on certain vehicles.

"System limitations relating to the detection of stationary vehicles while traveling at highway speeds and in nighttime lighting conditions appear to be factors in collisions under investigation and several apparently similar near-miss, non-crash reports," NHTSA found.

The findings of the next investigative stage will be of great interest to the Dearborn automaker, owners of the 2.5 million Ford and Lincoln vehicles equipped with tech inside the scope of NHTSA's probe, and other companies that have rolled out automated driver features in recent years. The regulator's analysis will determine if a safety recall is necessary and could help influence the development of driver assistance features across the industry.

Ford describes BlueCruise as a hands-free driver assistance feature to "help make driving easier, more enjoyable, and less stressful." It is available on 130,000 miles of divided highways across North America, per the company. Most BlueCruise-enable vehicles also have lane-centering assist technology.

Those vehicles, according to NHTSA, use a combination of camera and radar sensing technologies to detect and classify objects as part of adaptive cruise control and pre-collision assist features. BlueCruise-equipped vehicles also use a camera-based monitoring system to make sure drivers remain attentive to the roads.

NHTSA noted that Ford, which has cooperated with the investigation, designed its adaptive cruise control feature to "inhibit any response to reported stationary objects when the subject vehicle’s approach speed is at or above 62 mph. Additionally, system performance may be limited when there is poor visibility due to insufficient illumination."

Those design choices were purposeful, Ford told the regulator, to avoid the "false detection of stationary objects at long distances."

In both of the fatal collisions that NHTSA looked into, the subject Mach-E vehicle was "traveling over 70 mph on a controlled-access highway during nighttime lighting conditions with hands-free BlueCruise engaged when it collided with a stationary vehicle."

The regulator continued: "Analysis of data imaged from the vehicles’ event data recorders demonstrates that in each incident, the driver did not apply the brakes or take evasive steering action, and no deceleration was initiated by either the BlueCruise system or PCA prior to impact."

NHTSA's preliminary investigation also identified four other frontal collisions wherein Ford vehicles, including two Mach-E vehicles, collided with a stopped or slow-moving object in a travel lane.

One of the fatal crashes, which occurred in Philadelphia in March 2024, happened with an intoxicated driver at the wheel. Investigators at the National Transportation Safety Board said they believe the other fatal crash, in San Antonio, Texas, in February 2024, occurred when a Mach-E struck a Honda CR-V that was stopped in the middle lane with no lights on.

"We are working with NHTSA to support this investigation," Ford spokesperson Amy Mast said in a Tuesday statement to The Detroit News.

US agency sues two automakers,
alleging discrimination
and harassment

Story by Jonathan Stempel
January 20, 2025

(Reuters) - The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission on Friday sued two large automakers, accusing General Motors and the United Auto Workers of age discrimination and the Stellantis unit that includes Chrysler of subjecting female employees to sexual harassment.

GM and the UAW were accused of having since October 2019 maintained a sickness-and-accident benefits policy under their collective bargaining agreement that reduces payouts to older employees who receive Social Security benefits.

The EEOC said the policy, covering at least 50 GM facilities nationwide, discriminates against employees ages 66 and older, violating the federal Age Discrimination in Employment Act.

Stellantis' FCA US unit, meanwhile, was accused of having since December 2020 tolerated pervasive sexual harassment of female employees at a Detroit assembly plant, and routinely ignored their complaints about male supervisors and co-workers, some of whom were placed in leadership roles.

The EEOC said the alleged harassment included inappropriate touching and sexually charged comments, and together with FCA's failure to discipline male harassers created a hostile work environment that violated Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

GM had no immediate comment, having yet to review its complaint. FCA and the UAW did not immediately respond to requests for comment about their respective cases.

The GM and UAW lawsuit seeks to recoup benefits that workers ages 66 and older deserved but never received, while the FCA lawsuit seeks compensatory and punitive damages for female employees at the Detroit plant.

Both lawsuits also seek permanent injunctions against further wrongful conduct.

GM and the UAW were sued in the federal court in New Albany, Indiana, while FCA was sued in Detroit federal court.

The lawsuits are part of a string of enforcement actions by several federal agencies in the final days of the Biden administration.

It is unclear how EEOC enforcement priorities will change after President-elect Donald Trump enters the White House.

Ford Closes German Factory This
Year, Leaving 4,000 Jobless

Story by Camilla Jessen
January 19, 2025

After 57 years, Ford is shutting down its car factory in Saarlouis, Germany.

This closure not only halts the production of iconic models like the Escort, Capri, Fiesta, and Focus but also leaves thousands of workers facing an uncertain future.

The Saarlouis factory, which has been a cornerstone of Ford’s operations since 1968, will stop producing cars by November. The final vehicle to roll off the line will be the Ford Focus, marking the end of an era for the plant, which currently produces about 600 cars daily.

Ford’s attempts to find a buyer for the factory last year were unsuccessful, leaving the company no choice but to close the facility.

This decision is part of Ford’s strategy to shift its focus toward electric vehicles, SUVs, and larger pickup trucks made primarily in the U.S. As a result, other Ford plants in Europe, including those in Spain and the UK, are also seeing cuts.

While Ford exits Saarlouis, the factory won’t remain empty for long.

Pharmaceutical company Vetter is set to take over the site. Vetter plans to create up to 2,000 jobs, giving many former Ford workers a chance to transition into a new industry.

“We aim to provide new career opportunities in a future-focused industry,” said Udo J., as reported by Automobilwoche and Boosted.

However, the new jobs won’t cover all of the 4,000 positions lost at Ford, leaving many workers in limbo.

The closure hits Saarland, a region with deep ties to the automotive industry, especially hard. With thousands of families depending on jobs linked to Ford, the loss creates widespread uncertainty.

For decades, the Saarlouis factory played a key role in Ford’s success, producing some of the brand’s most popular models. It started with the Escort, moved on to the Capri and Fiesta, and more recently, the Focus.

But as Ford pivots to electric vehicles, the production of the new electric Capri will take place in Cologne, leaving Saarlouis behind.

Uncertainty over Trump's
electric vehicle policies
clouds 2025 sales forecast

Damian J. Troise
Associated Press
Jan 12, 2025

New York — Electric vehicle demand is expected to keep rising this year, but uncertainty over policy changes and tariffs is clouding the forecast.

S&P Global Mobility expects global sales of 15.1 million battery electric vehicles in 2025, which would mark a 30% jump. Battery electric vehicles are expected to make up 16.7% of the market share for light vehicles.

Tesla Inc., BYD Auto Co. of China, and other manufacturers face big unknowns in 2025. Donald Trump's presidency could mean big policy shifts in tax and other incentives for both electric vehicle makers and consumers. The threat of tariffs on imports and retaliatory tariffs globally, could further complicate production and sales for electric vehicles.

“There's just a lot of uncertainty in the air,” said Stephanie Brinley, associate director of auto intelligence at S&P Global Mobility. “It's not an environment where you want to necessarily go gangbusters.”

In the U.S., consumers can currently claim a federal tax benefit of up to $7,500 for certain new electric vehicles. Carmakers also benefited from some federal support for electric vehicle production and infrastructure. It's possible for all of that to get cut under President-elect Donald Trump.

Overall sales are expected to grow modestly in the United States in 2025. Automotive digital services provider Cox Automotive Inc. recently projected this year will see 16.3 million sales in the U.S., which would be the best year since 2019

Trump condemned the federal tax credit for electric vehicles while campaigning for the presidency. He called it part of a “green new scam” that would would hurt the auto industry. Still, the incoming administration is expected push for broader deregulation of industries, which could potentially help carmakers.

Some of the larger electric vehicle makers had a mixed 2024 even with benefits for consumers and manufacturers. Tesla sales slipped 1.1%, its first annual sales drop in more than a dozen years. Rivian Automotive Inc.'s deliveries rose 2.9%.

Tariffs are another threat to the industry. Production takes place globally, with parts getting imported and exported throughout the process. Trump has threatened to tax imports from Mexico, Canada, China and elsewhere, which would likely result in retaliatory tariffs.

China is the largest market for electric vehicles, followed by the U.S. Within the U.S., Tesla is the dominant electric vehicle maker, with about 50% of the market share.

Automakers are in a wait-and-see position along with many other industries to see whether Trump carries out the threat of rescinding tax credits and implementing tariffs.

The broader auto industry is proceeding with caution. Overall, S&P Global Mobility expects that light vehicle production will have slid 1.6% in 2024 and will fall another 0.4% in 2025.

That's a result of automakers better matching production and demand. Overall light vehicle sales are still expected to rise 1.7% in 2025.

The ongoing transition to electric vehicles also plays a role in more tempered production. Companies like Ford Motor Co. and General Motors Co. are shifting production capacity to electric vehicles in some cases instead of adding more capacity.

Canada Pension Plan
and Old Age Security
to Increase in 2025

Jan 6, 2025

Union retirees receiving the Canada Pension Plan (CPP) have a reason to celebrate a little, a 2.7% increase in the CPP payments is set to begin in January 2025. This annual inflation adjustment is designed for purchasing power of retirees remains somewhat stable, a feature in safeguarding retirement income against the rising cost of living.

The impact of this adjustment depends on your current CPP payment. If you receive $1,000 per month, your new payment will rise to $1,027 per month, an extra $324 annually.

Old Age Security benefits are adjusted quarterly (January, April, July, and October) to account for inflation as measured by the Consumer Price Index (CPI). For 2025, this adjustment ensures that OAS payments continue to reflect the rising cost of living. Specific adjustments will be announced at the start of each quarter.

The maximum monthly OAS payment for the fourth quarter of 2024 is $727.67. It is expected that similar quarterly increases will carry forward into 2025. Additionally, seniors aged 75 and older receive a 10% boost to their monthly OAS payments, as introduced in July 2022.

As we are now in a federal election year it is important to understand the policy of the Conservative Party, in 2012, they increased the age of eligibility for Old Age Security (OAS) and the Guaranteed Income Supplement (GIS) from 65 to 67.  That move would have forced workers to work an additional two years past their expected retirement age, and loose $26,000 in retirement benefits.

Pierre Poilievre has not committed in not reintroducing these policies and has suggested that may not maintain other government programs union retirees enjoy.  

Read more - Canada Pension Plan and Old Age Security  2025

Dates (info) - Benefits payment dates - Canada.ca

Here are some of Ontario’s
new laws and regulations
coming into effect in 2025

Some new laws and regulations for Ontarians in the province took effect on January 1. Here is what you need to know moving forward.

By Rianna Lim, The Canadian Press
January 4, 2025

 A new year means new laws and regulations in Ontario, ranging from caps on child-care fees to tougher penalties for immigration fraud. 

Here are some of the rules and changes coming into effect as of Jan. 1: 

Childcare

The government is capping child-care fees at $22 per day for families with children in centres that are enrolled in the national $10-a-day program. 

The fees have already come down about 50 per cent to an average of $23 a day. Next year, they will fall to an average of $19, and capped at $22 – a 59 per cent reduction compared to 2020 rates. 

Those rates will be cut further to an average of $10 a day by March 2026, a date pushed back from an earlier pledge of September 2025. 

Officials have said the new funding formula, first announced in August, will ensure no childcare operators in the $10-a-day program will experience a loss. Starting in the new year, operators will get a main pool of funding based on several factors, such as how many spaces they operate, how many children they serve in each age group and the region in which they’re located. 

On the roads

Ontario is amending a regulation under the Highway Traffic Act to raise the total threshold to report a collision that involves property damage to police from $2,000 to $5,000. The province says the move aims to reduce the “administrative burden” on drivers, commercial vehicle operators and police services. 

Financial benefits

Amendments to the province’s tax law will extend eligibility of the Ontario Child Benefit for six months for families who have lost a child, matching the federal government’s Canada Child Benefit eligibility extension. 

Health care

Ontario is amending regulations to enact the voluntary mergers of these nine local public health agencies into four new ones:

– Brant County Health Unit and Haldimand-Norfolk Health Unit  

– Haliburton, Kawartha, Pine Ridge District Health Unit and Peterborough County-City Health Unit  

– Hastings and Prince Edward Counties Health Unit, Kingston, Frontenac and Lennox and Addington Health Unit and the Leeds, Grenville and Lanark District Health Unit 

– Porcupine Health Unit and Timiskaming Health Unit 

The province says these mergers will “address long-standing issues” in its public health sector, such as capacity limitations and staffing challenges. 

Also as of Jan. 1, all long-term care homes are required to have sprinklers. The province says it’s extending the compliance deadline to July 1, 2026, for some homes to allow for additional infrastructure work.  

Earlier this year, at least two long-term care homes said they would be closing in part because they couldn’t meet the sprinkler requirement deadline.

Immigration

Changes to the Ontario Immigration Act will “crackdown” on fraudulent immigration representatives that exploit newcomers, the province says. The changes include new standards for these representatives that could include providing proof of registration or licence and having a written contract with applicants. 

The changes also impose tougher penalties on those who violate these standards, including bigger fines and multi-year or lifetime bans for those convicted of serious offences.

Municipal affairs and housing

New changes to the province’s planning laws remove land use planning responsibilities from Durham and Waterloo regions, which the province says will give primary land use planning responsibility to local municipalities within those regions. It says these changes are part of its effort to streamline planning approvals and build homes quicker. 

Ontario has also made a new regulation under its building code law to increase harmonization with the National Construction Code, eliminating at least 1,730 technical variations between the provincial and national requirements. The new code comes into effect on Jan .1, with a three-month grace period until March 31, 2025, for some designs already underway.  

Education

The province will require every publicly-assisted college and university in Ontario to establish clear policies to support student mental health, as well as address and prevent racism and hate on campus. 

Earlier this year, the province announced it would invest $23 million to enhance mental health supports in post-secondary schools. 

On the job

The province is requiring the construction sector to provide menstrual products for on-site crews of 20 or more workers and for construction projects expected to last three months or more. The province says the changes are part of an effort to support women in the skilled trades.

The scientific reason years get
faster as we get older – and
how to slow them down

Story by Helen Coffey
The Independent
Jan 3, 2024

 As I sit here, contemplating the fact that we’re about to enter the year of our lord 2025, I feel a bone-deep weariness settle upon my ageing frame. Perhaps it’s hitting that quarter-century mark, but the very notion of “2025” – twenty twenty-five! – sounds absurd. It can’t possibly be a real year, happening in real time – it’s the stuff of time-travelling tales; films set in a space-age future; dystopian novels that paint a bleak picture of societal breakdown in decades to come. It can’t possibly be happening now.

Yet the calendar doesn’t lie. It is about to turn 2025, whether I believe it temporally possible or not. The passage of time seems to be playing pesky tricks – for surely the pandemic was a mere couple of years ago? The London Olympics were five years ago, weren’t they? And the millennium was a decade ago, tops – I’m certain of it…

It’s not just me who experiences the sensation of the years shooting by at an ever-increasing pace the older I get. While Albert Einstein popularised the concept that time is relative – an hour spent with someone you fancy passes in a moment, a moment spent with your hand on a burning hot plate stretches out endlessly – research consistently shows that our perception of how quickly time passes really does speed up as we get older. According to a recent study by Liverpool John Moores University, the vast majority of people in the UK felt like Christmas approached more rapidly every year, for example, while people in Iraq felt like Ramadan came sooner.

“Physical time is not mind time,” as mechanical engineering professor and author of Time and Beauty: Why Time Flies And Beauty Never Dies, Adrian Bejan, puts it. “The time that you perceive is not the same as the time perceived by another.”

One side of the equation in explaining this phenomenon is physiological. Remember as a kid when the summer holidays felt elastic, a never-ending wad of chewing gum that kept on extending as hours melted away on lazy afternoons? There’s an actual science behind that. “The brain receives fewer images than it was trained to receive when young,” argues Bejan. He theorises that the rate at which we process visual information slows down as we age; as the size and complexity of the networks of neurons in our brains increase, the electrical signals must travel greater distances, leading to slower signal processing. The result? We perceive fewer “frames-per-second” as we get older, and therefore time feels like it’s passing quicker. It’s like a flipbook – the fewer the number of pictures, the quicker you flick to the end.

“People are often amazed at how much they remember from days that seemed to last forever in their youth,” he said. “It’s not that their experiences were much deeper or more meaningful, it’s just that they were being processed in rapid fire.”

Plus, the less time we’ve experienced, the greater a proportion of our lives a set period of time actually is. For a four-year-old, a year is a much bigger percentage of their overall lifespan thus far than it is for a 40-year-old – so no wonder it feels longer and more significant.

While there’s not much we can do about these physiological elements, there are other important factors at play that we do have some control over. Another reason that time feels longer when we’re younger is that the brain is programmed to hang on to new experiences, says Bejan – and when we’re young, we’re having new experiences all the time. There’s so much for a child encountering the world afresh to absorb and digest each day. After all, in the beginning, everything we do is the first time we’ve ever done it.

The older we get, the more likely it is that we’re clocking up fewer and fewer new experiences with each year that passes. This is partly because, naturally, the more stuff we experience, the less new stuff there is to experience. But part of it is due to human nature; with age, we can become increasingly stuck in old habits, overly comfortable with the familiar and unwilling to pursue novelty or challenge ourselves to step into the unknown. Even trying a new food can feel like a bridge too far.

If we’re doing the same things week-in, week-out though, we’re not presenting our brains with anything juicy or remarkable to hang on to. With few fresh memories made, weeks blend into months, blend into years, with little to differentiate them. Time has, to all intents and purposes, sped up.

Conversely, when we remember a period packed with events, it “makes it seem like time stretches out... and it feels very long”, according to Cindy Lustig, a professor of psychology at the University of Michigan.

With few fresh memories made, weeks blend into months, blend into years

Routine is the enemy of expanding your time; shifting things up, whether it’s simply walking a new way to the shop, dabbling in a new hobby or branching out and listening to a different kind of music, could be the key to elongating each year rather than looking back on an increasingly ill-defined blur.

“Slow it down a little more, force yourself to do new things to get away from the routine,” says Bejan. “Treat yourself to surprises. Do unusual things. Have you heard a good joke? Tell me! Do you have a new idea? Do something. Make something. Say something.”

And then there’s that dreaded word: “mindfulness”. If time is all a matter of perspective, then ensuring we spend some of it living in the moment – and being intentionally present in the present – is fundamental to living the longest life we can in the time we’ve got. “None of us know how much time we have, but, interestingly, we do actually have a lot of control over how we experience that time,” as Lustig says.

Constantly dwelling on past mistakes or fretting over future potential problems guarantees you’re missing out on the most important bit of your life so far: right here, right now.

As I sit here, contemplating the fact that we’re about to enter the year of our lord 2025, I feel a bone-deep weariness settle upon my ageing frame. Perhaps it’s hitting that quarter-century mark, but the very notion of “2025” – twenty twenty-five! – sounds absurd. It can’t possibly be a real year, happening in real time – it’s the stuff of time-travelling tales; films set in a space-age future; dystopian novels that paint a bleak picture of societal breakdown in decades to come. It can’t possibly be happening now.

“Physical time is not mind time,” as mechanical engineering professor and author of Time and Beauty: Why Time Flies And Beauty Never Dies, Adrian Bejan, puts it. “The time that you perceive is not the same as the time perceived by another.”

One side of the equation in explaining this phenomenon is physiological. Remember as a kid when the summer holidays felt elastic, a never-ending wad of chewing gum that kept on extending as hours melted away on lazy afternoons? There’s an actual science behind that. “The brain receives fewer images than it was trained to receive when young,” argues Bejan. He theorises that the rate at which we process visual information slows down as we age; as the size and complexity of the networks of neurons in our brains increase, the electrical signals must travel greater distances, leading to slower signal processing. The result? We perceive fewer “frames-per-second” as we get older, and therefore time feels like it’s passing quicker. It’s like a flipbook – the fewer the number of pictures, the quicker you flick to the end.

Here are the top holiday
scams to look out for

By Afua Baah
City News
Jan 1, 2025

Be vigilant so that you don’t become a victim. Afua Baah speaks with experts who are warning Canadians about some of the top holiday scams happening across the country.

Some of the scams at the top of the list during this festive time of the year include fake merchandise and individuals who promise to sell goods or services online.

“Just a reminder to try to stick with merchants that you’ve maybe used in the past. And if you haven’t used them, then do your research on the company before providing your personal information or credit card information,” says Jeff Horncastle, a communications officer with the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre.

Phishing emails and text messages that appear to come from a recognizable source and ask you to submit or confirm your information also happen frequently during the holidays.

“Charity scams are big around the holiday season: crypto investment fraud, romance scams. It could be a lonely time of year for many people,” said Horncastle.

It is also gift giving season, meaning gift card scams are high on the scam list. 

“What fraudsters do is that they place stolen gift card barcodes on ones that are not purchased in the store. And when the next person comes to activate it, they’re actually activating the gift card that’s in the fraudsters’ possession,” explained Horncastle.

Experts suggest that shoppers looking to buy a gift card should take their finger and rub it over the back of the card to check if there is a duplicate barcode.

According to Toronto police, there were more than 16,500 total fraud reports in the city this year, with total damages amounting to $365 million. Officials say that’s a 20 per cent increase compared to 2023. 

According to the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre, as of October 31st of this year, over 40,000 fraud incidents were reported and over 28,000 victims of fraud, totalling a loss of over $500 million. It is estimated though that only 5 to 10 per cent of victims report this to law enforcement.

“Iif they have been victimized, they’re going to hesitate to report because they may be embarrassed based on that attitude that, oh, it’s just a scam, right? We hear that all the time,” Horncastle added. “It’s not just a scam because it’s beyond the numbers that you know, beyond that financial impact, a lot of victims are affected emotionally.”

Authorities say getting back these funds is another hill to climb.

 “It’s a significant challenge for any of those funds to be recovered, especially now you’re talking about the majority of those funds being sent off, cryptocurrency as well, which just adds to the layer of complexities,” says Detective David Coffey with the Toronto Police Financial Crimes Unit.

Advocates say it never hurts to triple, even quadruple-check sites and deals to confirm their accuracy.

“Fraudsters just prey on vulnerabilities, and they know that it’s a busy time for most people, and it makes us more vulnerable,” Horncastle explained.