Jerome Bitun

Speaking at the Casey Research Gold and Resource Summit, Eric Sprott told investors that there is no more silver left to go around, "There's $22 billion of silver available in the world, of which the ETFs already own half, and between you guys and us we probably own the other half... Which means there's nothing left."

I'm sure you're heard of the recent earthquake that hit Japan yesterday. Here are some useful links on how to prepare for an emergency. Please check these websites: http://choicez.biz/FraserValleyEmergencyResources.htm http://www.pep.bc.ca/hazard_preparedness/earthquake_preparedness.html http://www.getprepared.gc.ca/index-eng.aspx http://vancouver.ca/emerg/ http://www.cooperators.ca/static/pdf/en/Prepare-for-the-unexpected.pdf 　 How to survive a major Earthquake: http://www.victoria.ca/cityhall/pdfs/departments_vepnei_ind_prepare.pdf http://www.taekwondo.bc.ca/Emergency%20Preparedness.pdf Check this PDF file: http://www.getprepared.gc.ca/_fl/guide/national-eng.pdf

Retirement This year, 2011, marks the year the first of the baby boomers turn 65. Baby boomers are those who were born between 1946 to 1964. So in this edition of the newsletter, I thought it would be good to talk about retirement since we’ve just finished the RRSP season. When you retire, you qualify for some government pension or benefits like CPP, OAS and GIS. So what are they and how do they work? Here’s a summary. CPP – Canada Pension Plan A CPP retirement pension is a monthly benefit paid to people who have contributed to the Canada Pension Plan. The pension is designed to replace about 25% of a person's earnings from employment, up to a maximum amount. For 2010, the maximum amount it was $934.17. Not very much is it? But there’s good news! CPP has increased their maximum benefit. For 2011, the maximum CPP benefit you can get is $960.00. Woohoo! And if you qualify, you can get Old Age Security (OAS) benefit as well, up to $524.23 and Guaranteed Income Supplement (GIS) of $661