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It isn't "whining" to ask how the heck Canada became a dumping ground for millions more third world migrants when we already can't afford housing, or why people can't even get doctors anymore when it is taken out of your paycheck. Do you want mass homelessness? Why aren't we allowed to talk about it?
Who said we 'weren't' allowed to talk about it? I think we should dial down immigration a bit until we get a better handle on housing. However, Canada did receive a decline in immigration during the pandemic and it really didn't do a whole lot to make housing more affordable. Blaming immigrants and students for our housing issues is an easy way out. The fact is the Private Sector alone has simply not been able to accommodate a growing population in Canada. If we had strong natural birth in this country - we'd be in a similar issue. The fundamental problem is that we do not have governments aligned to encourage optimal private sector housing development to flourish in many Canadian cities - Yes Toronto and Vancouver are the two big one's but this is becoming an across the board problem. Government needs to get back into the business of generating housing itself. It should be regarded as a wartime like effort. We can do it. The results won't be immediate but if we start now we can start laying the groundwork for the next 100 years of growth in this country.
Blaming people from 'third world' countries is not productive. They want to come here. They want to contribute to the economy and as Netwit said, we need them for very practical reasons and yes, part of that is as a tax base to support the economy for all the social programs we hold dear.
Quote:
Originally Posted by redfirehose
You know that Argentine was once as wealthy as Canada before WWI, and their economy never just recovered by chilling out like Eduardo said. That was their problem, they chilled out so much that their elites tanked the country. They have a poor country for over a century now. Countries don't just deserve to be part of the first world they actually have to earn and maintain it.
P.
So what is your solution to fix this then? You want to talk about it - well talk. Talking isn't just about problem identification though, it is about talking of solutions too..
This argument I keep hearing pointing the figure at China and India just doesn’t make sense to me when their per capita numbers are lower. Do you see what I mean that it looks hypocritical when we sit here on our high horses pointing the finger at them when we are one of the largest emitters per capita in the world? We consume more as a wealthy country yes, and demanding they reduce emissions before we do while they’re trying to pull their population out of poverty seems unfair. Yes being a cold country and using natural gas to heat our homes plays a part but Quebec for example uses mostly electric heating and has for decades due to their investments in hydroelectricity making the energy more cost efficient. The truth is, the carbon tax is pretty much the last frontier of doing any sort of climate action at all. It’s a free market solution proposed by right libertarian economists in the 1980s. It shouldn’t be this politically polarizing but here we are. I’d vote liberal on that issue alone if the Conservatives want to scrap it.
I added the U.S don't forget. I'm not pointing the finger - it is true. Without the U.S, China, India, Indonesia etc making a massive effort to eliminate their emissions, it makes little difference what Canada does. That is simply the truth PDW regardless of per capita emissions. The environment does not care about who does what the most on a per capita basis or optics or even who is being hypocritical. It cares about absolute emissions and are we absolutely going up or down and how fast. Not all nations are ramping down yet. They pledge to but let's see.
Canada should just make more Nuclear plants. So I agree with you in investing in energy solutions that make sense.
Fossil fuels are a part of life. If people in Canada or ANY country were that serious about it they'd be making stronger efforts now. China which contributes 1/4 the worlds emissions would need to start decreasing now not their pledge 2030 commitment which we have no idea that will happen or not. They have pledged to being carbon neutral by 2060 but they would need to invest an additional 17 Trillion dollars more on green energy to make that target which is unlikely.
So yeah, right now when Canadians are struggling big time with C.O.L should they should get dinged at the pumps to go back and forth to work by 55 cents per litre by 2030. No i'm sorry there has to be better ways we can make our own contributions. Australia tapered down it's carbon taxes directly as a result of increased costs. Australians said enough is enough we can't afford these added costs.
This is what I'm saying - fossil fuels are widespread and necessary for civilization. We need to make investments away from them 100 percent but until we create viabe cost parallel solutions, it is going to be difficult to convince any populace that climate change is a bigger threat to them than paying for a roof over their heads. I think we can meet our pledge of being carbon neutral by 2050 (10 years before other nations), as if the environment cares who is first world or developing - without taxes people through the yin yang to drive back and forth to work. Nobody going to work who turn on their gas powered car is saying - yippie today i'm helping to screw up the planet - they do it because they have to make a living and this is the only viable way for them to.
Really weird how so many people outside and inside Canada are saying we're becoming a "dystopia" or "third world" (which, outdated since the fall of the USSR) when literally every single developed nation is going through the same thing. Hell, the United States is more dystopian than Canada.... The pandemic really uprooted everything, but you cannot blame only the government for issues when this is a global phenomenon.
I will say this, we do need to invest more in nuclear energy and r&d in more efficient energy systems that will reduce emissions while keeping consumption around the same levels. Axe the carbon tax, this was simply more of another source of revenue for the government, it had nothing to do with reducing emissions. This only applied to four provinces, but it has fallout country wide. We do need to transition to cleaner energy sources, but taxing the **** out of consumers and not investing in R&D or upgrading energy plants/incentivising upgrades is such a dumb move.
Other things off the top of my head/rapid fire
Inflation- global problem, supply chain issues and war... everyone also went hard on the money printer during the pandemic. Not only a Canadian problem and we are doing rather "well" compared to other major countries.
Expensive groceries- also a global problem... Anecdotal example but: I went back to Miami recently for work/family and it was more expensive than groceries in Canada, and I got a lot less than here. I always hear this being a "Canadian" problem, but this is happening worldwide. To fix this, we need more competition, not taxes since it will be passed down to consumers. I also think we need to invest more in local produce, farms, greenhouses, food sources, everything. This will help with more competition, options and will reduce food deserts, while also increasing and sustaining the job market.
Housing- municipalities taking their sweet ass time to approve builds, high inflation, explosion of costs, labour shortages, interest rates, and the gov't not building enough are part of the problem. It's time to increase public builds and reduce barriers and red tape. Taxes too, removal of GST is a good start but more needs to be done. We're growing rapidly too, so we need to start building NOW and we need more YIMBYs in office/shut out NIMBYs. I'm all for population booms but we're going at a breakneck speed and need to keep up the pace. Supply is not reaching demand and we need to go back to equilibrium. I also think banning AirBnB's and short-term rentals can be an effective tool in the short term.
Homeless and drug crisis: Again, major countries are facing this, and it's time to update and improve our social benefits system. Just building housing and housing the homeless will cost us less in the long term than pumping out welfare cheques. Cutting out social programs has done nothing to help in the past, but we need to become more targeted and responsible. Drug crisis, need to completely stop doing those "safe injection sites" because all they do is cause problems and it feels like the government is allowing this intentionally so people can die and they won't have to deal with them anymore.
Canada also needs to be more business friendly and productive, we have a lot of bright minds, major cities and hard workers. But again, we are outdated with r&d and investments for individuals to grow and become more productive. We also need to open up competition for everything, but our powerful corporations have grabbed the government by the balls and have an oligarchy. If we open things up (won't happen, but hypothetical) and can reduce prices for mobile and internet for example.
Taxes: personal threshold should start at $20,000 Federally and the brackets need to be re-worked. Not only do we need to continue indexing it to inflation, but have to reduce the taxes taken out on each bracket and especially the first two. IMO, the first $53K should be reduced from 15% to 10% for example. On this too, the GST tax credits should be re-worked and expanded, since this is actually a targeted measure, doing this would help people out more.
@anyone how do safe injection sites cause problems?
If you look at examples in our major cities and those in the U.S, it's because people congregate there and they're all drugged up. Same thing with open-air drug sites, it's dangerous for the public and is a health hazard. It does nothing to limit and reduce drug usage and everyone looks like zombies.
If you look at examples in our major cities and those in the U.S, it's because people congregate there and they're all drugged up. Same thing with open-air drug sites, it's dangerous for the public and is a health hazard. It does nothing to limit and reduce drug usage and everyone looks like zombies.
So it's a NIMBY thing? And would those areas be any better without those sites? Aren't they rundown area to begin with?
ETA: I thought the purpose of safe sites was to stop addicts from killing themselves or committing other crimes to feed their addictions. I didn't think their goal was to limit drug use.
So it's a NIMBY thing? And would those areas be any better without those sites? Aren't they rundown area to begin with?
ETA: I thought the purpose of safe sites was to stop addicts from killing themselves or committing other crimes to feed their addictions. I didn't think their goal was to limit drug use.
Safe sites were/are primarily there for homeless people and drug addicts to take drugs and be monitored by someone so they do not OD or get laced and in theory, they reduce their usage and reliance on drugs.In reality, it's just getting more people addicted to drugs, they still OD and more and more people congregate there. Needles still find a way on the streets, they still terrorise people and violence breaks out.
Just seeing what happened in Vancouver, Toronto, Ottawa and Montreal + seeing what's happening in the U.S, this crap is not working. They always put them in the weirdest areas of town and people have had enough, but politicians are doing zero at the moment to combat it.
Safe sites were/are primarily there for homeless people and drug addicts to take drugs and be monitored by someone so they do not OD or get laced and in theory, they reduce their usage and reliance on drugs.In reality, it's just getting more people addicted to drugs, they still OD and more and more people congregate there. Needles still find a way on the streets, they still terrorise people and violence breaks out.
Just seeing what happened in Vancouver, Toronto, Ottawa and Montreal + seeing what's happening in the U.S, this crap is not working. They always put them in the weirdest areas of town and people have had enough, but politicians are doing zero at the moment to combat it.
I'm not going to comment too much on this as I'd rather research it in more depth. That said, post pandemic the cases of mental health issues for a lot of people have gone through the roof. Couple that with increasingly high C.O.L and you got a perfect storm for increased drug use. I'm not sure safe injection sites are really making it worse but again - i'm not a SME on this admittedly.
I added the U.S don't forget. I'm not pointing the finger - it is true. Without the U.S, China, India, Indonesia etc making a massive effort to eliminate their emissions, it makes little difference what Canada does. That is simply the truth PDW regardless of per capita emissions. The environment does not care about who does what the most on a per capita basis or optics or even who is being hypocritical. It cares about absolute emissions and are we absolutely going up or down and how fast. Not all nations are ramping down yet. They pledge to but let's see.
Canada should just make more Nuclear plants. So I agree with you in investing in energy solutions that make sense.
Fossil fuels are a part of life. If people in Canada or ANY country were that serious about it they'd be making stronger efforts now. China which contributes 1/4 the worlds emissions would need to start decreasing now not their pledge 2030 commitment which we have no idea that will happen or not. They have pledged to being carbon neutral by 2060 but they would need to invest an additional 17 Trillion dollars more on green energy to make that target which is unlikely.
So yeah, right now when Canadians are struggling big time with C.O.L should they should get dinged at the pumps to go back and forth to work by 55 cents per litre by 2030. No i'm sorry there has to be better ways we can make our own contributions. Australia tapered down it's carbon taxes directly as a result of increased costs. Australians said enough is enough we can't afford these added costs.
This is what I'm saying - fossil fuels are widespread and necessary for civilization. We need to make investments away from them 100 percent but until we create viabe cost parallel solutions, it is going to be difficult to convince any populace that climate change is a bigger threat to them than paying for a roof over their heads. I think we can meet our pledge of being carbon neutral by 2050 (10 years before other nations), as if the environment cares who is first world or developing - without taxes people through the yin yang to drive back and forth to work. Nobody going to work who turn on their gas powered car is saying - yippie today i'm helping to screw up the planet - they do it because they have to make a living and this is the only viable way for them to.
We’ll have to agree to disagree on this, fusion. I personally feel the time for action is now and we should make the first moves instead of waiting for others
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