Canadian Stuff

Sativied

Well-Known Member
It comes as Immigration Minister Marc Miller is set for a Tuesday announcement billed as an unveiling of “the Strategic Immigration Review report and the plan to improve Canada’s immigration system.”

“It’s the biggest such change in this measure we’ve seen in four decades,” said Keith Neuman, a senior associate with Environics.


“The Canadian [points and target number] system” is what both politicians in EU and NL (same prob, major housing shortage) tout over and over. A decade ago it was the Swedish system but then they sort of closed the borders. One of the main issues in next month’s elections in NL, not just about refugees but students and expats and cheap east eu laborers, and “Canadian system/model” is proposed as a solution by some. Basically they don’t have a clue how to solve it.
 

DIY-HP-LED

Well-Known Member
The problem is not immigration but outside money investing into the Canadian housing market. This drove up prices.
I think it's a bit of both, a house in Canada is security to many well-off people in unstable countries and an object for international financial speculation.
 

Cannasaurus Rex

Well-Known Member
I think the largest harm to affordable housing, is caused by companies and 'groups' of investors being allowed to buy residential units. It is absolute stupidity on behalf of municipal and provincial governments, to think a hardworking citizen can compete with the buying power these consortiums possess. Corporations should be limited to ownership of high density urban dwellings.
I realize a house to is just a pile of cash (and debt) you keep warm in, but that from an investment point of view. Most houses are built and approved as single family dwellings and that is what zoning should keep them. We should not base housing affordability on the probability of rental income. STR's should be taxed up the fucking wazoo or just eliminated. Wanna rent your place in Haliburton? Do it on the QT for undeclared cash, like it used to be.
We have to stop treating houses like income producers and start treating them like HOMES.
 

printer

Well-Known Member
Companies need labour, poles say reduce immigration because of high cost of housing, immigrants are going elsewhere due to the high costs. Need more immigrants to build homes due to the baby boomers in construction retiring. They do not realize the boomers in other industies are retiring also?

 

DIY-HP-LED

Well-Known Member
They have a point, it is unfair and the whole thing should be repealed and rethought, we are not quite there with the technology and this kind of shit won't help with the transition. Gas is cleaner than oil and emits less carbon, but it is cheaper than oil, still the burden is unfairly distributed. How much in federal subsidies are given to the oil and gas industry annually? Maybe they should be moved to renewables?



Premiers attack Trudeau after carbon tax carve out

Last week, Justin Trudeau announced an exemption for the carbon price on home-heating oil. The majority of homes that use home-heating oil are in Atlantic Canada. Premiers in other provinces, like Saskatchewan and Alberta, say that’s not fair – and are demanding carve-outs for heating fuel in their provinces too.

Marieke Walsh is a senior political reporter for the Globe. She’s on the show to talk about why Trudeau would soften his signature climate policy and what political machinations are at play behind the scenes.
 

Sativied

Well-Known Member
Those who do care can now protect themselves by getting boosted and wearing a mask inside public places this winter. Those who choose not to are not a concern except to the healthcare system which could be overloaded and old folk's homes who might deny visits.

So 60% of all Canadians are getting a booster again? Or 60% of eldery? Either would be high, but extremely high if it’s the former. It’s not even available in NL for people below 60 or not in high risk groups. Similar to Germany, UK, Italy, France. In Belgium it’s 65+, and so far only a third of that got a booster, barely 12% of the population. I see the recommendation in the US is 6 months and older. I got my second booster shot about 2 weeks ago, everyone except an asian guy with a mask looked well in their 70s. As for following the news, there’s none. I still keep track on waste water stats but aside from that, there’s literally been zero news around these parts.
 

DIY-HP-LED

Well-Known Member
So 60% of all Canadians are getting a booster again? Or 60% of eldery? Either would be high, but extremely high if it’s the former. It’s not even available in NL for people below 60 or not in high risk groups. Similar to Germany, UK, Italy, France. In Belgium it’s 65+, and so far only a third of that got a booster, barely 12% of the population. I see the recommendation in the US is 6 months and older. I got my second booster shot about 2 weeks ago, everyone except an asian guy with a mask looked well in their 70s. As for following the news, there’s none. I still keep track on waste water stats but aside from that, there’s literally been zero news around these parts.
It says the population, but I don't think it is that high for the general population. I'm getting boosted with the latest on Nov 14th having had a boost in the spring, that is when I'm due. I think where winter hits hardest we need to worry the most, I wear a mask in public places now too. Younger people don't worry about it too much, but the way I look at it every covid infection causes damage, even mild ones according to reports. I'm a covid virgin and I wanna stay that way, and I got a flu shot too.

I just hope the hospitals aren't overloaded again this winter, the staffs are pretty well burned out from covid and many quit the profession.
 

DIY-HP-LED

Well-Known Member
I think we need to adjust our economic and tax systems but can't do much unless the Americans change theirs and they are grid locked by grifters empowered by bigots and morons who are programmed by foxnews. We should be living better than in the 1970s, people won Nobel prizes proving that increases in technology lead to higher standards of living and we have had a lot of technological changes in the past 50 years. The rich keep getting very much richer while wages stagnated, and unions were killed off. America and Canada are among the richest countries in the world, and we can do better than the bottom 50% of the population getting just 12.5% of the national wealth.

 

DIY-HP-LED

Well-Known Member
I was doing some research on local solar incentives and found they offer a 30-cent rebate per watt on solar panels, and they are running around 80 cents a watt in Canada now, so with a rebate they should be around 50 cents a watt, not bad when you consider power is almost 20 cents a kilowatt here. Solar will get cheaper however over the next 5 to 10 years and more efficient too. What will make the difference for most people and make it worth it is if it was their total energy bill including heat, hot water and, charging an EV or two. The more power you use and the higher the utility rates the faster it pays for itself, add in heating and transportation and power usage will increase by a lot.
 

Sativied

Well-Known Member
[...]Canada are among the richest countries in the world, and we can do better than the bottom 50% of the population getting just 12.5% of the national wealth.
That's actually not bad at all for a rich country. The Gini coefficient of Canada is much better than in similar western nations. Wealth as well as income equality is high in foremost poor countries. The distribution means little to nothing without poverty stats.
 

DIY-HP-LED

Well-Known Member
They're almost finished the Trans-mountain pipeline out to Burnaby, BC and will soon be shipping that sweet bitumen all over the world!

If they can find anyone to buy that crap. :D

:peace:
I believe societies change due to technological progress and we are going to see a lot of technological change over the next decade as we transition away from fossil fuels, motivated by climate change and government policy. Ten years from now prospects for Alberta might not be so good and the purpose of insurance programs like CPP is to spread and share the risk. I think we will progress to this technology as fast as we get better cheaper batteries, and the prospects are definitely there along with the R&D money. I mean I think solar recharged cars can work in Canada for over half the year or more without needing to be recharged at home. Solar costs are down to 70 cents a watt and in NS there is a 30 cent a watt rebate.

How much longer can the good times last in Alberta with tar sands oil not much better than coal in terms of carbon emissions and EVs taking over the roads over in the coming decade. By 2033 almost half the cars on the road in America should be EVs, especially with improved cheaper batteries. The li-ion batteries, they use now suck in terms of power, weight, cold weather performance, expense and charging times. Batteries are the bottleneck in EV adoption IMO and in home energy independence. Even if EVs only accounted for 30% of the light vehicles in America by then it would still affect the market for gasoline in a negative way. I expect America to be among the late adopters of EVs with Europe and Asia having much higher percentages on the road, that too affects the global petroleum market as demand dries up.

It won't be government regulation that does it in the end, it will be economics that will drive change, it always does.
 
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Budley Doright

Well-Known Member
I believe societies change due to technological progress and we are going to see a lot of technological change over the next decade as we transition away from fossil fuels, motivated by climate change and government policy. Ten years from now prospects for Alberta might not be so good and the purpose of insurance programs like CPP is to spread and share the risk. I think we will progress to this technology as fast as we get better cheaper batteries, and the prospects are definitely there along with the R&D money. I mean I think solar recharged cars can work in Canada for over half the year or more without needing to be recharged at home. Solar costs are down to 70 cents a watt and in NS there is a 30 cent a watt rebate.

How much longer can the good times last in Alberta with tar sands oil not much better than coal in terms of carbon emissions and EVs taking over the roads over in the coming decade. By 2033 almost half the cars on the road in America should be EVs, especially with improved cheaper batteries. The li-ion batteries, they use now suck in terms of power, weight, cold weather performance, expense and charging times. Batteries are the bottleneck in EV adoption IMO and in home energy independence. Even if EVs only accounted for 30% of the light vehicles in America by then it would still affect the market for gasoline in a negative way. I expect America to be among the late adopters of EVs with Europe and Asia having much higher percentages on the road, that too affects the global petroleum market as demand dries up.

It won't be government regulation that does it in the end, it will be economics that will drive change, it always does.
Yet here we are with the feds pouring 27 BILLION dollars into a oil pipeline …… go figure :(.
 

DIY-HP-LED

Well-Known Member
Yet here we are with the feds pouring 27 BILLION dollars into a oil pipeline …… go figure :(.
Fossil fuel subsidies would pay for the green transition, except the tech isn't quite there yet, but coming fast and the industry couldn't absorb all the cash anyway.

Solar is down to 70 cents a watt and even cheaper and more flexible perovskite-based ones are just about already here using recent breakthroughs. Just the batteries are required Budley and they need to be cheap and work in the cold, they are on the way too. The battery factories are springing up like mushrooms making a variety of types, so we should see the impact on prices.
 

DIY-HP-LED

Well-Known Member
40 billion dollars a year in fuel costs, plus taxes and transportation with gasoline costs now averaging $1.50 CDN a liter, so $60 billion out of pocket for Canadians just for gasoline to power light vehicles. IMO EVs are not currently practical or cost effective for most people, mostly due to lack of the right kinds of small cheap cars and batteries aren't there yet in terms of power density and cold weather performance, a crucial consideration in Canada. We do plug in ICE cars for block heaters during winter in many cold parts of the country though and many workplaces and apartment buildings are equipped with outlets for them.

How much gasoline is used in Canada every year?

40.2 billion litres

Highlights. The total volume of motor gasoline sold in Canada was 40.2 billion litres in 2021, an increase of 4.1% after an unprecedented annual decline of 13.9% in 2020.Sep 29, 2022


The Daily — Motor vehicle fuel sales, 2021 - Statistique Canada
 
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