sbv Now • 100%
[citation needed]
sbv Now • 100%
From 1972 onward, between 10-20 percent of all housing built in Canada was public, non-profit, or co-operative owned. These units came with various affordability covenants that anchored prices. Suddenly, private landlords had to compete with a robust public sector that prioritized affordability instead of wealth extraction, lowering costs for everyone.
...
Renters could have their monthly payments subsidized through the Assisted Rental Program (ARP).
...
Low-income folks who wanted to own a home could secure below-market rate mortgages directly from the federal government, or have their private mortgages subsidized through the Assisted Home Ownership Program (AHOP).
...
In Toronto, where participation in FHAP programs was high, real housing costs fell by 30 percent between 1974 and 1978.
no no no just do thirty year mortgages it'll be fine
sbv Now • 100%
I like the music! It's nice 90s-style ambient.
It's hard to find on Youtube Music. I needed to search for Ain.
sbv Now • 100%
PROFESSIONALS MAKE THAT SH*T LOOK EASY, BROTHER. THAT'S WHY I LEAVE IT TO THE PROFESSIONALS, AND STICK TO CRANKING MY HOG.
sbv Now • 100%
Earlier this month the government changed one of its rules on mortgage payments, allowing first-time buyers or people purchasing a newly-built home to take loans with 30-year amortizations, instead of 25 years.
Although the move is intended to lower monthly payments and make home ownership affordable to more people, critics say it may have opposite effect by boosting demand and raising prices.
It's hard to see how this won't increase prices and costs for buyers. It clearly benefits lenders, but everyone else will pay more.
sbv Now • 100%
There are a tonne of realities that are very close to ours are populated by cockroaches and mutants.
sbv Now • 100%
Synergy can be pretty good. I think it syncs clipboards and stuff like that, doesn't it?
sbv Now • 96%
be way more based if the porn star, mossad agent, and general were the same person
sbv Now • 100%
I can't speak for 404 Media, but the rest of them build products that people enjoy using. They fill a niche that the users appreciate and do a good job at it.
It's hard to fault people for liking things.
sbv Now • 100%
Gotta keep those waves away from their delicate grey matter.
That or their phone has shitty palm detection and will unwittingly treat their face as a touch if they hold it too close.
sbv Now • 100%
Is the car something you use for work, or is it a benefit?
I'm from Canada. Employers mostly give company vehicles for jobs that require it.
sbv Now • 100%
Burying the lede:
and chicken from KFC.
sbv Now • 100%
do we tho
sbv Now • 100%
Chinese companies stealing American technologies could lead to the former being able to produce something for cheap, which, ... will allow an everyday person to have a better bargain.
While the company that originally created the product will collapse, putting people out of work and weakening the American economy.
That's basically what the globalization movement from the 1980s and 90s was. Jobs may move overseas, but think of the cheap shit you can buy!The hollowing out of Western economies has led to the political moment we're in now.
sbv Now • 100%
We knew it was wrong in the 90s, which is why edgelords like this dude (and Trudeau) were into it.
www.theglobeandmail.com
The federal Liberals and Conservatives want to "solve" the housing crisis by making it easier for builders to build new units. Sadly, with interest rates and construction prices at current levels, it seems unlikely that private companies will be able to provide the [3.5 million houses we need to restore affordability](https://www.cmhc-schl.gc.ca/blog/2023/estimating-how-much-housing-we-need-by-2030). We need all levels of government to start building housing, not just wait for white knights from the private sector to ride in and save our middle class dreams. > Residential property developers are facing rising insolvencies as they struggle with higher borrowing and construction costs – and industry experts warn the trend is likely to worsen as interest expenses remain elevated. ... > At this pace, Canada is on track to reach about 240 real estate insolvencies this year, which would be 57-per-cent higher than 2023 and 13-per-cent higher than 2009, when a wide swath of businesses ran into problems owing to the financial crisis and global recession. ... > And that does not include the number of developers and projects that have been forced into receivership for not paying bills. The Office of the Superintendent of Bankruptcy does not include receiverships with its publicly available bankruptcy statistics. However, insolvency experts say they are seeing more projects go into receivership. > So far this year, the real estate sector accounts for 55 per cent of the receiverships recorded by Insolvency Insider Canada, a website that tracks the largest insolvencies in the country. That compares to 30 per cent last year and 33 per cent in 2022. ... > Today, the cost of residential construction is 81-per-cent higher across Canada’s major cities compared to 2017 and more than double – up 107 per cent – in the Toronto region, according to Statscan data.
I try to collect conversation starters so I have things to talk about with people I like. Some of them are general and work on anyone, like: "I'm moving soon!" or "how was your weekend?" or "did you see that ludicrous display last night?". Others deal with shared interests or common friends, so they're person specific. What's a word to describe collecting conversation starters? Borrowing from other languages is legit.
... some kid in the daycare has lice. We went through this a couple of years ago: one kid had a tonne of lice in his hair, my wife got infested and ended up shaving her head. The other kid and I lucked out. Regardless of what happens, we've got some short summer haircuts in our future.
cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/15835822 > Door of Durin by poppel > > https://teia.art/objkt/769117/listings
www.theglobeandmail.com
> The family is moving to find more financial flexibility. Owning their current home is a financial burden, and the stress would only get worse with a mortgage renewal coming up soon. ... > Proceeds from the sale plus a cash top-up will mean they can live mortgage-free in their new three-bedroom townhouse. Current mortgage costs are $3,965 per month. > > As well, Ms. Deane has estimated that her family will save on electricity, heating, insurance, property taxes and maintenance. Even with strata/condo fees of $710 per month at the new place, Ms. Deane calculates overall savings of $4,640 per month. Props to them for making a smart move.
ottawa.ctvnews.ca
> "The evidence establishes that the City knew that its failure to properly enforce the 2012 Bylaw would likely cause harm to the taxi industry. > > "A multinational giant was invading Ottawa, and because of the City's unpreparedness and its lack of efforts to develop a plan to enforce the 2012 Bylaw, the City's enforcement efforts against Uber drivers were ineffective."
www.theglobeandmail.com
> Nurse practitioners could help fill the void, advocates for the profession say, if more provinces would adopt policies to integrate them into primary care and pay them fairly for their work. **Some physicians’ organizations have pushed back against that approach**, arguing that NPs don’t have as much training or education as family doctors and therefore should only be funded publicly when they’re embedded in interdisciplinary teams with MDs. Aren't these the same organizations that have been dragging their feet on recognizing foreign credentials? I've been seeing a nurse practitioner for the last couple of years. So far, she's provided the same level of care I'm used to from family doctors: prescriptions, forwarding me to specialists when appropriate, providing the usual advice during checkups. It's fine. https://archive.is/PkAdd Edit: took out my grumbly summary, since our healthcare spending seems to be middle of the pack, compared to peer countries.
jacobin.com
> In 2022, Global News said the quiet part out loud: poverty is driving disabled Canadians to consider MAiD. Those “some” who are driven to assisted death because of poverty or an inability to access adequate care deserve to live with dignity and with the resources they need to live as they wish. They should never, ever feel the pressure to choose to die because our social welfare institutions are starved and our health care system has been vandalized through years of austerity and poor management. > > Given the way our institutions and economic and political elite create and perpetuate poverty in Canada, particularly among disabled people, we should be particularly sensitive to the implications of the country’s MaiD regime for those who are often ignored when warning about the dangers of the law. ... > While MAiD may be defensible as a means for individuals to exercise personal choice in how they live and how they die when facing illness and pain, it is plainly indefensible when state-induced austerity and mismanagement leads to people choosing to end their lives that have been made unnecessarily miserable. In short, we are killing people for being poor and disabled, which is horrifying.
Is anyone else boycotting Loblaws? I don't have many alternatives, but I'm doing my best to take my business elsewhere.
www.theglobeandmail.com
US regulators have found evidence that TD's anti-money laundering fraud detection is insufficient > For months, analysts have predicted a fine in the range of US$500-million to US$1-billion, but that’s now jumped. “We believe cumulative fines could easily hit $2-billion,” Mr. Dechaine wrote. Meanwhile, in Canada, [TD is facing record fines](https://www.theglobeandmail.com/business/article-td-bank-fintrac-penalties-anti-money-laundering-controls/) ([archive](https://archive.is/yBUld)) from Canadian regulators. https://archive.is/e0SGA
www.theguardian.com
> The octopus is one of nearly 5m Lego pieces that fell into the sea in 1997 when a storm hit a cargo ship 20 miles off Land’s End, Cornwall. While 352,000 pairs of flippers, 97,500 scuba tanks, and 92,400 swords went overboard, the octopuses are considered the most prized finds as only 4,200 were onboard.
ottawacitizen.com
The Ottawa Carleton District Schoolboard is winding up to drop early French immersion. wtf
www.theglobeandmail.com
> Let’s start with one of the highest-voltage [third rails] in federal politics: **Old Age Security**. > > OAS only begins to be clawed back once a senior’s income exceeds $91,000. And payments aren’t zeroed out until income hits $148,000 – or $154,000 for those 75 and older. Senior couples earning a quarter-million dollars a year, and living mortgage-free, are getting cheques from younger and (much) lower-income taxpayers. > > That has to be fixed. The OAS threshold should be lowered – to, say, $60,000 – and the clawback sharpened, with benefits tapping out at $100,000. ... > **End the capital-gains exemption for principal residences.** It’s even more untouchable than OAS. It’s also more economically harmful and inequitable. > > It pumps up housing prices and pushes more and more national wealth into housing. It’s dumb economics, plus the tax break only goes to the two-thirds of families who own a home. And the richer you are, and the more home you own, the bigger the tax break. It adds up to a hyper-regressive policy to make Canada less productive. ... > **Let’s restore the two percentage points of Goods and Services Tax** the Harper government cut. Our tax system is too tilted to income taxes, and away from taxes on consumption. And the cut to the GST costs Ottawa about $20-billion a year. > > If the GST were raised, some of the proceeds could beef up the tax credit for low-income Canadians. There's some good stuff in there. https://archive.is/GDzQG
www.theglobeandmail.com
Interesting article on growth in public sector jobs over the past decade. What I got from it: lots of people were hired during the pandemic to handle pandemic-related initiatives; aside from that, lots of people were hired in general; governments appear to hire in times of economic uncertainty (e.g. growth under Harper during 2008+); federal unions argue staffing levels are returning to "normal". But the killer is the last section where the author tries to figure out if we're getting value for money. The answer is short and sour: Canadians don't think so, and internal targets aren't being met. > **Are Canadians getting bang for their taxpayer buck?** > > ... One way to gauge that is through surveys, which doesn’t leave Canada looking good relative to its international peers. The OECD polls residents at its member countries on their satisfaction with public services such as health care and education, and between 2017 and 2022, Canada experienced the largest decline in satisfaction among G7 countries for education (from 73 to 67 per cent) while the drop in health care satisfaction matched that of the United Kingdom, but to the lowest level in the G7 (from 69 to 56 per cent). > > ... The share of respondents who said their provincial government had done a “good” or “very good” job fell overall from close to half in the first quarter of 2019 to 30 per cent at the end of 2023. Both B.C. and Quebec, two provinces that have seen public-sector job growth rise particularly quickly, registered some of the worst declines. > > ... the Office of the Parliamentary Budget Officer (PBO) reviewed four years of results reports to see how the government measured up against nearly 3,000 performance targets it had set for itself. The assessments weren’t promising. For fiscal 2021-22, roughly 25 per cent of targets were not met, up from 20 per cent in 2018-19. But that didn’t capture the full scale of the performance shortfall. One-tenth of performance targets included no information on results, while another one-third stated results would be achieved at some point in the future. Yeah, that mixes provincial services with federal ones. https://archive.is/m0qtc
What's the next wave of dystopia in popular culture? I think the classic CRTs, mirrorshades, and black synthleather look of cyberpunk doesn't really work with our expectations in 2024. In the 70s and 80s, we expected acid rain, ozone holes, and lawlessness to fill our future, as companies took over from (relatively) responsible governments and civility/civilization collapsed. The outfit fit with that: keep the burning rain and sun off, while protecting against looters and raiders. Meanwhile, writers didn't see how technology would shrink and get *better*. In 2024 we expect our dystopia to be hot: the world is heating up, so black synthleather is out. Maybe mirrorshades stick around. Corporations aren't taking over any more, governments are becoming corrupt/evil (e.g. Hunger Games). And technology is tinsy tiny, verging on invisible. I'm thinking of the Hunger Games and Upload. (And the first five episodes of Fallout)
www.theglobeandmail.com
It's good to see some kinda/sorta/almost direct spending on affordable housing being announced: > Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced the creation of a $1.5-billion rental protection fund that will provide a combination of loans and grants to help non-profits buy affordable rental apartments when they go up for sale. It's nowhere near enough, but it's better than the neoliberal tHe FrEe MaRkEt WiLl SaVe Us shoveling that both the Liberals and Conservatives have been pushing. The article explains how the number of homes affordable to people making $30k annually is crashing across the country (but less so in Quebec). https://archive.is/ocuud
www.theglobeandmail.com
Canada: three oligopolies in a trenchcoat. > Bank service charges and overdraft fees can infuriate consumers, and more choices could lower their temperature. > > From the perspective of investors, though, Canada’s cozy network of oligopolies – in which a few players dominate one sector – can look very different. Slim competition can keep upstarts out and profits in, driving strong shareholder returns and attractive dividends over the long term. > > “We have a handful of oligopolies that are able to fend off new entrants (whether regional or foreign) without needing to destroy profits for an extended period of time, or where we need a government financed solution,” Ian de Verteuil, head of portfolio strategy at CIBC Capital Markets, said in an e-mail. https://archive.is/1BPVW
www.theglobeandmail.com
> Whenever I hear politicians propose to cut the carbon price, I can’t help but think back to my childhood growing up with divorced parents. > > On the rare occasions my dad took me for weekends, he would offer me candy and let me stay up late. > > “Why can’t you be more like him?” I’d yell after returning home as my mom made me do my homework, eat vegetables and go to bed on time. > > So it is with proponents of Axe the Tax. They offer us candy, when the federal government, like my mom, expects us to live responsibly. ... > But a politician’s promise that pollution can be free is no more realistic than my childish fantasy that I could live on candy alone. > > We are all entangled in an energy system that helps and harms our children. While it enables us to taxi our kids around, and keep them warm, it also poisons the air they breathe, evaporates the water they need to drink and burns the forests in which they play. ... > To preserve summers without smoke, winters when our kids can ski, water they can drink and forests and wildlife with which they can live in awe. > > That’s why we pay for our pollution. This dude gets it. We need to do so much more, but walking back the carbon tax is a terrible idea. https://archive.is/kpZQu
www.theglobeandmail.com
> Toronto-based Canadian Health Labs, had inked contracts with health authorities in Newfoundland and New Brunswick, and charged rates that in many cases worked out to more than **$300 an hour per nurse. That is roughly six times as much as nurses earn in the public health care system**. We've systemically underpaid nurses for decades. We've failed to train enough nurses. Their real pay has shrunk, while their workload has grown. It isn't surprising nurses have left the public system for less shitty jobs. Canadaland Commons has a [great interview with a nurse](https://www.canadaland.com/podcast/work-2-state-of-emergency-rooms/) who has seen the decline.
www.theglobeandmail.com
It feels like Canadian governments have forgotten how to plan. As the op-ed states, we don't have the sewer/water/road/fire for the 5,800,000 houses we're building by 2030. And politicians aren't budgeting for it's construction. In the bigger picture, we aren't training enough nurses and doctors to service our current population, let alone what our population is forecast to become. Similarly, we aren't funding post-secondary education beyond overcharging students from abroad. But I digress. On the housing file: > The politicians who are promising action to build the 5.8 million new homes Canada needs by 2030 seem to be forgetting that, unlike that log cabin, the millions of homes that are needed can’t even begin to be built without connection to the world around them, to roads, bridges, clean water, electricity and waste management. They don’t seem to be factoring in that those houses will have people in them, millions of people, who need access to hospitals and schools, to civic and recreational facilities, to public transit, to emergency services. In other words, it is not possible to build so many new homes across Canada without considering essential housing-enabling infrastructure. Yet no one is even talking about that part of the equation, let alone announcing funding for it. > > It is a significant oversight. A report by the Federation of Canadian Municipalities estimates that each new housing unit will require $107,000 in public infrastructure investment. This amounts to a total of $620-billion in new public funding needed to produce workable housing, which far outstrips currently projected investments of $245-billion. https://archive.is/xEIez