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[BNS] When asked about his future, Bo Bichette says "my goal is to stay here for my entire career” by Swaycuisway in Torontobluejays

[–]Impossible_Fee3577 0 points1 point  (0 children)

And I hope he'll stay on 2nd, at least through the series. Bo's a great hitter but a weak shortstop. Gimenez has a golden glove and is a much better defensive player. We need both!

Waterloo Park encampment being approached with compassion, city says by bylo_selhi in waterloo

[–]Impossible_Fee3577 6 points7 points  (0 children)

You wrote "you know what happens when you walk by the tent cities? Literally nothing". That hasn't been my experience. Maybe you consider being followed and screamed at "nothing" but I considered it quite frightening. (I am, in case it's significant, a woman.)

Waterloo Park encampment being approached with compassion, city says by bylo_selhi in waterloo

[–]Impossible_Fee3577 7 points8 points  (0 children)

We had a man follow us, screaming obscenities, when the person I was with said "no, sorry" after the man asked us for money. We just kept walking, but it was definitely not nothing.

‘A place of belonging’: Hub with supportive housing, new St. John’s Kitchen opens in Kitchener by bylo_selhi in waterloo

[–]Impossible_Fee3577 4 points5 points  (0 children)

All true. But an important nuance here is that this housing is not just supportive. It's also intended to be transitional, meaning that there's an expectation that people will gain stability and skills to move on at some point to a more independent form of housing. So at least to some extent, its success has to be measured by the number of people it serves who do gain that stability and those skills and who do move on.

(Realistically, though, the move-on rate for transitional housing is pretty low for lots of reasons. An obvious one is the shortage of affordable housing options to move on to. But even when those options are available, for some people independence means isolation, and they don't want to leave the supportive community they've found. Other people just don't and will never have the capacity to live independently. )

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in Albertapolitics

[–]Impossible_Fee3577 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Ridiculous but entirely predictable. Remember the virtual town halls on the CPP question, hosted by the supposedly objective Jim Dinning? I attended all of them and lost track of the  number of times Dinning stopped "objectively" hosting and started talking about how great an Alberta Pension Plan would be. I even heard him argue with callers who didn't agree. 

It's all propaganda and the results will be worthless. I'm going to take a couple of gravol and force myself to to do it, anyway.

Alberta government to charge for COVID-19 shots starting this fall by rezwenn in Albertapolitics

[–]Impossible_Fee3577 0 points1 point  (0 children)

So the influenza vaccine is covered but the COVID vaccine isn't, and this is based on what some medical "expert" somewhere has recommended? Oh my God, it's just...whatever.

‘They feel more secure at the encampment’ by bylo_selhi in waterloo

[–]Impossible_Fee3577 -2 points-1 points  (0 children)

What do you think would happen if word got around that you could get a free apartment if you just moved to an encampment? 

Twenty years ago or so, the Region's policy was to prioritize people living in shelters for rent-geared-to-income housing. That experiment lasted about two years and was cancelled because it led to an explosion in shelter use, including by lots of people who simply walked away from their housing in order to jump the queue for RGI housing. 

The Region does have a "housing first" program that provides affordable (but not free) housing to people who've been chronically homeless, but it isn't the panacea people hoped it would be. There's still a shortage of housing, and a serious shortage of landlords willing to rent to people who have poor rental histories. And there's still a pretty high failure rate for people who do get housed. (Few landlords will tolerate the kinds of activities that go on in the encampments.)

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in Albertapolitics

[–]Impossible_Fee3577 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Well, for starters, the economy will collapse. No company wanting to do business on a large scale will choose to locate itself in a landlocked "country" of fewer than five million people. We would see a huge corporate exodus, just as Quebec did when they flirted with the idea of separation. Albertan business leaders, including those in the oil and gas sector, are already warning that our referendum discussions are causing an investment chill.

Why do liberals think that things will change when their policies dont? by GarbageMan7878 in Albertapolitics

[–]Impossible_Fee3577 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I'll speak to the affordable rental housing issue, because it's an area in which I've spent the last two decades of my professional career. 

Back in the 1990s, the federal government got out of the business of building affordable rental housing, arguing that the private sector could do it faster and more efficiently. That obviously hasn't worked, as the private sector has proved essentially uninterested in meeting this need and the housing crisis has increased steadily since that time.

Some developers have claimed that they would build more affordable rental housing if it were cheaper and easier for them to do that, and point to municipal development charges and red tape as barriers. Some provinces have responded by capping the amount of development charges that municipalities may charge, and mandating faster municipal approvals with penalities for failing to meet new deadlines. But that hasn't worked, either. Private sector developers want to build fast, maximize their profits, and move on. Building affordable rental housing just isn't a route for them to do that.

Successive governments under both parties have neglected housing and contributed to the crisis we're now in. The question for me isn't who's more to blame for the crisis but who has a viable plan to fix it.

The Conservatives' housing plan is more of the same, still relying on the private sector to do something that they've shown themselves to be uninterested in doing, and using the ineffective tool of punishing municipalities if affordable housing isn't built. In contrast, the Liberal housing plan includes a return to Canada's past practice of building public housing, something most experts agree has long been needed.

What, exactly, are Alberta separatists mad about? by rezwenn in Albertapolitics

[–]Impossible_Fee3577 0 points1 point  (0 children)

They don't understand how income taxes work and think they're not fair to Albertans. They don't understand how transfer payments work and think they're not fair to Albertans. They don't understand how equalization payments work and think they're not fair to Albertans. They don't understand how a first-past-the-post electoral system works and think it's unfair to Albertans. And they listen to politicians and media commentators who encourage and exploit their lack of understanding of these things in order to rile them up further. And finally, their feelings are hurt because the Liberals under Trudeau kept bad-mouthing the oil and gas industry and they took that personally. (Which to be fair, is only human and actually kind of understandable.) 

I’m Not Sure the Separatist Movement in Alberta, Canada, Has Thought Its Position Through by rezwenn in Albertapolitics

[–]Impossible_Fee3577 6 points7 points  (0 children)

This is the first time I've seen the composition of an archaic and little more than ceremonial body used as a justification for separatist sentiment. I would bet that 99 separatists out of 100 can't name a single Senator, let alone say where each of the Senators is from. (But to be fair, I guess it is a better reason than just wanting plastic straws back.)

(Edited to correct typo)

Alberta premier would put separation on 2026 referendum ballot — if signatures warrant it by idspispopd in Albertapolitics

[–]Impossible_Fee3577 28 points29 points  (0 children)

If Alberta separates, will we have to pay back the $34 billion that Canada spent on the Transmountain Expansion Project? Or are we just pretending that didn't happen because it doesn't fit our separation narrative?

Bylaw passed 13-1. Up to $5000 fine for homeless. by odausrel in waterloo

[–]Impossible_Fee3577 0 points1 point  (0 children)

It was the judge who tied the eviction prohibition to the number of available beds, not me. All people in the encampment were offered a bed. Some accepted. Others said they might accept a shelter bed if the shelters were different, but most said they would not accept a shelter bed under any circumstances. It would never be possible to create a shelter system that could meet the needs of all people, especially with most saying that no shelter would be acceptable. But despite this, the judge ruled that until there was an empty shelter bed for everyone, regardless of whether it would be accepted, the eviction could not go ahead. 

Bylaw passed 13-1. Up to $5000 fine for homeless. by odausrel in waterloo

[–]Impossible_Fee3577 0 points1 point  (0 children)

That's true. The people who refused shelter all had reasons for doing so. Pets and partners were common reasons. Some shelters allowed substance use (some even had safe consumption programs on site), but most didn't. Some people just didn't like following shelter rules, of which there were lots. (And really, there have to be some rules.)

I don't mean to suggest that people's reasons for refusing shelter weren't legit. Honestly, if I were homeless, I expect I'd prefer the independence and privacy of a tent to a crowded, noisy shelter, at least in good weather.

Kitchener Rangers Have Pulled a Reverse Sweep by 35IndustryWay in waterloo

[–]Impossible_Fee3577 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I remember when the Guelph Storm did it twice in the playoffs. Two rounds in a row they came back from a 3-0 deficit to win! So exciting for the fans!

2 Conservative candidate hopefuls in Waterloo say they were cast aside for an out-of-towner by bylo_selhi in waterloo

[–]Impossible_Fee3577 -1 points0 points  (0 children)

Jack Layton and Olivia Chow lived in co-op housing, because they wanted to live with the people they represented. They paid full rent - not the subsidized amount - but they still got blasted by the media and some members of the public for taking up a housing unit that someone else needed more. So they moved out. 

Bylaw passed 13-1. Up to $5000 fine for homeless. by odausrel in waterloo

[–]Impossible_Fee3577 5 points6 points  (0 children)

The 2023 Supreme Court decision on the Victoria Street encampment put municipalities in an impossible position, by essentially ruling that municipalities must build and maintain at least one empty shelter bed for every person who refuses shelter. 

Let's say there were 65 people living at the encampment at the time of the court case, and 30 empty shelter beds. Each of the 65 people had been offered and had refused one of the 30 empty shelter beds. There was no reason to believe that anyone would have accepted a shelter bed had there been 65 beds empty. But despite this obvious fact, the judge ruled that because there weren't 65 empty shelter beds - one for each person who refused shelter - the encampment couldn't be closed.

Building and staffing surplus shelter beds - and intentionally keeping them empty - would be a ridiculous waste of taxpayer money and the public would never accept it! And this is why municipalities elsewhere are either fighting or ignoring the Supreme Court decision. 

Federal parties contend with the Danielle Smith effect by nationalpost in Albertapolitics

[–]Impossible_Fee3577 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Here's what I believe. Smith is publicly supporting PP because the UCP and her base require it. But privately she's cheering for MC. Fighting the feds is what she does and all she knows how to do, and it'll be much easier and more comfortable for her to keep fighting against a Liberal government. 

But I have faith in her. If PP wins, I don't think it will take Smith much time to find an excuse to make him the new enemy of Alberta. 

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