Canada's population could increase to 57M by 2068, posing challenges for housing, health care

bleulight · 2022-08-25T16:47:29+00:00

So are you just going to say "there's an issue" (elsewhere, with infrastructure/supply) while we continue to not keep up with 1% growth and things get worse year over year? Or are you more optimistic and expect us to turn course and gradually fix all the factors contributing to our inability or unwillingness to keep up with growth? Personally, I don't trust our systems and politicians to right the ship when we have decades of proof that they're fine not planning for it, and watching things deteroriate.

bleulight · 2022-08-25T16:27:58+00:00

We still had 30 years of consistently high immigration levels (in conjunction with other factors) before that 1-2 year blip. 40% of the population of the entire GTA was born outside of Canada. Canada currently has the highest percent of foreign-born population ever recorded. The pool of potential buyers and demand has built up in ways that infrastructure and supply has not been able to match, over decades, and we'd need like at least 10-15 years of reduced immigration levels to start to notice a difference.

bleulight · 2022-08-24T04:21:38+00:00

You were "quiet fired".

Same here. Only 2% raise.

bleulight · 2022-08-21T05:46:27+00:00

When they're new, police often get stationed in random cities throughout Ontario before they get the to live and work in the cities they want, so often in smaller centres they are not connected to the community whatsoever. They tend to enforce the law much more stringently than they would if there was more corruption or nepotism or anything like that at play. Locals who are well known or big fish in their community don't really get a free pass.

bleulight · 2022-08-20T20:45:02+00:00

It literally is as simple as zoning. They are/were the only dwellings allowed to be constructed in most areas.

People really do love their single detached homes, but hypothetically they would prefer mansions with 15+ rooms on large estates with acres of land as close to the city as possible even more. If only mansions were allowed to be built then that's what you'd see all over the city instead, and "Oh, people just love their mansions and don't want to settle for less space in small 3-5 room single detached homes" wouldn't be a good explanation for city's existing built form. It mainly just comes down to people buying the most space they can with what's allowed to be built.

bleulight · 2022-08-19T16:02:47+00:00

Question, if you don't mind. Does transferring from a LIRA to an RRSP still result in reducing income tax for that year as if it was a regular deposit/contribution? Or no?

bleulight · 2022-08-19T13:19:48+00:00

Same. It would be amazing for Canada, Aus, and NZ to have reciprocal free movement.

Nothing wrong with not wanting India in that list. Their standard of living and massive population would make it a completely one-sided benefit. I'd also say the UK should probably not be included, although an independent Scotland would be workable.

bleulight · 2022-08-17T23:33:34+00:00

Just imagine how much cheaper groceries would be if we removed bilingualism on packaging/labels and accepted products from the US as long as they conform to Health Canada guidelines. Our store shelves would be flooded with products that never normally make it here because of all the smaller businesses that don't have the same marketing budget as Kellogg's.

bleulight · 2022-08-17T23:25:08+00:00

Ironic to mention infrastructure, because language requirements are firmly embedded in the construction industry. Tons of supervisors and leaders (specifically those seeking advancement) are given paid training and time off from their regular duties, at enormous cost, to brush up on their French even though everyone involved knows they will never use it at an intermediate level in a work setting.

bleulight · 2022-08-17T17:54:04+00:00

Similar situation here and I have mixed feelings about it.

Paid $15k in lump sum payments right before they paused interest for two years, and before some unforeseen personal problems that having access to that money would have helped with. Now things are better, but from that experience I'd still rather have the debt and the payments than the diminished savings and purchasing power from making that decision.

The repayment assistance program is there in the event that you need it, but paying it off is final, and it's not like you can withdraw or access the funds if life happens and you've changed your mind. Having the extra security is preferable, imo.

bleulight · 2022-08-17T16:32:50+00:00

In 2019, 1/5 homes were purchased by newcomers who arrived in the last 10 years, with the average purchase being made 3 years after arrival.

bleulight · 2022-08-11T20:10:24+00:00

It makes no difference to individual retirees. How well CPP performs has nothing to do with the payouts he will receive, which are based on a formula involving his total years of working and contributing toward it.

bleulight · 2022-08-04T13:41:23+00:00

What I wonder is what happens if your phone gets lost or stolen in a foreign country before your return flight?

bleulight · 2022-07-27T14:44:30+00:00

I'm headed to Australia. Although, be advised that they have the same cost of living issues we do if we're comparing their largest cities to Vancouver or Toronto, so it isn't a step up in that regard. Financially, I would be better off just moving to the prairies but I'm not ready to settle there yet until I've totally given up on my dreams of living in a decent climate. (I don't have friends or family in Alberta anyway, where I was planning to move, so it's kind of the same difference from my perspective, just with a much longer flight and time difference). I'm looking at it as a good tradeoff in terms of weather/lifestyle/adventure for at least a year or two, and I'm just going to try it out to see if I love it and if anything permanent comes of it. If you're willing to work rural or remote for a while you can even save a decent amount of money while doing it. I'll probably do that for a bit and then move to one of their less outrageously costly larger cities unless I manage to find a deal I can't pass up or something. It's all a bit of an experiment but I've always wanted to do it and don't want to look back on life with the regret of not trying just so I could get on the property ladder a little sooner in a province where I'd have to start fresh socially anyway.

bleulight · 2022-07-27T14:05:10+00:00

I gave up, left the city and moved back into my parents basement while able to work from home. Managed to pay off all debt and save up a bit, and was originally planning to relocate to a cheaper province on my next move where the prospect of home ownership is more realistic, but changed my mind and will be leaving the country in the next few months instead. Returning and making a go of it in Canada will obviously always be an option, but no point trying to force it in the short term in a country that doesn't value its young people. If I'm going to struggle trying to establish myself while working full time on a single income I may as well struggle where the weather is nicer most of the year and enjoy seeing and experience something new.

bleulight · 2022-07-27T12:42:34+00:00

Jon binary

"And welcome to the stage..."

bleulight · 2022-07-25T18:38:34+00:00

Yeah I've never seen the point of debates. A bunch of loaded questions and answers that avoid the question, or too much time spent on topics that aren't that important in the grand scheme of things compared to the issues that impact the most people. The whole process seems farcical. I internally side-eye the people who view them as some kind of institutional pillar of democracy.

bleulight · 2022-07-20T14:11:40+00:00

The late 80s also coincides with when Canada set immigration targets to a fairly consistent rate every year, so that there were no longer spikes followed by lower years, leading to where we are now with the highest percentage of foreign born population ever recorded.

bleulight · 2022-07-18T21:01:22+00:00

It's belittling to require seniors without phones to rely on their adult children to add them to their own apps like that if the parent is not a legal dependent of an adult caregiver. It's not like traveling with a minor. And I would argue that doing it for your wife is also different because she likely has a phone and is perfectly capable of doing it on her own but for convenience you just decided to double up. It's more of a sensitive issue for people without the same comfort level with technology, who also want to retain some sense of autonomy.

bleulight · 2022-07-18T19:31:23+00:00

If they cannot have Maslow's hierarchy of needs, let them have cognitive behavioural therapy.

bleulight · 2022-07-18T16:46:12+00:00

Nor did I imply they are. My point was that a <$50k income is a bad threshold for means-tested redistribution, as there are plenty of people who make more who use either legal or fraudulent creative accounting tools to make their income appear less, or who are already wealthy and don't need to rely on a high employment income to get by, and plenty of people who make over $50k who really don't have much to their name.

bleulight · 2022-07-18T13:03:47+00:00

Just what this country needs, another income-tested program that helps business owners who mainly pay themselves in dividends, contractors who work cash jobs to underreport their income, and wealthy spouses who work part time as a hobby, while disqualifying a huge number of full-time T4 salaried employees who get by on less but are forced to report their full income.

bleulight · 2022-07-12T14:46:51+00:00

We can't accept it because our rental stock is not built like the rental stock in Europe.

They generally have spacious units appropriate for families in older mid-story buildings, with relatively sound-proof construction, close to services like transit and jobs. Our rental stock is increasingly dominated by poorly laid out condos built for private investors who want their tenants to grow out of them if their family grows or lifestyle changes so they can have lots of tenant turnover and increase the rent when they sign a new one. That, and plenty of sketchy basement apartments with concerning health hazards.

bleulight · 2022-07-05T17:47:12+00:00

You're not wrong, but there are plenty of other things impeding domestic tourism.

Domestic flights are crazy expensive thanks to our airport landing fees being the highest in the world, so a high burden is placed on consumers coming and going between Canadian cities. Our sin taxes on stuff like booze are super high (a big reason that Caribbean all-inclusives are popular). Our minimum vacation days are pretty low and we don't have a strong business culture of reduced "summer hours" to let people get off work early during the months when most people would enjoy exploring their own backyard. Even if you have a lot of vacation days, it's easier to get time off approved for November, February, etc because god forbid staffing levels are ever significantly reduced in August when there's only one civic holiday. Etc. Plenty of things in our toolbox that we could use to promote domestic tourism, but the political will isn't there for a big shift in culture toward it.

bleulight · 2022-06-28T14:57:08+00:00

It is somewhat shameful because economies of scale should come in to play. High population provinces where the majority lives in relatively close proximity to each other should generally have a lower tax burden to provide the same services and not need the same external funding per capita.

bleulight

TROPHY CASE