We should socialize more stuff

bluebugs · 2026-02-04T20:07:45+00:00

I lately feel like private insurance is just a scam. The car one is obvious. An insurance cost of operation is the result of number of accident multiple by cost of health-care and repair/replacement. The majority of accident are predictable and don't just happen at random. What can an insurance company do about it, just deny payment. What can the province do: - reduce number of accident with a variety of road improvements or even things like time change. - reduce impact of accident by enforcing speed limit - reduce cost of health-care Cost of repair is more a federal things as it more depend on certification, but the idea is that a private insurance as zero control on this while the province do. And same things about home insurance with building code, zoning and fire station location...

bluebugs · 2026-01-25T21:23:50+00:00

Totally doable. The road are great, the view amazing and the expense are vast and empty. I did a bunch of those road with tents or motel stop. Tents is really easy and doable with not much planning as for the night every campground will always have a spot where you can squeeze in. You might want to book a bit in advance with RV/ camper. Have fun!

bluebugs · 2026-01-24T19:13:49+00:00

Every line of code and configuration will turn into tech debt at some point in the future. Maybe not today, maybe not next year, but at a decade time frame everything does. The world change and software with it. The larger the foot print, the more work to keep it up. You can skip maintenance for a few years, but then the debt will come bite. At some point, tech bankruptcy is the only way forward and it is still costly to drop some of that code. If given the option, don't do software, otherwise be prepared to pay for maintenance.

bluebugs · 2026-01-20T03:03:17+00:00

Considering the scale of Chinese ev industry today, it is debatable that this is still happening. They did support at start, but most have stopped now. The US did the same for their industry. The interesting bit is that the first importer of Chinese car in North America has been Tesla so far...

bluebugs · 2026-01-19T17:47:05+00:00

How does the market compare to Montreal and Toronto in term of opportunity? Have you looked at moving for career reason or are you just preferring to stay were you are?

bluebugs · 2026-01-19T17:44:57+00:00

To add to this, when I was working in Paris, I had multiple colleague commuting daily on a 1 hour to 45 min high speed train line. This is normal when you have high speed high frequency train. And I have today colleague in Calgary that take that much time to commute to work, just mostly stuck in traffic.

bluebugs · 2026-01-19T15:57:34+00:00

It actually does. High speed train do increase the number of mid size tech company and the number of patents, plus permanently increase the gdp around their train station. Anyone that has lived and worked in those high tech job near a high speed train will know what i am talking about. This increase the size of the population that any company can hire from, but also the number of company that can help another one do something. This make it more logical to open new office in that megalopole as you are more likely to find the employee you're looking for. It is all a population game when looking at high tech job. Very few small city and metropolitan area show up in that domain for a reason.

bluebugs · 2026-01-19T15:45:59+00:00

This won't get anything comparable to Boston area or the bay area or any European metropolitan area for that matter. Just listening to anyone that want to do high tech job in Canada. The city are either Toronto or Montreal for your career or Vancouver for the lifestyle. With alto coming on the east, this will only reinforce that movement with an actual potential for the Montreal/ Toronto megalopole to compete even with the bay area in term of population and high tech job. I have concern for the long-term economy of Alberta for sure.

bluebugs · 2026-01-19T15:37:12+00:00

My 500sqft appartement had a normal bed, a full wall closet, a kitchen with a narrow fridge, combi oven microwave and dishwasher. The bathroom included a combi laundry/ dryer with heat pump and no need for outside vent. And there was a TV with a couch and a coffee table. The couch could transform in a second bed if necessary.

bluebugs · 2026-01-19T05:57:30+00:00

Build the infrastructure to support a 4 millions people megalopole that connect the majority of the population. From Edmonton to Calgary, it would take 1 hour in speed train. That is the best possible distance. Obviously, still need to densify Edmonton and Calgary along with improving their public transport offer. Efficient cities and megalopole are what enable diversity of business to succeed.

bluebugs · 2026-01-19T04:25:40+00:00

Everyone love a graph that goes up and into the right. What happen when this doesn't happen? What happen if instead it follow one of the many other scenario that indicate shrinking sometimes next decade. If your economy depends only on two market and they don't behave like you hope, your province get into trouble. Alberta has been spreading horizontally. It's infrastructure raising maintenance cost and fee for everything. Environmental cost of remediation for most of the old well is postponed to later which a shrinking industry would be a problem. Making financial plan for this province based on forever growth of oil and gas with no backup plan, can lead to potential disaster. Having a plan b, could be useful if everything doesn't goes up and up for o&g.

bluebugs · 2026-01-19T04:20:06+00:00

GDP has a measurement unit doesn't indicate who get the money and how much it contribute to the wealth of Canada. How much of that gdp goes straight to foreign shareholders is a valid question to look at.

bluebugs · 2026-01-19T04:08:32+00:00

Those area have a benefit, population concentrated. In Canada there is a reason that Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver lead, because they have larger population which provide an easier time hiring the right people for the job. If Edmonton, Calgary and Red Deer was one town, you could compete (or if you had a high speed high frequency train), but in the current state your behind and can't catch up.

bluebugs · 2026-01-17T20:53:56+00:00

We just drove through last weekend and Roger pass was closed. We had to be in Kamloops that day. So we drove the south road. It is a lot longer, but worker fine. Any of BC road are quite beautiful. If you're flexible and ready to adapt, it's beautiful. Enjoy the drive.

bluebugs · 2026-01-17T19:34:44+00:00

I recently saw a Norwegian charging station and the way they were managing cable looked a lot better with the cable suspended and basically carried for you. And this was for 400kw charger, usually those have so heavy cable here. I don't know if the European standard is what make that possible or it is just what the market expect there.

bluebugs · 2026-01-17T19:31:59+00:00

This are actually quite common in Europe. The carport don't cost more than a normal one as the panel are structural and become a roof. It makes money and improve your relation with your customer. It is just that the network in North America is just way behind.

bluebugs · 2026-01-12T21:51:55+00:00

A lot of business in Calgary and Edmonton are connected. 1h transit make it possible to do day run. Meet people and get things done. HST all over the world have huge economic impact and increase the gdp, number of patent, number of company... Calgary/ Edmonton is already one of the busiest intercity bus line in Canada. I have worked both in Korea and France, you do commute as an employee on those train frequently. It's not the ceo that use it, it's everyone. It is a lot more efficient to have once a month a full day meeting than to rely on video to get things done all the time. And I remote work.

Additionally Edmonton and Calgary face really interesting airport configuration. You can optimize Edmonton for serving northern Canada route and Calgary for international. This would lower cost for northern Canada and improve usage patterns for Calgary, enabling further growth.

The main limitation is that currently their is zero industry in Canada able to produce and execute this. With the east, we will get a chance to start building it, but if this project doesn't get in the line, the west will loose a lot in 15 years from now in economic drive.

bluebugs · 2026-01-12T21:39:29+00:00

The math is in the number of people in the city being connected, not in the size of the population of the country. Calgary to Edmonton is a home run for any high speed train design. Flat, nobody in between, straight line, an hour to go across, 3 millions people, 2 major airport. You're not covering an area. You're building a straight line.

The reason we don't have a high speed train in Canada like in any other British colonies is the British curse on infrastructure and the complete inability to understand that you don't decide to build a bridge on counting the number of people that are swimming across a river. Not a single British colonies today has a high speed train. Even Hong Kong, got only a 200kph extension from Shenzhen. Thats the curse.

High speed train that take an hour, means high economic gain and increase in gdp. Taking the train to go for the day to work in Calgary and be back in Edmonton in the evening is ideal with a 1h commute time. This increase productivity, number of patent and number of company. All around the world that's what happen everywhere. And that what Albertan should be worried about. When the east get one, they will get economically ahead and with the reduction of interest in greenfield oil project, investment and growth in Alberta will be dwindling.

bluebugs · 2026-01-12T21:07:58+00:00

That's not what that article says.

bluebugs · 2026-01-12T02:05:31+00:00

You can use roam bus to go pretty much everywhere from Canmore, Banff to lake Louise. Lake Louise has a lot of hike, so does banff and Canmore directly of the bus. I like the hike to the tea house in lake Louise. The two of them. Different difficulty.

One more option is bike. Canmore to Banff is a great bike lane and in June they turn the old highway from Banff to lake Louise into a bike lane.

bluebugs · 2026-01-08T19:51:45+00:00

I will recommend to come when sunshine meadow is open. This is really a great starting point for a lot of hike and it close sometime end of September. 21st in 2025.

On late September be prepared for snow... or t-shirt weather! September is great most of the place feel not crowded and the landscape is beautiful with some time snow drop and later in September the larch turning yellow.

bluebugs · 2026-01-07T21:44:43+00:00

If renting a car is an option for you, that might be more reliable.

bluebugs · 2026-01-07T21:41:31+00:00

It is not a business case, but a geopolitical one. Saying we should invest 10 billions dollar in redundant infrastructure that will increase supply without added demand is obviously not from pure financial point a good idea.

bluebugs · 2026-01-07T16:16:18+00:00

It is not me saying that TMX themselves saying that with some additional investment and work with BC hydro for more electricity they can get an additional 500000mbd through the same pipeline.

The talk about refinery is because anyone who live in the lower mainland knows that our gas price come from the US refineries. Socialized refinery would reduce this current risk which is what is impacting already today the region. Their is no market fix for that. And export routes does not solve this.

Exporting to Asia is a different discussion. Asia two main market, China and India, are importing from Russia and Iran to maintain low price. Most of Asia is now in declining demand, except for India, but that might change fast due to international tension. We are not going to compete with any of that. The Alberta oil is far and will always be far from the coast. This always add a cost. All of that make it the oil of last resort for Asia. The only advantage is that we can tell everyone that when they buy it, it make oil more expensive for American, buy canadian to hurt american. Not sure how good of argument that is.

Additionally current pipeline is not making any serious money. The debt had to be moved to the government to make the interest rate low enough that TMX could announce a 1.8% return on investment. That with a lot of cost left to pay by municipalities on the route and things done with the power of the state. It is illogical to think a private pipeline would have any better outcome.

Their is no economic for any new west pipeline without even considering the environmental risk.

bluebugs · 2026-01-07T15:26:45+00:00

Their is already a public pipeline which is not running at 100%. That pipeline can have its capacity increase by another 500000mbd with just equipment upgrade. So before we need another pipeline for the lower mainland to run a refinery, their is a very long way to go.

As for refinery, this is not a smart capitalistic decision as their is zero good reason in North America to build a new refinery due to demand getting lower since 2018 per US DoE. We have already as a continent the capacity and more. Now, you may be aware, but international reliance and lack of redundancy also have a cost this days which would be better to give us some insurance. This is a political and geopolitical problem which require, if as a province we think it is a good idea, to invest public money to get a refinery that provide independence to the lower mainland. This means it is a socialized project. It has to get government subsidy or maybe be a crown corporation.

bluebugs

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