SamuelRJankis

joined 4 months ago
[–] SamuelRJankis 5 points 6 days ago

+2 with no tags. Sunshine probably has the highest at 300ish since they've pretty much posted most of the content on c/Canada recently.

I'm pretty glad AEHarding ended picking up my feature request on GitHub for this since there was pretty much zero takers(had a rather odd convo with the Sync dev) when I brought it up during the early Lemmy days.

[–] SamuelRJankis 1 points 1 week ago

https://moreandbetterhousing.ca/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/ReportCard.pdf

This is the full 56 page report. I do think it's rather generous on the Federal level for omitting what a real federal tax reform could do along with how HAF has gone.

I also think they should have truly split out the municipal and provincial aspects. It would have brought the BC grade go up noticeably and lower Alberta even more.

[–] SamuelRJankis 5 points 1 week ago (1 children)

From other parts of the internet. I don't agree with all of it but for the most part it's decent and worth thinking about.

People should understand at this point if we keep trying to point to a single thing to that needs change it likely won't actually do much or at least in our lifetime. We need a lot of things to go in the right direction to bring back affordability and should appropriately call out people who aren't pulling their weight.


Group Primary Power Barrier Type
Federal Gov Policy + Land Infrastructure, tax policy
Provincial Gov Regulation Zoning, development bottlenecks
Municipal Gov Zoning + Fees NIMBYism, slow approvals
Homeowners Political + Market Speculation, resistance to change
Homebuyers Market demand Concentrated bidding, expectations
Developers Supply gatekeeping Profit prioritization
Financial Institutions Lending policy Market inflation, investment bias
Real Estate Industry Messaging & Listings Speculation promotion
Media/Culture Perception Market pressure via social norms
Labour/Materials Capacity Rising costs, build delays

🔹 1. Federal Government

Role:

Land Ownership: The federal government controls significant amounts of Crown land, much of which sits unused or underutilized in urban peripheries.
Taxation Policy: Federal capital gains rules, income from property, and the existence or absence of incentives for affordable development influence developer and homeowner behaviour.
Housing Acts & Funding: The National Housing Strategy and CMHC programs often focus on social housing, leaving market-rate affordable housing under-addressed. Funding for infrastructure also sets the pace for development.

Barrier Mechanisms:

Hoarding of federal land or delays in land release.
Tax incentives that reward property speculation over occupancy or long-term affordability.
Underinvestment in transportation or infrastructure that could make cheaper land more viable.

🔹 2. Provincial Governments

Role:

Land & Zoning Control: Provinces control Crown land within their jurisdictions and direct land-use policies through legislation.
Regulatory Oversight: They set building codes, development appeal processes, and housing-related tribunal systems.
Tax Levers: Property transfer taxes, speculation taxes (like BC’s Speculation and Vacancy Tax), and provincial rebates or grants.

Barrier Mechanisms:

Overregulation or slow regulatory processes.
Inconsistent or unclear direction to municipalities.
Delays or gaps in infrastructure funding necessary to enable new developments.

🔹 3. Municipal Governments

Role:

Zoning and Development Approvals: Municipalities control land use and zoning, including height, density, and land use rules.
Fees & Levies: Development charges, community amenity contributions, parkland dedications, etc.
Local Politics: Local councils are heavily influenced by existing homeowners and vocal NIMBY (Not In My Backyard) groups.

Barrier Mechanisms:

Low-density zoning in urban cores.
Bureaucratic or slow permitting processes.
Restriction of development to protect "neighbourhood character."
Lack of coordination with surrounding municipalities for regional planning.

🔹 4. Homeowners

Role:

Political Influence: Homeowners are highly engaged voters and often resist developments that may reduce their property value or change the character of their neighbourhood.
Speculation: Use of primary homes and investment properties as financial instruments rather than housing.

Barrier Mechanisms:

Resistance to densification.
Holding on to underutilized properties.
Purchasing additional properties, reducing overall supply for first-time buyers.

🔹 5. Home Buyers

Role:

Demand Pressure: Flocking to desirable areas and competing with each other fuels bidding wars.
Preferences: Preferences for certain neighbourhoods, amenities, or detached homes limit the demand for other more affordable but less "prime" options.

Barrier Mechanisms:

Exacerbation of housing bubbles in hot markets.
Little market pressure for developers to build outside of high-demand areas or diversify product types.

🔹 6. Developers & Builders

Role:

Control of Supply: They are the ones actually producing housing.
Profit-Motivated: Focused on returns; higher-end or luxury units offer greater profit margins.
Land Banking: May hold land for future resale at higher value instead of building now.

Barrier Mechanisms:

Preference for high-margin projects (e.g., condos vs. family-sized rentals).
Delayed builds due to market timing ("just-in-time" development).
Underbuilding affordable units unless incentivized or required.

🔹 7. Financial Institutions (Banks, Mortgage Lenders, Investors)

Role:

Credit Policy: Lending practices directly affect who can buy and how much they can borrow.
Investment Products: REITs and other housing-focused investment vehicles treat housing as an asset class.

Barrier Mechanisms:

Easy credit can inflate prices.
Institutional ownership of housing stock reduces supply available for private ownership.
Risk-averse lending discourages innovative or affordable projects.

🔹 8. Real Estate Industry (Agents, MLS systems, Speculators)

Role:

Market Messaging: Pushes narratives around “invest now or miss out.”
Intermediation: Agents, especially in hot markets, may encourage bidding wars.

Barrier Mechanisms:

Speculation culture.
Pressure to treat homes as investments first, shelter second.

🔹 9. Media & Cultural Norms

Role:

Narrative Shaping: Reinforces the idea that real estate is the ultimate path to wealth.
Desirability Framing: Promotes specific types of housing (e.g., detached homes) and locations as aspirational.

Barrier Mechanisms:

Normalization of price increases.
Discourages demand for alternative housing types or models.

🔹 10. Labour and Materials Supply Chain

Role:

Constrains Supply: A lack of skilled tradespeople or high material costs can slow or block construction.

Barrier Mechanisms:

Increased build times and costs.
Preference for projects that are more profitable to offset higher labour/material costs.
[–] SamuelRJankis 2 points 1 week ago (1 children)

The actual report card in question. No province does that well and as usual Alberta is a standout in how poorly someone can run a province.

https://moreandbetterhousing.ca/2025/05/26/reportcard/

[–] SamuelRJankis 4 points 1 week ago (1 children)

For some people $900 means little. For a lot of people $900 makes the world of difference.

Minimum wage like rent control prevents the bottom from completely falling out, it isn't meant to be the solution and yes I read that article about rent control last week.

[–] SamuelRJankis 13 points 1 week ago

The author is Erin O'Toole the Conservative party leader before Pierre Pollievre.

Also another example of Conservative ideology making life harder for their die hard supporters(rural folk)

[–] SamuelRJankis 20 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

Just another one of those amazing Conservative fantasies where failed private company after failed private company but they're still supposed to be so much more efficient than government ones.

And to top it off the myth of private companies being ran poorly not costing the public. Because when these guys start failing and threaten our national infrastructure they're going to ask for "hand outs" on top of the ones they already get.

[–] SamuelRJankis 10 points 1 week ago

Pretty well written article. Really comes down to:

  1. If these companies thought they could make more money off another pipeline they'd be lobbying for it.

  2. As a CNQ holder that's seen some great returns. Trump and OPEC are the people costing me the most money.

Despite relentless rhetoric about a “lost decade” due to hostile Ottawa energy policies, Alberta oil production increased by 40 percent since the federal Liberals came to power in 2015. Canadian oil and gas revenues exceeded $1.1 trillion between 2015 and 2022. The five biggest oil producers in Alberta enjoyed annual operating profits of $44.3 billion in 2021-22 — a tenfold increase since 2015.

So where did the money go? Those same five companies ploughed $20 billion of record-breaking profits into dividends and stock buy-backs in 2022 — more than double the proportion paid out to investors in 2014. And since only 25 percent of those shareholders are Canadian and even fewer live in Alberta, the vast majority of that windfall is going elsewhere.

[–] SamuelRJankis 6 points 2 weeks ago

As Canada moved away from a resource economy into a Real Estate economy it killed a lot of rural living. Which in turn drove up urban centre prices even more.

Tilt Cove, N.L., was once home to a thriving copper mine that attracted workers and their families from all over Canada. Now the community is home to just four people, all of whom agreed earlier this year to relocate.

The copper mine opened in 1864 and operated intermittently until 1967. In the year before it closed for good, 436 people lived in the community, according to provincial statistics. By 1991, just 17 were left.

 

cross-posted from: https://lemm.ee/post/64597842

[–] SamuelRJankis 3 points 2 weeks ago

Canada Post seems to have provided meaningful offers on most of the issues, I don't know what the problem is in giving the Union 2 more weeks to review and discuss the offer beyond using it a negotiating leverage to pressure them into accepting.

Although none of this seems to address how the organization will be sustainable unless weekend deliveries is suppose to be that substantial.

https://www.canadapost-postescanada.ca/cpc/en/our-company/news-and-media/corporate-news/news-release/2025-05-21-canada-post-presents-new-global-offers-to-the-canadian-union-of-postal-workers

https://www.canadapost-postescanada.ca/cpc/en/our-company/news-and-media/corporate-news/negotiations-hub.page?ecid=murl_jl_170

[–] SamuelRJankis 3 points 2 weeks ago

I clicked on this link to just poke around and as usual YouTube thought I was getting ready to do a deep dive into alt right dog shit. There's already suggested videos of how Canada has fallen apart but only ambiguously pointing to just the last 10 years.

Anyways highly suggest people not even click the link if they don't want to spend time pruning your algo. YouTube is especially bad for it since you can't block anything.

[–] SamuelRJankis 3 points 2 weeks ago

Keeping the post offices especially in rural areas is the big thing and expanding outside postal services seems like a viable way of doing it.

The problem is circular with the mail volume. When we absolutely justified daily delivery they were making 194m gross profits in 2014 now they're losing 750m a year. Either they'll have to justify going door to door for another reason or we'll have to cover the nearly the complete cost of doing so.

 

The long story short is that in nine years, over the lifetime of the Trudeau government, federal subsidies to business more than doubled through the introduction of over 100 new programs. Every Canadian went from paying just over $310 to businesses large and small to over $800 per year in 2023/24.

 

The 160 page report: https://infopost.ca/wp-c/u/2025/05/canada-post-iic-report-2025.pdf

Report key findings: https://infopost.ca/wp-c/u/2025/05/f1-iic-key-findings.pdf

  1. Amend the Postal Charter. It cannot continue to require impossible-to-meet delivery standards. Daily door-to-door letter mail delivery for individual addresses should be phased out and community mailboxes established wherever practicable. Daily delivery to businesses should be maintained.

  2. The moratoriums on rural post office closures and community mailbox conversions should be lifted. There is no persuasive case for a moratorium on closure of once rural, now urban, post offices. Canada Post already has the Delivery Accommodation Program in place for Canadians who cannot access community mailboxes. It should be reviewed and, if need be, enhanced, and it should continue.

  3. Include in the two collective agreements all items agreed to in collective bargaining prior to the labour dispute. Parties should attempt to narrow differences in all partially agreed-upon items. New collective agreements should include and reflect tentative agreements (subject to agreement as a whole) reached in Commission-facilitated mediation (RSMC and STDP).

  4. Negotiate changes to the collective agreements. Canada Post must have the flexibility to hire part-time employees working part-time hours to deliver parcels on the weekend and to assist with volume during the week. These employees should be paid the same rates and be subject to the same terms and conditions as regular employees, including access to pro rata benefits, or payments in lieu, and pension. Priority for these positions should be given to existing employees.

  5. Negotiate changes to the Urban collective agreement. There is no justification for collective agreement provisions that preclude an employer from assigning work for hours already paid (except by voluntary overtime).

  6. Negotiate changes to the collective agreements. Pilot and then introduce dynamic routing. Canada Post must also be able to change routes daily to reflect volumes to avoid trapped time and overtime.

  7. Amend the time-consuming approval process for postage increases

 

Carney: Pierre you're incompetent Pierre: You have the wrong socks and haircut

 

Carney: Pierre you're incompetent

Pierre: You have the wrong socks and haircut

 

Summary that brought us to the amazing quotes above.

http://archive.today/2025.03.29-204249/https://nationalpost.com/news/mark-carney-plagiarism-accusations

  • Mar 28th National Post broke a exclusive story where Mark Carney apparently plagiarized his 1995 Oxford doctoral thesis
  • There's only a single person of significance providing anything worth discussing which is some overlapping phrases in the 300 page thesis but does not substantiate the plagiarism.
  • Mark Carney's doctoral supervisor responds:

Margaret Meyer, Official Fellow of Economics at Nuffield College, in the provided statement. “Mark’s thesis was evaluated and approved by a faculty committee that saw his work for what it is: an impressive and thoroughly researched analysis that set him apart from his peers,” added Meyer.

Which bring us to this from CTV (infamous for far right pandering as well last week) on Apr 1st: https://files.catbox.moe/h2ze4b.mp4

Reporter asking if Carney will continue to attack them when he doesn't like their work.

NP ends up squeezing like 4 articles out of this crap. Only to have this gem of a quote drop.

Professor A: Carney straight up copy pasta'd his Thesis

Professor B: This is the "most sophisticated plagiarism" he's seen.

http://archive.today/2025.04.01-210130/https://nationalpost.com/news/politics/federal_election/carney-responds-to-plagiarism-allegations-im-pleased-that-theres-such-interest-in-my-doctoral-thesis

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