Canada needs to be ambitious at this hour. We have a land worthy of being one of the great nations of the world — but dearly lack the ambition to meet our potential. After all, geography is destiny and I dare say we have the best geography globally out of any nation.
One major reform that would require great will and ambition is reforming our constitution. A document created in the 19th century is inherently archaic and not worthy of the modern era. Above my pay grade to comment on the changes needed but thankfully our glorious country is full of minds worthy of this challenge.
In my humble opinion — a federal-municipal model would do wonders for Canada via economies of scale; less bureaucracy (silly that we have different policies, procedures, and regulations across the nation to accomplish the same thing — it means endless fragmentation and useless redundancy — healthcare being an easy example, a nurse should be able to walk into any Canadian hospital and be able to use the same training, policies, and procedures to allow much more efficient movement of labour); open the door to nation building projects that can actually be built and completed within reasonable timelines (comparable to the other nations of the world that are building without the regulatory and political constraints that hinder Canada currently); and a strong central government which would favour the majority over the minority (which ironically would likely benefit the minority more as well, as a rich country has the ability and capacity to help the minority vs our current debt crisis which puts the minority in a very precarious position); mayors I also believe understand the people far better than provincial premiers due to a much closer proximity to the people, thus they are the better ones to listen to if you truly want to know what the people need and want; lastly, Canada needs to wake up and quit picking sides in the geopolitical realm — we are a middle power at best and need to play our hand like one — that means playing the major powers against each other for our own benefit (take a look at Turkey for example — straddle both sides to create leverage for our own benefit) — playing US against China/India would create major wins for us for example — Trump will likely put tariffs on Canada so we can either take the hits and do nothing, or rise to the occasion and start acting like a nation with its own foreign policy rather than an appendage of our southern neighbour who bullies us more often than not for their own benefit.
‘The true meaning of life is to plant trees, under whose shade you do not expect to sit.’
“Our housing crisis is largely self-inflicted, with all three levels of government pointing the finger at each other. You can debate which one is more at fault.”
Sorry, Steve. You got this all wrong. None of the three levels of government caused this mess. None. Period. The central banks around the world, held interest rates below the intrinsic rate, leading to massive increases of asset prices.
Every one wins. Except the sector of society that is bereft of assets. And the asset holding class (including yourself) smuggly believe you made such wise decisions. But. The reality eventually shows itself. A society that measures performance by capital appreciation only is a society that will destroy itself by inequality.
‘Too much and for too long, we seemed to have surrendered personal excellence and community values in the mere accumulation of material things. Our Gross National Product, now, is over $800 billion dollars a year, but that Gross National Product - if we judge the United States of America by that - that Gross National Product counts air pollution and cigarette advertising, and ambulances to clear our highways of carnage. It counts special locks for our doors and the jails for the people who break them. It counts the destruction of the redwood and the loss of our natural wonder in chaotic sprawl. It counts napalm and counts nuclear warheads and armored cars for the police to fight the riots in our cities. It counts Whitman's rifle and Speck's knife, and the television programs which glorify violence in order to sell toys to our children.
Yet the gross national product does not allow for the health of our children, the quality of their education or the joy of their play. It does not include the beauty of our poetry or the strength of our marriages, the intelligence of our public debate or the integrity of our public officials. It measures neither our wit nor our courage, neither our wisdom nor our learning, neither our compassion nor our devotion to our country, it measures everything in short, except that which makes life worthwhile. And it can tell us everything about America except why we are proud that we are Americans.
If this is true here at home, so it is true elsewhere in world.’ — Bobby Kennedy
I live in white rock. There’s very little transparency of the finances and operational efficiency. For some reason municipalities are very secretive. It would be great if they operated with radical transparency.
“Accelerator Fund” was nothing more than government pushing their Marxists agenda onto the municipalities. “You want funding? Impose all the inclusionary 15 minute city rules and stipulations, or else”! What a joke and several of the city councils who signed up for this also drastically changed the land use bylaws and municipal development plans to accommodate this push towards you know what.
Development Cost are to used for upgrading services such as water sewer and roads because new development demand on the existing services. It would be interesting to see if the funds are used for other items other than upgrading services.
Leads to the question. What will the bloated bureaucracies at all levels do without this windfall revenue from development fees which are obviously out of control. Raise taxes, raise taxes , raise taxes...Pick one you will be right ...
Canada needs to be ambitious at this hour. We have a land worthy of being one of the great nations of the world — but dearly lack the ambition to meet our potential. After all, geography is destiny and I dare say we have the best geography globally out of any nation.
One major reform that would require great will and ambition is reforming our constitution. A document created in the 19th century is inherently archaic and not worthy of the modern era. Above my pay grade to comment on the changes needed but thankfully our glorious country is full of minds worthy of this challenge.
In my humble opinion — a federal-municipal model would do wonders for Canada via economies of scale; less bureaucracy (silly that we have different policies, procedures, and regulations across the nation to accomplish the same thing — it means endless fragmentation and useless redundancy — healthcare being an easy example, a nurse should be able to walk into any Canadian hospital and be able to use the same training, policies, and procedures to allow much more efficient movement of labour); open the door to nation building projects that can actually be built and completed within reasonable timelines (comparable to the other nations of the world that are building without the regulatory and political constraints that hinder Canada currently); and a strong central government which would favour the majority over the minority (which ironically would likely benefit the minority more as well, as a rich country has the ability and capacity to help the minority vs our current debt crisis which puts the minority in a very precarious position); mayors I also believe understand the people far better than provincial premiers due to a much closer proximity to the people, thus they are the better ones to listen to if you truly want to know what the people need and want; lastly, Canada needs to wake up and quit picking sides in the geopolitical realm — we are a middle power at best and need to play our hand like one — that means playing the major powers against each other for our own benefit (take a look at Turkey for example — straddle both sides to create leverage for our own benefit) — playing US against China/India would create major wins for us for example — Trump will likely put tariffs on Canada so we can either take the hits and do nothing, or rise to the occasion and start acting like a nation with its own foreign policy rather than an appendage of our southern neighbour who bullies us more often than not for their own benefit.
‘The true meaning of life is to plant trees, under whose shade you do not expect to sit.’
— Nelson Henderson
Incredible citation. Thank you.
“Our housing crisis is largely self-inflicted, with all three levels of government pointing the finger at each other. You can debate which one is more at fault.”
Sorry, Steve. You got this all wrong. None of the three levels of government caused this mess. None. Period. The central banks around the world, held interest rates below the intrinsic rate, leading to massive increases of asset prices.
Every one wins. Except the sector of society that is bereft of assets. And the asset holding class (including yourself) smuggly believe you made such wise decisions. But. The reality eventually shows itself. A society that measures performance by capital appreciation only is a society that will destroy itself by inequality.
‘Too much and for too long, we seemed to have surrendered personal excellence and community values in the mere accumulation of material things. Our Gross National Product, now, is over $800 billion dollars a year, but that Gross National Product - if we judge the United States of America by that - that Gross National Product counts air pollution and cigarette advertising, and ambulances to clear our highways of carnage. It counts special locks for our doors and the jails for the people who break them. It counts the destruction of the redwood and the loss of our natural wonder in chaotic sprawl. It counts napalm and counts nuclear warheads and armored cars for the police to fight the riots in our cities. It counts Whitman's rifle and Speck's knife, and the television programs which glorify violence in order to sell toys to our children.
Yet the gross national product does not allow for the health of our children, the quality of their education or the joy of their play. It does not include the beauty of our poetry or the strength of our marriages, the intelligence of our public debate or the integrity of our public officials. It measures neither our wit nor our courage, neither our wisdom nor our learning, neither our compassion nor our devotion to our country, it measures everything in short, except that which makes life worthwhile. And it can tell us everything about America except why we are proud that we are Americans.
If this is true here at home, so it is true elsewhere in world.’ — Bobby Kennedy
I live in white rock. There’s very little transparency of the finances and operational efficiency. For some reason municipalities are very secretive. It would be great if they operated with radical transparency.
“Accelerator Fund” was nothing more than government pushing their Marxists agenda onto the municipalities. “You want funding? Impose all the inclusionary 15 minute city rules and stipulations, or else”! What a joke and several of the city councils who signed up for this also drastically changed the land use bylaws and municipal development plans to accommodate this push towards you know what.
Stuart Ross
Development Cost are to used for upgrading services such as water sewer and roads because new development demand on the existing services. It would be interesting to see if the funds are used for other items other than upgrading services.
Leads to the question. What will the bloated bureaucracies at all levels do without this windfall revenue from development fees which are obviously out of control. Raise taxes, raise taxes , raise taxes...Pick one you will be right ...