You (and your compatriots from the Loonie Hour) have the benefit of seeing these issues beyond single-sector effects - it's all intertwined. It would be great if, just as you indicated the problem with going our current course, you also critiqued your own recommendation of reducing taxes. Obviously that's A solution, but you didn't talk about the effects of doing so; I don't think anyone believes that lowering taxes will take us right back to Canada's heydays.. maybe having lower taxes is an important aspect of our 'steady state' economy, but how do we get there? If we lowered all of the taxes as you said, what would be the effect of that hole in govt budgets? Do you believe it's all just excess and waste and we could just carry on more efficiently but with the same services? Or will health spending get cut... education? social programs for seniors?
We can all be like the opposition and yell out simple solutions to the govt, but if you're in the know, wouldn't it be more effective to suggest a more comprehensive plan? Just like healthcare needs more money - what budget item will we pull it from? It's not like we're running surpluses that we can just dip into.
This. We need to build the economy and create jobs in the private sector. In Canada’s heyday of home affordability we had a strong manufacturing se tor to drive growth. It’s all but disappeared in the last 3-4 decades. We didn’t get here overnight.
Sobering words, Steve. The problem has been central banks keeping the prime rate well below the intrinsic cost of capital over the past twenty years. This has led to massive asset appreciation which is now reflected in unaffordable housing. The current development charges, as you point out, are a result of the government sector feeding on the same trough.
The tragedy is that now Mr. Carney, the past president of our central bank, who was responsible for this disastrous monetary policy, is running to become our next leader. Sadly, the public cannot see the truth, as so many of the elite were feeding off Mr. Carney’s asset inflating policy.
OK calm down there AXE THE STEVE! Slogans are not policy.
186,000$/year is on the wealthy side and should be taxed on the higher end of the spectrum.
Only those with ASSETS of $1,000,000,000 should be taxed to oblivion, but they should get the "I won capitalism" ribbon first. Looking at you there Mr. Low-tide Chip. Or our friends at Holborn.
Fortunately or not, no one in this country is being taxed in oblivion...but we should consider making first 73,000$ of family income tax free, 73,000$ being the amount earned by a family with 2 full-time employees in one year, or the amount an AVERAGE CANADIAN CEO make in ONE DAY.
The problem is not development charges or income taxes or supply, it's speculative zoning and flipping. Look at the Broadway Plan fiasco...Multiple rezoning requests coming in from "developers" who exist only on paper who have never built a thing.
It doesn’t help that the imbecilic Liberal/NDP government decided to throw open the immigration doors to over 1 million people per year, and at the same time putting in restrictions on building, growth and infrastructure due to their main obsession on “climate change”. No improvement in Canada’s economy, housing, health care, finances can even begin until this cabal are voted out of power.
Deductible mortgage interest. Government policy has essentially forced Canadians into higher leveraged positions; this would return cash to people investing in their country while allowing them to improve their personal balance sheets as well. Risk is of course taking even more debt but this at least returns cash to people investing in Canada.
It seems that housing prices and workers income are out of synch. Although we might complain about the cost of other goods and services, in general, people get by.
So the proposed answer to unaffordable housing is to increase incomes to make them affordable. However, it would probably end up being massively inflationary on everything else.
Once we accept that prices and incomes are OK except for housing, then the answer needs to be to reduce the price of houses.
"The public sector is essentially cannibalizing the economy. From 2019 to 2023, public sector employment increased by 13.3%, compared to just 3.6% in the private sector (including self-employment)." It's worth noting this time period corresponds with the pandemic, where yes, all governments hired a lot of people to do a lot of things.
You (and your compatriots from the Loonie Hour) have the benefit of seeing these issues beyond single-sector effects - it's all intertwined. It would be great if, just as you indicated the problem with going our current course, you also critiqued your own recommendation of reducing taxes. Obviously that's A solution, but you didn't talk about the effects of doing so; I don't think anyone believes that lowering taxes will take us right back to Canada's heydays.. maybe having lower taxes is an important aspect of our 'steady state' economy, but how do we get there? If we lowered all of the taxes as you said, what would be the effect of that hole in govt budgets? Do you believe it's all just excess and waste and we could just carry on more efficiently but with the same services? Or will health spending get cut... education? social programs for seniors?
We can all be like the opposition and yell out simple solutions to the govt, but if you're in the know, wouldn't it be more effective to suggest a more comprehensive plan? Just like healthcare needs more money - what budget item will we pull it from? It's not like we're running surpluses that we can just dip into.
This. We need to build the economy and create jobs in the private sector. In Canada’s heyday of home affordability we had a strong manufacturing se tor to drive growth. It’s all but disappeared in the last 3-4 decades. We didn’t get here overnight.
100% agree.
Sobering words, Steve. The problem has been central banks keeping the prime rate well below the intrinsic cost of capital over the past twenty years. This has led to massive asset appreciation which is now reflected in unaffordable housing. The current development charges, as you point out, are a result of the government sector feeding on the same trough.
The tragedy is that now Mr. Carney, the past president of our central bank, who was responsible for this disastrous monetary policy, is running to become our next leader. Sadly, the public cannot see the truth, as so many of the elite were feeding off Mr. Carney’s asset inflating policy.
OK calm down there AXE THE STEVE! Slogans are not policy.
186,000$/year is on the wealthy side and should be taxed on the higher end of the spectrum.
Only those with ASSETS of $1,000,000,000 should be taxed to oblivion, but they should get the "I won capitalism" ribbon first. Looking at you there Mr. Low-tide Chip. Or our friends at Holborn.
Fortunately or not, no one in this country is being taxed in oblivion...but we should consider making first 73,000$ of family income tax free, 73,000$ being the amount earned by a family with 2 full-time employees in one year, or the amount an AVERAGE CANADIAN CEO make in ONE DAY.
The problem is not development charges or income taxes or supply, it's speculative zoning and flipping. Look at the Broadway Plan fiasco...Multiple rezoning requests coming in from "developers" who exist only on paper who have never built a thing.
It doesn’t help that the imbecilic Liberal/NDP government decided to throw open the immigration doors to over 1 million people per year, and at the same time putting in restrictions on building, growth and infrastructure due to their main obsession on “climate change”. No improvement in Canada’s economy, housing, health care, finances can even begin until this cabal are voted out of power.
Deductible mortgage interest. Government policy has essentially forced Canadians into higher leveraged positions; this would return cash to people investing in their country while allowing them to improve their personal balance sheets as well. Risk is of course taking even more debt but this at least returns cash to people investing in Canada.
It seems that housing prices and workers income are out of synch. Although we might complain about the cost of other goods and services, in general, people get by.
So the proposed answer to unaffordable housing is to increase incomes to make them affordable. However, it would probably end up being massively inflationary on everything else.
Once we accept that prices and incomes are OK except for housing, then the answer needs to be to reduce the price of houses.
Developers expecting newcomers and young people to pay up with 30 year loans.
Or you can do like Vienna has been doing for almost 100 years now
https://www.huduser.gov/portal/pdredge/pdr_edge_featd_article_011314.html
"The public sector is essentially cannibalizing the economy. From 2019 to 2023, public sector employment increased by 13.3%, compared to just 3.6% in the private sector (including self-employment)." It's worth noting this time period corresponds with the pandemic, where yes, all governments hired a lot of people to do a lot of things.