Author Topic: The Wreck of BC  (Read 9807 times)

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guest4

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The Wreck of BC
« on: February 08, 2018, 08:39:01 am »
A pretty damning indictment of BC Liberals and, to a lesser extent, Vision Vancouver's policies on housing and crime, from Macleans.
http://www.macleans.ca/news/canada/the-battle-to-clean-up-b-c/


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Offline kimmy

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Re: The Wreck of BC
« Reply #1 on: February 08, 2018, 09:23:32 pm »
Interesting read.  It's almost like a brochure for a handful of different topics that all need in-depth study on their own.

 -k
Paris - London - New York - Kim City

Offline BC_cheque

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Re: The Wreck of BC
« Reply #2 on: February 08, 2018, 11:00:43 pm »
Nothing in there was news to me but well written for those not familiar with this quagmire.  I hope to see Christie Clark in handcuffs one day but I’m not holding my breath.

Meanwhile if my parents weren’t in this city I’d be long gone.  I used to love this city but it’s truly a **** hole now.

Offline wilber

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Re: The Wreck of BC
« Reply #3 on: February 09, 2018, 12:06:52 pm »
It's a mess that most southern BC residents were well aware of. The Liberals deserve the lions share of the blame but the feds and cities weren't much help either. One wonders whether it was due to monumental incompetence or politicians unwilling to do anything that might affect their own property values. Probably both with the possibility of some plain old corruption thrown in.

Our oldest grandson is in second year engineering at UBC and has been offered a CO-OP job in Edmonton which it looks like he will take. I think him getting out of the lower mainland and seeing what the rest of the country has to offer might be the best thing that could happen to him. We moved back to BC long before the housing market went nuts but Edmonton was very good to us when we lived there during the seventies.

Now our new Premier has decided to start a war with Alberta and the rest of Canada. BC politics.  ::) Is BC the Quebec of the West?
"Never trust a man without a single redeeming vice" WSC

Offline Omni

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Re: The Wreck of BC
« Reply #4 on: February 09, 2018, 12:25:57 pm »
Nothing in there was news to me but well written for those not familiar with this quagmire.  I hope to see Christie Clark in handcuffs one day but I’m not holding my breath.

Meanwhile if my parents weren’t in this city I’d be long gone.  I used to love this city but it’s truly a **** hole now.

Interesting (if scary) read. I didn't know quite all of what was going on just across the water from me. Maybe once Trump gets impeached we should offer him a job up here. He is an expert on **** holes you know.  :'(
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guest4

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Re: The Wreck of BC
« Reply #5 on: February 09, 2018, 12:33:06 pm »
It's a mess that most southern BC residents were well aware of. The Liberals deserve the lions share of the blame but the feds and cities weren't much help either. One wonders whether it was due to monumental incompetence or politicians unwilling to do anything that might affect their own property values. Probably both with the possibility of some plain old corruption thrown in.

Our oldest grandson is in second year engineering at UBC and has been offered a CO-OP job in Edmonton which it looks like he will take. I think him getting out of the lower mainland and seeing what the rest of the country has to offer might be the best thing that could happen to him. We moved back to BC long before the housing market went nuts but Edmonton was very good to us when we lived there during the seventies.

Now our new Premier has decided to start a war with Alberta and the rest of Canada. BC politics.  ::) Is BC the Quebec of the West?

I agree that kids should spread their wings a bit before deciding where to settle.  I lived in several places in BC, but always wanted to live in the Lower Mainland; I was lucky enough to get into a reasonably priced place in the suburbs before the prices skyrocketed and so am relatively well positioned, despite a lower-than-middle-class income level. 

It's unclear to me why we're blaming Horgan for a war; Notley decided to go after our wine industry, which hurts her province as much as it hurts ours.  I don't have an issue with a pipeline personally, as long as there is stringent quality control and an enforced obligation that the company pay for clean up of any spills, but if Horgan/Weaver were elected on a Green platform, it's what the people of BC chose, eh?  We're allowed to do that.  Was Notley elected to hinder trade between the provinces?   

And, perhaps Albertans are unaware of the serious ill-effects of the oil industry, and the way in which oil companies have decimated the landscape and then decamped-even prior to the oil industry slump-leaving clean up and remediation to the taxpayer.  It is certainly an aspect that I have rarely seen publicized.   Another low profile side-effect is that people who live near tar sands are physically ill; I only orginally heard about it because a friend is a mortgage broker and was trying to sell the house of a woman who was dying due to her exposure; not surprisingly, the house was hard to sell. 

Perhaps Notley is simply virtue-signalling?
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Offline wilber

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Re: The Wreck of BC
« Reply #6 on: February 09, 2018, 01:02:10 pm »
Horgan made it very clear that he would do anything he could to stop this pipeline, he is doing just that. I don't blame Notley one bit for hitting back. We don't have the right to block other provinces from getting their products to market.

Canada is shooting itself in the foot. We had a 3.2B trade deficit in December, yet we shoot down Energy East and import 30B worth of foreign oil every year at world price while forcing our own producers to sell our oil to the US at a big discount. Dumb, dumb, dumb. No wonder energy companies are moving their resources and investments south. Contrary to Justin's rosy rhetoric, this is not an investment friendly country for any industry that needs to make a large investment in infrastructure.

The inability to do anything to expand domestic or international markets is having the same effect as Trudeau Sr's NEP and will result in the same animosity between Alberta and the rest of the country.
« Last Edit: February 09, 2018, 01:17:17 pm by wilber »
"Never trust a man without a single redeeming vice" WSC

guest4

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Re: The Wreck of BC
« Reply #7 on: February 09, 2018, 01:21:18 pm »
Horgan made it very clear that he would do anything he could to stop this pipeline, he is doing just that. I don't blame Notley one bit for hitting back. We don't have the right to block other provinces from getting their products to market.

Canada is shooting itself in the foot. We had a 3.2B trade deficit in December, yet we shoot down Energy East and import 30B worth of foreign oil every year at world price while forcing our own producers to sell our oil to the US at a big discount. Dumb, dumb, dumb. No wonder energy companies are moving their resources and investments south. Contrary to Justin's rosy rhetoric, this is not an investment friendly country for any industry that needs to make a large investment in infrastructure.

I defer to your knowledge; I am not so invested in this that I can really claim expertise on the new policy effects on the oil industry.   It does seem as if Alberta and the Feds poured a lot of money into the oil industry and yet it still tanked, so there doesn't seem to be a really reliable path to success.  And there are downsides that the oil industry and it's supporters rarely talk about; Alberta is now on the hook for billions of dollars to clean up the abandoned oil sites, a situation that the Pembina Institute forecast in 2009.

https://www.pembina.org/reports/toxicliabilityfactsheetfinal.pdf

http://business.financialpost.com/commodities/clean-up-liabilities-continue-to-swell-in-alberta-as-first-oilsands-project-is-orphaned

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/industry-news/energy-and-resources/estimated-cleanup-costs-for-albertas-mines-jumps-to-232-billion/article34912511/

Offline wilber

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Re: The Wreck of BC
« Reply #8 on: February 09, 2018, 01:40:39 pm »
Seems to me, that is Alberta's problem. Maybe if they could get world price for their product, those costs could be covered.
"Never trust a man without a single redeeming vice" WSC

guest4

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Re: The Wreck of BC
« Reply #9 on: February 09, 2018, 02:04:40 pm »
Seems to me, that is Alberta's problem. Maybe if they could get world price for their product, those costs could be covered.

The Alberta gov was cleaning up abandoned sites when they were getting "world price"; saw a news story about it a year or two before the crash.

And its our country, so its our problem and we are all paying.

Quote
In a news conference in Edmonton, Premier Rachel Notley called the payout “good news” and confirmed the money will be used for remediation of abandoned wells that no longer have corporate owners.

http://calgaryherald.com/news/local-news/federal-budget-slashes-drilling-deductions-grants-alberta-30-million-to-stimulate-economy

guest4

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Re: The Wreck of BC
« Reply #10 on: February 09, 2018, 02:20:06 pm »
Nothing in there was news to me but well written for those not familiar with this quagmire.  I hope to see Christie Clark in handcuffs one day but I’m not holding my breath.

Meanwhile if my parents weren’t in this city I’d be long gone.  I used to love this city but it’s truly a **** hole now.

It seems politicians are untouchable when it comes to profiting from their position.

 I was interested in the comments about shell companies buying real estate for foreign ownership; I never did think the 10 %+/-  bandied about at various times could have that much of an effect on the housing prices, it makes more sense if it's much higher so hidden foreign ownership seems more possible. Still, the majority of the real estate market are not foreigners, so why are locals supporting ever-increasing prices?  I think the biggest issue is the speculative aspect of buying real estate, whether one is local or foreign.

Also, I have to agree the 15% foreign buyers tax was a joke.  If one is buying or selling million+ dollar properties, $15,000 is merely negotiation.   I think the empty homes tax has a better chance of success in moderating the real estate market, because it's annual and not a one-off payment.

Offline BC_cheque

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Re: The Wreck of BC
« Reply #11 on: February 09, 2018, 02:28:17 pm »
Also, I have to agree the 15% foreign buyers tax was a joke.  If one is buying or selling million+ dollar properties, $15,000 is merely negotiation.   I think the empty homes tax has a better chance of success in moderating the real estate market, because it's annual and not a one-off payment.

I think the only solution is to ban anyone from buying real estate unless they are permanent residents or citizens who live and work in the country.  The foreign buyer tax was stupid because there are hard-working landed immigrants who are working here, contributing to society and plan on making Canada their home.  It also prevents many companies from making Vancouver home because they would have a harder time attracting employees. 

Corporations should also not be able to own residential properties.  Let the actual people who live and work in Vancouver buy the real estate and watch prices start to tumble. 

Horgan said he won't do that and I wrote my MPP a letter because he's NDP and I supported his campaign, but if the NDP doesn't fix this issue I'm never voting for them again.



 

Offline wilber

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Re: The Wreck of BC
« Reply #12 on: February 09, 2018, 02:37:30 pm »
New Zealand banned foreign ownership by non residents last year. Be interesting to see how that turns out.
"Never trust a man without a single redeeming vice" WSC
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Offline msj

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Re: The Wreck of BC
« Reply #13 on: February 09, 2018, 03:17:54 pm »

Also, I have to agree the 15% foreign buyers tax was a joke.  If one is buying or selling million+ dollar properties, $15,000 is merely negotiation.   I think the empty homes tax has a better chance of success in moderating the real estate market, because it's annual and not a one-off payment.

15% of $1 million dollars = $150,000. 

That is chump change only to foreign nationals who have lots of money to launder.

In which case, our government is complicit by accepting that money even if it is collected as a "tax." 

That is the problem with the tax: morally it is just the government cashing in on known money laundering. 

They know it, we know it, everyone knows it and yet it continues because it is profitable.
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guest4

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Re: The Wreck of BC
« Reply #14 on: February 09, 2018, 03:33:45 pm »
15% of $1 million dollars = $150,000. 

That is chump change only to foreign nationals who have lots of money to launder.

In which case, our government is complicit by accepting that money even if it is collected as a "tax." 

That is the problem with the tax: morally it is just the government cashing in on known money laundering. 

They know it, we know it, everyone knows it and yet it continues because it is profitable.

It's not just foreign nationals who have "chump change".   Someone of my slight acquaintance talked about being paid to take 100,000s of thousands of dollars to the currency exchange places, laundering for biker gangs.  Perhaps they've moved up to casinos too.