I agree, the small local grocers / regional chains used to be consistently more expensive than going to Superstore or Walmart. They have raised prices, but somehow not as much as the big guys. They still can’t compete on some of the big volume staples like milk, eggs, pasta, and bread, but is it really worth saving a buck on a couple items just to pay more for everything else? In a way it’s almost a good thing though, it’s never been an easier decision to support local.
The problem with screen call is that it’s really limited in Canada vs the US. You can’t set it up to screen automatically, so you still have to physically pick up the phone and watch the transcript in real time.
I think most reasonable people don’t actually think there needs to be a full ban on these trucks. I do think that most people would agree that there needs to be some restriction/enforcement on where they can park. The picture at the top of the article is a good example, they don’t fit in lots of the angle parking spots right downtown. There are small car spots, there are micro car/motorcycle spots, maybe we need standard sized car spots. Big trucks can park in lots where they do fit or on the edge of downtown (I do that in my normal sized car if I can anyways because who wants to pay for parking?). As for your second to last point, no one’s going to drive 3+ hours from the north Island to Victoria to get groceries especially not in these trucks for $150+ of gas. No one would even drive from Saanich to get groceries in Victoria.
I do agree about the transit though, it’s insane that travelling from Nanaimo to Victoria takes an entire day by public transport and anything north of that is simply impossible.
If a fine is going to be effective it has to be multiple times the crime. So the $5m crime is punishable by a $20m fine or something like that. Or even better for massive corporations, if it was based on their total revenue/market value. Fine them a huge percentage of the company.
They might have different laws in Ontario but in BC that’s also the way to do it.
If they’re on the bike they’re considered a vehicle and have to cross the road in the same way a car would*.
If they’re walking the bike they’re treated as a pedestrian and must walk across the crosswalk
*( There are exceptions, such as multi use trails, but they are either clearly marked to both the road and trail users or they have a stop sign for cyclists)
The jail time would be hard if you were arbitrarily picking officers or trying to prove what each one did or didn’t do, but I’m sure a law could be written laying out a chain of command/criminal responsibility. And instead of increasing a single scapegoats sentence for multiple offences it could be distributed among the c suite / board.
Not everything is black and white. I can agree with the idea of a carbon tax while also acknowledging how it can feel less fair to different people in different areas.
I am also on Vancouver Island and I completely agree with you. I work at 2 different locations and either one my commute to work is about 45 minutes by car, by bus it is actually impossible. One location has the nearest bus stop 6km away (all 90km/h highway with narrow shoulders) while the other would drop me off at the front door, the schedules don’t line up though and I’d have to leave my house for work before I got home the day before. It’s theoretically possible to do in about 2 hours, but only with perfect connections and they only line up right in the middle of the day. Not to mention it would require tickets for 2 separate transit systems which add up to almost the same as gas. Housing prices are so insane here too, that moving anywhere (whether it’s one house over, right beside work, or anywhere in-between) would cost me more in monthly rent than I’d pay in gas if I drove a Hummer to work.
But what comes first?
The carbon tax disincentive came first, and I think most reasonable people would agree it made sense whether it cost them personally or not. The problem is that for a lot of people the disincentive keeps growing while the alternatives haven’t improved at all.
Unfortunately a lot of people don’t live in cities at all, let alone the dense parts with the service like you describe. EVs may not be the answer overall, but for many people across the country they’re the only viable first step away from ICE vehicles.
Right now with affordability the way it is, it feels like we’re getting a lot of stick without much carrot.
I should’ve clarified I meant used under $10k. There will always be a segment of the population that can’t/won’t buy new just like on the high end there will always be the types of people who can’t keep a new car more than a year or 2.
I’m not sure what point you’re trying to make. Should the fact that people like trucks take away from the unaffordability of every other vehicle? I’m sure if you only counted EVs since the rivian and lightning were released you’d see a similar proportion of trucks. Until you can get decent condition EVs under $10k there will be a group of people who are simply priced out of the market.
I would love to be more environmentally friendly but unfortunately the financial cost of entry is too high. The answer isn’t to keep making gas more unaffordable, it’s already way more expensive to drive an ICE car than an EV. The issue is the people the carbon tax hurts the most are precisely the same people who can’t afford to buy something electric. There have got to be other ways to incentivize the switch for people who can afford it (and therefore don’t really notice a few extra bucks to fill up) while not overly punishing those who can’t. Maybe we should be putting a tax on new ICE vehicles proportional to their pollution, and put that towards a means tested/non-luxury ev subsidy so that they become viable to those who wouldn’t otherwise be able to afford a new car.
Would that not also encourage people/companies to pay down as much debt as possible? I’m sure that would help level out the playing field a bit too.
Exactly, you can throw all the incentives you want at me and I’d be happy to switch today, but my landlords don’t care because they’re not the ones paying the carbon tax.
There’s one store (I think it’s Walmart but I’m not 100% sure) that will put the price per unit on everything, but in one product category you might have price/100g, price per individual item (1 cookie), price per sub-packaging (sleeve of crackers in a box), or it’ll count the entire product as 1 of 1 units.
Exactly, I don’t know the actual statistics (as the OC didn’t provide any) but if they actually are paying in more than they’re receiving it means they have a lot more workers than retirees. Sounds like a good deal when factoring in other provincial costs like healthcare for example.
Yeah, Norway is one of the world’s top oil producers, but also the leader in EV adoption by far.
It also sounds like the shortage is itself causing the burnout. Some are raking in the OT and making good money but it’s not worth it if you don’t have any time off or even time to see your family after work. At most jobs if there’s no one to relieve you you go home and they run short, maybe reduce services or close early. You can’t do that at a hospital, their options are lots of mandatory overtime or to find literally any other job that’s guaranteed a better work life balance.
I recently went to a mall where the baby change room was separate from the washrooms, except you had to walk through the women’s washroom to get to it. And the actual location meant there was no reason they couldn’t have had a separate door directly out into the hall.