Families earning $100K+ don’t need immediate relief on drug costs, not the least of which because they likely already have private coverage from their employment.

Diabetes is a condition that can even bankrupt people making $100K+ who think they have good medical insurance. Many diabetics reach their employer/pension medical insurance’s lifetime maximum and have to pay all costs out of pocket, which can be thousands of dollars a month.

CBS has only 8 locations for plasma donations. The vast majority of Canadians live no where near these locations! It’s like they’re not even trying, and are surprised they are failing!

It appears they could have easily picked her up (they’re 2 officers, she’s a small 16yo girl) but they didn’t even try and instead chose to just drag her.

I didn’t mean whole empty parking lots, I meant space that never get used. At most big-box/large grocery stores, I’d say probably 1/4 of the spots never get used. Another good percentage of them only get used on holidays/sale days.

I had a longer comment, but I realize I don’t need to explain these things to you, you’re already very well versed!

I think you could use some self-reflection if you think that title is blaming individuals for driving. It seems like you’re primed to take offense.

Did you read the article? It mainly focused on parking minimums and density. It doesn’t matter whether or not individual people use those parking spaces, it’s a systemic issue!

Like a lot of complex problems, the housing issue has multiple contributing factors. The other issues you brought up definitely are valid, but that doesn’t invalidate the issues with parking and density. Most parking lots are way, way oversized.

Your comment seems very “all or nothing”. No one’s talking about eliminating all parking everywhere tomorrow. However a large percentage of our parking is never used and this the problem is exacerbated by mandatory parking minimums as the article points out. From the article:

“We have a chicken and egg problem. The problem is we want dense development but development isn’t initially dense enough,” said Dawn Parker, a professor at the University of Waterloo’s School of Planning. “Retail activities, other activities, employment locations are so spread-out people still need to have a car.”

Plus, with our system of free parking, those in our society who can’t afford cars/aren’t able to drive are subsidizing you and me when we drive places. The cost of parking is split amongst all customers (in the case of private parking) or residents (in the case of municipal lots), even those who take public transit, walk, or bike.

I do want to comment on a few things you said:

There is no way in this or any world that I am hauling $300 worth of groceries to a bus stop, just to sit there and wait half an hour (at -20C) for a dilapidated bus that may or may not even run on time and has the risk of someone stealing some of those overpriced groceries on the 30 minute ride it would take to get home.

You probably buy $300 worth of groceries at a time because the store is inconvenient to get to (due to Euclidean Zoning and our general lack of density). I honestly do the same thing. However, when I lived in a denser city, I commuted by bike or bus and would grab groceries every day on my way home, and it added minimal time to my travel. I’m not arguing you should move or drastically change your life, but that the city should improve around you.

Similarly, all the problems with the bus are trivially solvable if we chose to invest in public transit instead of the ridiculous amount we spend on roads and car infrastructure.

I live in Saskatchewan and it will very frequently get to -30 or below. I cannot ride a bike in that safely without risk of frost bite, so cycling is out of the question (at least in the winter).

Ehhh . . . Oulu, Finland would disagree with this, as would I. I definitely feel less motivated to go out in the cold, but it’s possible with the correct infrastructure and clothing.

EVs are an inefficient solution for the ~85% of Canadians who live in urban areas. We need more investment in efficient solutions in areas like public transportation, active transportation, and liveable cities.

I wish this article would address change in population.

This isn’t an excuse and we need to do a whole lot better as a country. I just think blaming our increase of carbon output on transportation and not looking at per capita numbers gives the oilsands and other heavy industries a pass. I’d love to see more active/public transportation (and some EVs, but that’s an inefficient solution for the ~85% of Canadians living in urban areas).

@davidpierce@mastodon.social has been pretty bullish on the fediverse for quite a while now. It’s come up a few times on the vergecast over the last year or so. I’m not surprised he wrote this decent explainer!

Wow. It’s hard to find a voting system I like less than FPTP, but you’ve found it! This only makes sense over STV if we don’t have computers.

I feel like this article should probably at least note that we’re talking about “The National Bank of Canada which is the sixth largest commercial bank in Canada”, not “The Bank of Canada which is a Crown Corporation and Canada’s Central Bank”.

FTA:

Government documents say the reporting requirements likely would apply to plastic producers, not consumers.

No argument from me there. However, I’m pretty sure this is at the behest of the city, not the police taking actions on their own.

This is also Edmonton, the most progressive city in Alberta.

Also, she retired from Indigenous and Northern Affairs Canada. That’s crazy coming from a former public servant in that position!

Not really. In a system where demand is fairly inelastic (everyone needs somewhere to live and the only real flex is having roommates/living at home/homelessness or renting two apartments) and where the supply is currently extremely constrained, expenses are going to have next to no impact on rental prices.

For example, I was fortunately able to buy a townhouse two years ago (when interest rates were low) to live in. My mortgage is ~ $1,200/mo. Other units have been going on the rental market pretty consistently for ~$2,000/mo. Even with the increased interest rates, new landlord’s would still have a net positive of ~$500/mo between the rent they receive and their mortgage payments. There might be a loss of profit, but with profits already so high, it’s not going to affect rates on a macro scale.

Not really. Rent is based on demand and landlords will take as much as the market will bear. It’s pretty much independent of mortgage rates.

Case in point, rent in Southwestern Ontario exploded in 2020 & 2021, when interest rates were low and have stayed pretty level since, even with the significant increase in rates.

the cost of rent is directly tied to the mortgage rate

Who told you that?