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Harper Budget Stiffs Homeless

Ignores Vancouver mayor's idea to boost rentals.

By Monte Paulsen, 28 Feb 2008, TheTyee.ca

Stephen Harper

PM Harper: Not a penny.

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Prime Minister Stephen Harper's 2008 budget offers nothing to alleviate the housing insecurity already worrying more than 1.5 million Canadian households, and effectively threatens to withdraw what little federal funding exists to help the nation's homeless.

"There's not a penny for new truly affordable homes in federal budget 2008, even though all three national housing and homeless programs are due to expire this year," said Michael Shapcott, a policy fellow at The Wellesley Institute in Toronto.

Vancouver Mayor Sam Sullivan also expressed disappointment in the Harper budget's lack of support for housing (though he praised commitments to continuing the gas tax and hiring additional police officers). Even his pleas for adjustments to the tax code were rebuffed.

"I have spent a considerable amount of time in Ottawa promoting the idea of tax changes that would help stimulate the private development of new rental housing," Sullivan said. "Obviously, I haven't been successful in making this case."

Shapcott warned that if the Harper government continues to ignore "Canada's extremely shaky housing fundamentals," the nation's shortage of affordable housing could soon push tens of thousands of working-class families into homelessness.

Too few homes for rent

The problem is simple: Throughout most of Canada, there are far more renters than there are affordable homes for them to rent.

Vancouver's rental shortage is acute. The nationwide average rental vacancy rate was 2.7 per cent in 2006, according to figures compiled by the Canadian Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC). British Columbia's vacancy rate was only 1.2 per cent, and Vancouver's was a mere 0.7 per cent.

The cause of this shortage is also simple: Few new rental units are being built, and as a result the old ones are fetching higher rents.

About one third of Canada's 12.5 million households are renters. But rental construction accounted for less than 9 per cent of the nation's new housing starts in 2006. And each time an older house or apartment building is torn down to make way for a new duplex or condo tower, there are fewer homes available for rent.

Vancouver's 2006 shortfall was dramatic: Of 18,705 housing units started that year, only 509 were purpose-built rentals, according to the CMHC. That's a mere 2.7 percent.

In other words, more than 97 per cent of new homes are created for the roughly two-thirds of households that can afford to buy Vancouver real estate, while less than 3 per cent are destined to house the one-third of Vancouverites who rent.

This trend away from rental construction has grown steadily in the 1980s and is expected to accelerate. Metro Vancouver is projected to face a cumulative shortfall of up to 48,000 rental units by 2021, according to a 2006 report.

Rental housing 'market failure'

"What's happening is what economists refer to as 'market failure,'" Shapcott said

"There are plenty of renters with cash in their hands, but the free market has failed to provide housing for them," he continued. "With demand exceeding supply, rents have risen sharply while incomes have remained stagnant. We're now at a point where working families are literally left standing on the sidewalk."

Real estate investors began pulling their money out of rental housing in the 1970s, when commercial real estate (such as shopping malls) began offering higher rates of return. This trend accelerated in the 1980s and 1990s, as condominiums came into vogue. "Why would an investor tie up his money up for 30 or 40 years, when he could receive the same return on investment by selling those apartments right away?" Shapcott asked.

After decades without significant investment in new rental housing, Vancouver rents have risen to the point where prospective tenants compete to pay $1,200 a month for drafty 1960s apartments and mouldy basement suites.

Nationwide, more than 1.5 million Canadian households -- about 4.2 million people -- are in what the government calls "core housing need." These are households that are both paying more than 30 per cent of their income for shelter, and are living in substandard or over crowded homes.

Again, British Columbians fare worse than the nation as a whole: 223,700 B.C. households were in core housing need in 2001. That's 15.8 per cent of all B.C. households. Among Canadian provinces, only Nunavut provides a lower standard of housing.

Single-parents and seniors bear the heaviest burden in Metro Vancouver, where fully half of all households headed by a single person were in core housing need, as were 45 per cent of households headed by a senior citizen.

"The other long-term trend that has shadowed the deterioration of rental housing is a growing income gap between owners and renters. The average income of a renter household is now less than half the average income of an owner household," Shapcott said. "So now we have two Vancouvers: the owners, and the renters."

Sullivan's plan: tax breaks for investors

Mayor Sullivan has lobbied Ottawa for eight changes to the federal tax code that he believes will help stimulate the creation of new rental housing and new forms of supportive social housing.

The first three items on Sullivan's wish list would restore some of the tax breaks formerly available to rental housing investors. Sullivan has lobbied the Harper government to reduce GST payments on rental housing, to allow rental investors to qualify for small business deductions, and to restore capital cost allowance rollovers.

These three items also top the list of tax law changes being sought by the Canadian Federation of Apartment Associations, which represents landlords.

"Since the 1970s there have been a whole slew of changes that make the tax treatment for rental properties much less favourable than it was formerly, and in many cases less favourable than the treatment of commercial property or shares or owner occupied homes," said association president John Dickie, who provided a list of 15 such changes.

Dickie acknowledged that fiddling with the tax laws would neither reduce the lure of condominium investments nor spur the construction of new low-income housing. But he predicted that a new supply of market-rate rental housing would "trickle down" and help slow the rise of rental rates for less desirable homes, such as basement suites.

"Would these tax changes take us back to building 60,000 to 70,000 units of rental housing a year, as we did in the late '60s? Probably not," Dickie said. "Would these take us up to building 30,000 to 40,000 units a year? Yeah, probably so."

The remaining items on Sullivan's wish list would facilitate the creation of new forms of public-private partnerships, such as that proposed by last year's stalled Dobell-Fairbairn plan.

Among Sullivan's requests of Ottawa: permit the creation of an investment pool for affordable housing, allow a private foundation to create a limited partnership for the purpose of owning supportive housing, and permit the holders of such partnership units to deduct losses against income and to avoid capital gains if they donate their units to a charity.

'Monumental failures'

"What Mayor Sullivan is attempting is to find a Holy Grail that many politicians have sought for some time: A way to get the private market to deliver affordable housing," Shapcott said.

"It's a great idea, but it doesn't work," he continued. "There is no jurisdiction in the world where tax policy has been used to create affordable homes. It hasn't worked in the U.S., where they tried numerous tax schemes but are now facing a low-income housing crisis. And it hasn't worked in Canada, where we have had considerable experience with tax schemes to stimulate rental housing; all of them have been monumental failures."

That view is supported not only by other housing analysts, but also by the research arm of one of the nation's largest lenders. A report from TD Economics reached a similar conclusion.

"Tax changes are unlikely to bring the biggest 'bang for the buck' to affordable housing," the 2003 report stated. "Some of the provisions, such as the capital tax and the distortion between property taxes on rental and owner-occupied housing, should be fixed for their broad merits. The other recommendations would no doubt increase the supply of rental housing, but the benefits would be diluted across the full spectrum of housing and have a limited 'trickle down' effect to affordable housing. A greater benefit-cost ratio could be realized through initiatives to directly target the lower cost segment of the market."

In other words, said Shapcott" "Bankers and economists have concluded that cuts are less efficient than a direct investment in new social housing."

Shapcott does see promise in one item on Sullivan's list: the investment pool. He said a housing trust fund in Edmonton has been successful in developing affordable homes for the long term. He added, "I'd caution against any expectation of a market-rate return."

$20 million for DES mental illness

Sullivan said Vancouver did receive $20 million toward a project to address mental illness in the Downtown Eastside, which he hoped "could involve some housing." He also hoped that Finance Minister Jim Flaherty's mention of a crown corporation for public-private partnerships was a nod to the Dobell-Fairbairn plan.

"The creation of affordable housing remains among our top civic priorities in Vancouver," Sullivan said. "It's my job as a municipal representative to make the case for housing investments in Ottawa and Victoria. The provincial government has made historic investments during the past year. And I will continue to make the case for further federal involvement."

Opposition Coun. Raymond Louie, who is widely expected to seek Vision Vancouver's nomination to run against Sullivan in this November's election, said Sullivan has been an ineffective lobbyist.

"What we needed was a clear, concise message going to Ottawa -- not Mayor Sullivan's incoherent list of random priorities," Louie said. "The mayor just isn't getting it done."

Shapcott warned Vancouver politicians to "be careful what you wish for," and stressed that tax breaks would not alleviate B.C.'s housing insecurity.

"Ultimately, there are really only two practical options," Shapcott said. "Either we put more money into the pockets of rental households -- by raising the minimum wage, increasing income assistance or some other mechanism -- or we recognize that the market is failing renters and build a million units of non-market housing."

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Monte Paulsen is investigative editor of The Tyee. He welcomes e-mail and invites respectful comment in the forum below.

26 Comments:

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  • Luke Skywalker

    4 years ago

    Quote:Real estate investors

    Quote:
    Real estate investors began pulling their money out of rental housing in the 1970s, when commercial real estate (such as shopping malls) began offering higher rates of return.

    And, as a result, the feds stepped in with the MURB (Multiple-Unit Residential Building) program, which resulted in the construction of numerous apartment buildings right upto around the fall, 1981 financial precipace.

    Land and cost of construction was still cheap back then.

    Today's land prices and construction prices are exorbitant compared to back then or even during the 1990's.

    The only thing that the City of Vancouver can do is utilize it's existing landholdings for social housing (still with exorbitant construction costs per sq./ft.) or have a policy of minimal affordable housing in each new private residential development to be managed by a non-profit housing agency.

    As for the feds, last fall they announced ill-conceived $60 billion in tax cuts over the next five years, the economy is shrinking, and their projected surpluses are treading water at or around $ 1 billion over the next few years.

    In other words, there is no room to manoeuvre financially for any new government.

    The province is purchasing and rehabilitating some downtown eastside SRO's, but again the cost of new construction is exorbitant.

    Apparently NIMBY's look unfavourably upon the conceptual 10,000 Riverview redevelopment in Coquitlam inclusive of the social housing component.

    Quote:
    "What we needed was a clear, concise message going to Ottawa -- not Mayor Sullivan's incoherent list of random priorities," Louie said. "The mayor just isn't getting it done."

    That sort of an attitude is not going to get anyone, anywhere based upon history. WAC Bennett was renowned for fighting Ottawa and so was Glen Clark. Didn't help them much.

    Better to have a cordial relationship with other governments in order to have their ear and ergo... get them on board.

  • avandoc

    4 years ago

    market failure

    The neoliberal ideologues will never acknowledge a "market failure." The market for them is destiny, and those who don't make it may deserve some pity but little more. The Conseratives nonetheless seem to be confident and the Liberals willing to limp along with this budget.

    Canadians no longer seem able to take lessons from the failures of neoliberalism in the US. What level of crisis in Canada (bridge collapses, growing hospital wait lists, entrenched homelessness) is necessary to convey the message that public spending is necessary for a civilized society?

  • G West

    4 years ago

    It'll come avandoc, it'll come

    More and more people are starting to notice...in the end, it won't be politics that saves the day though.

  • The brain

    4 years ago

    What a difference a day makes

    http://www.cbc.ca/clips/mov/boag-cadman-morn-080228.mov

    http://www.cbc.ca/canada/story/2008/02/27/cadman-book.html

    In case anyone is wondering, would a CEO of a U.S. insurance company offer Chuck Cadman a million dollar insurance company for greater access/market share of Canada's insurance sector secured by a Conservative majority?

    Duh...

  • G West

    4 years ago

    You're right brain

    not much difference between the Cons and the Libs...they both think vigorish is the way to get things done.

    Sadly, that's often true.

    It will be fun to watch pee wee twist in the wind a bit though - his recent pathetic ad hominem attacks on Dion may look a little different today than they did yesterday.

    I hadn't thought there was much chance that Dion's stock could actually rise in this country - Stephen Harper and the Conservative/Reform/Alliance may have proved I didn't know what I was talking about.

    Sad and pathetic.

    With the taste of undigested Mulroney still on the air, this kind of thing just makes it clearer than ever that nothing whatever has changed in the party of the neocon right.

  • Canis Latrans

    4 years ago

    History stuck in time...

    Quote:
    Canadians no longer seem able to take lessons from the failures of neoliberalism in the US. What level of crisis in Canada (bridge collapses, growing hospital wait lists, entrenched homelessness) is necessary to convey the message that public spending is necessary for a civilized society? Wrote Avandoc.

    First, don't get me wrong. I consider myself a Canadian patriot of the first rank, and an Internationalist, but I at the same time understand the sense of near despair here, in Avandoc's entirely legitimate question. We are living through an extremely difficult and "disengaged public" period, no bloody doubt, brother/sister.

    How else does one explain our being drawn into the abyss with The Empire in Afghanistan (and in Haiti), and our running apologetics and participation in The Empire's imperialist maneuvering on the border regions of Russia in Kosovo, as but one example, and our interdiction duties for them in the Gulf, off Iraq?

    But for the closest parallels that I can think of, to the current period, one has to go back to the earlier prosperity period of the Roaring '20s which led to the economic, so-called Free Markets collapse of the 1930's, and the thereafter clash of competing imperialist titans World War II that arose out of that in the latter 30's and 40's.

    If one has an understanding of the Kondratiev Long Wave Theory, then it's approx. 50-60 behavioural cycle of capitalism fits just about perfectly into the recession and war cycle currently being deja vu relived in our time.

    http://www.gold-eagle.com/editorials_02/chapmand062902.html

    In any case, what is becoming clear is, that the period we are living through has in its main features much similarity to previous cyclical periods over the history of capitalism-, which of course, get discredited in each prosperity period and new generation of citizens. One of the hallmarks of humans is that they collectively have a living memory of 60 or so years, with each generation, unfortunately, having to relearn and relive the experience of previous generations. It can be overcome in time, of course, such as slavery and feudalism were eventually got beyond, though at the height of their power time, it must have seemed they were going to last forever as well-, but it is not easy, and timing, and the public mood and level of understanding have to come together just about perfectly.

    Continued next post...

  • Canis Latrans

    4 years ago

    Hisory Stuck In Time 2...

    Continued From Previous Post...

    The latter observation being purely my own. (It was thought, for example, it was going to occur at the height of the Great Depression in the 1930s, of course, but then enter the Great Post WW2 Prosperity Period, that suddenly turned "the previously interested public" on the communist and socialist causes of the period.

    Fickle and opportunist creatures we really are, ready to surrender our causes at the first party hardy opportunity. :-)

    Quote:
    More and more people are starting to notice...in the end, it won't be politics that saves the day though. Wrote GWest.

    My friend GWest ever surprises me sometines, with the astuteness of some of his observations.

    I agree, brother: At least politics as we know it. :-)

  • dorothy

    4 years ago

    Really? Tell me more...

    "public spending is necessary for a civilized society?"

    Why should it be? In fact, it seems to me, that this is the wrong way to go, reagrding housing. How about we leave it to the people who want more workers into the area, to arrange for housing for those workers? Or, alternatively, they could pay them a wage that would make the housing affordable. Why should employers be able to lure people here, only to pay them unliveable wages and then call on 'public spending' to make up the shortfall? This is just another transfer of income to the haves, but pretexted as a help to those caught in the middle. Let them what makes the profit foot the bill, I say!

  • Skywalker

    4 years ago

    Just the facts please, Luke.

    "That sort of an attitude is not going to get anyone, anywhere based upon history. WAC Bennett was renowned for fighting Ottawa and so was Glen Clark. Didn't help them much."

    There was a period where the feds offloaded much of the costs of social programs onto the provinces by reducing transfer payments. The feds had to balance their budget and what better way to do it than on the backs of the provinces. Easy enough to confirm this by checking the payments year by year. I don't know about WAC time but it was certainly the case under Glen Clark. Now it is easy for the feds to be magnanimous. They additional transfers came after the entire nation complained about the health care system and Paul Martin needed some political capital just before an election.

    There is little to support the quote above. So little that you would be hard pressed to show how sucking up to the feds makes a tittle of difference. In fact Newfoundland got screwed even while they were friendly with the feds and only protested after the screwing was done.

    On this website the lucky good fortune of Campbell has been explained enough times and has nothing to do with being chummy with Harper but comments like the quote above are example of the nonsense that passes for comment

  • Luke Skywalker

    4 years ago

    Quote:I don't know about WAC

    Quote:
    I don't know about WAC time but it was certainly the case under Glen Clark.

    The same situation also occurred under Wacky Jr. whereby the provincial/federal relationship was rather non-cordial, to put it mildly.

    As for Clark, remember that he was re-elected during February, 1996. After federal operations and program funding, the feds realized their first budget surplus during the 1997/98 fiscal year... and every year thereafter.

    http://www.fin.gc.ca/news98/98-104e.html

    It has only been in the last ~5 years that the province has had a very good, cordial, and constructive relationship with the feds (both Lib and Con stripes).

    In almost every infrastructure or other endeavour that the province has been engaged in, the feds have come to the table financially. It appeared that in previous decades, BC was ignored and only Ontario and Quebec had that favourable relationship.

    Never saw this relationship during the '80's or '90's with any BC provincial government and, from what I have seen, said constructive relationship has paid dividends for BC.

    Don't take my word for it... the pundits have also acknowledged the same over the past years.

  • Luke Skywalker

    4 years ago

    Funny enough, there's an

    Funny enough, there's an article in today's Globe and Mail that also discusses virtually the same thing.

    Quote:
    One former regional minister says Mr. Day is doing a pretty good job. But David Anderson, who spent eight years as regional minister under Liberal prime minister Jean Chrétien, said it's easier to manage relations between Ottawa and Victoria now.

    Things were more challenging in the 1990s, he said, when B.C.'s NDP government was at odds with the federal government over issues that included the fishery and the fate of the naval testing range at Nanoose Bay on Vancouver Island.

    http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC.20080229.BCDISPATCH29/TPStory/National

  • siamdave

    4 years ago

    in the box budgeting

    - you need an out of the box perspective on anything that talks about government spending - the beginnings of enlightenment can be found here for those so interested - Banketeering - how the banks have been stealing trillions from you, and the tap is still running http://www.rudemacedon.ca/dlp/box/box01-money.html

  • Canis Latrans

    4 years ago

    Dorothy...

    Quote:
    Why should it be? In fact, it seems to me, that this is the wrong way to go, reagrding housing. How about we leave it to the people who want more workers into the area, to arrange for housing for those workers?

    Actually, I find myself really unable to disagree with your point in this comment. :-) With only this caveat-, were we living in a truly democratic society, especially within an economic democracy backed up by a truly democratic political system, which it is my contention we are not.

    In which case, folks must constantly continue to find themselves trying to "civilize" The Market Jungle Beast that is capitalism. And I agree, in the end, no matter how hard we try to tame the beast, dress him/her up in a suit and teach it manners at the table, it continues to act as the beast it cannot but help be.

    So Avandoc is right I think, from this side of the historical divide, but more fundamentally and principally, you are right.

    The real need, of course, is to finally admit defeat of our best efforts to tame The Beast, and instead, drive it from our midst. My view. :-)

    People, especially ordinary kind of folks, which doesn't exclude myself, are too much like a young woman very often, drawn into an infatuation with a young man, a philanderer and "rogue", to be kind, with a propensity for violence. She remains too long, however, ever hopeful, even in the face of a mountain of gathering evidence that she can tame this beast too-, more than likely, much to her eventual sorrow. (An observation drawn from observing my many daughters.)

    I, of course, was different from this young man. :-)

    So, in the circumstances of the present, the best we can hope for, it seems to me, is to continue to try and civilize, and dress up this wild beast, for as long as it takes folks to figure out the futility of the enterprise.

    They may even succeed at getting a project or two built. It's better than endlessly sitting around waiting and sleeping on park benches or under bridges for the second coming of Christ.

  • Fiat lux

    4 years ago

    One of the main problem is

    One of the main problem is that many renters are pigs, who abuse and destroy the premises.

    I have seen enough and repaired enough damage
    caused by renters that I would never invest a single penny, or build anything for renters.

    I don't know what the solution is, but I can't blame anybody for not building premises for rent.

    Ed Deak.

  • Skywalker

    4 years ago

    David Anderson?

    Luke, paleeeese use a credible source but not David Anderson. That is hardly proof. Even what the anonymous "pundits" you refer to are not proof. Furthermore because the NDP were not sucking up to Ottawa on Nanoose Bay show this in the numbers of transfer dollars you want to claim we in BC did not get as a result. Then show which monies we got directly out of being "nice" under Campbell. You can't do it because it is "your perception" and frankly perceptions are not proof and never have been.

  • The brain

    4 years ago

    Breaking News!!

    Bloggers find the name of the insurance company that was used by the Shiny New Conservatives to attempt to bribe Chuck Cadman!

    http://www.thewealthadvisory.com/life_insurance_services.html

    The connection? Harper was president of the National Citizen's Coalition from late '97 to late 2001 before stepping down to assume control of the Conservative party. Harpers connections to Colin T. Brown junior and likeminded bid to rid Canada of universal healthcare for a U.S. model that stood to open the door to U.S. insurance companies to a 33 million population private medicare insurance market is more than enough incentive to invest in a million dollar write off.

    They had the motive AND the means to offer a dying man a life insurance policy for a vote to take down a Liberal government with Conservative majority poll numbers.

    We came that close to losing it, Canadians, except for the integrity of an honest politician in blue jeans... the Honorable Chuck Cadman.

    Harpers secret agenda can be found here.

    http://nationalcitizens.ca/doc_bin/agenda_canada.pdf

  • G West

    4 years ago

    THanks Brain

    The Mulroney taint hasn't dissipated much has it?

    And a hat tip to Chuck Cadman - you're right, he does deserve the title 'honourable'

    Must be about time for pee wee to take another little gambol in the green pastures of Afghanistan - listening to Ricky Hillyer is about his speed..

    Someone made a remark up thread here that Stockwell Day was doing a good job.

    I'd like to know what thay guy is drinking.

  • dorothy

    4 years ago

    When pigs fly?

    "I don't know what the solution is"

    Owning 'THE solution' is a pretty sweeping claim to make, so I won't make it. But I bet it lies in the direction of working for a society, where no one is reduced to a commodity for somebody else. Utopia? I don't think so, but it won't be a change we will get for free.

    Interestingly, I can tell you that as a renter of many years, I see that story from the other side. In a seller's market on rental, my family and I had to accept less than snazzy premises a few times, and when we left, every time, the landlord tried to hold us responsible for damage and 'piggishness' that were there when we moved in. I bet they had also gotten money from the previous tenants and never used it for improvement. We are owners now, as we set it as a first priority and sacrified a lot for it, for we knew we could not live a life so undignified with our children growing up that way.

    Fundamentally, I think we should never accept that anyone in our society is landless. It breeds inequality, injustice, contempt, and, ultimately, hatred. The Americans know this, or they would not have hatched the desparate, harebrained idea of sub-prime mortgages. We ought to be able to come up with a better M.O. It starts with those, who are financially comfortable, instead of hoarding and staging 'hostile takeovers'to cram even more illusory money into their already bursting piggybank, spreading it around and spending inside the borders of Canada. That might make things more liveable, as opposed to making people here compete with workers in Hong Kong and Fujian, who live 40 to an apartment in miserable cages and have zero worker-protection. I know this goes against globalization, but by now every halfwit or better must surely have figured out what a crummy idea that was. They should take their holidays here and pay what it costs. I bet they would find that the grandeur and immense diversity they can find right here in Canada beats any trivial stretch of sandy beach in the sun with its standard parasols and cheap drinks.

    The trickle-down effect that everyone talks so much about only happens when the money is spent locally. It doesn't, of course, if it is all spent overseas for a 'better' deal. The country, as always, gets ripped apart between those who see it as a home and those who see it as a smash-and-grab outlet for 'commodities'. No coincidence that this word has the same root as 'commode'.

  • Skywalker

    4 years ago

    Dorothy for Premier!

    What else can I say.

  • The brain

    4 years ago

    Agreed, G

    Yeah, 5 more taser deaths last year and Stockwell has done nothing on the file. He's real good at arming our border guards, though. At what cost... something like 110 million a year or something... it could rival the Liberal gun registry once the CPIC bill and the court battles with the NRA are factored in.

    Thing is, any party is only as good as the people that make it up. Everywhere I look in this Con government I see a failed file. I think it will happen next week on the CWB. The Cons are planning to introduce legislation to force the Canadian Wheat Board to end its monopoly on barley which will lead to ending the board all together.

    Sadly, they ciculated a "survey" with mis-leading questions that 14% of farmers completed. They used this survey as just cause to fire elected farmers sitting as directors, including the CEO and the CWB spokesperson. The only people who stand to gain from this are U.S. agricultural multinationals, namely Cargill, ADM and Pioneer.

    For those who think farmers aren't getting screwed, just ask yourselves... why would farmers want to end their own MONOPOLY? Back in the day before they had a monopoly, they competed with each other for sales, cheques bounced and U.S. corps raked it in. Sad not to see the true motives of Harper and his NCC agenda. Christ, he's the biggest U.S. lobbyist we've ever seen in Canada and to see him become a PM in the wake of this... its a disgrace.

    http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20080229.wcurrent29/BNStory/energy/

    The Canadian economy is poised for hard times. These numbers are ugly, particularly the numbers in terms of foreign takeovers and its percentage of GDP. It won't be a soft landing, thanks to Harper. From Afghanistan to IT's to the environment, softwood, lobbyists, CRTC rulings, AECL, science, transparency, acountability.. its an ugly list of failed files. Harper and Co. is not only corrupt, they are unbelievably incompetant.

    Have a good weekend, G!

  • G West

    4 years ago

    So true

    I'm actually surprised no one here has posted how well farmers are doing 'now' with the price of wheat skyrocketing...The Wheat Board thing is a true scandal and I suspect Harper will be scorched badly by the Cadman thing.

    The guy's hunger for power is palpable..

    Val Meredith was on CBC AM last week and more or less acknowledged that the con-gang would have (and probably did) do anything for power.

    I hope more people noticed the US/Insurance connection you posted too.

    Have a look at Ross's place - he also has a clip to the interview with Val Meredith and Cadman's daughter...

    http://pacificgazette.blogspot.com/

    Ross K calls it Bribe-A-Palooza - "Powerlust Makes Us Stupid"

    which seems appropriate....

    How're things back home?

  • Canis Latrans

    4 years ago

    Dorothy

    Quote:
    Owning 'THE solution' is a pretty sweeping claim to make, so I won't make it. But I bet it lies in the direction of working for a society, where no one is reduced to a commodity for somebody else. Utopia? I don't think so, but it won't be a change we will get for free. wrote Dorothy.

    Yup, I'd say, nodding my head in agreement. And in agreement with the rest of a good piece generally.

  • The brain

    4 years ago

    Its all good, G

    Quote:
    How're things back home? - G West

    I've got a bit of pudge around the midrift, but nothing I can't handle with expedience. All is well! ;-)

  • The brain

    4 years ago

    79 and counting

    Lost another soldier today, thanks to the PM who likes to fight instead of keep the peace. He's good with photo op's though.

  • realisticman

    4 years ago

    Yes, life is good down on the farm

    Toronto Star, March 2, 2008

    Quote:
    Canadian farmers are poised to reap a bountiful reward for their crops this year in what Robert Moskow, agricultural analyst at Credit Suisse SA, describes as a new "golden age" of agriculture. The hard red spring wheat in which Canadian Prairie farmers specialize is a premium variety, now commanding about $18 (U.S.) a bushel, up from a range of $3 to $6 until two years ago. Durum wheat, another Prairie mainstay, used in pasta, is also commanding record prices.

    The U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) global price index leapt 40 per cent in 2007. Ottawa now estimates that average Canadian farm income will jump 16 per cent this year, and gross crop receipts will eclipse the 2006 level by 40 per cent.

    Set them Free, that they shall Overcome.

    http://network.nationalpost.com/np/blogs/fullcomment/archive/2008/03/03/marni-soupcoff-posts-a-manitoba-farmer-s-plea-please-let-me-sell-my-own-barley.aspx

  • G West

    4 years ago

    No comment necessary

    Just read this:

    http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/12/17/europe/food.php

    The sad part is that there are few real farmers left on the prairies - just a few, mostly aged, millionaires - friends of yours I guess R/man.

    In this case supply and demand DO rule - as for the profitability of farming operations - I think you need to do little more research than your usual facile google.

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