[Northern Light]

What facts? Can you cite the post where you provided evidence that STRs were a problem in cottage country? I must have missed it.

As stated, you agree with regulating STRs in urban areas; I argue simply that the policy should apply uniformly which I think should be the default for all legislation except where evidence is provided that this would be demonstrably unfair.

By default, Canadian Law (national) applies to all of Canada, except where explicitly laid out otherwise.

Notwithstanding the above, I have previously posted 3 citations in thread, on p.501 in 2 different posts, which address the issue of the impact of STR regulation (number of impacted owners); and the generally affordability of the market to low income earners including (highlighted in article) those of diverse backgrounds.

But let me add some more elucidation on the adverse impacts of STR in cottage country:

THE BIG READ: How short-term vacation rentals are ruining the neighbourhood

Living next door to a ‘ghost hotel’ has become a nightmare for many Ontario homeowners. Cities and towns across the province are struggling to keep the peace without turning away tourists

www.orilliamatters.com

Cottage-country municipalities, rental owners respond to federal government's rumoured plans to limit STRs

Some cottage country municipalities in Ontario have mixed responses to the federal government’s rumoured plans to incentivize municipalities to introduce

cottagelife.com

Specifically on the subject of housing availability and affordability:

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/london/cottage-ontario-airbnb-vbro-1.6407851

 

[kEiThZ]

Specifically on the subject of housing availability and affordability:

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/london/cottage-ontario-airbnb-vbro-1.6407851

This article is talking about getting overwhelmed with revellers.

By default, Canadian Law (national) applies to all of Canada, except where explicitly laid out otherwise.

Speaking of Canadian law you should know that regulating property is squarely in provincial jurisdiction.

 

[kEiThZ]

But let me add some more elucidation on the adverse impacts of STR in cottage country:

THE BIG READ: How short-term vacation rentals are ruining the neighbourhood

Living next door to a ‘ghost hotel’ has become a nightmare for many Ontario homeowners. Cities and towns across the province are struggling to keep the peace without turning away tourists

www.orilliamatters.com

Cottage-country municipalities, rental owners respond to federal government's rumoured plans to limit STRs

Some cottage country municipalities in Ontario have mixed responses to the federal government’s rumoured plans to incentivize municipalities to introduce

cottagelife.com

You want national legislation to solve a problem of too many parties in cottage country? And you think this is relevant to the housing crisis because? To be clear, this is not evidence of STRs impacting housing in those areas. Do you have actual evidence?

Did you actually read the links? They specifically mention that they don't think banning STRs will do anything for long term housing and they are concerned about the impact on tourism. Exactly as several of us have said here.

By the way, it's exactly this instinct that has the Trudeau Liberals in the tank right now. They share your penchant for nationalizing every single problem and legislating against it. The courts are now pushing back. And voters see them just making new rules and not actually solving any problems. Focusing on banning STRs in federal parliament as a solution to the housing crisis is exactly a move I would expect from this government. You sure, you aren't an LPC cabinet advisor?

 

[Northern Light]

Do you have actual evidence?

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/london/ontario-economy-tourism-jobs-1.6844170

From this story:

And from this story:

Affordable worker housing is latest tourist town business hurdle

When he opened Fish & Sips with his wife in 2015, Paul Feather found hiring to be one among many challenges of running a restaurant with long hours on the main drag of Collingwood, Ont. But after the COVID-19 pandemic struck and housing prices in vacation hotspots soared, the...

toronto.citynews.ca

Affordable worker housing is latest tourist town business hurdle​

By the way, it's exactly this instinct that has the Trudeau Liberals in the tank right now. They share your penchant for nationalizing every single problem and legislating against it.

This is again hyperbole that completely misrepresents my view; but you have to sneak a slag into every single response without exception. Stop characterizing me and my motives, you don't know me, and you're pretty much always wrong and it adds no value. Its sole purpose is maliciousness.

 

[kEiThZ]

This is again hyperbole that completely misrepresents my view; but you have to sneak a slag into every single response without exception. Stop characterizing me and my motives, you don't know me, and you're pretty much always wrong and it adds no value. Its sole purpose is maliciousness.

Correct me if I'm wrong. I haven't seen a single problem we discuss here where your preferred solution isn't a federal program (new or expanded) or legislation. It's your natural instinct. There's nothing wrong with that preference. We all have our biases. And yours leads to demanding that STRs in cottage country be addressed with (likely unconstitutional) federal legislation. My bias leads me to think the feds should focus on things they can actually control like financing and immigration.

Incidentally, it is the approach of this government and one that is increasingly falling out of fashion with voters and running up against constitutional limits in the courts. Their recent attempt at stopping Hwy 413 is an example of how the courts are increasingly taking a dim view of their overreach.

 

[kEiThZ]

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/london/ontario-economy-tourism-jobs-1.6844170

From this story:

View attachment 557391
View attachment 557392

And from this story:

Affordable worker housing is latest tourist town business hurdle

When he opened Fish & Sips with his wife in 2015, Paul Feather found hiring to be one among many challenges of running a restaurant with long hours on the main drag of Collingwood, Ont. But after the COVID-19 pandemic struck and housing prices in vacation hotspots soared, the...

toronto.citynews.ca

Affordable worker housing is latest tourist town business hurdle​

View attachment 557393

That's not evidence of STRs causing a housing crisis. That's evidence that they face the same tight housing market as everywhere else. For STRs to be the problem in those markets, you'd have to show that:

1) Those STRs are suitable for year-round living.

2) The owners would likely to choose to rent to long term renters.

Neither of those can be shown definitely. Some of that stock is definitely not four seasons. And there's no guarantee that somebody who couldn't STR their cottage would just revert to personal usage or sell to somebody else who will use it as a cottage. This is not the same at all, as an urban condo, where we know the alternative to STR is definitively housing someone, either as an LTR or the owner themselves.

 

[Northern Light]

Correct me if I'm wrong. I haven't seen a single problem we discuss here where your preferred solution isn't a federal program (new or expanded) or legislation. It's your natural instinct. There's nothing wrong with that preference.

I advocate for lots of things to be handled at the local or provincial level; as well as not handled at all.

Which is to say, I'm broadly in favour of light-touch regulation and criminal law, in which restraint is the order of the day.

Now, this is our national politics thread, as opposed to Doug Ford's Ontario or Olivia Chow's Toronto, where I discuss issues that belong at those levels.

For examples:

I would prefer the feds exit regional development as a rule, with the probable exception of the arctic as the territories have insufficient resources to carry out such work.

I would prefer the feds exit the business of tree planting other than on federal land

I would prefer the feds exit 'student aid' as this duplicates pre-existing provincial efforts.

I think federal supports for post-secondary should generally be of the funding research and post-grads variety because they are have been in that business so long it would be messy to do otherwise.

I also favour legalizing where practical, and decriminalizing where not, personal possession of drugs (personal use) though not charges related to adverse public effects, likewise sex work.

I would also like to see judicial appointments to lower courts downloaded to the provinces as I'm lost on why Ottawa is appointing purely 'local' judges to provincial courts.

To be sure I do see virtue in certain principles being applied nationally, and I also favour a single common market (a la the EU) to get read of internal trade barriers entirely.

I would generally like to see Ottawa exit the business of grants to municipal government in favour of just transferring a point of the HST and then let cities decide their own priorities.

 

[Admiral Beez]

I want our federal government to operate within its means. The level of federal spending is over 40% higher than pre-pandemic levels, even after the removal of pandemic-fueled stimulus.

I can't believe that with 2024/2025 forecasted revenues of $500 billion (see thumbnail), equal to $12.5k for every Canadian citizen/resident that Ottawa cannot run a credible federal government without going further into debt.

We need to axe programs, staffing and spending so that we do not exceed $500 billion. That's your hard stop. And it wasn't that long ago that federal spending was well below this level. For example, in 2014, Ottawa spent $283 billion, which is equal to $361 billion today. What federal love were we Canadians missing in 2014 that ten years later needed over $200 million in additional spending to address?

 

[Richard White]

I want our federal government to operate within its means. The level of federal spending is over 40% higher than pre-pandemic levels, even after the removal of pandemic-fueled stimulus.

I can't believe that with 2024/2025 forecasted revenues of $500 billion (see thumbnail), equal to $12.5k for every Canadian citizen/resident that Ottawa cannot run a credible federal government without going further into debt.

We need to axe programs, staffing and spending so that we do not exceed $500 billion. That's your hard stop.


View attachment 557621

As I said before.. kill the foreign aid.

We need take care of our own house before taking care of others.

 

[Admiral Beez]

As I said before.. kill the foreign aid. We need take care of our own house before taking care of others.

We can't blame Johnny Foreigner for this mess. In 2023, Canada's foreign-aid assistance budget was $7 billion. A pittance of what's needed to bring federal spending to below revenues.

The whole "take care of our own" logic is a MAGA-like false idea anyway. If Canada cut all foreign-aid, that money wouldn't go to helping Canadians, but would just get gobbled up by general revenue.

 

[Northern Light]

I want our federal government to operate within its means. The level of federal spending is over 40% higher than pre-pandemic levels, even after the removal of pandemic-fueled stimulus.

I can't believe that with 2024/2025 forecasted revenues of $500 billion (see thumbnail), equal to $12.5k for every Canadian citizen/resident that Ottawa cannot run a credible federal government without going further into debt.

We need to axe programs, staffing and spending so that we do not exceed $500 billion. That's your hard stop. And it wasn't that long ago that federal spending was well below this level. For example, in 2014, Ottawa spent $283 billion, which is equal to $361 billion today. What federal love were we Canadians missing in 2014 that ten years later needed over $200 million in additional spending to address?


View attachment 557621

There is certainly room to improve the wisdom of some federal spending and I share your desire to balance the budget.

That said, I think you've honed in on the wrong marker.

If you want to look at expenditures, then you need to look at expenditures per capita, CPI-adjusted. After all, we've been experiencing explosive population growth as a country and one expects that more people will require more services.

One recently published stat looked at the size of the federal civil service over time:

https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/trudeau-bureaucracy-public-service-1.7172339

We're clearly up significantly over the last 20 years, as a proportion of the population, but still a fair bit below the peak in 1985.

By my math, if were at the 1986 level we would actually have another ~30,000 civil servants.

****

Looking at this report:

Prime Ministers and Government Spending: 2023 Edition

www.fraserinstitute.org

We see federal per capita spending was set to be $11,498 in 2022-2023

Certainly the number seems high in a historical context when look at this:

In examining the above, I would note that Universal Health Care (core) is mostly phased in by 1972 just as a reference point for a major social cost.

An interesting thing to examine above, which I will do (someone remind me, as I have to do some day-job stuff now)........is to adjust the above to show Non-OAS spending per capita. In light of our recent
discussions here, I want to see what the number looks like.

 

[Admiral Beez]

By my math, if were at the 1986 level we would actually have another ~30,000 civil servants.

Certainly, but like in the private sector, you can achieve sufficient results with fewer people.

 

[kEiThZ]

it wasn't that long ago that federal spending was well below this level. For example, in 2014, Ottawa spent $283 billion, which is equal to $361 billion today. What federal love were we Canadians missing in 2014 that ten years later needed over $200 million in additional spending to address?

Most of that is additional health and social spending. As an example, is the growth of OAS we discussed here earlier.

This government has grown the public service substantially. But simple math will tell you that's not the root of our fiscal problems. Laying off 50 000 public servants will save $5B. That's one eighth of the federal deficit.

Want to cut spending? Gotta start having the tough conversations about what level of social spending we can support, our role in the world (since we will never meet NATO or Climate or aid targets), etc. That second part will get particularly interesting if wins in November. But also, in the long run, he isn't going to be the last to start demanding more.

 

[yrt+viva=1system]

 

[evandyk]

Saw/heard some guy in a mini SUV rolling down Front today with some sort of “Fuck Trudeau” rap spilling out of his windows.