Plus, Parliament is still paralyzed, demanding the release of an unredacted immigration report, a record number of Canadians visit food banks, and marking All Saints Day.
Hi Tom, You mention that - “We will set a national level target for federal infrastructure funding and the municipal politicians will be able to consider whether and how they can reach those targets to obtain more Federal Gov’t funding.”
As you know a majority of Calgarians rebelled in unison against the Feds funding offer that was directed to the Municipal politicians in the spring of this year. A clear majority voted against the funding due to the conditions attached which included a change in zoning. The Liberal/NDP had skirted around the Provincial Government to access the Municipal politicians. Calgarians had a real issue with this in the spring of this year.
As I understand it, Our Premier, Danielle Smith is going to change how the Federal Government allocates such funding saying the conditions attached have to meet with approval of the UCP of Alberta.
So I’m not sure how to react to this “funding” plan as I was a participant in this event against the Municipal Government for agreeing to the “conditions that were attached to the funding.
Perhaps you could clarify. Thank you
Notwithstanding this concern I appreciate the work that you do to represent your constituency.
Hi Tom.....how about dealing with the real issues that are destroying this country. This is actually a distraction to makebus think the CPC will do something.
Like every other country who has opened their borders intentionally to mass immigration, who has betrayed their citizens by selling us out to China , the Globalist agendas of the UN, the WHO, the WEF, the Paris accord and NATO. The CPC needs to serve Canadians.
Canadians are tired of the Uniparty in Ottawa. Bill C-4 showed that the CPC DOES NOT HAVE A MORAL COMPASS any longer. The CPC sold us long ago. Stephen Harper, Brian Mulroney and the other Globalist tyrants made sure of that.
In closing ....quit pretending the CPC actually cares about Canada
Hi Tom. Cancelling the GST on new home builds has been applauded as a good idea, and that it should help with the ability to get more homes built. I have seen some economists who work in that space express some concerns about the cancellation (proposed) of the HAF and the CHIF. And while it makes sense for the federal government to not micro-manage the muncipalities, how will a CPC government deal with provinces where the provincial government interferes with the muncipalities. In Alberta, the UCP has been quite interventionalist with the two largest cities. So, how would a CPC government deal with cities who don't have the flexibility to build more homes because of restrictions placed on them by their provincial governments?
I also wanted to comment on your post about the food bank usage, which has skyrocketed across the country. I do note that it is up in all provinces, regardless of the governments they have - Conservative governments (Alberta, Ontario), NDP governments (BC, Manitoba) and Liberal governments.
I would like to dig into the specific solution being proposed here - cancelling the carbon tax. According to the PBO, the net effect of the tax and the rebates, for lower income Canadians is that they get more money back in the rebate than they pay directly in the tax. That's on average, of course, since what people spend on varies from person to person. So my first question is - would the CPC government be getting rid of the rebate as well as the tax? The recent information from the PBO is that the two lowest income groups (even with indirect effects factored in) receive more back in their rebate than they pay.
With regard to indirect costs to the consumer from the carbon tax. There is some disagreement whether that pushes the entire net effect of tax and rebates to be slightly negative. Let's say for argument sake that it does. The example goes like this - if my local grocery store needs to pay the freight to bring in frozen fries, they pass that freight cost onto me as a consumer (or the supplier does), and thus the cost of the fries is higher. So let's say that the cost of a bag of fries went from $7 to $7.15 as a result of the carbon tax on the fuel, energy in the store, etc. The question is - how will your government ensure that when you cancel the carbon tax, that those savings are passed to the consumer - how will you ensure that companies don't simply leave their prices as is, and pocket the $0.15?
I think the affordability debate with respect to climate change is something we need to flesh out more. What will the costs (direct and indirect) be of policies that replace the consumer carbon tax? How much is climate change affecting things like house insurance? But maybe we can see some posts on those in the future.
Canceling the GST on new residential housing purchases is perhaps an interesting idea, however the real problem in the housing market involves fundamental factors that have been in play for years and which will not be solved quickly. The GST elimination proposal is a gimmick. Gimmicks will not solve the problem, they simply distract from it. The real problem involved in high housing prices has resulted from a combination of factors, including : 1. artificially low borrowing rates that were in place for years, combined with lax mortgage lending policies that placed too much money in the hands of purchasers who bid up the price of houses, 2. additional recent Freeland approved changes to lending polices such as the approval of minimal downpayments and 30 year amortization periods (these are purposed to bail out the banks, will exacerbate the existing problem and temporarily forestall the crash), 3. unrestricted capital inflows into the country, 4. the general level of inflation which has impacted building materials and labor costs, 5. unrestricted excessive immigration contributing to demand.
The average house in Canada costs about twice what it does in the USA. There are homes available for purchase /sale in Canada right now that do not sell, simply because the price is too high. Eliminating the GST is not going to be enough to change that.
At this time we are heading into a housing market crash, together with a banking and mortgage crisis and it is hard to see how the credit is going to be in place in order to facilitate the building of all of the houses that the CPC says it is going to build..
As a very first step towards simply attempting to deal with the housing market problem would be to halt excessive immigration in to Canada, while sending the illegals and visa over-stayers back where they belong. A second step would be to reverse the recent Crystia Freeland approved lending policy changes, however this would create some pain before the benefits are appreciated. Does anyone remember Paul Volker ? He fixed an inflation problem, but the fix was painful.
Hi Tom, You mention that - “We will set a national level target for federal infrastructure funding and the municipal politicians will be able to consider whether and how they can reach those targets to obtain more Federal Gov’t funding.”
As you know a majority of Calgarians rebelled in unison against the Feds funding offer that was directed to the Municipal politicians in the spring of this year. A clear majority voted against the funding due to the conditions attached which included a change in zoning. The Liberal/NDP had skirted around the Provincial Government to access the Municipal politicians. Calgarians had a real issue with this in the spring of this year.
As I understand it, Our Premier, Danielle Smith is going to change how the Federal Government allocates such funding saying the conditions attached have to meet with approval of the UCP of Alberta.
So I’m not sure how to react to this “funding” plan as I was a participant in this event against the Municipal Government for agreeing to the “conditions that were attached to the funding.
Perhaps you could clarify. Thank you
Notwithstanding this concern I appreciate the work that you do to represent your constituency.
Hi Tom.....how about dealing with the real issues that are destroying this country. This is actually a distraction to makebus think the CPC will do something.
Like every other country who has opened their borders intentionally to mass immigration, who has betrayed their citizens by selling us out to China , the Globalist agendas of the UN, the WHO, the WEF, the Paris accord and NATO. The CPC needs to serve Canadians.
Canadians are tired of the Uniparty in Ottawa. Bill C-4 showed that the CPC DOES NOT HAVE A MORAL COMPASS any longer. The CPC sold us long ago. Stephen Harper, Brian Mulroney and the other Globalist tyrants made sure of that.
In closing ....quit pretending the CPC actually cares about Canada
Hi Tom. Cancelling the GST on new home builds has been applauded as a good idea, and that it should help with the ability to get more homes built. I have seen some economists who work in that space express some concerns about the cancellation (proposed) of the HAF and the CHIF. And while it makes sense for the federal government to not micro-manage the muncipalities, how will a CPC government deal with provinces where the provincial government interferes with the muncipalities. In Alberta, the UCP has been quite interventionalist with the two largest cities. So, how would a CPC government deal with cities who don't have the flexibility to build more homes because of restrictions placed on them by their provincial governments?
I also wanted to comment on your post about the food bank usage, which has skyrocketed across the country. I do note that it is up in all provinces, regardless of the governments they have - Conservative governments (Alberta, Ontario), NDP governments (BC, Manitoba) and Liberal governments.
I would like to dig into the specific solution being proposed here - cancelling the carbon tax. According to the PBO, the net effect of the tax and the rebates, for lower income Canadians is that they get more money back in the rebate than they pay directly in the tax. That's on average, of course, since what people spend on varies from person to person. So my first question is - would the CPC government be getting rid of the rebate as well as the tax? The recent information from the PBO is that the two lowest income groups (even with indirect effects factored in) receive more back in their rebate than they pay.
With regard to indirect costs to the consumer from the carbon tax. There is some disagreement whether that pushes the entire net effect of tax and rebates to be slightly negative. Let's say for argument sake that it does. The example goes like this - if my local grocery store needs to pay the freight to bring in frozen fries, they pass that freight cost onto me as a consumer (or the supplier does), and thus the cost of the fries is higher. So let's say that the cost of a bag of fries went from $7 to $7.15 as a result of the carbon tax on the fuel, energy in the store, etc. The question is - how will your government ensure that when you cancel the carbon tax, that those savings are passed to the consumer - how will you ensure that companies don't simply leave their prices as is, and pocket the $0.15?
I think the affordability debate with respect to climate change is something we need to flesh out more. What will the costs (direct and indirect) be of policies that replace the consumer carbon tax? How much is climate change affecting things like house insurance? But maybe we can see some posts on those in the future.
Thanks Tom,
Mike
Canceling the GST on new residential housing purchases is perhaps an interesting idea, however the real problem in the housing market involves fundamental factors that have been in play for years and which will not be solved quickly. The GST elimination proposal is a gimmick. Gimmicks will not solve the problem, they simply distract from it. The real problem involved in high housing prices has resulted from a combination of factors, including : 1. artificially low borrowing rates that were in place for years, combined with lax mortgage lending policies that placed too much money in the hands of purchasers who bid up the price of houses, 2. additional recent Freeland approved changes to lending polices such as the approval of minimal downpayments and 30 year amortization periods (these are purposed to bail out the banks, will exacerbate the existing problem and temporarily forestall the crash), 3. unrestricted capital inflows into the country, 4. the general level of inflation which has impacted building materials and labor costs, 5. unrestricted excessive immigration contributing to demand.
The average house in Canada costs about twice what it does in the USA. There are homes available for purchase /sale in Canada right now that do not sell, simply because the price is too high. Eliminating the GST is not going to be enough to change that.
At this time we are heading into a housing market crash, together with a banking and mortgage crisis and it is hard to see how the credit is going to be in place in order to facilitate the building of all of the houses that the CPC says it is going to build..
As a very first step towards simply attempting to deal with the housing market problem would be to halt excessive immigration in to Canada, while sending the illegals and visa over-stayers back where they belong. A second step would be to reverse the recent Crystia Freeland approved lending policy changes, however this would create some pain before the benefits are appreciated. Does anyone remember Paul Volker ? He fixed an inflation problem, but the fix was painful.