Who is "fit" to immigrate to Canada?

[Acajack]

Originally Posted by whatnext

True. On the other hand the harassment of a woman with a walker just for attending a meeting they disagreed with was out of bounds.

Yes his son sounds like a dick.

[urbandreamer]

Many restaurants are closing across Toronto. I suspect there's more to this story....

[Rollerstud98]

Originally Posted by urbandreamer

Many restaurants are closing across Toronto. I suspect there's more to this story....

Lack of business things going on?

[milomilo]

Originally Posted by urbandreamer

Many restaurants are closing across Toronto. I suspect there's more to this story....

Agreed, doesn't pass the sniff test to me.

[urbandreamer]

High rent costs, labour costs going up, food costs going up, and the rise of uber eats. I've never seen their restaurant that busy.

Other Queen West restaurants that have recently closed:
La Hacienda
Dogs and Coffee
Harlem Underground
Cadillac Lounge
Kitson & Co
Brooklyn Bar

[Acajack]

That seems to have been a reasonably expensive location as well.

Not exactly the typical venue for an ethnic restaurant opened by refugees who just arrived in the country a few years.

[Acajack]

..............

[CityTech]

Kathleen Wynne's aggressive minimim wage hike put a lot of pressure on the restaurant and fast food industries. Every place has some combination of higher prices and shittier service due to fewer staff. Retailers got around this problem by shifting to self checkouts but restaurants don't have options like that.

[someone123]

Originally Posted by CityTech

Kathleen Wynne's aggressive minimim wage hike put a lot of pressure on the restaurant and fast food industries. Every place has some combination of higher prices and shittier service due to fewer staff. Retailers got around this problem by shifting to self checkouts but restaurants don't have options like that.

This is a bit of a digression but they do have options. There are places like McDonald's where you can enter your order on a screen and pick it up at the counter.

We could have more changes like that but we have a cultural association between automation and poor quality in the food industry, and we think of a high-end place as one that runs on a huge amount of labour (that can only have middle class pricing if that labour is cheap). Many other industries work differently.

The whole industry is due for an overhaul IMO. Aside from minimum wage, it tends not to even follow labour laws very well.

[kwoldtimer]

The Syrian restaurant is going to reopen, apparently. A few days off work and all kinds of free publicity ....

[TorontoDrew]

Your post is disgusting. You are suggesting it's all bullshit. These pictures could have been created by either side. Also if it is the Syrians that are fighting for freedom this also shows how desperate they are for attention and help.

Mods she take your post down.

[NotToScale]

Originally Posted by TorontoDrew

Your post is disgusting. You are suggesting it's all bullshit. These pictures could have been created by either side. Also if it is the Syrians that are fighting for freedom this also shows how desperate they are for attention and help.

Mods she take your post down.

#cancelculture

[kel]

it’s always funny when someone is offended by a post than cry’s to the mods to take it down.

[theman23]

And out of the woodworks they come...

[niwell]

Originally Posted by kel

it’s always funny when someone is offended by a post than cry’s to the mods to take it down.

Literally the point of a private moderated forum.

[WhipperSnapper]

Restaurants closing in Toronto is almost entirely due to rents and taxes. Owners are able to and are jacking up rents by $100s of dollars every months and sometimes knowing their current tenants cannot pay. A chain store in a long term lease can add millions to a store's property value.

As for this thread, we've come full circle. Sponsorship of family members that are unable to contribute but take full advantage of our social net are once again causing financial strain. This government seems oblivious to the costs and continues to actively promote new immigrants to sponsored family members that will never participate in the workforce.

You see the stark contrast among refugees to Canada. Non profits are bringing in people with skills even just being able to read and write while the Trudeau government is poised to bring in those without skills, can't read or write but, can produce many more babies than the average middle class working family could ever afford. Of course, those costs eventually fall to cities and provinces so the Trudeau government gets votes and a city like Toronto teeters on bankruptcy

Syria is a disaster. There still shouldn't be a need to ship refugees a world's away if Syria's wealthy neighbours did their part. My parents were among the many more refugees after WW2. They weren't shipped halfway around the world.

[someone123]

Originally Posted by WhipperSnapper

Restaurants closing in Toronto is almost entirely due to rents and taxes. Owners are able to and are jacking up rents by $100s of dollars every months and sometimes knowing their current tenants cannot pay. A chain store in a long term lease can add millions to a store's property value.

The commercial vacancies are still a bit of a mystery to me. I realize that the leases are often long, I guess in the 3-10 year range based on leases I have heard about. If landlords could kick out tenants whenever, you'd expect them to always have tenants as long as the rent was above the costs imposed by the tenants themselves (wear and tear, insurance costs, effort of dealing with the tenant).

A lot of cities have businesses that say they can't find space and spaces in prime areas that sit empty not just for a month or two but sometimes a year or two. If you have a 5-year lease, you are better off lowering your rents by 10% than holding out for a year.

Is there some tax thing at play here? Or the tenants want to pay so little it's not worth it? Or are some landlords actually making bad financial decisions?

[whatnext]

Originally Posted by TorontoDrew

Your post is disgusting. You are suggesting it's all bullshit. These pictures could have been created by either side. Also if it is the Syrians that are fighting for freedom this also shows how desperate they are for attention and help.

Mods she take your post down.

What's the point of getting all outraged if you don't quote the post? I have no idea what post you are even talking about now.

[CityTech]

Originally Posted by someone123

The commercial vacancies are still a bit of a mystery to me. I realize that the leases are often long, I guess in the 3-10 year range based on leases I have heard about. If landlords could kick out tenants whenever, you'd expect them to always have tenants as long as the rent was above the costs imposed by the tenants themselves (wear and tear, insurance costs, effort of dealing with the tenant).

A lot of cities have businesses that say they can't find space and spaces in prime areas that sit empty not just for a month or two but sometimes a year or two. If you have a 5-year lease, you are better off lowering your rents by 10% than holding out for a year.

Is there some tax thing at play here? Or the tenants want to pay so little it's not worth it? Or are some landlords actually making bad financial decisions?

Historically, commercial property owners in Ontario got a large rebate on property taxes if their properties were vacant. This made it much less expensive to stay vacant for a while and hold out for a tenant willing to pay more.

Wynne changed the rules so municipalities can now choose whether or not to continue with that program or not. I don't know what Toronto did, but Ottawa has now ended that program. The effect on vacancies is noticeable.. In my neighbourhood's retail strip, vacated storefronts are getting new tenants much more quickly now.

[niwell]

Originally Posted by CityTech

I don't know what Toronto did, but Ottawa has now ended that program. The effect on vacancies is noticeable.. In my neighbourhood's retail strip, vacated storefronts are getting new tenants much more quickly now.

Toronto got rid of it too. Overall I don't find vacancies to be particularly high - in some places it's higher and others it's lower than 5 years ago. Generally it gets higher when an area sees a high level of commercial gentrification as in moving from independent cool spots to larger restaurant / retail groups. There are certainly a lot more pop ups than before - the City was actively pushing for removal and cited this an an example.

There are a couple issues though. Increased taxes are always a thing but increases have been capped for small retail buildings. Of course taxes are based off of Current Value Assessment - there was an issue of massive increases on Yonge st that were largely and issue of incorrect valuation by MPAC. Business owners (rightly) freaked out but the building owners never bothered appealing their assessments and it had to hit the media for anything to happen. Often times though it's building owners (who have often owned a building for a long time) get a trendy new bar or restaurant as a tenant and based on that think they can jack up rents a huge amount because the space is 'cool' now. I know of a few specific spots where that has happened from people in the restaurant industry and the spaces will probably stay vacant unless the price drops or a chain decides to move in. I do think there will be a bit of a correction at some point once it's clear that they aren't going to immediately get asking price.