Federal Government & Politics II

[OldDartmouthMark]

Originally Posted by MonctonRad

I think a lot of people are like this. I'm one. I own my house and am mortgage free. I do not consider my house an investment. It is where I live. If possible, I would like to live in this house until I die. If I am forced to downsize, then I suppose I will have some liquidity to help finance my last few years, but this was not my paramount goal when I bought the house. It is simply my home.

Perhaps I'm naive; maybe even a bit of a romantic, but, it is completely irrelevant to me that I'm sitting on a million dollar property. It is just the place I live. Period.

Originally Posted by Tvisforme

I'd suggest that many people (myself included) feel this way.

Me three. The idea of owning a house for any reason other than to have a place to live seems absurd to me. But my life’s goal has never been simply to accumulate wealth. I just want to live my life and have good experiences.

[casper]

Originally Posted by jonny24

We've been told it's been fixed. But if you believe everything they announce is a done deal, well.....

There was a series of changes made that should fix the problem.

The changes are not some vapour wear. The provinces have set up systems to implement writing and issuing letters of attestation. Here in BC the university/collage as part of accepting a student application goes to the province and asks the province to write a letter that is then provided back to the student.

Are the changes effective and producing the desired outcome? Time will tell.

[Changing City]

Originally Posted by acottawa

So what part of my statement that American EV market share is falling this year is incorrect?

Is musks full embrace of fascism the “one time event”?

"EV sales in Q2 2024 increased 22.9% from Q1 2024, and were up 11.3% year-over-year. In the first half of 2024 (H1 2024), U.S. electric vehicle sales totaled 599,372 cars, which is 7.3% higher than H1 2023." [Source]

EV sales in the US were 7.3% of vehicles in Q1 2023, and 7.2% of Q2 2023. In 2024 they represented the same proportion in Q1, 7.3% of total vehicle sales, and 8.0% in Q2. So the EV market share in the US this year is higher than the EV market share last year.

Cox Automotive estimate that Tesla sales in the US only account for 49.7% of EVs sold in Q2 2024, a significantly lower proportion of the market than the company used to have. There are far more other options these days, even though the cheaper Chinese vehicles that are available in Australia and Europe can't be bought there. (Or here.)

[P'tit Renard]

Originally Posted by Truenorth00

Lio laid it out. And he's 100% right in how it functionally works. A house might have 10 or more people each paying $500/mo. A family who wants to buy that house has to compete with an investor looking at $5000/mo in revenue.

Even that part of the ponzi scheme we're hurdling towards a wall given that we have over a million gig workers, and the GTA's unemployment rate has already skyrocketed to 7.9%, with no indication that we've hit a ceiling on unemployment. If there's a growing mass of unemployed, low-skilled and heavily indebted NPRs who can't even afford $500/month in rent, then they aren't going to be viable tenants for slumlords.

Originally Posted by Truenorth00

We're not Japan.

Shrinking and aging populations have deflationary pressures. Growing and younger populations have inflationary pressures. What's normal in Japan will not be normal in Canada, at least as long as we have positive population growth and immigration younger than the national average age.

If there's inflationary pressures in Canada putting a long-term floor on prices there, why would the average Canadian homebuyer be less inclined than the Japanese to buy during temporary periods of price declines? At the end of the day, real estate sales in Canada collapses when affordability collapses, like what we're seeing right now. Temporary price declines aren't the driving factor to turn off the average Canadian homebuyer.

And while people do buy houses to live in, even during downturns, it's discriminatory housing decisions that slow. People might be more hesitant to jump in and rent longer. They might put off upgrading. There's a lot of reasons. But there's no denying that in our markets, sales and housing prices are correlated.

It's the investors on the margins that's driving this correlation, and not the average Canadian homebuyer. The Trudeau government has been rolling out the red carpet to slumlords and speculords to turn Canadian shoebox studios and condos into a casino. The average Canadian homebuyer is practically collateral damage, as they're forced to put their lives on hold while this wild west casino distorts the country's real estate prices.

[P'tit Renard]

Originally Posted by jonny24

We've been told it's been fixed. But if you believe everything they announce is a done deal, well.....

Typical Casper to mislead and claim a premature victory, even though we haven't seen any tangible statistics supporting this so-called "fix".

[casper]

Originally Posted by P'tit Renard

Typical Casper to mislead and claim a premature victory, even though we haven't seen any tangible statistics supporting this so-called "fix".

Well .....

SFU lays off dozens of employees, citing financial challenges
The university says it eliminated around 85 positions, but unions say the number is higher

In a statement to CBC News, SFU said the decline of international student enrolment, among other cost pressures, led to the changes.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/briti...offs-1.7205775

B.C. universities face budget cuts, staff layoffs as international student enrolment drops

Last week, the University of Victoria announced it would have to cut its 2024-25 operating budget by four per cent or approximately $13 million. The university blamed flagging international student enrolment — which is at its lowest point in a decade — for the drop in revenue.

Croft and Simpson wrote that Ottawa’s 35 per cent reduction in the number of international study permits creates “even more uncertainty for the post-secondary sector.” They noted an “increasing number” of B.C. universities are facing similar challenges and are cutting budgets to “offset the associated decline in tuition income.”

Vancouver Island University in Nanaimo said in September that lower-than-expected enrolment numbers had contributed to a $20 million deficit

https://vancouversun.com/news/local-...nrolment-drops

It is starting to have an impact. BC post secondary institutions are not allowed to run deficits.

[whatnext]

Originally Posted by casper

Well .....





It is starting to have an impact. BC post secondary institutions are not allowed to run deficits.

One would think that with Premier Eby’s endless spending spree he could throw colleges some of his mad money. And so much for Federal Minister Miller’s clueless insinuation that these enrolments were driven by “puppy mill” institutions. In addition to your examples it turns out provincial Langara College is over 36% “international students”. What a joke.

Vancouver's Langara College among those bracing for drastic plunge in foreign students
Douglas Todd: Langara College faculty are preparing for a “sudden and overwhelming drop” in enrolment as foreign student numbers decline unevenly across the province.

Langara College is preparing for drastic cuts in enrolment, particularly of high-fee-paying international students.

Langara president Paula Burns has told faculty there has been a 79 per cent drop in foreign student applications for the spring of 2025 compared to the same period last year.

Faculty association members have sent a group message to their colleagues calling it a “crisis” — a “sudden and overwhelming drop” in enrolment that “will hit all of us.”…

…. With 37 per cent of Langara students holding study visas, the college has one of the highest proportions of foreign students of any public post-secondary institution in B.C…..

https://vancouversun.com/opinion/col...reign-students

[casper]

Originally Posted by whatnext

One would think that with Premier Eby’s endless spending spree he could throw colleges some of his mad money. And so much for Federal Minister Miller’s clueless insinuation that these enrolments were driven by “puppy mill” institutions. In addition to your examples it turns out provincial Langara College is over 36% “international students”. What a joke.

Vancouver's Langara College among those bracing for drastic plunge in foreign students
Douglas Todd: Langara College faculty are preparing for a “sudden and overwhelming drop” in enrolment as foreign student numbers decline unevenly across the province.
....

The province has decided to limit the impact on the major public institutions and have even more severe cuts to the “puppy mill” institutions.

I am actually ok with the institutions being forced to adjust.

The provincial government is expanding funding to SFU to open a new medical school. Much better option than backfilling a program with lower enrolment numbers. They are making choices and not just tossing money around in every direction.

My point is we are starting to see the impact of the changes from earlier in the year. It is going to take a few months to see it reflects in other aspects.