Hamilton's B-Line LRT construction

[Allroadsleadtoham]

Originally Posted by ScreamingViking

Or they're waiting for a political reason.

To not start ?

[ScreamingViking]

Originally Posted by Allroadsleadtoham

To not start ?

To focus on other projects and possibly re-announce this one in the leadup to the next election or immediately after a victory. And the "war on gridlock" is in full swing.

Plus not knowing what will happen at the federal level. Would a new conservative government kill its share of the cost based on the desire to cut back on spending? That would let the Ford government off the hook for their half of the bill.

There are still a lot of misinformed voters out there too... the "we don't need it, just add more buses" crowd and the ones who call for BRT instead of LRT but don't consider things like operating expenses and capacity, and that a busway through the city will use just as many street lanes and not be usable for passenger cars.

[Innsertnamehere]

Originally Posted by Allroadsleadtoham

To not start ?

The Provincial Liberals did this as well. Drag procurement out as long as possible while still having projects "funded".

The Finch West LRT was "funded" in 2009. It started construction in 2018.

It makes you look like you are doing something without having to put the cold, hard cash out to actually do it.

Ford is actually sort of doing this with Highways right now too. For all his political wedge politics on the issue, he is actually spending less inflation adjusted than the Liberals did on the provincial freeway network.

[NortheastWind]

Originally Posted by Innsertnamehere

Ford is actually sort of doing this with Highways right now too. For all his political wedge politics on the issue, he is actually spending less inflation adjusted than the Liberals did on the provincial freeway network.

That's because Ford has stopped funding the much needed Northern Ontario highway expansion projects, specifically the expansion of Hwy 69 and Hwy 11 from two lanes to four lane separated highways.

[ScreamingViking]

There's graffiti adjacent to the parking lot of the Queenston traffic circle LCBO calling out Horwath for not dealing with the housing crisis, while letting LRT remain in delay limbo.

I wasn't aware the city had anything to do with the LRT delays, aside from past dithering. So whoever spray-painted this was at least partially-lucid. Though they're not aware that cities aren't capable of dealing with the housing issue... they can try, but I doubt their efforts will be more than akin to an index finger blocking a spray of water from a cracking dam.

[TheHonestMaple]

Originally Posted by ScreamingViking

There's graffiti adjacent to the parking lot of the Queenston traffic circle LCBO calling out Horwath for not dealing with the housing crisis, while letting LRT remain in delay limbo.

I wasn't aware the city had anything to do with the LRT delays, aside from past dithering. So whoever spray-painted this was at least partially-lucid. Though they're not aware that cities aren't capable of dealing with the housing issue... they can try, but I doubt their efforts will be more than akin to an index finger blocking a spray of water from a cracking dam.

Biggest contributing factor to high housing costs right now is high levels of immigration combined with historically low interest rates. Both federally controlled. Time to kick the liberals to the curb. We need to cut immigration WAY down, and BoC needs to get a new governor.

[Beedok]

Originally Posted by TheHonestMaple

Biggest contributing factor to high housing costs right now is high levels of immigration combined with historically low interest rates. Both federally controlled. Time to kick the liberals to the curb. We need to cut immigration WAY down, and BoC needs to get a new governor.

Immigration isn't the cause. We had immigration rates similar to this in the 1950s. The issue is housing being seen as an investment by too large a chunk of the population, which leads to nonsensical bidding wars and severe constraints on what can get built so as to not affect housing prices.

[TheHonestMaple]

Originally Posted by Beedok

Immigration isn't the cause. We had immigration rates similar to this in the 1950s. The issue is housing being seen as an investment by too large a chunk of the population, which leads to nonsensical bidding wars and severe constraints on what can get built so as to not affect housing prices.

Insane to me that people aren't making the connection between high housing costs, and bringing in nearly 2 million immigrants each year that primarily settle in our urban cities. Yes, immigration is the main driving force of high housing prices. Our population increased 10% in just the last 2.5 years!

1.7 million people came to canada as either PR, non-PR, refugee, or international student in 2023. The international student total eye watering at 1 million total. The total count for 2024 is already at 1.8 million and we're only in October!

[Beedok]

Originally Posted by TheHonestMaple

Insane to me that people aren't making the connection between high housing costs, and bringing in nearly 2 million immigrants each year that primarily settle in our urban cities. Yes, immigration is the main driving force of high housing prices. Our population increased 10% in just the last 2.5 years!

1.7 million people came to canada as either PR, non-PR, refugee, or international student in 2023. The international student total eye watering at 1 million total. The total count for 2024 is already at 1.8 million and we're only in October!

Our housing market has been broken for years. The new immigrants who came here in the last two years don't have time machines, they didn't cause the broken housing prices of 2019.

It's utterly bizarre to see people show such utter amnesia to how long the market has been utterly broken and so ignoring the actual causes to rally around xenophobia.

Though I will say we need to shift certain immigration policies to try to bring in more blue collar workers, since we've got such a shortage of construction workers.