Western Expresso - Page 211

Tacheguy · #**4201** Posted **Apr 16, 2019, 8:58 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by dmacc

The provincial revenues are increased by 33% due to the transfer payments. The provinces revenue is $12.75 billion and the Feds contribute $4.25 which increases our budget by 33%. So you weren't wrong, you just didn't know how you were right haha.

this issue is that equalization is only one component of federal transfers. the others usually go to all provinces, including payments under the Canada Health Act, Immigration support funding and many others.

blueandgoldguy · #**4202** Posted **Apr 16, 2019, 11:47 PM**

The average lifespan of a Canadian is 2 years greater than an American. I feel confident saying there is a positive relationship, though not necessarily 100% correlation, between longer lifespans and higher living standards.

Tacheguy · #**4203** Posted **Apr 16, 2019, 11:56 PM**

I will just leave this here.

https://globalnews.ca/news/4878138/best-countries-to-live-in-the-world-canada-2019/

OTA in Winnipeg · #**4204** Posted **Apr 17, 2019, 1:06 AM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tacheguy

I will just leave this here.

https://globalnews.ca/news/4878138/best-countries-to-live-in-the-world-canada-2019/

Direct link:
https://www.usnews.com/news/best-countries/overall-rankings

Curmudgeon · #**4205** Posted **Apr 17, 2019, 5:27 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by blueandgoldguy

The average lifespan of a Canadian is 2 years greater than an American. I feel confident saying there is a positive relationship, though not necessarily 100% correlation, between longer lifespans and higher living standards.

That's almost entirely the result of tens of millions of Americans at the bottom end of the income scale having poor access to healthcare or access only with crippling deductibles. It's a terrible system and extremely inefficient. Even middle class people with "Cadillac plans" often pay deductibles of over $5,000, sometimes well over. So if you happen to break your arm, which would cost around $2,500, that expense would be out of pocket. That's a lot of money for most people to come up without incurring some interest-bearing debt. The majority of Americans do not have even $500 in ready cash. Taxes paid are very significantly less, but that savings is lost if you have to come up with even one deductible in a given year.

The result is the worst life expectancy among all developed nations, and below even Costa Rica and Chile. The average U.S. life expectancy is only a few months higher than that of Cuba. There is definitely a positive relationship between living standards and life expectancy, and that's why third world countries have the lowest life expectancies, but there are numerous other factors. Spain and Italy have higher life expectancies than Norway, Canada, the Netherlands or Germany. Diet? Wine? Sunshine?

Healthcare is where Canada has a real advantage over the U.S., both social and economic.

EdwardTH · #**4206** Posted **Apr 17, 2019, 7:07 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by Curmudgeon

Far larger? A few points higher you're right, 12% vs. 9% for South Dakota. Does that difference alone explain the HDI discrepancy between Man. 0.894 and Sask.0.908 and S. Dakota 0.931 (equivalent to Alberta)? If it does then the suggestion that U.S. policies with respect to indigenous peoples leads to better economic outcomes for the indigenous population becomes reasonable and somewhat probable, and I simply can not believe that that is true without evidence. Again, I think the likely explanation is that those two Canadian provinces have lower economic output.

A question I thought of yesterday that really troubles me is if Canada did not have equalization what would Manitoba's HDI be? Thirty cents on the dollar of Manitoba's budget comes from equalization.

By the way, the lowest HDIs amongst the midwestern states are 0.910 for Indiana and Missouri, and they also arguably have a similar proportion of "at-risk" (another newspeak term) peoples in their populations.

I'm not sure where you got 12% from, it's closer to 17%, which is double the number in South Dakota. The other factor is that most of the poorest reserves in MB & SK are the very remote communities in the far north, hundreds of miles from any city, often no road access. Hard to provide services or have much of an economy when you're that isolated. South Dakota doesn't have any reserves like that.

As for policy, I personally do believe that the US being relatively hands-off, while it hasn't done indigenous people down there any favours, is actually better than the paternalistic meddling our government has done over the years. Just my own opinion of course.

Curmudgeon · #**4207** Posted **Apr 18, 2019, 4:14 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by EdwardTH

I'm not sure where you got 12% from, it's closer to 17%, which is double the number in South Dakota. The other factor is that most of the poorest reserves in MB & SK are the very remote communities in the far north, hundreds of miles from any city, often no road access. Hard to provide services or have much of an economy when you're that isolated. South Dakota doesn't have any reserves like that.

As for policy, I personally do believe that the US being relatively hands-off, while it hasn't done indigenous people down there any favours, is actually better than the paternalistic meddling our government has done over the years. Just my own opinion of course.

Also you stated above: As Winnipegger said our "at-risk" populations would explain it. MB and SK have a far larger indigenous population than any other province so the abysmal quality of life on-reserve is almost certainly what's dragging those numbers down.

I'm not including Metis people. The Metis are indigenous peoples but they are not the economically marginalized people that you refer to as the "at risk" population residing on poor reserves which according to you is responsible for Manitoba's lower HDI numbers in comparison with nearby jurisdictions.

According to Manitoba govt. statistics, Metis persons have a median income 85% that of the provincial median for all persons, a labour participation rate not only higher than that of Manitobans as a whole but higher than for Non-Aboriginal persons, home ownership lower than that of Non-Aboriginals (65% compared with 80%), but yet not significantly lower (it's 32% for Registered Indians [that's the term used by govt, not mine]) and more than half of all Metis live in Winnipeg, with a majority of the rest living in other urban areas in southern Manitoba. Only a very negligible number live on reserve. I don't think the argument can be made successfully that the Metis people are economically marginalized to any degree significantly more than are working class Non-Aboriginal persons for example.

South Dakota has no significant Metis population.

bomberjet · #**4208** Posted **May 9, 2019, 6:30 PM**

https://twitter.com/CanadianPacific/status/1126553045469319168

I'm hoping one day CN will do the opposite of what CP has done. CP moved to the burbs from downtown Calgary. I would love for CN one day to set-up shop downtown and bring their offices from Edmonton to Winnipeg. They have a good presence here and land is available along Main St, etc, where they already own land.

cllew · #**4209** Posted **May 10, 2019, 2:53 AM**

CP's move was E Hunter Harrison saving money by remodeling space they owned in CP's Ogden Yard.

If I recall properly from the book I read on Hunter Harrison CP actually made $5 million when a major oil company paid them to move out of the downtown office space he thought was wasteful before their lease was up so the oil company could have office space. He also wanted the head office to be in the rail yard so staff could see the business they were in.

In talking to someone I know that retired from CP here in Winnipeg they apparently did the same thing by moving office staff from a leased call center building in a south Winnipeg Industrial park back into renovated CP owned space in the Weston Shop complex.

CN's Edmonton office is in their Walker Yard so if they moved to Winnipeg they would probably find less expensive space in either the Transcona Shops complex or Symington Yards

bomberjet · #**4210** Posted **May 13, 2019, 7:54 PM**

CN has offices already in Symington. I'm just dreaming is all.

cllew · #**4211** Posted **May 13, 2019, 11:32 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by bomberjet

CN has offices already in Symington. I'm just dreaming is all.

That's where a lot of the staff that were on the 5t floor of City Place ended up moving to when CN closed their downtown Winnipeg office Experiment.

joshlemer · #**4212** Posted **May 22, 2019, 3:55 AM**

Where would you guys go to, if this forum went down for good? The site was down for a day or so a month or two back, and it dawned on me that the site does seem pretty old and could potentially stop being maintained and go away.

EspionNoir · #**4213** Posted **May 22, 2019, 4:24 AM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by joshlemer

Where would you guys go to, if this forum went down for good? The site was down for a day or so a month or two back, and it dawned on me that the site does seem pretty old and could potentially stop being maintained and go away.

I think this forum is quite big, it covers construction news all around the world, I think it will actually likely be refreshed with a new look someday

cheswick · #**4214** Posted **May 22, 2019, 12:57 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by joshlemer

Where would you guys go to, if this forum went down for good? The site was down for a day or so a month or two back, and it dawned on me that the site does seem pretty old and could potentially stop being maintained and go away.

Reddit seems to have taken the place of many traditional forums. Also there's www.skyscrapercity.com for a very similar site, albeit not as popular. Some of the same folks on here post over there I think.

headhorse · #**4215** Posted **May 22, 2019, 5:50 PM**

most of the calgary forum has already moved over to skyrisecities

esquire · #**4216** Posted **May 22, 2019, 5:57 PM**

Reddit is OK but the inability to post photos inline is a real shortcoming. Especially for a forum such as this where pictures and renderings are a big part of the discussion.

cheswick · #**4217** Posted **May 22, 2019, 9:20 PM**

Wondering if any of you guys have any insight on the rough cost per foot of a basic 6ft fence with 6x6 posts. Quotes I’ve gotten are in the $35 range but then my neighbour found some guy who will do it under the table for like $20 a ft. That seems low to me. Is that reasonable for some guy doing it under the table?

Gm0ney · #**4218** Posted **May 23, 2019, 3:51 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by cheswick

Wondering if any of you guys have any insight on the rough cost per foot of a basic 6ft fence with 6x6 posts. Quotes I’ve gotten are in the $35 range but then my neighbour found some guy who will do it under the table for like $20 a ft. That seems low to me. Is that reasonable for some guy doing it under the table?

I priced out my fence materials (Rona's web prices) using green pressure treated lumber and 4x4 posts and it came to about $20/foot after delivery and taxes. This is for a 6' fence with three 2x6 rails, a 2x6 cap, and 1x6 pickets with no gap.

That doesn't include post digging/setting, screws/fastners, gate hardware, removal/disposal of old fence, or any labour.

So yeah, $20/ft seems a little too good to be true.

Pinus · #**4219** Posted **Jun 5, 2019, 9:11 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by esquire

Possibly. But a surprising number of people in ND/MN don't have passports... tourism from the US reportedly took quite a hit after those rules were imposed and from what I understand, still hasn't recovered fully. So there's that to contend with. Then there is also competing with the appeal of Lambeau as a shrine/destination for Packers diehards.

I mean, I'm not saying that no one will come up to watch the game but I'm sure it will be a relatively small portion of the crowd. Maybe a couple hundred people from around the Grand Forks/Thief River Falls area close to the border who are a lot closer to Winnipeg than to Green Bay and who stand a stronger chance of having a passport. I know I could be wrong, but I don't expect a highly priced preseason game across an international border to be a big draw for Americans.

Putting this here as it would be off topic in the other thread.

Why is it that Canadians are required to have passports entering the US when they arrive by any mode of transport, but Americans are not required to have Passports entering Canada if they arrive by ground transport?

This was the case origionally when the passport requirements first took place. Does anyone know if it is still the case today?

OTA in Winnipeg · #**4220** Posted **Jun 5, 2019, 10:19 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by Pinus

Putting this here as it would be off topic in the other thread.

Whybis it that Canadians are requires to have passports entering the US when they arrive by any mode of transport, but Americans are not required to have Passports entering Canada if they arrive by ground transport?

This was the case origionally when the passport requirements first took place. Does anyone know if it is still the case today?

I believe the answer is that most Americans don't have passports.