Federal Government & Politics II

[YOWetal]

Originally Posted by O-tacular

This last point is key. The CPC would ally itself with the UCP and other conservative provincial governments to undercut and destroy not only universal healthcare, but affordable childcare and environmental regulations and protections. I hope anyone voting CPC is prepared for a profound demolition of our country’s systems. Just cause housing is bad, doesn’t mean everything else won’t get more expensive when PeePee’s only solution to complex problems will be a meat cleaver.

Personally I am doing well so don't worry about a lot of those supports and am happy for PP to overturn the woke dystopia Trudeau is creating. I know a ton of people actually like that part and just feel broke and expect PP to fix it. They will be in for a big surprise though maybe PP gets lucky and worldwide inflation falls, commodity boom fills our coffers and we get another 2002-2007 boom.

[Black Star]

Originally Posted by O-tacular

Cue the conservative hysterics about how Trudeau is a woke dictator…

He literally is lmao

Just because you don't like to hear it

Doesn't make it not true

[Truenorth00]

Originally Posted by niwell

I’d be 100% ok with a dual-tier system like Australia or (wishful thinking) Denmark. But it’s very much understandable why people are worried given how many cues we take from the US. I’d trust Quebec to implement it much more effectively for this very reason.

It's exactly like our discussion about getting rid of the monarchy. There's all these other models people love to cite. But what do we imagine will happen with a population largely habituated to the American system as the alternative? Heck, the Reform Party was asking for the triple E Senate in the 90s, hoping to neuter Ontario and Quebec's influence on the federal governance. Agreed, I wouldn't trust anybody but Quebec.

[theman23]

Originally Posted by O-tacular

UCP tried offloading hip surgeries through AHS to private clinics and overall wait times got worse not better. As predicted the private wealthy stream cannibalized the free public one and led to longer wait times for everyone else. Nice try though. 2 tier is still just about rich people skipping ahead of the line.

Using public funds to fund medical procedures at a private facility is not an example of a two tier system. When your family doctor cuts out a worrisome mole in his office, he isn’t performing “private surgery” even if the facility he operates is not owned and operated by AHS. He bills AHS, just like these private surgical facilities bill AHS for the surgeries that are being decanted to them.

A two tier system would involve two different funding sources for health care, i.e private (cash or insurance) and public.

[goodgrowth]

The healthcare system as it is is a disaster. I can't wait until diagnostics are completely done regularly by machines so it is proactive and not reactive.

Right now it's basically wait for symptoms to present-> hope the human diagnosing you knows what they are doing -> hope to get the appropriate test within a certain time.

Everything is backward.

Honestly at this point I feel like spending a couple of grand for one of these private full body MRI scans and assessments once a year is probably better than whatever the current system offers in terms of diagnosing...

[MonctonRad]

Originally Posted by theman23

Using public funds to fund medical procedures at a private facility is not an example of a two tier system. When your family doctor cuts out a worrisome mole in his office, he isn’t performing “private surgery” even if the facility he operates is not owned and operated by AHS. He bills AHS, just like these private surgical facilities bill AHS for the surgeries that are being decanted to them.

A two tier system would involve two different funding sources for health care, i.e private (cash or insurance) and public.

Our imaging centre in Moncton exists outside of Medicare. If you want an MRI on your knee and want it tomorrow rather than six months down the road, then it will be out of pocket.

[Truenorth00]

Originally Posted by YOWetal

Personally I am doing well so don't worry about a lot of those supports and am happy for PP to overturn the woke dystopia Trudeau is creating. I know a ton of people actually like that part and just feel broke and expect PP to fix it. They will be in for a big surprise though maybe PP gets lucky and worldwide inflation falls, commodity boom fills our coffers and we get another 2002-2007 boom.

Agreed. I think people going for some profound reversal are going to be real surprised when none of that happens. It'll mostly be austerity which really hurts the lower and middle class and some token tax cuts. And for all the rhetoric, if the carbon tax was cut tomorrow it would cut 16¢/L (including HST) and 14¢/m3 for heating. People are going to save $6 per fill at the pumps and maybe $20-40/month on heating, while giving up $800+ year in rebates. They are going to be surprised when the carbon tax is scrapped and they still feel poorer. I would rather have income tax cuts, but I'm guessing the CPC knows the carbon tax is easier to cut (unless the LPC really signs more CCFDs). And it gives them cover to give out corporate tax cuts instead.

I'm mostly interested in seeing what they are going to do when they realize that it wasn't Trudeau holding back oil and gas (now at record production) and just a changing global market and the provinces (particularly BC and Quebec) which they have zero power to change.

[MonctonRad]

Originally Posted by goodgrowth

Honestly at this point I feel like spending a couple of grand for one of these private full body MRI scans and assessments once a year is probably better than whatever the current system offers in terms of diagnosing...

Whole body screening MRI is the definition of overkill, and a huge waste of resources.

But fear not, the next big thing will be low dose chest CT for lung cancer screening . We do a lot of low dose chest CT now, although there is no formal government screening program, and, let me tell you, this is fabulously sensitive as a screening modality, probably more so than mammography is for breast cancer.

If you have a 30 pack year smoking history, and are at least 50 years old, then you will be getting annual CT scans for screening. This will happen.

[theman23]

Originally Posted by MonctonRad

Our imaging centre in Moncton exists outside of Medicare. If you want an MRI on your knee and want it tomorrow rather than six months down the road, then it will be out of pocket.

We have the same here in B.C, but MSP has sent patients to them as well to decant from the hospital MRI waiting lists.

But my point was that the examples O-tacular provided of surgeries being contracted to private centers by AHS or their contracting of lab services to Dynacare have nothing to do with establishing a two-tiered system. These are perfectly normal and expected actions within a one payer public system, and you would expect to see more of this as the surgeries become cheaper and safer to perform. People get so worked up when they hear the word "privatization" but have no understanding of how our current system actually works.

[Build.It]

Originally Posted by YOWetal

Personally I am doing well so don't worry about a lot of those supports and am happy for PP to overturn the woke dystopia Trudeau is creating. I know a ton of people actually like that part and just feel broke and expect PP to fix it. They will be in for a big surprise though maybe PP gets lucky and worldwide inflation falls, commodity boom fills our coffers and we get another 2002-2007 boom.

I really wish people would stop using the term worldwide inflation or global inflation as it deflects the blame from those that caused inflation in Canada.

There are still people who continue to blame inflation on outside global forces, and don't understand that the reason prices went up and stayed up is because of all the new money that was created and spent into the economy during COVID.

Inflation is a sovereign currency issue. An ass load of new dollars were created during COVID and that is what caused prices to go up. Today there is 36% more Canadian dollars in existence than there were in February 2020. That is why prices have gone up across the board.

These dollars were created in two ways:

(1) BoC bought government bonds and mortgage bonds at artificially high prices. These purchases were made with newly created money which the government spent on various programs and that banks used for investments.

(2) BoC dropped interest rates to 0, which made borrowing cheap, so people borrowed tons of money for houses, and cars, and boats, and home renos, etc. Since Canadian banks have no reserve requirements, there was no limit to how much they could lend out. And almost every loan a bank in Canada makes is newly created money that comes from the BoC.

All this while productivity declined so there was less stuff to buy.

Prices going up in Canada had almost everything to do with all the new dollars created by the BoC.

The supply chain issues we saw in 2021 did have an effect on prices - we still would've seen prices go up in 2022. But these issues were largely sorted out by early 2023, and without all these new dollars, we would've seen prices go down again. However most of those new dollars that were created during COVID are still circulating in the economy, and that is why we haven't seen prices come down.

So again to summarize; Canada didn't see inflation because it is some sort of global phenomenon. We saw inflation because our central bank created an assload of new dollars which are still circulating in the economy. So please stop using terms like global or worldwide inflation, because that implies that it was external forces that caused our prices to go up, when in fact it was almost entirely a homegrown problem caused by the central bank and the government.


https://ycharts.com/indicators/canada_m2_money_supply#


https://tradingeconomics.com/canada/...onsumer-prices


https://www.longtermtrends.net/m2-mo...-vs-inflation/

[O-tacular]

Originally Posted by YOWetal

We are also next to the US so pay our healthcare workers (most of the cost of healthcare) some of the highest relatives salaries in the world. UK nurses and doctors make a fraction of ours in a more expensive place overall. This means two tier didn't collapse the public system though it is starting to more recently.

With Con premiers and a Con federal government we should get ready for some kind of privatization.

Originally Posted by theman23

We have the same here in B.C, but MSP has sent patients to them as well to decant from the hospital MRI waiting lists.

But my point was that the examples O-tacular provided of surgeries being contracted to private centers by AHS or their contracting of lab services to Dynacare have nothing to do with establishing a two-tiered system. These are perfectly normal and expected actions within a one payer public system, and you would expect to see more of this as the surgeries become cheaper and safer to perform. People get so worked up when they hear the word "privatization" but have no understanding of how our current system actually works.

Yeah but my point was they ran surgeries through private clinics and they shuffled staff from the public system (poached) and it ended up increasing wait times overall. Medical staff are finite. Splitting them between 2 streams doesn’t increase capacity. It weakens it.

[Build.It]

Originally Posted by Truenorth00

It is trading one pain for another. Sure, PP will quietly ease up on immigration, the largest source of inflation. But I don't think he or his bench is really well equipped for some of the structural issues facing the country. But change is good for democracy. So....

Inflation was caused by the money supply increasing by 36%, not immigration.

[Build.It]

Originally Posted by Loco101

And food price inflation has been higher South of the border yet there is no carbon pricing there.

Most of us will be WORSE off if a PP government gets rid of the carbon pricing and rebates.

Fact check on the bold part - no it's not.

Food price inflation in the US had a sharp peak followed by a sharp drop and is now sitting at 2%.

Food price inflation in Canada has declined leisurely and is still at 5%.


https://tradingeconomics.com/united-...food-inflation


https://tradingeconomics.com/canada/food-inflation

[Build.It]

Originally Posted by Truenorth00

Yeah. I hear they're begging for pennies in the street in Norway.

That's because the Norwegian government subsidized the cost of EVs for more than decade, continuing to this day. The cost of EVs has been largely equivalent to the cost of an ICE car in Norway as a result. None of that applies here, I don't hear any chatter about upcoming EV rebates offered by the government.

"In addition to non-monetary incentives, all-electric cars and vans are exempt from all non-recurring vehicle fees, including purchase taxes, and 25% VAT on purchase, making electric car purchase price competitive with conventional cars.[3] Also, a tax reduction for plug-in hybrids went into effect starting in July 2013".
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plug...cles_in_Norway

[Black Star]

In simple terms, the smart money has left Canada and is unlikely to return anytime soon. Worst yet, Canadians, by and large, just don't get it. Even with the Conservatives at 40%+ in the polls, the combined support for the leftist parties outnumbers them, leaving the prospect of a socialist coalition government very much in play. Not too encouraging, is it? No wonder the smart money left town. So, what is the solution? I hate to say it, and perhaps some might think otherwise, but it appears there is NO solution until there is a complete and total collapse, another prospect which isn't as preposterous as it sounds, Canada seems to be well down the road to reaching that point with liberal ndp government's running the show. Again, in simple terms, Left leaning Canadians are their own worst enemy, they keep electing socialist Ideologues instead of smart people.

[Changing City]

Originally Posted by Build.It

Fact check on the bold part - no it's not.

Food price inflation in the US had a sharp peak followed by a sharp drop and is now sitting at 2%.

Food price inflation in Canada has declined leisurely and is still at 5%.

Fact check on the fact check - just because food price inflation was 2.7% in December 2023 in the US, and 5.0% in Canada doesn't tell you anything about the impact of a carbon tax in Canada in the past several years on food prices, compared to the US which hasn't had those particular taxes.

CTV reported on a report published in May by e-commerce platform Ubuy compared Canadian food inflation rates to the U.S., U.K., Australia and the European Union. "Gathering data from three separate timeframes over the past 12 months, three years and five years, researchers were able to find food inflation ranges differently among several nations."

"Despite Canadian food prices reaching new heights in 2022, in comparison to other nations, Canada ranked the second lowest nation in the world for food inflation rate"

"Over the last 12 months, Canada reported an increase of 8.9 per cent, nearly 10 per cent less than the global average. The report shows an average increase of 21 per cent was seen over the last three years and a 25.1 per cent increase was reported in the last five years."

"Meanwhile, the U.S. was ranked the nation with the lowest overall food price inflation with the country reporting an increase of 8.5 per cent in 12 months, 24.1 per cent in three years and 26.4 per cent in five years, according to the report."

So yes - over a year Canada's food price inflation was very slightly more than in the US, but over a three and five year period it was actually a little less. And both the US and Canada saw less food price inflation than the UK, Europe and Australia.

[Build.It]

Originally Posted by Black Star

In simple terms, the smart money has left Canada and is unlikely to return anytime soon. Worst yet, Canadians, by and large, just don't get it. Even with the Conservatives at 40%+ in the polls, the combined support for the leftist parties outnumbers them, leaving the prospect of a socialist coalition government very much in play. Not too encouraging, is it? No wonder the smart money left town. So, what is the solution? I hate to say it, and perhaps some might think otherwise, but it appears there is NO solution until there is a complete and total collapse, another prospect which isn't as preposterous as it sounds, Canada seems to be well down the road to reaching that point with liberal ndp government's running the show. Again, in simple terms, Left leaning Canadians are their own worst enemy, they keep electing socialist Ideologues instead of smart people.

It's going to take people losing their own jobs and houses en masse before they realize that economics does in fact matter.

[acottawa]

Originally Posted by Changing City

Fact check on the fact check - just because food price inflation was 2.7% in December 2023 in the US, and 5.0% in Canada doesn't tell you anything about the impact of a carbon tax in Canada in the past several years on food prices, compared to the US which hasn't had those particular taxes.

CTV reported on a report published in May by e-commerce platform Ubuy compared Canadian food inflation rates to the U.S., U.K., Australia and the European Union. "Gathering data from three separate timeframes over the past 12 months, three years and five years, researchers were able to find food inflation ranges differently among several nations."

"Despite Canadian food prices reaching new heights in 2022, in comparison to other nations, Canada ranked the second lowest nation in the world for food inflation rate"

"Over the last 12 months, Canada reported an increase of 8.9 per cent, nearly 10 per cent less than the global average. The report shows an average increase of 21 per cent was seen over the last three years and a 25.1 per cent increase was reported in the last five years."

"Meanwhile, the U.S. was ranked the nation with the lowest overall food price inflation with the country reporting an increase of 8.5 per cent in 12 months, 24.1 per cent in three years and 26.4 per cent in five years, according to the report."

So yes - over a year Canada's food price inflation was very slightly more than in the US, but over a three and five year period it was actually a little less. And both the US and Canada saw less food price inflation than the UK, Europe and Australia.

I am not sure middle eastern e commerce sites, particularly one that doesn’t sell food, publish their statistical analysis in peer reviewed journals.

[Build.It]

I don't have any connections to the UK/Eu/Australia, so not going to pretend I know what's going on there.

I do know that the US printed trillions of dollars, and every American received roughly $3200 in stimulus cheques which they could spend on whatever.

Whereas Canada's printed money was almost entirely distributed through the banks and mostly spent on stocks and real estate, in the US a lot of the printed money went directly into peoples' chequing accounts for them to use to buy stuff. This included food. So it would make sense that they saw such a sharp increase followed by a sharp drop in inflation across the board, including food inflation.

I've actually been curious how Canada's printed money entered the general economy and didn't just stay within the assets. I figure it's the following:

- CERB is the obvious one, $500/week for a million Canadians - this was all printed money

- Government bonds bought by BoC using printed money. Government then used that money to pay businesses for services, and hire a bunch of new employees, so this money did directly enter the economy.

- A lot of people cashed out of housing at the peak - the buyer would pay the seller using money borrowed from the bank. When a bank loans out money for a mortgage, this is typed into existence, aka new money. If thebseller doesn't use that money to buy another property then it's going to be used for something else.

- A lot of people took HELOCs out which is also typed into existence by the banks.

So we didn't get stimulus cheques directly from the government, but there were still other leaks, which is why we also saw inflation. But given that the US did the same things as us plus the stimulus cheques, it would make sense that their inflation was higher than ours for commodities. It would also explain that sharp drop in inflation as they don't have anything else further inflating food prices. That's my theory anyways.

[Changing City]

Originally Posted by acottawa

I am not sure middle eastern e commerce sites, particularly one that doesn’t sell food, publish their statistical analysis in peer reviewed journals.

Well, you can compare the Annual CPI food inflation published by Statistics Canada with the US Government food inflation data.

You'll find that $100 spent on food in December 2018 became $128.00 in Canada and $127.48 in the US. The report you doubted was taking slightly earlier dates, as it was published in mid 2023, so it would have a slightly different outcome, but the Canadian and US year end data sets suggest food inflation over 5 years was almost exactly the same in Canada and the US.