Assorted content for your weekend reading.
- Andrea Germanos discusses the problems with relying on the charity of the uber-wealthy rather than stable and sustainable public revenues to meet the needs of the people with the least.
- Dan Fumano reports on the City of Vancouver's call for a shift toward tenant protections and non-profit housing, while Seila Rizvic offers some ideas to alleviate housing crises by focusing on residents rather than developers. And Steve Meaghar notes that Toronto's emergency shelters are already over capacity long before the worst of winter hits, while Elizabeth Fraser reports on the realities of homelessness among university students.
- PressProgress exposes the big-money, anti-worker actors trying to buy Jason Kenney's way into office in Alberta. And Stuart Trew points out how the federal Libs are catering to big business through dangerous deregulation.
- Andrew Nikiforuk notes that Alberta's revenue problems trace back through decades of PC mismanagement of resources. And Robyn Allan discusses yet another concession the Libs appear to have made to Kinder Morgan, as their public bailout of the TransMountain pipeline appears to include taking on what were supposed to be corporate promises to pay for ocean protection measures.
- Finally, Owen Jones points out that the rise of violent racism can be traced in large part to the refusal of right-wing parties to call out fascist tendencies as they've developed.
Meanwhile, in Ontario, Doug Ford has removed all rent controls, and is rapidly removing all independent oversight of government. Next, in payout to the land developers who have been constant large contributors to Conservative party coffers since at least Mike Harris days, he is asking them to write the script for legislation to reverse the GreenBelt Act.
ReplyDeleteAs for Alberta fortunes, I honestly don't think the slide started with Peter Lougheed. Rather, it started with Drunken Ralph, with his firesale of drilling permits and rockbottom royalty rates. His Conservative successors had no chance after that to raise them - that would be political suicide. Wouldn't surprise me if they let Rachel Notley win because she had nothing to lose by raising royalties
Wascally Wabbit
I'd think it's fair to point out that even Lougheed didn't maximize either the public return from resource development, or the long-term investment of what was brought in. But the governments since his have certainly done worse - and it's especially disappointing that Notley in fact hasn't followed through on the prospect of bringing in meaningfully-increased royalties.
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