The Decline of Vancouver.

Posted by: switch

Posted by: Fast-Orange

Posted by: switch

What half of rights do these temp foreign workers not have?

The right to quit their job and apply for a different one while remaining in the country is a pretty big one.

I know a bit about this because my dad is an immigrant.

Temporary foreign work permits have way in Canada for decades, and is typical of countries that have foreign work permits as countries protect jobs for their citizens and not foreign nationals. Temporary foreign workers are allowed to apply for temporary work that involves a specific job. They cannot enter the country under the sponsorship of a company like McDonalds, quit, and go work as an engineer for SNC Lavalin for the remainder of their stay (some work does allow them to change employers). They do enjoy almost all rights of any other worker, such as work safety, environment, employment insurance, health care, etc.

If temporary foreign worker wants to stay longer, they can extend their permit. If they want to do some other type of job, they can apply for it. They could also apply for landed immigrant status.

Don't confuse rights with privileges.

Sounds pretty second class to me and a perfect environment for abuse.

https://www.hcamag.com/ca/specialization/workplace-health-and-safety/migrant-worker-exploitation-rampant-in-canada/436629

I'll repeat. If we need them enough to come here and work we can give them permanent residence.

lots of value in Castlegar...

https://www.realtor.ca/real-estate/25473491/2420-11th-avenue-castlegar-south-castlegar

or get 13 acres in town...

https://www.realtor.ca/real-estate/25374754/1110-23rd-street-castlegar-south-castlegar

Castlegar is one of most underrated places to live in BC....  I would put Nakusp and Salmon Arm in the mix as well.

Posted by: LoamtoHome

Castlegar is one of most underrated places to live in BC....  I would put Nakusp and Salmon Arm in the mix as well.

Yeah, I've been looking at places in the Kootenays for a few years now. Castlegar has been lower on the list but home prices are a bit better than Nelson. Salmo has been in the mix b/c of cheap housing, Kimberley is nice too. Every town in the Koots has it's pros/cons for me.

Posted by: Fast-Orange

Canada be like "lets create a sub class of cheap labor based on race/nationality" and everyone seems totally cool with it for some reason.

Unfettered Real Estate gains.  

Posted by: Adam-West

lets just keep surpressing our own wages, no big deal guys not like we have a cost of living crisis going on fucking everywhere

This is the one.

Posted by: syncro

Posted by: LoamtoHome

Castlegar is one of most underrated places to live in BC....  I would put Nakusp and Salmon Arm in the mix as well.

Yeah, I've been looking at places in the Kootenays for a few years now. Castlegar has been lower on the list but home prices are a bit better than Nelson. Salmo has been in the mix b/c of cheap housing, Kimberley is nice too. Every town in the Koots has it's pros/cons for me.

Seems that cheap housing has left Salmo, seeing small homes/shacks there going in the $400K zone. It seems if you want a SFH that's a traditional foundation type house and not a mobile/manufactured home then even some place in the middle of BFN is starting around $250K these days.

The demographics/population thing has been a constant concern of mine amidst the housing crisis for the past decade or so I think. With a lot of people wanting/needing housing and not a lot of supply it can't be a surprise that prices have risen. I've always tagged the rental vacancy rates to what's happening with housing, and in Van that rate as been around 1% or less for a long time now. The evidence of a shortage of housing has been available for a while now, and while I know there are multiple factors at play I wonder how much of the rise in pricing has come from willful government ignorance or purposeful collusion with developers to keep the supply low. Either way we need FAR more housing than we are currently building. Who's ok with seeing their home valuations drop by 50% or more if we get the quantity of homes we actually need?

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/housing-affordability-cmhc-report-2030-1.6498898

And a 25yr old report that shows the drop in support for public housing

https://publications.gc.ca/Collection-R/LoPBdP/modules/prb99-1-homelessness/housing-e.htm

I think it's pretty well accepted there's a housing shortage. The government is passing new legislation related to things like gentle densification, which is a bit bandaid-on-a-bullethole, but I think it certainly is an indication of the fact they know it's an issue. 

But as I'm sure has come up before - densification is one thing but the required infrastructure is a whole other thing. A thing our governments have proven they literally cannot solve. Look at the new 250million dollar interchange at the north end of the second narrows. What did we get for 250mil? Literally less than nothing. Look at site c. Totally different project and project owners. Collosal screw ups. 

The city cannot and will not ever be able to comfortably support the quantity of people who want to live here. Period. It will be expensive. There will be no parking. The good rides at playland will have 2hr+ line ups.  Welcome to Vancouver. If the downsides outweigh the upsides for you, move away and stop complaining. Heck maybe millions of people will decide that, and the city will implode, but I won't hold my breath.

Posted by: Kenny

north end of Second Narrows. What did we get for 250mil? Literally less than nothing. 

The city cannot and will not ever be able to comfortably support the quantity of people who want to live here. Period. It will be expensive. There will be no parking. 

I got some pretty nice separated bike paths that let me avoid the parking highway quite nicely!  And the traffic killer express bus lane from the Queue!  Thanks!

Notice a trend?  Drive less - you are the traffic.

Posted by: heckler

Notice a trend?  Drive less - you are the traffic.

Useless suggestion.

No one is going to drive less in our climate and geography.

And soon electric cars will be the norm so the "drive less to reduce smog in the Lower Mainland" argument will also be gone.

This issue is one of  infrastructure.  Poor decisions/leadership by Metro Vancouver are mostly to blame.  Like the above mentioned Seylynn upgrade, the change was useless.  Even rational public servants - before the project even started - said it wouldn't help at all.  Such a crappy design.  All they had to do was something as simple as  straighten the road and increase the length of on-ramps.

The cities that make up the Metro area cannot keep increasing population density in order to pull in more tax revenue without improving the supporting infrastructure.  The new population adds a burden, as does the traffic by trades to create/support the new accommodations and supporting businesses.

And  large transport vehicles plug the arteries because, again, there's no proper infrastructure for their movement that will not affect local traffic.

Finally, there are way too many lanes being converted into bike only lanes.  They're barely used by bicycles and have only put a much larger strain on existing  vehicle traffic.  More cars idling bumper to bumper is so much better for the environment, right.  Better to have a vehicle lane cut off for vehicles and instead have then filled with rental bikes that sit there dormant.

Posted by: switch

Finally, there are way too many lanes being converted into bike only lanes.  They're barely used by bicycles and have only put a much larger strain on existing  vehicle traffic.  More cars idling bumper to bumper is so much better for the environment, right.  Better to have a vehicle lane cut off for vehicles and instead have then filled with rental bikes that sit there dormant.

I kind of agreed with you up until that last comment. Is that NVan specific or are you talking Metro as a whole?

Posted by: heckler

Notice a trend?  Drive less - you are the traffic.

This is key to living a good life in a big busy city. Design your life so that you don't have to depend on driving.

As a bonus it will save you a bunch of money which helps with the affordability issue.

Posted by: [email protected]

Posted by: heckler

Notice a trend?  Drive less - you are the traffic.

This is key to living a good life in a big busy city. Design your life so that you don't have to depend on driving.

As a bonus it will save you a bunch of money which helps with the affordability issue.

One of the reasons I left the city was that once I drove home after work I didn't want to go anywhere.  I lived in Burnaby and rarely visited my friends on the other side of the Fraser because driving sucks.  The difficult part of living in the city with limited driving is that your place of work and you friends and family are never located near each other.