Pxtl

Pxtl, 9 months ago

They do have the housing generator fund to bribe cities into approving more housing, which is a nice supply-side carrot. The problem is that municipalities don’t deserve carrots. They deserve sticks. I can’t stand Poilievre, but he’s right there.

Pxtl, 9 months ago

Relevant video on metric paper

www.youtube.com/watch?v=pUF5esTscZI

content warning: existential crisis

Pxtl, 9 months ago

Objection! “Work” being imperial implies science isn’t work. I’d feel better if it said “construction” or “industry”.

Pxtl, 9 months ago

Thanks!

Pxtl, 9 months ago

Thanks. I’ll look at those Audeze things. I use my headset for meetings and I pace when I talk (standing desk) so wireless and a good mic are must-haves.

Pxtl, 9 months ago

Did a black bear post this?

Pxtl, 9 months ago

I mean you’re in SK, that’s kind of an extreme case. Most Canadians live in parts of the country with more moderate weather, where it only goes below -20 on the absolute coldest night of the year, if at all. I mean “backup” could just mean a couple of 1500 watt space heaters in the closet if you find the pump isn’t cutting it - yes you’ll burn through your heating bill but it’s going to be for maybe a couple of nights tops.

Pxtl, 9 months ago

Anybody tried the new window-AC ones? My house has central air but we’ve a converted attic loft room that’s not part of the duct system. I’m tempted to pick up one of those LG window-AC heatpumps that are basically “window AC that can also heat” and see how that goes for year-round climate control. I mean, I’d have to insulate the crap out of its mounting with plywood and foam because normal window-AC mounting is drafty as hell.

Pxtl, 9 months ago

Well, everywhere in Canada outside of maybe Vancouver does dip deep below -20 once in a while. But for the “Quebec City to Windsor corridor” (which is where about half of Canada lives eg GTA) you theoretically should be able to get away with some electric space heaters as a backup heating source. They’d be expensive to run but it would likely only be for a few days per year.

Pxtl, 9 months ago

Yup. Hooray for plentiful hydro! I always think it’s funny how MB gets grouped into the petro-provinces as The West on environmental arguments you’re not part of the carbon-intensive area of Canada. (edit: wrong abbrev.)

Pxtl, 9 months ago

If you’re saying a million per year, that means you’re counting international students. By definition, if they’re coming here and paying our very-expensive tuitions, they’re not going to be low-skilled for long.

The number of people who enter through immigration (incl. refugees) is more like 450k (for comparison, 2015 target under Harper was 270k), and about a third of those are refugees. Yes, there are criminals who exploit the refugee system. That’s what it costs to be a decent person.

Pxtl, 9 months ago

I don’t know how much better it is but I’ve been mostly patronizing my local Food Basics, with the occasional trip to Walmart and Costco for things they don’t carry at FB. I avoid the Loblaws’ chains after it became obvious they were doing the biggest price-hikes to drive inflation while Food Basics was raising wages and giving more of their employees full-time benefits.

I realize that Walmart is ethically a damned sight worse, but one battle at a time. Walmart doesn’t give a shit what their Canadian customer-base does they’re a global company. Loblaws lives and dies by it.

Pxtl, 9 months ago (edited 9 months ago)

Depends on the immigrants. When you’ve got many industries of Canada in critical crisis that’s impacting citizens (eg healthcare and homebuilding), focusing on immigrants with skills that we need more of (eg. nurses and electricians) just makes sense. The problem with that approach is the foot-dragging from certifying bodies in giving these people a pathway to Canadian papers.

I mean, if we don’t have enough food service workers or software developers… well, then more pay for our existing ones (disclaimer: I’m a coder). That mostly impacts the economics of those industries, not public and private services Canadians desperately need.

But if we don’t have enough doctors? Everybody feels that problem very directly.

edit: Personally I’m heavily pro-immigration overall from a human rights & economics perspective (freedom of movement is a good thing! This includes non-refugees!), but when we’re in an ever-deepening crisis about housing that is seriously harming our citizens and refugees it definitely makes sense to start talking about doing it more strategically.

Pxtl, 10 months ago

Nothing about whether Hussen will be replaced with somebody who actually cares?

Pxtl, 10 months ago

Depends where you live with lots of snow. If you’re not emergency personnel and you live in a major metropolitan area with good salting and plowing? You absolutely do not need AWD. If you’re like in the GTA or the Chicago sprawl you’ll be fine - make sure to pick up your groceries the day before the blizzard. Any day where the roads are bad-enough to need an all-terrain vehicle, everything will be closed anyways. The only urban places I’d be tempted by AWD would be the Prairies Provinces, where they sometimes get snow below -10C (usually it’s bone dry here in Ontario when it gets below -10C) and salt can’t melt that so they just dump in some grit and hope. At least it’s pretty flat there.

However, if you live rural? Absolutely. My in-laws live in a hilly rural area and I’ve tried visiting them in an FWD minivan in the winter. Do not recommend.

Pxtl, 10 months ago

Like greater Minneapolis–Saint Paul area or rural? I live in Southern Ontario and while we get bad blizzards, the GTA has such good salting and plowing I never find I’m worried about traction. But I know it does get worse winter in Minnesota, particularly if you’re in a rural area where there’s less road maintenance.

Pxtl, 10 months ago

They’re talking about Mastodon, where there’s no algorithmic feed and likes are only visible when you focus the toot, and so “likes” are kinda useless, only retoots. Lemmy is different, likes matter here.