Citizen who records what happens at city events via live tweeting. I am not a journalist, just a policy wonk.
Ontario, Canada
Joined November 2016
- Tweets35.8K
- Following176
- Followers941
- Likes33.7K
Brampton's recorder retweeted
There are accounts on here bemoaning the sight of non-white faces in uniform on Remembrance Day. My reaction was the exact opposite. It was the clearest signal I've seen that, despite Ottawa's best efforts, this country is still very good at turning newcomers into Canadians.
What Stellantis, Unifor, and Brampton don't want to talk about, for different reasons, is that Stellantis has declining sales because their vehicles have serious issues, and cannot support the number of assembly plants and employees they have. Incompetence is not force majeure.
The workers and families affected by Stellantis’s decision in Brampton have every right to be angry. Thousands of good manufacturing jobs have been lost, despite significant public investment.
Stellantis should be held to its commitments, including returning taxpayer funding where those commitments were not honoured.
But we also need to confront a harder problem, instead of just throwing stones at Stellantis.
For decades, Ontario has spent billions subsidizing automotive production while our industrial base has continued to shrink. We should have learned by now that we cannot keep paying foreign conglomerates to stay and expect their lasting loyalty.
Fighting for workers cannot mean preserving every employer indefinitely.
Real job security comes from an economy that is highly competitive in production. One where manufacturers want to invest, new businesses can grow, and employers compete to offer better wages.
That means addressing our productivity problems and focusing public investment on building Canadian-owned companies, intellectual property and industrial capacity.
Every factory closure makes headlines.
The factories never built, businesses never started, and thousands of good jobs never created do not.
Of course we should fight for the best outcome for workers in Brampton. But we owe it to millions of other workers, whose taxes subsidize politicians who pick winners, to build an Ontario where good jobs are continuously being created without governments having to pay corporations to keep them here.
theglobeandmail.com/business…
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Brampton's recorder retweeted
"a certain kind of environmentalist will tell you we have ten years to decarbonize and then defend a review process that uses seven of them."
Brampton's recorder retweeted
The gaslighting is just exhausting. Why is moderation such a difficult ask in the immigration debate?
Why must we be sandwiched by the deluded on one side and the racist on the other?
Seriously @acoyne, are you asking people to believe math no longer works?
A 380K PR cap without one-time measures is a very different net population growth rate, because existing TRs would have been included within that envelope.
The PR cap is now effectively 200K larger for net immigration. It’s a big increase regardless of where you put it on the ledger.
Why lie with technicalities?
FWIW, I think there is a reasonable case for a one-time, multi-year TR-to-PR program to correct the system long-term while being empathetic to TRs here.
But proponents should make the case for it, and the Feds should be transparent. The trade-off should be a lower net population growth rate through the duration of the program.
80% of people would find this compromise reasonable. In fact, it’s the one Canadians were expecting.
You cannot do one-time programs multiple times without breaking trust. Nor are we setting good precedent for future TR holders, who do not need to believe that we will enforce our rules.
Alternatively, if proponents and the Feds think we should have a higher population growth rate, make the case for why we’re prepared this time.
(We are not prepared)
Those who envision a much more populous country should advocate changes to our growth systems so it doesn’t lower quality of life by increasing housing scarcity or by reducing capacity in our transportation and social systems.
A country of 100M (or even 60M) is incompatible with our land use, infrastructure, and housing systems today without constraining most people to lower living standards.
That’s the reality. The pressures of the last boom did not result in sufficient reform either.
I cannot believe how irresponsible so many are being by trying to wish these problems away, even though we CAN ACTUALLY FIX THEM to enable faster growth. But it’s not easy!
It’s amazing how much $ is out there to lobby for higher immigration but there’s barely a drop to drink for groups advocating housing abundance, or for groups trying to make it easier for young Canadians to start families and have more kids.
It just shows how little they actually care about making the country better for the people who live here.
My warning to those who believe in immigration as a moral good (and not a means to an end) is that your inability to show moderation or accept reasonable concerns on this issue is likely to result in future failures that risk ending the already weakened immigration consensus in this country.
They are already obvious. Absent meaningful changes, affordability and housing pressures will resurge by 2030.
Canada has avoided the nationalist/anti-immigration politics of elsewhere until now. I fear it’s basically inevitable with this callous approach, and it will be, frankly, the fault of people who should have known better.
“It’s true that these aren’t new arrivals, so they won’t put additional pressure on the housing market and social services, but…”
That’s quite an admission to fold into a throwaway “true, but” line.
theglobeandmail.com/opinion/…
Hard currency bugs are funny, what do you mean you want a dime to be worth five bucks how am I supposed to make change? Silver was removed from currency because industry needed it so much that countries couldn't obtain enough silver to produce enough coinage.
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Brampton's recorder retweeted
Findings from the Dunn House in Toronto showed pairing housing with health care cut emergency visits by 52% and hospital stays by 79%, saving $2.1M in two years.
Budget 2026 puts $11.2B toward scaling that approach with an ambitious goal to end homelessness in 10 years.
Brampton's recorder retweeted
If you ask Americans whether they want to fund public transit, and explain the benefits correctly, they often say yes.
But you do have to ask them!
Brampton's recorder retweeted
MP Dr. Strauss is justified in highlighting the ongoing challenges of our opioid epidemic. I attend to opioid users pretty much daily. Let me outline the challenges: 👇👇👇
1. Some patients flatly refuse suboxone. That's pretty common.
2. Many patients have used opioids very recently and just aren't candidates for suboxone.
3. Like Dr. Azar said, they're homeless and there are no shelters. I'm sending the gambler right back into the casino.
4. There are no detox beds.
5. There are no medical detox beds.
6. Off banker's hours in ER there's just nurses and ER doctors - that's when a lot of patients come. Holding them until the morning in ERs bursting at the seams is not tenable.
7. There is not one magic cure for all patients. There's no silver bullet. Some need OAT (Kadian, Suboxone, Methadone) and yes, some with wrap-around support need safe supply (I don't prescribe that).
If I was to pick one magic silver bullet to all of this - it is unquestionably to me, as an experienced ER doctor - housing. Stable housing. This is 100% apolitical and we should be able to agree on this. @strauss_matt
What if I told you there was a medication that could reduce the risk of dying from an opioid overdose to roughly ZERO.
Most Canadians have never heard of it.
It’s called buprenorphine.
At the Health Committee, I questioned Dr. Pouya Azar, an addiction medicine specialist with frontline experience treating substance use disorders, about this life-saving treatment.
Buprenorphine reduces opioid cravings and withdrawal symptoms, helping those struggling with addiction stabilize their lives and begin recovery.
Dr. Azar testified that this treatment is basically 100% effective at preventing death by opioid overdose.
This raises a serious question about the Liberal government’s approach to Canada’s opioid crisis.
Why has so much attention and funding been directed toward ideologically-driven “safe supply” programs while Canadians continue to face barriers accessing evidence-based addiction treatment?
Canadians deserve answers about why treatments like buprenorphine are not more widely accessible.
If we’re serious about addressing Canada’s opioid crisis, we need to make evidence-based treatment and recovery a priority.
Brampton's recorder retweeted
Let us #PrayTogether for the proper use of wealth, that not succumbing to the temptation of selfishness,
it may always be put at the service the common good and solidarity of those who have less. Be a part of this prayer: popesprayer.va/praywiththepo… #PrayerIntention @clicktopray_en
Brampton's recorder retweeted
Also: lack of "overlook" appears to be the urban design flaw that's being exploited by home invaders.
Brampton's recorder retweeted
Blown away by this “CafeMilan” setup.
Whatever we’re doing with CafeTO we should consider doing it differently.
When you veer from dark woke into just evil
real talk @BradMBradford, you ran a hell of a race. it’s prob hard to not have really dark thoughts but please know you are alone and you should give into them
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Brampton's recorder retweeted
Stelco is efficient and can make steel cheaper than it’s US competitors, so its competitor purchased it and is trying to shut it down.
Brampton's recorder retweeted
BREAKING:Bradford has fled the Tronto mainland following its fall to socialist Olivia Chow. Sources say he will establish a new govt on the Toronto Islands with the goal of eventually reclaiming the entire city. Chow has promised to purge all remaining Fordmintang on the mainland
