2021 federal budget and the CAF

[Altair]

Not as depressing as this, of course. From last year, but the situation hasn't improved all that much.

You're welcome

COVID-19: City of Vancouver at risk of bankruptcy, says mayor​

The City of Vancouver is at risk of going bankrupt, says the mayor, citing a recent poll showing more than half of property owners are not expecting to pay full property taxes this year as COVID-19 financial woes take hold.

In a press release issued on Sunday afternoon, Mayor Kennedy Stewart said his earlier claim that the city would lose up to $189 million in revenue and fee shortfalls in 2020 could be $325 million short of the mark. The city has already laid off 1,500 workers.

“If 25 per cent of homeowners do end up defaulting on their property taxes, we could shed up to an additional $325 million in revenues,” Stewart said. “Losing more than half-a-billion dollars in operating funds in 2020 would devastate the city’s financial position, forcing us to liquify assets and exhaust every reserve fund we have — just to avoid insolvency.”

Property taxes make up the bulk of the city’s revenues at $874 million in 2019.

Stewart said that Research Co. polling commissioned by his office found that a quarter of all property owners would not be able to pay more than half their property tax owed in 2020 and that six per cent were not expecting to pay anything at all.

The poll also found that 68 per cent of Vancouver home owners did not pay their full mortgage on April 1, and that 55 per cent were not expecting to make their full mortgage payment on May 1.

According to the Canadian Bankers Association, over 500,000 Canadians have asked for mortgage deferrals in the wake of the COVID-19 crisis. This comes are banks are increasing interest rates.

The Research Co. survey also found Vancouver renters were being hit hard, with 30 per cent not able to make their full April rents and 63 per cent not expecting to make full rent in May.

Over one million Canadians have so far applied for the federal government’s $2,000 a month COVID-19 emergency benefit.

The survey found that 46 percent of those living in the city had either lost their jobs or experienced a reduction in hours. This has led to half of all households reporting an overall decrease in income, with 24 percent experiencing a significant decrease.

“The research is clear — the city’s finances are going to be negatively affected by COVID-19 due to lost revenues and hard-hit homeowners defaulting on their property taxes,” Kennedy said.

“It’s illegal for Vancouver and other local governments to run deficits, so the only way we can stay afloat is with the help of the federal and provincial governments. Otherwise, local governments will be forced to take drastic measures that will hurt residents and businesses, and significantly slow any post-pandemic economic recovery.”

According to the city’s financial records , the city’s overall financial position improved by $300.8 million in 2019 with accumulated surplus totalling $7.9 billion. The city is carrying $1 billion in debt and last year received an extra $40 million in property tax, as payments from developers plunged. City expenses climbed over $300 million a year between 2015 and 2019.

The city has $1.28 billion in reserves, including $146 million set aside for catastrophic events.

Last week, Mayor Stewart called on the provincial government to give the city $200 million.

The online survey was conducted by Research Co. between April 9 and April 10, 2020. The results for employed residents are based on a sample of 421 Vancouver residents, the results for homeowners were based on a sample of 278 Vancouver residents and the results for renters were based on a sample of 301 Vancouver residents.

COVID-19: City of Vancouver at risk of bankruptcy, says mayor | SaltWire

The City of Vancouver is at risk of going bankrupt, says the mayor, citing a recent poll showing more than half of property owners are not expecting to pay ...

www.saltwire.com

I'm just going to walk back my statement that municipalities cannot go into debt. I was wrong. They cannot run deficits. But they can borrow money for capital expenses, which is debt, and it a roundabout way to run a deficit.

Montreal facing a financial time bomb along with Vancouver.

A financial time bomb hangs over Montreal's municipal election

The next mayor will inherit one of the highest debts relative to revenue of any Canadian municipality. And that's just the beginning.

montrealgazette.com

• Montreal forecasts its long-term debt will hit $18.4 billion in 2023, triple what it was in the first year of the municipal mergers in 2002. The increase is mostly due to extra borrowing for public transit infrastructure projects, including the métro Blue Line extension.
• Already, Montreal has one of the highest debts relative to revenue of any Canadian municipality, and one of the highest interest payment burdens relative to revenue. Montreal forecasts that in 2023 property taxpayers will be footing nearly $1 billion a year in interest and fees on the municipal debt. That’s $73 million more than this year, and that means $73 million less for services, such as buying library books, collecting garbage, pruning tree branches and filling potholes.
• Montreal’s net debt — the portion of debt assumed by municipal taxpayers with no assistance from the provincial government — was $8 billion in 2019, according to that year’s financial statements. (This year’s budget says the net debt in 2019 stood at $7.3 billion.) That rivals Toronto’s $8.2 billion net debt, even though Toronto has 1 million more residents and more than double Montreal’s annual operating budget to absorb the interest payments on that debt.

 

[Altair]

I am guessing here that currency traders are betting on a commodities boom in the next year (including evil oil!), which positions the Canadian Dollar, nicely.

If we were smart, we take advantage of this to pay off as much debt as we can that we owe outside the country. Debt borrowed from inside Canada does not pose as much of an issue.

Yeah, if the US infrastructure bill comes to pass, Canada will definitely reap the rewards.

Let's just hope that a higher dollar doesn't act as drag on our exports.

 

[Good2Golf]

I'm just going to walk back my statement that municipalities cannot go into debt. I was wrong. They cannot run deficits. But they can borrow money for capital expenses, which is debt, and it a roundabout way to run a deficit.

Montreal facing a financial time bomb along with Vancouver.

A financial time bomb hangs over Montreal's municipal election

The next mayor will inherit one of the highest debts relative to revenue of any Canadian municipality. And that's just the beginning.

montrealgazette.com

Montréal...debt and infrastructure problems? Who knew?

...oh wait, the list of us with damage/scars from the joy of Montréal’s 11-1/2 months of roadwork, etc...we knew...

 

[Bruce Monkhouse]

I'm thinking if our dollar goes higher then about 90 cents our manufacturing [in Ontario at least] will become a ghost town...….

 

[Altair]

Montréal...debt and infrastructure problems? Who knew?

...oh wait, the list of us with damage/scars from the joy of Montréal’s 11-1/2 months of roadwork, etc...we knew...

I knew about the infrastructure problems, but didn't know about the debt.

Frankly, I don't hear about municipal debt a lot, and to be fair, since municipalities cannot run deficits, one would think that you wouldn't hear about them ever.

But if you offsource stuff like road construction/repair to be financed through debt, that's pretty much a deficit in my eyes.

 

[FSTO]

I took the Municipal CAO course when I thought I was going to release from the Navy. Municipalities will save money through a reserve fund for specific projects and then apply for grants from the Province and Feds to round out the funds. Now for small and rural municipalities this works quite well. But for the big cities they need to get more robust taxation powers to finance the massive amount of infrastructure they need to build and maintain.

 

[Brad Sallows]

Big cities need more taxation powers less than they need more thoughtful deliberation about the utility of what they spend.

The townships in the Fraser Valley are not big cities, but do have to provide infrastructure and services over large geographical areas with relatively low population densities (tax base). Big cities have denser populations and most of the high-value commercial tenants.

The customary low bang-for-buck choice is rail transit. Expensive, exclusive, and can't be relocated. Buses are flexible, and roads are "democratic" - everyone can use them.

 

[Loachman]

If we were smart

And the odds of that are...?

 

[Altair]

Big cities need more taxation powers less than they need more thoughtful deliberation about the utility of what they spend.

The townships in the Fraser Valley are not big cities, but do have to provide infrastructure and services over large geographical areas with relatively low population densities (tax base). Big cities have denser populations and most of the high-value commercial tenants.

The customary low bang-for-buck choice is rail transit. Expensive, exclusive, and can't be relocated. Buses are flexible, and roads are "democratic" - everyone can use them.

Cities need debt ceilings. Problem solved.

While some cities are bigger than entire provinces in terms of population(looking at you PEI), they wont be viewed as such by the debt agencies. Provinces have a large array of taxation tools at their disposal to deal with debt, municipalities are handcuffed. As such, they cannot be allowed to run up massive debts.

22 cents of every dollar Montreal brings in going to debt financing is ridiculous. Federally its 6 cents for every dollar, and people are howling about that.

 

[SeaKingTacco]

I'm thinking if our dollar goes higher then about 90 cents our manufacturing [in Ontario at least] will become a ghost town...….

It makes me wonder if there is a conscious effort in Washington to tank the value of the USD and make US exports more attractive?

 

[MilEME09]

It makes me wonder if there is a conscious effort in Washington to tank the value of the USD and make US exports more attractive?

Worked for China so why not?

 

[Colin Parkinson]

Big cities need more taxation powers less than they need more thoughtful deliberation about the utility of what they spend.

The townships in the Fraser Valley are not big cities, but do have to provide infrastructure and services over large geographical areas with relatively low population densities (tax base). Big cities have denser populations and most of the high-value commercial tenants.

The customary low bang-for-buck choice is rail transit. Expensive, exclusive, and can't be relocated. Buses are flexible, and roads are "democratic" - everyone can use them.

Problem is that civic elections happen regularly with politicians promising things to a very small voting group that will vote, out of the majority residents that don't. Telling people "No we can't afford your desire" is a good way of not getting elected. So the system punishes responsible honest politicians.

 

[Brad Sallows]

Or, voters punish themselves. The only reason I'm not completely indifferent to what Vancouver voters inflict on themselves is that some of what they want spills over into the other municipalities of the regional district.

 

[daftandbarmy]

Or, voters punish themselves. The only reason I'm not completely indifferent to what Vancouver voters inflict on themselves is that some of what they want spills over into the other municipalities of the regional district.

Here's their motto!

 

[MilEME09]

Oh look what a military using its budget well can do, have double our tanks.

 

[dimsum]

Oh look what a military using its budget well can do, have double our tanks.
View attachment 65034

An Aussie friend of mine used to call the M1A1 "Koalas". As in "not to be taken outside Australia".

They didn't bring tanks to Afghanistan or Iraq.

 

[MilEME09]

An Aussie friend of mine used to call the M1A1 "Koalas". As in "not to be taken outside Australia".

They didn't bring tanks to Afghanistan or Iraq.

To be fair not many did, wasn't it only us and the Americans in Afghanistan? And the yanks and brits in Iraq who had tanks?

 

[blacktriangle]

To be fair not many did, wasn't it only us and the Americans in Afghanistan? And the yanks and brits in Iraq who had tanks?

The Danes deployed tanks in AFG.

 

[CBH99]

I was going to say, I believe it was us in Kandahar province (obviously) -- and the Danes and USMC in Helmand.

The French did deploy that nasty little mini-tank of theirs to great effect (I'm about to crash, I'll edit my post tomorrow with the actual name of them) -- but it was only Canada, the USMC, and the Danes that deployed heavy MBT's to Afghanistan. (Not only are they a huge hassle to transport in general, especially to a landlocked country...but the terrain of Afghanistan in many parts wasn't exactly permitting of such beasts.)

 

[suffolkowner]

Oh look what a military using its budget well can do, have double our tanks.
View attachment 65034

Are these replacing their previous M1A1's or in addition too? I think they already had 59 M1A1 MBT and 13 M88A2 ARVI . So...

134 M1A1/2 MBT
29 M1150 Assault Breacher
18 M1074 Joint Assault Bridges
19 M88A2 Hercules Combat Recovery

versus our

82 Leo2A4/A4M/A6M MBT
12 Armoured Recovery Vehicle
18 Armoured Engineer Vehicle

Do we have any MBT bridging units?
Is there any type of real plan to upgrade or replace our Leo2's?

The use and value of tanks might be under debate, but I believe they will remain an essential part of the force structure. How useful an M1 would be island hoping in the Malayan/Indonesia archipelago is probably the extreme version of that, so I can understand why the USMC has abandoned the heavy MBT.

Does anyone know what role Australia envisions their tanks occupying?

the development of the Japan's type 10 to replace the type 90 was heavily influenced by mobility isssues on the Japanese islands

Strategic transportation[edit]​

The predecessor of Type 10, the Type 90 main battle tank, was deployed only in Hokkaido due to the weight limit of roads and bridges in other parts of Japan. One of the primary purposes of Type 10 is to be able to deploy anywhere in Japan. Size and weight reductions have made Type 10 now six metric tonnes lighter than Type 90, weighing only 44 tonnes. 84% of Japan's 17,920 bridges are passable for the Type 10, compared to only 65% of passability of Type 90 and 40% of mainstream western main battle tanks.[12]