2023 UCP Alberta election

[Brad Sallows]

Current provincial population estimates

See population estimates and statistics, components of change, demographic spotlight reports and a list of demographic terms.

www.alberta.ca

Alberta is the place to be.

I doubt the mechanism for allocating the social and health transfers allows for that (I don't know for sure), and AB doesn't get any equalization money to start with.

 

[QV]

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/alberta-population-increase-statscan-1.6694065

A few months old.

 

[Halifax Tar]

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/alberta-population-increase-statscan-1.6694065

A few months old.

Its interesting in your posted article there is a graph for estimated population change, Alberta is #1 and and 2, 3 and 4 are PEI, NS and NB.

 

[SeaKingTacco]

Its interesting in your posted article there is a graph for estimated population change, Alberta is #1 and and 2, 3 and 4 are PEI, NS and NB.

The Maritimes are undergoing a real renaissance. Lots of people cashing out of expensive markets and buying relatively inexpensive housing out east.

 

[Halifax Tar]

The Maritimes are undergoing a real renaissance. Lots of people cashing out of expensive markets and buying relatively inexpensive housing out east.

There is no doubt about that. The vacancy rate and housing markets are your proof.

 

[GR66]

The Maritimes are undergoing a real renaissance. Lots of people cashing out of expensive markets and buying relatively inexpensive housing out east.

Unfortunately many of them are older people nearing the end of their prime producing/consuming years that will soon become a drain on the Health Care and Social Services budgets of the Maritime Provinces. That's not the type of growth they need. They need lots of young people moving there (and less young people leaving there).

 

[Brad Sallows]

Older people needing health care and other assistance services are a potential source of employment, provided governments don't insist that only they may provide the care and services and wind up rationing services because governments will insist on effectively subsidizing and won't fund to meet demand.

No point to young people remaining if there's no employment for them.

 

[Good2Golf]

Unfortunately many of them are older people nearing the end of their prime producing/consuming years that will soon become a drain on the Health Care and Social Services budgets of the Maritime Provinces. That's not the type of growth they need. They need lots of young people moving there (and less young people leaving there).

Many of us thought they didn’t want the scourge of Toronto infesting them?

 

[CBH99]

Hey look! We found one of those people I alluded to before: the ones who blame Trudeau and the LPC for everything they don't like , even if it's not something that they were actually responsible for.

I just re-read that on Page 10, and the context I meant got all sorted out in the end...

But just for the sake of killing time while waiting for a haircut - you bet you did!!

You bet you found a guy that blames Trudeau for every. single. thing. F**king Trudeau...



If I get in a fender bender on my way home from this haircut? Trudeau's fault. Drop my cell phone and the screen cracks? Damn right it's Trudeau'a fault. Forget to brush my teeth tonight? Absolutely, without a doubt, 100% Trudeau's fault!

The fact that the sky is currently one giant ass cloud that spans from horizon to horizon? Its because Trudeau promised us sunny days, and I haven't seen the son in like 5 f**king months!


<mumbling something about you calling me out as I walk away...>

 

[CBH99]

I doubt the mechanism for allocating the social and health transfers allows for that (I don't know for sure), and AB doesn't get any equalization money to start with.

I don't know the first thing about how equalization payments are determined, outside of the main gyst of it

But if people are relocating from one area of the country for another, shouldn't the province that the people are moving to receive some of that equalization money?



I mean, it is taxpayer money...and it could be used to hire more doctors, more Healthcare workers, more police officers, build infrastructure, etc to support the increase in population.

 

[Lumber]

I just re-read that on Page 10, and the context I meant got all sorted out in the end...

But just for the sake of killing time while waiting for a haircut - you bet you did!!

You bet you found a guy that blames Trudeau for every. single. thing. F**king Trudeau...



If I get in a fender bender on my way home from this haircut? Trudeau's fault. Drop my cell phone and the screen cracks? Damn right it's Trudeau'a fault. Forget to brush my teeth tonight? Absolutely, without a doubt, 100% Trudeau's fault!

The fact that the sky is currently one giant ass cloud that spans from horizon to horizon? Its because Trudeau promised us sunny days, and I haven't seen the son in like 5 f**king months!


<mumbling something about you calling me out as I walk away...>

I'm glad it all got sorted out for you, because as I re-read it, I don't even understand how I made that statement (as sarcastic as it was) given the context of the thread of posts it was replying to...

 

[brihard]

I don't know the first thing about how equalization payments are determined, outside of the main gyst of it

But if people are relocating from one area of the country for another, shouldn't the province that the people are moving to receive some of that equalization money?



I mean, it is taxpayer money...and it could be used to hire more doctors, more Healthcare workers, more police officers, build infrastructure, etc to support the increase in population.

Well, the province they move to will receive provincial income tax and provincial sales tax from them. But no, there’s no mechanism to move money from province A to province B specifically to cover people moving. The losing province loses certain revenues as well as certain expenses. The gaining province gains both. It’s fair to say that someone moving to a different province in retirement will be shifting a disproportionate expense to the gaining province’s healthcare system.

Equalization payments basically compare each province’s respective capacity to bring in tax revenue. Not what they actually do bring in, but what they could on a common formula. If a province taxes more or less than that, that’s up to them. Most obvious example of course is Alberta choosing not to have a provincial sales tax. Equalization payments (or lack thereof) are still calculated based on what the province reasonably could bring in if they did.

 

[CBH99]

I'm glad it all got sorted out for you, because as I re-read it, I don't even understand how I made that statement (as sarcastic as it was) given the context of the thread of posts it was replying to...

Oh I know, I just got a chuckle when I re-read it & literally had nothing else on my brain while waiting for a haircut...

Something about idle hands & whatnot

 

[CBH99]

As someone who lives here & was raised here, let me just remind anybody who might be thinking of making the move…

Our housing market is still expensive as heck. Sure, it’s cheaper than Vancouver or Toronto, but it’s still not cheap… a single family home w/ a garage in a nice suburban neighbourhood with other families will still cost you about $320k+ for a starter home

$400k to $500k for a family home that isn’t a starter is fairly normal.


I don’t know why or how we, as a country, have decided that everyone who wants to own a traditional home in the suburbs has to take on a half-million in debt.

While some have been able to do so, most people around my age have NOT been able to enter the housing market even if they have a decent paying job and have good credit. (I don’t like to admit this to myself, but somehow I’m damn near 40…don’t feel it or look it)

Having lots of people moving here all relatively at once isn’t going to make anything cheaper.



I know a lot of people who I’d consider to be working poor. Yes they have a place to live, groceries in the fridge & pantry, and clean clothes in the closet… but once the monthly bills are paid, are broke.

Any unexpected costs end up being a big deal.

I don’t know if that’s the case across the country? But…

 

[Halifax Tar]

As someone who lives here & was raised here, let me just remind anybody who might be thinking of making the move…

Our housing market is still expensive as heck. Sure, it’s cheaper than Vancouver or Toronto, but it’s still not cheap… a single family home w/ a garage in a nice suburban neighbourhood with other families will still cost you about $320k+ for a starter home

$400k to $500k for a family home that isn’t a starter is fairly normal.


I don’t know why or how we, as a country, have decided that everyone who wants to own a traditional home in the suburbs has to take on a half-million in debt.

While some have been able to do so, most people around my age have NOT been able to enter the housing market even if they have a decent paying job and have good credit. (I don’t like to admit this to myself, but somehow I’m damn near 40…don’t feel it or look it)

Having lots of people moving here all relatively at once isn’t going to make anything cheaper.



I know a lot of people who I’d consider to be working poor. Yes they have a place to live, groceries in the fridge & pantry, and clean clothes in the closet… but once the monthly bills are paid, are broke.

Any unexpected costs end up being a big deal.

I don’t know if that’s the case across the country? But…

The part that gets me is houses like mine. I'm in a mass produced post war storey and a half. Spitting image of alot of our PMQs. In the Fairview neighborhood of Halifax.

My house is somewhere around 70 years old. It's had at least 2 owners before us. This house was probably around 10K when new. My house was valued over 400K this year. We paid 230K for it's in 2010.

It's absolutely stupid. And it's value is completely out of whack and artificial. My house should be cheap as dirt.

 

[Remius]

Supply and demand. Demand is there but supply is the issue.

 

[Brad Sallows]

Your house probably is cheap as dirt. In BC, property assessments provide separate values for house and land. Last year: building $174K, land $928K. My previous house, originally built in 1917, was (vague recollection) worth about $20K on land worth about $300K 30 years ago. Nevertheless, it's probable that the price of any new home constructed is unnecessarily high in part because of all the aesthetic features people demand. It is simply the case that building a rectangular box with a single roof line down the long axis and a carport/garage under a deck on one end is cheaper than one with bay windows and false gables and all the rest of that.

 

[lenaitch]

The part that gets me is houses like mine. I'm in a mass produced post war storey and a half. Spitting image of alot of our PMQs. In the Fairview neighborhood of Halifax.

My house is somewhere around 70 years old. It's had at least 2 owners before us. This house was probably around 10K when new. My house was valued over 400K this year. We paid 230K for it's in 2010.

It's absolutely stupid. And it's value is completely out of whack and artificial. My house should be cheap as dirt.

The actual value of the structure and land is really irrelevant, particularly on re-sale. It's value is what somebody is willing to pay for it, and the more 'somebodies' on the hunt to buy, the more the value increases.

For new builds, yes, the cost of the land has probably gone up because serviced land is at a premium in most urban areas, but the cost to build the structure is also largely driven by the market and what it wants. I grew up in a house very much like you describe. No developer is building them like that now. The market wants stone counter tops.

 

[RangerRay]

Jesus…

Jen Gerson: It may not be SNC-Lavalin, but it should be humiliating

Where is Premier Smith’s judgement? The discretion? Her basic understanding of government? I am so gobsmacked that I don't even know how to describe the scene.

theline.substack.com

What's more damaging about the call from this perspective is that Smith, by her own admission, was running around during the leadership campaign making promises about granting amnesty for COVID charges despite having no legal power to do so … which she claims she did not realize.

“I thought we probably had the same power of clemency that they did in the U.S.," she explains to Pawlowski on the tape. "I’m not a lawyer by training."

Danielle Smith, by the way, is not some journalist noob to politics: she ran the Wildrose Party for years, and has sat as an MLA in the Alberta legislature as a former leader of the opposition. If she genuinely did not know that she couldn't go around lifting spirits in rural Alberta like the magic pardon fairy, well, that's just really humiliating for her. I hope she’s got someone fine-tooth combing through that stump looking for other humdingers.

To make matters worse, the tape shoes this be-sweatpanted loser threatening the premier, and Smith — again, a premier — responding meekly in turn. ‘Yeah, just leave that with me, Art! I’ll get right on that once my aide is back from vacation.’

Where is Smith’s judgement? The discretion? I am so gobsmacked that I don't even know how to describe the scene. It's pathetic.

For a supposed political pro, she sure behaves like a naïf.

 

[QV]

Jesus…

Jen Gerson: It may not be SNC-Lavalin, but it should be humiliating

Where is Premier Smith’s judgement? The discretion? Her basic understanding of government? I am so gobsmacked that I don't even know how to describe the scene.

theline.substack.com

For a supposed political pro, she sure behaves like a naïf.

I'll take her 1000 times over all the other premiers and those waiting in opposition.