Governor of the Bank of Canada Tiff Macklem participates in a news conference on the bank's interest rate announcement, in Ottawa, on Sept. 4.Justin Tang/The Canadian Press
Credit where …
Re “Inflation rate returns to Bank of Canada’s 2% target in August” (Report on Business, Sept. 18): Funny how Justin Trudeau is blamed for high inflation, but not given credit for low inflation.
Timothy Kwiatkowski London, Ont.
Pricing plan
Re “Price to pay” (Letters, Sept. 18): If “axe the tax” is the principal policy platform on which Pierre Poilievre is running, then the Liberals ought to pre-empt him by removing it as an “inflation relief measure” from at least gas-pump prices, and leave him to flounder.
Of course, the carbon reduction incentive is the most logical way to incentivize decarbonization but, of course, its necessary visibility also makes it ripe for populist plucking.
Pierre Mihok Ajax, Ont.
A letter-writer says: “We pay for carbon pricing. We get the equivalent rebate. No change in behaviour.” No.
The tax raises a price, and people generally buy less of a product when its price rises. The rebate depends on the amount of tax paid in total by everyone. We are each one of millions. How much we get as a rebate only depends infinitesimally on how much tax we individually pay.
So we would be wise to change our behaviour. If we do so, we can save money.
Jim Davies, professor emeritus, department of economics, Western University London, Ont.
Teardown
Re “The housing sector needs a renovation” (Editorial, Sept. 16): During the 1970s, public agencies contributed in a large way to the provision of family and seniors housing in Nova Scotia. Far more housing was created on a per-capita basis than in any decade since.
This happened through federal, provincial and municipal co-operation in land banking and planning, the design and installation of streets and services and providing building sites at cost to independent builders. This all stopped abruptly in the early 1980s, only to leave the provision of housing sites to an unco-ordinated private sector which has, to a large extent, evolved into “housing as an investment.”
Don Williams, former chief architect, Nova Scotia Housing Commission Halifax
The enemy is us, the consumer.
My wife and I built a certified passive house. No one had ever built one in our municipality before. The planning department not only dealt with the paper work expeditiously, but asked if their planners and inspectors could tour the building during construction.
What made the price of this high-tech, net-zero house competitive is the design: a one-story, two-bedroom, three-bathroom home at 1,600 square feet. It is not a multistory, 3,000-sq.-ft, four-bedroom, four-bathroom home that takes years to build.
The 750,000 houses built in the 1970s were about half the size of those built in 2023, suggesting that productivity may in fact have doubled. The problem is consumer demand for excessive product, of a piece with SUVs for commuting and fast fashion for clothing.
The problem with price is the financialization of housing and the switch from buying a home to investing for profit.
Alan Ball New Westminster, B.C.
No one builds a 1,500-square-foot house like mine anymore. Should a 3,000-sq.-ft house count as two homes, and a 4,500-sq.-ft house count as three?
It seems that smaller families and childless couples need ever larger places to live. In my town, any small house sold is torn down for a gigantic replacement.
Suburban subdivisions often feature large buildings with double garages and tiny gardens. It takes more labour and materials to build these palaces and, of course, more time.
Are they “affordable?” No wonder we are falling behind.
Jim Reynolds Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ont.
Not going to take it
Re “Why we don’t trust each other any more” (Sept. 13): When I read about a lack of respect, I am brought back to my youth.
I could work 40 hours a week at an entry-level job, which enabled me to afford rent in Vancouver (in the West End!) and have money left over. I was also kind to strangers, not because I respected anyone especially, but it was just the code.
Today, I am unable to afford a place to live unless I work 50 or more hours at the same sort of job. I have voted for parties that prop up regimes I have no interest in supporting (hello, BC Greens and the federal NDP).
I now realize that these problems are caused by people in my community. I don’t feel like being nice to them any more. They are destroying my way of life.
The only difference now is that the delusion I lived under has been wiped away.
Lee Handel Nanaimo, B.C.
Sneak peek
Re “Russians at War screening at TIFF theatre draws protesters” (Sept. 18): According to credible reports from those who’ve actually viewed it, Russians at War propagates familiar falsehoods, Kremlin-calculated to undermine support for Ukraine. The film is also intended to arouse sympathy for the soldiers profiled, pawns of indifferent elites and the filmmaker alike.
The producers denounce the position of TVO, the Deputy Prime Minister and others when they should be denouncing the invasion of Ukraine. As a contribution to the wartime informational environment, Russians at War looks like a problematic, ill-conceived enterprise.
There will be better a time to view, debate and judge this film – after the war is lost and won.
Patrick Crowe Toronto
“Russians at War is an exceptional documentary and needs to be seen” (Sept. 14): I believe columnist Marsha Lederman when she, having seen the film, concludes that “this documentary in no way glorifies Russians or its army or its war effort. This film in no way demonizes Ukraine or its people.”
Why the tiff over this film? One wonders if those who would ban films, books and art have actually exposed themselves to the works to which they’re objecting.
Unless one is Disney or Bambi, one can’t please everybody. Those who choose to should be able to see this film.
Anne Hansen Victoria
Two words leap to my mind after reading Marsha Lederman’s opinion: Thank you.
This is an unjust war. It should not end at the expense of the Ukrainian people’s sovereignty or security.
But we cannot (again) fall for the delusion that our enemies are monsters. This is what keeps us fighting and dying, be it in body or in soul.
No attempt to tell this complex, urgent truth should be forbidden from our consideration.
Simon Owen Victoria
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