ExFlyer

You pay what it costs. Ya think Newfoundlanders are going to give you a discount? LOL

Where do you dig up all that BS??? 10 million square kilometres and only 40 million people "old forest"? Cut it down??? Cod fisheries is just fine after it was reopened. What is wrong with salmon? Most salmon we eat is farmed. Exterminated beavers??? Expected nonsense from the drama queen LOL

Kudos to you, you have taught me never to argue with an !diot, they'll only bring you down to their level & beat you with experience so, I will no longer argue with you.

I hear you and your concerns. I am just a bit more optimistic than you. Canada allows, encourages and welcomes skilled people to come into the country. Problem is Canada (or provinces) itself. In the case of doctors, nurses, even engineers, this country cannot seem to find a way to get them licensed to work here. Unskilled entrants will take the unskilled jobs we Canadians no longer want to do.

I agree and that is basically what I have been saying. I did not and would not laugh. People are upset their expectations are not being met or they cannot afford the lifestyle they would like. I too did without things I wanted in order to pay off my mortgage. I also owned a house in the dreaded 18% days in the 80's but, I survived. We did without but, we had our house. My point to some is that no one is owed anything. The government does not owe people a house. People have to live within their means and if their means does not include buying a house then, like you, save and do with out.. People have to choose lifestyle or like you and me, own a house.

Well, you just keep on keeping on....and on....and on...and on.....

Not mad at all, just sorryabout your condition. I can see that you have resorted to your old self, accusations and name calling. So sad you keep falling back there. Just trying to help with some information for your situation. Get well soon. Waiting....... LOL

There is help for you folks. The most common form of talking therapy for paranoia is cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT). During CBT, you will examine the way you think and the evidence for your beliefs and look for different possible interpretations. CBT can also help reduce worry and anxiety that may influence and increase feelings of paranoia.

What truth?? Your truth?? Good one LOL Argue all you want, I have my opinion and will stick with it. Guarantee next year will be more expensive than this year.

Whine some more....it will cost you more next year LOL

Wah Wah Wah I told you already it will cost more... every year. Give me a year where prices and cost of living has gone down.... Oh, you cannot...what a surprise. Live with it. The government owes you nothing.

Talk to me in 2 years. The price of everything will have gone up. Materials, labour, fees, all going up. Resale houses will cost more because sellers will see new is up so they will ask more as well. Market dictates. Vehicles??? Of course the demand will be up, as it is every year. Will supply keep up? Time will tell. The immigrants will be just fine, the rest of Canadians will be just fine too and you 2 will still be whining about the same thing

As far as some here are concerned, yes. LOL

Not going to get into this with you. You have your opinion and I have mine, I stand by mine and don't agree with yours.. Sorry you cannot see or understand that all expenses by the builder are passed on to the buyer and prices go up and sorry you don't see resale home prices have gone up too. Inflation and the market is what sets the price. As you even said "Let the developers build where and when they want and let the market handle itself. " and the builder and market are doing exactly that. Go ahead, start insulting again. LOL

Supply and demand sets the prices. Even when the prices were absurdly high, people still had enough to have bidding wars. People that want, will get. Thing is, people want to live beyond their means and now, if interest rates climb due to economic reasons, they expect to be bailed out. Well, no! Their lack of forethought does not make me responsible for them not thinking. I can see the same crap that happened ion the US happening here. People just walking away from their houses. I saw that happen when I lived in Alberta in the early 80's. Universal health care is not preventing anyone form buying a home. And certainly, the government does not prevent anyone form buying anything. In the early 80's still did not prevent buying. The entire problem is peoples expectations. Can't have i tall so whine about government making it tough to own a home. BS, lower expectations and live within your means. We do not owe anyone anything let alone housing. As for supply and demand, the fact is the cost of building is the supply. It costs a lot to just buy the materials for a home and then huge labours costs and then labour shortages because no one want to work outside anymore, then the regulations and requirements of development then of course, profit for the builders and contractors and sub contractors. None of which are government issues but supply issues. No one is going to build if there are no buyers but wait.....every house built sells so....demand is there, regardless of interest rates and price. Bottom line, they build them as fast as they can with the limitations of material and labour supply. They also sell them as fast as they can build them. Not only that, the resale market is equally as hot and they sell and in my city, they even have bidding wars again. Regardless of all the woe that you claim. So, someone sure has the money.

Only for those with money can do the buying.. It is not "our" responsibility to "proved basic necessities". Thinking that "we" need to provide is exactly the problem. If everyone was to realize that they are the ones responsible for their own necessities and have to do what is necessary to attain them, we would be better off. Perhaps there would not be a flood of immigrants, refugees and applicants if they understood they get nothing except the opportunity to live here. Becoming or being a welfare state is not good for anyone in this country..

Like that hasn't happened with vehicles in the past, or even houses in the past few years? Has nothing to do with immigrants, it has everything to do with supply and demand.

USSR - Soviet Union - Russia, same, same different name. In fact, Putiin is more troublesome than Khrushchev ever was.

And your suggestion to do better than we are doing now to suppress forest fires?? The US has fires as well https://www.fireweatheravalanche.org/fire/

I have no idea what you are trying to say? I hope you realize that the DND is a ministry of the government and military is a department within. The military changes priorities all the time ,depending on what taskings are given. Once RFP's are released an bids presented, they are valid for a particular time, more often than not, 90 days. Evaluations of those bids must be done and accepted in that time frame because after that, the financial and delivery commitments are cancelled. Any dithering only jeopardizes the offer. As for political interference, as I said before, the technical aspects remain valid or, if needed, changed for new requirements but then the price increases. The political aspects are those that various departments have mandated and they do not affect the technical requirements. I can assure you there are no politicians, political staff or other departments in the technical evaluation rooms.The IRB's (Industrial Regional Benifit) offered are evaluated by the departments affected and the Military does not see them

I cannot begin to tell you why it has taken so long to buy a pistol but what I can say, once the RFP has been released and companies have put in their bids, the entire thing rests with the department affected (Army) and their staff. For sure there are very specific military trades. There has to be and there is no argument about that. The F-35 procurement has been through many governments. We have been paying millions of dollars into the development costs for decades. Harper got kicked for it and stopped paying then Trudeau started again then got public flack and slowed down but did not stop development payments. The F-35 development itself was way behind and every customer just had to sit and wait. The LAV 6 program was in the hands of the Army team. What and how and when and where was under their total control. Cannot speak to what their issues were or are, only the Army can answer that. cancelled, funding shuffle, is the Army decision. Just to pass along, if money has been allocated for major crown project, it cannot be used for something else. It must be cancelled and only the department can do that. As far as what you think they wanted and what they got, very often something called scope creep affects the end result. Meaning the military plays with the specs and the end result may not satisfy all parties and all initial requiremnts. Sort of like a camel being horse designed by committee. People get transferred in and out of project and like a dog, they all P on the hydrant (specs) to mark their territory. What they wanted in the beginning may not be what they want now. Seen that happen too often while in the Military and while in PWGCS

As I said this can go on and on. Can you really think that a fire fighter or RCMP officer is equivalent of a clerk, dental assistant, supply tech, postal clerk, traffic tech or a myriad of other military jobs?? The media makes many claims,much without research, validity or fact. I have given you the authoritative inks. Yes, you can make more than $70K per year but,it is if you apply for the next level, pass the requirements and get accepted after interviews. Promotion and advancement in the public service is not merit based as it is with the military, it is on qualification and competition. I am sorry, I did not read or comprehend that you worked in the public sector, not public service but public sector?? As for a PG4, they are not head buyers. The PG classification goes up to PG 6 and if that person wrote competitions, had the qualifications, won the competition and passed the interviews, then yes, they make $75K. As I have said, there is no merit promotions in the public service, all is based on competition. As for old equipment, I hope you do not think that you are on a new aircraft next time you go on vacation or the city bus is new. Maintenance on equipment is what it is. Getting parts and persons to do the work is an issue but not the issue. The information I have given you is correct. I am not going to argue with what you think the army needs but clearly it is not getting what you think it needs or deserves and most importantly, civilian people are not buying into it either, hence no recruits. If there are many solutions, I am sure someone within has looked at them from an organizational and economic point. Or are the solutions just talk from the table at the mess? I also have many friends still in as well as those from my public service tenure. The point is, without knowing what is doable and what is viable and the reasons for each, it is all talk. As I said, I have extensive experience in both worlds (not Army specific) and can speak with some expertise. The military "crisis" is lack of interest in the military therefore no one wants in. I am not sure pay (and a military person gets all benefits, health, dental, pension etc) and whatever equipment you think they should have are enough to attract recruits. I really do not know what it is you are trying to convey anymore.

Nothing naive at all. I am very aware of the procurement procedures and process having worked them for a number of years. I can link the documents and processes and procedures if you wish to intelligently debate instead of making emotional unsubstantiated claims. What I am saying is the RFP, Request for Proposal and specifications are written by the Military. The evaluation of the bid are all done by military personnel. The acceptance and testing of the winning product are all done and supervised by military personnel. I did say that there will be additional contract demands by various departments (you wanna say politician? OK, I won't argue that) but, they are in addition to the contract and not in anyway superseding or altering the technical requirements or testing and evaluation plans. As for the shut down of the vehicle test facility in Ottawa, I cannot remember the designation (EDIT: LETE , Land Engineering and Testing Establishment) but I do not live far from there, it was a Military decision to shut it down and move testing to the field. The facility now belongs to the RCMP, primarily as a storage facility. The Army, Navy, Air Force, not government chooses the testing facilities. To be a bit more clear, Canada has decided that cost of upgrading test facilities for new equipment far outweigh the benefits. It is far to expensive to modernize the aircraft test facilitates for the F-35 than doing the testing on American test facilities. Same goes for newly developed Army resources. Now, the new ships are a different issue altogether. Our home grown warships have already quadrupled the cost of manufacture (and exponentially rising again) and there is no one on earth, even Canada, that has test facilities so, we will cough up for that. I do not speak about this unknowingly. I do have lots of experience within this world of Military procurement.

Look, we can go on and on. Firstly, we can easily compare military and public service wages. First of all, the public service has its "jobs" classified into several hundred wage classifications. The Military does not. https://www.tbs-sct.canada.ca/pubs_pol/hrpubs/coll_agre/rates-taux-eng.asp https://www.tbs-sct.canada.ca/pubs_pol/hrpubs/coll_agre/rates-taux-eng.asp I have been in both situations and can tell you, that the public service has very few jobs where you make $70K after 3 to 4 years. The public service pay is very restrictive unless you apply for and win a competition for the next level. Canex stopped being a pure Military discount store back in the 70's. Communities and businesses around the bases complained about unfair competition and Canex had to be comparable. Military did have schools and rec centers and arenas and even golf courses but the same situations arose with the communities and they all opened up to the surrounding communities back in the early 80's. PMQ's were reasonably priced rentals but there were never enough hence, members that could not or did not want to live on base were given PLD to subsidize the cost on the market rental. The PLD differed depending where you were posted. Of course, if you decided to buy a house, you did not get PLD. We have not had an overseas base since early 90's when Lahr closed and yes, those posted there got extra pay for being there but, today, if posted overseas (with family) the members also get extra pay and free schooling for the kids and all health benefits as well as subsidized housing. I had 6 families in Italy and 3 in England during the Coromorant program and they lived very well and their kids going to international schools was a real benefit. Things are not as desperate as you make them out to be. Recruiting is a problem but, really, it has been a problem for about 15 or so years. Nothing new there and well, wages are not the answer. The stigma is the military itself. It has not exactly gotten great press in the past decade. Setting up a procurement department is not as simple as just saying other countries do it. Other countries started with it and never left their system. It is not a quick or even economical or beneficial to become your own procurement department. Can you imagine the public outcry with that? Oversight will have to be done and will be intense and if you think procurement will be quicker, well, sorry to tell you, you are very wrong. You just do not grow procurement officers and engineers and contract specialists.... and of course, what processes and procedures do you follow? The 30,000 page supply manual? As I said, DND tried but the cost was too ominous and they shut it down. If you are aware of the testing evaluations and such of equipment, you should be aware that what you receive is what met your technical and contractual requirements and won the competition. You as an evaluator are only one point on an evaluation team and the item that gets delivered is the one that won the completion. So, you may not have liked it but enough of the other team members did. FYI, "Canada is buying 88 F-35 stealth fighter jets in a $14.2 billion deal announced Monday by the Ottawa government. The first of the US-made planes are expected to enter the Royal Canadian Air Force in 2026 with the full fleet being operational by 2033 or 2034," The LAV 6 obviously met the technical requirement and was evaluated by the Army team and deemed acceptable and that is why you have them. I do not speak without some knowledge. As you know, I spent 35 years in, did time in SAR from coast to coast, did several NDHQ tours including major crown project and retired to work in PWGSC in procurement as well as Maritime Helicopter procurement. I am Air Force through and through and have gotten to understand the intricacies of military procurement. All in all, the Military does get what it contracts for using the technical requirements it writes. Extraneous demands from other departments are a P off and only add cost to the contract but they in no way diminish, reduce or delete and of the the requirements or evaluation the military does. Other department do not even sit in the evaluation rooms when evaluation is going on. Some lawyers and some PWGSC persons are called in when there are contractual or procedural questions but they do not see the evaluation till it is over. Facts of the matter is, the DND has a budget and it has to pay for everything the DND and military wants, needs and is tasked to do. They decide what they can afford and when. A total in house decision.

Yeah well, everything looks good when they are subservient but, when you sell all you manufacturing capability away, you lose. It sucks when the kids grow up They do not want us to be like them, they just want to have more, for themselves. They could not care less about us and what we want. Thing is, we, the collective we, all political parties did this. So, what more is there to know? We sold the farm and don't like the new owners? What can we do? You can blame your parents but the deal is still done. The answer is nothing. There, I told you and you can send me the money and put the answer on the shelf to gather dust LOL