Richard

No! Boycotting Canadian made goods only compounds the problem. I did a quick internet check. Here's what I found. Bombardier Outlander 400 H.O. Suggested Price (MSRP): $6,199.00. Canada Price $5,795.00 US Price $4,899.00 - Made in Mexico - Bombardier soon to move all NA production to Mexico. First. Are you willing to be paid the equivalent dollars your counterpart in a foreign country is being paid for doing the same job? I didn't think so. Canada used to manufacture about 42% of the goods sold in Canada. Now it has been reduced to under 18%. For arguments sake let's place the average earnings in Canada at $3,200 per mo. Economists calculate that each dollar spent in a community turns over about 6 times before it is taxed out. Just taking the production and supply costs of goods, about 40% of end price, that is not being put back into the Canadian economy. That means for every $700 spent on foreign goods that could have been produced in Canada, 1 Canadian has been put out of a job. Consider that 18% of working age Canadians are either unemployed or on social assistance, working Canadians are making up their tax share. That 'shortfall' that used to be collected federally and provincially is causing under funding of services such as hospitals and schools. In turn the unfunded portion of hospital and school expenses are being passed down to municipalities who in turn raise property taxes. You pay for it. Canada is becoming a nation of service workers. The service industry does not generate new tax money except for tourism, and with the dollar going up, less tourists are coming. If we want to keep up the services in hospitals, schools, policing, fire dept, transportation etc. the taxes have to come from somewhere. What better place than to maintain resource and manufacturing in Canada which employ Canadians at livable wages. To put it bluntly. Canadian goods cost less than imported goods, even at a higher price.

For the most part, people settle for cheap over quality. When I lived in Metchosin I did grow almost all of my own veg and meats. I still look for local products before buying imported. Question as to origin. Why are food products not required to state on the packaging the origin of the ingredients. Highlander Fish sticks, package says product of Canada. Actually a product of Indonesia. Did you know that most of the apple juice sold in Canada is actually Chinese grown and processed. It is only packaged in Canada, with water added. Do we not produce apples in Canada? How about those Chinese made 2010 Olympic mascots. I'm sure that there are several places in Canada that could have produced them. They may cost a few dollars more but they would be Canadian for a Canada sponsored event. Did you notice how much the price of Roots clothing went down since they moved manufacture from Canada to China? Nada, but they remain an official supplier to the 2010 Winter Olympics. What difference in price is there between Denver Hayes t-shirts made in Canada and those made in India? There is a huge difference in quality. Plumbing supplies, pipe fittings, hardware items, are by far better quality at Home Hardware than the China made items from Home Depot or Canadian Tire.

It is absolutely ludicrous that Canada does not have a "Buy Canadian Act". An act that covers the purchase of all goods and materials used by any level of government, federal, provincial, or municipal or any public corporation or public service entity. Governments and government institutions only exists through the taxes paid by Canadian citizens and Canadian businesses. Our Canadian government has an ethical obligation and should make a commitment to support Canadian enterprise, support Canadian workers. When our federal, provincial and municipal governments spend our money on government procurement in the areas of public transportation, the Canadian military, government institutions and government services, there must be strong Canadian content regulations to ensure that Canadians get the jobs resulting from our own major public purchases. Canada must preserve it's sovereignty. The United States have had such an act in place since 1933. For more on this topic http://www.buymadeincanada.ca/needed.html Buy Canadian Act Needed

The problem is that it becomes a matter of infringing on tenants rights. How do you verify the facts or are they hearsay from the landlord. -- those who leave the place a dump, don't pay or party all the time. At least then a landlord would have some semblance of control over who he/she rents to and what their real rental history is. We've had our tenant for almost 9 years but we are going to be renovating her place so we can move into it. We will then have to rent out this place* and we are so not looking forward to it. We are even thinking of going to a lease instead. At least then it's covered under contractual law rather than tenancy law. Tenancy law looks after only the tenant. Like the first poster said, a tenant can easily cost a landlord a ton of money. We also buy Christmas gifts for our tenant and have not ever raised her rent. We are the nicest landlords ever -- she is also a very good, quiet tenant. I feel for her though --she is in for a huge shock when she goes to find another place. *we won't be offering her "our" side of the duplex as it is only a two bedroom and she has three kids now (when she moved in she was a 17 year old with a newborn).

How someone disguises something to fool a landlord is beyond me. It is his property and his inspections should be completed before the tenant is gone. If the cat, (or a child, I've had that) pisses on the carpet, or a beer is spilled on the carpet, the smell gets into the underlay. When the tenant moves out and has the carpet cleaned, the landlord most often will miss the smell. Two days later you will notice it but by then it is too late, you have already signed off on the out inspection.

Notice To End Tenancy Far Too Double Claused to Work Effectively On paper the legislation allowing a landlord to serve a notice to end a tenancy on a tenant looks good. In reality it grants the tenant a months free rent meanwhile the landlord loses two. If a tenant has failed to pay rent, the landlord may issue a Notice To End A Tenancy on the 3rd of the month with a vacate date of 10 days which would be the 13th. Often the tenant decides, 'Well, if they are going to end the tenancy, they will have to kick me out, I'm not leaving and I am definitely not giving them any more rent'. Even though the official notice states three times that the tenancy is at an end as of the dates posted, the landlord cannot enforce the notice until he/she has a Writ of Possession. The landlord has to wait until at least the 8th of the month to file and then after waiting for 2 to 3 hours to file for a hearing, the earliest date available won't be till the last week of the month. If you wait till after the 10th to file, the hearing won't be till sometime in the second week of the following month. Meanwhile the tenant is enjoying rent free housing. Very seldom do tenants show for a hearing regarding unpaid rent, maybe if they have children. If they do have children, the landlord is in more trouble because he knows the arbitrator will show leniency for the children's sake. More than likely the tenant will move during the first week of the following month, forfeiting his deposit yes, but leaving the unit in non rentable condition which will cost more than the deposit will cover. The landlord has been prevented from re-renting the unit and has lost 2 months rent plus filing fees, plus damages in the meantime. Good luck on finding your former tenant or collecting any monies owing even if you do have an order. And they wonder why there is a lack of affordable housing! THE REMEDY: The tenant is the one who is in violation and has broken the rental contract with the landlord. If this was a lease agreement for an automobile, the leasing company can seize with short notice or could place wheel blocks on the vehicle rendering non-drivable. Once the Notice to Vacate is given, it should be the tenants responsibility to comply with the regulations set out by the Residential Tenancy Board and apply for arbitration if he/she feels the order to vacate is wrong. If there are no mitigating circumstances as to why the tenant failed to pay rent, then the order to vacate stands. The landlord should then have the right to an immediate court order of eviction, call the Bailiff and have the tenant evicted on the vacancy date given. The court can then issue a payment order for any damages and the cost of Bailiff's services to the evicted tenant. As part of the Residential Tenancy Board, a tenant and landlord file should be kept and accessible in much the same fashion as the Credit Bureau or Better Business Bureau keeps a file of reported cases. Tenants can access the file to find if landlords are legit and fair in their practices and likewise, registered landlords can have access to names of 'deadbeat' tenants. It is mandatory for vehicles to be ensured, likewise it should be mandatory for renters to carry insurance on the property and contents they are leasing. Skipping Out If a person leaves a restaurant without paying the bill, or pumps gas and drives off, the police can charge the perpetrator with theft and this for an amount under $100. All it takes is a phone call to the police. If a tenant robs the landlord of $1,000+ by moving without paying the last months rent, the police won't even get involved. It is left up to the landlord to track the former tenant down, file for arbitration and then sue through small claims court for his money, good luck collecting. Still wonder why there is a lack of low cost housing!

Quoted from: National Energy Information Center Many gases exhibit "greenhouse" properties. Some of them occur in nature (water vapor, carbon dioxide, methane, and nitrous oxide), while others are exclusively human-made. Concentrations of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere are naturally regulated by numerous processes collectively known as the carbon cycle. The movement or flux of carbon between the atmosphere and the land and oceans is dominated by natural processes, such as plant photosynthesis. While these natural processes can absorb some of the net 6.1 billion metric tons of anthropogenic carbon dioxide emissions produced each year (measured in carbon equivalent terms), an estimated 3.2 billion metric tons is added to the atmosphere annually. The Earth’s positive imbalance between emissions and absorption results in the continuing growth in greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. During the past 20 years, about three-quarters of human-made carbon dioxide emissions were from burning fossil fuels. The ability of natural plant photosynthesis world wide is greatly reduced by the elimination of plant life, mainly forests.

The federal government has a responsibility to extend Vancouver's pilot supervised injection program, which has been shown to save lives, reduce the spread of diseases and help addicts overcome substance dependency, said Green Party of Canada Health Advocate Chris Milburn True but, InSite: 1. does nothing to control the increasing use of illegal drugs in Vancouver, up 16% in last reported year. 2. does nothing to control the increasing crime committed to obtain the drugs. 3. does nothing to control the trafficking of illegal drugs in Vancouver. 4. The spread of drug related diseases is is still on the rise in Vancouver. InSite is not working in the overall picture. It is time to treat substance dependency as what it is; a disease, an 'infectious communicable' disease that threatens many of our most vunerable citizens and children and effects the safety and security of all other citizens. If substance dependency was equated to Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome the patient would be quarantined first and then treated. If substance dependency was equated to mental deficiency with the probability of doing self harm, the patient would be force treated. It is time to treat addicts the same; mandatory rehabilitation. Yes it costs money for all these rehab centers needed, but far less then the 80+ billion per year the use of illegal drugs is costing Canadians at present, and rising each year. Want to save lives - mandatory rehab Want to reduce the spread of disease - mandatory rehab Want to help addicts overcome substance dependency - mandatory rehab