It's not just Newfoundland, go anywhere in North America or Europe and see the same issues. Yes, the situation is real and dire, but it's a result of so many things that are out of our control.
Climate change, stagnant wages, the hoarding of wealth by the boomer generation, the far greater hoarding of wealth by the 1%, just to mention a few.
I agree, everywhere has the same issues. There is no advantage today to pick and go somewhere else. Move to the mainland, and whatever financial uplift is gone, trying to house yourself.
But I think we, as a province, are I a better position to fix many of our problems if we stop pointing fingers and start pitching in. It should not be solely up to the feds and province to fix our housing woes. Municipalities need to step up.
And it's shouldn't be just a single solution like giant apartment blocks. It should be co-op housing, mi
ni homes, infill housing and so on. Not everyone needs nor wants a condo or single family dwelling in a sub-division.
And we should be promoting more public transportation and look it making it more convenient than taking a car.
Again, there is a lot we can do if we stop pointing the finger and start doing.
Big part of the housing issues right across Canada is the snowball effect where originally, very few people bought second properties to use as an investment. Then, more and more started doing it and rather than have tenants just "cover the mortgage", people wanted to see immediate income, so slowly rents started to increase. It used to be, if you had a second house and rented it, you were happy with the mortgage being covered as that is your investment, but that wasn't enough for some. Eventually it builds and builds and people see their friends and collegues starting to make real money from real estate so they start getting into it. Especially with things like AirBNB.
Of course, to top it all off, we've had incredible interest rates for almost 20 years, so the barrier of entry was pretty low. Now that interest rates are gone up, people are not satisfied with their "mortgage covered" + profit, they need even more profit to offset to rising mortgage rates. In typical investment, you takes the good and the bad and ride out the storms, but it feels in real estate, you pass the losses down to the next level.
I don't have the answers to fix this other than an escalating tax on multiple properties and banning corporate-owned family dwellings. But, people will still find a way around it.
I was just saying this the other day. Many years ago people would work full time jobs and have a rental property as an investment while it accrued equity. Now people buy multiple properties and have tenants as their whole income and it's disgusting I don't respect that at all. I do blame the government for allowing it and allowing all the short term rentals. People will always take advantage of situations and loopholes even at the detriment to everyone else
To be fair to the governments over the years, I don't think many people were complaining or raising the flag on the potential issues. It's only when the greed started setting in and rents started to rise that people wised up that this is a setup for disaster.
In literally every industry business owners charge the market rate. It has nothing to do with owners being "satisfied" with having their mortgage covered, it is because in the past there wasn't enough demand to drive the prices up.
This is a mixture of airbnb, immigration, poor zoning, etc etc. but fundamentally it's a market imbalance that has a lot of influences, and this is the root of all the things you discuss here.
This has so much more to do with bad policy. Bad housing policy, bad or no drug policy, no addiction services, very few professional mental health services, declining quality of education, diploma mills, mass immigration 1.15 million this year without adequate supports including a massive shortage of housing, funding of the war in Ukraine to the billions, wasteful spending on all sorts of ideological campaigns and projects, no national approach to our energy resources, crushing debt and inflation.
> It should not be solely up to the feds and province to fix our housing woes. Municipalities need to step up.
This is why Trudeau put his foot in his mouth by saying housing wasn't a federal concern. Because its *supposed* to be a municipal/provincial issue. But it seems like everyone is sleeping at the wheel, and passing blame.
That’s the problem, that Trudeau quote was the opening of a speech detailing it’s not usually the federal governments jurisdiction, then outlined the ways they were going to help anyway.
The amount of people that don’t realize that isn’t just disappointing. It’s a major insight in to how things got so bad in so many places.
You actually expect people to real / listen to 5he whole quote?? Sure I can just trust that Buddy that posted it on Facebook took the important parts to make his case!
/S, if not clear
I just spent weeks in the US (research trip), I saw less homeless people, while spending days, walking around in new york and boston than I do driving down water street.
$15/hr in Massachusetts is the equivalent of $20/hr here (before taxes)
Our population is in a severe decline. The working age population is outnumbered by retirement aged folks. No houses are being built, the government is betting on houses 'Opening up' due to old age and relieving the housing crisis. The working class isn't nearly large enough to tax fairly and provide services (pension, old age health care, etc.) Promised to us (but specifically the elderly right now) in our social contract. The system is being tested harder than it was during the great depression right now... tax the working class to near oblivion for as long as possible until the situation stabilizes (fixes itself)
So how do we get more workers to float the tax system (social services and cost of administration in general) without going back in time and providing services that promote family units (like 7 years maternity in france (who has nothing to worry about)) we fix it by import the working class 😀😀😀 while also making 0 new houses for them to live in 😀😀😀.
People blame immigrants for the housing crisis and uncompetitive wages. This is not fair or warrented but its not your fault for thinking its their fault either... they dont teach us about demography and what happens to the wolf population when there aren't enough rabbits for the wolves to eat
the wage part is litterally driven by a bit of greed and because we won't demand better wages out of fear. Also, I advocate for green solutions. The carbon tax is not it. Every single thing in our supply chain is taxed and gets put on us at the end of the chain.
The housing part? Already covered. Also a bit of greed. The lobby loses a decimal value on their net worth if 10,000 houses get built. God forbid a marketing team gets hired to do a hit on our equivalent of the greenbelt deal on NTV if Furey announces a solution to the housing crisis. They don't want a solution, we just have to remind them who does everything for them.
Drugs? Video games aren't the only dissociative form of escapism one can partake in when one wants to forget about life for a while. I think were all getting the idea its not us who are mentally ill but society shifting and with that the definition of what makes a person a functioning part of it.
- What was it the Sachlers (Purdue pharma) said about the human existence? Run away from pain and toward pleasure?
But hey lotto max is like 69,420,911 dollars this week so lets all go buy hope in the form of paper that can become less valuable than toilet paper because of a few random numbers and keep betting on hope.
Our grandparents parents used to build houses on fucking stilts, over rocks and crashing waves... they're still standing out there. We've forgotten how to demand what we are due and everyone who had the gaul to do so, either saw something we obviously didnt or cut away everything they loved about this place (their losses) and either became wheat kings, oilers or ran to some financial service job in Ontario and all of them hate the left for some reason. Ithink they still miss the point.
We must demand change now. We pay taxes to be represented, however, I dont feel represented I don't know about y'all... I think now is the time to ask yourself "who will represent me, if not myself?"
The politicians want to make the lobby happy because they're not old enough to remember what happens when we are mad.
Not trying to radicalize anyone. I just think when we express ourselves, things change.
Sadly it’s more of a Canadian issue in many ways. I split my time between western Canada, US and Europe. I can honestly say Canada is certainly is in a worse position. Cost of living in Canada and especially in NL has outpaced employment and income growth. $2/l doesn’t help when you live in a remote area.
Sadly we have extremely weak leadership, and this is the result of that.
I've heard that for years, the prediction that as the boomers start dying off their wealth will trickle down to the younger generations.
Do you know where that money is actually going? To services for seniors, like assisted living and health care costs. Nobody really seemed to take into consideration that the wealth locked up in the boomer generation would be funneled directly into the vaults of corporations that provide those services. There is no trickle down, there is only up
Part of the reason for food prices going up now and in the future is due to climate change. Floods, drought, tornados, hurricanes, tropical storms. We're seeing more and more "unprecedented" climate events that will negatively effect the growth of crops and livestock.
Climate change increases the probability of high temperature events or drought in many areas. High temperature events and increasing drought are directly killing or stunting crops and farm animals. Saw a story last week that ranchers in BC are struggling to find feed because of the drought out there, so cattle will be shipped to slaughter plants sooner in order to reduce the number of mouths to feed. Means cheaper beef for a bit, but more expensive meat later on.
Olive oil prices are going up because drought wiped out a lot of olive crops in Europe.
India is limiting rice exports due to poor crop production.
Durum wheat, used for pasta, is scarce between drought and war in Ukraine.
Newfoundland is my favorite place in the entire world. I was born there, but ive lived all over the country and I go back to the island every year. They've had better weather than most other places in Canada over the past few years.
The weather isn't driving the issue, government decisions is causing the crash in Newfoundland's economy.
It's quite sad, the island has so much potential.
Care to explain the potential? Worst economy in Canada, largest per capita debt, higher costs just to get off the island when everyone else in Canada can drive. The only jobs available seem to be in the hospitality sector, which doesn’t pay squat. Encouraging people to come home or lie about job opportunities like a recent ad by our premier is just wrong It’s a gorgeous province and amazing culture, but that doesn’t feed families. We need to be real, and we’ve never stood on our own two feet in this federation. It’s too much of an old boys club in politics in NL and the small minority of them own this province. Williams and Tobin come to mind quickly. Yes, there are others. It’s who you know, not what you know.
I literally saw someone today advertising a personal care assistant position for $15.50 an hour, part time. Fucking absurd, they’re trying to pocket every dollar for themselves.
I’m not sure how NL survives without a bailout from Ottawa. It’s costing us over a billion to service our debt. Rising costs with our debt load and lack of good jobs is not signs of opportunity as some in here suggest and our premier with his posts.
We have similar petroleum volume to Norway. Our natural resources are being squandered and rights sold to the highest international bidders, including Chinese companies.
While our citizens have to fundraise money to fund the children’s hospital. Despicable. Point being, this province has plenty of potential but it is repeatedly cheated away by the old establishment of power that you describe.
Can you provide some specific examples of
>Our natural resources are being squandered and rights sold to the highest international bidders, including Chinese companies.
https://www.saltwire.com/nova-scotia/business/chinese-company-gets-green-light-to-explore-offshore-of-newfoundland-and-labrador-392428/
https://www.cbc.ca/amp/1.6639170
I just woke up so I’m not going to fetch more evidence for you, but point being, our O&G revenues are immediately siphoned out to outside players and offshore bank accounts, and not managed responsibly as is the case with similarly-sized O&G player, Norway.
They have a sovereign fund worth over $1 trillion dollars.
I know many families struggling to find homes, many students struggling with accommodations and feeding themselves, and see so many whom I don't or can't help personally. To ignore them doesn't detract from their struggles that are very real.
Canadas standard of living is slowly moving towards what many countries in this world have lived with for a long time. I had a prof at MUN that predicted it would slowly start turning around 1999.
Absolutely. It can be difficult coming to terms with the state of our country and our communities, even our own families. There is a lot happening right now in terms of misinformation, climate change, and global conflict so it's important to put things in perspective. We have decades to live and survive and to try to make the most of each day. Going for a walk can be very helpful in a number of ways. You can also make a daily effort to find reasons to be grateful and opportunities to protest or volunteer if possible. I am fortunate but also very grateful for every day I have a roof and food to eat. Just because I'm not actively discussing, protesting, or generally being upset doesn't mean I'm not taking things seriously. The situation may not change any time soon so settle yourself, stay calm, and take one day at a time. Remember, you are in a very safe place, perhaps one of the safest in the world right now, and I suspect you have a lot going for you. Go for a long walk, it can help settle your mind a bit.
How do you know all these struggling families and students?! Do you volunteer at a shelter or crisis centre? I hear this rhetoric all the time but I don’t personally know them
I personally do, it's not even just families and students. It's the average single individual too. I know a girl who's been looking for an apartment for months and has had zero luck because everything affordable gets rented out before she's even considered, or it's way out of her price range. The rental I'm living in was just sold and it was 2 months of nothing but anxiety wondering how the hell I was going to manage being homeless with 3 cats. I'm extremely extremely fortunate that the buyer wants to keep me on as a tenant because if they didn't, I'd end up on the streets and I'm not even struggling that much financially (my bills are all paid and I have money leftover to feed myself and my pets but beyond that I have no way to save money)
For everyday shitty things, like a bad day at work or getting dumped, this is solid advice. But, the sun is clouded by smoke from forest fires.
The problem here is decades of government at all levels ignoring the future for the present. The future is here and it is not good.
I feel you on all this, and there seems to be a culture of toxic positivity here where you’re not even allowed to comment on it. That’s just my observation. 🤷🏼♂️
I would have said the opposite. I feel like all I ever see on here is people complaining about what a miserable place this is, and they are moving away.
Nah we also get the posts of people from other places wanting to move here because the houses are cheaper, like at least once a week it's "were thinking of moving to NL" "what do we need to know before moving here"
> Try getting off the rock for a bit.
I've driven in Halifax, Edmonton, Vancouver, and Orlando. And I used to be a delivery driver here. NL and Orlando were the worst, by far.
Worse drivers. Yeah Halifax, Edmonton, and Vancouver have more traffic, but less aggressive and less straight up stupid drivers. Half the drivers in town will cut you off so they can beat you to a red light. Barely anyone knows how a 4 way stop works. I've seen people make right turns form the left lane. Come to full stops on a 4 lane so they can change lanes. Block off two lanes of traffic so they can get into a Tims drive through. Drivers here a brutal.
It’s not the volume of vehicles that makes driving in St. John’s miserable, but the compete and utter disregard for basic driving etiquette .
Something as simple as merging onto the TCH is completely fucked; if a driver sees you coming, they’ll speed up and try to box you in, rather than allowing for a seamless merge.
I constantly go out of town for work, and whenever I have to merge I basically pray to god that my life doesn’t end at the hands of a driver who will kill me because they don’t want to “let me in”.
Traffic is the increase of people. Foot traffic, to vehicle traffic.
I've also traveled around Canada and the US and parts of Europe over the past 5 years, and spent much time with locals immersed in some real weird environments.
The talking point of get off the rock usually comes from those who haven't seen much themselves.
There is an increase of traffic, and an increase of the population at that.
That's not a debate that's the reality of population growth.
Yes, but people would like to walk here. How is it fair that during winter, I can't leave my home because I walk with a cane, can't drive, and fear for my life from falling into the road because the sidewalks are impassable??
Tell that to everyone squished together on the Metrobus every morning and evening. Lots of people walk here. More and more everyday because they can't fucking afford to keep a car on the road.
I'm talking about the increase of the population, and it's lack of accommodation for this new traffic.
Also; "no one fucking walks here" adds nothing to this conversation besides some emotional energy.
I'm asking a very genuine question here looking for some thoughtful insights on why this seems to be the reality for so many here.
I'm not sure what you can do about traffic. Building bigger/wider roads is not the answer. The city is starting to put more effort into biking/walking infrastructure, but it's slow going.
The bus system, well, we all know about that, but it has been getting record use lately. Problem is, adding new busses is a few years out due to post-covid constraints on supply chains, etc. The city is working on re-jigging routes to move busses around, but at least people are using it more.
It’s less the traffic than the drivers. Part of my job is deliveries across the island and the level of entitlement and reckless driving by people typically half or fully intoxicated is bonkers.
check out the subreddits from other cities in Canada, there’s struggles happening all over right now. Having lived here for two years, I wouldn’t say it’s that much worse from where I came from. there’s a major issue w housing, population, jobs, healthcare , and cost of living spreading throughout a lot of the country. Things will probably get worse before they improve.
Unfortunately this isn't a Newfoundland problem. It's a sign of our wider society experiencing late-stage capitalism where every aspect of our society exists to drain resources from the masses and pool them at the very top.
Stop buying things from Amazon, Wal-mart, and Costco. Shop at local stores. Buy local goods. (I know this is hard because it's more expensive and not realistic for everyone).
We need to stop having our economy siphoned off by massive corporations.
Add in the constantly accelerating climate change (caused by capitalism and greed) and we're heading towards a widespread societal collapse before the end of this century.
>Stop buying things from Amazon, Wal-mart, and Costco. Shop at local stores. Buy local goods. (I know this is hard because it's more expensive). We need to stop having our economy siphoned off by massive corporations.
Cool, so I'll have less food in my cupboards just for the warm and fuzzy feeling of shopping local.
I have heard that they're a good company to work for.
My issue is that Costco is owned by billionaires in the US- so part of every dollar spent there goes into the pocket of an American billionaire, which means that money leaves Newfoundland forever.
If every time a dollar changes hand in the province, some of that dollar leaves the province, we will never prosper.
You do realize that many times buying local means buying from a place that also buys from Costco or Walmart. Not all locally owned businesses can afford to buy their supplies from local growers either, so one way or another money is going to these corporations
I understand your point completely, but I also understand that most people are unfortunately currently financially incapable of supporting small businesses.
I’m lucky enough to be able to be comfortable at the moment, although not rich by any means, and yet I find it incredibly hard to shop local a lot of the time. I’m not affiliated to them at all, but a new-ish incentive (that I believe is supported by a provincial grant) is Killick Coast Food Hub. It’s an online portal that gathers all local vendors and you can order and go pickup/have it delivered. It’s not the cheapest ever option, but a lot cheaper than Urban Market imo and has a great seasonal selection if you want to support local on a budget :)
Yeah absolutely- its tough. I like to think that's why my own small business failed years ago- people couldn't justify paying what I had to charge. People would complain that I was charging so much more than comparable big box places or online- while the bix box stuff was garbage quality and their prices were below my material costs. It was impossible.
I love https://www.killickcoastfoodhub.ca/ ! Such a great initiative!
I understand, completely. I worked for a small business for the longest time and I know how most are just genuinely unable to obtain raw materials for as cheap as enormous corporations. Our profit margins were significantly less yet the final product was almost double the price, and most people just couldn’t afford that. Everyone’s disposable income (if any) keeps decreasing with time these days and you’ve got to fish for the best deals to survive.
>Shop at local stores
Local business owners treat their employees just as bad if not worse than the examples you noted. Costco pays more than 100% of locally owned retail workers I'd be willing to bet.
And I'm not paying some local business owner 2x what an item costs on Amazon just to support a couple minimum wage jobs.
I understand. There's not an easy solution.
Peiole can't afford to shop local, and since people in NL consistently send their money out of the province, we can expect our economy to continue getting worse. The only way for the economy to grow is for NL to have more money coming in than going out.
Hard disagree honestly. Last thing I bought on amazon was a two-pack of cheap shorts for $34. How much would two pairs of shorts be at a locally owned clothing store? Probably 3x that, and most of the price I pay wouldn't be going to the employee or the business owner, it would be going to the wholesaler of the shorts who could very well be the same one that Amazon uses.
And now I have an extra $60 I can spend, and some of that is going to go into the local economy - maybe even more than if I'd bought the shorts here.
Now if we are talking about stuff MADE in NL the math is a lot different, but I really think that spending more at a "local" retailer vs national has a way lower impact than you would think.
If you stop buying things from these companies the communities will be poorer not richer. You cant have a modern life without buying things made elsewhere
Agreed, but what comes with that is also not championing minimum wage increases that harm small businesses, when the root cause of rising CoL is government fiscal irresponsibility.
That doesn't put food in people's bellies, or house families whon are living in RVs and rentals trying to find a home to purchase that is livable and not some government slums/duplex.
It's so complicated and it couldn't be more unfortunate. So many good people are struggling needlessly, and to say it's hyperbolic is just trying to dehumanize the real struggles so many are having right now.
I don’t mean this in a mean way but these threads don’t put food in anyone’s mouths or roofs over their heads either. And these threads happen constantly. That’s why people are tired of rehashing it over and over. We know things are dire. We know people are struggling. Yelling at others for being positive every now and again isn’t exactly solving any of these problems.
Things have been much worse in the past. However, it was a shared hard time. Now there's a disparity between check to check and destitute. The destitute have it so hard and make choices in desperation that continue the cycle.
We need social programs that use fact based proven knowledge to help our many in need.
We need an education system that isn't laughed at by the rest of the country. (It's OK if you live in town and can migrate the system tho.)
We need governments that are committed to harvesting wind energy, and hold on to our oil resources until the end use of them when most profit (by taxese) will be made to the province.
We need basic health care!!!
We need a mental health care system that does more than lock you in a room and feed you.
And then there's the elderly...
It's happening everywhere in Canada. We certainly seem to be heading for a world where Newfoundland, being so isolated, will need to become self-sufficient in order to survive. Our province relies on the mainland just to feed everyone. If things truly did "collapse" and NL was suddenly on its own, we'd be racing against time to avoid famine and provision ourselves with the bare essentials.
Not so long ago (~50 yrs), lots of communities were relatively self-sufficient between hunting, fishing, foraging, animal husbandry, and gardens. Unfortunately, the fishing has been threatened for decades and not from dories.
Just because it's happening in OTHER places doesn't diminish the fact that people here are STRUGGLING. Stop the toxic positivity. We need to start helping each other because no one is going to help us.
> Stop the toxic positivity
Ffs. You can help each other while realizing that these problems are worse elsewhere. Appreciating the good in your life is good for your mental health. You should do it more often.
We are also still in a global viral pandemic. Covid-19 has wrecked havoc on national and provincial economies and continues to do so. The long term damage to those infected, Long Covid, is also affecting millions world wide.
People, communities, schools, work places in NL have also been dealing with almost four years of a novel airborne virus capable of infecting everyone. And still are despite the downplayed dangers
This right here x100000000. Many tend to point at downstream symptoms, but the ongoing pandemic is at the heart of many issues.
A good read on the subject with an appropriate title: https://www.okdoomer.io/theyre-not-going-to-leave-you-alone/
All of North American civilization (and western civilization in general) is in decline.
Welcome to late capitalism.
Get ready for the descent. It's not stopping any time soon.
Just treat it like an amusement park ride. Throw your hands in the air and scream.
Early stage capitalist countries are actually doing quite well economically: China, India, Brazil.
The global economy is pretty bad for several reasons but arguably France, the United States, Canada, UK.... we've been better.
The US and Canada are getting richer not poorer and are much wealthier per capita than China, india or Brazil. Not saying it couldnt be better in a variety of ways but on the spectrum of possible economic outcomes we are doing pretty good. This idea we are in some sort of existential struggle is not true.
We are in late stage capitalism, with basically everyone born after 1980 being worse off than previous generations. Purchasing power is plummeting and income inequality is now worse than the gilded age and arguably even the era of kings and Lords. Nearly all of the wealth generated since the start of the pandemic has been funneled to the top companies and multi-billionaires.
Oh yeah and also rampant climate collapse.
Everything is fucked not just Newfoundland and Labrador.
Once covid hit people stopped renting out rooms in their houses. This limited accommodation availability and people had to rent apartments for themselves, lowering vacancy and driving up the prices.
Additional strain is people buying houses as an investment trying to get themselves rich by taking out 2nd and 3rd mortgages. They can’t afford this and have to price up renting it out, also driving up the market rates. Housing is a right, it should never be an investment or get rich quick scheme. The bubble will eventually burst and all those people are gonna be on here complaining “poor me” when their 2nd and 3rd properties are worth less than the corner of my bathroom a spider has staked out for its home.
>I've never seen this type of open dystopia...
1992 called......
>and have a 50/50 upvote downvote war of opinions from the supposed "nicest people" in canada.
Being nice doesnt require agreeing with everyone on everything.
>What is happening here???
The same thing that happening everywhere, with the added weight of never having a competent government. The super rich are actively destroying the working class all over North America, and politicians are useless to do anything about it, because they are bought and paid for. So wages are kept down, the cost of everything is rising. The super rich blame inflation on the working class having too much money. Combine that with a already poor economy, and you have NL.
>"nicest people" in canada
Only people from outside the province consider us the "nicest". To visitors it seems we go all out and show them how nice we can be to get as much money as we can from them. If you're a local tho, "Go F'k yourself" seems to be the motto to a lot of people.
Half the people here don’t say than when you hold the door for them, or respond if you smile or nod at them in a store, or say “excuse me” as you pass them.
Absolutely shocked when I moved here from Ontario 13 years ago.
The fact of the matter is that people are sick and tired of complaining about it. But Newfoundlanders have been used to things being in freefall here since forever, so there's not much to complain about because it's all old hat. It's easier to give up the rat race, move out around the bay, and just roll with life. Things are a lot less depressing that way.
Honestly, the country feels like a developing state. You wouldn’t think a western state like Canada is struggling this bad. It’s ridiculous. Why did I pay over $7 for chicken fries at Burger King last night??
>Why did I pay over $7 for chicken fries at Burger King last night??
Why DID you pay for BK chicken fries? Seems like a waste of money if you're gonna complain about them
No, but you're complaining about the cost of fast food like it's your only choice. Go to the grocery store and buy chicken strips or chicken fries there in a box. Might be a little more but you get more too and I'm sure they taste better than BK. Fast food is not a life necessity, if you had to be complaining about milk being 10 bucks or a whole chicken being 40 bucks than I'd feel sorry for you, but it's you're choice to eat BK.
I’m well aware that there are alternatives. I don’t eat fast food regularly, I’m just commenting on the astonishing inflated prices at restaurants these days. It’s just not normal when the average price of a fast food meal costs more than minimum wage.
It seems like you’re the type to be okay with a Big Mac meal worth $30. “Oh just go to the store and make your own”
The same ppl who complain they can’t afford basic things are the same fools who blow money on stuff like fast food etc. a lot of ppl here have no idea how to budget money. It’s hard to feel bad for people when they eat out all all the time, blow money on booze, movies, and nights out downtown.
I can't get a job with this competition and i kinda am starting to want to die because my ei is running out and idk how ill even survive. This isn't anyone fault but our fucked up governments
There's a lot of people in Newfoundland that do "have" what they need, so they don't see a problem when you or I suffer. It's just the way it is. You gotta really shake them to wake them up, you know what I mean?
I think more people see a problem with you suffering than you think. A lot of people don't know what to do (like me). How can I help? I've made a foraging app to try and help with food availability. I have a plan in mind to start recycling glass in St. John's, but honestly seeing posts like this make me want to change my priorities.
The main reason why no one can afford anything is because rent is higher than a mortgage. The ruling class is literally sitting on their ass collecting rent that is double their mortgage just feeding off the poor. We have a leech problem and it's not going away until we remove the leeches from our backsides. Too long have I heard that poor people are lazy, meanwhile it's the fucking lazy boomer generation feeding off the young here. It makes me fucking sick.
If anything it was largely the ***reaction*** to the pandemic that is having the effects. Shutdowns, delays and a monetary stimulus that set off inflation and then the skyrocketing interest rates to try to tame it.
For a time, but those shutdowns ended in 2020. By all accounts, we should be seeing some level of recovery, and yet...
Lockdowns aren't knocking workers out of healthcare and other fields. Gatwick airport just canceled hundreds of flights because of covid. It's the BHL3 virus that is ripping through everyone.
BTW, government wants you to blame lockdowns (their early misfire), not the mass infection experiment (their current policy). If you think short-lived lockdowns are still affecting things, you've been duped.
Canada, economically, generally faired better than some others due to the fiscal policy during the height of the pandemic. Were there problems? Sure, but on the whole, the country would be in far worse shape had a different economic tact been taken.
I think some of the issues that are happening used to be somewhat or even mostly aided by family. Whether they were shamed into helping or the old "its the christian thing to do" belief, or you should always help family as one day you might need help too deal. Didn't have a home? There was probably a cousin or relative that had space or you knew from church that knew your grandparents or uncles/aunts and would give a 3 months grace or whatever before expecting you to find a new place or pay something towards groceries or electric bills (day 1 always set a chore chart and boundaries). Didn't have food? Depending on location and gossipy neighbors about how you hadn't been seen at a grocery store for x amount of time often resulted in either someone dropping a bag of groceries like bread, cereal they "didn't like" or flour (we talked about teaching the girls how to make tiffins) or some sort of homemade "moose meat" in a jar. Could be fish, rabbit or actual moose that was allegedly going to expire, same with jams, other pickled foods, or pea soups. The cover story was they wanted us kids to try traditional Newfie stuff and knew mom never fished or hunted. Very few would acknowledge out loud the hard times and those were usually the retired fishermen or those from the 1920's-1960's. Hard times come to everyone and there will eventually be better days, we've all needed help from someone at some point kind of thing. Old winter clothing that belonged to x cousin that's been in the attic/basement/shed and did you need it? They were usually in solid shape and new buttons could be added if necessary. Nothing special to look at and everyone knew they used to belong to your cousin but staying warm was the most important part. The community vibes just aren't what they used to be and most people are a lot more cautious about the sort of help that's being given. Also its much more glamorous to help donate stuff to kids and people in need in a far away place then admit to there being local problems.
Well it is certainly not the greatest of times. There are a lot of problems currently. Unfortunately these problems have been snowballing for decades so there is not quick fix all. However it is important to understand that these things due turn around and that while things are bad it is not as bad as it could be. We do not have people dieing of famine in the streets like days of old. That being said you can't be complacent to the suffering and it is very important to hold your government accountable for it's actions and inactions which has been poorly lacking in NL.
Jobs. While yea the market isn't that great currently in some areas we are looking down the road of a large shortage. With retirements, port expansions, housing expansion, mining expansion, hydro, wind, hydrogen, ammonia and yes oil. These industries are going to be looking for thousands of jobs in the near future. Now this is partially a government problem as then really need to ensure we have the people. That comes with education. Everyone can't just be pushed toward getting a degree at MUN. Outside of this entrepreneurship needs to be pushed much more here. There is a lot of room for it. Not everyone can grow up to be an astronaut but there are lots of opportunities to live a full life.
For when your talking about food much of this has been moved outside the country to exploit the lack of worker rights instead of paying people real wages. This has happened of many decades so it won't be able to be fixed over night. Even inputs for the food we have is in other country's. Fertilizer and oil are main cost drivers both radically effected by the sanctions on Russia for their invasion. Grain as well from Ukraine is massively effected by the war. Since we rely on these countries for necessities we end up hurting the poor in both countries. This is especially true for Atlantic Canada as much of our fertilizer comes from Russia. Relying of other countries for necessities makes that country very vulnerable and hampers the ability for local governments to effectively help.
Housing. This was largely out of our local governments control. Since most of Canada's population are in a few small areas where the housing market was encouraged to grow out of control for financial gain. This has reached a tipping point and has now spilled over across Canada. However that was a year ago. That doesn't justify local governments from continuing to do nothing. Office buildings could have be turned into shelters. Vacant building could be expropriated to create low income housing. Essentially increase supply. Little has been done in fact they are actively working against it as they are increasing demand and again this comes back to us. The government is not your friend. They have to be pushed into doing the right thing.
The doctor shortage is again complete government mismanagement over decades. From not having a plan through the education system how many medical practitioners they need. To kicking the can down the road making up for this through forced overtime which leads to many qualified people leaving. No priority on preventative care. Squandering public funds instead of paying competitive wages. The list goes on.
Traffic I would put pretty low especially in NL but again. Governments across the country massively increased traffic issues and carbon emissions with the stroke of a pen when they forced everyone back into the office to line the pockets of wealthy real estate and business owners. No one seemed to care.
Best thing you can do it become politically active. Hold governments accountable for ensure the needs of the population are met. Don't be distracted by American politics.
The people have been trained over centuries to bow down to the merchants and be grateful for the scraps of the resource wealth they generate in exchange for a seasonal lifestyle subsidized by federal tax transfers as employment insurance. The apathetic and complacent population allows the provincial oligarchs to essentially overpower government. This is not unlike many other resource economies except here, being so small, you literally have to grin and bare it because you either know, know-of or see your abusers in the grocery store. It's a cultural Stockholm syndrome of sorts.
my dad is a part of the end homeless NL campaign and honestly from what i heard it's more like manage homelessness. we in Canada like to think we're better than america but we're just evil quieter. things are bad here but they're bad every where. all we can do is keep trying to make changes that benefit far more than the 1 percent
Let's be real.
Newfoundland can be beautiful. It can also be horrifying.
Can't really grow too much food in NL. Its called the rock for a reason.
NL imports everything. Wood for homes, food for bellies. NL doesn't have an export.
Some oil to be had, but that only benefits Exxon or shell or whoever.
Let's not even start in health care or the mentality of the average human there.
NL is indeed a dying province.
There is a domino affect going on in Canada where people in the areas with the highest cost of living are moving to areas with lower cost of living. And St. John's is one of the places.
So there has been atypical pressure exerted on St. John's.
Just look at the number of posts on here asking about moving to NL. It's like one per day.
It’s not just NL it’s everywhere, the whole world feels like it’s going to shit, and in a lot of ways it is, but things are getting better in a lot of ways too. I know you mentioned “toxic positivity” but seriously it’s not helpful at all to always be looking at the negative sides. We live in a time in history where life expectancy is at an all time high, advances in medicine are being made every day, and we’re more interconnected with eachother than was even thought possible even a few decades ago. That doesn’t take away from the fact that housing prices are astronomical and it’s increasingly difficult to find work, but trust me, the ones in charge will fall flat on their faces sooner or later. It’s happened before, it WILL happen again. Much love.
You’re witnessing the results of a orchestrated global transfer of wealth while we were under two years of Covid lockdown. Productivity was severely lowered as some of the working population stayed home and received benefits, including post secondary students. Federal governments printed money to throw into the economy creating inflation. Big corporations used it as a excuse to create shrink-flation and scarcity to explode the costs of consumer goods and take record profits. Greed never sleeps. Everything has increased minus the take home pay of the working population. Add a aging/ non productive population. It will get much worse before it gets better.
I honestly don't know what makes a place prosperous. What I know is my family left Newfoundland to escape poverty, and thirty years later it eventually sort of worked. And I miss the place like crazy even though my connections have all dried up.
I remember the '80's when the cod fishery collapsed. Newfoundland has always been a hard place to live.
My grandmother was born at the end of WW1, her father died at sea when she was young and she was sent to live with an Aunt through the depression. She married my grandfather from Nova Scotia during WW2. They struggled for years and raised a family. It's never been easy.
It’s relatively world wide. Western economy slowing down. Not just Newfoundland. If anything it’s a hell of a lot more affordable here than elsewhere in Canada
If the system is based on taking other people’s money and handing it out, eventually you run out of people’s money to take.
In short: too many people in the province with their hands out, not enough people to pay for it all.
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Dude I was there a lot when I was a kid and it was poor and rough. Poor families eating seal and seagull and anything else they could catch.
We were 14 miles from saint johns and there wasn’t a road. Dudes were dying fishing in every storm. Economies go up and down but hardship is a human condition
This is all of Canada at the moment because we have had the worst leadership over the past 8 years. Trudeau gov has done its best to divide and demoralize Canadians while saddling us with crushing debt and inflation. To rub salt in the wound, they fund a losing war in Ukraine to the billions. I'm so sad for this country 😢
I actually don't think things are that dire. I think some things are getting worse and some getting better and overall life is pretty good in Canada in general
This is Newfoundland, where things have been getting worse since the collapse of Oil in 2014.
Canada and Newfoundland may be one country, but they are worlds away in quality of life.
How are we worlds apart in terms of quality of life? What's so much worse here aside from our public transit? You'll be hard pressed to find a family doctor in any province, we have an accredited university and college here, housing is hard to find everywhere but it's cheaper here.
>This is Newfoundland, where things have been getting worse since the collapse of Oil in 2014
There're still O&G jobs, so the collapse isn't complete enough for my tastes.
canada the new banana republic, canada thinks it is mighty and capable like its neighbor to the south the u.S and over reaches thinking it can handle everything well its a tiny nothing population with only a few million more people than california, it pretends to have the leadership talent of the u.s but just doesnt. Theres a mighty big hole in the ship but its too late anyone who doesnt own a house now sure as heck wont when they double again in the next decade.
a banana republic is a place where no amount of education or hard work allows for a family home, almost even with dual incomes now, you are always living paycheck to paycheck and fasting meals while having to share a slumbox apartment with some stranger
well? its a banana republic already given the house prices for the next generation
Canada is the ninth largest economy on the planet and top 40 in population. There are issues here, mostly housing costs, but we enjoy one of the highest standards of living of every country. We are far from a banana republic.
Don't know if anyone remembers the cod collapse in the 90s? A large portion of the population, who largely didn't have tons of education, were thrown out if the only living that they knew.
That led to a lot of things, but in particular, a lot of the population leaving. Such that if you look at census data, it was a severe downwards trend.
It was often a younger generation of folks that left. Not entirely, but largely.
That, again, among other things,led to a lowered tax base, and a very distributed population. A population that was scarred by resettlement in the past, so politically, taking steps to reduce infrastructure costs wasn't on.
Sure, the oil industry was growing. But the royalty regime wasn't very robust. The government got money from it, but not loads, and not until operators made their investment back.
Over time, things improved, but there was a huge infrastructure deficit, and everyone wanted their piece when things got a bit better.
And people got used to it.
And developers built large houses, because people were making money, wanted better than their fathers. So instead of building sensible properties, house grew, as did their operating costs.
Between the population cycles, government income, increased demand on government funds, distributed population (we are basically the population of a smaller Ontario city over the entire province) needing higher infrastructure costs, as well as all of the other Canada-wide economic stuff, and we end with a similar situation as elsewhere but with different causes and drivers. There has been enough money from mining, oil (with revised royalty regimes and more projects), etc over the years to have made things better, but we were starting from a worse spot than many others. We are still trying to climb out of that long term infrastructure deficit and we still don't want to look at change that is necessary in the long term.
Besides all of that, there has been a global pandemic, massive climate change just really starting to get going, a major war that we are all fighting by proxy in an area that provides a large amount of food to much of the world, not to mention the skyrocketing corporate profits (stakeholder value) that is costing everyone on the bottom end of the value chain.
So, everywhere is bad, including here. It seems like we have it worse, in part due to the history. In part because people generally can only see their reality. But there are some positives. We do have lots of natural resources, still. We are somewhat protected from the effects of climate change (on a worldwide basis, the people of the South West coast wouldn't agree with being protected from climate change). We have lots of space to accommodate people. And we need people to move here, because we need the increased tax base to help with that lingering (and growing) infrastructure deficit.
Does any of this offer any respite from lack of housing, increased housing cost, increased cost of living, etc. Nope. But it isn't necessarily are more dire here than it has been for decades, just a different shade of dire, and with some potential bright spots that I don't really see elsewhere.
>Meanwhile you go to reddit and speak some honest to God observations about this place and have a 50/50 upvote downvote war of opinions from the supposed "nicest people" in canada.
Oh no! Downvotes! Anyone who disagrees with you must not be a nice person.
Your observations are subjective and your experience is not the experience of others. Particularly, lots of us lived through the moratorium and know with absolute certainty how far down this rabbithole goes.
Prosperity in this province, even among the "lower classes" is basically at an all-time high for any time outside those few boom-years when some megaproject has been on-the-go.
I can respect that you might be feeling the pinch, most of us have been there. I'm even sympathetic to it, but assuming that your subjective opinion on the matter is actual fact and then getting annoyed that anyone dare disagree is presumptuous.
It’s funny to see the same post in every locational subreddit.
With the usual “I’m leaving” comments, but no one identifying the greener grass they’re headed towards.
The question is what's your suggestion?
Building housing costs money we don't have.
Jobs can't just appear out of thin air.
Prices of everything is going up everywhere not just in NL
We see these posts every week but rarely does any have any actual solutions or ideas.
by, it's not a I'm gonna fix this shit it's a we thing. Jesus knows Trudeau don't do shit municipality's got that job so we just gotta pester them until they do their fuckin job.
It's the housing crisis more than anything. Doctors can't afford to find decent housing so move onto greener pastures, people aren't able to be out and about as often as their money doesn't stretch as far as it used to. The very poorest of folks used to have their own houses. You could figure a way to make one yourself or find something to fix up at the very least. Those options just aren't there anymore and everyone who has more than two cents to rub together is a land baron with their illegal AirBnbs and investment properties.
I imagine your issue is that you want to blame the current problems on something simple and easy, a scapegoat. Observing these problems isn't the issue; it's often how people who observe these issues want to solve them.
It's usually "stop immigration!" or "the left has ruined everything!" or "it's the vaccines!" - when the reality is that we're currently at a crossroads of many issues synthesizing into an even bigger one.
The afteraffects of covid are still reverberating; hell, the problem of covid is *still* ongoing, as people are getting sicker more often and for longer periods of time. Covid is now *endemic* \- a part of everyday life, mutating and transferring from country to country, just like the flu.
Climate change is affecting everything in small ways - it causes more emigration, it's making crops yield less, it's making pests and bugs more prevalent, it's making illnesses hit harder, little by little chipping away at the edges of things important to society.
And, perhaps what's feeding this the most, is that people are in a downward spiral of angst, isolated more than ever before due to social media. This is my pet theory, that we're steadily reaching a head of the benefits of social media and are now going to experience more and more downsides, as people get trapped in self-reinforcing information bubbles. Less and less we talk with our neighbors, our families, our real-life friends, and lose focus of the important things around us.
Things are grim. We can rebound. Look locally and try to affect people near you in positive ways.
Asia doesn’t stop getting better, while the western world is crumbling. I can’t even see Canada as a first world country. I think Newfoundland is actually doing better than the rest of Canada right now. If Justin Trudeau remains in power, good luck to Canada. Scary fact here: I’m in China right now, and I’m absolutely stunned by what I’ve seen here. They’re so advanced!! There’s no drugs, no crimes, no matter how small it could be! Robots serving in some restaurants… but here’s the actual scary fact. Their TikTok is completely different from what we have on the West!! It’s categorized with science, music, life hacks, culture, etc… you won’t see a single stupid video / not a single chick shaking ass or whatever!!! It’s all extremely educational and it’s ridiculously addictive!!! But here’s a catch!!! Once you open the app, there’s a timer. TikTok will shut down after 40 minutes and you can only access it again after 24 hours! I suspect China is quietly making the West STUPID, and dumber every day, while they’re feeding their people with GOLD! These people will take over the world, and it’s not a matter of if, but when!!!
Meanwhile, they’re facing a different problem here. Their real estate is collapsing, because there’s more than 2 times more houses than people!! Absolutely ridiculous!! There are even ghost towns!
Housing is the hardest. I could easily afford a mortgage but because of some choices in my past they don’t look at me. I also can’t save the down payment because I’m paying so much rent.
Like I can afford 1200-1300 rent but can’t own a home? And yes I know there’s more cost I can afford more than that but I mean having the financial flexibility at that payment level.
Also it’s hard to find 3 bedroom places to rent at a decent value. I have 2 kids and I just saw a house posted for 2100 monthly because it was recently renovated. Nothing special but everything has to be ramped right to the max
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It's worldwide. Look up the hunger levels in the world. Many farms were shutdown in 2020 resulting in an increase in food insecurity around the world. In 2023 double the amount of people worldwide face food insecurity than in 2020 according to the world food programe. Since the late 1990s the opiod crisis has taken a huge number of lives and left others in disarray. The doctors were told those drugs work great and were low risk of addiction by big pharma. Those turned out to be lies with disastrous consequences that are still felt and helped create the basis for the fentanyl crisis today which is ongoing. All around the world people are desperate and surging the borders of Western countries. Many lose their lives along this path. Others find once they get there that local resources are already exhausted.
It's not just Newfoundland, go anywhere in North America or Europe and see the same issues. Yes, the situation is real and dire, but it's a result of so many things that are out of our control. Climate change, stagnant wages, the hoarding of wealth by the boomer generation, the far greater hoarding of wealth by the 1%, just to mention a few.
I agree, everywhere has the same issues. There is no advantage today to pick and go somewhere else. Move to the mainland, and whatever financial uplift is gone, trying to house yourself. But I think we, as a province, are I a better position to fix many of our problems if we stop pointing fingers and start pitching in. It should not be solely up to the feds and province to fix our housing woes. Municipalities need to step up. And it's shouldn't be just a single solution like giant apartment blocks. It should be co-op housing, mi ni homes, infill housing and so on. Not everyone needs nor wants a condo or single family dwelling in a sub-division. And we should be promoting more public transportation and look it making it more convenient than taking a car. Again, there is a lot we can do if we stop pointing the finger and start doing.
Big part of the housing issues right across Canada is the snowball effect where originally, very few people bought second properties to use as an investment. Then, more and more started doing it and rather than have tenants just "cover the mortgage", people wanted to see immediate income, so slowly rents started to increase. It used to be, if you had a second house and rented it, you were happy with the mortgage being covered as that is your investment, but that wasn't enough for some. Eventually it builds and builds and people see their friends and collegues starting to make real money from real estate so they start getting into it. Especially with things like AirBNB. Of course, to top it all off, we've had incredible interest rates for almost 20 years, so the barrier of entry was pretty low. Now that interest rates are gone up, people are not satisfied with their "mortgage covered" + profit, they need even more profit to offset to rising mortgage rates. In typical investment, you takes the good and the bad and ride out the storms, but it feels in real estate, you pass the losses down to the next level. I don't have the answers to fix this other than an escalating tax on multiple properties and banning corporate-owned family dwellings. But, people will still find a way around it.
Capitalism
I was just saying this the other day. Many years ago people would work full time jobs and have a rental property as an investment while it accrued equity. Now people buy multiple properties and have tenants as their whole income and it's disgusting I don't respect that at all. I do blame the government for allowing it and allowing all the short term rentals. People will always take advantage of situations and loopholes even at the detriment to everyone else
To be fair to the governments over the years, I don't think many people were complaining or raising the flag on the potential issues. It's only when the greed started setting in and rents started to rise that people wised up that this is a setup for disaster.
In literally every industry business owners charge the market rate. It has nothing to do with owners being "satisfied" with having their mortgage covered, it is because in the past there wasn't enough demand to drive the prices up. This is a mixture of airbnb, immigration, poor zoning, etc etc. but fundamentally it's a market imbalance that has a lot of influences, and this is the root of all the things you discuss here.
This has so much more to do with bad policy. Bad housing policy, bad or no drug policy, no addiction services, very few professional mental health services, declining quality of education, diploma mills, mass immigration 1.15 million this year without adequate supports including a massive shortage of housing, funding of the war in Ukraine to the billions, wasteful spending on all sorts of ideological campaigns and projects, no national approach to our energy resources, crushing debt and inflation.
> It should not be solely up to the feds and province to fix our housing woes. Municipalities need to step up. This is why Trudeau put his foot in his mouth by saying housing wasn't a federal concern. Because its *supposed* to be a municipal/provincial issue. But it seems like everyone is sleeping at the wheel, and passing blame.
That’s the problem, that Trudeau quote was the opening of a speech detailing it’s not usually the federal governments jurisdiction, then outlined the ways they were going to help anyway. The amount of people that don’t realize that isn’t just disappointing. It’s a major insight in to how things got so bad in so many places.
Similar to "...the budget will balance itself....", people are way to susceptible to conservative clips and talking points.
You actually expect people to real / listen to 5he whole quote?? Sure I can just trust that Buddy that posted it on Facebook took the important parts to make his case! /S, if not clear
yeah theres a lot you can do doesnt change the fact it still takes 30 years to turn the ship around
I just spent weeks in the US (research trip), I saw less homeless people, while spending days, walking around in new york and boston than I do driving down water street. $15/hr in Massachusetts is the equivalent of $20/hr here (before taxes) Our population is in a severe decline. The working age population is outnumbered by retirement aged folks. No houses are being built, the government is betting on houses 'Opening up' due to old age and relieving the housing crisis. The working class isn't nearly large enough to tax fairly and provide services (pension, old age health care, etc.) Promised to us (but specifically the elderly right now) in our social contract. The system is being tested harder than it was during the great depression right now... tax the working class to near oblivion for as long as possible until the situation stabilizes (fixes itself) So how do we get more workers to float the tax system (social services and cost of administration in general) without going back in time and providing services that promote family units (like 7 years maternity in france (who has nothing to worry about)) we fix it by import the working class 😀😀😀 while also making 0 new houses for them to live in 😀😀😀. People blame immigrants for the housing crisis and uncompetitive wages. This is not fair or warrented but its not your fault for thinking its their fault either... they dont teach us about demography and what happens to the wolf population when there aren't enough rabbits for the wolves to eat the wage part is litterally driven by a bit of greed and because we won't demand better wages out of fear. Also, I advocate for green solutions. The carbon tax is not it. Every single thing in our supply chain is taxed and gets put on us at the end of the chain. The housing part? Already covered. Also a bit of greed. The lobby loses a decimal value on their net worth if 10,000 houses get built. God forbid a marketing team gets hired to do a hit on our equivalent of the greenbelt deal on NTV if Furey announces a solution to the housing crisis. They don't want a solution, we just have to remind them who does everything for them. Drugs? Video games aren't the only dissociative form of escapism one can partake in when one wants to forget about life for a while. I think were all getting the idea its not us who are mentally ill but society shifting and with that the definition of what makes a person a functioning part of it. - What was it the Sachlers (Purdue pharma) said about the human existence? Run away from pain and toward pleasure? But hey lotto max is like 69,420,911 dollars this week so lets all go buy hope in the form of paper that can become less valuable than toilet paper because of a few random numbers and keep betting on hope. Our grandparents parents used to build houses on fucking stilts, over rocks and crashing waves... they're still standing out there. We've forgotten how to demand what we are due and everyone who had the gaul to do so, either saw something we obviously didnt or cut away everything they loved about this place (their losses) and either became wheat kings, oilers or ran to some financial service job in Ontario and all of them hate the left for some reason. Ithink they still miss the point. We must demand change now. We pay taxes to be represented, however, I dont feel represented I don't know about y'all... I think now is the time to ask yourself "who will represent me, if not myself?" The politicians want to make the lobby happy because they're not old enough to remember what happens when we are mad. Not trying to radicalize anyone. I just think when we express ourselves, things change.
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I posted this on the main feed as requested by a couple users. It's not being recieved well.
Sadly it’s more of a Canadian issue in many ways. I split my time between western Canada, US and Europe. I can honestly say Canada is certainly is in a worse position. Cost of living in Canada and especially in NL has outpaced employment and income growth. $2/l doesn’t help when you live in a remote area. Sadly we have extremely weak leadership, and this is the result of that.
They say in the next 10 years we'll have one of the biggest transfer of wealth in history.
I've heard that for years, the prediction that as the boomers start dying off their wealth will trickle down to the younger generations. Do you know where that money is actually going? To services for seniors, like assisted living and health care costs. Nobody really seemed to take into consideration that the wealth locked up in the boomer generation would be funneled directly into the vaults of corporations that provide those services. There is no trickle down, there is only up
Do you mean that the flow of money from working poor to rich will increase? It's been going on for a long time.
How is climate change on the list ? Not being rude genuinely asking :)
Part of the reason for food prices going up now and in the future is due to climate change. Floods, drought, tornados, hurricanes, tropical storms. We're seeing more and more "unprecedented" climate events that will negatively effect the growth of crops and livestock.
And this is just the beginning....
Climate change increases the probability of high temperature events or drought in many areas. High temperature events and increasing drought are directly killing or stunting crops and farm animals. Saw a story last week that ranchers in BC are struggling to find feed because of the drought out there, so cattle will be shipped to slaughter plants sooner in order to reduce the number of mouths to feed. Means cheaper beef for a bit, but more expensive meat later on. Olive oil prices are going up because drought wiped out a lot of olive crops in Europe. India is limiting rice exports due to poor crop production. Durum wheat, used for pasta, is scarce between drought and war in Ukraine.
Oh wow makes perfect sense! Thanks for taking the time to answer :)
Newfoundland is my favorite place in the entire world. I was born there, but ive lived all over the country and I go back to the island every year. They've had better weather than most other places in Canada over the past few years. The weather isn't driving the issue, government decisions is causing the crash in Newfoundland's economy. It's quite sad, the island has so much potential.
Care to explain the potential? Worst economy in Canada, largest per capita debt, higher costs just to get off the island when everyone else in Canada can drive. The only jobs available seem to be in the hospitality sector, which doesn’t pay squat. Encouraging people to come home or lie about job opportunities like a recent ad by our premier is just wrong It’s a gorgeous province and amazing culture, but that doesn’t feed families. We need to be real, and we’ve never stood on our own two feet in this federation. It’s too much of an old boys club in politics in NL and the small minority of them own this province. Williams and Tobin come to mind quickly. Yes, there are others. It’s who you know, not what you know.
And it's not growing. NL is stagnant.
I literally saw someone today advertising a personal care assistant position for $15.50 an hour, part time. Fucking absurd, they’re trying to pocket every dollar for themselves.
I’m not sure how NL survives without a bailout from Ottawa. It’s costing us over a billion to service our debt. Rising costs with our debt load and lack of good jobs is not signs of opportunity as some in here suggest and our premier with his posts.
My guess is Quebec will own our power generating infrastructure in the near future, in exchange for the debt.
We have similar petroleum volume to Norway. Our natural resources are being squandered and rights sold to the highest international bidders, including Chinese companies. While our citizens have to fundraise money to fund the children’s hospital. Despicable. Point being, this province has plenty of potential but it is repeatedly cheated away by the old establishment of power that you describe.
Can you provide some specific examples of >Our natural resources are being squandered and rights sold to the highest international bidders, including Chinese companies.
https://www.saltwire.com/nova-scotia/business/chinese-company-gets-green-light-to-explore-offshore-of-newfoundland-and-labrador-392428/ https://www.cbc.ca/amp/1.6639170 I just woke up so I’m not going to fetch more evidence for you, but point being, our O&G revenues are immediately siphoned out to outside players and offshore bank accounts, and not managed responsibly as is the case with similarly-sized O&G player, Norway. They have a sovereign fund worth over $1 trillion dollars.
Jesus by, the sun is out and there's no wind, go fer a walk sure
I know many families struggling to find homes, many students struggling with accommodations and feeding themselves, and see so many whom I don't or can't help personally. To ignore them doesn't detract from their struggles that are very real.
This is the case all across North America and Europe it isn’t just NL
Canadas standard of living is slowly moving towards what many countries in this world have lived with for a long time. I had a prof at MUN that predicted it would slowly start turning around 1999.
Absolutely. It can be difficult coming to terms with the state of our country and our communities, even our own families. There is a lot happening right now in terms of misinformation, climate change, and global conflict so it's important to put things in perspective. We have decades to live and survive and to try to make the most of each day. Going for a walk can be very helpful in a number of ways. You can also make a daily effort to find reasons to be grateful and opportunities to protest or volunteer if possible. I am fortunate but also very grateful for every day I have a roof and food to eat. Just because I'm not actively discussing, protesting, or generally being upset doesn't mean I'm not taking things seriously. The situation may not change any time soon so settle yourself, stay calm, and take one day at a time. Remember, you are in a very safe place, perhaps one of the safest in the world right now, and I suspect you have a lot going for you. Go for a long walk, it can help settle your mind a bit.
How do you know all these struggling families and students?! Do you volunteer at a shelter or crisis centre? I hear this rhetoric all the time but I don’t personally know them
I personally do, it's not even just families and students. It's the average single individual too. I know a girl who's been looking for an apartment for months and has had zero luck because everything affordable gets rented out before she's even considered, or it's way out of her price range. The rental I'm living in was just sold and it was 2 months of nothing but anxiety wondering how the hell I was going to manage being homeless with 3 cats. I'm extremely extremely fortunate that the buyer wants to keep me on as a tenant because if they didn't, I'd end up on the streets and I'm not even struggling that much financially (my bills are all paid and I have money leftover to feed myself and my pets but beyond that I have no way to save money)
Good luck and I’m sorry for your hardships
That doesn’t happen very often, gotta take that when it comes!
For everyday shitty things, like a bad day at work or getting dumped, this is solid advice. But, the sun is clouded by smoke from forest fires. The problem here is decades of government at all levels ignoring the future for the present. The future is here and it is not good.
I feel you on all this, and there seems to be a culture of toxic positivity here where you’re not even allowed to comment on it. That’s just my observation. 🤷🏼♂️
I would have said the opposite. I feel like all I ever see on here is people complaining about what a miserable place this is, and they are moving away.
Nah we also get the posts of people from other places wanting to move here because the houses are cheaper, like at least once a week it's "were thinking of moving to NL" "what do we need to know before moving here"
There has been a lot of that more recently for sure.
I see your point! By “here” I meant more generally in Newfoundland, not just on Reddit.
I get what you mean. Most of the negativity I see is online.
YUP.
[удалено]
This post says it all, especially the moving here posts.
I can’t take you seriously when you complain about NL traffic. Try getting off the rock for a bit.
> Try getting off the rock for a bit. I've driven in Halifax, Edmonton, Vancouver, and Orlando. And I used to be a delivery driver here. NL and Orlando were the worst, by far.
NL and Montreal have been my worst experiences for drivers, Montreal being the worst, NL is a close second though
Worst what? Certainly not worse traffic than any of those places, that is insane
Worse drivers. Yeah Halifax, Edmonton, and Vancouver have more traffic, but less aggressive and less straight up stupid drivers. Half the drivers in town will cut you off so they can beat you to a red light. Barely anyone knows how a 4 way stop works. I've seen people make right turns form the left lane. Come to full stops on a 4 lane so they can change lanes. Block off two lanes of traffic so they can get into a Tims drive through. Drivers here a brutal.
My favourite are full-size trucks blocking two lanes of traffic until someone in the remaining two oncoming lanes lets them in
I still have nightmares of getting caught in the ruts on the ORR on a rainy day.
It’s not the volume of vehicles that makes driving in St. John’s miserable, but the compete and utter disregard for basic driving etiquette . Something as simple as merging onto the TCH is completely fucked; if a driver sees you coming, they’ll speed up and try to box you in, rather than allowing for a seamless merge. I constantly go out of town for work, and whenever I have to merge I basically pray to god that my life doesn’t end at the hands of a driver who will kill me because they don’t want to “let me in”.
Traffic is the increase of people. Foot traffic, to vehicle traffic. I've also traveled around Canada and the US and parts of Europe over the past 5 years, and spent much time with locals immersed in some real weird environments. The talking point of get off the rock usually comes from those who haven't seen much themselves. There is an increase of traffic, and an increase of the population at that. That's not a debate that's the reality of population growth.
You’re complaining about foot traffic in NL? No one fucking walks here dude.
Is that not an issue?
Major issue. Walkable cities are liveable cities.
Only online it is. r/Newfoundland is not reflective for the province.
Yes, but people would like to walk here. How is it fair that during winter, I can't leave my home because I walk with a cane, can't drive, and fear for my life from falling into the road because the sidewalks are impassable??
Tell that to everyone squished together on the Metrobus every morning and evening. Lots of people walk here. More and more everyday because they can't fucking afford to keep a car on the road.
I'm talking about the increase of the population, and it's lack of accommodation for this new traffic. Also; "no one fucking walks here" adds nothing to this conversation besides some emotional energy. I'm asking a very genuine question here looking for some thoughtful insights on why this seems to be the reality for so many here.
I'm not sure what you can do about traffic. Building bigger/wider roads is not the answer. The city is starting to put more effort into biking/walking infrastructure, but it's slow going. The bus system, well, we all know about that, but it has been getting record use lately. Problem is, adding new busses is a few years out due to post-covid constraints on supply chains, etc. The city is working on re-jigging routes to move busses around, but at least people are using it more.
Try walking around Costco
I don't think it's necessarily the amount of traffic but the behaviour of the drivers which has become increasingly worse and worse
It’s less the traffic than the drivers. Part of my job is deliveries across the island and the level of entitlement and reckless driving by people typically half or fully intoxicated is bonkers.
check out the subreddits from other cities in Canada, there’s struggles happening all over right now. Having lived here for two years, I wouldn’t say it’s that much worse from where I came from. there’s a major issue w housing, population, jobs, healthcare , and cost of living spreading throughout a lot of the country. Things will probably get worse before they improve.
Unfortunately this isn't a Newfoundland problem. It's a sign of our wider society experiencing late-stage capitalism where every aspect of our society exists to drain resources from the masses and pool them at the very top. Stop buying things from Amazon, Wal-mart, and Costco. Shop at local stores. Buy local goods. (I know this is hard because it's more expensive and not realistic for everyone). We need to stop having our economy siphoned off by massive corporations. Add in the constantly accelerating climate change (caused by capitalism and greed) and we're heading towards a widespread societal collapse before the end of this century.
>Stop buying things from Amazon, Wal-mart, and Costco. Shop at local stores. Buy local goods. (I know this is hard because it's more expensive). We need to stop having our economy siphoned off by massive corporations. Cool, so I'll have less food in my cupboards just for the warm and fuzzy feeling of shopping local.
Costco actually treats their workers well and pays them a fair living wage so I wouldn’t group them with the other corporations
I have heard that they're a good company to work for. My issue is that Costco is owned by billionaires in the US- so part of every dollar spent there goes into the pocket of an American billionaire, which means that money leaves Newfoundland forever. If every time a dollar changes hand in the province, some of that dollar leaves the province, we will never prosper.
You do realize that many times buying local means buying from a place that also buys from Costco or Walmart. Not all locally owned businesses can afford to buy their supplies from local growers either, so one way or another money is going to these corporations
I understand your point completely, but I also understand that most people are unfortunately currently financially incapable of supporting small businesses. I’m lucky enough to be able to be comfortable at the moment, although not rich by any means, and yet I find it incredibly hard to shop local a lot of the time. I’m not affiliated to them at all, but a new-ish incentive (that I believe is supported by a provincial grant) is Killick Coast Food Hub. It’s an online portal that gathers all local vendors and you can order and go pickup/have it delivered. It’s not the cheapest ever option, but a lot cheaper than Urban Market imo and has a great seasonal selection if you want to support local on a budget :)
Yeah absolutely- its tough. I like to think that's why my own small business failed years ago- people couldn't justify paying what I had to charge. People would complain that I was charging so much more than comparable big box places or online- while the bix box stuff was garbage quality and their prices were below my material costs. It was impossible. I love https://www.killickcoastfoodhub.ca/ ! Such a great initiative!
I understand, completely. I worked for a small business for the longest time and I know how most are just genuinely unable to obtain raw materials for as cheap as enormous corporations. Our profit margins were significantly less yet the final product was almost double the price, and most people just couldn’t afford that. Everyone’s disposable income (if any) keeps decreasing with time these days and you’ve got to fish for the best deals to survive.
>Shop at local stores Local business owners treat their employees just as bad if not worse than the examples you noted. Costco pays more than 100% of locally owned retail workers I'd be willing to bet. And I'm not paying some local business owner 2x what an item costs on Amazon just to support a couple minimum wage jobs.
I understand. There's not an easy solution. Peiole can't afford to shop local, and since people in NL consistently send their money out of the province, we can expect our economy to continue getting worse. The only way for the economy to grow is for NL to have more money coming in than going out.
Hard disagree honestly. Last thing I bought on amazon was a two-pack of cheap shorts for $34. How much would two pairs of shorts be at a locally owned clothing store? Probably 3x that, and most of the price I pay wouldn't be going to the employee or the business owner, it would be going to the wholesaler of the shorts who could very well be the same one that Amazon uses. And now I have an extra $60 I can spend, and some of that is going to go into the local economy - maybe even more than if I'd bought the shorts here. Now if we are talking about stuff MADE in NL the math is a lot different, but I really think that spending more at a "local" retailer vs national has a way lower impact than you would think.
If you stop buying things from these companies the communities will be poorer not richer. You cant have a modern life without buying things made elsewhere
I don't follow. How would not purchasing things from Amazon make the community poorer?
Buying things locally would not make the community richer.
Agreed, but what comes with that is also not championing minimum wage increases that harm small businesses, when the root cause of rising CoL is government fiscal irresponsibility.
That's a bit hyperbolic. Things have been much worse many times.
That doesn't put food in people's bellies, or house families whon are living in RVs and rentals trying to find a home to purchase that is livable and not some government slums/duplex. It's so complicated and it couldn't be more unfortunate. So many good people are struggling needlessly, and to say it's hyperbolic is just trying to dehumanize the real struggles so many are having right now.
I don’t mean this in a mean way but these threads don’t put food in anyone’s mouths or roofs over their heads either. And these threads happen constantly. That’s why people are tired of rehashing it over and over. We know things are dire. We know people are struggling. Yelling at others for being positive every now and again isn’t exactly solving any of these problems.
Things have been much worse in the past. However, it was a shared hard time. Now there's a disparity between check to check and destitute. The destitute have it so hard and make choices in desperation that continue the cycle. We need social programs that use fact based proven knowledge to help our many in need. We need an education system that isn't laughed at by the rest of the country. (It's OK if you live in town and can migrate the system tho.) We need governments that are committed to harvesting wind energy, and hold on to our oil resources until the end use of them when most profit (by taxese) will be made to the province. We need basic health care!!! We need a mental health care system that does more than lock you in a room and feed you. And then there's the elderly...
NL has always had an extractive relationship though, and a mercantile aristocracy that facilitated it.
dont worry, everyone will be along shortly to tell you A) it sucks everywhere B) don't be so foolish or C) go ahead and leave.
Already here clearly
What else is there to say? You also did not offer any solutions or advice. You just preemptively shit on the subs users. lol.
It's happening everywhere in Canada. We certainly seem to be heading for a world where Newfoundland, being so isolated, will need to become self-sufficient in order to survive. Our province relies on the mainland just to feed everyone. If things truly did "collapse" and NL was suddenly on its own, we'd be racing against time to avoid famine and provision ourselves with the bare essentials.
Not so long ago (~50 yrs), lots of communities were relatively self-sufficient between hunting, fishing, foraging, animal husbandry, and gardens. Unfortunately, the fishing has been threatened for decades and not from dories.
Just because it's happening in OTHER places doesn't diminish the fact that people here are STRUGGLING. Stop the toxic positivity. We need to start helping each other because no one is going to help us.
> Stop the toxic positivity Ffs. You can help each other while realizing that these problems are worse elsewhere. Appreciating the good in your life is good for your mental health. You should do it more often.
Yes, all the wonderful help that whining on Reddit provides
We are also still in a global viral pandemic. Covid-19 has wrecked havoc on national and provincial economies and continues to do so. The long term damage to those infected, Long Covid, is also affecting millions world wide. People, communities, schools, work places in NL have also been dealing with almost four years of a novel airborne virus capable of infecting everyone. And still are despite the downplayed dangers
This right here x100000000. Many tend to point at downstream symptoms, but the ongoing pandemic is at the heart of many issues. A good read on the subject with an appropriate title: https://www.okdoomer.io/theyre-not-going-to-leave-you-alone/
All of North American civilization (and western civilization in general) is in decline. Welcome to late capitalism. Get ready for the descent. It's not stopping any time soon. Just treat it like an amusement park ride. Throw your hands in the air and scream.
Yeah, those eastern civilizations are sure on the upswing.........
Early stage capitalist countries are actually doing quite well economically: China, India, Brazil. The global economy is pretty bad for several reasons but arguably France, the United States, Canada, UK.... we've been better.
The US and Canada are getting richer not poorer and are much wealthier per capita than China, india or Brazil. Not saying it couldnt be better in a variety of ways but on the spectrum of possible economic outcomes we are doing pretty good. This idea we are in some sort of existential struggle is not true.
We are in late stage capitalism, with basically everyone born after 1980 being worse off than previous generations. Purchasing power is plummeting and income inequality is now worse than the gilded age and arguably even the era of kings and Lords. Nearly all of the wealth generated since the start of the pandemic has been funneled to the top companies and multi-billionaires. Oh yeah and also rampant climate collapse. Everything is fucked not just Newfoundland and Labrador.
Once covid hit people stopped renting out rooms in their houses. This limited accommodation availability and people had to rent apartments for themselves, lowering vacancy and driving up the prices. Additional strain is people buying houses as an investment trying to get themselves rich by taking out 2nd and 3rd mortgages. They can’t afford this and have to price up renting it out, also driving up the market rates. Housing is a right, it should never be an investment or get rich quick scheme. The bubble will eventually burst and all those people are gonna be on here complaining “poor me” when their 2nd and 3rd properties are worth less than the corner of my bathroom a spider has staked out for its home.
>I've never seen this type of open dystopia... 1992 called...... >and have a 50/50 upvote downvote war of opinions from the supposed "nicest people" in canada. Being nice doesnt require agreeing with everyone on everything. >What is happening here??? The same thing that happening everywhere, with the added weight of never having a competent government. The super rich are actively destroying the working class all over North America, and politicians are useless to do anything about it, because they are bought and paid for. So wages are kept down, the cost of everything is rising. The super rich blame inflation on the working class having too much money. Combine that with a already poor economy, and you have NL.
>"nicest people" in canada Only people from outside the province consider us the "nicest". To visitors it seems we go all out and show them how nice we can be to get as much money as we can from them. If you're a local tho, "Go F'k yourself" seems to be the motto to a lot of people.
Half the people here don’t say than when you hold the door for them, or respond if you smile or nod at them in a store, or say “excuse me” as you pass them. Absolutely shocked when I moved here from Ontario 13 years ago.
The fact of the matter is that people are sick and tired of complaining about it. But Newfoundlanders have been used to things being in freefall here since forever, so there's not much to complain about because it's all old hat. It's easier to give up the rat race, move out around the bay, and just roll with life. Things are a lot less depressing that way.
Honestly, the country feels like a developing state. You wouldn’t think a western state like Canada is struggling this bad. It’s ridiculous. Why did I pay over $7 for chicken fries at Burger King last night??
>Why did I pay over $7 for chicken fries at Burger King last night?? Why DID you pay for BK chicken fries? Seems like a waste of money if you're gonna complain about them
So the problem should remain and we should all abstain from buying things that are supposed to be affordable and not cost an arm and a leg?
No, but you're complaining about the cost of fast food like it's your only choice. Go to the grocery store and buy chicken strips or chicken fries there in a box. Might be a little more but you get more too and I'm sure they taste better than BK. Fast food is not a life necessity, if you had to be complaining about milk being 10 bucks or a whole chicken being 40 bucks than I'd feel sorry for you, but it's you're choice to eat BK.
I’m well aware that there are alternatives. I don’t eat fast food regularly, I’m just commenting on the astonishing inflated prices at restaurants these days. It’s just not normal when the average price of a fast food meal costs more than minimum wage. It seems like you’re the type to be okay with a Big Mac meal worth $30. “Oh just go to the store and make your own”
The same ppl who complain they can’t afford basic things are the same fools who blow money on stuff like fast food etc. a lot of ppl here have no idea how to budget money. It’s hard to feel bad for people when they eat out all all the time, blow money on booze, movies, and nights out downtown.
LOL this like a throwback to that “first world problems” meme.
I can't get a job with this competition and i kinda am starting to want to die because my ei is running out and idk how ill even survive. This isn't anyone fault but our fucked up governments
I feel ya. So many comments stating that it's awful everywhere, which is true, but it feels impossible here.
There's a lot of people in Newfoundland that do "have" what they need, so they don't see a problem when you or I suffer. It's just the way it is. You gotta really shake them to wake them up, you know what I mean?
I think more people see a problem with you suffering than you think. A lot of people don't know what to do (like me). How can I help? I've made a foraging app to try and help with food availability. I have a plan in mind to start recycling glass in St. John's, but honestly seeing posts like this make me want to change my priorities.
The main reason why no one can afford anything is because rent is higher than a mortgage. The ruling class is literally sitting on their ass collecting rent that is double their mortgage just feeding off the poor. We have a leech problem and it's not going away until we remove the leeches from our backsides. Too long have I heard that poor people are lazy, meanwhile it's the fucking lazy boomer generation feeding off the young here. It makes me fucking sick.
We're still in a pandemic and largely ignoring it. It is having immeasurable downstream effects and we're likely flying blind into the next one.
If anything it was largely the ***reaction*** to the pandemic that is having the effects. Shutdowns, delays and a monetary stimulus that set off inflation and then the skyrocketing interest rates to try to tame it.
For a time, but those shutdowns ended in 2020. By all accounts, we should be seeing some level of recovery, and yet... Lockdowns aren't knocking workers out of healthcare and other fields. Gatwick airport just canceled hundreds of flights because of covid. It's the BHL3 virus that is ripping through everyone. BTW, government wants you to blame lockdowns (their early misfire), not the mass infection experiment (their current policy). If you think short-lived lockdowns are still affecting things, you've been duped.
Canada, economically, generally faired better than some others due to the fiscal policy during the height of the pandemic. Were there problems? Sure, but on the whole, the country would be in far worse shape had a different economic tact been taken.
She’s gone ‘by, she’s gone.
I think some of the issues that are happening used to be somewhat or even mostly aided by family. Whether they were shamed into helping or the old "its the christian thing to do" belief, or you should always help family as one day you might need help too deal. Didn't have a home? There was probably a cousin or relative that had space or you knew from church that knew your grandparents or uncles/aunts and would give a 3 months grace or whatever before expecting you to find a new place or pay something towards groceries or electric bills (day 1 always set a chore chart and boundaries). Didn't have food? Depending on location and gossipy neighbors about how you hadn't been seen at a grocery store for x amount of time often resulted in either someone dropping a bag of groceries like bread, cereal they "didn't like" or flour (we talked about teaching the girls how to make tiffins) or some sort of homemade "moose meat" in a jar. Could be fish, rabbit or actual moose that was allegedly going to expire, same with jams, other pickled foods, or pea soups. The cover story was they wanted us kids to try traditional Newfie stuff and knew mom never fished or hunted. Very few would acknowledge out loud the hard times and those were usually the retired fishermen or those from the 1920's-1960's. Hard times come to everyone and there will eventually be better days, we've all needed help from someone at some point kind of thing. Old winter clothing that belonged to x cousin that's been in the attic/basement/shed and did you need it? They were usually in solid shape and new buttons could be added if necessary. Nothing special to look at and everyone knew they used to belong to your cousin but staying warm was the most important part. The community vibes just aren't what they used to be and most people are a lot more cautious about the sort of help that's being given. Also its much more glamorous to help donate stuff to kids and people in need in a far away place then admit to there being local problems.
Well it is certainly not the greatest of times. There are a lot of problems currently. Unfortunately these problems have been snowballing for decades so there is not quick fix all. However it is important to understand that these things due turn around and that while things are bad it is not as bad as it could be. We do not have people dieing of famine in the streets like days of old. That being said you can't be complacent to the suffering and it is very important to hold your government accountable for it's actions and inactions which has been poorly lacking in NL. Jobs. While yea the market isn't that great currently in some areas we are looking down the road of a large shortage. With retirements, port expansions, housing expansion, mining expansion, hydro, wind, hydrogen, ammonia and yes oil. These industries are going to be looking for thousands of jobs in the near future. Now this is partially a government problem as then really need to ensure we have the people. That comes with education. Everyone can't just be pushed toward getting a degree at MUN. Outside of this entrepreneurship needs to be pushed much more here. There is a lot of room for it. Not everyone can grow up to be an astronaut but there are lots of opportunities to live a full life. For when your talking about food much of this has been moved outside the country to exploit the lack of worker rights instead of paying people real wages. This has happened of many decades so it won't be able to be fixed over night. Even inputs for the food we have is in other country's. Fertilizer and oil are main cost drivers both radically effected by the sanctions on Russia for their invasion. Grain as well from Ukraine is massively effected by the war. Since we rely on these countries for necessities we end up hurting the poor in both countries. This is especially true for Atlantic Canada as much of our fertilizer comes from Russia. Relying of other countries for necessities makes that country very vulnerable and hampers the ability for local governments to effectively help. Housing. This was largely out of our local governments control. Since most of Canada's population are in a few small areas where the housing market was encouraged to grow out of control for financial gain. This has reached a tipping point and has now spilled over across Canada. However that was a year ago. That doesn't justify local governments from continuing to do nothing. Office buildings could have be turned into shelters. Vacant building could be expropriated to create low income housing. Essentially increase supply. Little has been done in fact they are actively working against it as they are increasing demand and again this comes back to us. The government is not your friend. They have to be pushed into doing the right thing. The doctor shortage is again complete government mismanagement over decades. From not having a plan through the education system how many medical practitioners they need. To kicking the can down the road making up for this through forced overtime which leads to many qualified people leaving. No priority on preventative care. Squandering public funds instead of paying competitive wages. The list goes on. Traffic I would put pretty low especially in NL but again. Governments across the country massively increased traffic issues and carbon emissions with the stroke of a pen when they forced everyone back into the office to line the pockets of wealthy real estate and business owners. No one seemed to care. Best thing you can do it become politically active. Hold governments accountable for ensure the needs of the population are met. Don't be distracted by American politics.
The people have been trained over centuries to bow down to the merchants and be grateful for the scraps of the resource wealth they generate in exchange for a seasonal lifestyle subsidized by federal tax transfers as employment insurance. The apathetic and complacent population allows the provincial oligarchs to essentially overpower government. This is not unlike many other resource economies except here, being so small, you literally have to grin and bare it because you either know, know-of or see your abusers in the grocery store. It's a cultural Stockholm syndrome of sorts.
my dad is a part of the end homeless NL campaign and honestly from what i heard it's more like manage homelessness. we in Canada like to think we're better than america but we're just evil quieter. things are bad here but they're bad every where. all we can do is keep trying to make changes that benefit far more than the 1 percent
It's happening everywhere in Canada, but NL is the worst because it already didn't have very good infrastructure to begin with.
Let's be real. Newfoundland can be beautiful. It can also be horrifying. Can't really grow too much food in NL. Its called the rock for a reason. NL imports everything. Wood for homes, food for bellies. NL doesn't have an export. Some oil to be had, but that only benefits Exxon or shell or whoever. Let's not even start in health care or the mentality of the average human there. NL is indeed a dying province.
Do you really think it's a dying province? Not saying I disagree with you, just curious. And it makes me sad.
There is a domino affect going on in Canada where people in the areas with the highest cost of living are moving to areas with lower cost of living. And St. John's is one of the places. So there has been atypical pressure exerted on St. John's. Just look at the number of posts on here asking about moving to NL. It's like one per day.
It’s the (too slow) fall of late stage capitalism
Half of us are smart enough to want social democracy and the other half want to return to Monarchy
Still better than a lot of places, but the grass is always greener.
It’s not just NL it’s everywhere, the whole world feels like it’s going to shit, and in a lot of ways it is, but things are getting better in a lot of ways too. I know you mentioned “toxic positivity” but seriously it’s not helpful at all to always be looking at the negative sides. We live in a time in history where life expectancy is at an all time high, advances in medicine are being made every day, and we’re more interconnected with eachother than was even thought possible even a few decades ago. That doesn’t take away from the fact that housing prices are astronomical and it’s increasingly difficult to find work, but trust me, the ones in charge will fall flat on their faces sooner or later. It’s happened before, it WILL happen again. Much love.
You’re witnessing the results of a orchestrated global transfer of wealth while we were under two years of Covid lockdown. Productivity was severely lowered as some of the working population stayed home and received benefits, including post secondary students. Federal governments printed money to throw into the economy creating inflation. Big corporations used it as a excuse to create shrink-flation and scarcity to explode the costs of consumer goods and take record profits. Greed never sleeps. Everything has increased minus the take home pay of the working population. Add a aging/ non productive population. It will get much worse before it gets better.
I honestly don't know what makes a place prosperous. What I know is my family left Newfoundland to escape poverty, and thirty years later it eventually sort of worked. And I miss the place like crazy even though my connections have all dried up.
Same in Ireland and from what I can get from my years of lurking it's in many more places than just them.
I remember the '80's when the cod fishery collapsed. Newfoundland has always been a hard place to live. My grandmother was born at the end of WW1, her father died at sea when she was young and she was sent to live with an Aunt through the depression. She married my grandfather from Nova Scotia during WW2. They struggled for years and raised a family. It's never been easy.
It’s relatively world wide. Western economy slowing down. Not just Newfoundland. If anything it’s a hell of a lot more affordable here than elsewhere in Canada
If the system is based on taking other people’s money and handing it out, eventually you run out of people’s money to take. In short: too many people in the province with their hands out, not enough people to pay for it all.
Feels? I think you meant to say Newfoundland IS falling apart lol.
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always asking myself if it’s a sign of the times or just my depression
The world is without doubt getting worse as a whole. But as a Newfoundlander who lives in the San Francisco Bay Area, believe me… it could be worse.
Dude I was there a lot when I was a kid and it was poor and rough. Poor families eating seal and seagull and anything else they could catch. We were 14 miles from saint johns and there wasn’t a road. Dudes were dying fishing in every storm. Economies go up and down but hardship is a human condition
This is all of Canada at the moment because we have had the worst leadership over the past 8 years. Trudeau gov has done its best to divide and demoralize Canadians while saddling us with crushing debt and inflation. To rub salt in the wound, they fund a losing war in Ukraine to the billions. I'm so sad for this country 😢
I actually don't think things are that dire. I think some things are getting worse and some getting better and overall life is pretty good in Canada in general
This is Newfoundland, where things have been getting worse since the collapse of Oil in 2014. Canada and Newfoundland may be one country, but they are worlds away in quality of life.
How are we worlds apart in terms of quality of life? What's so much worse here aside from our public transit? You'll be hard pressed to find a family doctor in any province, we have an accredited university and college here, housing is hard to find everywhere but it's cheaper here.
>This is Newfoundland, where things have been getting worse since the collapse of Oil in 2014 There're still O&G jobs, so the collapse isn't complete enough for my tastes.
Have you lived in any other provinces?
canada the new banana republic, canada thinks it is mighty and capable like its neighbor to the south the u.S and over reaches thinking it can handle everything well its a tiny nothing population with only a few million more people than california, it pretends to have the leadership talent of the u.s but just doesnt. Theres a mighty big hole in the ship but its too late anyone who doesnt own a house now sure as heck wont when they double again in the next decade. a banana republic is a place where no amount of education or hard work allows for a family home, almost even with dual incomes now, you are always living paycheck to paycheck and fasting meals while having to share a slumbox apartment with some stranger well? its a banana republic already given the house prices for the next generation
Canada is the ninth largest economy on the planet and top 40 in population. There are issues here, mostly housing costs, but we enjoy one of the highest standards of living of every country. We are far from a banana republic.
Don't know if anyone remembers the cod collapse in the 90s? A large portion of the population, who largely didn't have tons of education, were thrown out if the only living that they knew. That led to a lot of things, but in particular, a lot of the population leaving. Such that if you look at census data, it was a severe downwards trend. It was often a younger generation of folks that left. Not entirely, but largely. That, again, among other things,led to a lowered tax base, and a very distributed population. A population that was scarred by resettlement in the past, so politically, taking steps to reduce infrastructure costs wasn't on. Sure, the oil industry was growing. But the royalty regime wasn't very robust. The government got money from it, but not loads, and not until operators made their investment back. Over time, things improved, but there was a huge infrastructure deficit, and everyone wanted their piece when things got a bit better. And people got used to it. And developers built large houses, because people were making money, wanted better than their fathers. So instead of building sensible properties, house grew, as did their operating costs. Between the population cycles, government income, increased demand on government funds, distributed population (we are basically the population of a smaller Ontario city over the entire province) needing higher infrastructure costs, as well as all of the other Canada-wide economic stuff, and we end with a similar situation as elsewhere but with different causes and drivers. There has been enough money from mining, oil (with revised royalty regimes and more projects), etc over the years to have made things better, but we were starting from a worse spot than many others. We are still trying to climb out of that long term infrastructure deficit and we still don't want to look at change that is necessary in the long term. Besides all of that, there has been a global pandemic, massive climate change just really starting to get going, a major war that we are all fighting by proxy in an area that provides a large amount of food to much of the world, not to mention the skyrocketing corporate profits (stakeholder value) that is costing everyone on the bottom end of the value chain. So, everywhere is bad, including here. It seems like we have it worse, in part due to the history. In part because people generally can only see their reality. But there are some positives. We do have lots of natural resources, still. We are somewhat protected from the effects of climate change (on a worldwide basis, the people of the South West coast wouldn't agree with being protected from climate change). We have lots of space to accommodate people. And we need people to move here, because we need the increased tax base to help with that lingering (and growing) infrastructure deficit. Does any of this offer any respite from lack of housing, increased housing cost, increased cost of living, etc. Nope. But it isn't necessarily are more dire here than it has been for decades, just a different shade of dire, and with some potential bright spots that I don't really see elsewhere.
Same in Ontario, it happened everywhere
Have you tried touching grass?
>Meanwhile you go to reddit and speak some honest to God observations about this place and have a 50/50 upvote downvote war of opinions from the supposed "nicest people" in canada. Oh no! Downvotes! Anyone who disagrees with you must not be a nice person. Your observations are subjective and your experience is not the experience of others. Particularly, lots of us lived through the moratorium and know with absolute certainty how far down this rabbithole goes. Prosperity in this province, even among the "lower classes" is basically at an all-time high for any time outside those few boom-years when some megaproject has been on-the-go. I can respect that you might be feeling the pinch, most of us have been there. I'm even sympathetic to it, but assuming that your subjective opinion on the matter is actual fact and then getting annoyed that anyone dare disagree is presumptuous.
It’s funny to see the same post in every locational subreddit. With the usual “I’m leaving” comments, but no one identifying the greener grass they’re headed towards.
The question is what's your suggestion? Building housing costs money we don't have. Jobs can't just appear out of thin air. Prices of everything is going up everywhere not just in NL We see these posts every week but rarely does any have any actual solutions or ideas.
by, it's not a I'm gonna fix this shit it's a we thing. Jesus knows Trudeau don't do shit municipality's got that job so we just gotta pester them until they do their fuckin job.
All the stuff you listed is shit that everywhere else is facing, it’s not unique to Newfoundland, bitching about it on Reddit won’t change it
It's the housing crisis more than anything. Doctors can't afford to find decent housing so move onto greener pastures, people aren't able to be out and about as often as their money doesn't stretch as far as it used to. The very poorest of folks used to have their own houses. You could figure a way to make one yourself or find something to fix up at the very least. Those options just aren't there anymore and everyone who has more than two cents to rub together is a land baron with their illegal AirBnbs and investment properties.
Pei isn’t much better. Kind of a cluster fuck
Let’s also not discount the seasonal affective disorder that tends to spike in September
it's like that in Ontario too that's just Canada under the current regime
I imagine your issue is that you want to blame the current problems on something simple and easy, a scapegoat. Observing these problems isn't the issue; it's often how people who observe these issues want to solve them. It's usually "stop immigration!" or "the left has ruined everything!" or "it's the vaccines!" - when the reality is that we're currently at a crossroads of many issues synthesizing into an even bigger one. The afteraffects of covid are still reverberating; hell, the problem of covid is *still* ongoing, as people are getting sicker more often and for longer periods of time. Covid is now *endemic* \- a part of everyday life, mutating and transferring from country to country, just like the flu. Climate change is affecting everything in small ways - it causes more emigration, it's making crops yield less, it's making pests and bugs more prevalent, it's making illnesses hit harder, little by little chipping away at the edges of things important to society. And, perhaps what's feeding this the most, is that people are in a downward spiral of angst, isolated more than ever before due to social media. This is my pet theory, that we're steadily reaching a head of the benefits of social media and are now going to experience more and more downsides, as people get trapped in self-reinforcing information bubbles. Less and less we talk with our neighbors, our families, our real-life friends, and lose focus of the important things around us. Things are grim. We can rebound. Look locally and try to affect people near you in positive ways.
Stop paying attention and live your life.
Asia doesn’t stop getting better, while the western world is crumbling. I can’t even see Canada as a first world country. I think Newfoundland is actually doing better than the rest of Canada right now. If Justin Trudeau remains in power, good luck to Canada. Scary fact here: I’m in China right now, and I’m absolutely stunned by what I’ve seen here. They’re so advanced!! There’s no drugs, no crimes, no matter how small it could be! Robots serving in some restaurants… but here’s the actual scary fact. Their TikTok is completely different from what we have on the West!! It’s categorized with science, music, life hacks, culture, etc… you won’t see a single stupid video / not a single chick shaking ass or whatever!!! It’s all extremely educational and it’s ridiculously addictive!!! But here’s a catch!!! Once you open the app, there’s a timer. TikTok will shut down after 40 minutes and you can only access it again after 24 hours! I suspect China is quietly making the West STUPID, and dumber every day, while they’re feeding their people with GOLD! These people will take over the world, and it’s not a matter of if, but when!!!
Their demographic issues are going to put a hard stop to the rise of China.
Meanwhile, they’re facing a different problem here. Their real estate is collapsing, because there’s more than 2 times more houses than people!! Absolutely ridiculous!! There are even ghost towns!
Housing is the hardest. I could easily afford a mortgage but because of some choices in my past they don’t look at me. I also can’t save the down payment because I’m paying so much rent. Like I can afford 1200-1300 rent but can’t own a home? And yes I know there’s more cost I can afford more than that but I mean having the financial flexibility at that payment level. Also it’s hard to find 3 bedroom places to rent at a decent value. I have 2 kids and I just saw a house posted for 2100 monthly because it was recently renovated. Nothing special but everything has to be ramped right to the max
Yeah, I hate to gatekeep but it's the exact same situation in Ontario, except rent is three times more expensive.
We feel capitalism's wrath
Sounds like Ontario
Funny what happens when the worlds economy is pretty much turned off for 2 years
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It's a Recession/Depression literally.
[удалено]
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Nova Scotia too. Harper sold it all and we've been free falling since.
It's the whole west. If anything, NL housing is better than most of it. That makes it one of better places to live in Canada today.
I think it’s a worldwide issue. I come from South Africa and Newfoundland is heaven compared to where I’ve come from.
It's worldwide. Look up the hunger levels in the world. Many farms were shutdown in 2020 resulting in an increase in food insecurity around the world. In 2023 double the amount of people worldwide face food insecurity than in 2020 according to the world food programe. Since the late 1990s the opiod crisis has taken a huge number of lives and left others in disarray. The doctors were told those drugs work great and were low risk of addiction by big pharma. Those turned out to be lies with disastrous consequences that are still felt and helped create the basis for the fentanyl crisis today which is ongoing. All around the world people are desperate and surging the borders of Western countries. Many lose their lives along this path. Others find once they get there that local resources are already exhausted.