Commercial Building Crunch time

 

Look at the commercial properties in Ottawa.

https://properties.zoomprospector.com/ottawa?page=1&s%5BSortDirection%5D=true&s%5BradiusLat%5D=0&s%5Bradius%5D=0&s%5BradiusLng%5D=0&s%5BSortBy%5D=featured&s%5BSizeUnits%5D=1

Some of you may know that occupancy in commercial business space is down, some federal governments spaces are less than 50% occupied. 

Some commercial tenants will simply not renew their leases.

What will be the consequence of this in Ottawa? Do you know? Have you asked or surveyed landlords about their business horizons?

When building owners do not have tenants, who will support their mortgage payments?
This will affect their  supporting banks adversely.

Are those buildings convertible to residential space? Do city bylaws permit the transformation?

Will you look into this or remain willfully blind about the issue of low occupancy in commercial buildings?

Money Talks, Bullshit Walks

I try to watch Ottawa City Council meetings on youtube. Its truly mind numbing.

What raises my temperature is the disconnect between what councillors stated were their priorities and what they actually spend their time and money on.

Did they say they would spend another half billion on Landsdowne? No.
Did they plan for giant tents for immigrants? No.
Did they plan on spending millions on swampland? No.

Whose interests does it serve to deviate council and its bureaucrats time, energy and money. Well it is not yours, the taxpayers.

Certainly 90% of the crap that passes for council deliberation is way off their stated priorities...hours of bafflegab and "Whereas" bullcrap.

A big part of the problem is the sheer volume of material, the briefings, the delegations, the minutes, the lengthy meetings...no mere human can ingest, digest, process and synthesize it all. They need help!

These are not stupid people but at times they really think incorrectly. For example, the recent debate on renoviction where tenants get evicted over landlord capital improvements. Its a provincial matter! Why spend two hours debating it. Send your demand note to the province.

My recommendation is to introduce artificial intelligence to assist members with their workload. No council decision or debate should proceed without AI summarues, option analysis and recommendations against stated priorities.

Canada - the 51st State

 

The notion of Canada becoming a 51st state has raised hackles.

The problem is that our economic advantage through association is great. However, the world according to the USNational interests is a very cruel place filled with war, destruction and gross inequities.

Mind you we already have inequity in Canada, lack of housing, lack of food security, lack of fresh water on indian reserves, lack of income distribution its not all roses and maple syrup.

The notion of economic union is also a non starter given the 44 Trillion  USD debt  ( thats a Gazzilion DOLLARS CAD)

It is a strange arrangement. We need so much from the USA including sunny winters.  The states need our resources.
The US has 4 lanes coming to the border. Perhaps they will just take what they need while our fractious parliamentarians dither.