Government should heed CD Howe's Advice

On Tuesday, the C.D. Howe Institute, one of Canada's leading public policy think tanks, recommended the Bank of Canada perform several quick and sharp increases to the key interest rate starting in June. The institute suggests the central bank "implement a 50 basis point hike at every six-week meeting starting in July and continuing through until mid-2011." I, along with many Canadians from the finance minister to Maclean's magazine, have voiced concern with the huge debt loads Canadians have taken on laregly due to the run-away housing market and ballooing mortage payments. Interest rates are currently as low as they can go. That's not hyperbole either, the rates are at 0.25% right now--any lower and the banks would be paying you to take out a loan. Interest rates have to go up, they will go up, and they should begin as soon as possible. This would cool the housing markets, slow inflation (which stands at 2% at the bottom of shaky recovery)and set our economy on more sustainable groud. We've tended to use low interest rates for every economic application in recent years. Interest rates were lowered to fuel the economny in boom times, they were lowered to prop up the economy when cracks began to show, they were lowered when the economy tanked and now they've been pushed to rock-bottom levels to help propel a recovery. Talk about a panacea! Low interest rates are not the cure-all for our economic woes. Without action soon these record low interst rates will only lead to damaging inflation-as the recovery really starts to take hold and commodities liek natural gas and oil surge-as well as a further inflation of a housing bubble that's really going to sting when it pops.

Olympic Protesters A Sad Display

The 2010 Olympics kicked off yesterday with a great opening ceremony. However, during the final day of the torch relay, the route was interrupted several times by a sad display: olympic protesters. This ragtag group of provocateurs have been chomping at the bit to have their 15 minutes of fame and shine a light on their cause. And what is their cause? Well, judging byt the signs and placcards yesterday, it includes everything from homelessness to the oil sands, from native land claims to a corporate new world order. I even saw a "free Marc Emery" poster for god's sake. This isn't an organized protest against a particular issue, this is a group of rowdy anarchists and activists bent on complaining about something--the olympics is just the cause de jour. If we weren't hosting this international event, you can bet your bottom dollar they would have found something else to complain about. There will be no pleasing the constant griping of Vancouver's protesters. If the government gave them all a $1000, they'd demand more. If we build them houses, they'll march to City Hall for better furniture. If the skies opened up and rainbows and puppy dogs flooded the city, they'd probably be bitching about the bright lights and the noise. It's time we stop giving these people a soapbox everytime they demand one, especially when they don't even have a coherent message and there's nothing they can accomplish. The Olympics are here, that's certainly not going to change now. These "activists" had a city-wide referendum and numerous elections at all government levels to try and convince people of their beliefs. They didn't. People support the games. We can squabble over costs here and there, but the deed is done and the vast majority of people support it. Now here's hoping these fringe protesters don't get any more publicity during the next 2 weeks, lest the world leave Vancouver thinking all we have are pot-heads, drug addicts and whiners.

Hands Off My Coke!

A study from the University of Minnesota was released today which states that drinking more than 2 soft drinks a week increases your risk of getting pancreatic cancer. Since I live off a steady stream of cola, should I be worried? The study's author states that it isn't anything in pop specifically, rather it is the "high levels of sugar in soft drinks [that] may be increasing the level of insulin in the body, which we think contributes to pancreatic cancer cell growth." While the authors did test fruit juice (which is MORE sugary than most pop) and found no link, they did not test iced tea, coffee with sugar, flavoured waters, beer, wine or any of the other sweet beverages around. And if the sugar is the culprit, there is a lot of sugar in a lot of things. Did you have a glass of milk with breakfast? As much sugar in there as half a can of pepsi. What about some low-fat, prebiotic strawberry yogurt? You'll get more sugar there than in a can of 7up or Schweppes Ginger Ale. Put ketchup on anything? That's 5 grams a tablespoon. The list of items with sugar, whether added or natural, is a long one and any one of them could have similar pancreatic effects as pop. Finally, it is important to note the authors themselves point out that"people who consume carbonated, sugar-sweetened soft drinks on a regular basis tend to have a poor behavioral profile overall," meaning that it's most likely that the participants who got cancer in this study had poor diets and other contributing health and lifestyle factors besides a twice-weekly soft drink habit. Oh, and on top of that, some warn "that the study may be based on too few cases (only 140 participants developed pancreatic cancer) and that other risk factors such as smoking may have contributed to the results." Now, where's my Coke?

Micro Lofts Just a Micro Solution

Property developer Reliance Properties unveiled plans to build so-called "micro lofts" in Vancouver that average a paltry 270 square feet. Many claim that these smaller units, which will likely rent for around $750, can be a solution for Vancouverites of more modest means, especially students and single service-sector workers. These people, and frankly many more, are finding themselves priced out of the Vancouver market, which is now being dubbed the most unaffordable in the world. The entire region, and not just the downtown core either, has seen years and years of rising prices. This growth, in my opinion, is unsustainable. House and condo prices have exploded across the region; home prices have more than doubled in some areas. These micro lofts aren't much of a solution for the sky-high real estate market in Metro Vancouver. Instead, fiscal policies should be adopted by government to curb this growth before people must abandon the dream of home ownership and settle for renting or at best, cramped apartment living like pictured above, where the toilet is literally in your shower and your bed has to fold up inside the wall. Finance Minister Jim Flaherty opined last month that the federal government may take steps to cool the housing market, including shortening the allowable duration of mortgages (currently 35 years) or increasing the required 5% down payment. I urge the finance minister and the federal government to strongly consider doing both. The government needs to act to stamp down the runaway inflation in the housing market. Yes, require larger down payments. Yes, reduce the amortization period. I suggest also that it's time interest rates begin to creep back up from their current historic lows. The low cost of mortgages is a key driving force in the real estate market right now with people scrambling to buy-in while interest rates are as low as they are. Begin to ratchet those rates up and hopefully we can see home prices descend back to earth. If left unattended, as it has been for the last decade, real estate will continue to grow itself a nice shiny bubble that will burst just as Canada has finished climbing out of the great recession of '08-'09 and I'd rather endure the pain of deflating it now than wait for the 'pop'.

BC Teachers Start Annual FSA Bellyaching

It's that time of year again when BC grade 4 and 7 students write the standardized Foundation Skills Assessment tests, a reading, writing and numeracy evaluation. It is therefore also the time of year when the BC Teachers Federation and their legion of educators get out their self-serving soapboxes and start the annual season of FSA complaints. Each year BC Teachers come out in force to advocate against students taking this particular test. This year, teachers are not only advocating through the media their ideological position, they are also using students are conduits for handouts and letters aimed at getting parents to try and have their child opted-out. The BCTF argues that the FSA wastes classroom time, forces teachers to "teach to the test", and takes attention away from more effective learning tools like field trips, such as the annual trek of school aged kids to Playland amusement park that masquerades as a physics lesson, or a trip to an IMAX theater to watch a movie about warm water coral reefs, both of which are clearly educational goldmines! However, the BCTF's constant griping is wearing thin. The FSA is just one test of many that students must take throughout their lives. It tests kids for reading comprehension, writing skills and numeracy abilities, all things that teachers should be passionate about. Teachers should want to know how their school is doing in these areas and should welcome any such data. The FSA takes a total of 4 hours to complete, which is spread over multiple testing days. 4 hours out of 10 months of instructional time is hardly the waste of time the BCTF claims. As for educators having to "teach to the test," wherein they allegedly must forgo meaningful teaching and curriculum to help students prepare for the test, I would expect no less! The FSA asks questions such as this:

To make 2 dozen cookies, they need 350 g of chocolate chips.

What mass of chocolate chips is needed to make 15 dozen cookies?

. 1.875 kg
. 2.45 kg
. 2.625 kg
. 5.25 kg

I would expect 12 year olds to be able to answer this question. I expect teachers to have been teaching math skills such as this. If teaching this kind of math is the type of "teaching to the test" that the BCTF wants to get rid of, what kind of teaching do they want? More colouring? More field trips? More of the limp curriculum that has our kids lagging behind many other countries in basic skills? More of the kind of teaching that has resulted in 21% of kids, that's 1 in 5, not being able to answer this type of question, or write a proper paragraph, or understand the content of a short piece of reading, as the FSA results have shown? Dig a little deeper and you begin to see what all this bellyaching is about. The BCTF is a left wing entity with strong ties to the NDP. This ideology leads them to scoff at anything that resembles meritocracy, whether its standardized testing or capitalism. They ideologically oppose allowing some kids to succeed and others to fail. They'd much rather let everyone slide through with whatever hand-holding and educational pablum it requires. The BCTF announces proudly in a YouTube video that the opposition to the FSA is all about "social justice," yet another leftist plank they share with the NDP platform. Isn't it about time the BCTF and its teachers started caring a little less about politics and a little more about teaching?