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Lay of the land
This is not a problem of housing cost, but of land value (It's More Than A Housing Crisis – April 24).
Urban land is like a painting by a dead artist: the supply is finite. Urban sprawl is a hugely expensive pressure-relief valve, gobbling up farmland but also contributing to a deteriorating quality of life by forcing urbanized folk to devote an appalling amount of time and money to transportation in order to serve the needs of the city and survive.
The social costs can't be quantified. Acquiring wealth is a widely held desire, and what better way than by owning land in a growing metropolis? Conventional economic concepts related to investment are inapplicable, because the escalation of scarce land values bears no relation to any conceivable measure associated with borrowing costs and discounted cash-flow calculations.
Replacing a single family dwelling on a city lot with a high rise apartment building increases the lot's value astronomically. Such steps have the desired result of increasing density, but cannot help but also increase land value, affecting every other city lot.
The housing solution may be part of the disease. Perhaps the time has come to think about this problem not in terms of housing, but in fundamental notions of land rights and ownership.
Boudewyn van Oort, Victoria
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Bankers, lawyers, doctors, professors and deputy ministers are solidly in cities' upper middle class. But the work they do and the buildings where they work depend on a wider array of personnel. Secretaries, clerks, nurses, technicians, cooks and cleaners are necessary for society to function. And every one of them needs a place to live that is within a reasonable travel time, allows for family life, and is affordable.
Local and provincial politicians have failed to design cities that account for this basic fact. Travel times are excessively burdensome. Not enough child-friendly housing is available. Prices are geared mainly to those at the top of the scale. We are all in this together, but you wouldn't know it from land-use policies.
Howard Epstein, Halifax
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Uncowed by Trump
Re Trump Milks Canada's Sacred Cow (editorial, April 24): So the problem is that U.S. dairy farmers can't dump their excess product on the Canadian market and put our dairy farmers out of business?
There's nothing like cheap dairy but I for one am glad we won't be exposed to the Bovine Growth Hormone and antibiotics in U.S. milk. Perhaps supply management here needs a little tweaking, but remember: It's Canada first.
Leslie Martel, Mississauga
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Yes, our dairy producers are well protected by supply management. But to accuse them of inefficiency is wrong. For example, Canadian Holsteins have been well and carefully bred for generations and are a global source of improved bovine genetics.
Canada's climate is another factor; producers must provide shelter as well as ample storage of quality feed to overwinter herds.
The typical dairy farm here milks 75-200 cows. Mammoth U.S. dairy farms are a totally different animal. On one visit, the owner explained that cows' tails had to be removed to protect the milking crews from being clubbed with a manure-encrusted swinging tail. So the tail was fitted with a firm elastic to cut off circulation and eventually dropped off. He said they didn't like tails littering the yard, so they used a hedge cutter. Nice!
Dairy operations help maintain small-town Ontario and Quebec communities, and provide clean and safe milk at costs related to the cost of production. Opening markets to U.S. and other cheap production areas will spell the end of the Canadian dairy industry. And once the cows have left the farm, they don't come back.
Martin C. Pick, Cavan, Ont.
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Being British
Re May Is Right: Let The British Be British (April 22): What's in a name? A lot. Had the nomenclature remained the "common market," Brexit probably wouldn't have happened. Calling it the "European Union" stuck in the craw of the British, who have never considered themselves European in any way, shape or form.
Nancy Marley-Clarke, Calgary
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Nunavik's Nordiks
Re A Bittersweet, Final Road Trip For The Nunavik Nordiks (Sports, April 22): We're not surprised Roy MacGregor found signs of program success in speaking with some of the 80 Nunavik Youth Hockey Development Program (NYHDP) players and their coaches. Our research team attended practices, preparation camps and tournaments, and came away with similarly positive views.
But a rigorous program evaluation goes further. Our senior researcher – a member of the Chippewas of Nawash First Nation, an expert in Indigenous and Northern youth programming, and a hockey player – spent nearly two months visiting seven communities in Nunavik. We interviewed 141 NYHDP staff, mayors, community leaders, principals, teachers, youth, parents and other stakeholders. We reviewed program documents, administrative records, academic literature and information on similar programs in Canada.
We concluded that youth hockey is good for Nunavik and should be continued in the region. NYHDP was seen as having built a foundation. We noted, however, that future youth hockey programming can be enhanced by incorporating Inuit culture and community capacity building, neither of which is a meaningful part of the current model.
Most importantly, by shifting the emphasis from select teams and southern tournaments to youth-development-oriented local hockey, program benefits can be boosted and extended to a greater proportion of Nunavik's nearly 4,000 children and youth.
Donald Hall, Hillory Tenute, co-investigators, Goss Gilroy Inc. NYHDP evaluation, Ottawa
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Schooled in discord
Re The Jig Is Up For Canada's School Boards (April 24): Konrad Yakabuski is right on target. As a former two-term trustee on the Toronto board of education, after witnessing horrendous waste, self-serving bureaucrats and political cronyism, I concluded that a comprehensive voucher system would be the best solution for delivering quality education.
Naturally, the provincial government would be responsible for creating and enforcing adherence to a basic curriculum, however, a private or community based group could establish a school and parents would direct their vouchers, one per student, to the school of their choice.
Those opposed argue that such a system would "gut" public education. Considering how rotten it is, this is a good thing.
Peter Davis, Toronto
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Yes, school boards, like city and town councils and even parliaments, can find themselves at an impasse. That's democratic process for you. Throwing it out is not a solution.
Tom Ferris, school trustee, Victoria
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I'm with Mark Twain: "In the first place, God made idiots. That was for practice. Then he made school boards."
Sophie Pelletier, Montreal