Pedro Barata

What a wonderful treat to feast on @GraphicMatt #TOCouncil thread as a catch up on today’s local democracy. Uplifted by Denise A-C’s much deserved appointment & boost to school food program. Endlessly amused by some of the hilarious colour commentary. Thank you Matt!

Oops… new platforms, new addresses. Keep going on the clean energy, our planet needs it!

What’s that word for when you feel like crying because you read something so beautiful? You’re a treasure @honeill.bsky.social …

Habitat for Humanity Canada on LinkedIn: #honoringcarter Our hearts are heavy as we mourn the loss of Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter. His legacy of public service, commitment to human rights, and boundless…

We mourn an incredible leader in Jimmy Carter who leaves us with a legacy of compassion and action. Let’s keep it going, now more than ever! www.linkedin.com/posts/habita...

About 1/3 through @pitchfork.com 2024 top100 … so far, what a bagful of unimaginative, un-poetic, crass, jarring garbage. Hope it gets a little bit better from here.

The days are getting longer…

Unscientific take: the morning political banter is so far not winning on here.

Great show, really good stuff.

How lovely to hear about the wonderful things happening in Saskatoon on #TheCurrent @mattgalloway.bsky.social. Lovely to be reminded of prairie awesomeness, great energy, community, creativity & fun!

Tuned into new era @ #ManU this morn… cheering for a strong start for Mr Amorim #EPL

The more I think of it, the better this “war” sounds!

But what if the “war” went deeper. Like: rules of the road = rules of the car. Use tech to match car speed to road rules. Use tech to determine insurance liability. Use tech to determine impairment.

Would we use technology to instantly ticket and war against breaking the rules of speeding, red lights and… wait… hold thy breath… stopping at a stop sign (the horror!).

Would we adopt a warring mindset to tow illegally parked cars in major thoroughfares without milling about blocking a lane for an hour to see if anyone shows up?

Interesting… what if we actually did launch a “war on the car” as ridiculous as that sounds. What would it actually look like?

National Housing Week ends… and it’s day one to start working to make the next one in 2025 deliver better results for Canadians. Amazing to lay out some next steps on #CBC. Let’s go… www.cbc.ca/player/play/...

Habitat for Humanity Canada on LinkedIn: #nationalhousingday Today is #NationalHousingDay! Earlier this week, Habitat for Humanity Canada partnered with Habitat for Humanity GTA and the City of Toronto to bring together…

Happy National Housing Day!

Let’s collaborate! www.linkedin.com/posts/habita...

And also options for the majority of Canadians who dream of owning a home. Including scrapping the GST on new affordable home ownership builds. And ensuring housing programs embrace a full ecosystem approach. Not more of the same.

We don’t need more of the same. We need more. And of all kinds. Housing benefits to address homelessness now and eliminate core housing need. Investments in social/nonprofits/coops. Money for private developers to build/repair rental…

3. Many Canadians want to buy a house eventually. You can tell them they are wrong, the world has changed and (worst of all) it’s more cost effective to build rental than to help them realize their dreams so get over it. Good luck with that.

I want to acknowledge the passing of the legendary Ken Battle this week. Together w colleagues at Caledon, they birthed the child tax benefit, “relentless incrementalism”, and helped some of us give our heads a shake, look at building projections & federalism & tune into a housing benefit mindset.

So we keep over-indexing on private, purpose built rental… and we get stuck in a “units built” KPI mindset… and Canadians are left wondering if and when they will get some support in their lifetime.

… Having seen lots of policy work on housing benefits over decades, it’s absolutely possible to eliminate core housing need fast & effectively. But you gotta have courage to integrate income security w housing policy…and the housing world has an allergy called: silo’d either/or thinking.

2. IMHO the most likely options to meet immediate & medium term housing costs are housing benefits and/or rent controls. I’ll leave rent controls to others….

1. Current rent supply emphasis is admirable. It’s deep. But let’s be honest, it’s also narrow. It’s narrow because it dominates but can’t offer at-scale solutions anytime soon. Eventually, maybe, building lots of private rental will trickle down. Let’s not stop. But let’s not just do this either.

It’s National Housing Day & an opportunity to take stock, recognize just how much we continue to fall behind on affordability & recommit to work ahead. 3 thoughts:

To his credit, I am willing to bet the house that no war ever got triggered or escalated while Weekend @ Bernie’s was in rotation…

RIP the wise leader of “relentless incrementalism” who, together w Caledon colleagues, birthed, championed and delivered the Canada Child Tax Benefit, easily up there in progressive impact alongside Medicare & pensions. A brilliant policy mind who was also incredibly human, generous, patient.

We can post randomly about dogs (welcome back @suniljohal) and not have to mention work at all!

I hope this means we can talk about fun, interesting, non-work things (alongside work things) and hear what people actually think again!