Canada’s $6.9B Wildfire Is the Size of Delaware and Still Out of Control
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Re: Canada’s $6.9B Wildfire Is the Size of Delaware and Still Out of Control
#2I returned to Fort McMurray yesterday, after being evacuated a month ago. It was raining. Today the fire is a bit better because of the rain.
I'm one of the lucky ones. My house is still standing, and there's no damage.
Re: Canada’s $6.9B Wildfire Is the Size of Delaware and Still Out of Control
#3Canada seems to be in so much trouble - I am wondering how things are there.
# Massive flooring of the Canadian dollar.
# Continued job losses months on end - Unemployment rate of 7.1% !
# Most expensive Natural Disaster in Canadian history.
At least they got their Obama.
Re: Canada’s $6.9B Wildfire Is the Size of Delaware and Still Out of Control
#4Canada seems to be in so much trouble - I am wondering how things are there. # Massive flooring of the Canadian dollar. # Continued job losses months on end - Unemployment rate of 7.1% ! # Most expensive Natural Disaster in Canadian history. At least they got their Obama.
> At least they got their Obama.
What? Obama wasn't elected on the strength of nice hair and Daddy's legacy.
Re: Canada’s $6.9B Wildfire Is the Size of Delaware and Still Out of Control
#5Canada seems to be in so much trouble - I am wondering how things are there. # Massive flooring of the Canadian dollar. # Continued job losses months on end - Unemployment rate of 7.1% ! # Most expensive Natural Disaster in Canadian history. At least they got their Obama.
On the bright side, it is opening up some long-overdue political dialogue. For example diversification of the Alberta economy away from natural resources.
Calgary's downtown office towers have reached record high vacancy rates, with so many engineers laid off. I'm hoping this is an opportunity for tech companies to take notice and move in.
Re: Canada’s $6.9B Wildfire Is the Size of Delaware and Still Out of Control
#6Canada seems to be in so much trouble - I am wondering how things are there. # Massive flooring of the Canadian dollar. # Continued job losses months on end - Unemployment rate of 7.1% ! # Most expensive Natural Disaster in Canadian history. At least they got their Obama.
On the bright side, it is opening up some long-overdue political dialogue. For example diversification of the Alberta economy away from natural resources. Calgary's downtown office towers have reached record high vacancy rates, with so many engineers laid off. I'm hoping this is an opportunity for tech companies to take notice and move in.
Interesting to know.
I have been thinking of moving to Canada due to all the good things I hear from my Canadian friends.
But I get conflicting view from the news and statistics.
Re: Canada’s $6.9B Wildfire Is the Size of Delaware and Still Out of Control
#7Canada seems to be in so much trouble - I am wondering how things are there. # Massive flooring of the Canadian dollar. # Continued job losses months on end - Unemployment rate of 7.1% ! # Most expensive Natural Disaster in Canadian history. At least they got their Obama.
> # Continued job losses months on end - Unemployment rate of 7.1% !
I wouldn't get too hung up on that -- historically that's a fairly decent rate for Canada.
For a variety of reasons (difference in the way the rate is measured, and structural differences between the two countries) Canada's unemployment rate has generally been several points higher than the US since the late-70s.
At least one analysis I've seen of the structural differences pinned the higher rate on the fact that unemployed Canadians were more likely to be seeking to return to the workforce than US counterparts, inflating the number since they don't "drop out" of the workforce entirely.
edit: and the low dollar is a mixed bag. Higher basic good prices, but somewhat of a protective for middle-class manufacturing jobs.
Re: Canada’s $6.9B Wildfire Is the Size of Delaware and Still Out of Control
#8I returned to Fort McMurray yesterday, after being evacuated a month ago. It was raining. Today the fire is a bit better because of the rain. I'm one of the lucky ones. My house is still standing, and there's no damage.
I cannot imagine how that feels to come back to your house intact. I've wondered ever since an acquaintance of mine, who had a house in the Oakland hills during its fire [1], talked about it. She had come back to her house and it was still standing, and then went on to relate how, for her, it was a mixed blessing.
The house was there, and the stuff was there, but everything smelled of smoke (and would for years afterward). Some of her neighbors lost their homes, and a combination of the rebuilding challenges (dealing with insurance, contractors, budgets etc) resulted them in selling their houses and moving away. Some of her neighbors were living in 20 year old houses instead of over 50 year old houses (this was back in 2011). Her neighbors had much better wiring, stronger foundations, and built in home fire sprinkler systems. Things which improved their homes in a number of small but important ways.
She said it was the most surreal thing in her life in terms of how she "should" feel, how she "did" feel, and how she thought about and remembered the fire. In 2006 she had upgraded the insulation in the attic to make the house more energy efficient and removing all of the old insulation released a lot of smokey smells again which brought a lot of the scene, the craziness, back.
I've thought about that a lot since I talked with her. All through my life my parents and the government has spent time and money telling me to "prepare" for disaster and no money at all telling me how to live "after" disaster.
Something that helped her was that she began writing a journal in the days and weeks and months that followed the fire.
Re: Canada’s $6.9B Wildfire Is the Size of Delaware and Still Out of Control
#9Canada seems to be in so much trouble - I am wondering how things are there. # Massive flooring of the Canadian dollar. # Continued job losses months on end - Unemployment rate of 7.1% ! # Most expensive Natural Disaster in Canadian history. At least they got their Obama.
No offense but based on what happened here point #4 isn't profit. However if you read up on him they may have gotten closer to a Sanders if anything. Based on his actions he has try to what Obama promised to do (Transparency, cabinet mandate and such is publicly available) but never intended to do.
The question that exist is, will his continued openness/transparency in governance keep alive the honeymoon period long enough to deliver on the large number of promises made in an unfriendly economy. You can promise the moon but economics will not let him deliver it.
Re: Canada’s $6.9B Wildfire Is the Size of Delaware and Still Out of Control
#10Canada seems to be in so much trouble - I am wondering how things are there. # Massive flooring of the Canadian dollar. # Continued job losses months on end - Unemployment rate of 7.1% ! # Most expensive Natural Disaster in Canadian history. At least they got their Obama.
I had to create an account to reply to this. Surreal.
"# Massive flooring of the Canadian dollar."
The Canadian dollar is currently at 0.772, which is historically pretty much the natural level for several decades. When the oil spike caused the dollar to rise, it gutted manufacturing and other exports because they had come to rely upon the lower rate. As it dropped these industries revitalized.
"# Continued job losses months on end - Unemployment rate of 7.1% !"
Surreal. An unemployment rate of 7.1% is far below the going average for the past several decades. Countries with stronger social nets universally have higher unemployment rates as people are less obligated to take terrible employment situations just to survive.
I feel like some right winger from the US is giving their "take", to the detriment of all.