Canada’s $6.9B Wildfire Is the Size of Delaware and Still Out of Control • Hacker News Board

Re: Canada’s $6.9B Wildfire Is the Size of Delaware and Still Out of Control

#161

Post by TheGeminon » Sat, Jun 04, 2016, 8:56 PM UTC

maerF0x0 wrote: post #29

wesd wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Software engineerings in Calgary are lucky to make 70k canadian I have to disagree with that statement. As an example, here is a system admin job posting by City of Calgary. The pay range is $77,891 - 117,609 per annum https://recruiting.calgary.ca/psc/pdhr/EMPLOYEE/HRMS/c/HRS_H...

Those city and CBE jobs are few and far between and usually pay much higher than private jobs. The 77k is starting wage more or less no matter what seniority and rises with yrs of service in the union. I think most intermediate / senior engineers can make 75k a year, but starting is very low, like 50k.

That seems really wrong to me. I work for TELUS and starting wages for entry level programming positions is around the 55k-70k, and then for more intermediate positions (something like 5 years experience) you are looking at 70-100K

Re: Canada’s $6.9B Wildfire Is the Size of Delaware and Still Out of Control

#162

Post by MichaelGG » Sat, Jun 04, 2016, 9:43 PM UTC

Kluny wrote: post #147

MichaelGG wrote: post #122

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The South Africans are here for diplomatic reasons more than anything So it's just a Trudeau-like "diversity" hire or something? Not to say that in a mean way, just that they are not the most qualified and have only received minimal training. I suppose it wouldn't be so bad if it wasn't being praised as "South African government sees it as repaying a debt to the Canadian people for their support for the anti-aparth…

Yeah, they need experience and training, so they're here to get it.

They're also getting paid for it. I'm not against it, just annoyed how it's being published. The real story is "Canada gives South Africa over $2M, trains firefighters". Not "South Africa helps out Canada; pays back apartheid debt". It's shameful to spin it like that.

Re: Canada’s $6.9B Wildfire Is the Size of Delaware and Still Out of Control

#163

Post by dogma1138 » Sat, Jun 04, 2016, 9:52 PM UTC

rpgmaker wrote: post #154

dogma1138 wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I guess Russia is still unpopular on HN. Russia has allot of experience with wildfires it has the largest and densest northern forests in the world combined with a permafrost that holds insane amount of methane and other carbohydrates. Climate change and forest fires are huge national security issue to Russia and if they go out of control it can cause horrible damage to Russia and even then entire planet as it can ca…

> And while they might be arseholes on the political scene otherwise every time there is a large scale fire they do extend their hand and come in with serious help. It's difficult to top the US in terms of foreign policy assholery though.

Indeed but for most of the HN readers US foreign policy more or less aligns with their interests. In general talking about politics on HN isn't a good idea, mentioning ideas that the current conflict with Russia is largely in part due to the EU and NATO expansion is even more so. While I don't like what Russia is doing in the Ukraine and in many other parts of the world I can hardly blame them as they are living the nightmare scenario of being the largest landlocked country in the world. They've lost the post cold war "buffer" to the EU, they are at risk of losing the control over the gas and oil pipelines from the Middle East into Europe, and they are encircled by NATO. If Canada and Mexico would've joined the Warsaw Pact the US would've nuked Moscow.

Re: Canada’s $6.9B Wildfire Is the Size of Delaware and Still Out of Control

#164

Post by dogma1138 » Sat, Jun 04, 2016, 9:55 PM UTC

ende wrote: post #152

dogma1138 wrote: post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Some forest are meant to burn yes, the problem is that with climate change forest fire now burn further north and for much longer than before. Drought conditions and the heat traps that are cities prevent proper rainfall which stops them and changes we've made to the landscape can prevent burn outs which also make fires last longer. And more importantly while forest fires are natural it doesn't mean it's good, we had…

The problem with accepting any kind of help from Russia is that the Russian government is single-mindedly focused on geopolitical leverage. It does nothing out of the kindness of heart. Every offer of assistance, every interaction with a foreign government is a calculated maneuver. No thanks.

You make it sound that it's not the deal with every other country in the world.

Re: Canada’s $6.9B Wildfire Is the Size of Delaware and Still Out of Control

#165

Post by Tiksi » Sat, Jun 04, 2016, 10:02 PM UTC

ende wrote: post #152

dogma1138 wrote: post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Some forest are meant to burn yes, the problem is that with climate change forest fire now burn further north and for much longer than before. Drought conditions and the heat traps that are cities prevent proper rainfall which stops them and changes we've made to the landscape can prevent burn outs which also make fires last longer. And more importantly while forest fires are natural it doesn't mean it's good, we had…

The problem with accepting any kind of help from Russia is that the Russian government is single-mindedly focused on geopolitical leverage. It does nothing out of the kindness of heart. Every offer of assistance, every interaction with a foreign government is a calculated maneuver. No thanks.

This holds for pretty much every government.

Re: Canada’s $6.9B Wildfire Is the Size of Delaware and Still Out of Control

#166

Post by DKnoll » Sat, Jun 04, 2016, 11:20 PM UTC

adventured wrote: post #99

DKnoll wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

1. The value of the Canadian dollar right now is much closer to the historical norm than it was when at parity for a relatively short period. 2. The unemployment rate is marginally higher than in the USA. It's bad here, but it's bad over there too... the recession never ended. 3. That's true, and to be honest, I'm glad it's expensive. Expensive means there is something and/or someone there worth saving. I would argue…

> The unemployment rate is marginally higher than in the USA. It's bad here, but it's bad over there too... the recession never ended. That's blatantly incorrect. - The US unemployment rate is 9.7% on the U6. The Canadian equivalent would be closer to 13%-15% [1] (the Canadian R8 is not the equivalent of the U6). That's not a marginal difference, it's a significant difference. The US U6 rate peaked at near 18%, six y…

The US measures unemployment differently, you're right. Which one is a more accurate measure however is up for debate. Given the higher US poverty rate, lesser social services and lower minimum wage, I don't think underemployment in Canada and underemployment in the USA carry the same weight.

I should add current Canadian unemployment (as of March) is under 1% higher than the 2006 level as reported by StatsCan.

I think you can attribute the high level of Canadian household debt to the insane cost of real estate in urban Canada. Real estate prices have inflated dramatically.

You're right, I didn't use the word recession correctly. But I don't think anyone can reasonably argue Canada or the US are currently in boom time.

US GDP per capita may be higher than Canadian GDP per capita, sure, but US external debt is 114% of your GDP, versus 92% of Canada's.

I'm not an economist.

Re: Canada’s $6.9B Wildfire Is the Size of Delaware and Still Out of Control

#167

Post by [deleted] » Sat, Jun 04, 2016, 11:33 PM UTC

walshemj wrote: post #148

zzalpha wrote: post #142

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, just supply. During the more heated oil years no one was looking for a job. And this might come as a surprise, but that actually makes it really hard to hire, even if you have competitive offers. This might be different in other markets where job hopping is common and the overall supply of qualified hires is high (Edmonton often loses out to Calgary and Vancouver), but you don't see that as much here, unfortunate…

Same difference you just weren't offering enough $ or an interesting job to attract people.

[deleted]

Re: Canada’s $6.9B Wildfire Is the Size of Delaware and Still Out of Control

#168

Post by ende » Sat, Jun 04, 2016, 11:52 PM UTC

dogma1138 wrote: post #164

ende wrote: post #152

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The problem with accepting any kind of help from Russia is that the Russian government is single-mindedly focused on geopolitical leverage. It does nothing out of the kindness of heart. Every offer of assistance, every interaction with a foreign government is a calculated maneuver. No thanks.

You make it sound that it's not the deal with every other country in the world.

Let's compare the number of countries that Russia has subjected to energy blackmail to that of literally any other country, for starters.

Re: Canada’s $6.9B Wildfire Is the Size of Delaware and Still Out of Control

#169

Post by MustardTiger » Sun, Jun 05, 2016, 1:14 AM UTC

dleslie wrote: post #156

MustardTiger wrote: post #138

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>In a historical sense, Canadian dollar isn't particularly low, at least not so low that I would call it "massive flooring". There was only one period of history where we were this badly fucked. And that was when this idiot's father was PM and destroyed our economy. It took 3 decades to pay back the debt he created and have our dollar recover. And now it is happening again.

It happened again, already. Harper contributed the largest deficits and the biggest total new debt of any PM; and he started -before- the 2008 crisis.

>Harper contributed the largest deficits and the biggest total new debt of any PM;

Neither of those statements are correct. Do leftists seriously just make up nonsense because they like the way it sounds?

Re: Canada’s $6.9B Wildfire Is the Size of Delaware and Still Out of Control

#170

Post by [deleted] » Sun, Jun 05, 2016, 1:15 AM UTC

dleslie wrote: post #156

MustardTiger wrote: post #138

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>In a historical sense, Canadian dollar isn't particularly low, at least not so low that I would call it "massive flooring". There was only one period of history where we were this badly fucked. And that was when this idiot's father was PM and destroyed our economy. It took 3 decades to pay back the debt he created and have our dollar recover. And now it is happening again.

It happened again, already. Harper contributed the largest deficits and the biggest total new debt of any PM; and he started -before- the 2008 crisis.

[deleted]