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Can payments persuade Canadian residents to move away from dying villages?

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Re: Can payments persuade Canadian residents to move away from dying villages?

#91

The US still can't get the last people to leave Centralia, PA. Centralia has been on fire since 1962. So I think the answer is no. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Centralia,_Pennsylvania

Kalapana, Hawaii had a bunch of houses directly in the potential lava flow. They only moved out when it became obvious there was no way to stop it.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kalapana,_Hawaii

https://www.buzzfeed.com/mbvd/lava-approaches-homes-on-hawai...

Re: Can payments persuade Canadian residents to move away from dying villages?

#92
post #84
post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What about stopping the services as well a stop taxing them? Then if it is viable they can stay.

That's the tricky part though, it would be the provincial government that's cutting all services and leaving them to the wolves. The federal government has nothing to do with this and thus will still expect the federal taxes to be paid in full. From the viewpoint of the residents it will be a 25% tax cut (ballpark estimate) in exchange for the stoppage of all essential services, hardly a fair deal.

That would be tricky. I think fairness depends on the value for money - it's possible that they don't need as many services that are being provided with. It's also possible they could provide for themselves cheaper - perhaps with a few lifestyle changes. In anycase it would be up to them to decide what to do. I understand that it's not a politically viable solution but I wanted to add to the list of options the idea that perhaps there is no need to force them to buy government services or force other taxpayers to bail them out.

It also sounds like the federal government is spending money to support the area - instead of spending taxpayers money on growth (churn) perhaps a rebate on their federal tax as well.

Re: Can payments persuade Canadian residents to move away from dying villages?

#93
If anybody wants to see some dramatic pictures of past resettlement programs in Newfoundland check google images (https://www.google.ca/search?q=newfoundland+resettlement&sou...).

I wish I had seen many of these small towns when the fishing industry was thriving. They are beautiful places but they're just a shell of what they used to be. So many abandoned homes, businesses, stages. If you've got FU money there's plenty of cheap oceanview property.

Re: Can payments persuade Canadian residents to move away from dying villages?

#94
post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> some people with houses near the coast are retired, they just want to live a peaceful life near the sea, they don't want to relocate, What about social services? We have public health care in Canada and seniors are the most expensive. Plus, with no industry where are they going to get medication and food? And it's not all seniors, the person in the article isn't leaving because he scared he won't be able to find wo…

Believe it or not, not everyone wants to participate in society once they've done their fair share (retired)

I didn't say anything about seniors needing to 'participate in society' after retirement. I specifically said "non-seniors" have no industry to participate in there... which makes economic sense to relocate them.

My point related to seniors was related to the increased medical care costs required for remote poorly serviced communities. They don't even have a fire department...

Re: Can payments persuade Canadian residents to move away from dying villages?

#95

TL;DR — Fishing villages [...] sent into a tailspin by a fishery collapse, oil-price slump and mounting debt that left it with Canada’s most severe fiscal and demographic crisis. The provincial government now is pushing to close places like Little Bay Islands altogether rather than service them, offering [...] at least C$250,000 ($189,000) each to leave—and spurring a bitter, three-year fight over whether to cash out…

It's not even "the Canadian government". This was purely a Provincial scheme to lower costs.

Isn't a province... government? Might not be the State/Federal government, but yet surely it's government one way or another?

Re: Can payments persuade Canadian residents to move away from dying villages?

#96
post #92
post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's the tricky part though, it would be the provincial government that's cutting all services and leaving them to the wolves. The federal government has nothing to do with this and thus will still expect the federal taxes to be paid in full. From the viewpoint of the residents it will be a 25% tax cut (ballpark estimate) in exchange for the stoppage of all essential services, hardly a fair deal.

That would be tricky. I think fairness depends on the value for money - it's possible that they don't need as many services that are being provided with. It's also possible they could provide for themselves cheaper - perhaps with a few lifestyle changes. In anycase it would be up to them to decide what to do. I understand that it's not a politically viable solution but I wanted to add to the list of options the idea…

One of the main service provided to the village in the article is a ferry with a subsidized rate since it's on an island. Without ferry, there's not going to be a village.

Re: Can payments persuade Canadian residents to move away from dying villages?

#97
post #71
post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What about stopping the services as well a stop taxing them? Then if it is viable they can stay.

Could the down-voters at least tell me why? Thx

That's not how Canada works. We're way to the left of the US. Furthermore, that's outside the power of the provincial government to do.

Re: Can payments persuade Canadian residents to move away from dying villages?

#98
post #55
post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If the point of the scheme is that the government wants to stop providing services to Nowheresville, then they basically have four options: 1. status quo 2. pay 85 people to relocate, keep paying to provide services for 10 people 3. pay 95 people to relocate; 10 of them really strongly do not want to relocate, but force them to do so anyway 4. pay 85 people to relocate, leave ten people to the wolves None of these ar…

What about stopping the services as well a stop taxing them? Then if it is viable they can stay.

I wish there was ANY government willing to do that in the entire world.

Most governments won't ever do that, because it effectively means allowing a independent nation in their lands.

For example: I am from Brazil, and I am most certainly paying in taxes much more than I get in services, police is unreliable (even simple calls to emergency number because I saw shady shit, never worked, sometimes it didn't even connected at all), fire department is also unreliable (more than once they REFUSED to come, and I had to figure on my own how to handle a fire, once this resulted in half of the trees in my yard getting killed after some asshole made a huge debris bonfire on a empty area outside my house), my family purcahsed our own telephone cables and lines (literally), we purchased our own asphalt, we rely on private security, I was 100% privately educated, my health insurance is "private" (it is a private business owned by the Roman Catholic Church), electricity belongs to a private company, our military suck (in fact, I wasn't allowed to join the military when I signed up when I was 18, with the official stated reason being: Lack of money to purchase basic training equipment).

So... what I am paying my taxes for? Taxes in Brazil are about 38% of someone income, on average (I actually pay more than that, according to my calculations my family pays about 60% of our income in taxes).

I would gadly move to a place with no public services + no taxes, to me this would be 100% profit, since right now I have no public services but still pay taxes.

Re: Can payments persuade Canadian residents to move away from dying villages?

#99
post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Statistically more people would be able to afford the mortgages because houses would be cheaper and wealth is on a powerlaw distribution. High interest rates is great for poor people for which their labor dominates their wealth.

High interest rates are great for buying a home. Both for the house prices falling, and for having the option of refinancing at a lower rate later. The big complicating factor is that most people buy and sell a house at the same time, and lower interest rates sound like "lower prices".

I think the wrinkle is that many people see rent as a function of mortgage payments and low interest rates and other rebates are seen as a way to lower rent and provide a win-win. Homeowners get value appreciation and renters get cheaper rent. Of course this is a temporary effect and will only persist during a period of accelerating asset price inflation - which is impossible to maintain long term.

Re: Can payments persuade Canadian residents to move away from dying villages?

#100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm surprised somebody hasn't started a software company in a place like this. Maybe not the very out of the way island featured in the article but similar ones. Rent must be dirt cheap. I wonder how big a company (or collective of freelancers?) it would take to save a town like that.

I used to visit relatives in Kenora, Ontario a couple of times a year. On day 1-3 of the visit I'd think of buying property and running a remote software company. By day 5 or so, I'd be homesick. Really remote communities are quite different. Nature actively tries to kill you and you spend a lot of your time just dealing with that. Also, with respect to kids, everyone's in the same school. So, you can't really segreg…

> Nature actively tries to kill you and you spend a lot of your time just dealing with that.

Hahahaha that's what makes it awesome! :D

I'm presently adjusting to the complete lack of decent internet speeds. That has been my single biggest issue with moving to the country. As soon as I figure out alternate methods to delivering my work, I'll be a much happier person.

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