Suddenly, zoning and the controls on our communities have come under attack
It is fair to say that for the majority of Canadians, the purchase of a house is the single-largest investment they will ever make.
Interestingly, the second-largest investment might well be a car, and the significant difference is that we buy a home assuming it will rise in value and provide a certain level of security for our senior years. A car, on the other hand, is something we buy knowing full well the value will reduce to something close to zero after 10 years.
Whether we are buying a house or investing in stocks, there are rules of the game for any major investment. The public has little sympathy for companies that deceive shareholders or change the rules of the game after they have put their cash into these stocks. In Canada, we count on contractual law to keep our investments safe and on track.
When you buy a house, you also rely on the terms of the contract to know that you are making a good decision. There are codes to determine the quality of the materials used in the construction, real estate contracts to clearly show the terms of your purchase or the payments on your mortgage, and clear rules and guidelines about the district that your house is located within. None of us want to buy a house and discover later that the house next door is being used as a butcher shop, a funeral parlour, abattoir or even a yard to store livestock or old cars.
Except right now in Calgary. Suddenly, zoning and the controls on our communities have come under attack. It is not you and your neighbours who can determine what your street will be like — whether you have a street of single houses or multi-family houses, or how tall they might be or even how many cars your neighbours might have. The standards that you relied on when you made this major investment are no longer certain and may well be changed by a city council that has a whole new agenda that only they decided on.
When did we as citizens decide that a group of people at city hall, most of whom you have never met, get to say, “We don’t care what the zoning rules were when you bought your house, we know better and we are changing them.”
There is something fundamentally wrong with the way the game is being played right now. Someone is trying to change the rules in the third quarter.
The role of council, in addition to the business of police, fire, parks, etc., is in no small way to include the protection of our investments as citizens. The rules should not be changed at the whim of eight or nine people without regard for the history and the security that we have counted on to protect our investment.
Your house is not your car — it should stand the test of time, and you should not be forced to change without the consent of you and all of your neighbours.
No one was elected to turn on the voters, and this city council must stand up and work for the people who elected them and no one else.
George Brookman is chair and company ambassador of West Canadian Digital.
NEW YORK (AP) — Shares of Tesla soared Wednesday as investors bet that the electric vehicle maker and its CEO Elon Musk will benefit from Donald Trump’s return to the White House.
Tesla stands to make significant gains under a Trump administration with the threat of diminished subsidies for alternative energy and electric vehicles doing the most harm to smaller competitors. Trump’s plans for extensive tariffs on Chinese imports make it less likely that Chinese EVs will be sold in bulk in the U.S. anytime soon.
“Tesla has the scale and scope that is unmatched,” said Wedbush analyst Dan Ives, in a note to investors. “This dynamic could give Musk and Tesla a clear competitive advantage in a non-EV subsidy environment, coupled by likely higher China tariffs that would continue to push away cheaper Chinese EV players.”
Tesla shares jumped 14.8% Wednesday while shares of rival electric vehicle makers tumbled. Nio, based in Shanghai, fell 5.3%. Shares of electric truck maker Rivian dropped 8.3% and Lucid Group fell 5.3%.
Tesla dominates sales of electric vehicles in the U.S, with 48.9% in market share through the middle of 2024, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.
Subsidies for clean energy are part of the Inflation Reduction Act, signed into law by President Joe Biden in 2022. It included tax credits for manufacturing, along with tax credits for consumers of electric vehicles.
Musk was one of Trump’s biggest donors, spending at least $119 million mobilizing Trump’s supporters to back the Republican nominee. He also pledged to give away $1 million a day to voters signing a petition for his political action committee.
In some ways, it has been a rocky year for Tesla, with sales and profit declining through the first half of the year. Profit did rise 17.3% in the third quarter.
The U.S. opened an investigation into the company’s “Full Self-Driving” system after reports of crashes in low-visibility conditions, including one that killed a pedestrian. The investigation covers roughly 2.4 million Teslas from the 2016 through 2024 model years.
And investors sent company shares tumbling last month after Tesla unveiled its long-awaited robotaxi at a Hollywood studio Thursday night, seeing not much progress at Tesla on autonomous vehicles while other companies have been making notable progress.
Tesla began selling the software, which is called “Full Self-Driving,” nine years ago. But there are doubts about its reliability.
The stock is now showing a 16.1% gain for the year after rising the past two days.
The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.
TORONTO – Canada’s main stock index was up more than 100 points in late-morning trading, helped by strength in base metal and utility stocks, while U.S. stock markets were mixed.
The S&P/TSX composite index was up 103.40 points at 24,542.48.
In New York, the Dow Jones industrial average was up 192.31 points at 42,932.73. The S&P 500 index was up 7.14 points at 5,822.40, while the Nasdaq composite was down 9.03 points at 18,306.56.
The Canadian dollar traded for 72.61 cents US compared with 72.44 cents US on Tuesday.
The November crude oil contract was down 71 cents at US$69.87 per barrel and the November natural gas contract was down eight cents at US$2.42 per mmBTU.
The December gold contract was up US$7.20 at US$2,686.10 an ounce and the December copper contract was up a penny at US$4.35 a pound.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 16, 2024.
Companies in this story: (TSX:GSPTSE, TSX:CADUSD)
The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.
TORONTO – Canada’s main stock index was up more than 200 points in late-morning trading, while U.S. stock markets were also headed higher.
The S&P/TSX composite index was up 205.86 points at 24,508.12.
In New York, the Dow Jones industrial average was up 336.62 points at 42,790.74. The S&P 500 index was up 34.19 points at 5,814.24, while the Nasdaq composite was up 60.27 points at 18.342.32.
The Canadian dollar traded for 72.61 cents US compared with 72.71 cents US on Thursday.
The November crude oil contract was down 15 cents at US$75.70 per barrel and the November natural gas contract was down two cents at US$2.65 per mmBTU.
The December gold contract was down US$29.60 at US$2,668.90 an ounce and the December copper contract was up four cents at US$4.47 a pound.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 11, 2024.
Companies in this story: (TSX:GSPTSE, TSX:CADUSD)
The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.
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