Why not? If we spend 200 million a year on clearing but save a billion in insurance claims plus the trauma of relocating people during fires and having them lose all their possessions, it seems like a smart move. ps. We spent 12 days at a local hotel along with hundreds of other people during a forest fire two years ago. We were fed and housed on the gov's dime, so I cant imagine what the final bill was but they spent at LEAST $2000 on us alone. Id estimate there were 500 of us in that hotel alone so that's a million dollars. And that was only one of several hotels. Add on the cost of firefighting and the loss of property and it gets VERY costly in a hurry. To say nothing about how traumatizing it was for my three neighbors who lost their houses and livestock to the fire.
CanadaRocks
Thats true. But SOME of it IS arson, just not the large majority. Its hard to stop the disinformation when there's a kernel of truth.
Its weird that pretending to be a Christian holds any sway in US politics. In Canada, politicians are loath to even mention their faith affiliation and they definitely dont try to portray themselves as evangelicals for the clout.
How a guy who's been convicted of sexual assault, uses prostitutes and likes to 'grab them by the pussy' and doesnt even know a single Bible verse can be the champion of 'Christians' in America is beyond comprehension. He's the furthest thing from it.
I thought it was introduced by Nate Erskine Smith?
The concept was quirky but it had a ton of hype. It wasn't helped by the fact that it has some fairly noticeable flaws, one being panels that are glued on and have been known to fall off. And headlights that are placed so close to the front bumper that any buildup of snow blocks them. Not smart design.
Teslastans hyped the fact that there were "2 million preorders" which was supposedly because of the mass appeal of the CT. Turns out once the novelty wore off, people just said 'meh, Id rather have a more normal truck for doing truck things' which is why the Rivian is still selling ok, the Ford Lightning is limping along and the Sliverado EV is actually a range champ with real world reports of over 800 km range that can actually tow a trailer for more than three blocks before needing a recharge.
Yes its a couple of degrees warmer than it used to be. But that's hardly the major story. The fact is that we dont do much active fire management in Canada and we're way behind the curve.
Its a little known fact that fire is GOOD for promoting regrowth and rejuvenation in forests. In fact there are some species of trees that actually dont open their seeds until they are touched by fire. Lodgepole pine, Jack Pine, and Pitch Pine are notable examples that have serotinous cones sealed with resin, which melts and opens only when exposed to the heat of a fire. Who knew?
And who knew that indigenous peoples used to regularly start forest fires to rejuvenate the land, cleaning out all the old underbrush and deadfall and making the forest safe for years to come? But along came us settlers and we thought its better to just leave the forest alone. Wrong.
We actually had a wildfire come within 30 feet of our house two years ago. The efforts of a dedicated group of firefighters saved it, but three of my neighbors lost theirs. The forest looked terrible for a few months. But by the next summer it was already very green and THIS summer it looks amazing. There are already 5 foot tall trees where there was only black ground two years ago. The grass and trees look amazingly green and lush. And there is NO underbrush so the chances of another fire are pretty much zero for at least another 20 years.
IF the gov had an active forest management plan, with controlled forest burns, after carefully creating fire breaks around nearby populated areas, we wouldn't have wildly out of control fires every year that threaten people's homes and make the air hard to breathe.
Its not all about "climate change", MOST of the problem is poor management. And careless people.
Conservative religious groups, and Mennonites are part of that, already have a strong distrust of government. They were targeted, ridiculed and ostracized when the covid vaccines came out and that did nothing to reassure them that the gov is looking out for their best interest, so this latest outbreak isn't going to make them suddenly swing toward being pro vaccines. If anything they're going to pull back even more which is why we have such a huge measles outbreak. Its not going to change easily as the mistrust runs deep.
And its no wonder - there were Amish people (a related group) who were charged for not getting a covid vaccine passport and had to go to court to argue that their faith doesnt allow them to use that kind of technology. They DID win their case and the charges were dropped but once again the distrust in gov grows.
ps. Just a correction but the Mennonites actually came from Europe, followers of Menno Simons who who was a former Catholic priest who was excommunicated for his reformational ideas. We settled in Mexico, the US and Canada after running from persecution so this mistrust in gov is a deeply held part of culture. Some Mennos are still quite conservative, others are quite liberal and you couldn't tell them from any other Canadian.
"The posts promoted numerous conspiracy theories — asserting the fires were primarily caused by arson..."
Well, according to our own government, more than 2/3 of wildfires ARE started by humans, but not necessarily arson. We are a sloppy lot, and untended campfires, thrown cigarette butts, even sparks from train wheels, and downed power lines are all culprits. But it IS mostly humans, not mother nature doing the most damage.
Kind of ironic since the sponsor of the bill is from the Liberal party.
This. And I used to teach that age group. They seemed to be very invested in gaming, the opposite sex, celebrities, what their friends were doing, social media and music. Not sure those are the people who give two seconds thought to politics and there were a few who were socially aware and active on some key issues, but in general, nope, they're far too distracted to care enough to even vote.
It takes time and these days, it takes some training to learn discernment in media messaging. Those skills come over time.
These studies are annoying. "Study finds if you give people money they do better in life" Wow. Such rocket science.
But for all the radical socialists trying push UBI, you will note that NONE of them want to pay for it with their tax increases (do they even pay taxes?). Which is the entire problem. There may be some savings in the system but the COST will be borne up front by the taxpaayer. And since WHEN in the history of mankind, if a gov has saved some money in other areas, have they LOWERED taxes due to the savings? Never.
Therefore UBI is sever going to happen. Because the only people who support it are students and academics and think tanks. The rest of us live in reality and are sick of our very high tax burden in Canada. So enough with the studies, kill this idea once and for all.