General Chat

nor the fact that the "impassioned opposition" was from the Conservative opposition ............... who just lost to the Liberals in the October Election.

They took us into sending the planes to bomb against much more opposition, both inside and outside Parliament!

Don't you love the Independent's slant?
"As Britain extended its bombing mission against Isis from Iraq to Syria earlier this month – amid impassioned opposition"
Which implies the majority of MPs had it forced on them. No mention of those who debated 'For' the action or genuinely believed it was the correct thing to do.

Oh yes, don't you just love our new bad ass defence minister?

bad assed minister ?

http://goo.gl/Gkt3Uf

Hang on might have flurries today and just get below freezing.....won't last though.

cold and wet here ......... heavy rain.

snow on the mountains, but not at lower levels

Nope no winter here yet either !

No winter here either, Bob. I'm still dreaming of a white Christmas but haven't seen a flake of snow yet. A balmy 6 degrees here and raining.

Winter? What's that? I was driving with the car window open today, and my on-board thermometer read 17C. In London.

Just researched it looks like you're right....bit heartless though isn't it...still takes forever if they refuse to move out.

That's just a myth, that one can't be evicted in winter.

winter doesn't apply here :-)

RR
if you don't pay the rent you can be evicted but not before a long drawn out court case i believe. Also in at least Quebec not sure elsewhere you can't be evicted during winter for obvious reasons.

See that's the problem we're so amazing the rest of Canada think we're out of this world. :-D

Just had tonight's news on. It seems most of the people sponsoring in this case were seniors. When they provided proof of income they were told it's not enough. Whether that's true or not i don't know.again maybe they had good intentions but not the money to back it up who knows.

EXCUSE ME!!! The rest of Canada green with envy at Toronto? You've got to be kidding? Are you in Toronto or on Mars?

Services are almost non existent out of big towns and over booked in big towns !! It's a no win.

Obviously the rest of Canada is always green with envy at Toronto as we leave you all in our shadow on everything. :-D for those not in the know this is normal behaviour everyone pretending to hate us but they love us really.

The refugees are getting free hats and coats etc now all we need is winter so they can wear them.

Even within toronto public transport isn't always the best just depends where you are on the line or the bus route. And very very packed.

I hope you have your needles out and knitting a few tuques. as a welcome present. :-D

RR .........

Putting refugees outside the big cities is being done, but carries it's own problems


Services for refugees might not be as good .... eg, translator services, language and education skills classes, full trauma help

Getting to the big city to access such services is nowhere near as easy as in the UK, unless you have a car. These guys might be able to drive, but they have to pass the Canadian driving test, and afford a car and then run it. Or else their "hosts" will have to drive them around.

Outside the Toronto - Montreal - Ottawa corridor, there are few local trains. Bus service between communities is usually by long distance service, eg Greyhound.

There can even be problems in the Toronto area, if you happen to be in the wrong town.


So we do tend to find that immigrants, especially refugees, tend to congregate in the larger centres.

Vancouver is in exactly the same situation as Toronto .............. in fact, it's even worse.

The current rental vacancy rate is 0.5% or lower, depending on the area of the city.

In Toronto, the vacancy rate is about 1.8%


The rental cost is higher in Vancouver as well.


There are still people offering rooms, apartments, basement suites.

One developer has handed over 12 apartments in one building that will be available for about 3-4 months or until he gets permission for re-development.

............. these are all offers for the Government sponsored refugees.


There are no complaints that I have heard from the organizations who are privately sponsoring refugees.


I'm like Margee ......... I'm incredibly proud of Canadians


but it does sound as though our two respective places are different from Toronto


well, we did always know that :-D

"In Toronto they always have people ready to rent so they can be fussy !!they don't want to be stuck with no one paying the rent in one year it seems. "

So much the same as any large city where property is in relatively short supply and landlords can pick and choose and pretty much charge what they like ( London as an example) however whether someone is likely to be able to pay the rent after a years tenancy is really not the point, and that could apply to anyone, whatever their occupation etc.

I would assume that Canada has similar tenancy agreements to the UK, ie if you don't pay the rent you get evicted?

I would also assume that there are other places outside of Toronto where prices are not as punchy?