CanPol 2024: the religious experience of pissing on dolphins

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(Thread IKs: ZShakespeare)

jettisonedstuff: Apr 9, 2006

MikeC posted:

Air travel makes up 2% of the global CO 2 emissions created by humans - pre-pandemic. It is a drop in the bucket.

It's 2% of a completely insane and unsustainable level of greenhouse gas emissions, i.e. still something we need less of. Definitely not something we want more of.

# ? Mar 3, 2024 22:18

Adbot: ADBOT LOVES YOU

# ? Jun 3, 2024 08:06

Subjunctive: Sep 12, 2006; ✨sparkle and shine✨

MikeC posted:

And there was zero agency with regards to how this hypothetical individual ended up with a lovely job at the end of a long commute yet still decided children, with all their financial burdens were a good choice despite their precarious financial situation.

This is a bit, right?

# ? Mar 3, 2024 22:29

Precambrian Video Games: Aug 19, 2002

MikeC posted:

Their business model revolves around people making mistakes just like how credit card companies make their money off interest payments.

...

As an aside, I am on board regulating predatory behaviour. Ex. Payday loan companies are among the worst offenders that should be shut down. But discount airline tickets? Time to put on the personal responsibility shirt.

You're so close to fully understanding the issue here.

Subjunctive posted:

This is a bit, right?

The "having children is a poor life choice/unethical" debate transcends all forums.

Precambrian Video Games fucked around with this message at 22:32 on Mar 3, 2024

# ? Mar 3, 2024 22:29

Subjunctive: Sep 12, 2006; ✨sparkle and shine✨

Precambrian Video Games posted:

You're so close to fully understanding the issue here.

I�m not sure you�re correct.

# ? Mar 3, 2024 22:32

infernal machines: Oct 11, 2012; we monitor many frequencies. we listen always. came a voice, out of the babel of tongues, speaking to us. it played us a mighty dub.

Subjunctive posted:

This is a bit, right?

Being pathologically incapable of empathy and unable to understand poverty as an actual lived experience isn't the sole domain of capital C Conservatives, but by golly it does seem to come up a lot.

# ? Mar 3, 2024 23:04

Furnaceface: Oct 21, 2004

Subjunctive posted:

This is a bit, right?

New to MikeC posting huh?

He is a Harperite through and through. Its not a bit.

# ? Mar 3, 2024 23:33

MikeC: Jul 19, 2004; BITCH ASS NARC

infernal machines posted:

Being pathologically incapable of empathy and unable to understand poverty as an actual lived experience isn't the sole domain of capital C Conservatives, but by golly it does seem to come up a lot.

LoL, I too made 32k a year at the bottom of the social ladder at one point in my life renting a room to survive. You have no idea what my lived experience is or isn't.

# ? Mar 4, 2024 00:01

Chillyrabbit: Oct 24, 2012; The only sword wielding rabbit on the internet; Ultra Carp

To pull the emergency lever to not post about posters.

I don't understand the tabled Pharmacare bill as reported by CTV

I get that medical care and stuff is provincial responsibility, so the Feds and this bill can't force them to do it. But my first take is this is a nothing bill to make a committee to study national pharmacare and they don't have to actually implement right?

quote:

What does the pharmacare bill say?
In paving the way for a full-fledged pharmacare program, Bill C-64, "An Act Respecting Pharmacare," indicates the Liberals' "commitment to consulting widely about the way forward," and intent to establish a committee of experts to make recommendations "on the operation and financing," within 30 days of the bill becoming law.

The committee would then have an entire year from the bill's passage to provide a report to the health minister with its recommendations.

The legislation also includes a series of underlining guiding factors for a future pharmacare program, including improving the accessibility, affordability and appropriate use of pharmaceutical products, as well as providing "universal coverage� across Canada."

It also provides for the Canadian Drug Agency announced in late 2023 to work on developing a national formulary and bulk purchasing strategy. Should the bill pass, this agency would have to also provide a list of essential prescription drugs within a year.

How did the Dental care plan unfold in the HoC did it start off like this? A report first then some hand waggling at each other, then a funding plan?

# ? Mar 4, 2024 00:12

ZShakespeare: Jul 20, 2003; The devil can cite Scripture for his purpose!

I'm certain it'll be as effective as the electoral reform committee.

# ? Mar 4, 2024 00:20

Bleck: Jan 7, 2014; No matter how one loves, there are always different aims. Love can take a great many forms, whatever the era.

MikeC posted:

LoL, I too made 32k a year at the bottom of the social ladder at one point in my life renting a room to survive. You have no idea what my lived experience is or isn't.

Yeah but by your own metrics you probably deserved it, so who cares?

# ? Mar 4, 2024 00:27

infernal machines: Oct 11, 2012; we monitor many frequencies. we listen always. came a voice, out of the babel of tongues, speaking to us. it played us a mighty dub.

MikeC posted:

LoL, I too made 32k a year at the bottom of the social ladder at one point in my life renting a room to survive. You have no idea what my lived experience is or isn't.

Without getting into the oppression Olympics, I too grew up in poverty, and if you have actual lived experience there and your take is still "I would simply not make choices that lead to poverty" there is something much worse going on in your head.

e: I'm going with the charitable reading here and assuming you don't mean something like "I was in post-secondary school, renting a room, and making $32k a year", because that would be the experience of just about every middle class Canadian student.

infernal machines fucked around with this message at 00:53 on Mar 4, 2024

# ? Mar 4, 2024 00:36

PittTheElder: Feb 13, 2012; Yes, it's like a lava lamp.

Look I managed to make it out so anyone still in poverty is clearly some sort of loving rube who needs to wisen up

# ? Mar 4, 2024 00:44

MikeC: Jul 19, 2004; BITCH ASS NARC

infernal machines posted:

Without getting into the oppression Olympics, I too grew up in poverty, and if you have actual lived experience there and your take is still "I would simply not make choices that lead to poverty" there is something much worse going on in your head.

It is one thing to be born into poverty. It is another to make choices that increase your odds of staying there. It is yet another to look at these people and say that nothing was their fault. That robs them of agency, personal responsibility, and human dignity.

Bleck posted:

Yeah but by your own metrics you probably deserved it, so who cares?

drat straight I could have made better life choices in my teen and early 20s.

# ? Mar 4, 2024 00:57

infernal machines: Oct 11, 2012; we monitor many frequencies. we listen always. came a voice, out of the babel of tongues, speaking to us. it played us a mighty dub.

MikeC posted:

It is one thing to be born into poverty. It is another to make choices that increase your odds of staying there.

This is the thing about poverty though, you can make good choices and stay in poverty, and if you make any poor choices, you are far more likely to suffer their negative consequences, and more severely, than someone with money.

It isn't about denying people agency, it's about understanding that the deck is in fact stacked against them, and that humans are fallible, they don't operate on perfect logic with perfect knowledge, and the outcomes of poor choices and negative circumstances for people in poverty are always more severe than for those who have means, without it being any fault of their own.

# ? Mar 4, 2024 01:04

DrBox: Jul 3, 2004; Sombody call the doctor?

jettisonedstuff posted:

It's 2% of a completely insane and unsustainable level of greenhouse gas emissions, i.e. still something we need less of. Definitely not something we want more of.

Just wait till you see the numbers for animal agriculture.

# ? Mar 4, 2024 01:14

Subjunctive: Sep 12, 2006; ✨sparkle and shine✨

MikeC posted:

human dignity

you guys are wrong, this has to be a bit

# ? Mar 4, 2024 01:42

infernal machines: Oct 11, 2012; we monitor many frequencies. we listen always. came a voice, out of the babel of tongues, speaking to us. it played us a mighty dub.

Subjunctive posted:

you guys are wrong, this has to be a bit

I bet you lunch these are genuine opinions, earnestly held.

# ? Mar 4, 2024 01:53

Arivia: Mar 17, 2011

I wish I made $32k a year.

# ? Mar 4, 2024 02:28

flakeloaf: Feb 26, 2003; Still better than android clock

If animals didn't want to be slaughtered and eaten at the keg with a nice craft beer, then they should've made better choices

# ? Mar 4, 2024 02:58

infernal machines: Oct 11, 2012; we monitor many frequencies. we listen always. came a voice, out of the babel of tongues, speaking to us. it played us a mighty dub.

That's an interesting choice of metaphor

# ? Mar 4, 2024 03:22

Crystal Lake Witch: Apr 25, 2010

Subjunctive posted:

you guys are wrong, this has to be a bit

That classic bit of consistently talking like a weird rear end in a top hat, while feeling superior to people that are struggling, because of all the better choices you�ve made.

# ? Mar 4, 2024 03:42

PT6A: Jan 5, 2006; Public school teachers are callous dictators who won't lift a finger to stop children from peeing in my plane

Less Fat Luke posted:

If a restaurant has to pay people a below-living wage to survive they shouldn't exist and if airlines have to do things like double all the cancellation fees to survive well, maybe they shouldn't exist either.

Agreed, Flair is shady as poo poo and it shouldn't exist. However, it's able to continue existing precisely on the basis that idiots fall for their low-base-fare bait. The fact that some of those idiots end up getting screwed over doesn't completely absolve them of their choice to support the deceitful enterprise in the first place.

To put it another more Online way: say what you will about the Leopards Eating People's Faces Party, but it could only possibly exist because a bunch of people whose faces haven't been eaten yet, support an objectively bad thing.

# ? Mar 4, 2024 04:27

apatheticman: May 13, 2003; Wedge Regret

Maybe the systemic oppression amplifies peoples bad choices and causes them to not get a chance at a second chance.

apatheticman fucked around with this message at 05:00 on Mar 4, 2024

# ? Mar 4, 2024 04:56

McGavin: Sep 18, 2012

Bring back the death penalty, but only for people who try to refund Flair tickets.

# ? Mar 4, 2024 05:18

flakeloaf: Feb 26, 2003; Still better than android clock

https://montreal.ctvnews.ca/quebec-mom-says-air-canada-bungled-her-family-vacation-because-they-overbooked-the-flight-1.6792695

Air Canada gets beetlejuiced into the discussion

quote:

Cindy Boulet says she and her two sons, ages 5 and 8, were supposed to fly to Cuba on Tuesday. She booked the trip through Air Canada vacations.

"When we checked in, we got our tickets, and I saw that my first two tickets didn't have our seat numbers assigned," Boulet told CTV News.

She says an Air Canada agent told her they would fix the problem before boarding. But when boarding began, they were told to wait on the side -- and were never let on the plane.

"They were overbooked, and they decided to put the single mom and her two kids out of the loop. So it was just us. Just us," Boulet said.

"[it's] covered by the air passenger protection regulations. And depending on how much it was delayed as a result of this incident, Air Canada owes her up to $2,400 per passenger," he explained.

After returning home and spending hours on the phone, Boulet managed to re-book the vacation.

Air Canada gave her a refund in the form of a voucher, but she paid the difference out of her own pocket.

"I ended up paying about $1,400 more for a trip because I'm smack in the middle of March break now, and Air Canada said that it was at my expense," she said.

# ? Mar 4, 2024 05:20

Jordan7hm: Feb 17, 2011; Lipstick Apathy

She should have read the fine print that Air Canada can just do whatever they want and no tickets are guaranteed. Really it�s her own fault.

# ? Mar 4, 2024 05:31

McGavin: Sep 18, 2012

Oh wow, I feel so much empathy for Air Canada. They didn’t have the capability to read the fine print in the regulations because they went bankrupt in 2003 and their poor brains never recovered, so now they have to pay $2,400 per passenger in restitution.

# ? Mar 4, 2024 05:32

apatheticman: May 13, 2003; Wedge Regret

Vouchers are such bullshit.

# ? Mar 4, 2024 05:43

Precambrian Video Games: Aug 19, 2002

apatheticman posted:

Vouchers are such bullshit.

What if they gave school vouchers instead?

# ? Mar 4, 2024 05:48

Kraftwerk: Aug 13, 2011; i do not have 10,000 bircoins, please stop asking

I must remind everyone that we used to live in a society where you could make a career out of working for places like Sears and retire with a full pension and benefits. That�s the real breadth of the wealth inequality that enables companies like Flair to exist in the first place.

The entire point of private equity today is to maximize you profits by stiffing the working man and making poo poo unfair for them. Even companies like Toyota have a two tier wage system where people below a certain seniority level occupy a lower pay bracket and will never hit the wages of the higher seniority bracket forever.

Every time they try to unionize they just hire more contract workers and threaten to fire them all if a union gets made. So then the new contract employees form a voting block that dilutes the yes votes of existing employees.

Once again- today we look at a low level service job or retail job as a hellish operation where you put up with it for some spending money or reluctantly depend on it for a living because your life circumstances limit all other opportunities. But there was a time such jobs were decently paid life long livings and there was no shame in doing it for life.

The fact that you can�t do that anymore and society places more competition on white collar work which is also being marginalized and hosed is the root cause of the problem.

# ? Mar 4, 2024 05:48

Paper Lion: Dec 14, 2009

because the game got given up about 20 years ago: the goal isnt to work at all, just position yourself as a usurer or parasite and maximize that. if you produce anything, youre already losing because whatever youre doing gets moved and bartered up the chain until someone else makes 100x what you did just by getting their hands on it then shuffling it off to the next person. housing as a commodity, the great bay street casino, predatory lending, executive level jobs where you buy a company, extract its value in giving yourself bonuses then shutter it weeks later citing budget issues, thats what youre supposed to "aspire" to if you want to beat the system because its a system that only values more fastest, and those are the hacks in place that get you there.were only really seeing it start to filter out of the minds of those that figured it out and into fresh minds now, think about all the 16-22 year olds making tik tok content about how they are already landlords and "heres how to 10x your money" bullshit. theyve never known ambition for the sake of personal fulfilment, only ambition in how to exist in a beaten system. the goal is optimized extraction, not meaningful input.

millenials were raised and optimized to be the perfect mid to high level drones, told if we got crazy high grades wed get into the best schools for the degree we HAD to have to get some executive or mid level management position, or be a doctor or day trader or lawyer. trade schools withered away under our lack of enrollment. which is why we're all overqualified for every lovely position that we are actually allowed to apply for because boomers arent giving theirs up. most of our upbringing and formative memories/ideological training happened during the rot of the 90s/early mid 00s but before the full collapse of 08. gen z experiences though were primarily after the collapse in 08. we had hope and it was quashed out of us, but gen z were raised nihilistic off the rip, this poo poo is natural to them. its scorpion and the frog poo poo i cant blame them for it, only lament that we were built a world that would encourage this

Paper Lion fucked around with this message at 12:29 on Mar 4, 2024

# ? Mar 4, 2024 12:27

PT6A: Jan 5, 2006; Public school teachers are callous dictators who won't lift a finger to stop children from peeing in my plane

apatheticman posted:

Maybe the systemic oppression amplifies peoples bad choices and causes them to not get a chance at a second chance.

Maybe Flair and its customer base are making material conditions worse for people across my industry with their bullshit, so piss on them.

# ? Mar 4, 2024 14:22

Kraftwerk: Aug 13, 2011; i do not have 10,000 bircoins, please stop asking

Paper Lion posted:

because the game got given up about 20 years ago: the goal isnt to work at all, just position yourself as a usurer or parasite and maximize that. if you produce anything, youre already losing because whatever youre doing gets moved and bartered up the chain until someone else makes 100x what you did just by getting their hands on it then shuffling it off to the next person. housing as a commodity, the great bay street casino, predatory lending, executive level jobs where you buy a company, extract its value in giving yourself bonuses then shutter it weeks later citing budget issues, thats what youre supposed to "aspire" to if you want to beat the system because its a system that only values more fastest, and those are the hacks in place that get you there.were only really seeing it start to filter out of the minds of those that figured it out and into fresh minds now, think about all the 16-22 year olds making tik tok content about how they are already landlords and "heres how to 10x your money" bullshit. theyve never known ambition for the sake of personal fulfilment, only ambition in how to exist in a beaten system. the goal is optimized extraction, not meaningful input.

millenials were raised and optimized to be the perfect mid to high level drones, told if we got crazy high grades wed get into the best schools for the degree we HAD to have to get some executive or mid level management position, or be a doctor or day trader or lawyer. trade schools withered away under our lack of enrollment. which is why we're all overqualified for every lovely position that we are actually allowed to apply for because boomers arent giving theirs up. most of our upbringing and formative memories/ideological training happened during the rot of the 90s/early mid 00s but before the full collapse of 08. gen z experiences though were primarily after the collapse in 08. we had hope and it was quashed out of us, but gen z were raised nihilistic off the rip, this poo poo is natural to them. its scorpion and the frog poo poo i cant blame them for it, only lament that we were built a world that would encourage this

Yeah unfortunately for me it�s extremely difficult for me to visualize how to make money off TikTok and YouTube or whatever hustle scams gen Z is involved in but it has made me realize Gen Z will probably protect the economic system they�re inheriting rather than help us change it because enough of them will make it big doing this stuff to matter.

# ? Mar 4, 2024 14:47

flakeloaf: Feb 26, 2003; Still better than android clock

PT6A posted:

Maybe Flair and its customer base are making material conditions worse for people across my industry with their bullshit, so piss on them.

AirTEMU

Fly like a billionaire

# ? Mar 4, 2024 15:38

Mederlock: Jun 23, 2012; You won't recognize Canada when I'm through with it; Grimey Drawer

Paper Lion posted:

because the game got given up about 20 years ago: the goal isnt to work at all, just position yourself as a usurer or parasite and maximize that. if you produce anything, youre already losing because whatever youre doing gets moved and bartered up the chain until someone else makes 100x what you did just by getting their hands on it then shuffling it off to the next person. housing as a commodity, the great bay street casino, predatory lending, executive level jobs where you buy a company, extract its value in giving yourself bonuses then shutter it weeks later citing budget issues, thats what youre supposed to "aspire" to if you want to beat the system because its a system that only values more fastest, and those are the hacks in place that get you there.were only really seeing it start to filter out of the minds of those that figured it out and into fresh minds now, think about all the 16-22 year olds making tik tok content about how they are already landlords and "heres how to 10x your money" bullshit. theyve never known ambition for the sake of personal fulfilment, only ambition in how to exist in a beaten system. the goal is optimized extraction, not meaningful input.

millenials were raised and optimized to be the perfect mid to high level drones, told if we got crazy high grades wed get into the best schools for the degree we HAD to have to get some executive or mid level management position, or be a doctor or day trader or lawyer. trade schools withered away under our lack of enrollment. which is why we're all overqualified for every lovely position that we are actually allowed to apply for because boomers arent giving theirs up. most of our upbringing and formative memories/ideological training happened during the rot of the 90s/early mid 00s but before the full collapse of 08. gen z experiences though were primarily after the collapse in 08. we had hope and it was quashed out of us, but gen z were raised nihilistic off the rip, this poo poo is natural to them. its scorpion and the frog poo poo i cant blame them for it, only lament that we were built a world that would encourage this

I'd highly recommend folks here who are mentally and physically capable of it, to strongly consider joining a trade union and get a journeyman ticket in something. It's not for everyone, but it's way different today than 30 years ago, or even 15 years ago.

Unlike the white collar jobs, the boomers and older Gen X'ers are necessarily filtered out because they can't keep working out in the field the way they used to, and they want to enjoy their retirement. As the population bubble is rounding off, the amount of opportunities and the pay/benefits just keeps getting better, and the trades are the last private industry that still has strong unions and good pensions. Safety and tolerance for harassment/abuse in the industry has never been better, and if you're careful about choosing a union that still has a good amount of work where you live, it's a pretty solid living.

# ? Mar 4, 2024 15:58

Mr. Apollo: Nov 8, 2000

What's the deal with the LiUNA! union? I started seeing ads for them pop up 5 - 7 years ago. Everyone I've spoke to who's in LiUNA! says stuff like "It's the only good union because it respects taxpayers and shareholders and isn't trying to bankrupt companies" or "It's a good union because it is willing to compromise with management to make sure that everyone makes money so the companies can keep us employed".

# ? Mar 4, 2024 16:48

Kraftwerk: Aug 13, 2011; i do not have 10,000 bircoins, please stop asking

Mederlock posted:

I'd highly recommend folks here who are mentally and physically capable of it, to strongly consider joining a trade union and get a journeyman ticket in something. It's not for everyone, but it's way different today than 30 years ago, or even 15 years ago.

Unlike the white collar jobs, the boomers and older Gen X'ers are necessarily filtered out because they can't keep working out in the field the way they used to, and they want to enjoy their retirement. As the population bubble is rounding off, the amount of opportunities and the pay/benefits just keeps getting better, and the trades are the last private industry that still has strong unions and good pensions. Safety and tolerance for harassment/abuse in the industry has never been better, and if you're careful about choosing a union that still has a good amount of work where you live, it's a pretty solid living.

In my case I�m looking forward to becoming an ALPA member as my career flourishes.

I�ve worked the corporate office life for years and am looking forward to just doing a job and never having to deal with management unless I really want to. No more performance reviews. Now it�s all about hitting clearly defined standards that have nothing to do with stretching the limits of your job description.

Kraftwerk fucked around with this message at 18:37 on Mar 4, 2024

# ? Mar 4, 2024 18:28

DaysBefore: Jan 24, 2019

Mr. Apollo posted:

What's the deal with the LiUNA! union? I started seeing ads for them pop up 5 - 7 years ago. Everyone I've spoke to who's in LiUNA! says stuff like "It's the only good union because it respects taxpayers and shareholders and isn't trying to bankrupt companies" or "It's a good union because it is willing to compromise with management to make sure that everyone makes money so the companies can keep us employed".

I've never dealt with LiUNA however those quotres make it sound like the worst loving union ever and its leadership should be forcefully ejected lol. Business union bullshit

# ? Mar 4, 2024 18:49

Mr. Apollo: Nov 8, 2000

DaysBefore posted:

I've never dealt with LiUNA however those quotres make it sound like the worst loving union ever and its leadership should be forcefully ejected lol. Business union bullshit

https://globalnews.ca/news/10019849/ford-friendly-union-greenbelt-land-removed/

quote:

How a sliver of land connected to a Ford-friendly union was removed from the Greenbelt

A small piece of land owned by a LiUNA employee was one of the parcels removed from the Greenbelt, Global News has learned, leading to new questions about the Ford government�s removals process and whether relationships with the government played a role.

LiUNA, the Labourers International Union of North America, is a sizable trade union that has a professional relationship with both the Ford government and the Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario.

In 2022, months after the union endorsed Ford�s PC party ahead of the provincial election, a tiny parcel of land owned by the executive assistant to LiUNA�s International Vice-President Joe Mancinelli was removed from the Greenbelt and designated for housing development.

The removal, Global News has learned, came after a years-long lobbying effort by a land planning consultancy firm whose owners also have direct relationships with the Progressive Conservative party and one of whom attended the August 2022 stag and doe party in Premier Ford�s backyard, according to Ontario�s integrity commissioner.

A spokesperson for the union said LiUNA had �absolutely no insight nor involvement� in the decision to remove those lands from the Greenbelt and �categorically� did not participate in lobbying related to the �private property.�

The executive assistant and owner of the property removed from the Greenbelt, Lucy Faiella, did not respond for comment.

The property in question, a 78-acre lot on Cline Road in Grimsby, seemed in many ways destined for development.

Publicly available documents show the Faiella family has long believed the land should be removed from the Greenbelt and divided the property into more than a dozen lots, each paying individual property taxes.

Efforts to have it greenlit for development date back to at least 2015 when the former Liberal government was in the midst of a mandated, 10-year review of the entire two-million-acre Greenbelt.

To help convince the Liberals to release Faiella�s land from the Greenbelt, records suggest its owners hired a planning firm, Urban Solutions, to woo local and provincial planning officials into allowing the change.

The effort to remove the Faiella land from the Greenbelt was spearheaded by the two principal planners at Urban Solutions: Sergio Manchia and Matt Johnston, both of whom had ties to the Progressive Conservative party.

According to a report by the integrity commissioner in 2023, other land owned by Manchia was also removed from the Greenbelt in 2022 and Johnston attended a wedding event for Ford�s daughter, where he briefly met the premier.

The integrity commissioner�s report also outlines several extensive meetings and phone calls between political staff working on the Greenbelt file and Manchia and Johnston discussing other land that was eventually removed.

Initially, over the course of 2015, 2016 and 2017, Manchia and Johnston made several applications for removal. Although the Town of Grimsby agreed the land should be removed, they were unable to convince the Liberals the property should not be in the Greenbelt.

Then, available public evidence of their lobbying efforts suggests they went dormant. It was roughly half a decade later that the pair tried again, writing a letter to Steve Clark in October 2022.

The election campaign

As the Ontario PC Party entered the 2022 election campaign, Premier Doug Ford won the endorsement of Joe Mancinelli who encouraged LiUNA�s 100,000 members to support the Progressive Conservatives and actively campaign against the party�s opponents.

Elections Ontario records show the union spent $97,872 on third-party political advertising; it is unclear if every dollar spent by LiUNA was used to support the PCs but the union did throw its sizeable weight behind the party.

Thousands of dollars in personal donations by the Mancinelli family were also contributed to the party�s election war chest. The family has contributed small sums to the Liberals and the NDP, but Elections Ontario data suggests the vast majority of their spending has been in support of the Progressive Conservatives.

Ontario�s integrity commissioner said in his Greenbelt investigation that some political staffers who spoke to him said it was during this election campaign that the party revisited the idea of opening large parcels of land for housing development to meet the government�s goal of 1.5 million homes by 2031.

Senior political staff also said work on mandate letters, which included the instruction to remove land from the Greenbelt, began during the campaign period.

When the PCs won their majority government, mandate letters � that were reportedly drafted during the campaign � were handed to ministers. The letter for Ontario�s housing minister included an explicit instruction: work out how to swap land in and out of the Greenbelt.

Doug Ford�s family stag and doe event

Months after the June 2022 provincial election, some in the development and land planning community were offered a rare chance to rub shoulders with the premier. Among those was Matt Johnston of Urban Solutions, the integrity commissioner said.

Sergio Manchia, also of Urban Solutions, purchased four tickets to a stag and doe for Ford�s daughter, the integrity commissioner said. It was a private wedding-related fundraiser being thrown in the Ford family�s backyard in Etobicoke.

Manchia, who was unable to attend, passed the tickets to Johnston and three other people to go on his behalf.

�Mr. Johnston confirmed he attended the August 2022 stag and doe for Premier Ford�s daughter and her fianc�, with a ticket provided by Mr. Manchia,� the report stated.

The report added that: �Johnston did attend the event, met the premier, shook his hand, said a quick hello and had no other conversation.�

Renewed lobbying efforts

Weeks after the party, however, Johnston officially revived the efforts to have the Faiella property removed from the Greenbelt.

He penned a letter to then-housing minister Steve Clark on Oct. 6, 2022, outlining why the Fiaella property should be removed, his history of lobbying activity and arguments for why the land was perfect for building.

�It is our opinion that the subject lands � should be removed from the Greenbelt Plan,� the letter read. Attached to the letter were images of overgrown weeds, a car radiator dumped on the site and evidence of �clandestine cultivation.�

�The lands have not been used for farming purposes for over five decades,� the submission said. �It is reasonable to extend the residential uses along this stretch of road.�

The letter was sent a month before the province announced that 7,400 acres of protected land would be removed from the Greenbelt.

The government had maintained that no property owner was given a heads-up about the removal.

LiUNA denies involvement

The Ford government has long maintained a healthy working relationship with LiUNA, viewing the union as a key partner in the province�s quest to build billions of dollars in public infrastructure.

�I love LiUNA,� Ford said in 2020. �I�ve said it over and over again that there�s something special about Joseph (Mancinelli) that he thinks outside the box. He really does.�

One source in the development industry told Global News while there�s nothing �slimy� about the relationship, LiUNA �gets whatever they want from government.�

�The government just loves them,� the source said. �If they apply for funding, it�s basically a guarantee.�

Public accounts indicate that between 2019 and 2023, the union was awarded more than $10 million in taxpayer funding for skills training from the Ministry of Labour, Training and Skills Development.

In 2020, the union was able to successfully convince the government to revive the Hamilton LRT by suggesting a public-private partnership, just months after the province cancelled the project citing cost projections.

Global News asked LiUNA whether anyone from the organization helped facilitate the land removal request on behalf of Faiella.

�To be clear, LiUNA has absolutely no insight nor involvement with anything pertaining to the personal and private residence of Mrs. Faiella,� Victoria Mancinelli, LiUNA�s director of public relations said in a statement.

�Neither Joseph nor LiUNA are privy to, nor responsible for her personal matters regarding her family property.�

�We can state, categorically, that LiUNA had no involvement whatsoever with respect to any alleged lobbying efforts regarding Mrs. Faiella�s private property,� Mancinelli said.

A spokesperson for Premier Ford said the removal of the land from the Greenbelt had long been supported by local officials and reiterated that no developers were given advance notice of the now-reversed Greenbelt changes.

�No one was provided any advance notice on the decision to remove specific lands from the Greenbelt,� the spokesperson said.

�The property in question was the subject of a longstanding request from the municipality to build density near future transit. All properties are now in the process of being returned to the Greenbelt.�

Johnston, Manchia and Faeilla did not respond to lists of detailed questions asking how the property was removed.

# ? Mar 4, 2024 19:53

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# ? Jun 3, 2024 08:06

Mederlock: Jun 23, 2012; You won't recognize Canada when I'm through with it; Grimey Drawer

DaysBefore posted:

I've never dealt with LiUNA however those quotres make it sound like the worst loving union ever and its leadership should be forcefully ejected lol. Business union bullshit

Yeah, they sound like a company union, same as CLAC, Merit, and others. I'd avoid them, personally.

# ? Mar 4, 2024 23:17

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