Liberal Minority Government 2025 - ???

[Cloud Cover]

Speaking of rare earth... very informative and explains why we're reliant on China:

I wonder how long it will take for the Feds and the B.C. government to try and stop hobby and part time guys like me from sawing our own timber and selling it on marketplace as part of an all out effort to keep the unionized mills afloat.

 

[daftandbarmy]

I wonder how long it will take for the Feds and the B.C. government to try and stop hobby and part time guys like me from sawing our own timber and selling it on marketplace as part of an all out effort to keep the unionized mills afloat.

BC's allowable annual cut is 60M m3... we can cut that every year without endangering the eco-system.

For many years we're been undercutting by up to 30M m3 due to economic, policy, environmental and consultation issues.

You'd need a couple of hundred more sawmills, going full speed 24/7, to catch up and that's not going to happen because they've all left for Alberta and the southern USA.

So I think the 'back yard loggers' are pretty safe

 

[Cloud Cover]

We also don’t provide the same products. We’ve been cutting 200 year old Douglas Fir in posts from 4inches to 10 inches and as long as 16’. You’d never get that from Home Depot lol.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/david-eby-forestry-industry-trump-tariffs-9.6938080

 

[Altair]

Speaking of rare earth... very informative and explains why we're reliant on China:

I'm glad this person is saying exactly what I've been saying.

Chinese are doing it because it's extremely dirty.

Chinese are doing it because they tossed environmental standards and emission standards in the trash

Chinese can produce it for extremely cheap prices because of those two reasons, and nobody in the west is going to be able to compete without massive subsidies to do it.

Advanced economies are cooked without Chinese REE.

All this to say, not buying Chinese this or Chinese that for fears of enriching the enemy, that boat sailed a long time ago.

 

[daftandbarmy]

I'm glad this person is saying exactly what I've been saying.

Chinese are doing it because it's extremely dirty.

Chinese are doing it because they tossed environmental standards and emission standards in the trash

Chinese can produce it for extremely cheap prices because of those two reasons, and nobody in the west is going to be able to compete without massive subsidies to do it.

Advanced economies are cooked without Chinese REE.

All this to say, not buying Chinese this or Chinese that for fears of enriching the enemy, that boat sailed a long time ago.

More importantly, the West has largely outsourced its carbon footprint so our politicians can pontificate about the duty of others to safeguard the planet, and get re-elected by their ill informed electorates

 

[Eaglelord17]

More importantly, the West has largely outsourced its carbon footprint so our politicians can pontificate about the duty of others to safeguard the planet, and get re-elected by their ill informed electorates

False environmentalism. Remember somehow it is better for the planet to import goods made with no environmental controls shipped by super tankers which burn more more fuel than anything else out there, than it is to make it in country with environmental controls and ship a short distance.

The real story there is outsourcing our lower and middle class jobs to foreign lands so our politicians and CEOs can make more money at the expense of our citizenry.

 

[Cloud Cover]

Canada’s once famous electronic communications and telecommunications hardware manufacturers were driven by environmental and related political harassment to relocate their manufacturing plants to Mexico then China.

 

[brihard]

I'm glad this person is saying exactly what I've been saying.

Chinese are doing it because it's extremely dirty.

Chinese are doing it because they tossed environmental standards and emission standards in the trash

Chinese can produce it for extremely cheap prices because of those two reasons, and nobody in the west is going to be able to compete without massive subsidies to do it.

Advanced economies are cooked without Chinese REE.

All this to say, not buying Chinese this or Chinese that for fears of enriching the enemy, that boat sailed a long time ago.

And what a bunch of us are saying is that this is a critical, potentially crippling strategic vulnerability. The west must do what it must to develop its own independent sources of Rare Earths. Lynas out of Australia is doing it with their new plant in Malaysia. MP Materials is digging them up in Mountain Pass, California. Vital Elements bought out the old Avalon project at Nechelacho, NWT and is moving it towards production. Numerous other projects have foundered from China weaponizing their control over spot prices.

It will not require the west to pile in billions of dollars and fully run these industries as state enterprises. There’s plenty of room for public/private partnerships if needed. One way or another though our governments must provide a safety net to these supply chains so that China’s hands aren’t around our throat. The best time to do this was twenty years ago as the problem was becoming very apparent. The second best time is not.

In the interim, China’s economic extortion that leverages this control must be fought and punished.

China as a state is an adversary to Canada. Any pretending otherwise is naive. We must, as a country, look very critically and skeptically at their investments in Canada and assess how they can use those investments to harm our security, independence, and interests.

 

[dapaterson]

Would you have preferred he not attend? And would you also have preferred RCAF keep a CC-330 permanently on standby for the PM for the very rare instance of an unforecast trip halfway around the world? Please clarify what you’re cranky about.

There's a lot to unpack...

The RCMP protective service doesn't take stat holidays off. They are expected to be on duty. Does CAF support get holidays?

The RCAF has a few issues here: first, they may have oversold the CC330 as it is still a nascent capability; getting crews (air and ground) in sufficient quantity while maintaining the CC150 AAR and strat lift may be more than they can manage right now. But either the VVIP function must be provided by the RCAF or not; if the answer is "not", and wet lease is an option for VVIP, then there's a set of conversations to be had about the RCAF structure.

Finally, there's 412 Sqn in this discussion. The Challenger fleet is getting on in years, has limited payload of personnel and cargo (apparently fitting a surfboard into the cargo hold is a real pain in the ass), and limited range. Might be time to replace the CC144 fleet with Global Express 6500s... With the added bonus of a common type with the Saab Goldeneye.