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It is great that we have the natural resources so we can have such a higher GDP, but GDP does not vote. However, I remember when I was young and Alberta had less than 2 million people, now it is over 5 million.

People do vote. They also vote with their feet and over time more go to where things are economically better. Alberta's number of MP's has increased and continues to increase.
 
New measures from Carney:

  • Starting automatic federal benefits for the 2026 tax year that will reach up to 5.5 million low-income Canadians by the 2028 tax year. The CRA will automatically file these individuals’ taxes to ensure they receive government benefits they qualify for, such as the GST/HST credit, the Canada Child Benefit, the Canada Disability Benefit, and more – including benefits that these Canadians may not be aware they are entitled to.
  • Making the National School Food Program permanent to provide meals for up to 400,000 children. This program ensures kids are fed healthy meals at school and saves families with two children $800 per year on groceries. By making it permanent, we will work with provinces, territories, and Indigenous partners to expand the program into more schools across Canada.
  • Renewing the Canada Strong Pass for the holidays and for summer 2026 so children and young families can discover Canada with lower costs. It will be renewed from December 12, 2025, to January 15, 2026, and then again for summer 2026. This also helps students travelling home for the holidays with a 25% discount on VIA Rail for young adults aged 18 to 24. With the Canada Strong Pass, Canadians can visit national, provincial, and territorial museums, historic sites, parks, and travel by rail for free or at a reduced cost.
This might be a contentious opinion but I absolutely hate the Canada Strong pass. It was horribly abused last season, with people making free reservations to every national park without any commitment to actually showing up. I love camping in Dinosaur Provincial Park and the pass program made it impossible this season.
 
policyenthusiast said:
New measures from Carney:

  • Starting automatic federal benefits for the 2026 tax year that will reach up to 5.5 million low-income Canadians by the 2028 tax year. The CRA will automatically file these individuals’ taxes to ensure they receive government benefits they qualify for, such as the GST/HST credit, the Canada Child Benefit, the Canada Disability Benefit, and more – including benefits that these Canadians may not be aware they are entitled to.
  • Making the National School Food Program permanent to provide meals for up to 400,000 children. This program ensures kids are fed healthy meals at school and saves families with two children $800 per year on groceries. By making it permanent, we will work with provinces, territories, and Indigenous partners to expand the program into more schools across Canada.
  • Renewing the Canada Strong Pass for the holidays and for summer 2026 so children and young families can discover Canada with lower costs. It will be renewed from December 12, 2025, to January 15, 2026, and then again for summer 2026. This also helps students travelling home for the holidays with a 25% discount on VIA Rail for young adults aged 18 to 24. With the Canada Strong Pass, Canadians can visit national, provincial, and territorial museums, historic sites, parks, and travel by rail for free or at a reduced cost.
This might be a contentious opinion but I absolutely hate the Canada Strong pass. It was horribly abused last season, with people making free reservations to every national park without any commitment to actually showing up. I love camping in Dinosaur Provincial Park and the pass program made it impossible this season.
Click to expand...

You hate the Pass or the people who abuse it or have disregard for others?
Maybe measures can be put in place to help prevent that from happening? It's unfortunate.
 
TAS said:
You hate the Pass or the people who abuse it or have disregard for others?
Maybe measures can be put in place to help prevent that from happening? It's unfortunate.
Click to expand...
Little column A, little column B. I never feel bad paying to support national parks.

I really hope they cap how many reservations people can make with one pass.
 
policyenthusiast said:
This might be a contentious opinion but I absolutely hate the Canada Strong pass. It was horribly abused last season, with people making free reservations to every national park without any commitment to actually showing up. I love camping in Dinosaur Provincial Park and the pass program made it impossible this season.
Click to expand...
I'm pretty sure since Dinosaur Provincial Park isn't national, the Canada Strong Pass does not apply?

That being said, I completely agree with you. One of the big issues with it is that the parks are not fully reimbursed foe the lost income. It's functionally a major budget cut to our massively underfunded parks.
 
SarcasticMarmot said:
I'm pretty sure since Dinosaur Provincial Park isn't national, the Canada Strong Pass does not apply?

That being said, I completely agree with you. One of the big issues with it is that the parks are not fully reimbursed foe the lost income. It's functionally a major budget cut to our massively underfunded parks.
Click to expand...
You are absolutely correct - I confused Dinosaur with Peter Lougheed WATERTON* (made the same mistake twice). I wasn't able to go to Dinosaur PP either due to demand, but that was unrelated to the pass.

I had no idea the GoC funding wasn't on a 1:1 basis with ticket sales. I'll send a letter to MP Guilbeault asking if his Ministry is considering reworking the system.
 
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policyenthusiast said:
New measures from Carney:

  • Starting automatic federal benefits for the 2026 tax year that will reach up to 5.5 million low-income Canadians by the 2028 tax year. The CRA will automatically file these individuals’ taxes to ensure they receive government benefits they qualify for, such as the GST/HST credit, the Canada Child Benefit, the Canada Disability Benefit, and more – including benefits that these Canadians may not be aware they are entitled to.
  • Making the National School Food Program permanent to provide meals for up to 400,000 children. This program ensures kids are fed healthy meals at school and saves families with two children $800 per year on groceries. By making it permanent, we will work with provinces, territories, and Indigenous partners to expand the program into more schools across Canada.
  • Renewing the Canada Strong Pass for the holidays and for summer 2026 so children and young families can discover Canada with lower costs. It will be renewed from December 12, 2025, to January 15, 2026, and then again for summer 2026. This also helps students travelling home for the holidays with a 25% discount on VIA Rail for young adults aged 18 to 24. With the Canada Strong Pass, Canadians can visit national, provincial, and territorial museums, historic sites, parks, and travel by rail for free or at a reduced cost.
This might be a contentious opinion but I absolutely hate the Canada Strong pass. It was horribly abused last season, with people making free reservations to every national park without any commitment to actually showing up. I love camping in Dinosaur Provincial Park and the pass program made it impossible this season.
Click to expand...
Maybe it should be free to go in person, but still have some advance reservation fee to discourage people from making multiple bookings.
 
MEDIA ADVISORY - FEDERAL GOVERNMENT TO MAKE HOUSING ANNOUNCEMENT IN EDMONTON

EDMONTON, AB, Oct. 14, 2025 /CNW/ - Media are invited to join the Honourable Eleanor Olszewski, Minister of Emergency Management and Community Resilience and Minister responsible for Prairies Economic Development Canada, on behalf of the Honourable Gregor Robertson, Minister of Housing and Infrastructure and Minister responsible for Pacific Economic Development Canada, alongside Amarjeet Sohi, Mayor of the City of Edmonton, Erin Rutherford, Councillor for Ward Anirniq, and Nick Lilley, CEO of HomeEd, for a housing announcement.

Date:October 15th, 2025
Time:
9:00 AM MT
Location:6409 Laubman Street NW,

Edmonton, AB, T5E 6Y6

Any ideas?
 
policyenthusiast said:
MEDIA ADVISORY - FEDERAL GOVERNMENT TO MAKE HOUSING ANNOUNCEMENT IN EDMONTON

EDMONTON, AB, Oct. 14, 2025 /CNW/ - Media are invited to join the Honourable Eleanor Olszewski, Minister of Emergency Management and Community Resilience and Minister responsible for Prairies Economic Development Canada, on behalf of the Honourable Gregor Robertson, Minister of Housing and Infrastructure and Minister responsible for Pacific Economic Development Canada, alongside Amarjeet Sohi, Mayor of the City of Edmonton, Erin Rutherford, Councillor for Ward Anirniq, and Nick Lilley, CEO of HomeEd, for a housing announcement.

Date:October 15th, 2025
Time:
9:00 AM MT
Location:6409 Laubman Street NW,

Edmonton, AB, T5E 6Y6

Any ideas?
Click to expand...

When I saw Rutherford also attending it made me think of the Griesbach funding - has a ceremony for that initiaitve already happened though?
 
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Here is location of announcement.

Screenshot_20251014_113402_Maps.jpg

Screenshot_20251014_113559_Maps.jpg
 
Ayrshire Construction is an equity partner and development manager for HomeEd's Parkside North project in Edmonton's Griesbach community. The project will create 91 NetZero townhome units, with a minimum of 50% of the units providing reduced rents for tenants based on their income.
Details of the project
Developers: The project is a collaboration between Ayrshire Construction Corp. and HomeEd, the City of Edmonton's non-profit housing corporation.
 
TAS said:
Ayrshire Construction is an equity partner and development manager for HomeEd's Parkside North project in Edmonton's Griesbach community. The project will create 91 NetZero townhome units, with a minimum of 50% of the units providing reduced rents for tenants based on their income.
Details of the project
Developers: The project is a collaboration between Ayrshire Construction Corp. and HomeEd, the City of Edmonton's non-profit housing corporation.
Click to expand...
Impressively high below-market unit concentration. Makes me half-worried about the financial stability of the corp.
 
Got it:

EDMONTON, AB, Oct. 15, 2025 /CNW/ - Solving Canada's housing crisis requires immediate action to build up supply and bring down costs. The Government of Canada is stepping up with unprecedented investments to supercharge housing construction in Canada. To that end, the federal government launched Build Canada Homes, a new federal agency that will build affordable housing at scale, including transitional and supportive housing, deeply affordable and community housing, and affordable homes for the Canadian middle class.

As we build a strong Canadian housing sector, purposeful collaboration will be essential. That means working together with the private and non-profit sectors to bring down costs and build homes at a scale and pace not seen in generations. These investments are also providing Canadians with increased access to affordable and sustainable housing.

The Affordable Housing Fund (AHF) provides funding through low-interest and/or forgivable loans or contributions to partnered organizations for new affordable housing and the renovation and repair of existing, affordable and community housing.

Today, the federal government, along with the City of Edmonton and Canada Lands Company, announced the grand opening of Parkside North Townhomes which received $44.9 million in combined funding to help build 91 secure, affordable rental homes in Edmonton.

The announcement was made by the Honourable Eleanor Olszewski, Minister of Emergency Management and Community Resilience and Minister responsible for Prairies Economic Development Canada and Member of Parliament for Edmonton Centre, on behalf of the Honourable Gregor Robertson, Minister of Housing and Infrastructure and Minister responsible for Pacific Economic Development Canada, alongside Amarjeet Sohi, the Mayor of Edmonton.

The homes, located at 6409 Laubman Street NW, are in the new Village at Griesbach community, which was built on the former military base Griesbach Barracks. The homes are on the west side of the community, near schools, green space, retail stores and restaurants. The building was developed and will be operated by HomeEd, a non-profit organization that provides affordable rental housing across Edmonton.

Budget 2025, to be tabled next month, will build on this momentum with further measures to lower costs for builders, catalyse private capital, and double the pace of homebuilding across Canada. Budget 2025 will spend less on government operations and reduce waste, so we can invest more to grow our economy, build more homes, and make life more affordable for you.
 
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