Give me fair priced food, energy, and affordable housing, or prepare for trouble!

BY STEVEN KASZAB

The national government and its individual provinces all have emergency powers that they can use to effectively get something done immediately.

Food, energy, and housing are rising out of control. The prices set are not done by some independent agency called the marketplace (as business would like to refer), but by individual grocers, petroleum firms and developers with the real estate agents.

The government spends millions telling us to eat local, fresh veggies, fruits, and food, while they also allow “the marketplace” to make it impossible to feed a family of four with anything fresh.

Do government personnel, MP’s and MPP’s go to the grocery store, fill their own vehicles or search for housing?

If they did those who could make our lives easier to live would realize a conspiracy is upon us all, where the scrooge of business, the welfare industry is reliant upon food banks and donations, while corporations, boardrooms and wealth cats can do whatever they want, and of course that is make more and more profit.

Housing is extremely expensive because developers and their henchmen real estate agents dictate the value of homes, built for the well-off while generating huge profits. Before you go off to developers and real estate Industry hacks and ask them if they are making lots of money, realize you cannot ask the robber if he will be robbing you so you could prepare right? Gangsters steal, bank robbers rob, and developers make expensive housing. Don’t ask the government for help, because they’ll just increase interest rates, affecting not just housing starts but everyone else in the “marketplace”.

Could the Liberals in Ottawa or Conservatives at Queens Park have declared a real specific emergency for the big three: food, housing, and energy, allowing them to take actions against the profiteering business sector of these three. High prices affect everyone, every small to medium business. Like the profiteering that happened pre-WW1 and WW2, where manufacturers sensing government procurement of food, weapons, aircraft, metals etc. increased their prices many times over the original prices. This happens today in our normal procurement system be it: municipal, provincial, or federal.

The Ross Rifle Canadian Troops, relied upon during WW1, was sold to the federal government by its owners, one being a Minister of the Crown 10x its original price just because the government needed it. It was a sniper rifle that had no place in the trenches of Europe, or our soldiers threw them away and picked up from a fallen British Soldier his superior Lee Enfield Rifle.

We all are far too dependent upon our governments. Look what happened during the pandemic and say it is not so? So, how about depending upon our governments to bring justice into the mix. Fair priced food, energy, and housing. Affordable housing to allow our fellow citizens to begin their lives, apartments that cost less than a family’s whole wage. Energy costs without the progressive green taxes. If the federal government removes, or freezes on-going green taxes, we can see who the real culprits are regarding excessive food prices, the corporations that control our agricultural landscape with its retail partners. Governmental preference should go to local growers, who could get a fair incentive from the government, allowing the small growers of Ontario and Canada to raise their families and acquire a nest egg for their possible retirement.

The housing sector can be persuaded to play ball with the government, not receiving excessive taxes to force their compromise, but establishing a National Building Association with governments as their primary members. Municipal, provincial, or even the federal governments can design, build, and finance affordable housing starts all over the nation. Apartment buildings, prefab insulated housing can all happen if we help direct our governments away from dependence upon the private sector and place their investments into projects for the people of Canada for a change. Housing will remain excessively high so long as we allow it. Our housing preferences, our expectations must change, and with it our excessive hunger for lifestyle property, foods, and vehicles too.

Manage our expectations, realize our budgetary demands, get a hold upon our consumer hunger.  Allow our governments to make available what we truly need, affordable housing, less costly energy, and food.