That is a false dichotomy. Housing is expensive in Canada due to zoning laws forcing a very inefficient use of land, among other reasons.
I lived in Europe for decades, so I know for a fact that making our streets pleasant to walk around isn't some weird utopia, it is the basic reality in many developed countries.
Living in an area that is beautiful matters, and our urban landscapes are a big part of that. Trees, decorated facades, town squares, they may add some economic cost, but why is that the only cost that matters? What about the emotional cost of living in an ugly noisy jungle of concrete and glass?
News like these are the reason why I don't visit authoritarian or corrupt countries. Well, that and because I'm broke.
No, it’s because they are particularly dangerous to children.
If you peruse statistics of pedestrian deaths, you will find both children and seniors are the most frequent victims. Look it up.
Hey, hey! That's an unfair take. They also kill adults, seniors in particular.
I'm looking at 3br condos/townhomes for my car-free family and prices still look insane. We will likely have to leave the GTA.
I'll be perfectly honest: I don't care about the technicalities. Anybody can still buy compostable garbage bags that, to a layperson, sure feel similar to any other plastic bag.
If it is biodegradable / compostable, it should be available for purchase at checkout points for a small fee, regardless of whether it is made of plastic, advanced biopolymers or unicorn semen.
The only place I see with degradable bags at checkout is Whole Foods with their (rather robust) paper bags. All other shops have done away with disposable bags and it's an annoyance to customers when they forget their reusable bags at home.
Threatening or killing somebody using a car is taken way too lightly. People outside cars are very vulnerable to the whims of drivers.
As I understand it, plastic checkout bags are banned federally, regardless of which sort of plastic they are made of. It sounds ridiculous, but that's what the law appears to say.
I wish they continued selling single-use bags and instead required them to be biodegradable/compostable. It's fine to charge for them, too.
Why? Because sometimes shit happens and you go to the grocery store without a reusable bag. You don't want to buy a reusable bag, you already have them at home. And those reusable bags are rarely recyclable or compostable either, so are they really greener than compostable single-use bags?
It is called the "unmatched count technique" or "list experiment." It has a wider error range, so you need to poll more people, but you get honest answers.
Developed countries have fewer children than necessary to maintain their population. If overpopulation is your concern, you have to look elsewhere, and the measures you need to prevent it will be different.