News   Dec 04, 2024
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Premier Doug Ford's Ontario

The Premier is set to announce the largest expansion of medical school enrollment in a generation, we learn from this article in today's Star:

https://www.thestar.com/politics/pr...-medical-schools-to-boost-doctor-numbers.html (behind the paywall at time of posting)

All the existing medical schools will see growth; and of note, Ryerson is getting a medical school in Brampton; Queen's at its Oshawa campus and U of T is developing a more substantial presence at UTSC.

Not among the beneficiaries today, it would seem is York University, and no word as yet on anything for Waterloo which has been mulling the idea for some time.

Excerpts from article are below:

"All six medical schools in the province will benefit — the University of Toronto, Queen’s, the newly independent Northern Ontario School of Medicine,
Western, McMaster and the University of Ottawa.

Ryerson University’s medical school will receive funding for 80 undergraduate spots and
95 postgrad positions when it opens in Brampton in 2025.

**

At the University of Toronto, the new Scarborough Academy of Medicine and Integrated Health is included in the expansion,
as is Queen’s University’s Lakeridge Health Campus in Oshawa."
 
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From link.

Wheat Exports by Country


View attachment 385341

Russia's exports are being banned. Ukraine's exports likely unavailable. Canada could produce more... if the farmlands in Ontario were not being bulldozed for highways (IE. Highway 413) or urban sprawl (IE. Greenbelt being turned over to single-family houses on sprawling lots). Expect to see the price of bread, buns, and other wheat based products to go up.

Doug Ford's likely response...

Let them eat cheesecake.
ex20yfxxsauhj91-1-e1589558048270.jpeg
From link.
You do understand that a large portion of farmland in the gta has already been sold or is being sold to developers? have you ever driven in southern Caledon and see all the rundown barns that are left vacant?

I'm honestly quite surprised the previous liberal government didn't expand the greenbelt to cover all of southern Caledon and portions of Brampton.
 
You do understand that a large portion of farmland in the gta has already been sold or is being sold to developers? have you ever driven in southern Caledon and see all the rundown barns that are left vacant?

I'm honestly quite surprised the previous liberal government didn't expand the greenbelt to cover all of southern Caledon and portions of Brampton.
At least grow wheat and other grains (quadrotriticale?) under the hydro corridors in urban areas. Grass (Poaceae) is a grain, so use something more useful to grow.
 
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You do understand that a large portion of farmland in the gta has already been sold or is being sold to developers? have you ever driven in southern Caledon and see all the rundown barns that are left vacant?

I'm honestly quite surprised the previous liberal government didn't expand the greenbelt to cover all of southern Caledon and portions of Brampton.
Rundown barns are a sign of times, I am very familiar with the Caledon region as my late son lived in Inglewood. A lot of farms in that area are divided and are now small hobby farms and barns are left to decay. Most farms in the York region have been sold to developers without foresight from the government. Don't blame the farmer who sold his land to a developer and make more more money to retire with than he could make to work his land. Some of the farms in York region were bought up by the Govt for the Pickering airport and now have been sold off to builders.
Making land part of the Green space doesn't guarantee anything with a conservative Government.
 
The Premier is set to announce the largest expansion of medical school enrollment in a generation, we learn from this article in today's Star:

https://www.thestar.com/politics/pr...-medical-schools-to-boost-doctor-numbers.html (behind the paywall at time of posting)

All the existing medical schools will see growth; and of note, Ryerson is getting a medical school in Brampton; Queen's at its Oshawa campus and U of T is developing a more substantial presence at UTSC.

Not among the beneficiaries today, it would seem is York University, and no word as yet on anything for Waterloo which has been mulling the idea for some time.

Excerpts from article are below:

"All six medical schools in the province will benefit — the University of Toronto, Queen’s, the newly independent Northern Ontario School of Medicine,
Western, McMaster and the University of Ottawa.

Ryerson University’s medical school will receive funding for 80 undergraduate spots and
95 postgrad positions when it opens in Brampton in 2025.

**

At the University of Toronto, the new Scarborough Academy of Medicine and Integrated Health is included in the expansion,
as is Queen’s University’s Lakeridge Health Campus in Oshawa."

Official Press Release here:


Nothing we didn't know from earlier today.
 
You do understand that a large portion of farmland in the gta has already been sold or is being sold to developers? have you ever driven in southern Caledon and see all the rundown barns that are left vacant?
I grew up on a farm in rural Dufferin County, and have seen the way farming's changed over the years. Run down barns [edit: *and farmhouses*] exist in thriving agricultural areas as well.

The conglomeration of gross farmland into a smaller and smaller number of hands, lucrative land-leasing rates, combined with ultra-efficient production systems, monoculturing of farms and economies of scale mean that instead of storing equipment on-site in a barn, they're stored elsewhere and brought in when needed. A combine that once worked 200 acres will now be used for 10,000 acres spread across several properties. The machinery pays for itself much faster.

Likewise, when hay or alfalfa are baled, they get shipped offsite almost immediately to larger barns (some even with temperature/humidity controls). It's rare even to see bales drying in the field any more. Grains go straight to big silo sites. Fresh produce is on the trucks to Ontario Food Terminal/headed out of province by the end of the day.

Due to these changes, livestock production is often on massive plots of land, and in a much smaller number of parts of the province. Changes in lifestyle also necessitate changes in shelter requirements. We now produce about half of the beef we did 20 years ago and have replaced that with about 1.5x as much chicken, but roughly the same lamb, pork and turkey. Less beef just means less shelter needed. In the space it takes to get one calf to market weight (roughly ~18 months), you can shelter hundreds of chickens across many, many generations (chicken is roughly 8 weeks from egg to slaughter). Even producing as much chicken as we do, it's still a net loss in required shelter space.

As mentioned above, smaller barns (if maintained or not) are often on hobby or legacy farms. Modern barns don't often look much like barns any more anyway.

And that folks, is your daily farm nerdery.
 
At least grow wheat and other grains (quadrotriticale?) under the hydro corridors in urban areas. Grass (Poaceae) is a grain, so use something more useful to grow.
Growing cash crops in urban corridors might have soil benefits, but I doubt you could find a farmer willing to plant, manage and harvest crops at a commercial scale in an urban environment; even if the lease from Hydro One or the local utility was free. If nothing else, navigating commercial farm equipment on urban streets would be a challenge from both a physical and financial perspective. Once harvested, where would the crop be hauled to? Every kilometer to move equipment or harvest is a cost. Farmers have enough trouble moving combines and gravity boxes in rural areas.

From a residential perspective, I doubt homeowners backing on to corridors would be too thrilled with the noise, dust, tillage, fertilizers, herbicides and pesticides that go along with commercial farming.
I grew up on a farm in rural Dufferin County, and have seen the way farming's changed over the years. Run down barns [edit: *and farmhouses*] exist in thriving agricultural areas as well.

The conglomeration of gross farmland into a smaller and smaller number of hands, lucrative land-leasing rates, combined with ultra-efficient production systems, monoculturing of farms and economies of scale mean that instead of storing equipment on-site in a barn, they're stored elsewhere and brought in when needed. A combine that once worked 200 acres will now be used for 10,000 acres spread across several properties. The machinery pays for itself much faster.

Likewise, when hay or alfalfa are baled, they get shipped offsite almost immediately to larger barns (some even with temperature/humidity controls). It's rare even to see bales drying in the field any more. Grains go straight to big silo sites. Fresh produce is on the trucks to Ontario Food Terminal/headed out of province by the end of the day.

Due to these changes, livestock production is often on massive plots of land, and in a much smaller number of parts of the province. Changes in lifestyle also necessitate changes in shelter requirements. We now produce about half of the beef we did 20 years ago and have replaced that with about 1.5x as much chicken, but roughly the same lamb, pork and turkey. Less beef just means less shelter needed. In the space it takes to get one calf to market weight (roughly ~18 months), you can shelter hundreds of chickens across many, many generations (chicken is roughly 8 weeks from egg to slaughter). Even producing as much chicken as we do, it's still a net loss in required shelter space.

As mentioned above, smaller barns (if maintained or not) are often on hobby or legacy farms. Modern barns don't often look much like barns any more anyway.

And that folks, is your daily farm nerdery.
Good summary. Traditional barns ('bank barns' hip-roof barns', etc.) are often run down because they are no longer needed and are expensive to tear down. There is a small market for the timber but it fairly specialized and certainly not large enough to cover the numbers of old barns out there. These barns were built to support family-sized, subsistence-style farming; the lower 'ground floor' housed a small herd of livestock, the large upper level stored a winter's worth of hay and sometimes grain, for the critters downstairs. Most farms in Central Ontario were probably under 200 acres, more if there was a sizable bush lot. The barns that remain today on are largely used for general storage, horse farms, etc. or simply lovingly retained. In some areas that have 'been found' by urban ex-pats, they can be event venues, arts studios or, again, just restored. They have limited utility for today's working farms; herds are larger, forage and grain storage is more managed, equipment is larger.

Farming used to be a profession of succession - you passed your farm on to your kid(s) and either stayed in the house with them, built another house on the property or moved into town (if you didn't die on the farm). The farm was your pension. Today, most kids don't want it and, if they do, they need more acreage to make it profitable and pay for capital costs of equipment, so they either go in debt to buy neighbouring farms (often leaving that farm house a severed non-farm residence) or leasing, which pretty much has a similar effect on the neighbour. As an example, buying or even passing on dairy quota is prohibitively expensive. Farm equipment is very high-tech, mostly specialized, large and expensive.

I don't judge a GTA rural property landowner for selling to a developer. He sees the writing on the wall. His land has wild valuation, his kids have no interest in carrying it on, his costs keep going up and simply operating it is becoming more difficult with denser traffic, neighbours complaining about the dust, noise and funny smells, and his stockyard or grain terminal is probably now an hour or two away, through traffic.
 
This seems like a really odd diversion from 'Doug Ford's Ontario'......but fine, I'm going there too! LOL

****

There is 'urban farming ' potential, including some in hydro corridors; but it is not in the conventional cash-crop space.

The economics are not there, and the hassle too high.

Today's urban farming opportunities are large-scale roof-top operations, and possibly green-house, they are in growing
fast-growth crops, with year-round demand, where freshness matters, there's significant transportation savings and people are willing to pay a premium for local/freshness and taste.

The business is salad greens, fresh herbs and maybe tomatoes.

The reasoning goes something like this:

Salad Greens in the winter and often the summer because of the established supply chain, tend to come from California or Arizona while herbs most commonly originate in Columbia in my experience.
The southern supply lines, especially in winter, vs greenhouse operations here, are cheaper, materially so.
However, these are crops that don't tend to hold up particularly well. Their freshness and shelf-life is finite.

Properly handled, fresh Ontario Salad Greens have a shelf life of 15-20 days from time of harvest to the point where you're going to want to chuck them in the bin.
Whereas, the salads greens originating in the southern US, mostly owing to travel time, but also to being picked/processed in warmer climate, tend to have a shelf-life of 6-11 days once you see them in an Ontario supermarket.

That creates two cost issues. one is for the supermarkets, who end up throwing out an astounding amount of product as unsalable.

The other is the cost to the customer, great, you saved $2 on your salad pack, spending $5 instead of $7.
But in the former case, you have only a few days to go through it all, or you're the one throwing out a bunch of it, alot of wasted money there, vs something you're far more likely to use fully.

All that stated......hydro corridors are not a great yield, commercially and conventionally.

That's why you have Empire (Sobeys) and others experimenting with in-store greenhouse growing. I expect this trend to grow, and to be introduced into warehouse/co-packing settings for making salad packs.

Just the other day I was in a Sobeys, and I had a choice of buying a head of Romaine lettuce for $4.49, that looked a bit rough; or one 1/2 the size, that was still alive, in the store, for $2.99
Zero question, I bought the latter, the cost per gram was higher, but I used all of it, not one leaf was wasted.

That's the future of urban agriculture.
 
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In-store growing is more about food theatre. Maybe it works for a few very fast growing greens.

I think the future of (sub)urban agriculture looks like this:

autoportante_11.jpg


And a lot less like this Popular Science foolishness:

MQKEF7KLFMYJMTOGN2BKOXZY2M.jpg

It would be great if we can co-locate these sort of high-intensity industrial hydroponics with thermal power plants (particularly nukes) - so that we can take advantage of the waste heat.

AoD
 
It would be great if we can co-locate these sort of high-intensity industrial hydroponics with thermal power plants (particularly nukes) - so that we can take advantage of the waste heat.

AoD
Maybe SMRs will be safe enough eventually to be located without big buffer zones. Keep in mind that high density agriculture will require a lot of artificial lighting. Even with high efficiency lighting there will be likely enough waste heat to minimize heating requirements. Greenhouses need a lot of heat because they use glass or plastic glazing for natural lighting. This warehouse-style vertical farming approach can be well insulated. I expect cooling would be a bigger problem.
 
Some interesting Ontario politics news:
NDP Leader Andrea Horwath issued a statement on Thursday afternoon, confirming that the party has chosen to remove Hamilton East – Stoney Creek MPP Paul Miller from caucus after “new information” was discovered during the vetting process that all of the party’s candidates go through.
It is not clear what that information is but sources have told CP24 that Horwath felt that she couldn’t allow Miller to stay in caucus ethically.

I find it interesting they re-vet candidates every election cycle. I wonder if other parties do this? I'm sure rumours will come out soon, if not the complete record of what happened in Miller's past here, but interesting to note that while it could be information never found dating back to a time before he became an MPP in 2007, it could also be something he has done recently while as a sitting MPP. The mystery surrounding this certainly invites that speculation. More immediately important is the NDP lose the incumbent for that seat for the election. I'm sure Hamilton East has immediately gone to the top of the Liberals list as a spot they will attempt to flip. Taking the seat right beside Horwath would be a challenge, but it would be a huge coup for the party. These are Sheila Copps' old stomping grounds, so there is a Liberal base here, if old. I think they could do it but it may require they parachute in a celebrity candidate to try for it.
 
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Some interesting Ontario politics news:


I find it interesting they re-vet candidates every election cycle. I wonder if other parties do this? I'm sure rumours will come out soon, if not the complete record of what happened in Miller's past here, but interesting to note that while it could be information never found dating back to a time before he became an MPP in 2007, it could also be something he has done recently while as a sitting MPP. The mystery surrounding this certainly invites that speculation. More immediately important is the NDP lose the incumbent for that seat for the election. I'm sure Hamilton East has immediately gone to the top of the Liberals list as a spot they will attempt to flip. Taking the seat right beside Horwath would be a challenge, but it would be a huge coup for the party. These are Sheila Copps' old stomping grounds, so there is a Liberal base here, if old. I think they could do it but it may require they parachute in a celebrity candidate to try for it.

I know from experience that the vetting process during Howard Hamptons time wasn't as strict.

During the 2007 election I was on the Scarborough Southwest riding executive. We had a token candidate parachuted in with little vetting.

He was parachuted in because he matched the ethnicity of the riding not because he was a credible candidate.

Also in Scarborough Southwest back in 2008, the federal NDP brought in a candidate who ended up breaking elections laws.

Alamgir Hussein, their candidate ended up taking large cash donations for his campaign. He then tried to submit them. I believe it was maximum donations.

The riding got audited after the election and it got swept under the rug to avoid a scandal.

He wasn't vetted properly and was promptly disavowed and excised from the NDP after this all happened.

Taking cash donations over 20 dollars is illegal as per Elections Canada.
 
Some interesting Ontario politics news:


I find it interesting they re-vet candidates every election cycle. I wonder if other parties do this? I'm sure rumours will come out soon, if not the complete record of what happened in Miller's past here, but interesting to note that while it could be information never found dating back to a time before he became an MPP in 2007, it could also be something he has done recently while as a sitting MPP. The mystery surrounding this certainly invites that speculation. More immediately important is the NDP lose the incumbent for that seat for the election. I'm sure Hamilton East has immediately gone to the top of the Liberals list as a spot they will attempt to flip. Taking the seat right beside Horwath would be a challenge, but it would be a huge coup for the party. These are Sheila Copps' old stomping grounds, so there is a Liberal base here, if old. I think they could do it but it may require they parachute in a celebrity candidate to try for it.
Given their present state, I can picture the Libs targeting a bunch of 905 and outer 416 seats before HESC. Conversely, I can seriously see the Tories gunning for HESC as part of a broader blue-collar strategy...
 

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