@drbrakeyyt
Journalist, policy wonk, urbanist, PhD, dad, CFA. @EssentialTransitNL.bsky.social and @TransportactionATL.bsky.social Vice Chair of @HappyCitySJ.bsky.social, founder of EVs in Real Life Follow @drbrake for my "old life" (media academic, UK/World affairs)
A terrific new free civic tool has arrived! Date coverage is limited and it uses voice recognition so results can be a little wierd - but whether you are comparing towns in one province or across Canada, this looks like a great start! Citizens, start mining!
civicsearchlight.nationalobserver.com
Isn't the point that carbon pricing should be high enough to strongly incentivise emissions reductions? Odd to hear a climate institute minimising its impact!
When I first came to St John's ten years ago, one of the first things I wanted to see improve was the provision of bus shelters for transit users in the city. Sadly, the long history of broken or dropped promises has not changed. But at least now I have it documented www.facebook.com/share/p/18Jv...
Funny to read this since in Newfoundland Pepsi rules (they make it here)...
Nice to read in the City of St John's 2025 Economic Review *for the city and surrounding communities* that housing starts were up 19% in 2025, edging above 1000 units. But only 78 of those units were built in the city itself - two *fewer* than a year earlier.
www.stjohns.ca/en/news/city...
The few who planned depended upon the many who rode.
But the few kept forgetting that.
Would be happy to give away some of ours!
White House: Image (probably AI) of a Bald Eagle and Canadian goose
Remember this next time this country asks us to send troops to Afghanistan or Iraq
*North American* idea... (this is where Newfoundland's provincial government is)
This is the strategy Canada should also follow, directing our capacity for investment to public transport and rail infrastructure: open.substack.com/pub/trainexp...
"End Corporate Handouts and Break Up Monopolies" slide. Text: "End all fossil fuel subsidies. Keep costly consultants out of the public service. No more blank cheques for corporations that take our money and move production out of Canada."
It’s time to end unchecked corporate welfare.
The current Liberal government is handing billions of dollars to profitable corporate giants in subsidies and tax breaks, with very few strings attached.
Our plan ensures every public dollar serves the public interest – rather than corporate profits.
"Crack Down on the Corporate Hoarding Class" slide. Text: "Implement a tax on excess corporate profits. Crack down on tax havens that are starving our essential public services of much-needed funds. Adequately fund the CRA to go after tax cheats. Reinstate the Digital Services Tax."
Over the last 30 years, corporate profits have doubled while corporate taxes have been slashed – all with the promise that benefits would eventually flow to working people.
Today, people are still waiting as wealth piles up at the top and the cost of living only soars. We need real solutions.
"Help power our Tax Plan for the 99%! Join Today" in black text below a flag reading "Lewis for leader" on a yellow background.
Taxing the rich will generate significant revenue, but that’s not its only purpose. By reducing inequality we can balance the scales of society.
Together, we can ensure that the wealth of this country is not hoarded by the few but redistributed to improve life for the 99%.
lewisforleader.ca
Coverage of this phenomenon in Canada is discouraging. It may be that frozen concentrate itself is just uneconomic these days. www.cbc.ca/news/busines...
Your turn, @govnl.bsky.social and its various departments...
Where I live now, a single inner city golf course (crazy, I know!) is being redeveloped to potentially allow 1,246 housing units (and that's not at v high density). That's 16 years worth of housing (at current building rates) www.engagestjohns.ca/100-logy-bay...
The snow hasn't stopped us! Join us tonight at 19:00 and if you can't make it in person you can still take part via Zoom:
us06web.zoom.us/j/8476825094...
Sadly this idea that immigrant people should be used, then discarded when the state no longer wants them is becoming the norm in Canada and the UK as well. Even when newcomers agree in advance this is gross exploitation.
With the imminent closure of my local Dominion (Loblaws) this seems rather topical.
I somehow missed this the first time around. @justinling.ca drew my attention to @buildtoronto.com. A great collection of the success stories of congestion pricing in this latest report.
Turns out when I wasn't paying attention there has been quite a bit of stealthy Carney austerity going on. A civil servant friend of mine lost his job recently, the post office's subsidy for inter-library loans under threat, and now this?
Do you love overstretched ERs? Restrict meds to lucky people.
Spent years living in London mildly worried about it being an international target. Moved to St John's Newfoundland far from the madding crowds only to realise only Iceland is closer to Greenland than we are. And we used to have a bunch of US bases here...
Is Doug Ford calling for a boycott of Subaru, Kia, Hyundai, Mazda, Volkswagen, Mitsubishi, and Nissan too? Most of them sell more than 49,000 vehicles in Canada and don’t manufacture any here.
This is all populist posturing that has nothing to do with what’s actually good for auto workers or buyers
Apparently some Canadian companies are happy to take ICE's money? betakit.com/hootsuite-dh...
Looks good if you want to see the Aurora Borealis in Newfoundland... if it weren't for the wind, rain and > 50% cloud cover. Still.... maybe look at the skies in the middle of the night if you're up and about?
Memo to Toronto transportation services: read this, visit KW, stop foot dragging on transit priority.
imagine a universe where this would be at all credible in St. John’s!
Mark your calendars evening of Feb 3rd to talk at MUN with the best lineup yet of both transit advocates and key decision makers in St John's!
"A vastly inadequate public transport system encourages them to travel by two-wheelers or in cars... In 2019 Jakarta got its first metro line. But it stops abruptly at the city’s official administrative boundary, short of commuter neighbourhoods." www.economist.com/asia/2025/12...