Click on the Link Below for a Five (5) Page Document From the COH – Housed on https://www.homelesshub.ca/
https://www.homelesshub.ca/sites/default/files/COHhomelessdefinition.pdf
by Shari Prymak
As you approach the final stage of purchasing your new car from the dealership, you will likely be presented with a wide range of extra-cost items which you may not be prepared for. The business office is the place where the dealership takes a final opportunity to sell you on various add-ons before closing the deal. While some of these options might be worth considering, others are simply not worth the money. It is important to understand what you are being offered in order to make a fully informed purchase decision.
Administration/Documentation Fees – Avoid
Many dealerships will try to charge admin/doc fees anywhere from $299 to $799 as part of the itemized breakdown on the new car purchase agreement. It is important to understand that, unlike delivery and destination or provincial levies, this is not a mandatory fee which all dealerships charge. If possible, ask the dealership to waive this fee from the purchase agreement. Some will be willing to do so in order to close the deal. If the dealer cannot waive the charge, ask for a discount equal to or exceeding the amount of the charge.
Nitrogen Tire Package – Avoid
The idea here is that pure nitrogen helps to maintain consistent air pressure in the tires even through large temperature swings. Given that regular air already contains nearly 80 percent nitrogen, the argument for pure nitrogen is questionable to say the least. In any case, the money spent on this package will have been wasted the next time you fill your tires with regular air. Some dealers charge as much as $400 for this extra, and we recommend passing on it.
Wheel Locks – Avoid
Wheels locking nuts help protect your wheels from potential thieves. For $100 or so, it may be worth the charge on certain cars with fancy wheels, but it offers no value to the average mainstream car, particularly those with steel wheels and hubcaps. Locking nuts can also make tire rotations a major hassle since you have to keep the key in a safe, secure spot.
Window Etching – Avoid
Some dealers will charge up to $500 to etch the car’s VIN into the glass to deter thieves. Again, this is an extra that is not worth its price tag. Most thieves know to look for etching when stealing a car. If you still see value in it, you can purchase a do-it-yourself kit for a modest amount. If the dealer pre-installs etching on their cars and insists on the charge, simply ask for a discount to offset the cost.
Maintenance Plans – Avoid
Maintenance plans allow you to prepay for your car’s maintenance for the first few years of ownership. Although the idea may sound appealing, these plans rarely offer the value they promise. Maintenance plans can cost as much as $2,000 and basically only cover inexpensive items such as oil changes and inspections. With the extended service intervals of today’s cars, the money is better saved for out-of-pocket service visits.
Wheel and Tire Protection – Avoid
Some dealers may offer tire protection for up to $1,000. Tire protection plans are often filled with exclusions, including potholes, curbing, and nail punctures. Without these items being covered, the value of a tire protection package is questionable at best. We recommend passing on this extra.
Rust Protection – Consider
Dealerships typically offer a few options for rust protection, including a spray-on product, wax coating, or even electronic modules which supposedly prevent rust. These products can be priced as high as $1,500 and usually come with some kind of warranty. We recommend skipping the expensive and questionable dealer products and simply go with a time-tested, inexpensive alternative. One solid option is Krown Rust Control, which offers a proven oil spray application that can be very effective when applied on a regular basis. For more details on rust protection, please read this article.
Extended Warranty Plans – Consider
Extended warranty can provide peace of mind and value to those who drive over 20,000 km per year. High mileage drivers are more likely to take advantage of the extra coverage compared to those who only drive 10,000 km per year. An additional 2-3 years of full comprehensive coverage usually costs in the range of $2,500. Less expensive options that only cover the engine and transmission are available as well. It is important to verify that the warranty is a manufacturer plan as opposed to a third party provider. If you are unsure whether you want an extended warranty plan, then wait. You have until the end of the original comprehensive warranty period to decide on this extra.
Lease Protection – Consider
Lease protection is an excellent option to consider for those concerned about returning a car to the dealer at the end of the lease. At a cost of around $1,000, it protects you from potential wear and tear costs, including minor dents or scratches that the dealer could otherwise charge you for. Simply hand over the car and let the dealer deal with those issues.
Paint and Interior Protection – Consider
Dealers often have expensive cosmetic protection products for both exterior paint and interior surfaces. We recommend getting a quote from a reputable independent detailer which may offer far superior products. Vinyl paint protection film, ceramic paint coating, and fabric/leather protectors are all viable options for maintaining the long-term aesthetics of your car. You can even purchase and apply many of these products yourself to save money.
Accessories – Consider
Car accessories such as floor liners, tow packages, dash cams, and remote starters are often best purchased at the dealership. It is important that these items have been approved and tested for your car, and the dealership products will meet this requirement.
Published: April 01, 2026 at 8:58PM EDT
https://www.ctvnews.ca/london/video/2026/04/01/ark-aid-to-slash-beds-hours-amid-1m-funding-shortfall
Ark Aid Street Mission is sounding the alarm a day after a federal homelessness program and city hall’s cold weather response ended.
Executive Director Sarah Campbell says the financial shortfall will exceed $1 million for the frontline agency, forcing several difficult but necessary service cuts for homeless Londoners.
It represents approximately one-third of their operational funding, and means essential services like meals, showers, clothing, washroom access, assessments, referrals, and system navigation will now rely entirely on donor support.
A total of 50 overnight spaces this winter (across three locations) will immediately cease.
The Ark had operated London’s only seven day-a-week open door emergency service outside regular business hours.
Services at 696 Dundas St. will be reduced from between 20 and 24 hours a day — to just four hours.
“We’re currently stepping everything down, starting with the night beds for winter. We will then reduce our daytime hours and by the end of the month, we’ll have just four hours each day,” Campbell explained.
Those remaining hours will be around dinner time.
“We have anywhere between 50 to 70 people through the doors at any one time, and on an average weekend we’re seeing 400 unique individuals come through our space because on Saturdays, Sundays and holidays there are no other open doors,” Campbell added.
Twelve referral organizations had been utilizing The Ark as a drop-off location for homeless individuals, including London police and local hospitals.
Campbell is disappointed that no other government funding was made available before the previous federal program expired March 31.
“If we have zero government dollars, how do we make sure that we show up for the people who need us, when they need us most?” she asked rhetorically.
Among the other services lost or significantly reduced:
“These are essential basic needs, but they’re also life saving activities,” Campbell explained. “We don’t allow any drug use on site, but we do have overdoses around our building regularly. In fact, we’ve responded to 29 overdoses just since January, so being present here is critical.”
Ark Aid Street Mission is issuing an urgent plea to donors and all levels of government.
“We would like the funding gap filled by the municipal government because that’s the [level of government] we can go to directly, but it’s not their responsibility alone,” Campbell told CTV News. “It was federal funding that had come to the municipality [that ended], so we’re advocating to all levels of government.”
Campbell worries that fewer services, resources and indoor spaces will lead to more suffering on the streets of London.
“I don’t think there’s a person in London who doesn’t know that this is a catastrophe,” she said.
The beds inside The Ark’s Cronyn Warner Shelter are not affected by the funding shortfall, but its funding is scheduled to expire in one year.
Editorial standards & policies
Estair Van Wagner said the letter of the law was followed in Mark Plank’s high-profile eviction case, but not the “human rights element.”
Michael John Lo
Apr 2, 2026 4:30 AM
Listen to this article | 00:04:54 Duration
The near-eviction of a 63-year-old Victoria renter due to missed rent-increase payments brings home the impact of treating housing “as a commodity instead of a home,” says a University of Victoria associate law professor.
Estair Van Wagner said the letter of the law was followed in Mark Plank’s high-profile eviction case, but not the “human rights element.”
“The process of eviction, whether or not it actually results ultimately in the loss of someone’s home, is really traumatizing,” she said in an interview. “We should be building a system where we avoid that at all costs.”
Plank was set to be evicted on Tuesday from his Cook Street Village apartment after he lost a Residential Tenancy Branch hearing that he did not attend.
The self-described computer illiterate had been sent a rental-increase notice, then an initial 10-day eviction notice, via email to an account he does not access without the help of others. His property manager started the eviction process the first month he failed to pay the $24 increase, though his rent payment at the original $828 rate was accepted.
Following advocacy from groups like Together Against Poverty Society and the Victoria Tenants Union, he was able to reach a last-minute agreement to stay in his home.
Van Wagner said many people in situations like Plank’s don’t have the knowledge or confidence to use existing legal protections to help their case. “People will leave at the first instance of being told that they’re evicted without exercising their rights,” she said.
Plank didn’t report the fact that his studio unit had leaky taps and a broken fridge out of fear of jeopardizing his housing, even though a landlord is required by law to fix those issues once they are made aware of them.
“We aren’t providing enough legal education and resources and advocacy to make sure that folks not only know their rights, but feel that they can exercise them,” Van Wagner said.
While the media can highlight cases of so-called “nightmare tenants,” there are more rental units that aren’t being kept to provincial standards than problem tenants, she said.
Ultimately, preventing evictions, particularly for seniors, those with disabilities and others who are vulnerable in society, is the best way to prevent the homelessness crisis in Victoria and elsewhere from getting worse, Van Wagner said.
“The infrastructure around dealing with homelessness is extraordinarily expensive, and it’s expensive both on a very practical level of emergency shelters and services … but also on the long-term health and mental-health impacts it has on folks,” she said.
Van Wagner said better funding of legal services like those offered by TAPS is a good first step.
TAPS lawyer Leila Geggie Hurst said demand for legal help with evictions is extraordinarily high in Victoria, noting her organization’s walk-in capacity for tenancy issues filled up within four minutes on Tuesday morning.
“There used to be a time in the distant past when if a tenant got an eviction notice, they were able to pretty quickly find housing and move elsewhere,” she said.
But now, tenants are more desperate and more willing to fight to stay in their housing because there are fewer affordable options, Geggie Hurst said, adding that the loss of housing often causes a “catastrophic spiral” in someone’s life.
Kaeley Wiseman, a professor at Vancouver Island University’s master of community planning program, said people often assume there’s a safety net for people who are living in aging, cheaper buildings and are displaced for various reasons.
“They assume that people like Mark [Plank] will then get picked up by the non-profit sector,” said Wiseman, who is also principal of Wiser Projects, a non-profit housing development consultancy.
But finding subsidized, non-market housing is getting more difficult “because this provincial budget has axed that safety net,” Wiseman.
Premier David Eby’s government retroactively clawed back hundreds of millions of dollars in the province’s Community Housing Fund in its latest budget, effectively stalling many affordable-housing projects across B.C., including on Vancouver Island, Wiseman said.
The funding crisis in the non-profit construction sector is likely to last for the next decade, and that’s not good when it takes eight to 10 years to build a publicly funded housing project in Canada, she said.
“You can imagine the competition for the units that we have built in the last 15 years … is going to be fierce.”
Wiseman said 15 per cent of housing available in Canada should be non-market, but the actual amount is only around three to four per cent.
“So by cutting all this stuff, Eby has undermined our entire province,” she said.
Tom Kershaw & Paige Oldfield
Sun 16 February 2025 at 11:37 am GMT-8·1-min read
They may be small and swift, but if you notice this tiny silver creature scurrying around your home, you could be facing a significant and costly issue. Experts are advising anyone who spots a silverfish in their property to promptly check for dampness.
These shiny, teardrop-shaped insects thrive in moist conditions and are particularly fond of areas with water.
If you see one darting into or out of your skirting boards or crevices around window sills, it’s likely a sign of damp and moisture within your property. If not addressed, dampness can lead to a host of problems, including cracked bricks, rotting joists, decaying plaster, and spreading mould spores. In extreme cases, it can even compromise the structural integrity of the property and impact air quality.
Dampness can result from various factors, such as leaky drainpipes, condensation, ageing damp proofing, or inadequate ventilation, especially in bathrooms or kitchens where water vapour tends to linger. Identifying the cause can be tricky, but the presence of silverfish indoors usually signals that there’s dampness requiring attention.
The sooner signs of dampness are detected, the easier it will be to eradicate the bugs. It recommends looking for indications on walls like wet or damp patches, peeling wallpaper, and flaking plaster.
Other telltale signs include damp and musty smells, rotting wood, and the emergence of mould and mildew on walls, floors, or ceilings.
Among the proposed remedies are utilising a dehumidifier, maintaining good ventilation in your home, inspecting your gutters for leaks, applying damp-proof paint to your walls and, if necessary, engaging a professional to address areas impacted by rising dampness.
Originally published on Yahoo! United Kingdom
Posted January 30, 2025 6:34 pm.
Last Updated January 30, 2025 7:07 pm.
The BC Civil Liberties Association (BCCLA) says it is taking the City of Vancouver to court on behalf of unhoused people affected by a ban on daytime shelters.
Calling the ban “cruel, dehumanizing, and deadly,” the association is challenging the city bylaws that make it illegal for unhoused people to shelter outdoors during the day.
“Unhoused people deserve to have their government treat them with dignity and respect,” the BCCLA said. “Instead, many municipalities choose to enforce bans on daytime sheltering with callous cruelty by forcing people to either carry their belongings around all day or be violently decamped if they try to shelter.”
According to the group, unhoused people in Vancouver are subject to constant harassment, surveillance, and violence. In its enforcement of the ban, the association says, the city engages in daily street sweeps that destroy people’s personal belongings, including tents, sleeping bags, and medications.
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The city’s website says unhoused people are permitted to set up temporary shelters in parks from dusk to dawn but they must be removed at sunrise “to make parks available to support the health and well-being of the whole community.”
In a statement, the city says it can’t comment on matters before the courts, but confirmed staff will review the legal documentation once it is received.
The liberties association says it is “impossible” for those with physical or mental disabilities to set up and take down their shelter daily and then carry it throughout the day.
Jason Rondeau, one of the plaintiffs, was living on the streets for five years until recently when he got into social housing in the Downtown Eastside.
“For myself, it’s not really affecting me anymore because I am housed now,” Rondeau said.
“But I’ve got a lot of friends out there who are still in the thick of it, and their life is hard. Without the sweeps, their life is already hard.”
Vibert Jack, litigation director for the BCCLA, says the lawsuit will also address city bylaws that govern tents on the sidewalk.
“The courts have said already that these types of bylaws are unenforceable at night because it makes it impossible for people to sleep overnight in shelter,” Jack said.
“Our position is the same logic applies during the day.”
For three years, CRAB Park in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside was the only place in the city where unhoused people could legally camp in the daytime. This was closed late last year.
Now if you’re an unhoused person and you want to camp overnight in a Vancouver Park, you have to take down your tent every morning at 8 a.m.
In its claim, the BCCLA says the daytime shelter ban violates three separate sections of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, in that it subjects citizens to “extreme cruelty,” puts peoples’ safety, security, and survival at risk, and threatens equality rights of diverse people, including those with disabilities.
With files from Kier Junos and The Canadian Press.
Originally published on Vancouver City News’ Online site.
Authored By: Emma Crawford
