C-train versus O-train

I was in downtown Ottawa last week and had to pay $10 to park and walk for a block.  I though that the price was high.

I am in Calgary this week where to take the LRT from the northwest to the core costs $10 for the parking at the LRT station and the fare.  Then I had to walk 5 blocks.  Mind you, if I had to park in Calgary, it would cost $35; if I could even find  space.

I hope that the O-train doesn't cost $10 to go downtaown, because the parking will skyrocket to a level not seen outside New York or Calgary.

Did you know...?

According to a recent article in International Science Grid; "Information and communication technology (ICT), the fifth largest consumer of power in the world, currently contributes 3-4% of the world’s CO₂ emissions—and is doubling every three to four years."

The article then goes on to state: "To reduce its carbon footprint, the ICT industry has started relocating computing facilities to zero-carbon data centers at renewable energy sites."

The article sites Bill St. Arnaud, Chief Research Officer with Canada's CANARIE project .  He points out that: "In a year, one medium sized server generates as much CO₂ as an SUV with a fuel efficiency of 15 mpg (6.4 km/l) and the ICT industry’s total emissions are roughly equivalent to that of the entire aviation industry."

 Hey folks, this is a serious problem.  So what is Canada doing about it?

Nothing!

Did you know that?

Council gets it done... MAYBE

After a marathon meeting of City Council, the group of geniuses finally approved a slam dunk deal that stared them in the face for months.  Lansdowne Live has taken a step forward.

Let's make sure that we understand the reason I call it a slam dunk deal.  Lansdowne is the multi-acre site at Bank Street and the Canal.  The site is important in the history of Ottawa.  The troops marched there before they went off to the horrors of WWI. It was the site of one of Canada's first major agricultural fairs.  It has hosted everything from car races to Little League baseball (including a game where a terrific catcher hit a home run - ME).  It was the home of the Ottawa Rough Riders for some many years and is still the home of the Ottawa 67s.

But aside from the activities that continue in the Park, the buildings and especially Frank Clair Stadium are crumbling to rubble.  It is costing the city over $3 million per year to maintain the rate of crumble.  Along comes a group of developers and sports people who offer, unsolicited, to revitalize the whole park and bring the CFL back to Ottawa,  if the city will repair the stadium.

The deal is good for the taxpayers and the city. So should we be concerned?  Yes we should!

Council, in agreeing to negotiate with the Lansdowne Live folks have put so many caveats on the deal that there are hundreds of way that this council, and history has proved this, can overturn its own decision.

Members of Council - you have started down the right path.  Don't blow it now!

Chrysler and the CAW

Let me make sure I have this straight. Chrysler is losing its company and the CAW workers at Chrysler are losing their jobs. But is was the federal and provincial governments that had to urge them to get back to the bargaining table?

“We got a call from both the federal and provincial governments … and [they] said ‘You guys have got to get back to the table,'” CAW president Ken Lewenza said before negotiations resumed Monday afternoon. This from today's Grope and Flail news rag.

Chrysler and the CAW deserve each other.

Regulate the regulators?

I am not a great fan of government regulation.  The problems with government is they tend to go overboard in their regulation zeal trying to make one policy fit all.  When exceptions pop up, so too new regulations.

Sometimes the best regulation is none at all... but not in all cases.

The case for regulation.  The Con government is trying to back door Bill C-7.  C-7 is An Act to Amend the Aviation Act.  Get that?  This is an Act to amend an Act.  You can't just amend an Act; you have to pass an Act to amend an Act.  But let's not get off topic.  C-7 was originally called C-6 but C-6 died at first reading in 2007 when Harpo called an election.  C-7 was introduced at third reading by Harpo but it also died when the Cons defeated themselves and called another election.

Now C-7 is being contemplated to be enacted.  Notice that I said enacted not passed.  The Con government wants to enact the regulations contained within C-7 without bringing them to a vote in the Commons.  They have the right to do this of course.  I do not argue against that right.  So what's my point?

The Cons want to amend the Aviation Act to allow for something called a Safety Management System (SMS).  What you may ask is an SMS?  I had no idea what it was until I attended a round table discussion on Aviation Safety this week on the Hill.  All MPs and Senators were invited by the NDP transport critic to attend the round table to hear from people in the know.  Two Dippers attended and no-one else.  What did the others miss?

They missed first person stories of how Transport Canada has screwed up airline safety regulation in this country to the point that they will, through the provisions of faux-C-7, now get out of the business of regulating airlines all together.  From now on, if the Cons and Transport Canada get their way, there will be no more government inspections of airlines or airplanes in Canada.  Those inspections will be done by the airlines themselves.

Doesn't that give you a warm feeling in the special spot?  Cause, don't forget that we are not just talking about Air Canada and Westjet.  We are also talking about air taxis, air ambulances, bush companies and a myriad of other medium and small companies who will now regulate themselves.  The body count will rise thanks to Harpo and his band of idiots.  Don't believe me?  Take a look at what has happened in the financial industry since they became self-regulating.

As I told the round table committee, it is interesting to note that govenment will inspect a six foot non-structural wall that I build in my basement but they will not inspect a plane designed to carry 10s and 100s of men, women and children.

SMS was designed to augment government inspections and regulation; not replace it.

Now let's take a look at the other side of the coin.  At a Food Safety Town Hall meeting last night, we learned that farmer's markets were regulated as if they were five star restaurants.  We also learned that, by simply changing a regulation, a local farmer can lose his organic farm status even though his farming practice has not changed in thirty years.  The regulators claim to know farming better that the farmers. 

We regulate the hell out our local food produced.  We inspect it at every point in the system from production to consumption but, we do not, or can not, regulate the food that we bring in from outside the country.  That is why we get melamine in our melons from China.

All in all, it is a bad time to be a Canadian.

City Out of Control

Ottawa is one of those very few cities in the world where there are so many levels of government (even after amalgamation) that nothing can get done and politicians who cannot see their noses despite their faces thus ensuring that nothing will get done.

Case in point, this Pimple on the Rideau has been planning and arguing and screwing up Light Rail Transit for years.  We are $100 million in the hole with lawsuits, without even digging a bloody hole.  And there is no light at the end of the tunnel (so to speak)!

Case two, Lansdowne Park is a messy waste of space.  Half of the south side stands were torn down and now it turns out that every seat back of the first 30 rows in the north side needs to be replaced.  I remember back in the 1960s when the ceiling tiles in the Civic Centre (part of the north side stands) were falling onto the ice surface during hockey games.  The whole complex should be torn down.

But what to do with the Ottawa 67s and the Ottawa (your name inserted here) football team.  First, the hockey team.  The 67s deserve a new home (call it Kilrea Place) co-located with Carleton University.  That location would mean good access, parking and expanded utilization.  It is also on the LRT line (if they ever get around to building the LRT).

The football team?  I like football.  I go to CFL games.  But to build a complex for 8-9 home games per year has got to be a joke.  Co-locate the CFL football stadium with the stadium at Ottawa University.

Now, the $100,000 question.  What do we do with the acreage known as Lansdowne?  Forget the idea of an international design competition.  Canadians know what would fit the space best.  We know how the space is affected by weather; we know the history and know how to design spaces.  Hold a competition for architectural students from local universities and colleges and let them make the suggestions.  Once we decide on the right design (if we ever do) then let the students form new companies to build the design. (Now that is a real P3.)

What ever you do, just do something and quit putzing around the edges of decision-making.

Advice for Mike Ignatieff

Hi Mike, I will see you at the convention in a couple of weeks but I thought I would pass on a bit of timely advice to you.

When dealing with the press in this country... don't answer any questions honestly. Be a politician that Canadians seem to desire. Lie through your teeth. Tell them what they want to hear, not what they need to hear.

When they ask you for a statement on taxes... the answer is " No one wants to raise taxes. especially in this Conservative recession."

When they ask about Afghanistan... the answer is "I support the troops and the goals of the mission as they were laid out, but the Conservative government has failed in its vision and therefore failed the troops."

When they ask about bail-outs to GM and Chrysler... the answer is, "Canadians work hard for their money and a package that includes incentives for Canadians makes more sense than the bail-outs offered by the Conservative government."

When they ask you what you would do differently than Harper if you were PM... the answer is, "Just watch me!"

Keep 'em guessing and on their heels, Mike.

Bowing is a sign of respect

This brouhaha in the US over Obama bowing to a Saudi King or the Queen is another example of ignorant right wing rants and an uncouth attitude towards the norms in the rest of the world.

When I go to Japan, I bow to virtually everyone that I meet. It is a sign of respect not honour. Bowing to Mr. Boss is saying that I respect him; it doesn't suggest that I am not as good as him or that I am of lower status. And, by the way, Mr. Boss bows back to me.

If a few more people, especially westerners, made more of en effort to be civil then we could have a bit more harmony in the world.

Did Obama bow to the Saudi King? I hope so.

Would I bow to a Saudi King or to Obama. Yup!

Wise words for Perfect PP

"You were given two ears and only one mouth. You should listen twice as much as you talk." My Grandmother told me this long time passing. Sage words I now pass on to Pierre Poilievre, the mighty mouth MP from Nepean Carleton.

Yesterday Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff, in answering a reporter's question, stated that higher taxes were going to be needed to get Canada back to a balanced budget.

"Dastardly deed," spouted Perfect PP. "Iggy is the Anti-Christ," he continued, spittle flying from between his perfect baby teeth. "Over my cold dead body," he screamed in great pain. "You can't raise taxes during a recession," cried PP, blood pouring from scars on his hands and feet.

Oh, the horror of it all. PP is a saint sent to earth to protect us from life's detritus.

Oops, what's that? PP missed the rest of Ignatieff's answer? What ever did Iggy actually say?

"We will have to raise taxes, but not at the expense of hurting the recovery from this recession." He continued with, "An honest politician cannot exclude a tax hike as an option." He also stated, “I am not going to load a deficit onto your children or mine."

Oops, PP was being a dope! Where does he think the money will come from to balance future budgets. Will he just go and pick it off a tree?  It comes from taxpayers like you and me.

PP must be one of those dishonest politicians to whom Iggy referred.

Here is why Canada is going into the manufacturing dumper!

I ordered a product from the US two weeks ago.  The product is not available from any Canadian manufacturer so it should fall under a simple program wherein duties are not payable and clearance should be straight forward.

The product was shipped by the geniuses of logistics (I am being sarcastic!) at UPS.  The package left Indiana at 8:38 on April 10.  That was a Friday.  By April 13, Monday, it was in Windsor, Ontario waiting for customs clearance.  Here is where the genius begins.

Even though the package was clearly marked with the name of my broker, UPS called me at 7:30 AM to ask if I wanted them to clear the package.  When I pointed out that we had a broker named on the documents the answer was, "Oh ya.  I see it now."  This is business as usual for UPS as they make more profit doing a simple clearance job than actually shipping the package.  We continue.

Now that UPS was aware of the named broker, which is also located in Windsor,  they decided that the package need to be sent to another location for clearance.  They sent it to Fredericton, New Brunswick, bypassing Ottawa, the ultimate destination, en route.  Once the package was in Fredericton, UPS then sent it back to Windsor so the Windsor-based broker could clear it.  Once again the package flew right over Ottawa on its was back to Windsor.

By April 13, at 11 PM, the package finally cleared customs and was sent to Concord, Ontario for delivery.  Don't forget, I am in Ottawa... not Concord.  I am wondering if I will ever see this package or should I will it to my grand kids?

So here we are.  A simple package has more miles on it than my SUV and that's only in the span of a few days.  This product is needed to complete a project which is under a strict deadline.  With the way UPS has pissed around, the project is in jeopardy.  And you really have to wonder if UPS needed to incur the extra expense of shipping the product from Windsor to Fredericton and back again.

Dopey!

Deliver us from the Critics

The contents of page F3 of today's Ottawa Citizen is enough frost the nuts of an Old Salt.  Certainly annoys me.

Jonathon Chevreau is identified as the author of Findependence Day, a tome about which I have never heard.  In his opinion piece he uses contrived number to prove that the new HST plan in Ontario is a tax on the rich.

I say contrived because Chevreau picks little bits of the plan to make his point and conveniently ignores other bits that blow his thesis to smithereens.  He claims, for example that the tax will be levied on investment vehicles such as RRSPs, RIFFs and more, which is true.  Then he totally ignores the compensation package available in the first year to minimize the impact.  He then goes on to state that this is not a one time hit; it happens every year; which again is true.  Then he ignores that HST will become an Input Tax Credit, same as GST and collected at the same time as GST, which means that the fund managers will be able to deduct HST paid out for all sorts of things from the HST they collect (something that they could not do with the PST.)  This feature means that the fund managers will be able to lower prices because their costs have gone down.   He also ignores the fact that, when the HST is fully implemented, the number of public servants at the province needed to manage the system will be less, thus lowering costs and reducing the need to heavily fund the system.  Note that I did not say that people will be fired because I do not know if that is true.  Chances are they will be moved to other ministries and reduced through attrition.

History in the Maritime provinces and Quebec shows that costs have gone down following the implementation of an HST.  Prices did not drop where greedy companies decided to pocket the windfall.  We already know that financial companies are greedy.  Chevreau's article underscores that feature.

The second article on F3 is by Garry Marr, the Family Man.  He laments that the the tax credit for kid's sporting activities is not enough to motivate parents to get little Johnny active.  He quotes a partner at KPMG who said that the tax credit is too small.  Got news for you Garry, my kids were in soccer, hockey, horse jumping and a plethora of other sports and activities well before the politicians decided to give a tax credit.  We enrolled them in sports to keep them fit and to encourage team play.  Maybe we should not be critical of the little bits of money thrown to parents by the government but rather be critical of the parents who think that subsidies is the only reason to enroll their kids.

Sermon complete... for now.

Softwood... Again or still?

There are any number of ways to look at this most recent dust up with the US with respect to softwood lumber.

No one that I am aware of has disputed that Canadian companies exported more than was allowed under current agreements but has anyone noticed the situation surrounding those exports?

Part one of the saga is that the current softwood agreement, which incidentally enriched US firms while penalizing Canadian firm, was signed when the dollar was at par. Now that the Canadian dollar is worth 80 cents, it makes Canadian lumber cheaper for Americans. In a true free market environment, something paid lip service to in North America, the cheaper product, assuming equal or better quality, should have the edge in sales. Not so for Americans who have been whipping this dead horse of an issue for years.

Part two began early on in this enduring saga and continues today. As American lumber companies push the punitive issue on Canadian companies, they are playing a waiting game. As Canadian companies buckle under to the financial penalties and contracting markets, the Americans lurk in the shadows ready to pick up the failing Canadian companies for a song. Think I am kidding?

• South Carolina-based Bowater picked off Canadian Avenor Forest Products.
• Oregon's Pope and Talbot bought Harmac Pacific.
• Weldwood of Canada, wholly-owned by US-based Champion International, bought Alberta's Sunpine.

And what did these, and many more good corporate citizens do with their ill gotten booty? They sold the assets off bit by bit and closed a bunch of mills, putting Canadian workers on the street. Do they do this because Canadian mills are obsolete or not making money? No, they do this to eliminate competition.

We are so very stupid in this country that we allow this to go on while apologizing to our tormentors.

The dangers of being in Harper

In case anyone is confused, there is only one person I would prefer to replace Harpo as PM of Canada.  That person is anyone else in Canada.  Harpo came into national leadership with the aura of "my shit don't stink".  Well guess what?   His shit do stink.

Let's take a quick look at some of the problems of being Stephen. 

First, you can accuse the government of all kinds of nasty things when you sit on the sidelines with the National Citizens Coalition, but when you become PM all the nastiness falls at your feet.  How you handle them makes you a future statesman or a future putz.  Take for example the current CRA scandal-in-the-making.  When in opposite-position, Harpo blamed everything to do with the sponsorship scandal on Liberal politicians rather than a few corrupt civil servants.  Now as the CRA construction scandal begins to unfold, Harpo dives for cover while making sure that it is well known that this issue is the fault of a few corrupt civil servants.  Don't swallow too hard Steve... you might take your dentures down with your foot.

Second, Harpo has boasted that he built his party out of two disparate entities, the ProgCons and the Reformers.  Now we see that this experiment did not succeed as is evident by how the new party treats one B. Mulroney (RIP).  The Reformers spit on his image while the ProgCons exalt in his shadow.  Two people separated by a common party.

Finally, so not as to overload you with too much detail, let's look at the detritus that Harpo has surrounding himself with.  A larger collection of swollen egos has never been seen in Canada as congregates in the Conservative caucus on the Hill.  When Harpo's in town, the caucus bows down to his every command, but when he is in Europe telling everyone who will listen that his government is the best thing since multiple orgasms and that His country is best situated to come out this recession (That would be the recession, by the way, that Harpo, the economist, could not predict until after it hit his windshield.), they fight like cats.   This is a caucus in love with itself.

Can't quite figure this one out?

The geniuses in Victoria have to help me understand why, when an electric car called the ZENN is manufactured in Canada, the BC government is purchasing a number of Japanese electric vehicles to be tested.

Did they look in the international yellow book under electric cars and find out the Mitsubishi came before ZENN and decided that first come wins out?

Or do they know something the rest of us should know?

Oh, oh... pirates have really done it this time.

Those adventure-loving pirates of Somalia have stepped in the doo-doo this time.  After hijacking and holding for ransom a Saudi tanker and a few dozen ships crewed by Filipinos, they missed the cue that the crew of their latest conquest spoke only English.  They hijacked a ship with twenty-one Americans on board.

Did your mommies not warn you that if they speak only English, chances are they are Americans?

"Somebody's going to get a hurt on", as Russell Peter's dad would say.

A bit of advice to the pirates.  You have a choice to either return the ship and crew in pristine shape (maybe throw in a new paint job) and apologize or spend the rest of your miserable lives staring at the sky trying to see the Yankee Cruise Missile that is about to ram you up the keester.

And there won't be any parlee with the Americans.

Donolo goes lite

Pollster Peter Donolo, a Liberal strategist and former Chretien communication guy, just released a poll through his company, The Strategic Council. The poll took the political temperatures in Ontario and Canada and confirms what other polls have been telling us - that the Libs have overtaken the Cons in Ontario and national contests.

However methinks that Donolo's reading of the trend is a bit flawed. He concludes that the Cons number reflect a country in economic trouble. In fact Canadians are flocking away from the Cons because they do not trust them to do, say or even think the right thing for Canadians, This distrust will be further deepened when Harper's minions begin their character assassination attempt on Liberal leader Mike. Expect that flurry of gut spew to begin around the Lib convention in May.

Cons could not care less about Canadians. They even stoop to denigrating their own former leader and two time winner Bullshitroney. Lib leader Mike reminded the Cons that Mulroney was not convicted of anything... yet... and as a former Prime Minister he was due at least a little respect from his party.

The Con attitude toward Mulroney is due to the FACT that the Rabid Right and the Weak Right of the Conservative party are two people separated within a common belief. A bit like Shias and Sunnis or Baptists and everyone else.

It goes to show that sometimes you have to look way behind the numbers.

Got to get a chuckle from Harper

Stephen Harper, an economist by training, is the PM that could not predict the coming economic storm even as late as two weeks before it stuck in full force. This is the same yahoo who goes to the G20 meeting in Britain and has the cohones to state that we are over the worst of it and that things should start improving.

What he actually said was, "Notwithstanding that the employment effects are growing, becoming real on people, the worse aspects of instability, I do believe are behind us." That sounds pretty positive. But then he follows up with a statement that he can't tell us when the end will be but everything will be stable from here on out.

Interesting. He can't see the oncoming train wreck but he can tell us when it is past.

Typical economist. Who says you can't have it both ways?

Banks are screwed up?

I made an electronic payment from my bank to my credit card.  The second that I hit "CONFIRM" the cash dissapears from my account and goes... where does it go?

The credit card company claims it takes 3-5 business days to get to them and be posted.  Why?  The transfer is electronic.  It does not take electrons 3-5 days to travel across the whole world let alone from Toronto to Toronto.  Even if there is a few intermediate stations for the money to pass through, why does it take 3-5 days?

The bigger question is who has the money and do they get interest on it when it is their hands?  I certainly don't get the interest.

Figure this:   If 50,000 (each) Canadians make a payment of $500 (each) per day (There are over 200 million cards in Canada so this means that only a small fraction are making payments each day in our example.), then $25,000,000 per day is floating in the ether.  If it floats for 4 days (happy medium), that means that someone, somewhere, has $100,000,000 in their account.  Let's say that the interest rate on that kind of money is 5 percent per year.  That means that the daily rate is about 0.02 or about $200,000 in compounding interest.  That calculates out to about $73,000,000 per year in interest gained by someone and lost by you and me.

No wonder the banks need bailouts.  They' re going broke with our money.

MysteryMan Subpoenaed by Parliamentary Committee

Ottawa, April 1, 2009 - An Ottawa-base blogger, who goes by the handle of MysteryMan, appeared in front of parliamentary finance committee this morning to answer charges that he claims to know what to do about the current Canadian economic mess but refuses to elaborate on his ideas.

Nepean Carleton Con MP, Perfect PP, led off the questioning by demanding to know the real identity of MysteryMan.  "Unless we know exactly who you are, how are we going to ruin your reputation?" demanded PP.  MysteryMan responded with a quiet, "Piss off, PP."  The response drew gasps of horror from the MP and guffaws from his colleagues and the press.  Not to be upstaged, PP then demanded that MysteryMan remove the Clark Gable mask he was wearing.  MysteryMan responded with,"What mask?  This is how I look after I shower.  You should try it once in a while."

The thrust and parry went back and forth between the two individuals for almost 15 minutes, at the end of which PP, completely frustrated and almost weeping, asked the chairperson for a 25 minute adjournment.  The chairperson, responded with, "Piss off, PP."

April Fool's.