Comments on The Burd Report: A Guest Post - short and to the point

Don't talk about common sense, Mike Harris ga...

2010-03-30T17:23:45.681-04:00

Don't talk about common sense, Mike Harris gave that term a bad name years ago.

This is "common cents", people. About 3...

2010-03-30T14:33:21.805-04:00

This is "common cents", people. About 3,000,000,000 of them.

" a guest post- short... sighted!" Obv...

2010-03-30T10:27:23.699-04:00

" a guest post- short... sighted!"

Obviously there is great concern for the hospital cuts happening here today in this region. The community centre must be built to attract new people and tax dollars to this region. In fact, I'm a bit disturbed that the pool was nixed from the project as that could of peeked the interest of non hockey playing families.

The government built this hospital expecting that this region would continue to grow. As I confidentially assume that the population projections in this area point to minimal growth, then the services originally put in place for the future have to be cut.

This is common sense people.

Martin: If the rink project were cancelled there ...

2010-03-30T09:23:00.954-04:00

Martin:

If the rink project were cancelled there would be a net loss to the town after design fees, payments for work to date and cancellation fees were paid.

It is regrettable that a “community centre” ended up as just two rinks, but the town and hockey players got a very good deal for $ 3 million of fundraising. It would be very difficult to persuade the council and the hockey supporters to give it up now. In fact it would be unfair to deprive them of this once in a lifetime opportunity. This is why I suggested the cancellation is not going to happen.

As far as I am aware the problem with the hospital is that it could not make expenditures meet the funding available, and my analysis of the hospital’s 2009 financial statements showed the gap to be 3.3%. There are many ways that organizations can save 3.3% including reduction of administration costs (as many have suggested), sterilization and re-use of equipment instead of throwing it away after a single use, and perhaps planning of procedures so that overtime can be reduced or eliminated. Cutting physiotherapy and, diabetes education etc. is a foolish way to make savings.

I am not convinced that building an additional clinic would pay for itself or provide better service, any more than closing Port Hope and Cobourg hospitals to build a single new one resulted in any net savings. If a new clinic can be justified on its own merits then it is worth fighting for, but not by cancelling the hockey rinks. I think that to do this would be a classic case of “robbing Peter to pay Paul” and is thus not fair, would polarize the community and would not create any overall benefits.

Merklin Muffley said... Assuming one of the primar...

2010-03-29T23:24:05.368-04:00

Merklin Muffley said...
Assuming one of the primary purposes of the ice will be hockey, I'd say feed the money to ducks or throw it out the back door of a 747, Something that has a useful purpose to it. Yesterday, at about 4PM, The Winchester Arms was once again descended upon by about 50 rotten little hockey brats and their inbred Don Cherry worshiping parents. It wasn't pretty and neither were any of the Moms. There is nothing about hockey that uplifts humanity or promotes sportsmanship. It is a game by thugs, for thugs and about thugs. Why would any community want to spend $30-million on thugs? Unless of course the community in question were being run by thugs.....

My son is not a thug.
I am not a thug.
My wife is not a thug.

My son plays hockey because he enjoys the sense of team.
Of belonging to something.
He enjoys the challenge of the game, and strives to better himself.
He also loves the exercise.

My wife and I taught him respect.
Respect for the coach, who volunteers his time.

Respect for the refs, who have a thankless job.

Respect for the watiress who brings his food.

Respect for the people who are sitting around us.

My son makes me proud every time he thanks his coach after a practice or game. He makes me proud every time he says please when ordering food and thankyou when it arrives. He makes me proud when the people around me notice how well behaved and polite he is.

As near as I can tell, my son's team mates have been taught the same thing.

Merc, it seems that you have met with a group who has less to do with the humanrace than they do with a hockey team.

While they have done everything to earn your contempt (and rightly so) I ask that you not paint all hockey teams with the same brush.

My son, and his team mates deserve better than that.

Wow, 50 kids in the Port Hope Winchester Arms at 4...

2010-03-29T18:49:55.622-04:00

Wow, 50 kids in the Port Hope Winchester Arms at 4PM. I guess their parents will be seeing drawings from them for some time with old guys with red noses.

To Greg: Bill Patchett is advocating a capital pr...

2010-03-29T14:17:33.312-04:00

To Greg: Bill Patchett is advocating a capital project, namely the construction of a medical services building, on hospital property. Where, pray tell, will the money for THAT come from, if all the stimulus goes into rinks? Isn't building a hospital adjunct just as economically stimulating as building playrooms?

Further Greg, you say that if we don't build the hockey rinks by March we get no money. Forget about the "free money", which has simply suckered us into spending local money we don't have. My point is that if we don't build the rinks we get to KEEP $10,000,000 that's about to be lifted from our local pockets. We could redirect some of those scarce dollars to a hospital purpose.

To summarize, we're losing two ways: federal-provincial stimulus money that could be used to build hospital facilities is being used for ice rinks; and our local money is being used to top up the stimulus money, when it could better be used for hospital needs.

The idea to spend the money on something else is ...

2010-03-29T12:24:42.291-04:00

The idea to spend the money on something else is a good one, but it ain't gonna happen. The money was only available for a "stimulus project", i.e. building something , that had to be finished by next March. If we don't do this project we get no money.
A good argument could be made that stimulus projects should have been geared toward projects that would be to the long term benefit of Canada, such as health care, better transit in TO, and better railways across the country, but it wasn't and they aren't.

Assuming one of the primary purposes of the ice wi...

2010-03-29T11:30:22.599-04:00

Assuming one of the primary purposes of the ice will be hockey, I'd say feed the money to ducks or throw it out the back door of a 747, Something that has a useful purpose to it. Yesterday, at about 4PM, The Winchester Arms was once again descended upon by about 50 rotten little hockey brats and their inbred Don Cherry worshiping parents. It wasn't pretty and neither were any of the Moms. There is nothing about hockey that uplifts humanity or promotes sportsmanship. It is a game by thugs, for thugs and about thugs. Why would any community want to spend $30-million on thugs? Unless of course the community in question were being run by thugs.....

If there is a place where people can exercise thei...

2010-03-29T10:13:43.530-04:00

If there is a place where people can exercise their bodies to maintain their healthy lives, then one might be able to make the case that that the community centre is a preventative measure. Just saying.

Martin is right on, as usual!

2010-03-29T07:57:50.661-04:00

Martin is right on, as usual!