If only it was that easy

The Toronto Star blares out "EI claims drop" here, implying that economic conditions are improving. They may be in other parts of the province but here in the good old Muskokas-Haliburton-Northumberland region the stats tell a different story. Check out the monthly report here

In January 2009 there were 9,900 people declared as unemployed, one year later we have twice that many, 18,400. We also know that very few of the unemployed got jobs in January as the employed workforce only expanded by 1500 people. So the stimulus package hasn't kicked in yet!

The slogan, "Come to the Muskokas - Ontario's playground" is really ringing true as this area's unemployment rate is third highest in the Province behind Windsor and Niagara Falls.. Unfortunately the unemployed have little to play with. Perhaps this is something MPP Loo should be looking at as he goes about bragging what a wonderful place N'land is. Sadly those poor folks whose EI has run out will probably disagree!

You can't win for losing

Following up on the County leasing situation here one cannot help that the County Boss can't win for losing. By attracting non-profit agencies into his brand new empire Bill Pyatt has contributed to the loss of commercial rent in the Fleming building by offering discount rents. Is this what we are after - government putting the boots to private enterprise? If we own the building, as pointed out in a previous post, why are we charging rent at all to our own departments and not charging commercial rates to the others? The idea was to save taxpayers money not increasing inter-departmental chargebacks to inflate a budget that taxpayers have to pay. In addition we now find that the County will do this at the expense of one of the biggest landlords in Cobourg - LinMac.

The Puffster strikes again

In this Youtube video we see Senator Mike asking for money using the Olympics as a backdrop. Strange to see when the Cons said they would keep politics out of the Olympics.

Nobody Wants to Know

A few months ago I heard a song by that venerable songwriter Kris Kristofferson. Called "To Beat the Devil", it was about a crusading singer feeling discouraged to the point of giving up in his quest to compel his audience to listen and heed the message in his songs. He's broke, hungry, and listening to the Devil who's telling him to just give up; nobody is listening, nobody cares.

By the end of the song he concludes that he will keep going, that somewhere, somebody will hear the message and his travails will not be in vain. That song spoke to me, having spent a large chunk of my life in essentially that same struggle. I marvel at my friends who manage to keep going, seemingly never discouraged by the lack of results and always maintaining hope. At this point I am like the guy in the song, ready to just pack it in and forget it. But somehow, I and we never do. We keep going.

What motivates us that is not present in other people? A co-worker once told me she admired our commitment, noting that in her own life she really didn't care about anything but her immediate family and the next vacation. She thought she should be ashamed, but admitted she wasn't. That conversation has stayed with me, and for years I have tried to figure out how to reach people like her, to make them understand that caring about our fellow humans is our only hope. It is what separates us from the other creatures on the earth who just exist to hunt down their next meal.

It would be much easier to coast through life that way; nothing to keep you awake at night except deciding whether to holiday in Mexico or Florida. Trouble is, for some of us, that just isn't possible. But why? What makes us different? Why do we bother at all? The loving spouse of a friend of mine thinks we're crazy, tells us we should mind our own business and that absolutely nobody wants to hear from us.

Is that spouse right? I don't know, but I sure would like to figure it out. Any thoughts on this topic are welcome, it could be quite a discussion. Or maybe nobody cares...

Should we "settle" or WIN

In this story Rosie DiMannio of the TOStar writes: "But it was silver for defending moguls champion Jenn Heil and there's nothing, nothing, underwhelming about that." Maybe not Rosie but it wasn't a win.
Are Canadians going to be nice or be killers in this quest for gold. Jenn Heil was the World Champion, winner of 5 World Cups this season and the reigning Olympic Champion so on paper and in her mind the Gold was there, should have been a dead certainty. Don't give me the whine about a bad day, or a better opponent this Gold should have been hers, after all this is what she trained for. She didn't get it and Canada still fawns over her for putting in a good effort. Sorry folks the killer instinct must kick in, we have to learn how to win, and this case where Jenn Heil has obviously learned to win we must learn to maintain the win.
Sorry folks this SIlver is not good enough for me and we should say so!

Cobourg Council is wrong

Just because Council says "It's not our fault" they can't afford to deny liability. In the case of the flooding in the George St, Buchanan St Station St area the Town told local residents that it's not their fault that the area flooded. The reasoning being that the flooding occurred as a result of an inadequate storm drain on private property.

Quote from the NNews
"In an interview after the flood, Ted MacDonald, acting director of public works, said town staff were out in the field on Jan. 25, inspecting the George Street culvert as well as areas both up and downstream and found no evidence that the George Street culvert was blocked, based on flow rates observed in other parts of the system. The George, Buchanan and Station Street area has long been defined as a flood plain and the affected homes have been there for over 50 years, said Mr. MacDonald. Currently, new building is restricted on flood plains, given the likelihood of flooding. However, the homes in the area predate the current rules and regulations, he said.

Flooding in this area is not a new occurrence, he added. Similar circumstances back in 1980 - frozen ground and heavy rains - also resulted in heavy flooding. He added the culvert that runs under the CN/CP tracks is not on town-owned property nor was it built by the town.

"Any flooding that occurred (in the area) was not due to any negligence whatsoever on the town's part," said Mr. MacDonald. "We (Town of Cobourg) have worked hard over the last 20 years to improve infrastructure to limit any damage that may occur during flooding."

The BurdReport asks the following questions:

• If the Town has worked hard to improve infrastructure how come this area flooded?
  
• If the Town is responsible for Storm Water Management how come they haven't ordered private property owners to improve their facilities to modern standards?
  
• If the Town knew that this Railroad culvert was inadequate twenty odd years ago why haven't they followed the standards of the latest Storm Water Management Report and ordered changes on the railroad property?
• If the Town is denying culpability why didn't they tell the Homeowners to sue the Railroad Company?
  

For a video of the flood as it passed below the affected area, the railroad lands, look here; Wally's video

First of all, congratulations to Bob Spooner

So the "dinosoar" has pulled the plug! Congratulations to Bob for his public service. Read this story for the details
Now the fun begins, who will be the first to declare for the vacancy? Many names come to mind but it will probably be someone we have never heard of. That's good because whoever declares will need the time to develop a profile. You don't get one by hanging out in the backrooms of City Hall filling a committee seat.

So let's have BurdReport special - who do you want to run for Council? Nominations are open, just mail the names in and I will setup a special tracking page.

Now's the time for all....

.... Good Liberals to come together. That is they can afford the $125.00.

Everyone on the Lib mailing list, and others that the Vice-President of Funding can think of, will be soon getting the invite on the left. Lib bigwigs will be speaking to the faithful. Any excuse for the good Senator to use his "cottage" at the bottom of Bagot St. But the topic should be enlightening to policy wonks. The exception should be the results of the research that Gerard Kennedy has been doing on the "Stimulus" figures: who got what and how much has been given to the Tory faithful etc.

As an observer I find it fascinating that this event comes a month or so after a particulaly brutal AGM where long standing officers, identified with the losing side in the Nomination battle either elected not to run, withdraw or were beaten at the polls by a side run by TeamRudd, determined to have things their way. The upshot is that hard feelings are still there, an executive has been elected dominated by persons from the West and some people do not feel welcome in their party. Not a good harbinger for an expected election.

But back to the poster, click on the image to enlarge it, if you are a Liberal and want to hear pearls of wisdom delivered from the mount, pay $125.00, have some munchies sip some wine and have a good Liberal time.

An answer based on intuition, not necessarily fact

This question came in yesterday
"Now that this little saga (My experiences with phone companies which obviously bore the heck out one reader at least) has mercifully ended, for Ben and for us, can we talk about something else?
How about the news that the County is charging the County paramedics double rent for their new digs at the old Kraft research building?
This according to a story in Northumberland Today.
Are they not both landlord and tenant here? Whazzup Ben?"

So what's the answer? Unfortunately the question appeared to be a throwaway from the bulldog of County Council, Mayor Bill Finlay. I can imagine one of the reasons Bill is not running again is that he is tired of posing common sense questions, at the County level, when no-one else will, and getting snowed by the bureaucrats. But back to the question, but a bit of background. The County paid $1.5 million for the old research lab and a bit of land on William St. The purchase was justified to the Council and public by claiming that when the price was amortized and the Land Ambulance and the Food-for-all Warehouse was moved into the building the County would be paying less than rent in annual costs. Sounded good, the Council said Yay and the Feds kicked in a whack of money to cenvert the building and now the place is almost ready, but the bills have to be paid. In recent budget discussions the EMS budget was higher than planned. In a report in NToday "The 2010 budget anticipates EMS department rents at about $290,000 compared to actual expenditures on rental facilities of only about $122,000 last year." In fact in the debate about the purchase, last year, Mr Pyatt reported to Council "Presently rent for the EMS, Food 4 All Warehouse and storage trailers is about $85,000 per year, says Pyatt." "These rent expenses would stop and rental income from two unnamed agencies would begin. "
So what has happened here? For the rent to go to a planned budget of $85K (less than that with a planned rental agreement) to an actual of $122K and now a future cost of $290K?
One reason given is that the County appears to have two problems: they have purchased larger ambulances and therefore need a larger garage in Port Hope and the base in Cobourg will be charged back to the County at commercial rates. But hold on here didn't we buy a building to eliminate having to pay rent in Cobourg? So is this a paper transaction or a real one designed to pay off the building?
Either way Mayor Finlay must have been satisfied with this answer as there was no report of a followup question or an answer to his main question, "Alnwick/Haldimand Mayor Bill Finley asked during the county budget session. "Are we getting the benefit of having our own building?"
Sad really I can remember being on County Council when the budget discussions used to be the highlight of the year when every single councillor used the occasion to demonstrate to the folks back home just how much they were protecting the taxpayer by hacking and chopping every single line item. It appears that the major issue for the Council of this day is just how llttle time they can spend on discussions of any kind. After all who cares it's only the County - one step removed from the people!

The Bell saga

It's over, my flirtation with a Smartphone. Yep I sent it back and cancelled my account. This was done because it is impossible to get a plan that allows the Smartphone to operate properly for less than $70.00 a month. That's a whack of dough just to look at email on a phone. How Bell can sell a phone that is web dependent without a data plan being mandatory is beyond me but they do. So not willing to pony up that kind of money I called it quits. But this phone hell never seems to quit, this morning I have to phone Honeywell about a programmable thermostat that has never worked properly from the day it was purchased.