Garth writes a story for me, plus and an invitation for you!

Garth Turner has outlined why the GM fiasco reaches beyond the neo-con claim that the government is paying $400,000 for each GM job and therefore the money is wasted. In this story he talks about the dealerships, the people who work there and the loss to the community in lost sponsorships.

Thomas Pontiac/Buick stays; Spencer Chev/Olds goes. GoNorthumberland.net is reporting (1745 on May 21) that's the result of the letters that GM sent to their dealerships. The news could have been a lot worse if Thomas had splurged on a new building the way GM honchos had wanted them to. President Bill Campbell appears to have made a wise business decision by stalling GM. This way he can now work a deal with Bill Spencer, if Spencer wants to get out of the car business, for his new facility expand the business and some of Spencer's employees may get a job with an expanded Thomas.

OK here's the deal, I would like others to contribute news, and some opinion, to the site and am willing to open up the site you, the readers. Blogspot has the capacity to accept multiple authors. I am willing to experiment and let others contribute. The rules will be simple -

1. I will not edit the post before submission, authors can rule on their own content
2. Content rules: must be of interest to local readers, must reflect good taste and decorum, must not be repetitive in nature (one, two at most posts about the same thing) supplementary posts must only supply new information not the same point.
   
3. I will have veto on a contributor only if the posts go bad and reflect badly on the BurdReport

If you have some thing to say that needs to be in public send me your name and tell me that you want to be an author. We will take it from here. let's build a community based on local news and opinion.

How do I get a job like this?

The HKPR Health Unit has released a list of restaurants who have been awarded "Eat Smart" badges. Without releasing the criteria for such badges they are as good as useless. Do they sample all the meals, study the menus or just sniff around for cockroaches?
Looking at the list only two establishments in Port Hope got a badge: Mr Sub and Subway. The rest of the County was well represented. I can imagine that the owners of the fine restaurants in PH don't think much of this award. Anyway back to the lead, I would be perfect for the job of EatSmart tester. According to the love of my life all I ever do is eat junk food, ergo I can recognise it and any place serving it will not get a badge!

Have you driven about the Beer Store lately? Because if you have you will notice that when you go to drive North on Division from Munroe there is a new sign facing you. A "No right turn on Red". Wondering about this, I travel this intersection daily and hadn't noticed it until a passenger pointed it out to me, just who ordered this and when did this take place? I phoned the Police, thinking that a change in traffic signs might have something to do with them. Deputy-Chief Cromlish (deputydave) told me he knew nothing about it so it hadn't been placed there as a result of being a dangerous intersection. I then phoned Public Works and spoke to "I have been here so long I am part of the furniture" Ted MacDonald, the major domo of traffic. "Yep we did it!" he said. Acknowledging that the funny shaped intersection is a bugger to put lights on he said, "You can't have it both ways, either make turns from Park St illegal or allow the pedestrians priority on the arrowed green light from Munroe!" "This way it is safe" Telling me that this is the last change to a $100K project the traffic controller was only installed last week. This installer allows a Pedestrian walk to operate on the green arrow. Now we all know that every single driver who turns on a red knows that the pedestrian has the right of way - don't we? But just to be sure Ted put up a sign disallowing right turns on red.

No word yet for the local GM dealers about just which one is going to disappear. Cobourg has two - Thomas Pontiac-Buick and Spencer Chev-Olds. Talking informally to a local GM salesman he agreed that consolidation will take place. But who will be the top dog; Thomas or Spencer?

For those who have been following it

The British House of Commons's financial scandal. There are so many facets to this that I don't where to begin, but I will point readers to the commentary by the infamous George Galloway in this morning's "Guardian" George's opinion is that the establishment did him in to cover up the problem and finish the deal with a scapegoat. The Speaker was an easy target because he used to be a working class shop steward from the "Gorbals". The "Gorbals" is the notorious slum area of Glasgow. A bit of history. It is alleged, and referred to by GG, that the system of MP's expenses was developed to offset the politically sensitive subject of MP's raises. Allowing MPs to claim for a second home and then not policing the system properly was a recipe for 'fiddling'. Add into the mix that the majority of MPs have never had a real job in their lives, the MP selection system is done by Party Central, only rising to the job by virtue of being an MPs aide somewhere or being a star candidate and then being placed in a Riding. This lack of industrial integrity and the age group that most of the miscreant's came from fostered the feeling of entitlement. The fact that MPs of all parties did it shows that greed and lack of ethics had replaced the feeling of 'public service'.
The resignation of the Speaker will not quell the public demand for vengeance. The general public is on a feeding frenzy for MP's scalps. In fact political scientists and pundits are now scared sh**less that extremist parties will be the beneficiaries of diverted votes. The first test will be elections for the European Parliament this summer.
Talk about life imitating art: one of the summer programs on PBS last year was a series from England called "The Amazing Mrs Pritchard" (Wikipedia) The manager of a supermarket , fed up with the local area politicians decided to run for office and became the Prime Minister leading a feminist party. The series depicted her election and the subsequent trials of office. In the end the family scandals, unknown to her when she first ran, were too much and she resigned and went back to Yorkshire. But the parallel is going to dangerously similar when all kinds of ordinary people decide to run as independents, or join a new party yet to be formed.

In another related story, the fury is unabated over the Speaker's resignation. In a story from the Daily Mail, the establishment, led by the Lords of the Lords, are demanding that a disgraced commoner not receive the obligatory peerage given to any Speaker when they leave office. Amazing how these chinless wonders still can sway public opinion to their side - the aristocracy. Even more amazing that the Brits would even listen to them.
The principal proponent of the ban is Lord Lawson, Baron Lawson of Blaby. One of Thatchers henchmen, elevated to the Lords he has obviously very quickly acquired the attitudes of the hereditary peers - that of "we know what best for the working man, and we are here to decide for you!" The sooner we have elected upper houses the better, both here and over there!

Check out the video page - another Jesse V clip.

Back to work!

Tonight's Cobourg Council meeting will be interesting, there is a bylaw coming up to establish a "Tree Preservation Policy". Good job then that the Deputy Mayor has just finished chopping down a healthy Maple tree on his own property; because , I am told, that the leaves annoyed his wife. After tonight tree chopping on your own property will probably be illegal!

John Dean was a discredited aide to President Nixon, but he does know how the Government of the USA works. In this piece he opines that the civil servants - read career bureaucrats - got to Obama about the release of the torture pics that he promised to release but now won't.

Just one last word on the GM situation. Last Thursday the TO Sun published the results of it editorial board meeting, which took place in Oshawa. One of the stories they heard was from an angry pensioner who blamed the Province for the legacy costs. The situation for him was that he had to contribute 15% of his wages to the pensions. The Company was supposed to do the same but because Bob Rae, in the middle of the last recession gave GM, and others, a "pension holiday" Company contributions were suspended or severely reduced putting the plan into deficit. By making 15% contributions he had little opportunity to contribute to an RRSP. because of reduced pension room So now he is faced with a reduced pension plan because of Provincial laxity and the federal tax rules. No wonder he is POd. Everybody thinks he is on the gravy train and the Province is telling Ken Lewenza to make more pension cuts, when the real culprits have been the last three provincial Premiers!

This skydiver left it a bit late to open his chute and crashed after a 6,000' drop. Check out the video page and look carefully.

If you happen to listen to your MP in the next week?

The story below just got bumped out by the sequel. The document to the right and the links to and from the originating story have vaporised into cyberspace. Broken links and removed source material ... wonder who got the wind up about this? and who got the job of rewriting the May Caucus document? Just in case the Con cyberpolice start tracking the doc down in the middle of the night I have stashed it and can pull it out any time to check against Mr Norlock's delivery at will.

If you happen to listen to your MP in the next week just check the speech against this - an eight page speaking note for delivery by the Cons in power when they get back in the Ridings. Boy things must be getting back if this kind of caucus document is being leaked.

Maybe we should consider ourselves lucky with this proposal: a plan to fingerprint people who haven't been charged and then make them request the removal of prints from the system, instead of automatically being deleted after a period of time. In the UK ID cards are coming and with the arrival are some pretty big offences against civil rights: everybody will be fingerprinted to get one, all ID cards when used will be linked to the tax database and ID cards will be used to track financial transactions. Horrifying to a civil libertarian.

The first of many - I fear

President Obama, in a big decision today tossed one of his major platform planks on the pyre. By upholding the Tribunals at Guantanamo he has disappointed many who voted for him.
"What happened to President Obama's confidence in the U.S. justice system's ability to try detainees? He himself said that 'we need not throw away 200 years of American jurisprudence while we fight terrorism.'" asked Amnesty International's executive director Larry Cox in this story ?
I just hope that this will not be the first, of what I fear to be, many expedient political decisions in Obama's reign. The decisions made so far appear to be more on the side of the 'ruling elite' than the for the people who voted for him. A sad trend. Making a mockery of the chant, "Yes we can". maybe we can but choose not to!

And if you think that is bad read this story about the "Immediate Reaction Force" (IRF) in Guantanamo.

Next time the Boss tells you "that the quality of your work is the best and you are the most productive in the system" don't interpret that as praise in any form just tell the Boss -"Didn't do the GM truck plant workers any good did it!"
So yesterday they shut the truck plant down and in this report from the TO Star the job loss is staggering, about 2,000 direct jobs and 10,000 indirect jobs. Real estate prices have fallen and the local economy is hit hard. Alright for those who look on it as justice because, "those guys earned too much" but for the intelligent ones who worry about the big picture, they don't have a clue what's coming next. The Deputy Mayor of Oshawa said, "We want to become or do something like Waterloo has done," Pidwerbecki said. "We know there will be ups and downs during the next few years, but I think the community will survive that." - We think don't know but in the meantime? (my words) Even that fat obnoxious loudmouth Denis "I hate the CAW" DeRosiers acknowledges the severity of the situation, "The impact is quite devastating," industry analyst Dennis DesRosiers said.

The big deal of the year is sitting at Home Hardware, on Division St. Low flush toilets are not a big deal anymore but this line is. The standard low-flush uses 13 litres per flush, this new style uses half that amount - 4.8 litres per flush. Using a new design this toilet can flush the poop with half the water. The design also eliminates the problem that besets every water utility - flapper leakage; no flapper no leakage.
Three models of toilet are offered and three prices prevail: the MSRP, the sale price and the sale price reduced if you are a LUSI customer. The cheapest model is priced at $99. So how long will it take to pay for this model with the promised savings kicking in? Looking at my water usage over the last year I used 77 cubic metres. That is 77,000 litres, daily usage is 216 litres and if we, only two of us in the house, each flush five times per day poop water equals 48 litres at 4.8 lpf new toilet and 130 litres at the present. So the potential savings are 82 litres per day. We spent 45 cents a day for the past year on water. The cost per litre per day at 130 litres is .0035 cents per litre so if we put in a new toilet we save .287 cents per day. A yearly cost savings of $102.17.
Simple decision new toilet costs $99 plus tax; payback equals twelve months. Bruce Craig of LUSI told me that the budget is $100,000 and that will buy about 600 toilets so get up there fast.

Good news for Cobourg, Provincial money for doing the right thing - switching light bulbs, and then a surprise from the light bulb maker - the sniff of jobs. Confirming that the Company is looking for a place to site a research facility and then possibly a manufacturing plant. Although it is hard to believe that a Chinese manufacturer would shun low cost manufacturing, it may be plausible - still I'm from Missouri!

The puzzle may be solved when the Cobourg staff release a report about the complex planning situation encompassing the growth of Cobourg, the new Official Plan and the application for a 265 acre development with 1702 planned dwellings.
The facts are clear. Cobourg is in the middle of a new Official Plan that has many constraints placed upon it by forces outside Cobourg. A developer has applied to build many houses in an area that may not be allowed to be built upon, by the application of the new OP, and the confusion of a local committee responsible for advising the Council on planning matters.
When the application to build (the Rondeau application) came before the Planning and Advisory Committee the committee was in the middle of another matter - the review of the Oficial Plan (OP). In the review the committee had been wrestling with the directive from the Province to focus development within existing Town boundaries. Research indicates that up to 11,000 people could be living inside that boundary if development was directed to those areas. So when the Rondeau application came before it discussion centred on its merit - why approve a build outside the boundary when all policy is directing them to build inside the boundary? But because the Rondeau application had been in process since before 2006 Provincial policy indicates that the new OP cannot be applied to it. But this is where it gets sticky for Council. Area C, the development area outside the boundary which has been planned for a population of 16,000, needs to be serviced. To service the area properly Sewage Treatment facilities need to be upgraded to the tune of $7.3 million. Only the Rondeau application has the right to build all the others yet to apply may be refused because they are outside the boundary. If that is the case then the servicing costs for the Rondeau development may be horrendous, if the ST needs to upgraded. Those costs are going to be paid for from development charges - in other words developer pay, perhaps they will not be able to afford the project?.
There were so many unanswered question on Monday, even the public meeting set up to discuss the application took two and a half hours, that the Council tossed the whole thing back to Staff . There was not even a motion from the Planning and Advisory committee recommending or disapproving the application. I hope that the staff can sort out this confusing situation.

There is a very interesting video on the video page. Jesse Ventura, former Navy SEAL and the ex-Governor of Minnesota (Ind) is being interviewed by Larry King about Dick Cheney and "waterboarding" Jesse gives a spirited interview where he outlines his disdain for DC.

Just came across this, an account of a "blogger" hanging out in Bildeberg watching the rich and powerful make up the rules for those others to rule the world. This page details all of his posts since May 13. Start reading from the bottom up. Warning, a couple of the links may not work -play around on the page.

A Wednesday mixture

How about that Ruby Woman? Kenny Rogers sang a song about it (Ruby don't take your love to Town) and yesterday the MP Lady from Brampton, spoke about it - love that is. "Whenever anybody came to my house I showed them love and respect!" she said at a kangaroo court in Ottawa. Ruby Dhalla, a one time Bollywood North actress and full time chiropractor - cal me Dr. Dhalla, was being interviewed by the ethics committee for alleged bad treatment of her servants and not much love was being shown by anyone.
Now who set this up? Some blame Jason Kenney the Minister of MultiCulturism, who is trying to make inroads and waves in ethnic communities. With alleged promises of new passports and sponsorship the two caregivers (servants) made some allegations about being underpaid and overworked. The Tories jumped on it and dragged RD into court (!) and Iggy has written her off and the whole mess was televised. At the end of the day the chair of the committee told the press that he had heard two different accounts and didn't know who to believe. So what was achieved? A big smoke screen for the other more substantive committee hearing down the hall.

The other meeting down the hall; Mulroney gets his dates wrong and totally screws his case. In the committee room down the hall from RD BM was bombasting his way through a performance led by his lawyer, answering all the setup questions and paving the way for the deification of brian and the satanisation of KarlHeinz. Admitting he took the money, in cash, and not once but three times, he said that he kept it all secret because he didn't want to open up the "Airbus situation" and sully his reputation. The "Airbus situation" was a defamation case that he won in the 90s. The problem with the statement, "I did it to protect my reputation [and not link it to Airbus]" was that he took the money TWO years before the "Airbus situation" ever happened. Oooops - I can't wait to see what the KH lawyers do with that one.

A big win for the most underrated pitcher in baseball today. Roy Halliday of the Toronto Blue Jays creamed the opposition Yankees in a 5-1 complete game. Pinch me, the Blue jays are winning lots of games.

More on the costs of building a Community Centre in Cobourg. A couple of days ago a local letter writer - Martin Partridge, of Cobourg - wrote a letter to NT.com wherein he exposed the fallacy of the CAO of Cobourg's statement that the CC could be built "With little cost to the taxpayer" Partridge in his letter here pooh-poohs the idea and says that all the money is the taxpayers, not just the Cobourg contribution. Following it up with an email to him where I asked him if he was fer or agin the idea he replied with this.
"I am completely against any major capital investments in Cobourg until we see where this economy is really headed. My view is that the seniors should use some available Cobourg space at modest cost, the existing indoor skating rinks should be improved but not replaced, the Y should cope for the foreseeable future with its recent enhancement, and the lawn bowling site should be left exactly as it is. I think both the times and existing public sentiment cry out for belt-tightening, not pie in the sky expansion. Feel free to post the above, citing my name if you wish."
This is probably the majority opinion around Town, I wonder when the majority will get an opportunity to express it?

More about planning, this time from Ottawa. Yesterday two noteworthy events happened, one was a rally outside of City Hall demanding that no expansion beyond the Urban Boundary take place and the other was a committee discussion where Ottawa councillors supported the idea of not building beyond the boundary. I report this because the opinion of the Ottawa Planner relates to a situation here. The story is here but this is what the Planner said, that is important.
"Ottawa council could avoid a series of fights at the Ontario Municipal Board by holding the line on its urban boundary, according to its top planning lawyer. Tim Marc says changes to the provincial Planning Act since 2003 have strengthened the city’s hand in controlling development. If any urban expansion in the official plan is permitted, the revised plan can be appealed to the provincial board, which has the power to overrule city land-use decisions. However, if no expansion is approved, no appeals can be made to the board." (Ottawa Citizen)
So in the application before us in Cobourg, on the East side of Brook Rd. the Cobourg Planners may want to look at this opinion - I hope so, before the whole mess costs a lot more money than we need to spend.

If you think some of the stuff I write is personal and caustic look at this one. Based in Ottawa it appears that nobody knows who owns the website, either way a lot of people are hitting it every day.

Another puzzle for those interested in Cobourg's planning

Last week we reported that the Director of Planning for Cobourg was bemoaning the fact that the Provincial Planning Statement hadn't allocated enough growth to Cobourg. Stating that Cobourg's projections were twice as much the allocation and mused about how Cobourg could get more. Well on Monday evening a Special Meeting to discuss the rezoning and planning amendments to a new area of Cobourg is being discussed. A Numbered Company has submitted a plan for 600 acres of development. Mixed housing, commercial, schools and parks - the whole enchilada.
The snag is that it is outside of the "Built Boundary". This line on a map is something that the province has demanded the Town produce. The line on a map shows the existing Town development line and the areas outside of it. The Province has demanded in its intensification policies that the Town should be infilling the vacant lands inside the Town before going outside the line. The discussion of what's in and how we handle it is part of the Official Plan Review scheduled to be finished soon. So How does this application to build outside the line fit with the new OP? That's the discussion going on! Can we approve development outside of the line when the policies determining future development outside the line haven't been set yet?
The Planning & Advisory Committee hasn't got a position on this yet and some on the committee think that any development not inside the line is premature and shouldn't be approved. Others are thinking that because we don't have policies that development is allowed. A real cockup! But the bottom line is that if this application goes through the Town is committed to millions in infrastructure upgrades and future maintenance for ever. So what will Council do?

"We can have the Community Centre for little cost to taxpayers" so saith the CAO of Cobourg, Steve Robinson. In this story, the account of a mayor's breakfast (any linkage to a dog's breakfast is mischievous), the CAO explained that because of the Town's investments (Council's Play Money) the final price may be very low. OK if that is true the BR will have to change its stance from a negative to a positive. Being negative was natural because we had not been told that we could get a $30 million dollar facility for next to nothing. Now that we are being told, and it's in the words that many tourists can identify with - "Almost free!", we are going to be more supportive.
In fact we are going to be so supportive that our attitude will be it must not cost a dime in taxpayers money. Following the Robinson principle the money will come from gas tax rebates, 33 cent dollars, dividends from the town's investments and if there is the need for any more there must be a financial contribution from the groups who will benefit - the hockey groups, the soccer groups, the lawn bowling groups and the YMCA who wants to privatise it. Put those monies together and we now have a free facility!

The politics of growth

At the Mayor's breakfast the other day Director of Planning, Glenn McGlashon, told the assembly that under the provincial growth Plan Cobourg will be getting 30% of the total. That policy limits growth to designated areas and slower growth to the rest. Obviously Northumberland County, which is a rural rump, in the eyes of the Province, is not a high priority and has been allocated 12,000 new residents and 3,000 jobs between 20007 and 2031. Break that down to a yearly basis and you see just how stupid these bureaucrats are. Cobourg, according to the pointy-heads in QP will be allowed to grow by 3600 people and 900 jobs in the next twenty years. Cobourg's optimistic dreams, developed by consultants, have projected 9,300 people and 2,300 jobs for the same time period. Joining Council many years ago I was told by "housing guru" Don Kirkup, "Cobourg has historically built 175 houses a year." And that has not changed one iota over the past fifteen years, despite bursts of activity in the housing sector. SO, multiply that projection by twenty years and then add in 2.2 persons per house a realistic population projection will emerge - 7700 - the number of estimated jobs is unknown to me but the Cobourg Development people will tell you that there is a slight climb each year. We now know that the population will grow but who's numbers are correct and why do they matter?
Growth is a municipal phallic symbol. The more a Town grows the better the leaders feel and their positions of local pride are justified. Never mind that houses are taking over green fields, never mind that taxpayers money is subsidising the builders activities - just build the damn houses and we'll all feel better! But there is a downside and that is the evergrowing need for taxpayers money to subsidise the results of that building. Roads have to be plowed, Sewage plants have to be expanded, (even though the County Study has shown that Northumberland has more capacity than demand), and more residents expect services that will to expand to accommodate them, witness the demand for more space at the Seniors Centre.
But back to the political dispute between the County and the municipalities and the hard place that the province has placed Northumberland County in. Northumberland County is only one of two Counties that does not have an Official Plan. So why should the Province waste much time and effort in Growth policies in Counties that have no structure to handle Growth? Secondly, like little feuding Emirates, the seven Municipalities all want the same thing - a disproportionate slice of the pie. The rurals don't want the urbans to get the growth and the urbans feel entitled to get it.
Finally it appears that the Provincial Statement has no teeth, as a local developer told me yesterday, "If the Town has the capacity to accept growth and the builder wants to put his money in who's to stop him?" Good question, no answer.

Morning relief - check out this collections of pics, titled "The ten worst losers in sport" here

Good? news for the local real estate industry. Dave Chomitz has posted the April stats here but for those who like pics here is the visual stat. Click on the image for a larger size.