Another dilettante (?) researching minumum wage jobs

In 2002 Barbara Ehrenreich wrote Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America, which chronicled her efforts to survive in low income America. The upshot was that she could only do it by living in her car and having two jobs. Now without being too critical and reserving judgement, we have G & M journo, Jan Wong doing the same thing.

Saturday's edition has the first of five parts describing her adventures as a "Molly Maid" paying $7.45 per hour. To give Jan credit she is doing the job properly moving her two boys and herself into a basement apartment for the month. BUT she still has the safety net of her job at the G & M.

Let's watch, with an open mind as Jan writes over the next five weeks.

Just a quick question

With the orgasmic flow of print about the "Businesswoman of the year" one wonders why are we singling out women. Surely liberated women would want to be compared to the total population when competing for business honours?

The first candidate

So the first candidate has registered to run in the Cobourg election in November. It's telling that the person has his cap set on the mayor's chair. So Mr Delanty will not have a free ride; however he may underestimate the fact that his opponent is a relatively unknown person. The protest vote now has a place to go.

Not willing to give the poor economic justice but they built this!

Wait until John Tory or Howard Hampton get a hold of this, what a load of crap and we paid for it. What about the pledge to eliminate government paid advertising Dalton?

The congratulations have started

Deputy Mayor Spooner is ecstatic, he now has a budget of only a 2.7% increase. Whoopdidoo, what has really happened is that the Province has given Cobourg over $300,000 dollars for infrastructure, thereby freeing up 3 tax points. So who has done the heavy lifting? Department heads always contain items in their budgets that they can sacrifice for the greater good.

What we really need is a zero percent budget and if we didn't have to pay for an unneeded Seniors Centre we could have had one. Although I believe that 0% in the minds of all Councillors really means inflation or 3%. What should really be happening is that the "captured assessment" increases to revenue should be offsetting the inflation rate and therefore keeping the tax rate to zero not being spent to achieve the phony zero increase which is really a 3% increase.

You ask, "Why do these guys bother?"

Because they care!!
Manfred Schumann and Keith Oliver, local activists whose previous conduct in the public arena has drawn death threats and public scorn, care about both planning policy and public process and when they see instances of failure they will tell you. That is what they have done in the latest application for a development in the Strathy Rd area.

Home Depot has asked for a rezoning to allow the construction of a big box store next to the hospital. Both Keith and Manfred did the same thing, compared this application and Council's behaviour to the WalMart experience. It was concluded, using available data and the applicant's reports, that the process is lacking merit and integrity.

Keith's submission is a simple question, "because Council, after the WalMart application banned big box operations in the Strathy Rd area, why are they reversing themselves. In other words - what has changed in three years?" To date he has not received the courtesy of an answer. His submission to Council is here.

Manfred's contention is more technical but essentially shreds the base for the supporting studies: the market study and public survey, that support the applicant's theory that the public needs this store and it will not harm the rest of the Town's commercial base. Manfred's objection is here.

Senator Hargrove strikes out

Poor Senator Hargrove (Buzz), first he has to be expelled from the ONDP for supporting another political party and now he is seen as the boy who takes his ball home because he can't play! As President of the CAW he watches as his appointees and sycophants now tell the NDP to get stuffed. What these people fail to understand is that most of their members vote for other parties and now that the Election Financing Act has stopped unions from contributing more than $5,000 a year - their influence is zilch.

Let them go I say, the CAW's political action has been a joke for years. Thin-skinned and pompous these guys want their way every opportunity they can get it. It's been a royal pain in the butt catering to these prima donnas - let them go and watch them flail in the political wilderness.

What the **** is going on

The Seniors centre is going from the ridiculous to the sublime. The esteemed councillor who is in charge? is now saying that the operating costs of the centre are going to be $155,000 a year and the centre will be self sustaining in three years, just who the **** is going to pay for it until then - the bloody taxpayers that's who!! This is the stuff of revolution!

Three tax points a year to build the place and then 1.5 tax points for two years to run it, that's disgraceful. And what is this Lifestyle council sounds like a bunch of bureaucratese designed to sound good but what's the cost of that and who's going to in it? These places don't run themselves, is the cost of staff in the $155,000?

Revamped page

How do you like this setup? The other one was a bit gaudy, is this one understated class or what, something this site lacks from time to time.

What a week

I have been contacted by several people apalled at the news that taxes are rising faster then they can handle them. "What can we do?" they ask. Not much apparently as the local Council are determined to do what they want to do as opposed to listening. The great example is the proposed Seniors' Centre. Designed to give the older adults more play space at public expense. I say if they want a specific building let them pay for it. On the other hand if Council wished to rationalise recreational opportunities and put them in a multi-use facility we can pay for it. But! only after public input and full disclosure about the annual operating costs and who will pay for them.