It's about bloody time!

In this story (NNews) here, an award received by the Director of Engineering and Environmental Service of Cobourg highlights the long service of Ted MacDonald.Ted, as the story outlines, has been here a long time and has now finally received accolades from his bosses. After all they had to didn't they as the province seems to think him worthy of an award.
But it hasn't always been that way. In the past the Town administration either led by the poobahs or the Mayors always had a peculiar way of running the internal affairs of the Town. To put it bluntly amongst the senior staff there was always someone on the 'shitlist'. This particular person wouldn't get bonuses, wouldn't get promoted ot usually was just shunted to one side as others roared forward. Good reasons may have prevailed for all of the decisions made by senior mangers but tell that to the poor sod who was being shunted.
Another peculiarity of Cobourg's internal management was that for years, not so long ago, there was always someone in the structure that was there but nobody really knew what they did. Nominally they were head of some department but try to find them on the job doing that or look for them to see what they were up to and it was a puzzle. The phenomena started with the previous head of the parks Dept - Norm Duncan. Fantastic guy, always on the job somewhere but trying to pin him down was a challenge.
Why do I mention this? Because for years Ted has been coming to work to adminster projects, taking charge of traffic lights and generally being referred to as some as 'the Norm Duncan of Engineering'. Engineers are a funny set of folks, usually socially challenged and far more interested in traffic light cycles than schmoozing it is no wonder that the Heads of Engineering, with one remarkable exception - the present CAO - have been exiled from the Vic Hall set of folks to the Public Works yard. And even when Engineering HQ was in Vic Hall it was buried in the basement. One cannot criticise too harshly the decision not to promote Ted from the Deputy's position to the top position when Ken Rumball retired because it gave us the, now, new CAO - Stephen Peacock. But at the time it must have really hurt Ted. But plugging away in obscurity he has finally prevailed. Well done Ted!

Special Diet Allowance Drama Drags On

While the term special diet allowance may not mean much to most of us, for people on Ontario Works or the Ontario Disability Support Program it is a crucial program that provides an extra few dollars monthly to pay for food needed due to certain medical conditions. The program has been around for a very long time with little fanfare.

After rates were drastically cut in the mid 90's, and inflation further eroded benefit levels in the ensuing years, recipients, legal clinic workers and activists began looking for a way, any way, to increase peoples' income, and the little used special diet allowance became a mechanism to do that. Paying anywhere from $10 extra up to $250 in extreme cases, more and more people began asking their doctors to fill out the forms to qualify them for the program.

When the Ontario Coalition Against Poverty, and other groups began recruiting doctors around the province to hold clinics for recipients, the costs of providing the program grew and government, now under Dalton McGuinty's liberals, cut it back drastically by eliminating some medical conditions and making the rules harder to meet. This was done in 2005, and countless people lost their allowance as a result. Even though the government's own advisory committee recommended expanding the program later on, little action was taken.

In response to the cuts, some 800 people filed appeals to the Social Benefits Tribunal, which hears appeals of social assistance decisions. Likewise about 200 complaints were filed with the Human Rights Commission, and then transferred to the Human Rights Tribunal when it was established.

Last week, finally, the Human Rights Tribunal released its decision on the 3 lead cases, and found that the Province did indeed violate the human rights code in each instance. The Tribunal ordered it to re-instate full benefits to them, as well as anyone else in the system with those particular medical conditions.

Now, hopefully, the rest of the cases can proceed, following the reasoning applied in the lead cases. All 800 appeals to the Social Benefits Tribunal have been adjourned for years now, waiting for the Human Rights Tribunal to rule.

But the Province seems poised to ignore their own Human Rights code. In an internal memo circulated around the Social Services Ministry the possibility of abolishing the Special Diet Allowance entirely has been raised, and the government has not denied this is their plan.

We should all be outraged by this latest cynical threat to the security of people on social assistance. Living well below the poverty line, let us not forget a single person on welfare gets a scant $600 a month, still $63 less than would have been paid out in 1995 before Mike the Knife slashed the rates. Many welfare recipients suffer from disabilities, and the ability to eat properly is critical for their health.

Of course if the rates were increased to provide an adequate standard of living, special diet allowances wouldn't be required, and that is the ultimate solution to this problem. Don't hold your breath for the Province to do the right thing though. If they are prepared to ignore their own advisory committee as well as the Human Rights Tribunal decision, we are all in big trouble. Poverty reduction indeed.

Not this guy's day!

After crashing his car, presumably after a few, this guy had to go and POW! story here not his day. Must be a man thing!

Should we really do this?

It may not be polite to point out mistakes in other's work but this one is a complete lack of attention in an organisation that boasts about winning awards.

Hospital Funding dilemmas

For as long as there have been hospitals there have been funding crises. Never enough money to go around and every budget decision second-guessed by arm-chair quarterbacks. The situation in Northumberland is slightly different as the local hospital was created from scratch, and the ashes of two thriving small hospitals, by an immense effort of local fundraising. If anybody ever knew just how much Cobourg Council shifted over to the hospital in forgiven fees ,donated land, and actual cash from the Utility divident they would be shocked.
So it is no surprise that the locals are dismayed to learn that the jewel of fundraising - the Palliative Care Unit, is being considered for closure. One major fundraiser, in the hospital campaign told the BurdReport, "They close that down and it's light's out for any more money!" The attachment runs deep.
In a blaze of publicity, a couple of months ago the Hospital Board launched a public consultation process, funny that nobody, apart from the people hand picked to sit on the panel, has heard a thing about the process. BUT wait all will be revealed on Thursday when the Hospital will host a press conference revealing just what the Board has decided, and the advice of the panel will become public too.
All we know is that charging employees $8.00 for parking and then asking Walmart to ban employees cars from their lot to maximise hospital parking fees won't cut it. Laying off RNs and hiring lower skilled workers at a cheaper rate won't do it either. What is needed is for more than three high paid members of the management team to be declared redundant - half the deficit gone there and a thorough review, by an independent non-health management consultant, who will thin the ranks of the bureaucracy that exists on DePalma Drive. As well the public should get over the fact that they were conned into putting so much money into a level C hospital and expecting not to get services reduced by the Ministry of Health's dictates. We had two fully functioning level C hospitals before the big one was built, and in the process feeding xenophobic tendencies amongst the population by closing Port Hope's unit, and after a whack of money was spent we still have a level C hospital subject to the same whims of the ministry - kinda makes you wonder if the effort was worthwhile, if after a period of time we still lose services.

Perhaps we can now get realistic figures

This story here details how the Cobourg Police Service has bought into 21st century crime stats and tracking systems. Now perhaps we can have realistic stats about harbourfront crime. For instance instead of telling the public just how crimeridden the area is we should be able to tell just how many liquor infractions took place at the beer tents as opposed to the beach, how many offences took place on the pier and the yacht club grounds instead of the beach. So let's have 'em and start the debate about how much crime the visitors cause as opposed to the local yobs getting high at festivals.

One for the union-bashers

Two strikes come to mind as this post is written. Yesterday the management of the Woodbine racetrack locked out their workers story here. This is a shocking development! And what is worse these folks are earning not much more than minimum wage. But the most telling part of the story and our society is the report that one of the workers, who has been working there for 25 years has seen his wages only double in that time.

TOStar quote "Tony Bennett started working at the racetrack 25 years ago as a stand attendant and earned about $6 an hour. Today, he earns $13.90 an hour and is now locked out.“We are not asking for everything — just enough to have a decent life,” said Bennett, 48, who also holds down part-time jobs at Winners and Home Depot."

In another development the strike at Vale-Inco enters its seventh month. This formerly Canadian company was purchased by a Brazilian company and immediately was forced on the picket line by a management that refused to bargain.

G&M quote"More than 3,000 employees at Vale's mill, smelter, refinery and six nickel mines in the Sudbury area have been on strike for seven months. At issue are proposals by Vale Inco to reduce a bonus tied to the price of nickel and to exempt new employees from its defined-benefit pension plan, moving them instead to a defined-contribution plan. Workers complain they shouldn't have to give concessions to a company whose parent, Brazil-based Vale S.A., earned $5.35-billion (U.S.) in 2009."

We have here two examples of disgusting behaviour by management and the workers are getting it in the neck. Both issues illustrate the modern way of dealing with unions - just ignore them, intimidate them and wait for them to quit on you.

Visit the strikers webpage here

As you all know the readership of the BurdReport is varied in its opinion so we welcome all comments knowing that some may be more inflammatory than others however those comments designed to incite will be flagged and identified as such.

In the interest of fairness please visit the Company's website (try to find any mention of the strike!)

A postscript

Here is a link to a report of another mining dispute, the circumstances are so similar the strategy must have been dreamed up at the MineOwners' Convention

No Mea Culpas here

Congratulations to the Olympic competitors, they have performed well. Some more than others and some below expectations. In one post it was pointed out that a silver medal was not good enough for one of the downhillers, I still stand by that and the reasoning has been proven by other spectacular failures since. But on the other hand we have had many personal bests and outstanding efforts from others. The benchmark I would see as as success is simple - set a personal best and you are a winner. As for the funding question - keep it up. It is an employment programme and we should all be in favour of those. This one beats chopping down trees as an occupation because it encourages personal and physical development and makes us all feel good when it works.

An interesting proposal

Tucked away in this story here, about the activities of the Port Hope Pier Group is an interesting statement - "And finally, due to 2010 being an election year, a community action task force is looking to find and support candidates for the next municipal election."
Hmmm, not only is this growing group looking to the community in its grass roots activism, but it is also looking to make sure that it gets its way in landuse decisions, which affect the area, by making sure they have the votes. This move may well succeed as it is being driven by well known civic activists who are known for their heritage tendencies. this is an intelligent move and has a precedent in Cobourg. Prior to an election a couple ago (I can't remember which one, but it may have been Delanty's first mayoral race) a few of us used to gather at various places in Town to discuss the elimination of train whistles. Peter D started to appear and support us, not long after that, and he has obviously conveniently forgotten, I will not mention the word "dotage", Bob Spooner turned up at the meetings. After the election a 2300 name petition appeared at Council and a "champion" who was socially acceptable to Council spoke about the elimination of the noise and thus they were banned. So with a mixture of the votes, friendly candidates and the right social movers the Pier may be saved after all.

BTW if you want to support the Pier Group go to the Rally:
"The rally takes place on Wednesday, March 3 between 7 and 9 p.m. at the Capitol Theatre's AK and Bob Sculthorpe Room. "

This event may not be so local after all!

Intrigued by a story that proclaims that the icon of contrary, Farley Mowat, has consented to lend his name to a Green Party fundraiser, here, the readers of the BurdReport deserve some opinion and more details.
Firing a full set of cannons "It's time we had some democratic government in this country and it seems there is very little possibility of getting it from any of the other parties," he said. "So I am supporting Elizabeth May, who may be the only honest-to-God, functioning democrat on the federal scene." it is obvious that Farley's long association with the NDP is over.
However are the Green's, in this event, really funding the local association or Elizabeth May's next run for a Federal seat, in BC against Minister Gary Lunn?
This release, found on the Green's main website makes it quite clear that Farley is being used for a high priced fundraiser designed to attract the wealthy from the City.

Details: (taken from the Green's website)
Gourmet food and wine, casual chic dress
$550/person minimum donation, VIA Rail tickets from Toronto can be arranged for an additional $50/return ticket

So the Greens, in a move reminiscent of the artsy fartsy trips to Stratford, on the train, are now selling tickets for $550 bucks a pop for the opportunity to meet an 88 year old literary icon who now believes that democracy can only be delivered by the truly green and politically pure. I wonder just how many locals will pay this price? And if there are few locals there can it still be called a local riding event or just a bunch of rich folk getting together at a posh house in Port Hope to meet and greet the leader, who happens to be tilting at windmills in far away British Columbia.?