Category Archives: Consider

Consider, Hmmm

Mike the Inventor

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I met Mike within a few days of moving to Abbotsford two decades ago.

My first action upon taking up residence in Abbotsford was to get a Library card. After all, what could possibly be more important upon arrival in a new community than to secure one’s access to the local Library? As a bonus I got access to materials in all the Fraser Valley Regional Libraries.

My second action was to purchase a pool pass so I could swim lengths. I swim lengths pretty much on a daily basis; Mike is a lifeguard; it would have been hard not to have met.

Since Mike does on occasion stutter it was fortunate for me that I have a policy of being nice and polite to any individual who I may find myself depending on to save my life. The reason I say fortunate is that being polite and engaging in conversation with Mike allowed me to discover that the little patience that was required in listening to what Mike had to say was amply rewarded by the interesting things he had to say.

I haven’t had the chance to converse with Mike much in recent years as he guards mostly at the Matsqui wave pool and I had stopped using the Matsqui pool when Matsqui had become much less length swimmer friendly. Choosing to drive past Matsqui on my way to the length swimming accommodating and friendly confines of the pool at the Abbotsford Recreation Centre. So I was pleased when guard rotation brought him to the ARC pool for several months.

I cannot remember exactly how it was that we arrived at discussing the change in First Aid protocol that had tourniquet use out and packing the wound and pressure as the new standard. But that is where we arrived at.

Mike commented that he had a situation at MRC with a woman with a little child, a slip and the need to deal with a wound that had him wishing for a third hand to keep pressure on the wound will able to deal with the child and a possible head trauma for the woman.

So he had invented a device to keep pressure on a wound and free up both hands to deal with other injuries or problems. Better yet, when he had the opportunity he had gone on-line and shown me video of the device on youtube.

So today Mike enquired as to how I was and in reply I sang my appreciation of the Air-conditioner faerie who had dropped an air-conditioner at my place last year and how that was permitting me to sleep while the heat was interfering with the sleep of some people I knew.

Mike commented that he had invented a device to provide air-conditioning and that when he had the opportunity he would show it to me. And………that he had invented many devices because he loved to invent things. Which had me thinking “what a great throwaway line”; and “I know an inventor”; and wondering if there was anything he could invent to make life easier for the homeless.

Our conversation about Mike’s inventions and inventing reminded me that I wanted to ask his permission to write about the local inventor I had known for years as a lifeguard and only recently discovered his ability and passion to invent.

Mike was surprised (and pleased) with the request for permission to share the video of his wound device.

I asked “how could I not share the fact that Abbotsford has an Inventor and that he had invented a device for use in First Aid for wound care?”

If you want to see the video of the device just click on the link to Mike Fitzpatrick’s Hemorrhage Control Device.

Mike the Inventor. As Mr Spock would say, “Fascinating”.

behaviour, Consider, Municipal

Who Would Have Thought???

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Abbotsford has a Character Council??????

“The Abbotsford Character Council was established in spring of 2011 following the Abbotsford Leadership Forum which took place on April 26th, 2011. At this forum, community leaders worked together to establish a common language and a vision for the future of our city; one that places high value on the practice and promotion of good character” – excerpted from the Abbotsford Character Council web page

Who could of guessed…….although, a Character Council does fit right in with trendy organizational must haves such as a highfalutin, buzzword laden Mission Statement.

And why should taxpayers expect their City Council [et al] to focus on old fashioned ideas such as safe, drivable roads or worry about the health of its poorest, most vulnerable citizens or astute, frugal spending of taxpayers monies rather than ‘cultural gardens’, giant strawberry (raspberry?) sculptures in a roundabout, a Character Council, council’s egos or the subsidizing of profession hockey teams and owners?

Character:     the aggregate of features and traits that form the individual nature of some person or thing; moral or ethical quality

Good:             satisfactory in quality, quantity, or degree; of high quality; excellent; right; proper; fit.

Armed with definitions for good and character……..we need consider a few of the actions taken by the City of Abbotsford under the auspices of the majority of the current council.

One test of ‘good character’ is what you do when you want to take an action but there is a law against taking said action.

The BC Local Government Act contains a prohibition of municipal governments investing in or subsidizing private businesses.

The WHA’s Chilliwack Bruins relocated to Victoria because Chilliwack’s Mayor and Council turned down the Bruins request for a yearly $250,000 subsidy to enable them to remain in Chilliwack. Chilliwack’s Mayor and Council citing the provisions in the Local Government Act against subsidizing a private business, in this case the Bruins.

When Abbotsford’s Council, in order to save face by luring a hockey team to Abbotsford’s empty Entertainment and Sports Centre, was faced with the need to subsidize the Heat ownership for 10 years for the losses incurred playing in Abbotsford……… Council circumvented the law and made Abbotsford Taxpayers liable to the Heats ownership for up to $57 million’

            Aside: Hmmmmm? I wonder how long it will be before Abbotsford Council, in light of                    the fact the annual subsidy is (for now) closer to $2 million rather than the $5.7 million            maximum, begin claiming to be saving taxpayers $3.7 million a year?

Ethics and character lie in obeying the intent and spirit of the law as opposed to circumventing the law for ones convenience. Consider the following:

The news is full of reports of people being defrauded out of their money, to the point of losing their life savings, by scams.

With my background in accounting and business it would be easy (I have a few specific approaches I favour in mind) to construct an……’investment opportunity’……that would circumvent the fraud laws, enriching myself and my bank account at the expense of the victimized investors – in a perfectly legal manner.

Siggghhhh, the ethics, the character my parents instilled in me tells me it is not whether I can circumvent the law and get rich with no legal consequences, but whether circumventing the law and reaching into people’s pockets to relieve them of their cash is ethical behaviour. Further,  the ethics and character my parents instilled in me tells me that the difference between breaking a law and circumventing the law is simply that circumventing the law avoids the penalty, the negative consequences, of simply breaking of the law.

As much as poverty may grind on me, ethics and character will not permit me to rationalize or justify circumventing the intent and spirit of fraud laws to enrich myself.

Under the ethics and character my parents and the community of Georgetown Ontario instilled in me it is unethical, a sign of bad character for Abbotsford’s Council to circumvent any law, not just a law designed to protect the taxpayers of Abbotsford from Council wasting millions of dollars of taxpayer’s money subsidizing a private business and the owners of that business.

While considering ethics, character and the AESC there is the recent admission by the City Manager that City Hall had always expected the Entertainment and Sports Centre to lose $2,000,000 a year, even as Council was promising taxpayers a profit of $500,000 a year, in order to get taxpayers to vote to let council to build  Abbotsford’s Great White Elephant Centre. While saying anything needed to get elected or win a referendum may be politics and politicians as usual, it is neither ethical nor behaviour of good character.

Then there is the matter of Harm Reduction; a matter where the bottom is quite literally life or death.

A matter were the actions, yea or nay, of a community directly results in lives saved or lost and has a direct effect of the health of the community – the whole community – places a duty of care on all citizens requiring them to put aside what they believe they know, what it is they want to believe about Harm Reduction and their personal preferences, to determine what experience demonstrates the facts to be and to base one’s decision on the facts.

Ignoring the facts, that Harm Reduction saves lives, gets people into treatment sooner and improves the health of not just the community of those who use substances but of the entire community – devalues human life and imposes a death sentence on some of those who use substances to self medicate.

Clutching at straws, grabbing onto any excuse in order to ignore that the facts, experience and evidence are all against you…….is behaviour that substantially lacks character.

            Aside: before you utter or think the words “he is just a bleeding heart” let me state the       my thoughts on  matters of mental illness, substance use and homelessness    underwent significant re-examination and modification when mental illness and homelessness brought me face to face with Reality, shattering smug myth, judgment and wilful  ignorance.   

Let us conclude our considerations with a clash between greedy self interest versus ethics, character, consideration of others and the health of our community as a whole.

On July 1, 2012 City Council changed security contractors, not because the previous security firm was not doing a good job – it was – but to save money. These saving will be achieved through paying those working  for the new security firm wages at or close to minimum wage.

Unfortunately, minimum wage does not provide enough income to cover the expenses of living frugally in Abbotsford. $10.50 is considerably under the $15.50 – $16.41 that is calculated to be the hourly wage necessary to be able to live frugally, but with a degree of comfort in Abbotsford. A ‘living wage‘.

It is unethical for the City of Abbotsford (government period) to directly or indirectly pay someone performing work for the City (government) a hourly wage that is not sufficient for them to be able to afford safe, healthy housing; food; basic necessities etc.

Paying such a wage, at the expense of the wellbeing of people, to save money in order to pay council its automatic yearly salary increase and management their exorbitant and unconscionable raises descends into an area of unethical and characterless such that council and management must cease to sully the City of Abbotsford with their presence and resign.

Unless they apply the same rules to themselves as applies to the least among those who serve the City.

20 hours a week times $10.50 per hour times 52 weeks a year = 20(10.50)(52) = $10,920.

40 hours a week times $10.50 per hour times 52 weeks a year = 40(10.50)(52) = $21,840.

Under the same wage rules that council and city management consider adequate for contracted workers council should be paid $10,920 a year and managers should get $21,840 a year.

With the savings realized using those wage rates for council and managers the City could afford to pay those contracted to perform tasks on the City’s behalf a wage sufficient to live, frugally, on.

Seems to be ethical and fair vis-a-vis council and managements behaviour in this matter; and would – hopefully – encourage the development of character in council and management.

Council, city management and their sycophants may even come to appreciate that we were not instructed to “do unto others” but to “do unto others as we would have done unto ourselves”.

Consider, Municipal

Words of Bamboozlement

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Reading Mr Pizzutto’s comments on the AESC loss brought to mind the words Barack Obama used at a fundraiser:

“They’re counting on that you all forgot. They think that they can run the okey-doke on you. Bamboozle you.”

Mr Pizzuto stated “the city always envisioned having to pay around $2 million to operate the AESC…” Either Mt Pizzuto has failed to do his homework, or he is attempting to re-write history vis-a-vis City Council and Staff and the preposterous $100+ million dollar construction costs, the never-ending multi-million dollar subsidies to operate the AESC and the millions of dollars of taxpayer monies subsidizing the purchase of a profession hockey team.

A subsidy for the favoured few who stepped forward to enable Council and Staff to ‘save face’ by avoiding having built a hockey arena with no team and no hockey. I suppose that measured against the loss of $30+ million of funding from senior levels of government through city halls ineptitude, a $2 – $3 million dollar yearly cost for Council and Staff’s ego project seems paltry.

At least to a City Hall whose lack of financial and mathematical ability prevents the use of simple multiplication to see that 10 (years) times $3 million equals another $30 million dollar ‘ineptitude’ tax bill for taxpayers?

Nor will taxpayers be “you all forgot” that in the real world, as opposed to Mr Pizzuto’s revisionist history fantasy world, there was no mention to the voters that “The city always envisioned having to pay around $2 million annually to operate the AESC……” when Plan A was being sold to the public.

Council and Staff sold the AESC to the public with promise that the AESC would earn $1+ million a year and reduce, not increase, taxes. Indeed, Council and Staff issued guarantees of profits after those pesky naysayers dared to suggest AESC would require yearly subsidies by taxpayers in the neighbourhood of $2.5 million.

And Mr Pizzuto, those $1+ million dollar a year profits were guaranteed without a hockey team. A hockey team was suppose to increase the million dollar profits of AESC, not require millions of dollars in yearly subsidies to lure a money loosing franchise to Abbotsford.

But hey, a few millions of dollar losses per year instead of a $1+ million dollar profit is no big deal – at least to Council and Staff.

“The operating shortfall…… in 2011 has been finalized at $2.83 million…….” ” That figure is a $410,000 improvement over the projections made by the city in March……”

Why not a $820,000 ‘improvement’? All that would have required is for Council and Staff to have projected an operating shortfall of $3.650. Better yet, Council and Staff could have ‘improved’ the operating shortfall by 50% if they had the projected operating loss at $5.66 million.

“the city always envisioned having to pay around $2 million to operate the AESC…”

Of course as it turned out there were millions of dollars worth of costs and expenses that Council and Staff were aware of and felt the public did not need to know. After all one would not want to give the public who pays the bills information that would cause them to come to a rational, therefore different, conclusion than Council and Staff desire.

In Abbotsford Council and Staff ‘consult’ with the public by giving the public only the information that supports Council and Staff, deeming contrary information ‘not needed for the public to know’ and dismissing any points raised by concerned citizens  that Council and Staff cannot refute as naysaying.

Whether AESC, subsidizing professional hockey or a water processing system were the problem is storage to meet peek demand, not the ability of the system to process enough water – consultation for Council and Staff is not about facts and good decision making but about hiring consultants to put together a sales campaign to sell councils wants to the public.

And any facts that might have a negative effect on public support of council and staff’s wants are facts that would only confuse the public and therefore the public does not need to know.

At least until it is time to Bamboozle the public about the expensive consequences of Council and Staff”s behaviours. Then suddenly those guaranteed $!+ million profits become “the city always envisioned having to pay around $2 million to operate the AESC…”