Category Archives: Finances

Federal, Finances, Provincial, The Economy

UP 16% ??? That’s……

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I considered myself lucky when I filled up for $111.9 a litre at the Safeway station on Lougheed Hwy in Mission on Tuesday, rather than the $119.9 a litre everywhere else in Mission and  Abbotsford.

Really lucky upon suffering the shock of seeing gas in Abbotsford jump to $129.9 a litre. overnight.

$9.90 saved by deciding to check the cost of gas in Mission because I was there.

18 cents a litre, $9.90 a tank !!

Monsoon float a refinery away? Tornado relocate a refinery to Kansas? Terrorists blow up an oil field? Pipeline? Refinery? Tanker? Pipeline leak millions of litres of oil into a pristine watershed?

No, No, No, No, No, No and No.

Oh wait, it is winter and there have been some unusually chilly days around. Price went up because of all the extra oil needed for heating………although, wouldn’t that mean the price should go down because of all the unseasonably warm days such as those that had Torontonians at the beach in shorts in January?

The price of oil, no doubt to the chagrin of those blackguards at Big Oil, has been languishing under $100. At one point struggling to avoid slipping below $90 a barrel and when the cost of a barrel began to leap upwards looking like it was going to gush over the $100 a barrel mark……..the ‘gusher’ petered out several dollars shy of the $100 mark.

What could cause this precipitous price jump?

Well, thanks to our Big Business profit protecting, consumer forsaking, Conservative federal government Big Businesses – wireless, banks, cable, gas, internet, et al – feel free to bleed Canadians for every last cent they can. Secure in the knowledge their political donation dollars ensure the Conservative government in Ottawa will protect them from competition and, claiming “it’s capitalism” [doesn’t capitalism favour competition and open markets?] ignore unreasonable, unjustified pricing and price increases.

Shaw sells Rogers, the dominant company in wireless, the advanced wireless spectrum Shaw had purchased in 2008 to enter the wireless market. The spectrum covers areas of British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba and northern Ontario.

Meanwhile Rogers announced  it will seek regulatory approval for the transfer of wireless licences after September 2014 to respect Ottawa’s probation on the sale of new entrant licences to incumbents.

Respect? No. Scorn? Yes. Arrogance? Yes? Contempt? Yes. An iota of Respect? No.

If the Conservative government acted with, or had, a crumb of the concern it lavishes on Big Business on behalf of ordinary Canadians……Shaw’s spectrum would be going to enhance and encourage competition in the wireless market instead of being snuck into the back pocket of one of those proscribed from purchasing it originally – an incumbent wireless provider.

And if the Conservative government in Ottawa had any concern for the ordinary Canadians who make up the majority of the Canadian population and who are the citizens who bear an inequitable proportion of the ever increasing cost (financial and declining standard of living) for politicians mismanagement of Canada’s resources there would be no talk of a Rogers/Shaw merger.

But then If any concern for the ordinary Canadians existed, Shaw would not have been allowed to monopolize ownership of media in Canada by purchasing Global. The existence of any concern for the ordinary Canadians would mean wrongs of that magnitude to, and the negative consequences for, the Canadian consumer/taxpayer would NOT be allowed.

Any government concerned with the welfare and standard of living of ALL Canadians, rather than wholly the welfare of Big Business, the privileged and favoured few, would not be permitting so many sectors to become oligopolies or duopolies that not only function in monopolistic fashion – but give disturbing evidence of becoming monopolies, or effective monopolies.

Evidence foreshadowing Canada’s continued evolution (devolution?) into more and more of an economy of corporate socialism; an evolution encouraged, aided and abided by the Conservative government in particular, and by the entrenched behaviours of the traditional political parties and by ‘politics as usual’.

The victims of surging gas prices, wireless prices twice the cost of elsewhere in the world, restricted competition, creeping corporate socialism, and the promotion, embedding of GREED as THE Canadian Ethos these victims are ordinary Canadians..

Canadians who can continue to say baaaaa to politicians, big business, the wealthy and the privileged…………

…………OR can tell politicians they are tired of politicians arrogant abuse of privileges and of being forced to fund the poloticians unmerited golden retirements; we can say enough to corporate executives ridiculous, UNEARNED salaries and bonuses; say no to corporate oligarchies, monopolistic, actions to circumvent laws and regulations.

We can demand opening markets to competition; we can tell the wealthy that their wealth is based on the hard work of Canadians and it is time they contributed their fair share; and when they inevitably threaten to sulk and take their money elsewhere, we can tell that is their right as Canadians.

Canada is a great place to live and do business, if the wealthy want to leave there are innumerable entrepreneurs around the world who would seize the opportunity to become Canadian, do business in Canada and contribute to the well being of Canada and Canadians.

It is time for Canadians to stand up and tell the existing political parties and politicians GOODBYE, you have had your opportunity and you all have demonstrated a level of incompetence and self-interest that threatens the liveability of Canada and promises a continued decline in the standard of living for Canadians who are not among the few that benefit from our current political parties and Politics and Business ‘as usual’.

 

Tell the Conservative government, Stephen Harper and his cronies (all his cronies, not just Conservative politicians) that:

  1. ignoring the needs of Canadians favour Big Business and others with wealth who enrich the Conservative Party coffers and bank accounts
  2. facilitating the downward mobility of substantial numbers of Canadians;
  3. not simply permitting but enabling wage levels to fall to levels below that at which a wage earner can live – frugally – on;
  4. enabling, through legislation, Big Business to reduce wage levels not simply below the level of poverty, but below the level of survivability:
  5. enabling, promoting changes that reduce Canadian wages to ‘slave’ wage levels that deny Canadians the ability not just to thrive, but to survive;
  6.  that campaigning for office using fear to obscure the issues;
  7.  The gross misrepresentation of the Conservatives ability to manage Canada’s economy, society and future and not (as they have and continue to do) undermine the future of Canadians, their standard of living, and what it is to be Canadian by creating the economic conditions of a growing sink hole that threatens to plunge Canadians into a deep black pit – by ignoring or wilful denial of the increasing prevalence and power of the trickle up economy is:

 

Canadians cannot afford politics or behaviour ‘as usual’ if they want to stop the downward spiral so many Canadians, a number that continues to grow, are trapped in.

The fathers of the American Revolution – Franklin, Jefferson, George Washington, John Adams, Hamilton, Paine, Burr……felt that the preservation of democracy and government for the benefit of all citizens, not just the privileged few and the special interests, required a revolution every few generations. Not necessarily violent revolution, but revolution at the ballot box by throwing out all the current crop of politicians (all, not just those in power) and replacing them with fresh individuals free of any ties to special interests or others benefitting from government largesse.

The health and wealth of a country and its citizens needs eyes and minds that are not mired in Newspeak, AcceptableThink, CorrectThink, PoliticalThink, BusinessThink or bound up with special interests.

Re-invigorating Canada, governmens in Canada, the standard of living and the future of Canadians requires effort by Canadian voters to seek out members of their communities who are engaged in issues at a municipal, provincial and federal level; whose ideas, thoughts and positions on issues exist in the public domain – accessible for examination and consideration; and have established community involvement, ability, ethics and being trustworthy.

Canadians stand at a spot where they can continue their wilful denial of the issues and realities facing Canada and Canadians, opting to continue to wear their rose coloured glasses and to take the easy – and ill-fated – way out by voting for one of the ‘politics, business as usual’ traditional parties.

OR, Canadians who feel that Canada needs new priorities, needs to remember what it is to BE Canadian (not wana-be Americans) and needs to strike out in a new direction……..

……… those Canadians  need to forsake “there is nobody to vote for” and “I am forced to hold my nose and vote for the least bad choice” (you are still voting for a bad choice) and adopt “the choices I am offered are not only unpalatable, but totally unacceptable and I WILL DO whatever is required, to find someone who cares for all the community (not just the special interests etc), is engaged with the issues, has demonstrated integrity and is willing to lose the next election rather than telling him/herself that it is more important that they get re-elected, rather than behave with integrity and risk defeat, because the good of the voters is best served by doing whatever it takes for them to get re-elected.

As much as politicians, media and special interests have worked to impair, confuse and defeat the public’s ability to think about the issues and discern truth among the gobbledegook, political speak and doublespeak – politicians, media and special interests have not so far managed to make it illegal for Canadians to Think. Nor, as much as politicians, media and special interests may want to have, have they been able to take away the right to seek out and vote for whoever voters trust to represent their interests and the interests of community, province and country as a whole. At least not yet.

We do not have to take the path of least resistance, we have the ability, the right, to say enough is enough, leave the ‘business as usual path’ and boldly strike off blazing a path to Our goals; not the goals of politicians, corporations, special interests…….

“Do not go where the path may lead, go instead where there is no path and leave a trail.”   Ralph Waldo Emerson

All that is required is the Will……

“Again and again, the impossible problem is solved when we see that the problem is only a tough decision waiting to be made.”

To assert our Will and send politicians, media and special interests packing……

“Revolution manifests when those defined as the problem, achieve the power and influence to redefine the problem.”  Tao of James

It is time to tell Politicians, Big Business, The Wealthy, The Privileged, Special Interests et al they have been……..

Finances, Municipal

What a Concept

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Councillor Braun dared to suggested that before the City spends $300 million to solve a problem, the City take the time to make sure it was a problem that required a solution.

To avoid having  the City find itself with the true problem still needing to be addressed, having squandered $300 million and years of time ‘solving a problem’ that did not require a solution.

And the mayors’ reactions? Mayor Peary……ahem….Banman: “My tendency is to focus on solutions rather than spending valuable time and resources re-examining the problem“.

Apparently Mayor Banman has caught the SPEND, SPEND, SPEND fever that infected prior mayors and councils, where the important thing is to be spending large amounts of taxpayer funds and whether it is being spent on infrastructure that is needed and will benefit the citizens of Abbotsford/Mission doesn’t matter. After all, it isn’t his money, so why should he make the effort required to spend it wisely and on needed infrastructure?

Similarly Mayor Adlem “At the end of the day, we have a water issue that we need to address.” From Mayor Adlem’s words it seems that, since the issue is clearly some kind of water issue spending $$millions, hundreds of millions$$ of tax payer dollars addressing a water issue, any water issue is the important point. Mayor Adlem also apparently sees no need to ensure that taxpayer funds are being spent on infrastructure that is needed and will benefit the citizens of Mission/Abbotsford.

It is not enough to be busy. So are the ants. The question is: What are we busy about?

Henry David Thoreau

It is clear from the Mayors comments pooh-poohing the suggestion that, before spending $300 million on a water issue, they make sure all those millions of dollars will be spent on the issue/problem that actually needs to be addressed, that Councillor Braun had no choice but to bring his concerns to the attention of those who will be stuck paying the tab, if – in the well established traditions of local politicians – the dollars are spent pointlessly.

This was an issue that engaged voters and the number of votes Councillor Braun and Councillor Ross (the only prior council member to oppose the Stave Lake proposal) got and the 75% NO vote to Stave Lake make it clear voters, the people who pay for Council’s profligate spending, did (do) not agree with the City’s conclusion and contention that a new water source was needed.

One could argue the top mandate Councillor Braun was given in the election was to ensure taxpayer’s monies were spent wisely and only as needed on appropriate and necessary issues – especially the water issue.

Therefore Councillor Braun’s actions are clearly in line with the duty of care due those who voted for him and the duty of care he owes all citizens of Abbotsford as a City Councillor.

Meaning those who, as Mayor Adlem’s puts it,  “…stepped a bit out of line” are the mayors and councillors who are ignoring the voters and rushing to spend $$millions$$ regardless of whether the money is spent unnecessarily upgrading water sources more than adequate for decades to come, rather than on the issue that truly needs addressing.

As to the cost of performing a review to determine what (if any) issues our water delivery system has that require addressing and what the timeline for addressing the issue(s) is (are), I have no idea where the figure of “hundreds of thousands of dollars” for the cost of the review comes from. Perhaps that is the going cost for a report that is written to support the City’s desired course of action; however, the review called for is to be a review of the facts, and what actions the facts indicate are required.

Under these circumstances a review should not be that costly……..well assuming adequately competent and frugal management by the City; which admittedly is a rather large assumption based on how the City conducts its business affairs and the City’s past management performance.

If cost is the only issue I (and I am sure Councillor Braun and others) can think of several ways to structure a review that would ensure that $300 million is not spent where no expenditure is needed, that adds no additional costs for the City.

I do wonder why Mayor Banman considers the cost, even if City was to somehow run the cost to several hundred thousand dollars, to be the deciding factor for whether or not you do or do not undertake the  review?

It seems to me an excellent business decision to invest the cost of a review when there is more than reasonable doubt as to what the necessary, wise and prudent fiscal behaviour is with respect to our water delivery system.

Much wiser and far more fiscally prudent than being in a rush to waste $300 million on a non-problem.

Beware of the man who knows the answers before he understands the question. Anonymous

Finances, Provincial

“Once upon a time……

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…… in a magic kingdom called British Columbia, the government of the land could spend as much as it wanted without having to give any thought to where the money to pay for everything was going to come from because the government could ‘find’ money whenever it wanted to.

All the citizens of this land were overjoyed that they did not have to pay (as do the unfortunate citizens of lands that exist in the real world) for the ever increasing services and perks the citizens, with their insatiable appetite for more health care, more hospitals, more salary, more perks…..more……more……more…..,  demanded their government provide to them.

Anytime the government of the Kingdom wanted to spend money on something, the MLA’s merely needed to walk through the garden of the castle called Legislature and pick up the money that had fallen off the money trees growing in the garden or visit the basement of the Legislature and exchange the gold that the little man Rumpelstiltskin had spun from straw or pluck the gold eggs from the nest of the goose who lays gold eggs.

One group of citizens, Teachers, were so enamoured of the government’s ability to ‘find’ money without limit, they felt it  reasonable to demand a 22% wage increase – plus a host of expensive perks and changes to schools. To support their fatuous salary demands, the Teachers spread the tale of the government’s magical ability to ‘find’ $$$$ whenever the government wished, throughout the airwaves of the land.”

Unfortunately for the citizens of BC they reside in the real world – despite politicians of all stripes and parties (Liberal, NDP, Conservative) telling voters the fairy tales voters, who insist on living in the land of ‘Wilful Denial of Reality’, demand to be told in order to give the politicians what they want – political power.

In the real world neither fairy tales nor wilful denial prevents the outstanding bills and debts from – at some point in time – coming due……as the outstanding bills and debts are now doing in Greece.

The problem is not with the teachers telling a fairy tale, or with the perversion of fairy tales from teaching a lesson about life to fairy tales as a way to enable wilful denial of reality.

The problem is that the advertisements and statements from teachers and their representatives evidence the teachers belief in the fairy tale they are telling.

Providing a little understanding as to why, despite the hundreds of millions of $$$$$ taxpayers pour into education, students are getting a 4th rate education. An education that leaves students in BC functionally (or actually) illiterate in English and Mathematics, lacking even the most basic skills in logic and problem solving or the ability to analyse what has occurred or attain an understanding of the consequences and/or implications flowing from events.

With the teachers demonstrating their inability to analyse, use logic, problem solve, research and understand what is, as opposed to seeing the fairy tale land they want to see, it should surprise nobody that the product (graduates) of the BC school system lacks these skills. Or that students of the BC school system cannot use the English language or Mathematics in a functional or useful manner.

As ‘proof’ of the existence of their fairy tale land of unlimited plenty the teachers point to the $600 million the government spent on the new roof on BC Place.

A comparison of the proverbial apples to oranges as the BC place roof is a capital project representing a one time (admittedly large, but that is the nature of capital projects) expenditure and teachers salaries, which are operating expenses that need to be paid every year, not one single time.

The teachers also either ignore or fail to understand that operating expenses such as wages, suffer a compounding effect as the starting point of future contracts and increases is the current contract negotiated.

The biggest problem is that the teachers ignore where the provincial government had originally found the $$$ (and what happened to those $$$) – accepting Ottawa’s offer of $1.6 billion to harmonize the PST with Ottawa’s GST.

And we all know, or at least should know, how that worked out.

The citizens of BC voted to continue their state of wilful denial and extinguish the HST – a demonstration of a lack of the skills required to evaluate and understand the consequences extinguishing the HST would have on provincial finances and the ability of the BC government to deliver services to citizens.

I am assuming the decision was due to a lack of skills to understand the consequences of extinguishing the HST and not to the desire to force the government of BC to reduce the services delivered to BC citizens or a lack of mental capacity or insanity.

See “Think. Think. Think.”  for an analysis of the consequences flowing from extinguishing the HST.

There are delicious ironies in the karmic balance of the government literally having no money to raise teacher salaries.

Irony that the product (graduates) of the BC school system, of the teachers teaching, lack the ability to analyse, use logic, problem solve, research and understand the extensive negative financial consequences of extinguishing HST. One of which is a reduction of the funds the province has to provide services to the people of BC. Which results in not only no money for increases in education costs such as teachers salaries and smaller classes, but puts the government under pressure to find ways to reduce or ‘reallocate’ spending on  education.

Irony that the teachers and their union are supporters of the NDP party, which spent months travelling the province publicly supporting and working to extinguishing the HST. The ‘success’ of which meant there are no funds available to increase spending on education. Actually, this irony applies across the entire government employees union.

Irony in the strong probability that numerous teachers voted to extinguish the HST, voted to place the government in a financial position where there is no money to be able to afford increasing teacher’s salaries or spending more on education.

Irony that voters acted in such an egregious and childish manner as to ‘damn reality or the consequences, threw a temper tantrum and extinguish the HST in anger’ – rather than acting like adults; taking the consequences of throwing a temper tantrum versus a reasoned response into consideration.

Irony in that childishness being reflected in the teachers rushing to get on strike before the government introduces and passes legislation imposing a settlement. Three days of being on strike that will accomplish nothing since the final outcome of the matter will be the same strike or no strike. The only ‘accomplishments’ of the teachers strike being the inconveniencing of parents and more negative consequences for students – in particular those who graduate this year. Although, the strike will make available to government the savings achieved from not having to pay 3 days of teachers wages.

Irony in the teachers, whose job is (theoretically at least) to impart knowledge, clinging in wilful denial to the fairy tale world in which the government has (in effect) access to money trees or Rumpelstiltskin or a goose laying gold eggs. Because it is only in that fairy tale world can teachers demands be met. In the real world there is no money and the teachers are SOL.

From the Tao of James:

Reality does not care what you want to be fact, reality does not care what you believe to be fact, Reality simply is what IS

The bottom line, the real world Reality, is it that until teachers are turning out well educated, well rounded, well prepared to deal with the real world product (students) – teachers salaries should be going DOWN, not up.