NHL Lockout

So there is an NHL lockout. Damnation eh. I am trying to generate some internal emotion but for me the lockout is more more like Snooze City. Out of curiosity I looked on StubHub website for the price of Vancouver Canuck tickets for the December 2, 2012 game with the Anaheim Ducks. If the lockout ends in time for this game to be played you can buy a resale ticket on this particular website for prices ranging from $77 (upper deck of course) to $595 (lower bowl). As these are resale I have no idea what the original ticket price was, I couldn't find any ticket prices on the Canucks' website. Assuming I wouldn't find any $77 tickets available - I'm never that quick - I would be looking at probably $100 to $200 each for a pair of nosebleed seats in the upper deck, if I actually wanted to go, which I don't. By the time you add in $20 or so for parking, and another $20 to $30 for snacks to relieve potential boredom we are up to  a minimum of $250, and more likely $350 for a game which may or may not be entertaining. I don't dislike hockey, just the ticket prices. At those prices I would feel ripped-off, especially if they decide to lay an egg that particular night. Way back when, during the Canucks first season in the NHL, I had 2 season tickets in row 36 straddling the centre line at the Pacific Coliseum for the princely sum of $3.50 a seat.  The row directly in front of us cost $5 a seat and the top price in the lower section was $6. Back then we had Orland Kurtenback, Andre Boudrias and Dale Talon instead of Roberto Luongo, Ryan Kesler and the Sedin Twins. The current crop are undenably more successful, but not necessarily more entertaining. In any case I don't care if the NHL season is cancelled. I am getting sick of overpaid jocks and over-inflated ticket prices. You can always go watch the Vancouver Giants junior team, a local Pee Wee team, or ...gasp... read a novel.

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BC Ferry Profits

Last night I listened to televsion news (I don't remember which station) talking about the BC Ferries not making a profit on most of their ferry routes. So who cares? Why do the ferries have to make a profit? They are part of the transportation system. Do the Lion's Gate Bridge or the Ironworkers' Memorial Bridge have to make a profit? Imagine the North Shore without those bridges. Try to guess how many people would live in West Vancouver or North Vancouver without the transportation infrastructure presently in place. Knock out those bridges and you can largely forget about the North Shore as a viable place to live, work or run a business. You can also forget about the Horseshoe Bay Ferry Terminal and the Sea-To-Sky Highway to Whistler. Bye-bye Whistler. Okay, I am being a bit facetious. But not too much. Back in my childhood, our far-flung province was opened up to growth and development by the provincial government (mostly W.A.C. Bennet and the Social Credit party) building and improving roads all over the province - and hydro-electric dams. I can still remember riding in my parents' car down the Fraser Canyon Highway and going over narrow wooden trestles that seemed to dangle in thin air overtop a precipitious three-hundred foot drop. The government made that highway immeasurably better - perhaps to facilitate our former Minister of Highways, Flying Phil Gaglardi, racing at breakneck speed down to the coast from his home in Kamloops. Whatever the reasons, it worked. The highways did open up British Columbia, and the ferries were an integral part of the highway sytem. That is the point. The ferries are part of the transportation infrastructure in the province and should be viewed in that light. When you talk about user-pay policies keep in mind the ferries do not just benefit the ferry passengers. When a freight truck loaded with produce, industrial products or consumer goods uses the ferry to take its cargo to Vancouver Island, who is the beneficiary of the ferry service?  The trucker, the producer or manufacturer, the end user of the products, the intermediary wholesalers and retailers or all of the above? The answer is obvious. Perhaps if we stop viewing the ferries as a potential profit centre we can also stop thinking that we need to pay the BC Ferry Corporation executives such ridiculously high salaries.

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Importing Foreign Workers

News Item - Vancouver Sun October 15, 2012

OTTAWA --- A major B.C. labour organization denounced on Monday the “mass importation” of Chinese workers to mine coal in the northeast part of the province, saying it is “preposterous” to suggest British Columbians don’t have the skills to fill close to 2,000 full-time jobs destined for foreign workers.
“We want to register our grave concerns about the uses and abuses of the Temporary Foreign Worker (TFW) program as it relates to projects in British Columbia,” the organization told Prime Minister Stephen Harper and Premier Christy Clark in an open letter.
It was issued by the Bargaining Council of the B.C. Building Trades Unions, made up of 15 unions representing 35,000 craft construction workers, including underground miners.
“We believe this mass importation of labour is completely unnecessary and is simply a strategy to employ lower-paid workers who are compliant with the culture of coal mining in China,” wrote BCBCBTU President Mark Olsen.
“The coal mining in that country is patently unsafe and the industry there shows little regard for the life, health and well-being of the workers in that country.”
The organization was reacting to the disclosure in The Vancouver Sun that a consortium of companies, mostly Chinese, are planning to bring anywhere from 1,600 to just under 2,000 Chinese nationals to B.C. in coming years to work in four proposed underground mine projects.

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My Comments

I often disagree with the big unions, but not this time. If Chinese owned or backed companies are going to import most of their workers when there is high unemployment in Canada, it would seem to be a good reason for the Canadian government to block Chinese takeovers in our natural resource sectors. It seems to me that the Canadian government's issuing of the permits under the TFW program in this case demonstrates a callous attitude towards organized labour in this country. The government seems to forget that a healthy domestic economy needs decently paid workers who can afford to buy food, housing and consumer goods.

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BC Housing Staff Lavish Expenses.

News Article -Vancouver Province October 25, 2012

According to a shocking and secret audit of company credit cards, B.C. Housing workers blew taxpayer dollars on flowers, booze and celebratory restaurant meals. Moreover, the amount spent by B.C. Housing credit-card holders jumped almost 50 per cent between 2009 and 2011 while some users violated basic credit-card rules.

The organization is tasked with providing housing for the province’s most vulnerable populations.
The 30-page audit report, obtained through a Freedom of Information request, was conducted by B.C. Housing internal auditors and targets so-called purchasing cards — also known as p-cards — that B.C. Housing employees use for travel, meals and entertainment.

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My comments

The solution to the above abuse must start with eliminating the purchasing cards entirely. Let the staff use their own cards and submit receipts for reimbusement of any eligible expenses. Right away the onus for justifying the expenses would shift to the staff enjoying the meals and booze. And by the way, why the hell should I be buying lunches for government workers unless they are on travel status or their booze under any circumstances. This extravagance must grate no end on the needy folk that BC Housing is tasked with helping. Probably most of them could eat for a month for what it costs the taxpayers for a couple of BC Housing lunches with booze. Ms. Clark, perhaps many more audits are in order.

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Feds Ban Expiry Dates on Prepaid Credit Cards.

News item - Toronto Sun

OTTAWA - Prepaid credit cards must have its fees clearly displayed and can no longer expire, Finance Minister Jim Flaherty announced Wednesday.

Under the new regulations, prepaid cards must fully disclose any fees and conditions, must not expire and eliminate any unused balance, and also can't have maintenance fees for a year after card activation.

"We want to be sure Canadians understand what fees and conditions apply to prepaid products so that they can continue making informed decisions in the day-to-day lives," Flaherty said.

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Thank you Mr. Flaherty. It is about time. too bad we have to rely on the government to keep major financial and business institutions from screwing consumers. We all like honest profit, but there needs to be a return to ethical business practices.

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Diamond Jubilee Medals

Conservative MP Maurice Vellacott of Saskatoon-Wanuskewin, Saskatchewan recently awarded Diamond Jubilee Medals to anti-abortion activists, Mary Wagner and Linda Gibbons. The medal was struck to commemerate the 60th anniversary of Queen Elizabeth's accension the to the throne. One of the criteria for awarding the medal is that the recipient has made a significant contribution to a particular province, territory, region or community within Canada, or an achievement abroad that brings credit to Canada. There was a big stretch here.

How inappropriate. What happened to Stephen Harper's quote, "As long as I'm Prime Minister we are not re-opening the abortion debate." Although it seems that Mr. Harper is not noticably pro-life, he is not publicly opposing abortion. Obviously he doesn't control his backbenchers on certain issues.

Mr. Vellacott also made the news last May when he called for a law against bullying fetuses.

I think that Mr.Vellacott using his government position to promote and reward people who try to  prevent other people from exercising their lawful rights is tacky. Perhaps Stephen Harper should take a public position on this issue so we all know where he stands on this.

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Scientists Convicted of Manslaughter in Italy.

So people, an Italian court in L'Aquila convicted 7 scientists and seismologists of manslaughter for not properly warning residents of a coming earthquake and sentenced them to six years in prison -what a joke. If it was not so sad it would be laughable. Is it any wonder that many Italians do not trust their government or the systems of ..ahem..ah.. justice? Last time I read about the Italian courts they were overturning the ludicrous 2009 murder conviction of Amanda Knox. Let us all hope we don't ever get hauled in front of an Italian judge. And no, this is not a third world dictatorship. Italy is a democracy and traditionally ranks in the top 7 largest economies in the world, although it  slipped to number ten in 2012.

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Alice Wong And Shark Fin Soup

Delighted to see my MP from Richmond BC, Ms Alice Wong, eating shark fin soup - NOT. Even less delighted that she invited only Asian news media to watch the show. I like to think my elected representative is there for all her constituents - not just the Chinese residents. To make matters worse, Ms Wong is a junior cabinet minister in Mr. Harper's government, Minister of State (for Seniors.) I am not only a Richmond resident, I am a senior and beginning to feel a little bit disenfranchised. Let us hope that with this sort of tacky behaviour Ms Wong doesn't get elevated to a senior cabinet position.

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