Drove past a gas station on the way into work today and noticed the sign said the current price was 119.1 per litre. And I actually thought to myself, ‘hey, that’s not a bad price.’
’Nuff said.
Caught my first bit of Kitchener Rangers pre-season hockey over the weekend. What a difference three months makes. Last year’s squad that won roughly 70 of the nearly 100 games it played, and fell just one win shy of capturing the Memorial Cup in May, did a lot of things right. Forechecking, transition, puck pursuit, you name it and last year’s Rangers team did it, and did it very well. That incredibly high bar, or brightly lit torch, has been passed to a much younger Rangers team that will look to its defense for leadership. Returning overager Ben Shutron has the “C” on his jersey, Josh Unice returns in goal and Robert Bortuzzo, once he returns from a shoulder injury, will join Dan Kelly as the other blueliners shouldering the load for a Rangers squad that won’t score nearly as much as the 2008 team. But such is life in junior hockey.
The other torch to be discussed is certainly more than just a footnote in this entry. Mike “The Torch” Torchia has accepted a job as the goaltender coach for the Rangers. When I went to the rink on Friday, I was bombarded with questions as to who my “new sidekick” would be. Let me answer those questions right now. There will be no “new” sidekick. Word from the corner office is that Torch will stay on as a colour analyst with our broadcasts this season on Rogers TV. This pleases me, and not only because it saves me the trouble of learning new dance steps with a new broadcast partner. The truth is, I like Mike. He’s one of the most genuine and funny guys you’ll ever want to meet, and he also happens to know a thing or two about hockey. As if going to the rink wasn’t enough fun already, Mike makes it all the more enjoyable. I look forward to sharing the booth with him for a third season.
Just don’t tell him I told you.
Anyone who knows me even a little bit knows that Cystic Fibrosis is very near and dear to my heart. Two of my sisters suffered from the deadly disease and, to this day, I do what I can, when I can, for the K-W Chapter of the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation. But my efforts pale in comparison to the efforts — and accomplishments — of the students at Wilfrid Laurier University.
Yesterday was Shinerama Day again in the region, where hundreds of students took to the streets to shine, scrub, wash and buff just about anything for a donation to Cystic Fibrosis. I felt privileged to play a small role at a couple of the area locations and the energy was truly incredible. And the students providing that energy do so because….they want to? I’m not sure any of them have a personal connection to CF like I do, but they give their time and their energy because they believe in the cause. For that, I thank them from the bottom of my heart. The awareness — not to mention the money — raised is truly invaluable to the cause.
I got an e-mail from one of the organizers very early this morning. Wrapping up this year’s campaign went well into the night, it would seem. Locally, $125,600 was raised for CF research. Words cannot express my gratitude. Keep it up, Shiners. You make more of a difference than you could ever possibly know.
Canada is approaching a rather dubious milestone in Afghanistan. With the deaths of three more Canadian soldiers this week, our death toll since joining the conflict in 2002 now stands at 96. Ninety-seven if you count our fallen diplomat. The last two times we have learned of Canadian casualties in Afghanistan the numbers have come in three’s. And if that sort of consistency continues, the next time we learn of Canadian casualties our number lost will reach 100. Canada has not lost so many soldiers in a single conflict since saying goodbye to more than 500 during the Korean War. To be fair, our list of casualties is but a fraction of the Americans, who have lost more than 100 soldiers this year alone and 500-plus since the invasion was launched.
Still, those climbing Canadian casualties leave me with little surprise when I hear that a new poll suggests the majority of Canadians believe the country is paying too high a price in terms of blood and treasure for its involvement in Afghanistan. That same survey also shows an overwhelming number of respondents were uncertain about whether the Kandahar mission has been a success. By the numbers, the survey found that 61 per cent of respondents believed the cost of Canada’s mission in terms of lives and expense has been unacceptable, while only one in three said it was acceptable.
It could be argued that Canadians could consider the cost in terms of lives too great if even one of our soldiers was to die in Afghanistan, but there’s no doubt that the approaching milestone will fuel further debate about our mission. Still, retired Major General Lewis Mackenzie is not convinced more conversation will bring about a change in policy. Mackenzie believes that the milestone will warrant more attention, but he quite correctly points out that the number is just as tragic at 99 as it is at 101. And yet I find no small irony in the fact that this milestone approaches as we approach a federal election, and Canadians are forced to elect the party that voted to send us to Afghanistan, or the party that decided to extend our mission there until 2011.
During my holidays last month, I found the time to read an essay that Bill Gates wrote for Time magazine. In it, the former head of Microsoft discusses how the world can fix capitalism, something — according to Gates — that has improved the lives of billions of people, and yet has left out billions more. Those left out, says Gates, are stuck in poverty, suffer from preventable diseases, and never have a chance to make the most of their lives. And Gates believes that non-profit groups and governments have an irreplaceable role in helping them.
The essay was nothing short of inspirational and so it was with much interest that I am watching the goings on at regional council, where a report has been prepared that proposes all workers be paid what is called a living wage. That is, enough to live without needing the assistance of food banks or other forms of social assistance. The recommendation within that report suggests that the living wage in Waterloo Region should be $13.62 cents per hour, or almost five dollars more per hour than the current minimum wage in this province.
The implications of adopting such a recommendation are many. If the region moves forward with the idea, all work that is currently contracted out would have to pay employees that minimum of $13.62 per hour. In the case of janitorial services alone, which the region does contract out today, the cost of the contract would leap almost 50 per cent — from $1.7-million per year, to $2.5-million. The impact to you and I, the average taxpayer? About four bucks. Or, in layperson’s terms, about three medium cups of Tim’s coffee. Per year. We sacrifice that, and the average worker in this region will be paid enough to earn a modest living.
Not surprisingly, area social agencies are all for the idea. And 125 American cities are also already on-board with some form of living wage policy. Baltimore was the first, and has been doing it for more than a decade. A city official there says the policy has been nothing short of a resounding success, calling it completely affordable to the municipality, with a cost impact of less than one per cent.
Critics point to our softening economy and suggest that higher-priced contracts could force governments to trim costs, meaning the higher paid positions would exist but there would be fewer of them to go around. Not to mention the social safety nets, including minimum wage protection, that are already available. These critics have clearly not had to live on minimum wage themselves for some time.
More than 200 years ago, in 1799, Welshman Robert Owen bought a cotton mill in Scotland and instituted several reforms, all aimed at improving conditons for the worker. His belief? That a five per cent return on his investment was more than enough. The rest of the profits could be used for the benefit of his employees. In light of that, I’m forced to ask, what has taken us so long to even start this conversation? The region knows what is, ultimately, the right thing to do here. The only question is whether or not it has the political will to become the first community in all of Canada, to do it.
I feel badly for Kitchener today. That poor city — the largest municipality among the four townships and three cities in this region — feels as though it is not getting the recognition it deserves. According to the most recent news release from City Hall, motorists on the 401 can pass the poor city right by and not even know it lies just off the highway. Kitchener, according to the news release, should not be hidden from view.
And so city council has hatched a plan; a plan that will seek — you guessed it — public input, on just the right design for a new highway sign that will sit alongside the 401 and let all those busy motorists know that we are here. I suppose it might even entice them to stop and pay us a little visit. But by trying to guide motorists into our fair city council is once again showing that it…is misguided.
I’ve said it before but, since the message is clearly not getting through, I’ll say it again. We elect our leaders to lead, and with leadership comes decision-making. So make some decisions already. Talk about the design options at a council meeting one night and pick the one you think represents us best. We elected you to represent us so, presumably, we trust you. No matter the design that is ultimately chosen people will complain about it. Because that’s what we do. It will be too simple for some and too flashy for others and no amount of public consultation beforehand will mute the critics after the fact.
But it would seem that this time around council is misguided in more ways than one. For it’s not just public consultation working against it this time, it’s geography. What council seems to be unwilling to admit is that you really can’t get from the highway to here. At least not without knowing where you’re going, anyway. There are eight 401 exits through the region — six for Cambridge and two for Kitchener. If you take one of those six exits for Cambridge you’ll end up in the city itself, on Hespeler or Townline Road, even King Street. Take an exit for Kitchener, and call me later for directions.
I’ve tried to guide enough people from the 401 to the heart of downtown Kitchener to know what of I speak. Tell someone to get off the 401 at Kitchener and the exit looks a lot more like Cambridge. But don’t take King Street to Cambridge. You want to get to it in Kitchener. And not that King Street, but the next one, over the Grand River Bridge and at the end of Highway 8. No, not 7-8. Just 8. If they’re still with you at this point, you’ve got a very good friend.
If Kitchener is looking for someone to consult with, forget the public. It should be the province. Heck, we have our own minister in Kitchener-Centre MPP John Milloy. See if he can bend an ear or two in the transportation ministry and get us a highway interchange of our very own. Until then, Kitchener’s highway sign may as well be a map. And if it does have words, it may as well say ‘Thanks for passing by…again. Enjoy your visit to Cambridge.
With the Kitchener Rangers opening training camp yesterday, I suppose it was only fitting that I got back to hockey as well. In my case, though, the layoff was much longer than a couple of months. It was more like a couple of years as my increasingly busy schedule conspired to keep me from the regular weekly game I used to enjoy with friends.
It was funny how, despite all that time away from the rink, it didn’t take long for the instincts to kick back in. In fact, I’d say they were there from the first shift. The problem was that while I knew what to do — or at least what I wanted to do — on each play, executing it was a different story. My timing was off, my passes were missing the mark, and I was, quite frankly, slower.
Don’t get me wrong; I was never a great player. But I can now understand better than ever how skills deteriorate when you don’t use them for awhile. Not to mention how cruel Father Time can really be.
By all accounts next week will not just mark back to school time for us, it will also mark the time we learn when we will head back to the polls for a federal election. The third, I might add, in just over four years. But such is the case in a minority Parliament and, really, it’s time for something to be done in Ottawa.
The Conservative government, in power now for a little less than three years, has delivered admirably on many counts. I would take issue with its so-called Accountability Act because we did watch Liberal David Emerson abandon his Vancouver constituents just days after being voted into office in 2006, lured by a plumb cabinet post with the new Conservative regime. And we also heard much talk of a fixed election date and its value, only to see the government that fixed the date go about orchestrating its own demise a full year before the date arrived. But Mr. Harper’s government did lay out a rather simple agenda and did its best to follow through, including the presentation of a tough on crime bill and a slash of the GST. What’s most interesting to me, though, is how this rather effective minority government has just not been able to distance itself in the polls from an Opposition party that appears to be in disarray.
It’s been said that the only polls that matter are those on election day, but this is also most often said by the leader who does not like what the polls are saying. And if I was Prime Minister Harper, I would be concerned by the current numbers. Despite an Opposition leader that has not yet seemed to warm to the Canadian public and despite a key policy announcement in the Green Shift that has been criticized more than applauded, the Liberals are keeping this a neck and neck race in the polls. Mr. Harper would not be threatening to call this election if he did not think he could win, and win a majority at that.
In the other rans category, we’ve also seen polls showing the NDP slipping, losing most of their support to the Greens. A party, I might add, that will likely still not be invited to the table for the federal debate. But will the party earn its first federal seat? And will we elect a majority rather than a minority this time around?
How closely the current polls reflect the final numbers remains to be seen but we are being given the chance, on a number of levels, to change the face of Canadian politics for the next four years. Or less.
I listened with interest this morning as my friend and colleague Jeff Allan interviewed Ontario Finance Minister Dwight Duncan. Minister Duncan was busy patting his government on the back for its 1.1-billion dollar announcement for Ontario infrastructure projects. And I’m not knocking the announcement — it’s not exactly chump change. Of course, neither was the other major infrastructure announcement, made about a month ago in London. That announcement was worth a combined 6.2-billion dollars, 3.1-billion each from the federal and provincial governments. And again, it was earmarked for infrastructure. So in the latter stages of this summer we, as a province, have been promised no fewer than 4.2-billion dollars from various levels of government to help repair crumbling roads and bridges, and maybe even give a boost to subsidized housing projects. But hang on a second.
Do you recall the claim of the Federation of Canadian Municipalities last year, the claim that suggested this country was staring down an infrastructure deficit of 123-billion dollars? Again, the 4.2-billion dollars earmarked for Ontario infrastructure is a substantial amount. But posed next to the suggested deficit, it’s not even the tiniest drop in the bucket. So what are we left to make of it all?
Firstly, we should not be fooled by Dwight Duncan. He loved every minute of his airtime today to talk about the provincial Liberals’ big announcement. But before we get carried away, don’t you think we ought to wait for the cheque? At least 45-million dollars is supposed to land here in Waterloo region. I promise to believe it when I see it.
The second thing is to take the claims of the FCM with a grain of salt. 123-billion is a huge number and it is meant to shock and draw attention to the cause of Canada’s crumbling infrastructure. I do not dispute the need to make substantial repairs to infrastructure of all sorts, in all Canadian communities. But I do dispute the price tag. The truth, as is so often the case, lies somewhere in the middle.
The famous movie line exclaimed, “Show me the money!” If not showing it, the provincial and federal governments are at least waving it in front of our faces. The key now is waiting to see what they do with it. I, for one, will not be holding my breath.
A nationwide outbreak of listeriosis has now been linked to one local death, as public health officials have confirmed that a resident of Waterloo Region has died after testing positive for the same strain of the disease that has been found in 17 confirmed cases across Canada. And while the version of listeriosis that has claimed this local life is very similar to the strain that is connected to a tainted meat recall, no direct link is yet being made. The local death is the third in Ontario and the province’s acting Chief Medical Officer of Health says more cases are likely coming because listeriosis has an average incubation period of three weeks. In other words, despite the recall of 23 products from Maple Leaf Foods, the worst may not yet be behind us.
There are a couple of things we need to know about this. First is that it was the Canadian Food Inspection Agency that identified the listeria bacteria at a Maple Leaf Foods meat plant in Toronto. And second this agency, which acts as a body independent of the food industry and reports to the Ministry of Agriculture, could be turning some of its powers back to the producers themselves. According to a leaked document, the federal government is considering a plan that would transfer food inspection powers from government to industry. In other words, the industry would begin to police itself. And that’s a terrible idea.
The Tories tell us that they want industries to play a greater role in inspecting their own products, and have more of an oversight role within the plant itself. But even with this most recent outbreak notwithstanding, isn’t that sort of like putting the fox in charge of the henhouse? University of Guelph professor Ann Clark, who has testified before the agriculture committee, said industry’s main goal is to make money — not provide a public health service such as food inspection that has historically fallen to governments. And so in the interests of making that money, when business is slow, isn’t the inspection process a place where industry could cut corners to save a few bucks? If you don’t think it is, ask yourself this. In these tough economic times, why would the federal government be thinking about turning some food inspections back on industry? To save a few bucks of its own. Why should we expect industry to act any differently?
I’m not a fan of governments that use tragedy as a platform to play politics. But it might be good that we’re talking about this today. This proposal has still not been approved, so there is no certainty that it will move forward. And it gives all of us, including our federal M-P’s, the time for some sober second thought. Let’s not allow dollars and cents to get in the way of something as important as food safety inspections. How much worse could this outbreak have been had the Food Inspection Agency not found it when it did? If the government is looking for ways to trim fat, I’m sure any number of us has a few suggestions as to where it can begin.