Thursday, July 31, 2008
Wednesday, July 30, 2008
Victor on "The Slide"
We can bet the photos of the Highway 99 slide are being studied by every country sending a team here for 2010. Try this. If the next winter Olympics were to be in the French Alps, and if the side of a mountain in France were to peel off and cover the highway with truck-sized boulders, BC folks would be bleating about the safety of our athletes and visitors.
If I were Gordo Carbo, I would pave the Duffy Lake Road and build the required bridges. Yep. Lots of money. But without a fully functional alternative highway, we look like idiots ploughing ahead on a one road plan. VANOC has assured us that in the event of a slide. alternative air transportation will be found for athletes. Wonderful. So a family with 3rd degree burns could be stuck in Whistler, but the Luge team from Zimbabwe would have a chartered chopper at their disposal.Remember, John Furlong's last job before being crowned as VANOC chief was as manager of the Arbutus Club. From Head waiter to Head Honcho of the Olympics.As usual, BC has a competence problem.
Hysterical Comment Crashing Down on Us
Dateline 2010 - Location BC - 2010 Olympics cancelled because of unstable mountains on the 'Sea to Sky' highway route.
Highways Ministry spokesperson stated, "due to 5 years of continued blasting for new highway construction has rendered the 'Sea to Sky' highway unsafe for motor traffic."
VANOC spokesperson is quoted in saying, "VANOC is unable to refund Olympic tickets due to lack of funds."
IOC spokesperson is quoted as saying, "The IOC will sue the province of BC for the full cost of the 2010 fiasco and the 2 week moving of the event to Salt Lake City."
The provincial premier and highways minister are in seclusion in Hawaii.
CN Rail suing the BC provincial government for loss of the railway, a cost more than the original sale!
And the Olympic naysayers, "I told you so!"
An enquiry is scheduled to take place after the end of the Basi/Virk/CN Rail case is concluded, sometime in 2015.
Think the Opposite
What do you think when you see a headline that assures us that there will be "No tolls on contraversial highway, minister says?"
I'll tell you what I think.
Based entirely on past experience, I think that this is pretty much a gold solid guarantee that there will be tolls on the South Fraser Perimeter Road.
What Gulag are we in?
Vaughn Palmer continues today to put the wood to the Great ICBC Cover-Up.
Hiding behind transparently guffy legaleeeeze, the Liberal government refuses to inform the public
in any meaningful way about this disgraceful misuse of public monies.
ICBC and BC Ferries almost daily demonstrate the problem with basic or essential services being transformed int arms-length corporations.
On these matters, Premier Campbell has no legs on which to stand.
Good Luck 2010
O.K. Sorry.
Last week, I wrote in this space about Vancouver City Councilor Tim Stevenson's recommendation to council that money be spent on attracting lesbian tourists.
I criticized Stevenson for what I felt was a frivolous motion and for an idea I felt was best discussed with Tourism Vancouver.
Tim Stevenson phoned yesterday and gave me the background of this story, including the fact that this was, indeed, an initiative of Tourism Vancouver. The agency had already spent about $100,000 marketing to gay travelers, but had not spent any money targeting lesbian tourists in particular. It also had no more money in this year's budget to do so, and thus needed a council motion to add $25,000 for this expenditure.
O.K. Fair enough.
I appreciate Tim's call and the info and I apologize for a hit that may have been uncalled for.
Cheers.
Tuesday, July 29, 2008
Loyal-Tease - A Liz James Rant
I've had it! Had it up to my ears with retailers' plastic plugging up my wallet.
Had it up to my ears with having to produce a "club card" to qualify for a fair price, or for "points" that will get me little but the odd dollar off the price of a produce I don't want, five years hence.
What got me started on this rant?
The forecast was for rain all day today. So I promised myself a treat; this year I would buy myself a rain jacket at the beginning of the rainy season, rather than settling for a $14.99 job in a year-end sale.
Went to Work Warehouse, found nothing suitable. Went next door to Mountain Equipment Coop. Found a nice Goretex item. It fit. It was a good colour for winter visibility. Priced at $155 - $173.60 including taxes, it was not cheap, but not out of line, so I took it to the checkout counter and waited in line.
When I heard the customer ahead having a verbal with the clerk, after I saw him hand over a $5.00 bill, I had the first hint of what was to come.
Sure enough, "What's your telephone number, please?" the clerk welcomed me.
"Why?"
"Have you bought here before?" he followed up.
"No," says I.
"Oh - well we're a coop, " he explained, "you have to be a member to buy here; but it's only $5.00," he said brightly.
"In that case," I replied, "you'll need to return this to the rack, because I am not prepared to pay $5.00 for the privilege of spending close to $175.00 in your store."
What gives with us Canadians that we put up with these scams?
Safeway requires a club card to get a "member's price" that's often double the regular Walfart. Save-On also requires a card to rack up points whereby, if you ever get close to earning $5.00, they ask you to donate your points to charity - does it actually go to the charity?
Shoppers Drugs, Zellers, HBC - they're all on the same "loyalty customer" bandwagon - a bandwagon Indigo-Chapters excels at with, perhaps, the worst "membership" of all at $20 a shot...
And don't even get me going about gas stations and their 3.5 "savings" scam at the pump.
These schemes are nothing but rackets that, to my mind, fly very close to the line of fraud. The real purpose, of course, is to obtain personal information that we'd bitch loud and clear about, if the schemes were mooted by government. Retail establishments want to know who we are and how old; what we buy; how much we spend and how best to invade our space with telemarketing and email.
In many cases, "sale prices," "specials" and "20 percents off regular" are also spurious. How often must a store hold a Scratch n' Save weekend, or a "Senior's Tuesday", or a "Warehouse Sale" before its "regular" price becomes 30-40-50 percent lower than the sales tag indicates?
How many of last weekend's North Vancouver Sears Customers realized that the 25% off an $18.00 Alia top was beaten, hands-down, by the $7.99 price in the TanJay store just around the corner in the mall? No wonder the clerk was prepared to do a price-match - it was preferable to my having a discussion with her a couple of decibels higher.
Don't get me wrong here - that these scams continue is not the fault of the clerks. It is the fault of us customers who put up with it all -- and of the governments who fail, year after year, to tighten the rules.
So - if you readers out there agree with me, if you want things to change, if you are prepared to pay a fair price for goods but no more - then, for crying out loud, do something about it. Stand up for yourselves.
Send your concerns to Mark Startup, President and CEO of Retail BC at: mark@retailbc.org or to...
BC Minister of Economic Development at:
Hon. Ida Chong <ida.chong.mla@leg.bc.ca>
and to --
Sears Canada at: home@sears.ca
Shoppers Drugs at: ?? buried somewhere on its website?? or call your local store
Shell Canada at: questions@shell.com
Imperial Esso at: http://www.imperialoil.ca/Canada-English/About/A_Contacts.asp
Chevron Canada at: https://www.chevron.ca/Secure/Contactus/default.asp
PetroCan at: https://www.petro-canada.ca/en/independent/1449.aspx
and, to be fair, the best invite of all at: Chapters-Indigo - "If you are dissatisfied, write to us"
http://www.chapters.indigo.ca/contactus
It is not my intention to "pick-on" these retail establishments. They are not unique. They are just those I've remembered from recent experience. Most stores operate on a variation of this retail theme. It is their effort to attract customers to their products.
What no corporate decision-makers seem to realize, is that the very best attraction of all is for a store to offer its customers -- quality products - fair prices - truthful warranties - and attentive but not cloying, well-informed/trained customer service.
That would have far better effect than forcing customers to wait in line while someone has to find and dig out their plastic club/points card.
And lastly, remember this -- If it looks like a store, behaves like a store, and sells items for sale to make money like a store - it IS a store - no matter what it may call itself on the door.
Elizabeth James
Paradise Found
Look no further.
This is the Ocean Wilderness Inn at Sooke, BC.
This is the view from your bedroom or the Japanese hot tub or any number of chairs and tables on the front lawn.
Hummingbirds, a peacock, apple trees, quiet, fresh air. A path to the beach.
And most importantly, Lori and Andy, the warmest and most gracious hosts.
Lori not only fed us sumptuous and delicious breakfasts this weekend, but she also booked us into extraordinary dinners at local restaurants.
Here's the website.
Go.
Go for three days. Go longer.
You'll be happy.
I Wanna Be Yours
Being elected to federal office must be quite the plum.
How else to explain geniuses like Hedy Fry, Joe Volpe and Scott Brison going deep, deep, deep into debt to finance their campaigns?
It is so nice of the government to give these exemplars more time to pay off their loans.
Could the government speak to the chartered banks on our behalves for similar kindnesses?
And Another Thing...
Yesterday, I kvetched about BC Ferries service and somehow I managed to forget my biggest complaint.
One of the the few rewards of getting older is DISCOUNTS.
But at BC Ferries, being 65 years or more will get you a free ride on Mondays, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursdays.
What do the think will happen?
Hordes of senior citizens will storm the boats on the weekends and cause the ships to list portside? They'll need extra medical staff and diapers? The tuna salad will go in a flash?
Monday, July 28, 2008
Lovely Ferry Service
We had the great displeasure of taking two trips with BC Ferries this weekend.
On Friday, we travelled on one of the big, new ships from Tsawwassen to Swartz Bay. On Sunday, we returned on a much smaller, older boat.
Dare I list the insults and discomforts?
How about $93 each way for a small car. That's because I made reservations ($15) and then changed the route ($9), albeit with two weeks notice. How much of an inconvenience was that to an electronic service, and why should I pay another $9?
The return trip ran 20 minutes late, which meant little to us, but the lady sitting next to me had to catch a bus which she was sure to miss.
The boat was one usually used for Gulf Islands service, which means that it was way too small and sardine-packed.
As long as we're raising prices every twelve minutes, maybe we could think about running more boats, more often and bigger.
Isn't it convenient for a government to make these basic services arms-length corporations run by former Americans?
Oh, I'm getting old.
I asked that same question last week.
Oh.
Telling Letter to Liz from a parent
| 25 July, 2008
'Morning, David:
Yesterday, I copied the email I wrote to you on this subject, to neighbours who have an intellectually-challenged son.
They are a senior couple who, not only have cared for that son for his entire life, they have worked with several groups in the wider community to provide housing, care, education and other services to people who similar problems to their Michael. They have more than pulled their community weight, in ways that you and I can only imagine.
This is the email I received in reply; perhaps your readers might find it of interest --
Hi, Liz: Thank you for your advocacy on behalf of all the Michaels in this fair land. Few people will care, but this war has been going on with us in BCACL (parents advocacy group) for several years. Recently a government agency was developed - Community Living BC. This agency now has a budget to fund/serve people like Michael - but they never have enough funding, We have some school-leavers here on the North Shore that do not have any funding as yet, and the IQ situation is yet another problem complicating the issue. We do not have enough developmental psychologists to test most of the people. This is not an intellectual/sickness/illness we can cure. It is a developmental "how you function" condition which usually lasts a lifetime. Educational psychologists who work in this field are few and far between. All of them will tell you that an IQ can be interpreted in lots of different ways. It is not an exact science that can be measured to produce an "OK, this is the cutoff point" decision. Therefore - what we should be asking instead, is: "How does this person function in today's complex society/community?" and, "What safety net do we need to put in place for this person, or these people?" Parents cannot do it all, especially as they get older. Just do not get me started. Heaven help us and the developmentally-delayed people, - but perhaps every politician, every family needs a kid who is different - and then see the tables turn! (Somewhat along the lines of the current television ad by Children's Hospital - "If it was your child, we wouldn't need to ask." Liz) I am pleased, though, that some people in the community can be aroused. Regards T. |
Secure Games? From a reader....
Hi David
Recommend reading local author Christopher Shaw's "Five Ring Circus" to get
a more realistic idea of what is required by VANOC et al to secure the 2010
Games and how badly officials have deliberately underestimated the security
costs of the GAMES.
Some of my thoughts...
The only port city to host the Winter Olympics...three major railway lines
pass by many of the Vancouver venues, both support venues and sporting
venues and major hotels...20% of the workers in the region work downtown...a
mountainous corridor stretching 120 kms...a nightmare...what will they do,
shut down rail operations, shut down the port? Will every container need to
be opened and investigated arriving at port? What will the cost be to the
economy if they have to shut the port or the railways?
Here's what CBC reported during the 2005 trucker's stike at the Vancouver
ports:
"B.C.'s business community is demanding that the federal government end a
paralysing and sometimes violent truckers' strike at Vancouver-area ports
that is costing an estimated $75 million a day."
Just how will the security measures for the 16 day 2010 Games impact the
normal economy of BC and Canada? February is a very busy month for grain
shipments at our ports, will these shipments be delayed by security
measures?
Getting to and from places of work will be impacted by road closures and
usual transit systems will be overloaded by visitors. But it may all even
itself out if we look at Salt Lake City's (SLC) example. At SLC airport,
more people left the state of Utah during the Games period than came in.
Sales tax revenues for the month of February in 2002 to the state seem to
show that revenues were flat in comparison to previous year revenues for the
same period in 2001. A modest .6% increase in sales tax revenue was felt in
SLC only.
Imagine thousands of security officers, armed forces and secret service
agents from over 20 countries floating around...the security cost in Salt
Lake City 2002 was over $350 million in US dollars, the CAN dollar traded at
62 cents during that time. SLC is not a port city and mountain events for
the 2002 Winter Games was only 15 km from the city core and SLC had no major
railroads adjacent to any of the Olympic venues.
Security costs are being hidden in local, provincial and federal budgets
much the same as Colin Hansen tried to hide the costs of the Olympic
Secretariat office in Victoria saying they shouldn't be included in the 2010
Olympic costs. The indirect costs to our economy need to factored in. The
government is all too quick to inform or disinform us of the 2010 Games
benefits but dead in the water when it comes to informing us of the full
costs of hosting the Games.
Johnny Griffin, R.I.P.
Johhny Griffin, who played here in Vancouver a number of times in recent years to wowed audiences, has died.
A solo is playable below, and the NY Times obit can be read here.
Friday, July 25, 2008
Grabbing the Rays
Off to the wilds today...no blog posting tomorrow...
Get out there and enjoy the shortest summer in memory.
And try to find a bird other than a crow.
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