Jump to content

When train wreck is coming, it's sad


shootingstar

Recommended Posts

I live in a province, where every week, there are new crazy things announced and action taken by head honcho provincial leader. It's like announcing an ongoing train wreck travel route..

*angering doctors so much several have left province in bunches. We can't afford that..not in a more rural province.

*laying off 11,000 support health facility workers

*laying off several thousand nurses after pandemic is over.  This makes no sense when our population..is growing. Right now probably not much happening, but it will change later after pandemic.

*amalgamating several city 911 dispatch systems through province, not locally

*reintroducing coal mining...don't bother, please. 

*threats of province severing from federal pension plan for Albertans and creating their own public provincial pension plan. That angers alot of people.  There's no money for this.

So above stuff is broader. Then within my own employer, there will be huge organizational restructuring to be in place within 3 months.  Our group will be less 2 people in 4 weeks. Senior managers have to reapply for jobs..either redefined job scope or different pay scale.

I never felt this way living in British Columbia nor Ontario. 

 

  • Sad 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, shootingstar said:

I live in a province, where every week, there are new crazy things announced and action taken by head honcho provincial leader. It's like announcing an ongoing train wreck travel route..

*angering doctors so much several have province in bunches. We can't afford that..not in a more rural province.

*laying off 11,000 support health facility workers

*laying off several thousand nurses after pandemic is over.  This makes no sense when our population..is growing. Right now probably not much happening, but it will change later after pandemic.

*amalgamating several city 911 dispatch systems through province, not locally

*reintroducing coal mining...don't bother, please. 

*threats of province severing from federal pension plan for Albertans and creating their own public provincial pension plan. That angers alot of people.  There's no money for this.

So above stuff is broader. Then within my own employer, there will be huge organizational restructuring to be in place within 3 months.  Our group will be less 2 people in 4 weeks. Senior managers have to reapply for jobs..either redefined job scope or different pay scale.

I never felt this way living in British Columbia nor Ontario. 

 

What’s driving the change though?  I’m guessing the Provincial Leader has compelling reasons for the change, whether you agree or not is a different matter?  

We had civic leaders locally try to take on the unions, reduce head counts,  pensions & other benefits.  They were made out to be villains and were voted, hell run out of office.  The city is now teetering on bankruptcy.  Many didn’t agree then and now are demanding services the city is challenged to provide.  

We cant always have it both ways...
 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, Kirby said:

Further proof that Change is Bad!

Ontario and British Columbia have not announced same cuts at all. 

So this stuff happening now is inhumane. 

I realize the majority of people here are not interested in urban planning ...they just want more space around them....which is sprawly. 

It's so sad, 11 new subdivision communities are being proposed and we are in a serious deficit of hundreds of millions $$..locals don't realize building roads, sidwalks, parks and waterutility infrastructure to and in these communities cost taxpayer ..forever. What a city builds, it must support for the next century.  We already have an oversupply of new housing on the market with 14 new subdivision communities approved 2 yrs.  ago.  It shocked the city engineers and chief financial officer that city council approved this.

 And 11 million sq. ft. of unleased/empty commercial space in downtown core.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

9 minutes ago, ChrisL said:

What’s driving the change though?  I’m guessing the Provincial Leader has compelling reasons for the change, whether you agree or not is a different matter?  

We had civic leaders locally try to take on the unions, reduce head counts,  pensions & other benefits.  They were made out to be villains and were voted, hell run out of office.  The city is now teetering on bankruptcy.  Many didn’t agree then and now are demanding services the city is challenged to provide.  

We cant always have it both ways...
 

He's a big baby desperate, desperate to pay back the boys in oil industry who paid for his campaign. Make no mistake.  He doesn't have vision. Doesn't even have a plan for diversification of our provincial economy to get us off dying oil and gas economy. We've sucked out the oil wells over 25 yrs. ago. Tar sands is very expensive to extract oil because it requires more processing then left with polluting ground residual.

I didn't realize the lobby of oil industry until I relocated to prairies. It's shocking. Abandoned wells, sour gas pollution. Governmental environmental assessments no longer required with this current yahoo in power.

Anyway, going to bed before this thread self-destructs. :party::flirtyeyess:

  • Sad 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

2 hours ago, maddmaxx said:

The global economy is undergoing a major shift due to a collapse of many industries affected by Covid-19.  It should come as no surprise that for many this will be an upheaval of major proportions.

Welcome to the new world.

The reduction in commuting could be a big boon to the environment. That is a change I always thought made great sense. But I really feel bad for restaurant workers and such. Already marginal jobs that lots of people do with a smile that are so hard hit. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

9 hours ago, shootingstar said:

I live in a province, where every week, there are new crazy things announced and action taken by head honcho provincial leader. It's like announcing an ongoing train wreck travel route..

 

*reintroducing coal mining...don't bother, please. 

 

That always has me shaking my head in bewilderment at how strong the mining heritage is as it is passed from generation to generation with the expectation that will be a job for future generation. You see it in Great Britain, West Virginia, and I guess Canada. Such a strong bond among minors that as a group they become a political force driving policy good or bad. The biggest question ignored is where are they going to sell the coal as most customers have moved on, converting to other fuels. If the mining companies took leadership, they would diversify. For example - rotating employees 6 months in mine and 6 months on factory floor building widgets (solar panels come to mind...but anything marketable).

We have the same mindthink from our Governor - overriding local officials - open bars, businesses, everything to get the economy going. And just where are the customers coming from in an economy designed for tourist? Just as we can't go to their country, yes, we won't stop them and allow them to come here...they face 2 weeks quarantine when returning home. It is not worth 2 weeks at Disney to be stuck at home for 2 weeks afterwards. Also, this time of year we get the influx of the Canadian Snowbirds with their 6 month stay. Canada closed the border and they can't come and patronize the businesses that the Governor wants open.

Irrespective of change, you have to be aware of the total system and respond to it.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I don't know the details, but usually a small area's costs are higher than if they're doing things with the whole Province or State. Breaking off from a larger and potentially much more stable pension system sounds like a bad move to me.  Personally, getting a pension from a statewide teachers pension system leaves me much more stress-free about its stability than if I was getting a pension from a small town.

I have several cousins that live within 7 minutes of each other outside of Wilkes-Barre, PA, and each one lives in a different township with a different police department, fire department, school system, town executive/mayor, etc.

I find that incomprehensible.  In Maryland, virtually everything is organized at the county level.  In my county of 780,000 people centered on Annapolis and running about 36 miles in length along the Chesapeake Bay with 415 sq. miles of land, there is one police department, one fire department, one parks and recreation department, one waste and wastewater department, one water department, etc. and one school system with 12 high schools and feeder schools. Annapolis, our only incorporated city, does have some city-only services, but most of it's agencies and school system are part of the countywide system. The cost efficiency is far better than each locality becoming an incorporated area and having its own local government, police, etc., yet the number of fire and police stations, etc. is fine.

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

4 hours ago, Tizeye said:

That always has me shaking my head in bewilderment at how strong the mining heritage is as it is passed from generation to generation with the expectation that will be a job for future generation. You see it in Great Britain, West Virginia, and I guess Canada. Such a strong bond among minors that as a group they become a political force driving policy good or bad. The biggest question ignored is where are they going to sell the coal as most customers have moved on, converting to other fuels. If the mining companies took leadership, they would diversify. For example - rotating employees 6 months in mine and 6 months on factory floor building widgets (solar panels come to mind...but anything marketable).

I agree. Some of the oil firms are moving partially into alternative energy.

There is a former coal mining region near the Rocky Mountains they want to reactivate.

I live in a very sunny and some parts of it, windy province. Even in very cold winter snowy, icy weeks, we do get alot of beautiful sunny/bright blue sky days across open prairie.  There a small scale company installations of solar panel and windmill tech.  Previously govn't had a program to encourage more industry development. Current govn't turned off that tap, even if it was only tax based incentives.  

 I never bought an oil/gas stock directly..at all.  It would have been rolled into an index fund.  Right now, it's Canadian firms in other forms of energy in my portfolio. And those firms are growing/doing ok, not the oil and gas.  Natural gas is another natural "alternative"... which Alberta has some reserves.  

Link to comment
Share on other sites

3 hours ago, MickinMD said:

I have several cousins that live within 7 minutes of each other outside of Wilkes-Barre, PA, and each one lives in a different township with a different police department, fire department, school system, town executive/mayor, etc.

NJ is the exact same way - very small townships that operate independently.  They were going to try to merge some, but I think that initiative ran oot of steam.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

My city is a blend.  Our school system is from the city to the north.  Our fire dept. is from our neighbor to the south.  When we had the furnace installed, the inspector was from the city to our east.  We have our own police and our own parks system.   

Our hiring the services from neighboring cities helps keep our costs down and probably helps the neighboring cities from the added revenue.  The savings would probably be greater if the scale were increased to cover the county. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...