Canadian Politics

[GCn20]

On ‎2016‎-‎04‎-‎18 at 2:05 PM, sweep the leg said:

Edit: I asked why you didn't try a different hospital, but I've waited a good 5-6 hours with my kid before under the assumption it can't possibly be much longer.

It's a fair question. The answer is this was in Thompson. There is only one hospital. Had I another option after around hour 5 or 6, I would have tried it.

[sweep the leg]

2 minutes ago, gcn11 said:

It's a fair question. The answer is this was in Thompson. There is only one hospital. Had I another option after around hour 5 or 6, I would have tried it.

That makes more sense. I've heard some bad er stories in the city, but never that bad.

[kelownabomberfan]

2 hours ago, sweep the leg said:

That makes more sense. I've heard some bad er stories in the city, but never that bad.

In cases like these, the only way to get the politicians off their butts is to go to the media.  But it really sounds like the issue is not enough doctors.  We are doing ok here because we've had a lot of South African doctors coming to live here, just because it's a nice place to live, and they are wanting to get out of South Africa.  I doubt you'll get too many doctors moving from Capetown to Thompson though.  Might make a good background story for a CBC sitcom. 

Edited April 21, 2016 by kelownabomberfan

[The Unknown Poster]

http://www.winnipegsun.com/2016/04/21/reform-gold-plated-pension-plan-for-mlas-lobby-group

A taxpayers' watchdog is calling on Manitoba's new government to reform its MLA pension plan, arguing doing so could save tax dollars.

For example, the Canadian Taxpayers Federation (CTF) estimates long-term MLA Steve Ashton is set to earn $86,000 per year after losing his Thompson seat on Tuesday.

The tab for Ashton, who was first elected in 1981, would reach $2.5 million if that benefit is paid to age 90, the CTF said.

"The big problem is these MLAs will get their money regardless of how much they put in their pension plan and how much that pension made. That's not how it works for the rest of us," said Todd MacKay, the CTF's prairie director. "We're taking a huge risk with taxpayers' money."

This is very interesting.  I lucked out in that my type of pension is "guaranteed" in the same way.  I put in a significant amount but I believe my employer has to contribute any shortfalls.  Whereas newew employees have the type that if the pension plan is short, they get less.  I generally know very little about this stuff so I could be wrong.  And I wont get $86,000...

I guess the argument is that the pay and benefits must be sufficient to attract the best people to a position that could easily be very temporary.  On the other hand, shouldnt the allure of public service be servicing the public rather than money?

[kelownabomberfan]

I think this is just going after chump change.  Time to go after the big dollar waste.  And it must be big.  The NDP was over spending by half a billion a year.  How is that even possible?

[Atomic]

33 minutes ago, kelownabomberfan said:

I think this is just going after chump change.  Time to go after the big dollar waste.  And it must be big.  The NDP was over spending by half a billion a year.  How is that even possible?

Small, sensible cuts like this do add up over time and have less of a negative effect than cutting whole departments or services.  While I agree that this is small change, that's where the savings will be found for the most part.  NDP solved problems by throwing wads of cash around indiscriminately.  Prudent fiscal management can go a long way and it starts in the little details.

[kelownabomberfan]

yeah on the other hand though, I don't see why you need to claw back pensions on people who entered public service with the expectation at the end of the day they'd have a good pension.  Being an MLA is a hard job, and I would like to see that pay and benefits are such that the job attracts good qualified people.  I don't begrudge Steve Ashton his pension, he served for 35 years.

[FrostyWinnipeg]

So far a good day for Mike Duffy with 28/31 having him cleared/not guilty.

3 to go and the Judge going after Harper/Wright and PMO big time.

Edited April 21, 2016 by FrostyWinnipeg

[The Unknown Poster]

10 minutes ago, kelownabomberfan said:

yeah on the other hand though, I don't see why you need to claw back pensions on people who entered public service with the expectation at the end of the day they'd have a good pension.  Being an MLA is a hard job, and I would like to see that pay and benefits are such that the job attracts good qualified people.  I don't begrudge Steve Ashton his pension, he served for 35 years.

Is a full year's pension really fair though?  I could work for my current job for years and while my pension will be decent it wont be a full years pay.  A previous manager retired last year and she told me between her pension AND OAC and CPP she would take home about the same.  She worked for about 40 years.

A good pension is one thing.  An AMAZING pension is quite another.  And should they not be putting more into it?

[GCn20]

28 minutes ago, kelownabomberfan said:

yeah on the other hand though, I don't see why you need to claw back pensions on people who entered public service with the expectation at the end of the day they'd have a good pension.  Being an MLA is a hard job, and I would like to see that pay and benefits are such that the job attracts good qualified people.  I don't begrudge Steve Ashton his pension, he served for 35 years.

It takes a good pension to attract our elite into government. Not sure that applies to Ashton but you get my point. I don't begrudge him his government pension either. It's his TigerDam and OmniTrax pension funds that bother me.

[GCn20]

1 hour ago, kelownabomberfan said:

I think this is just going after chump change.  Time to go after the big dollar waste.  And it must be big.  The NDP was over spending by half a billion a year.  How is that even possible?

Lots of union support to shore up, token patronage payrolls to meet etc.  There is so much fat to cut that Pallister could literally throw a dart at any type of government department or expenditure taped to a dartboard and find millions in savings in minutes. He doesn't need to run with scissors...the fat is oozing out of every pore.

There is a time and a place for an NDP government in this province occasionally. Unfortunately, we let them stick around far too long. It is a party that should only hold power every couple of decades for one term just for balance. If the Conservatives have truly learned their lesson from last time around then maybe even less than that.

Edited April 21, 2016 by gcn11

[kelownabomberfan]

9 minutes ago, gcn11 said:

Lots of union support to shore up, token patronage payrolls to meet etc.  There is so much fat to cut that Pallister could literally throw a dart at any type of government department or expenditure taped to a dartboard and find millions in savings in minutes. He doesn't need to run with scissors...the fat is oozing out of every pore.

There is a time and a place for an NDP government in this province occasionally. Unfortunately, we let them stick around far too long. It is a party that should only hold power every couple of decades for one term just for balance. If the Conservatives have truly learned their lesson from last time around then maybe even less than that.

I need to share this with my idealized nieces and nephews who are so brain-washed by their teachers right now they are only capable of voting either NDP or Green.  Though I doubt that any of what you are saying would sink in, or it would be just ignored.  I talk about the bloated wasteland that the NDP created here in BC in the 1990's but all I get are excuses.  There is literally no excuse for this kind of hiring and management behaviour.  It is clear is it purely done to placate the insatiable need of the unions to have as many dues-paying members as possible, at the cost of the taxpayers.  It is corruption, through and through, though extremely hard to prove.

[FrostyWinnipeg]

Mike Duffy cleared on all 31 charges. Judge pointed finger at PMO.

[kelownabomberfan]

15 hours ago, Mark H. said:

About the ongoing BCTF discussion: the reason the teacher's union got control over class size and composition is because they gave up salary increases to get it. Methinks they'll just take the money going forward. 

They didn't really "give up" salary increases, they were demanding salary increases that even the NDP couldn't stomach (which shows how over the top gross they were) and so the NDP, trying to please their union masters while also trying to spin it as a win to the general public, thought the public wouldn't understand just how crazy it was for an employer to give up control over hiring to a union, and gave in on that concession, rather than give the BCTF giant raises.  The BCTF of course jumped on the offer, because they were essentially given a license to hire, with a bottomless pit as a budget.  What union wouldn't take that deal?

The BCTF is universally hated in BC by both the public and other unions as they always ask for/demand way more money in raises than everyone else.  CUPE was mad at them last year because they had to close down when the BCTF went on strike, and it made them look bad too.  Of all of the recent union negotiations, the BCTF was the only union that actually went on strike.  Even the nurses just settled a few weeks ago.  

[Jacquie]

The Manitoba Civil Service consists of people employeed directly by the Province as well as those employed by crown corporations, universities and colleges, health care facilities, social service agencies, and arts and cultural organizations.

I'm curious as to how many employees you all think are needed province-wide to run an efficient civil service. And no smartass answers like fewer. I am wondering how realistic you all are on the number of people there are in the MCS.

Note: I'm talking full time, part time and seasonal employees combined.

Edited April 21, 2016 by Jacquie

[kelownabomberfan]

7 minutes ago, Jacquie said:

The Manitoba Civil Service consists of people employeed directly by the Province as well as those employed by crown corporations, universities and colleges, health care facilities, social service agencies, and arts and cultural organizations.

I'm curious as to how many employees you all think are needed province-wide to run an efficient. And no smartass answers like fewer. I am wondering how realistic you all are on the number of people there are in the MCS.

No disrespect Jacquie, but unless you are involved in the civil service how would anyone know?  I don't know.  I've also noticed that there are two kinds of efficiency.  Real world efficiency and government efficiency.  Government efficiency runs at about half of the real world.  If you are lucky.  From the sounds of things the NDP hired so many managers that they were a lot less than that.  

If GCN has a spouse close to the action in Manitoba I'm prepared to accept a lot of what he says.  I myself have a spouse in the BC government, and the waste that goes on due to the sheer lack of accountability and ass-covering is just monumental.  And that's AFTER the Liberals came in and cleaned up the REAL FAT that the NDP had injected, and was cut.  The horror stories from the NDP era in BC are too sad to even mention.  What's going to hit a lot of government, and is hitting already, are the mass retirements of thousands of baby boomers.  All of that education and experience is just going to go "poof".

[Jacquie]

No disrespect KBF but how can people constantly complain about the size of the Civil Service and call for layoffs, etc when they have no idea how many Civil Service members there are or what they do. 

In one breath people (generally speaking - not specific people) complain about a lack of services and in the next they want fewer people providing those services. 

 

 

Edited April 21, 2016 by Jacquie

[kelownabomberfan]

Just now, Jacquie said:

No disrespect KBF but how can people constantly complain about the size of the Civil Service and call for layoffs, etc when they have no idea how many Civil Service members there are. 

In one breath people (generally speaking - not specific people) complain about a lack of services and in the next they want fewer people providing those services. 

I think if you read GCN's posts, you'd see the exact problem.  It's well laid out.  Too much management, not enough worker bees.  It's really not hard to understand.  It's no different than when a friend of mine was brought in to clean up Saskoil after years of NDP mismanagement.  There were layers upon layers of vice presidents, with entire staffs, that were literally just pushing papers up and down, and adding zero value.  After doing an analysis there were millions of dollars of costs identified that were adding no value whatsoever to the corporation.  Everything was streamlined and hundreds of redundant employees (NDP cronies) were ****-canned.  And Saskoil finally began turning a profit.

I get that you want to protect the NDP from looking too bad here, but it's a losing battle.  There is just too much evidence.

[The Unknown Poster]

4 minutes ago, Jacquie said:

No disrespect KBF but how can people constantly complain about the size of the Civil Service and call for layoffs, etc when they have no idea how many Civil Service members there are. 

In one breath people (generally speaking - not specific people) complain about a lack of services and in the next they want fewer people providing those services. 

I dont know exactly how much I weigh but I know it's too damn much.

[The Unknown Poster]

I would be thrilled if we had more civil servants.  One servant for every Manitoban, a personal servant so to speak.  But we want efficient service.  And cost savings.  Lower taxes.  Lower debt.  Those things are important too. 

[bigg jay]

14 minutes ago, kelownabomberfan said:

I think if you read GCN's posts, you'd see the exact problem.  It's well laid out.  Too much management, not enough worker bees.  It's really not hard to understand.  It's no different than when a friend of mine was brought in to clean up Saskoil after years of NDP mismanagement.  There were layers upon layers of vice presidents, with entire staffs, that were literally just pushing papers up and down, and adding zero value.  After doing an analysis there were millions of dollars of costs identified that were adding no value whatsoever to the corporation.  Everything was streamlined and hundreds of redundant employees (NDP cronies) were ****-canned.  And Saskoil finally began turning a profit.

I get that you want to protect the NDP from looking too bad here, but it's a losing battle.  There is just too much evidence.

[kelownabomberfan]

[Jacquie]

In the past I have worked in both the private and public (federal & provincial) sectors. FYI - there is virtually no difference between the two sectors. Every workplace has its Wallys (Dilbert reference) but most are made up of hard working people.

And VPs and political appointments are not civil servants.

Edited April 21, 2016 by Jacquie

[kelownabomberfan]

4 minutes ago, bigg jay said:

just make sure you fill in your TPS reports...

[kelownabomberfan]

2 minutes ago, Jacquie said:

In the past I have worked in both the private and public (federal & provincial) sectors. FYI - there is virtually no difference between the two sectors. Every workplace has its Wallys (Dilbert reference) but most are made up of hard working people.

And VPs and political appointments are not civil servants.

Ok - I give up.