More News Stories For My Friends

There have been so many personal matters that have arisen over the past few days that I just cannot believe it. All kinds of small problems in the house that required us to contact people to come immediately and fix them. We even had the Fire Department come once because the alarms in our house went off for some strange reason.

Unbelievably, and yes I know that is a strange word to use, these very many matters were resolved quickly and properly. This was just so positive. That really is all I want to say because I don't want to have to describe all these matters to you, dear reader. I am just so pleased that we deal with contractors who work so well with us. Just in passing, some of the contractors were hired by our Condominium Corporation because several of our issues were really those of the Corporation. It really is pleasing to me that our outside Manager acts so well and so quickly for us. 

Of course, there are lots of items that I have seen in the news media that I wanted to bring to your attention, dear reader. Here are some of them.

WAS THIS A REALLY BIG VICTORY

I wonder if someone will actually give us a number so that we can see how big a victory this was:

"The Memorial Cup was a big win for Windsor's economy too, according to the area's tourism agency.

Tens of millions of dollars flowed into bars, restaurants and hotels over the 10-day tournament according to Tourism Windsor Essex Pelee Island CEO Gordon Orr, who added he expects there will be long-term impacts too.

"… when people come and experience our area for the first time, they go back…and they tell their story about a positive, memorable experience they had in Windsor, and that's going to be the best marketing of all," he explained."  (CBC News May 30, 2017) 

Really? How much money actually came into Windsor at the time? Was it as much as originally estimated? Somehow, I have difficulty believing that. Perhaps Mr. Orr will be able to show us those numbers one day. Here is why I have difficulty understanding what he said

"Through the tournament’s first five games, attendance has averaged 5,534 fans. That represents about 85 per cent of the capacity of the WFCU…

With a sellout guaranteed for Sunday, the tournament will get close to operating at nearly 90 per cent capacity.

That would put the tournament in the middle of the pack compared to Memorial Cups going back to 2012." (Dave Waddell, Windsor Star, May 26, 2017) 

I just wonder how much our tourism numbers will increase. Given the huge decrease in the value of the Canadian dollar, I would have expected Windsor to be flooded with Americans by now. Are these numbers so attractive to you, dear reader:

"Windsor is seeing some indications that its tourism sector is getting stronger. Tourism Windsor-Essex Pelee Island made a presentation to council Monday night, pointing to a number of positive trends in the tourism and hospitality industry.

CEO Gordon Orr says US travel is up about four per cent year over year. The same thing goes for hotel stays -- which saw a five per cent jump in occupancy rates, and an increase in the average room rate of $8.56."  (CTV Windsor,  May 29, 2017) 

Let us hope for the best because we certainly need it in this region.

CHANGES TO CABANA ROAD

I used to live on Roselawn Drive with Cabana Road near to me. I really liked that area and enjoyed the structure of the road in which we had a big green lawn space in the middle of it that divided the traffic.

Fortunately, when our family moved out of our home there, it was no longer going to be the same street as before. That all changed with the strange addition of bike lanes in the road that, as far as I am concerned, did not improve its appearance or the handling of traffic. For some reason, the City Council did not care what the residents said it seems:

"Roselawn bike lanes going in against residents' wishes

In a possible sign of things to come elsewhere in the city, residents of Roselawn Drive will lose on-street parking in favour of bike lanes.

Council was not moved Monday night by a citizen who spoke about the need for street parking, nor a 37-name petition asking for the same. Instead, council voted 8-3 to put in bike lanes. The project will cost $13,200 for paint and signs between Dougall Avenue and Longfellow Avenue."  (Craig Pearson, Windsor  Star, April 20, 2015) 

Oh well, I expect that there might have been other reasons why the changes were made to that road but I am not sure what they were. Who knows, maybe it had something to do with this, the expansion of Cabana Road into 4 lanes:

"Public Meeting Wednesday On Cabana Rd. Improvements

The road will be expanded to four lanes. All six phases between Walker Rd. and Huron Church Rd. should be complete by 2023.

Traffic along Cabana Rd. is expected to increase once the new acute care hospital is finished on County Rd. 42 near Windsor’s airport." (Adelle Loiselle, Blackburn News, May 22, 2017)  

Who knows, perhaps bicycles will now have to travel on Roselawn Drive because of the expanded traffic that will be seen on Cabana Road in the future.

NO NEW TRAIN FOR WINDSOR

Who really believes that we are going to see a high-speed train coming through to Windsor from Toronto. It is so much fun I am sure reporting that we are going to see it but it's not going to happen as far as I am concerned. 

If you will remember, when this project about high-speed trains first got started, initially, conversation talked only about a high-speed train between Toronto and London.  There were all kinds of problems about building a rail track for a high-speed train between London and Windsor that it made little sense to suggest one being built. Nevertheless, after all of the noise was created, the project was expanded to include Windsor.

In a recent Gord Henderson column in the Windsor Star on May 26, 2017, he wrote the following, something believe it or not with which I agree:

"The revelation that Premier Kathleen Wynne is determined to build a high-speed rail line between Toronto and Windsor should have taxpayers waking in the middle of the night in a cold sweat.

The folks who doubled the provincial debt while bumbling from one billion-dollar bungle to the next, creating an electricity Frankenstein in the process, now want to try their hand at building a super railway and that, surely, is reason to be afraid, very afraid.

It is, conceptually, a great idea. Ontario is decades late in recognizing that high-speed rail — which would put Windsor within two hours of the booming Greater Toronto Area — would be a great leap forward, especially for easily overlooked regions like our border area.

But to have the Ontario Liberals, who’ve turned botching programs into an art form, at the throttle of the biggest infrastructure initiative in the province’s history, $21 billion and surely way more before the first train rolls, is beyond unnerving."

What did he say about the Liberals? It was pretty strong. One can decide how accurate it was:

"There was a time, way back, when Ontario, under the quiet but efficient management of premiers like Bill Davis and the late Leslie Frost, ran like a Swiss timepiece. It was a place you were proud to call home. But it’s been all downhill, all bumps and bruises, over the last couple of decades.

Cynics see no need to worry, because the Wynne rail announcement, even with its $15 million in funding for an environmental assessment and preliminary design work, is just a shiny bauble to be pitched in next spring’s election by a government headed for certain defeat. Yes. And that’s what we thought last time."

It will be exciting to read until just after the next provincial election about all of the news stories about the marvelous high-speed train that someone is planning to build in this area.

WILL MORTGAGE RATES INCREASE

There is some talk that the interest rates should increase shortly in the United States. That has been a plan there for some time I believe. If it happens in the US, should we expect it to happen in Canada shortly thereafter? It certainly will cause a problem here:

"Nearly three quarters of Canadian homeowners say they would have difficulty paying their mortgage if their payments were to increase by more than 10 per cent, says a new survey by Manulife Bank.

Thirty-eight per cent of those polled say their mortgage bills could rise between 1 to 5 per cent before they would have financial difficulty; 20 per cent say they could sustain an increase in payments between 6 to 10 per cent before having trouble; and 14 per cent say any hike would be a problem.

Twenty-two per cent said they could handle a payment increase of between 11 to 30 per cent, while the remaining 7 per cent didn’t know or were unsure.

“What these people don’t realize is that we’re at record low interest rates today,” said Rick Lunny, president and CEO of Manulife Bank, adding that a 10-per-cent increase in mortgage payments could be the result of as little as a 1-per-cent interest hike.

“When you put it into that context, they’re not really prepared for what is inevitable. Sooner or later, interest rates are going to rise.” (Linda Nguyen, Canadian Press, May 23, 2017)

I can remember many years ago, in the early 1980s, when I had a mortgage that had to be renewed with interest rates that had increased to close to 20%!  Not a rate increased by 20% but a rate close to 20% in a multi-year deal. Can you imagine what would happen if our interest rates today rose to say, 5%. That would be almost doubling them on mortgage amounts that are huge these days because of the cost of purchasing a home.

When one has read the news stories about homes in Canada over the past months, so many of them describe actions that might be taken with house prices going so crazily high. Clearly, that was done so that hopefully interest rates did not have to be increased dramatically to lower drastically the market price. It was a way I believe that there was thought that the market could be reduced without causing a financial tragedy that happened so many years before. I can remember also how lucky I was that I was able to sell my house in Toronto and move to Windsor before the house market crashed there a few months afterwards. 

Unlike very many people, because of my age I had the experience of the dramatic increase in mortgage rates so many years ago because I had a mortgage at that time. That possible financial situation is so very similar to what could happen today.  It would mean financial damage to so many people. 

I can only hope it does not happen again.