Even More Stories

I must admit that the Eclipse event the other day just did not seem to be as dramatic as possible, at least where I lived, because, while darker, the sky in my area did not seem to darken as much as I expected.

In fact, my daughter posted this photograph on Facebook.  It was one of the earliest and most dramatic Eclipse photos that she took that day:

Now that was a funny one because of the name of that vehicle.

She did luck out yesterday afternoon. Here is a picture from a CTV video taken of her and her fiancé, Bill, sitting down at the site where they stayed for the Eclipse event later that afternoon that was shown on CTV Windsor News television:

Here now are some stories that I saw in the news media that I thought I would present to you.

BE CAREFUL TAKING THESE KIND OF PHOTOGRAPHS

This story seems to be a Windsor matter because I don't recall seeing something similar being discussed in other areas of the Province.

I have to admit that I think that the Police must have some reason for making the comments that they did. Could it be that there have been many other near-accidents that have already taken place over the last little while when people were taking photographs using their portable cameras from their cars as they were going by accident sites?

Take a look at this:

"While attending to a six-vehicle collision on Highway 401 last month that killed two, the OPP says motorists used cell phones to take photos and video of the scene, which were then uploaded to social media. They say one motorist was live-streaming the scene.

…drivers who use cell phones to take photos at collision scenes can be charged with distracted driving. The OPP says the fine for distracted driving is $490, which includes a victim surcharge and a court fee, and three demerit points."  (Tamar Harris, Windsor Star, August 18, 2017) 

Here is another comment that I saw:

"Police say drivers using cellphones to take photos at collision scenes can be charged with distracted driving.” (Canadian Press Staff, August 18, 2017) 

There is probably something that may be going on but so far there have not been any accidents. The Police seems to want to make sure that none do happen and is prepared to give the warnings of significant charges in advance to wake people up!

CAN YOU AFFORD TO BUY A TORONTO HOME

House prices have gone up significantly in Toronto, and other areas surrounding that City according to stories in the newspaper. And to pay for them, a lot of money is needed these days. Here is one story that I saw recently that helps explain this: 

"You’ll need six figures to buy almost any GTA home, report says 

It takes a six-figure income to afford virtually any Toronto area home — even a condo — and that expense is presenting a considerable financial challenge to an important cohort of millennial consumers… 

It takes a household income of more than $200,000 a year to carry the $1.15 million cost of the average detached house in the Toronto region, according to a report from TheRedPin brokerage. 

Even the average condo, costing $576,000, requires an annual income of $92,925 to afford a $1,933 monthly mortgage, plus taxes, utilities and condo fees, according to the report. 

Meantime, 59 per cent of those aged 25 to 30 in Ontario would like to own a detached house in the next five years, but only 30 per cent think they will be able to afford one, according a new Royal LePage report based on findings by Leger research. 

According to TheRedPin, buyers need more than $150,000 a year to cover the cost of a home in half of 22 Toronto area municipalities." (MetroNews Staff, Torstar News Service, August 18, 2017)  

While that might seem quite a change in price, dear reader, it really is not all that significant to me. I really cannot believe that the price increase in the Toronto area is all that high. 

As you may remember, I was born in and lived in Toronto for many years before I moved to Windsor about 30 years ago. My wife and I bought and lived in several different homes in Toronto before we came here. I must admit that our house prices changed rather significantly over a relatively short time frame on several occasions.  Just to give you one example, our first home was a Condo in an "apartment" condo building in Toronto of over 260 units.  What was interesting about that place is that it literally almost doubled in price within several months after we started living there together. Then, the Government introduced legislation that effectively killed the marketplace and the price of the unit dropped almost back down to the price at which I bought it! It fell that quickly and that much.

Our last residence in Toronto before we moved to this area was a house that we lived in for less than 10 years and when we sold it a few years after we moved in, we luckily were able to sell it significantly higher than what we paid for it. The Toronto market was increasing dramatically once again. It was an unbelievable sales price for us. Of course, a few months after we sold it, the Toronto market crashed again and house prices dropped quite a bit one more time. 

What I found interesting is that the price in Toronto today for a house like the one I owned there seems to me to be very high, a lot higher than when I lived there.  But in my opinion, it is NOT really a whoppingly high increase.  What it means to me is that the price went up quite a bit from what I received but that took around 30 years to achieve! It is hardly that great a real estate increase when I look at it that way. 

Of course, it is a significantly higher price than a comparable house in our area today but not all that much more considering how long it took the Toronto price to rise. The homes in our area where I live in Tecumseh have risen quite nicely over a relatively short period of time recently.   

It should be interesting to see what happens to my Condo unit price and whether it stays at the level it has increased to now or goes back down to its market value of about a year ago. Just to let you know, dear reader, I do not believe that we will see a significant drop here if the economy keeps improving. I am actually hoping that it's condo value increases but I have no intention of selling it now even if it does.

A Bunch Of New News Stories

I have to admit that I still like writing stories on my website. I am not really sure now how many readers I have because I find it difficult to get proper numbers these days. No problem. It does not matter how many that I have because the reason that I write the articles is for me to express my point of view.  

Here are some new events which I would like to present to you about how I feel. 

WHAT HAS HAPPENED TO ME RECENTLY 

Believe it or not, my computer had some problems that impacted rather dramatically my access to the Internet. For the reason that I did not know at the time, my online speed dropped significantly from as high as over 2 Mbps to as low as 50 Kbps. It really was that slow! For me, it seemed that it was just going to be a matter of a very short period of time before the whole service declined completely so that I would not have access any longer to the Internet. 

It meant that I needed someone to figure out what was wrong with the system and then repair it. 

Naturally, I contacted my provider of Internet service to find out if they knew how to fix what seemed to be wrong even though I had no clue about what was wrong. On the phone, over a couple of days, we tried a number of different repair techniques to see if my system could be fixed. Regretfully, none of them worked at all. My speed was still terribly low. Accordingly, they agreed to send over one of their technicians to take a look at my system and repair it if possible. 

The fellow who came over seemed to be knowledgeable about problems with the Internet service and how to fix them. Provided of course, that the problems were Internet connected. He tried a number of different "fixes" to improve the speed. None of them worked at all. Unfortunately, for me, he had to tell me that the problems I was having with my computer and the Internet were not related to their service but rather required a technical person to come over to figure out what had happened and then to fix it. In other words, there was nothing more that he can do to help me out. 

Luckily, I found a company that said they had the ability to fix my issue based on the experience they had to solve problems that seemed to be happening to me. In having our phone conversation at first, it was suggested that it might be one of 3 different technical messes that could be impacting my system. Obviously, their service representative would have to identify what was wrong and then, hopefully, be able to fix it. 

It must be that I was a very lucky person. One of their technical people who was scheduled to come over at 8:30 AM the next morning had over 20 years of experience dealing with major Internet issues similar to mine. It was such a pleasure to hear that someone so experienced was going to come over and try to fix everything so unbelievably quickly as possible. 

Without going into all of the details about what he did to identify the problem and, after discovering it, fixing it, I am thrilled to say that he did a fabulous job. There were a number of technical matters that he had to fix up in order to restore service and had to make significant changes with the equipment that was providing the connections. He did such a fabulous job that we now have exactly the download speed of 3 Mbps for most of the time. I have to say that in all the years that I have been online it has been very rare to my download speed ever to be at that number for most of the time! It always seemed to be lower. 

So I am now back online and happily at a very nice speed to suit my needs. 

IT BETTER STAY OPEN 

I would strongly suggest to the owners of the property that the Canadian Club Brand Centre remain open. If not, then I wonder how many people will continue to buy their products. Not many I expect. 

I cannot understand why a deal between the City and the Owners has not yet been completed. Why would it take so long to finalize a transaction? Here is the latest on this matter: 

"Mayor Drew Dilkens tells CTV Windsor they are still talking to the owners about keeping the centre open. 

“We’re on track and the conversations have been very good” says Dilkens… 

“Hopefully we will have a meaningful outcome in very short order” says Dilkens." (CTV Windsor, August 12, 2017)  

Oh well, perhaps everything will finalize during the height of the sale of alcohol, say around the Christmas and New Year's time period. 

WINDSOR SPENDING COMMENTS 

I just found these comments from City of Windsor politicians interesting about the spending of money.   

"On Tuesday, council approved spending $6.7-million for upgrades on Ouellette Avenue from Wyandotte to Elliott Streets. 

The tender is 21 per cent over the original budget of $5.6-million. 

“Would I have preferred that the project come in on budget on the estimate that we were given? Absolutely,” said Mayor Drew Dilkens." (CTV Windsor,August 9, 2017)  

Notwithstanding the increase over the budget, the spending was approved. 

This comment came after another one that was made earlier: 

"A construction price 57 per cent over budget and the pleas of residents and downtown merchants failed to dissuade the majority of councillors from trading retail space for ground-floor parking in the Pelissier Street parking garage… 

Bortolin, who represents the downtown, initially made a motion to “note and file” the tender for the Pelissier Street garage and direct staff to look into leasing out the space commercially again. But he was defeated. 

“We’re about to spend three-quarters of a million for 43 pretty parking spaces,” despite the fact the parking garage is never full, Bortolin said, citing statistics showing Windsor has more parking per capita than almost anywhere else in the country.  

“All the numbers keep showing we just don’t need it,” Bortolin said. “This will do nothing but hurt the area.” (Brian Cross, WindsorStar, August 9, 2017)  

Another case in which the over-the-budget spending was approved. 

WILL THERE BE A CITY TAX INCREASE IN WINDSOR THIS YEAR 

Perhaps there will be no need for a municipal tax increase in the City of Windsor or, perhaps only a very small one. Here is an interesting document that I just read about: 

"The federal Gas Tax Fund (GTF) is a permanent source of funding provided up front, twice-a-year, to provinces and territories, who in turn flow this funding to their municipalities to support local infrastructure priorities. Municipalities can pool, bank and borrow against this funding, providing significant financial flexibility.  

Every year, the GTF provides over $2 billion and supports approximately 2,500 projects in communities across Canada. Communities select how best to direct the funds." (Infrastructure Canada) 

 Do you want to know how much the City received? Here is the answer: 

"Municipalities across the region now have more money in their coffers. 

That's because the federal government has paid out the first installment of the federal Gas Tax Fund. 

Windsor received $6.4-million last week, half of the $12.8-million the City will receive from the Trudeau government this year… 

The funding is in addition to the provincial gas tax fund that is shared by Ontario municipalities." (CTV Windsor, August 8, 2017) 

That is a lot of money for the City to receive. I wonder if that will be added in to the City's budget for 2018 so that a decision can be made whether there must be a tax increase or not.  The following is supposed to happen in Windsor and when: 

"Windsor city council is getting ready to discuss 2018 budget priorities… 

Councillors are expected to get the draft budget on November 17. 

It will be released to the public on November 20 with deliberations beginning the week of December 11." (Rob Hindi, CKLW, August1st 2017) 

More Interesting Stories

Writing stories on the Internet about matters that interest me is something that I have been doing for many years and what I still like to do.

I have to admit that I do want people to support the positions that I have set out in so many articles that I have written. Fortunately for me, I think that a lot of people like a lot of what I write. However, there are a number of instances where I know that people are opposed to what I am saying and that there is very little that I can do about it. No matter what I write that I think is persuasive I cannot convince certain people to change their minds.  No problem. It is fun debating with others about matters that are taking place in this area and elsewhere.

Here are some issues that interested me in writing about them.

SO MUCH FOR THIS TOURISM MARKETING PLAN

Here is what was proposed a very short time ago:

"Windsor businesses have teamed up for one of the region's largest marketing campaigns that aims to draw more American visitors to the region.

The $70,000 More Windsor campaign is a partnership of eight business improvement areas from throughout Windsor and Essex County.

Earlier this month, officials rolled out their strategy, which highlights some of the hot spots to visit, including the region's best eateries, shopping centres and tourism attractions. A big part of the campaign tries to capitalize on the low Canadian dollar.

"Windsor is not cheap, it's a bargain," said Greg Plante, chairperson of the Pillette Village BIA. "As the name states, people can get more for their dollar over here, and we want to take advantage of that." (CBC News, July 17, 2017) 

Well, that plan may now be becoming nothing more than a waste of an incredible sum of money. You won't see anyone in a tourism business saying anything about it that might be so concerning, at least not right now. That is what the big increase in the Canadian dollar may be doing to the tourism business:

"Soaring loonie could dampen Windsor tourism industry

As the Canadian loonie soars to heights not seen in two years, Windsor tourism officials will be keeping a close eye to see just how much of an impact the stronger dollar will have on the region's economy.

Officials from Tourism Windsor Essex Pelee Island target American travellers who keep track of the exchange rate before planning visits to the region. Though the Canadian dollar continues to gain on its American counterpart, the tourism bureau's president Gordon Orr isn't panicking.

"If it goes to par, it's a whole different ball game, but right now it's still hovering at the 80 cent mark," he said. "They're still getting 20 cents on their dollar." (CBC News, July 26, 2017) 

WERE ALL CANADIAN MAYORS ON VACATION

I saw a very interesting story where a "Binational Cadre of Mayors Throw Support Behind NAFTA."  I thought that would be very helpful for our economy except for one thing: no one from Canada participated in this session where this decision was made:

"SAN DIEGO (CN) – A coalition of mayors from both sides of the U.S.-Mexico border signed a trade resolution Thursday, showing support for continued strong economic ties and the North American Free Trade Agreement.

More than a dozen mayors from around the Southwest border gathered for the 6th annual Binational Summit of the U.S.-Mexico Border Mayors Association, hosted by San Diego Mayor Kevin Faulconer and Tijuana, Mexico, Mayor Juan Manuel Gastelum. The region’s mayors signed a resolution pledging support for international trade and the renegotiation of NAFTA." (Bianca Bruno, Courthouse News, July 28, 2017) 

Thankfully, someone else understood how serious the absence of Canada's mayors and those of US cities near us, was:

"Noticeably absent from the meeting – and conversation on NAFTA – were any mayors from the U.S.-Canada border, who Border Trade Alliance board of directors chairman Russ Jones suggested should be part of the conversation.

“We should do a lot more in integrating those conversations on Canada. Perhaps at the next conference, invite your northern and Canadian colleagues,” Jones said."

Clearly, there is a competition between Canada and Mexico over what ultimately will happen with whatever changes are made to the NAFTA agreement and presumably each of the 2 countries will want to have a partnership with the US to help out their position.

WILL A GERMAN COMPANY SET UP AN OPERATION IN WINDSOR

I wonder how long Mayor Dilkens was in Germany. Was it a day or 2 or perhaps even a week or so? Just curious, that's all.

It appears as if several areas are trying to get a new German plant built, one of which is Windsor.

"Windsor city council upped the ante in its bid to convince a major German auto parts supplier to expand its manufacturing operations in the region.

The politicians agreed Friday afternoon to offer up a piece of land for an attractive price aimed at sweetening the deal and making Windsor a more appealing option than two other communities vying for the same deal." (CBC News, July 28, 2017)

To be honest, I am not sure how competitive the City of Windsor is considering what at least one of the other cities is offering:

"Other regions are offering plenty of incentives, such as free land, which Dilkens has said he is not prepared to offer. Windsor already has a community improvement plan that waves property taxes for up to 10 years."

I am sure that one would support what Windsor's Mayor would like to do. Who wants to throw away so much taxpayer money for a project. Nevertheless, that may well be what has to be done considering what the competition is prepared to do to get the business in their region. 

One wonders how successful Windsor will be competing against another Ontario company and one from Alabama.

WHY DOES CHRYSLER WANT TO GET RID OF COMPANY JOBS

I saw this story which is quite amazing to me. Why would it be done at this time:

"Fiat Chrysler's second quarter profit triples to $1.35 billion

Fiat Chrysler Automobiles said today it earned $1.35 billion (1.15 billion euro) in the second quarter, up a whopping 207% over the same period a year ago as gains in several of the company's global regions helped the company overcome slower sales in North America…

Higher revenues in the automaker's global regions helped offset a slower pace in North America caused by product launches and production changes at some plants." (Eric D. Lawrence, Detroit Free Press, July 27, 2017)

One would think that Chrysler is doing very well. Yet, here is something they want to do that presumably would help them even more. But not necessarily help the people involved:

"Fiat Chrysler Automobiles has given Unifor Local 444 until mid-August to present the company with cost-savings proposals to preserve 285 trucking jobs at the Windsor Assembly Plant that had been slated for outsourcing.

It buys the union time to come up with a new proposal and “figure out how to save the department long-term,” he said.

FCA Canada has threatened to outsource the transportation of parts used at the Windsor plant where the Chrysler Pacifica, Pacifica Hybrid and Dodge Grand Caravan minivans are built.

That would affect 285 Unifor members, including skilled-trades workers, clerks, management and drivers. The company’s outsourcing plan didn’t affect the jobs of those who transport the minivans." (Tamar Harris, Windsor Star, July 30, 2017)

Was this issue discussed at all during the strike talks? If not, why not? Would this have become a strike matter issue that would have had to have been solved at that time? Is this nothing more than to get an agreement on these employees by this approach to "renegotiating" rather than settling it during strike talks? If so, one would think that the Union would never allow this to happen again next time the parties get together to discuss a settlement.