What Do I Enjoy Doing Now

As I am sure that you understand, dear reader, my life has changed pretty dramatically over the last few years as I have recovered from my serious illness.

I have to admit that I enjoyed doing what I did before even though it put a lot of pressure on me. That was being an editor and a writer on a Website where I did a lot of work posting about events happening around this area. My enjoyment really was doing so much writing almost every day. It was a lot different compared with my "legal" career that I carried on for so many years working for a number of organizations in both Toronto and Windsor, both law firms and corporations.

Just a short time before I fell ill, I decided to get out of the "business" of being a writer. The reality has to be that my Fate "approved" my action and made sure that I followed my plan. You know how miserable my existence was for so long as I was making the recovery I did. I could not have continued being in the business of writing even if I wanted to do so.

While I am not in the "writing business" any longer, you will note, that I do write even now many articles on here. There is a difference however. I only post articles when I decide to write some. Oh sure, I have written a lot of them in the wintertime, more than in summer, but certainly a lot less than I had to do before. I just do it now because I still enjoy it. I do not have a writing job now. Rather, I do some writing because of what I have seen and what I want to talk about rather than having the duty to write one at a specific time. It just gives me pleasure, hoping, of course, that I am doing something that may interest you as well.

Here are some more interesting issues that I have seen recently and which I am pleased to discuss with you.

SIGNIFICANT BORDER CHANGES

There is some discussion going on now about changing the border operation. This has been talked about before but it may be more important to have it actually undertaken now.

What is being proposed is that vehicles entering Canada from the US will be examined in the US before crossing the border and not after. In other words, it is very similar to what happens to passengers who travel by air from Canada to the US. They are examined by US officers in Canada before they enter into the US. Here is why it is being proposed:

"While Canada has not yet deployed inspection personnel to the United States to facilitate pre-clearance movement into Canada, we hope to see steps on this in the near-future. Perhaps in a pilot project in Scottsdale, or in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., for example," said Kenneth Merten, a deputy assistant U.S. secretary of state.

"Such deployments can only make cross-border commerce and travel more efficient. ... With the world growing smaller every day, we look to these and other programs to further facilitate trade and travel flows." (Alexander Panetta, The Canadian Press, March 26, 2018) 

While this may sound interesting, this is probably the reason why it should be done as soon as possible. It is the saving of a lot of money:

"A Canadian official speaking at the conference says speeding up the border is an economic imperative. He said border wait times cost the Canadian economy somewhere between one per cent and 1.8 per cent of GDP in 2010."

I'm sure that this cost is even higher today and would be even higher in the future if nothing was done.

Here though is something fascinating but extremely practical about the issues that have to be solved before this project really makes any sense. People who understand it know well  about the border crossing business:

"Jennifer Fox expressed her concern that all these big-picture modernization efforts will be for naught if the countries fail to improve the smaller details. She said she was speaking from experience, with frustrations about red tape…

She said these technical details need to be straightened out first, before the countries create new systems that don't work."

WHEW, NOT AN ELECTION ISSUE

Members of Windsor City Council must be pleased. The concerns about Windsor sewers flooding is no longer an election issue. Oh sure, I am certain that Members of Council who are going to be running again must have been quite concerned that they could be in big trouble considering the flooding that we have had over the last 2 years with all the rain in the summertime.

Now, no longer is this an issue. EVEN IF THERE IS FLOODING AGAIN!

I'm sure that you can wonder how I can make such a comment. It is so easy. Here's how:

"A sweeping plan to overhaul Windsor’s sewer system is flowing along.

During a meeting Monday night, Windsor City Council received and approved the first quarterly update into the implementation of the city’s eight-point master plan, designed to find solutions to occurrences of flooding in the city. The project also takes into account water quality and the effects of climate change.

One of the key components of the first update is a new public engagement strategy." (Mark Brown, BlackburnNews, March 26, 2018)

So what if there was flooding all over during the last 2 summers. That was very difficult for Council members to handle. Fortunately, they learned how to do it. Well, not to prevent it from happening again but to make it appear as if they are doing something very serious to prevent it from taking place again.

I can just imagine what they will say if, in fact, we get another storm that causes flooding again this year, and more damage. I wonder if you can think so as well. After all, it won't be their fault because they are doing so much to have the problem solved and themselves re-elected!

As was written before, in a different story:

"The development of the plan will be a two year process meant to give residents a chance to share their stories." (CTV Windsor,March 22, 2018)