What Should I Write About Now

Hmmm, that is always an issue that I have when I sit down in front of my computer and try to figure out what I should comment on for your information, dear reader. Sure, I want to write what I think is interesting but I do not want to post something that most people who read my Blog site will find boring.

I have to admit that, even now, I want to attract readers to see what I have written. After all, that is something that I had carried out for a considerable number of years when I was writing on the Website that was a news service I helped set up in the City of Windsor. However, I certainly do not post as often as I did before but rather when I have some thoughts to share with you.

As I am sure that you have noticed, I usually start off my Blogs with my own “personal” matters that I think are interesting to me. Oh sure, I expect that not all of you want to read these comments all the time so I make it easy for you to quickly ignore them and start on the news stories in which I think you should be interested. As you could do now if you wanted to. All that you must do, dear reader, is move down the page to where you will see my stories starting.

Now I am not encouraging you to do that. My “personal” subjects are also issues that I think that you might find interesting and perhaps could be something that is bothering you now or might bother you later on for which you want to see how a person handles it. Of course, I am not going to provide the “perfect” answer for you but rather just tell you how I deal with the situation and give you the reasons why I do so. You may or may not agree with me about how I am carrying on if you have a similar issue. At the least though, you get one point of view.

Now, dear reader, here is your big opportunity. In the future, if you start off reading something in the beginning of my Blog that does not interest you, then all you need to remember is to go further down in future stories to read what you might consider to be the more interesting parts of what I have written.

WHERE I DO MY GROCERY SHOPPING

I am sure that you know, based on some comments I have made before, that my favourite store to buy grocery products is Real Canadian Superstore. The one I really enjoy going to is on Dougall Avenue in Windsor. It is the store where I go to buy groceries in all of the area even including some of the more expensive competitive stores.

The physical size of it is quite superb and it is quite easy to move around inside as one shops looking at all kinds of different products. Naturally, the products that it offers for sale are generally in pretty good shape and especially at very good prices. To be fair about it, the quality of some of the fruits and vegetables may not be as good as that at some of the other, more expensive, grocery stores. However, I also think it is quite obvious that the RCSS prices are a lot lower than some of these other stores. Nevertheless, I have found, for all the years that I have purchased there, that their products are of excellent quality for our purposes.

Now I am not all that knowledgeable about how these stores compete with each other. I do know that a number of the stores with which they compete charge at lower prices. It is easy for me to discover that since all I have to do is look at their newspaper ads that come out once a week that set out pricing for the next seven days, or in certain cases now, fourteen days.

However, here is what smart shoppers do. We have learned that certain grocery stores have told us that they will match the prices of their competition! That is fantastic. One of our grocery store competitors might have a great price about a product but we do not have to go there to get it. All we do is show our grocery store what the price is and they will match it when we buy the product there. That is what RCSS does!

I should not be telling you this but RCSS products can be better often, in my opinion, than that of their competition. Don’t you understand why that can be so fantastic. Now I can buy the better product at a lower price. What a great product purchase and savings that is!

The big advantage for us shopping at RCSS is not only the products in the pricing but, more importantly, the people who work there. Especially in the fruit and vegetable Department, I see people constantly filling up the shelves with their products to make sure that there is always something good there to buy. When we look for a certain product and there are not many units left, and they may not be in all the best of shape, I will go up to one of the employees and ask if they have any still in stock. If they do, they always come back with a box full of it and make sure that I get some very fine product from that box.

I must admit that, after I returned to RCSS after being so ill, I got along so much better with their employees. I think they wanted to make sure that I was able to purchase everything properly and were quite willing to help me out a lot more. We started talking amongst each other quite often every time my family and I came there for a weekly shopping. It was so nice to see that we were no longer just staff and customers in the same location talking only about their products. Rather, we were people who wanted to make sure that everyone was doing well and not just in the grocery store. As an example, with a few of them, we even discussed a little bit about our own personal lives and not just about shopping matters.

As I am sure that you have figured out by now, the distance between where we live and the location of the RCSS is not all that short. It does take some time for us to get there but it is worth it as far as I am concerned. It is just so wonderful for us to have such a great place to make our lives better.

As for you, dear reader, I am sure that you also go to a wonderful grocery store. However, one of these days it just might be worthwhile for you to visit my favourite store to see if it works as well for you! Who knows, we might see each other there as well.

OUR NEW HOSPITAL

It seems to me that somebody probably needs to be a lot more definite about why the hospital now being proposed to be built in our area should actually be built. Here is what I mean by that:

“Lawyers for the Citizens for an Accountable Mega-Hospital Planning Process (CAMPP) have been hinting for days at a surprise witness in their appeal against the mega-hospital plan.

That witness turns out to be Jennifer Keesmaat, an internationally-known city planner. Keesmaat spent the last five years as the chief planner in Toronto.” (CBC News, February 1, 2019) 

Of course, I have no idea about this lady at all or what she will actually say when she is a witness at the hearing. I just make the assumption, with her previous job, that she has some very strong ideas about what should happen with the new hospital and where it should be built, or rather, where it should not be built.

Won’t she be providing to the Provincial Government some good reasons not to build the hospital in the manner being proposed here!

How To Write A Blog

To be honest, I do not have the faintest idea how to do so. I just write articles the way I do. Sure, I have had a lot of years experience in doing this but what I did was just write the way I thought it made sense to do so.

I think that my style is a bit different these days compared with the way I used to write when it was my “job.” I am not going to talk very much about my past but more about how I write today.

My process is relatively simple now. Usually, at the beginning of one of my Blog set of articles, what I write is a personal matter. I might tell you about what happened to me personally or to a member of my family. I might describe a situation that I have seen and how it impacts me. I might even talk about silly things like the weather conditions or what it is like to go for a walk and what I see as I do. In other words, I do not talk at the start about the big events that take place and which could well have an effect on us.

The big stuff I write afterwards. I try to undertake the research I need before I dictate my article. That can take quite a bit of time depending on the subject and my knowledge of it. I am not that good a typist so that the dictation system that I am using is quite excellent in making it easier for me to complete my story. As I trust you understand, the articles in this Blog can take me hours to complete so that I feel comfortable with them.

When I write, I always try to think of what someone may say about what I just put down on here. I want to make sure that what I have finished is supportable and that if someone challenged me, I would be able to provide strong answers back. Of course, I set out what is my perspective and hope to convince my readers to support my position.

I suspect that I have been reasonably successful in convincing people about the strength of what I have written. Over the years, I have not received many notes from readers objecting to what I have set out and then stating their position on the particular subject matter.

I do try to be consistent in my position. No, I do not go back and check out everything that I have written on the subject before I write my next one. I trust my skill in remembering what my position is and, unless there is a reason for major change, I try to remain in the same position that I have set out before.

I hope that you understand a bit better now the manner in which I complete articles for you, dear reader. I trust also understand that you understand the reasons for the nature of my articles in this Blogsite.

Now it is time for me to discuss these matters for you, dear reader.

SELLING YOUR HOME HERE

About four years ago my wife and I made the decision to sell our house in Windsor and buy our new one in Tecumseh. We did that because of my illness as you may recall.

To be direct about it, I was very concerned about selling our home. We had tried to do so before, several times, and were absolutely unsuccessful. In fact, I do not recall many people coming to take a look at our house. It was a very good one on a very large lot in South Windsor. Yet we just did not seem to have many come even to take a look at it nevermind to buy it.

Let me tell you, dear reader, that selling our house was hardly a problem this time! At the time when we put it on sale, I was so ill that I could not even get out of my bed in my bedroom. In addition, we had not even taken many steps to fix it up for the sale. That was scheduled for the following week. No problem… We had appointments made on the first day by five couples who were interested in buying it. They all went through the home including my bedroom. One of them actually put in an offer right away to purchase at almost exactly the amount of money that we wanted for the sale. We even turned down some more visits because we accepted the offer.

Was our deal the beginning of what is now going on in the real estate market? It seems to be based on this comment that I saw in a story recently:

“Despite a sharp slowdown in home sales across southern Ontario in recent months, these cities are still the places where houses "fly off the shelves," as it were, at breakneck speed. The shortest time period in the country is in Windsor (yes, population-of-200,000 Windsor), where it typically takes 12 days to sell a house.” (Daniel Tencer, HuffPost Canada, February 7, 2019) 

Yes… “in the country!” It is so unbelievable isn’t it.

Of course, that is just an average number. Another condo located near where I live now took quite a bit of time to be sold. Who knows why.  Perhaps it happened because the price was too high although it seemed to be reasonably close to what I thought a sale price would be these days.

All that I know is that the prices seem very high to me today compared with the past but it does not seem to cause any concerns to new purchasers. If houses are sold so quickly at such a high price these days, then our area is a great place to sell real estate. To buy though is another story, unless you are moving from say, Toronto, where the average price so high. Even buying an expensive house here is much less than a comparable house is sold in Toronto.

I must admit that I do not how long this pricing will last. I have seen prices in the past skyrocket upwards and then totally collapse a short time later. That does not seem to be taking place this time. Will that still happen here? Who knows if it will and when it will take place.

MORE CAR STORIES

It is so hard to write a story about what might happen to the automobile industry in our country. I am not even going to try to do so. All that I will do, dear reader, is post stories that I find interesting especially those that are important for our area.

Here is one which is a matter which I cannot possibly predict. I do not know whether GM will change its approach to manufacturing products in this country by not closing down its operation in Oshawa as is its plan now. It might have to keep this operation going, you might think, with all this opposition against it. However, here is what Gord Henderson just wrote which might be very accurate:

“By making life miserable and costly for GM over its Oshawa decision, he’s upping the price of a close-out agreement while putting the company on notice that further downsizing, either in Ingersoll or St. Catharines, will meet feverish resistance.

By bringing all this heat, Unifor is sending a message to other automakers, including here in Windsor, that any future shutdown would be both costly and immensely damaging to its reputation. Dias is drawing a line in the sand. I just wish there had been that same passion when GM closed its transmission plant and left Windsor in 2010.” (Gord Henderson, Windsor Star, February 9, 2019) 

Ford is never going to close down here will it with all of this great news. Or is the real answer not at least in the reasonable future:

“a yet-to-be-determined number of workers will be ramping up to full production in the coming year.

“The 7.3 is expected to be the most powerful gas V8 in its class, providing durability, ease of maintenance and all the towing and payload capabilities our customers want,” Tony Savoni, site manager for Ford operations in Windsor, told the audience.” (Brian Cross, Windsor Star, February 8, 2019) 

That is all for this Blog. Just keep watching out for the next one which I hope you will enjoy

Time To Write Another Blog

I enjoy sitting down and writing something that interests me. I hope you enjoy it as well, dear reader, when I post it on my website.

I really do not have an approach to try and convince you to accept my point of view. I just do not write all kinds of articles on one subject just so that you will understand my point of view and go along with me. No, what I do these days is take a look at things that are in the news that gain my attention or something that I have found out. Then, I sit down and write something about it.

Clearly, I write a lot about personal issues, usually at the beginning of most Blogs. As you may know, I do this not only for myself but for my readers as well to try and give people ideas that might be helpful to them. I just talk about some things that are interesting to me which you might find of value as well. While I do not ask for your “approval,” I hope that you appreciate my position and let me give you a position on what you might think about doing if something similar has an impact on you.

This year has been a very interesting to me. It really is the first year when I have figured out how old I really am. I never really thought about “age” before. For some reason, this has now happened. I guess I always had “work” to carry on whether I was working for an employer, for myself with clients or for the online newspaper. Even after I recovered from my illness, I was still carrying on a “job” to bring myself back to normal.

However, things have changed. I look at the world in a completely different way now. In fact, what has surprised me quite a bit is that I now appreciate that all the big changes that are supposedly taking place now really are not all that different from how I used to live as a child so many years ago. Oh sure, as an example, we might be able to get delivered goods for a fee to our house from a supermarket soon. However, when I was younger, I know that quite often my family bought groceries from one of our neighbourhood stores and they delivered it to us later in the day at no charge.

I will probably talk more about this subject later on, dear reader. I just wanted to tell you now how different, and yet the same, so many things seem to be to me at this point in my life.

Now for some matters that I want to talk to you about.

HOORAY, IT IS NOW OVER

My problem was finally solved. It was not a problem that I caused but I one that I suffered for quite a bit of time with a lot of aggravation.

As I am sure you know if you do this kind of work, and I am not going into great details about it, a number of online survey websites joined together into one big organization recently. All of the people who belonged to the individual websites became part of the large one. Nothing really wrong with that because it seemed to make a good idea. That is, until it completely did not seem to come together properly for me at all. I must admit that I do not know how many other people suffered as I did but I suspect that there were many others who did.

The restructuring of the websites that I belonged to was a rather simple matter it seemed. All these websites were to become part of one major one. One would still have the same kind of surveys that one liked to work on and even seemed to receive a better points system so that one could earn reward points more easily. Regretfully, for several reasons, that did not happen to me.

I had nothing more than one mess after another for about two weeks. I just did not seem to be able to transfer points from the closing websites to the new one. This was rather serious because I was working on one project on one of the websites that took a month from start to finish and would award me a very large prize after it was finally completed.

As I said, I have no idea if other users of the websites had problems similar to mine or not. My problems, which I did not think were all that severe, just did not seem to be able to be cured. Day after day I talked to the technical people at the website owner and tried to resolve all the issues. However we just seemed to be unsuccessful in doing so.

The good news which finally took place is that the problems were mostly solved and solved well. I received the credits for my points and was able to move forward in a better mood. The reason for it was that the people I was working with, especially one of them, spent so much time and effort to help me out it was unbelievable. We actually communicated with each other fairly quickly rather than the way systems seem to work i.e. send a comment and wait for a reply in a day or two. We tried to figure what the problem was and look at different ways to solve it.

Unfortunately, not everything could be corrected that quickly it seemed. One of my issues that dealt with the month-long project somehow had problems that could not be resolved in the short term. I just could not get entrance to the relevant webpage so that I could complete my month-long project. It meant a pretty big loss, something that did not make me all that happy.

Then something different seemed to happen that made me feel pretty good. I received a note from the Survey Support Team department who admitted in all honesty that there was a flaw that could not be fixed short-term. They expected however to be able to do so later on.

Here though is what they said that made me quite happy when I read it. They expected that I had completed most or even all of the work I was supposed to have done, which was true, and they said that my work would be credited to my account! To be direct about it, I was thrilled to see that because it was given to me without me asking for it.

As I am certain that you probably know if you have done this kind of work online, the prize is not an enormous one. But that does not matter to me. It is just fun to collect an award after completing a number of online surveys for a website. It is my “new job” now that I have retired.

I would be very happy, dear reader, to let you know who this new survey company is if you want to join them. Just write to me and I will give you the information. Now please excuse me. I have another survey to finish.

UAW HELPS CAW

I see that Unifor, the old Canadian Auto Workers, is on good terms these days with the American United Auto Workers. Both organizations are fighting against General Motors who wants to cut staff in plants across North America. As you know, in Canada, it means closing down the GM plant in Oshawa. Here is the beginning of a news story that I saw recently that explains the situation:

“UAW joins Canada autoworkers' call to boycott GM cars made in Mexico

The UAW is joining Canada's autoworkers' union, Unifor, to apply pressure on General Motors to keep five plants in North America running.

The UAW is calling for consumers to buy GM cars only if they are assembled in the United States and Canada.” (Jamie L. LaReau, Detroit Free Press, February1, 2019) 

Here is something else that you might find interesting in this story:

“The UAW noted that it supports purchases of GM cars assembled in Canada, but not in Mexico, China and Poland.”

Accordingly, it appears that the US and Canadian Unions are in good terms with each other to try to achieve their desired results. Here again is something involving Unifor that is quite serious:

“Unifor has held rallies, workers have walked off the job in protest and its president has met with GM leaders to offer suggestions to keep the Oshawa plant running.

GM CEO Mary Barra has held firm that the plant will close. In its latest effort, Unifor has urged consumers to not buy GM cars that have a vehicle identification number starting in "3" because that car was built in Mexico.”

Here though is something that I have been wondering. You may be thinking something similar, for Canada anyway. Does Unifor really expect to be successful to keep this Oshawa plant open or is there something else that is going on behind closed doors? I have to admit that I wondered about that. Take a look at this story to see what I mean:

“...the head of Unifor has for more than two months been expressing a deep frustration about how General Motors has broken one promise too many with its plan to close its Oshawa Assembly Plant.” (Canadian Press, February 11, 2019) 

But, take a look at the title to the story:

“Unifor's high-profile campaign against GM is a also a fight for its future”

Could it mean that Unifor never really expected to be successful in this battle but is trying to make sure that something like this never happens again to other locations in Canada not only in the automobile industry but in other industries in which it has union workers:

“It’s really understandable why Unifor is all-in on this one,” said Steven Tufts, an associate professor at York University who studies labour.

“For Unifor as a union, to make them more relevant, even to members outside of the auto sector, they have to show they can fight.”

Here is more:

“The campaign also raises questions about priorities and focus at the union itself. Autoworkers only make up about 13 per cent of the membership...

“It’s really about them fighting for the definition of what is the union based upon, and where is it going in the future,” said Tufts.”

It should be very interesting to see what happens. GM is taking a very tough position so far not to knuckle under to Unifor. Or so it seems anyway. Let us see what happens as the dispute between the organizations will probably increase in the next little while. Let us see if some agreement is signed down the road and what it will do.

Some New Thoughts

How are you enjoying the cold weather these days? I wish I could find it now but I remember reading a story some time ago predicting four years of quite cold weather in our area. I think that the prediction is pretty accurate because this is the second year of very cold weather that we are now experiencing. I am not going to talk a lot about it other than just to make sure that you stay warm, dear reader. The last thing that I want to have happen is for any of us to get sick by not keeping well.

I do spend lots of time checking the media to see what kind of stories are out there that interest me. Once I find one, as you know, I write a story from my perspective based on the facts that have been revealed. It is my way of trying to guess what happens with that particular situation.

There have been some interesting matters that I have seen over the past little while in the news that I might write about later.

     -How about the one about former Councillor Hilary Payne in his new career helping people when they deal with City Hall. Why, even the Windsor Star was so excited about it that they included his phone number in one of their stories about him!

     -Lots of interesting conversations about GM in Canada and what might happen to a number of its employees who seem to have lost their job working for them. It is interesting watching what the Auto Union is doing. What is also quite fascinating is how the other members of the Big 3 auto companies group are letting us know how well they are doing.

    -A new price has opened up over the cost of going across the water between Windsor and Detroit over the Ambassador Bridge. Instead of the price going up as is usual, it has gone down for some of the autos that go over by a rather significant amount. What will the impact of that be on the Government who is supposed to be building a competitive bridge.

    -Real estate prices are still going quite high in sales of homes around our area. How much higher can they go for people who work here? After all, people’s salaries are not going up that dramatically so that one has enough money to pay for the new home. Yet, for people who live in other cities, e.g. in Toronto, moving to our area is not difficult for them at all. Their prices have also risen dramatically so that they can sell their unit in their city and move here and get a bigger home at a much lower price.

Do you see what I mean, dear reader? Lots of nice, interesting subjects to sit down and write about. Can you imagine how many similar type of stories I have found over the last little while! It gives me a good incentive for continuing to write.

Let me show you what I mean by that by writing the following.

IS ENWIN MOVING FROM DOWNTOWN NOW

It should be interesting to see if Enwin will be selling its building downtown and moving all of its facilities to its offices on Rhodes Drive.

If you will recall, the building was offered for sale last November. The time granted to make an offer terminated a short time ago. Now, and we are not told how many offers came in, the Enwin people will consider whether they should sell the property to one of the people who have made a bid. I am sure it will be fascinating to see how many people wanted the building and what the highest price will be. I believe that it should be even more fascinating to see who the bidders were and who may have won.

I expect that if the number of bidders was high then the prices being offered by them would also be high. It should be interesting to see what the criteria are for Enwin to decide to whom they should sell the building. I expect that the sale might not necessarily go just to the group that offers the most amount of cash. I expect that the winner has some ideas though that are significant for the future of that area to help it prosper.

However, what if few people actually bid and their prices are not all that high. I did not expect that this happened but if it did…

THE COST OF A HOUSE SALE IN JANUARY, 2019

It really is crazy what is happening to the cost of real estate in Windsor. House price sales have shot upwards to very good levels for this area. Here is a summary that I believe you will find interesting:

“368 properties were sold in January 2019 (up 24.32% compared to January 2018 with 296 properties sold).

The Average Sales price for January 2019 was $306,005. The Average Sales Price for January 2018 was $278,094.” (Biz X Magazine, February5, 2019) 

However, consider the following for what I wrote about above for the Toronto area. I read that the Toronto MLS average price for houses sold was more than double the price here: about $800,000.

In spite of everything, it appears as if not much has changed over the years even though the house prices are so remarkably high here now. House prices in Toronto are still so much higher. From the Toronto residents’ perspective, they can put their excess sales price funds from their home sale in a nice bank account after paying for the home here considering the lower cost. For retired persons, it is now a great way to live in an area that is a lot better as well from a climate perspective.

It will be interesting to see what happens over the next year as far as real estate prices are concerned in this area. While it may be difficult for residents here with the higher prices, it may make no difference for people who are selling their homes in the much higher priced communities and then coming down here.

AND WE WANT TO CLOSE OUR HOSPITALS HERE

I am sure that you have read that, after building a new hospital here which is not all that big in size in my opinion, we will be closing down the hospitals that exist now. Well, they still might be around for certain medical purposes but not for being a “hospital” the way our two hospitals are now run.

I have to admit that I never understood this. Not only is the population in our area supposed to increase but also I expect there will be a lot more older people here than now who also will need to be in hospital for a variety of different reasons. I hardly think that the proposed size of what our new hospital is supposed to be will be all that satisfactory.

Just to make sure that you understand exactly what I mean, take a look at this story:

“About 1,000 patients in Ontario hospital hallways on any given day: report”(Canadian Press, January 31, 2019) 

Obviously, this is the problem that somehow has to be fixed. How can these people be treated properly when they are put into a hallway after being admitted into hospital. Take the total number of people who are in the two Windsor hospitals today and try to figure out how they would be able to be treated in just ONE new hospital that is set up to replace both of them. 

Surely, one could make the argument very easily that the new hospital would be overpopulated immediately after being opened. Then, how much more money has to be spent to expand it and how much time would it take to do so.

Oh sure, there are all kinds of comments made in the story about the problems and that they are going to be looked at down the road. Of course, this is only the first report and a second one is coming out so we are expected to believe that a lot of the problems will be solved.

Of course, with our population growing older, we are going to be faced with all kinds of new problems that we have not considered up until now. In my humble opinion, closing down our existing hospitals is a huge mistake to make. Sure, we may need a new one but we cannot afford to close down the hospitals that are around now.

Just remember the number of hospitals that used to be around in Windsor before they were closed down. In looking at our situation now, was that closing down of any sense? If it was not before, then why are we doing it again!

My Latest News Story

Thank goodness that the freezing weather that we have been experiencing has changed and that, surprisingly, the temperature increased rather dramatically over a short period of time. Then it changed back again!

I do not understand any of this. It happens and, for what reason, I am not really sure. Of course, I have been reading what other people are saying about the weather changes but who knows if they are correct or not. Anyway, I do not really care because there is not very much I can do about it.

I have to admit that I sit down to write stories because it is too cold for me to go outside for a walk. Even if I had the clothes to keep me adequately warm, I am not sure that I would do it. It just would not be all that much fun to go for a walk and hope that I would be able to go far when I know I could not. Instead, I do a lot more exercising in the basement in our home to try and stay fit until the weather improves. I think that I am doing reasonably well because I have been able to keep my weight down even though I do have regular meals even now.

I do have to congratulate myself on my weight issue. Yes I know, I am probably a bit overweight for someone my size. However, compared with what I was before I was ill, I am doing spectacularly well. I am down something like 25 to 30 pounds believe it or not. I know, I know… I do go a bit silly because every time I have the opportunity to weigh myself on our scale, I get on the unit and make sure that I am not putting on weight. Seriously though, I am doing this to make sure that I stay physically well and do not put myself in a position of making myself at risk. I believe I have learned my lesson!

Now, let me keep myself mentally fit. Here is a rather interesting story for you to take a look at, dear reader. Could it be the beginning of a new Business Empire for this municipality? Who knows, it may well depend on the success of this particular case whether a project like this one will be repeated:

A NEW ENWIN BUSINESS OPPORTUNITY

I saw this comment in November, 2018. It seemed relatively limited in relation to the Enwin Organization

“The downtown [Enwin] location is more than 40,000 sq. ft. of office space, and large parts are underutilized.

"The costs of maintaining unneeded office space cannot be justified over the long term," said Reidel.

The company wants to take those efforts a step further in an attempt to offer services "at the lowest rates possible." Although it's unclear if the move would mean a reduction in rates.” (CBC News, November 9, 2018) 

Yet, a short time later, I saw this Windsor Star story which was rather surprising to me. Here it is:

“Enwin, university research institute launch new company in Windsor” (Taylor Campbell, Windsor Star, January 22, 2019) 

ONtech Rapid Coatings Inc. has been formed. It is a 50-50 relationship between Enwin and Tessonics Inc. Without getting into a discussion about its value, please be aware that it has been set up as an anti-rust business.

I have to admit that I was not aware about this:

“Enwin’s unregulated subsidiary, Enwin Energy, pursued a partnership with Tessonics to create Ontech.”

Have you ever heard much of Enwin Energy before? Did you know that such an organization existed to be in potential non-electric businesses since it is “non-regulated?” Why was it done? When was it set up and who did it? 

Being “non-regulated,” it seems it can do whatever it wants to do and, presumably, can make lots of money. Possibly, it can lose lots too. I wonder what it does if it makes money. Who gets it and how can it be used? What happens, however, for this public utility if its “non-regulated” subsidiary loses lots of money and who is responsible for it?

I found it a little bit strange given the story about the Enwin moving away from downtown Windsor. It is selling its building downtown yet has the money it seems, through an unregulated subsidiary, to make an investment like this one. Nothing mentioned here in the possible sale downtown about a deal with Ontech:

“Assuming there is a suitable buyer, moving the downtown staff into the operations centre would save Enwin money, “certainly north of $300,000 a year,” said Reidel, who said the downtown building has excess space and there’s enough room at Rhodes Drive to accommodate the 100 Ouellette employees without an expansion... 

“As long as all the numbers in the rest of this exploration, beyond our original estimates, come to fruition, then there would be a likelihood of us moving out of the downtown,” she said.” (Brian Cross, Windsor Star, November 9, 2018) 

It should be interesting to see what else is done by Enwin that is “unregulated.” Gee, perhaps Windsor can be involved now in all kinds of investing and not just the boring and dull municipal matters of the City. As was stated by the Mayor:

“This is a prime example of economic diversification,” said Mayor Drew Dilkens after announcing the company would set up its headquarters and operations in Windsor. “The possibilities here are truly limitless.”

More For You To Read

Interesting, but not a surprise, the City of Windsor voted in favour of allowing marijuana to be sold in this City. It means that people will be allowed to purchase this product at a number of different outlets that will be set up eventually in Windsor. Oh well, it is our equivalent of liquor being allowed to be sold here many years ago.

Is it a good idea or bad idea to allow this? Sure, we have heard how horrible the use of marijuana can be. However, it really does not matter what the answer is because, legally, it is now allowed in Windsor. It will be interesting to see which people buy the product, especially people who are well-known publicly. Will such a purchase make a lot of headlines in the short term and will it be to the advantage or disadvantage of those people?

It will be very interesting to see if some people are arrested now for their improper use of the product. While it is legal to use marijuana now, those who are still opposed to it being allowed may believe that this is a way to keep people under control. Will that be something that is done early on, and with a lot of publicity, to give a warning to people to be careful about how they purchase marijuana and how they act afterwards?

I have no idea, given our close connection to the US, about how many Americans will come over here to purchase and then to take the drugs while they are on their visit. Will that boost Tourism here?

I do not how many people in our country will buy marijuana and use it or how much will be purchased by them. I have no idea on their ages either. I do not know whether it will be viewed down the road as an advantage or disadvantage. I am not sure if it will lead people to other drugs that may be quite dangerous to their health and which are not yet legal to purchase. I wonder if the laws will be changed eventually to allow even more drugs to be purchased by individuals under whatever system will be set up to do so.

Lots of things to happen in the next little while I am sure. It might be an interesting idea to go back into history and see if similar events take place these days as took place in the past when liquor was legalized.

Oh, by the way, in the Windsor Star story on January 22, 2019 about the vote in Council approving the sale in Windsor, I found it interesting that one of the Councillors who may have a big role politically to play down the road was not quoted in the article at all. That surprised me. The only comment made about Councillor Kieran McKenzie in the story was merely that he voted in favor of passing it.

NEW FORD CANADA PRESIDENT

I see that Ford Canada has a new President, Dean Stoneley. His role is:

“Stoneley will oversee Ford’s entire Canadian operation, which includes the Windsor Engine Plant and the Essex Engine Plant. He will lead operations at their national headquarters in Oakville, Ontario, three regional headquarters and the Oakville Assembly Plant.” (Mark Brown, BlackburnNews, January 17, 2019) 

The numbers involving Ford are interesting to me. It has 8,000 employees but more importantly, the article states that 18,000 people are working at Ford dealerships across the country.

I wonder what the numbers are for Chrysler and General Motors, especially including the number of people who work for their dealerships. I did see that the number of employees for GM was around 10,000 less the 2,500 who recently have been laid off now. For Chrysler, it is about 9,250 employees.

The reason for asking is could what might happen in Canada be the same as happened in Australia recently. In other words, what happens to the Ford employees and those in the dealer network as well as those who work for the other companies if those plants close down.

MUNICIPAL BUDGET

If you want to understand a little bit about budgets in the cities and towns where you live, dear readers, then take a look at these videos that were prepared in Chatham-Kent and posted online here: https://www.chatham-kent.ca/local-government/financial-information/Budget There are three different videos that ought to help you out a lot to understand about the taxing systems that apply.

Here are the titles of the videos:

1. Budget Basics: Watch our video to learn how the Municipality develops the Municipal budget

2. Learn how your property tax is calculated: Watch our video to find out how individual property tax rates are calculated.

3. What is assessment growth? Watch our video for an overview on assessment growth and how it is calculated.

BUGS IN CANADA

Here is an interesting map prepared by Orkin Canada setting out its list of the worst twenty-five Bad Bug Cities in Canada. In case you missed it, Windsor is in the Top Ten, number nine on the list.

When you look at it, it is interesting to see how many cities in Ontario are badly infected.