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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.