Trashy's World

Composting:

Small government and who-gives-a-crap-about-the-environment (often they go hand in paw) folks in Ottawa are all a-steaming about the roll out of the new curbside composting program which is being launched this week.

The complaints are as varied as there are pebbles on a beach. It costs too much. Composting isn’t effective. Why weren’t we consulted. I already have a compost bin in my backyard, so this is a waste of taxpayer dollars…

• Costs too much – at about 77 bucks per household, the start-up costs are far less than what is currently paid for recycling – which is far less beneficial, environmentally, than composting. Much of the operating costs of the program will be offset by compost sales. And program costs should fall slightly as time goes on and more see the program’s benefit by diverting from landfill what can be 40-50% of a household’s waste, by weight.
• Isn’t effective. Not only can a household divert much of the waste they generate from disposal, but there is a bigger impact from an environmental perspective. Less energy is required to transform organic materials into something useful – most of the work is done by micro-organisms. Dry material recycling takes energy to bind paper into bundles, crush cans and to sort our all of the materials. Composting works.
• Why weren’t we consulted? Um, you were.
• I already have a bin. This is a bit trickier. Yes, perhaps the City should have gone door to door asking residents if they already had a bin that they used. But the problem with this approach is that people move and the compost bin should stay with the dwelling. If I told the City in advance that I already composted, didn’t receive a bin, then sold my house to someone who didn’t want to backyard compost, then the new resident may be SOL… but still, yeah, the City might have been wise to do some advance scouting.

Bottom line is that composting – including curbside pick-up – is the best way to divert waste from landfill, aside from not generating it in the first place. And when landfill tipping fees increase dramatically over the next decade, Ottawa will look back at this initiative and say “Hey! we did something right! How about that!”

Tunnels:

Big surprise. Some are saying that the proposed tunnel under the Ottawa city core will run into cost overruns and engineering difficulties. And all this way before a single shovel has hit the pavement.

Well, duh! Of course there will be cost overruns and other problems! Can anyone honestly point me to a major engineering project that has NOT run into these glitches? Hell no!

Carry on – even though I’ll be dead and buried before I see this thing running!

Mayors:

Alex Cullen is the first candidate to declare his intention to run for the honour of being the Mayor of Ottawa.

According to the Shitizen, he promises to raise taxes, oppose Lansdowne Live, support a downtown transit tunnel, and stop the flow of sewage into the Ottawa River.

Run on raising taxes? Hell ya! Nice to see some honestly! Much of the infrastructure in this City is quickly deteriorating due to mayorlarry’s unrealistic promises to not raise taxes. Check out some of the ramps off the 174, the potholes downtown and the sad state of many of the City’s facilities

I especially like this quote:

Cullen criticized his expected opponent, O’Brien, as a “weak mayor” and said that O’Brien’s recent vow — to pre-emptively lock out O.C. Transpo workers if faced with the possibility of another winter strike — was “amazing, astonishing, and absolutely repugnant.”

Yeah, and mayorlarry himself  is amazing, astonishing, and absolutely repugnant!

Bring on the ballot boxes!

Trashy,
Ottawa, Ontario

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Am I surprised to hear that there are some questions around mayorlarry’s company, Calian Technologies; the one on which he still serves as a member of the Board of Directors.

According to the MotherCorp:

Calian Technologies has seen the value of its contracts with the City of Ottawa skyrocket since the company’s founder was elected mayor in 2006.

Mayor Larry O’Brien still sits on the board of directors for Calian, which supplies technology staff to governments and corporations.

According to City of Ottawa records, the company received $1,837,175 in city contracts for technology staff in 2008 — up more than 10-fold from $167,250 in 2006.

Yes, he does declare a conflict whenever an issue comes up around the Council table that might involve his company, but c’mon, this is just a symbolic gesture. I remember that during my time as a municipal councillor, there were several times when I or one of my fellow Councillors would declare a conflict and leave the room during discussions. Great, but that would not have stopped any one of us from being involved in the discussions in an informal, off-the-record manner. I don’t think any of us ever did anything untoward, but the opportunity was certainly there.

Will mayorlarry be brought under some scrutiny for this – yes, probably. But will he lose his job before his term is up or be subject to a criminal investigation? No way. As was seen during the Kilrea trial, mayorlarry has many resources and knows many folks in this burg. And this will discourage anyone from launching anything serious.

We’re stuck with this joker for a while longer. I can only hope that the voters of this town remember this. And the Kilrea thing. And the transit strike. Etc.

Trashy,
Ottawa, Ontario

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Just a quick tip of the cap to everyone involved in the delivery of the H1N1 vaccine at the Jim Durrell Centre yesterday.

Expecting chaos yesterday morning at 7:45 am, I packed drinks, snacks, reading materials, ensured my mp3 and cell was charged, dressed warmly for the inevitable wait outside in the cold and flurries… etc. I was prepared for anything!

Except for an efficiently-run process…

After all of the media accounts I had heard and read in the past few days, I had expected disorder to reign, a long wait and cold feet. But what I got was, chronologically:

7:45 am : a nice greeting at the door, shown to a seat inside (?!!)

8:00 am: told that wristbands would be distributed shortly

8:15:  moved to another waiting where wristbands were distributed by a very enthusiastic and funny gentleman

8:45: given wristbands and, after staff ensured that they were firmly affixed to my wrist, I left the building.

Total time elapsed – 1 frickin’ hour!

So fine, they got the wristband thingy right… surely things wouldn’t be as smooth at the appointed time of 5 pm?

But again, I am happily surprised. We walk into the arena at 4:55, are greeted with a smile, documents checked and all-injected and outta there after the obligatory wait in the designated area by 5:20.

Wow.

This whole business may be a bit wheezy elsewhere, but on this particular day and in this particular place, they sure knew what they were doing!

Trashy,
Ottawa, Ontario

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• 8°C High
• -1°C Low

Trashy,
Ottawa, Ontario

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If I had any doubts about giving up on OC Transpo, they have effectively disappeared.

A bid to end crippling strikes or lockouts at OC Transpo was voted down on Friday by the Amalgamated Transit Union Local 279.

The vote was 62.8 per cent in favour of maintaining the strike/lockout model instead of arbitration.

Jim Haddad, Amalgamated Transit Union (ATU) Local 279 secretary-treasurer, said he was very disappointed.

“They’re afraid of what the arbitrator will decide. It’s the unknown,” he said.

“Hopefully, the next time the two sides are at the table they will negotiate and get a contract.”

Yeah, right.

Trashy,
Ottawa, Ontario

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So the ATU members are voting to give up their right to strike.

Yippee. Nice thought.

But given:

• the increasingly cramped buses
• the increasingly common buses that just, like, don’t show up
• the increasing congestion downtown and around Hurdman station. And I suspect it’s the same around Baseline, Lincoln Fields, Orléans, etc.
• the ever increasing fees for ever decreasing levels of service
• the notion that the transit users of this city will likely be the ones who foot the bill for the Siemens out of court settlement resulting from the Council’s ineptitude
• the notion that if I need to urgently pick up one of my little ones (i.e., “Hello, Mr. Trashy, this is the school calling, your little one has been throwing up all over the staff room…”), it will take me a minimum of an hour by bus or a $25 cab ride to get from work to the school or daycare.
• the distinct possibility that even if the ATU does vote away their right to strike, they may just go ahead and do so anyway
• etc.

For an extra $65/month extra – once I cancel my bus pass – I can park in the underground lot across the street.

After 12 years of riding, you’ve lost me, OCT and ATU. Bye-bye

Trashy,
Ottawa, Ontario

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The Globe reports that the next U.S. Ambassador to Canada coasted through the committee hearing yesterday.

While it was not expected that there would be a particularly difficult hearing, the process was streamlined somewhat by the fact that only one of the 21 committee members bothered to show up for the hearing. This, of course, can signify one of two things:

1. The Senators are absolutely, 100% confident in Obama’s choice and shucks, there really isn’t a better person for the job, or
2. The Senators rank the relative importance of Canada-US relations somewhere between relations with Botswana and what’s for lunch at the Senate cafeteria.

A bit humbling, eh?

In any case, Mr. Jacobson seems like a nice enough fellow. He was in Canada once when he was 7.

At Senate confirmation hearings, David Jacobson, 57, recalled how a half-century ago on his first trip out of the United States he was taken to Canada.

“Despite my mother’s protestations that he would get us all killed, my father stopped the car in the middle of the bridge at the border. I will never forget my parents reaching from the front seat in Canada back into the United States and my sisters and I reaching forward into Canada. If anyone had said to that seven-year-old in the middle of that back seat on the Ambassador Bridge that some day he would be appearing before this great committee as the nominee of the President to be Ambassador to Canada, I can assure you that he would not have believed it,” he said in a statement prepared for his nomination hearings.”

He knows that he and his family will need warm clothing.

“I’m from Chicago so the weather doesn’t scare me,” said David Jacobson, following an appearance at the U.S. Senate foreign relations committee on Wednesday. “My family and I have planned to go up there and buy very warm coats and we’re ready to go.”

I guess that’s good enough for me!

The next guy to live in that big house in Rockcliffe.

Trashy,
Ottawa, Ontario

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Of course he was found not guilty… was there ever any doubt?

I’m not a lawyer but it sure seemed to me that the prosecution had a weak case to begin with and did not do enough to compensate for it.

Guilty or not, did mayorlarry do it? Probably. But one thing is for sure, his chances of being re-elected in 2010 is likely next to nil.

Trashy,
Ottawa, Ontario

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Police have called off the search for something that several folks saw bright lights seemingly crash into the Ottawa River.

Given that the helicopters, boats and divers have come up empty-handed, whatever it was that made its mysterious appearance and disappearance is up for grabs. But I have some suggestions as to possible identity of what crashed and burned.

1. Mayorlarry’s future as mayorlarry
2. Dany Heatley’s future as an Ottawa Senator
3. Stephen Harper’s chances of a majority government – ever
4. A UCM (unidentified cabinet Minister) who dared to RSVP “yes” to the invitation to the Mulroney 25th anniversary bash next month
5. The next Conservative Communications Director falling from the heavens
6. Thor – the thunder god – smiting Ottawa with yet another bolt of lightning
7. Michael J. Fox in a Bricklin
8. David Miller jumping – or being pushed – from a plane
9. An OC Transpo bus taking a really wrong turn off the bridge… and failing to call out the stop
10. Barack Obama making a secret visit back to Ottawa to pick up a few more of those yummy maple cookies

Trashy,
Ottawa, Ontario

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Ah. ‘Tis one of those o-too-rare Ottawa days where the sun is shining, the temps are comfortable, there’s a little breeze in the air and even the kids cooperated by not making my early morning too onerous!

Ah.

I want to bottle up days like these and open them a little during the dark and depression inducing days of January…

Ah.

What kind of negative or critical scribblings can I come up with? Hmmm… well, went golfing this morning… and, as usual, I was reminded of just how bad a golfer I really am.

But even THAT didn’t matter. It was a fun day in the sun with friends, muskrats and gophers.  I only lost a few balls and didn’t re-injure my latissimus muscle.

I just scoured the news for something to rant on about re: Our Glorious Leader.  But even the robotman is behaving himself these days. Yeah, there was that whole Catholic faux-pas thing, but who really cares, eh? It is an outdated ritual that belongs in the Dark Ages anyways. Big freakin’ deal.  C’mon Grits – let it go.. if I’m not getting my knickers in a twist about this, then surely your target market ain’t taking it too seriously either.

The subunits are amusing me more than usual lately. The teenmonster has her face “bolt” removed yesterday – her body was rejecting the fact that there was a steel rod embedded just above her cheekbone – go figger.  Addy has been really cuddly lately and was very exciting to start “Treehouse” at her daycare – one level older plus all of her friends had ben transferred there… made her week!

And the O-ster has been speaking SO MUCH lately. Coll stuff that I have NO idea from where he could have picked such phrases as “Cool, man” “OK daddy-O” and, his latest, “bee-zarre dude…”

I love warping molding young minds and personalities.

All in all, Trashy is a happy dude today and is looking forward to a weekend with the family. Yeah, it’s supposed to rain tomorrow, but then clear up again on Sunday…

Summer in Canada – gotta love it.

Trashy,
Ottawa, Ontario

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