Trashy's World

As much as I love to rail on the Harperites and their version of a Comedy of Errors, I’m going to shift the focus of the political part of this blog (um, OK, so it really is 95% political… as much as I like to write the odd “daddy-blogger” entry here and there) to the Ontario municipal races – especially here in Bytown. I’ll likely keep with the practice of scribbling my Friday Miscellany notes and will vent my anti-DeceptiCon rants in that space.

Why refocus? Because I was/am a student of local government and despair that this level of government – the level that is closest to the people who vote for them – is largely ignored and widely misunderstood. Voter turnouts for municipal elections are in the 40-55% range and this pitiful level of civic engagement shows little sign of improving any time soon.

I think it important to encourage a focus on local issues because these are what touch us directly. Our emergency services, schools, road maintenance and snow clearing, libraries and waste management are all the responsibility of our Council and School Boards. Decisions are taken by our local Council and School Boards on how our communities are planned, the protection of our natural environment, and where and our children are educated. Local decisions made by local people like you and I.

Local government is vital. It is in our backyards. And it is largely ignored. That is unfortunate.

So – just for old times sake, here is a candid shot I took of John Baird during last spring’s session of Parliament. I think he is making a point of order.

Mr. Speaker, I would like to make a point of order..."

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Word.

Maybe Lil Wayne can do this when he gets outta the hoosegow!

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Ahhhhh….. OC Transpo is back to playing it’s usual games.

Busses that don’t show up, go outta service for no noticable reason. A/C that doesn’t work.

Good to see that all things eventually return to their natural state. It’s comforting somehow.

Kinda like the Leafs finishing out of the playoffs, rain on summer weekends or one of Harpy’s minions acting like a moron… familiarity is soothing.

But what did I expect for a Monday?

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If you’re in Bytown and haven’t anything better to do this evening, c’mon out to Blog Out Loud Ottawa (BOLO) at Irene’s Pub on Bank Street!

Lots of your fave Ottawa bloggers will be reading their fave posts. There will be laughs, tears and, most importantly, beer!

I won’t be reading… I’m kinda shy, ya know… but I’ll be there!

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UPDATE

Yup, he’s running… it’s official.

In an election where there isn’t a single burning issue, the campaign will likely come down to a question of leadership, and leadership is personal.

“I hope it is about leadership because leadership is about getting things done,” O’Brien said. “If you want milquetoast and calmness and the chief of protocol, then you know who you can vote for.”

Yeah – I’d hate the Mayor to be calm… rather have him or her running around in a panic… that would get things done.

Municipal election season is underway.

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So Ottawa Mayor is holding a press conference today to announce his intention that he will fight for his Chains of Office again in this fall’s municipal elections.

I think I have been clear about where I stand with this guy… not really his biggest fan in spite of the fact that he is a fellow BBC adherent.

But I hope he runs! I’d never vote for him – haven’t decided yet who I will support as Mayor of Bytown – but he makes GREAT blog fodder! Between him and that nitwit at the head of the ATU, I have penned some of my fave posts!

Go Larry!

Oh, I’ll be attending the BOLO event at Irene’s next week. Come on out for an evening of laughter and good times!

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From the USGS as well…

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From the USGS.

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More details – the USGS is reporting that the epicentre was about 61 kms north of Ottawa:

Earthquake Details

Man!

THAT was scary!

Lotsa folks freaked out by this… the building across the street seems to have been evacuated…

It lasted about a minute or so… I didn’t think these things lasted that long…

Cell service is down.

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Ottawa to pull plug on toilet-rebate program

Hee-hee.

A popular program that gave Ottawa homeowners a chance to replace their toilets with more water-efficient models may be going down the drain.

The Ottawa city council planning and environment committee is meeting next Tuesday to discuss changes to the city’s water efficiency plan, including terminating the toilet-rebate program.

The city issued nearly 5,000 rebates last year of up to $75 per homeowner to install the water-efficient toilets, at a total cost of $330,000.

We need to value and conserve water; Pricing water service at closer to its true cost would help pay for infrastructure and reduce waste.Canadians pay far less for water than people in most other developed countries. It’s no coincidence that our per person water use is also among the highest in the world, rivalled only by the United States. With little financial incentive to conserve, we over-consume, and our over-consumption threatens water security, ecosystems and the sustainability of our water infrastructure.

Conservation-oriented water pricing is a rate structure adopted by a water service provider where the costs of providing services are recovered; individual customers are metered and pay for the volume of water they use. A crucial element requires the per unit price charged to individuals is sufficient to affect their decisions and behaviour, thereby encouraging conservation and efficiency.

A solution is to begin charging individuals and businesses what water really is worth, based on the volume they use. However, you can’t manage what you don’t measure. According to the most recent Environment Canada data (2006), over one-third of Canadian homes still do not have a water meter and the implementation of metering varies considerably from province to province. Surprisingly, only 32.6 per cent of houses are metered in B.C., 16.5 per cent in Quebec, and less than one per cent in Newfoundland, something that would be unthinkable in other basic utility services such as energy, natural gas or telephone.

The point being that unless homes and businesses start to pay something close to the really value of their water, there is very little incentive – other than for a social “good” – to really conserve or for manufacturers to churn out more “water friendly” wash machines and dishwashers.

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Oh, and the following picture may be disturbing for some. It is a graphic shot of a bear that was shot outside a restaurant somewhere in the US of A…

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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!

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