canada’s economic action plan – kingston edition

This morning I went hiking with the two fierce creatures at Lemoine Point – a fantastic and little known hiking area just west of the airport – whilst motoring towards the point, I noticed in a few places signs proclaiming Canada’s Economic Action Plan.  Notably, along Bayridge south of Princess, along Front Road between KGH and the Prison, and lately at either end of the Green Monster.   Of course at road speed it was a little difficult to read what each project entailed, and so upon returning home I hit the interwebs for a quick investigation.

According to the Federal Government website there are a few items in town (zoom into Kingston to see) which have qualified for stimulus financing and thus presumably are being ‘fast tracked’ for completion.    Very little information is available on the City of Kingston website – except a couple of reports to council wherein mention of stimulus funding is made.   Specifically the minutes of  Meeting 18-2009 (15 Sept) notes that $60mil was requested from the Infrastructure Stimulus Fund, whilst $21mil was granted for use on projects such as the John Counter Blvd expansion and others.   Which got me thinking:  assuming you agree that stimulus funds are indeed a necessary evil, which projects ’should’ be funded?  Are the projects which have been identified the best?

xposted at kingstonist

gubmint motors (your tax dollars at work)

Well, well.   I think that 16% ownership stake in General Motors is going to take a little while longer to ‘pay off’.    Sales volume at the General is off by 20% from the same period last year as folks continue to shun the ‘pelosi mobiles’, while sales volume at Ford (which in case you need reminding – didn’t require a bailout) are up by 16%.    Great pick Dalton and Stephen.  I, for one am happy I picked up FoMoCo at $1.22 in December 2008.

ht 

Brands and companies are both displayed in descending order according to their percentage change in volume sales. There were 26 selling days in August 2009 and 27 selling days in August 2008, so the change in monthly sales volume will be different than the change in the average daily sales rate for each brand/company.

Brand	Volume %	8/09	8/08	DSR*%	DSR 8/09	DSR 8/08
Kia	60.38	40,198	25,065	66.54	1,546	928
Subaru	51.51	28,683	18,932	57.33	1,103	701
Hyundai	47.01	60,467	41,130	52.67	2,326	1,523
Audi	25.77	8,057	6,406	30.61	310	237
Volvo	24.78	5,826	4,669	29.58	224	173
Pontiac	23.35	29,921	24,257	28.09	1,151	898
Ford	21.25	161,369	133,088	25.91	6,207	4,929
Honda	15.21	151,814	131,766	19.65	5,839	4,880
Mazda	12.09	26,542	23,680	16.40	1,021	877
Volkswagen	11.35	24,823	22,292	15.64	955	826
Toyota	10.94	202,196	182,252	15.21	7,777	6,750
Porsche	8.69	1,526	1,404	12.87	59	52
Mercury	8.19	9,080	8,393	12.35	349	311
Nissan	0.17	97,580	97,417	4.02	3,753	3,608
Suzuki	-5.46	5,749	6,081	-1.82	221	225
Jeep	-6.11	22,041	23,476	-2.50	848	869
Mini	-6.55	5,111	5,469	-2.95	197	203
Mercedes-Benz	-7.54	17,112	18,507	-3.98	658	685
Chevrolet	-9.16	168,130	185,080	-5.66	6,467	6,855
Dodge	-15.80	52,562	62,422	-12.56	2,022	2,312
BMW Group	-21.30	24,343	30,931	-18.27	936	1,146
Lexus	-21.82	22,892	29,281	-18.81	880	1,084
Chrysler	-23.50	18,619	24,337	-20.55	716	901
BMW	-24.47	19,232	25,462	-21.56	740	943
Mitsubishi	-25.95	6,813	9,200	-23.10	262	341
Infiniti	-30.19	7,732	11,076	-27.51	297	410
Acura	-36.21	9,625	15,089	-33.76	370	559
Lincoln	-38.43	5,874	9,540	-36.06	226	353
Smart	-44.59	1,418	2,559	-42.46	55	95
GMC	-45.15	23,145	42,194	-43.04	890	1,563
Buick	-51.71	8,612	17,833	-49.85	331	660
Cadillac	-55.01	6,931	15,405	-53.28	267	571
Saturn	-58.41	8,479	20,385	-56.81	326	755
Hummer	-64.03	777	2,160	-62.64	30	80
Saab	-67.80	484	1,503	-66.56	19	56
COMPANIES
Ford Motor Company	16.99	182,149	155,690	21.49	7006	5766
American Honda	9.93	161,439	146,855	14.16	6209	5439
Toyota Mo Co	6.41	225,088	211,533	10.50	8657	7835
Nissan North America	-2.93	105,312	108,493	0.80	4050	4018
Chrysler Group LLC	-15.43	93,222	110,235	-12.18	3585	4083
General Motors	-20.19	246,479	308,817	-17.12	9480	11438

around canada – part 4 (montobello quebec)

June 02 2009:

Chateau Montebello

And so I find myself at Chateau Montebello Quebec -should you ever find yourself contemplating a weekend sequestered away from the distractions of Ottawa or Montreal - do consider this very pleasant retreat. 

The promotional material offered by the Hotel website does not do justice to the resort.  The entire experience, in my view, has been well calculated to inspire maximum relaxation.

How to get there: 

By Car – 401 east towards Montreal.  At exit 721 take Hwy 416 towards Ottawa.  Enter Ottawa and join the 417 east towards Montreal.  Exit at PineGlenn and head north towards Carling Avenue.   Join the Ottawa River Parkway from Carling and take the Island Park Drive bridge towards Aylmer Quebec – follow signs for highway 50 east towards Montreal.  Leave 50 at Thurso and take Quebec Highway 317 south and then join 148 east towards Montreal. Through Pleasance and Papineauville, to Montebello.  Look for the signs for Chateau Montebello as soon as you enter the town.

pick up your trash kingston!

signs of spring

Last weekend, junior and family hiked around the barriefield rock garden, through the village, and down and around constantine arena.  Such a lovely spring (at the risk of triggering a late blizzard) day.  Unfortunately one of the of the lesser remarked aspects of the end of hibernation is the blight revealed as the snow recedes.  Amid the new buds forming and the slow transformation of browned grass to green, there before us lay the ubiquitous Tim Hortons cup.    

If only it were the cups of course – rather everywhere we looked in the course of our walk it became immediately apparent that a tremendous amount of trash is swirled and whirled and caught up in the brambles and branches during the winter months.    Among the other items I discovered were:  several plastic drink bottles, one large plastic coolant container, chocolate bar and snack wrappers, small blocks of Styrofoam, and so on.  I ended up filling only a small plastic bag – but could easily have filled several large garbage bags worth. 

Which leads me really to the point of this post: namely, when exactly did kingstonians abandon personal responsibility?   Do you really want kingston to look like this?  How hard is it to place your garbage into a garbage can – or better yet take it home with you?    Of course part of the answer to that question is - which garbage can?  I can’t think of even one public garbage can in the entire area of barriefield.   

Perhaps residents don\’t think it is their problem to deal with?  I note that we seem very happy to have various levels of government collect our trash and recyclables – mostly because participation in these efforts takes very little personal effort, as the collection of our disposables is conducted at arms length financed by taxes – requiring very little in the way of active personal committment.     Perhaps it is too much to ask people not to litter, especially when we have become accustomed to having ‘the government’ take care of it.   However, I would like to think Kingstonians care about their city and the image it projects to residents and visitors -  so I challenge you – clean up after yourselves! 

Get out of your cars, go for a walk and take a bag along with you – I guarantee you will find no shortage of garbage which needs cleaning…..

xposted at the kingstonist

slow day at the CBC, so lets slag the troops

It would appear that our troops have been performing admirably in Afghanistan, so the mother corp feels it necessary to lead with a ’story’ that while not directly damning Canadian soldiers, is meant to lead you to believe that they must be involved somehow.  

‘Abusive’ coalition raids stoking anger in Afghanistan: report

The Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission has issued a scathing report on the use of air strikes and nighttime raids by international forces in the country.

The report, which was released in Kabul on Tuesday, suggests that NATO is undermining its own mission by stoking resentment in the local population.

My favourite is the Afghanistan Human Rights Commission – did they learn their trade from our ‘world class’ HRCs? 

Chopping $200million?  Not fast enough!

around canada – part 1 (the big smoke)

Quite a few people I know seem to like Toronto -  I’m not really sure why – but to each his own.  Recently I found myself at the centre of the universe and have formed the following opinions:

• Toronto Taxi drivers are a brave and foolhardy lot;
• No matter how far you wish to go, it takes a minimum of at least half an hour to get there;
• Why aren’t there more subways?
• Why isn’t there a train to Pearson Airport?
• The Maple Leafs will not win the Stanley cup in my lifetime.